Concours and AGM Reporting

Hello all CPF BC & Yukon Chapter Representatives! This is the last CRU for the school year, with the next one due in August.

How can we tell summer is almost here? Concours is over! Congratulations to the 280+ children who took part in this year’s finals at SFU Surrey. We estimate that, in all, 800 people attended the event, Our thanks to our many volunteers, especially Charlene Dobie of Surrey Chapter. The branch will be evaluating this year’s Concours, and hopes to be able to improve on an already successful event.

For the chapters who have not yet held their 2009 Chapter AGM, please note that the most important procedure to remember is that your meeting must have quorum: For most chapters this means six (6) active (up-to-date) CPF members. The most important outcome is to ensure you elect the required number of Directors of the Board - President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice-President - and that you attempt to create a Communications Officer position.

Once you host your 2010 AGM, please have one designated person, usually the secretary, treasurer or president, submit your 2010-2011 chapter reporting. Every chapter is required to submit all of the requested documents to be considered active and in good-standing. http://cpf.bc.ca/ChapterReporting.html.

Robert Rothon, Executive Director

The Branch will be hiring a new outreach officer over the summer. In the interim, please feel free to contact Dimitry and or myself for chapter, membership, and advocacy related issues.

Our wildly successful Bilingualism Rocks! (BR!) tour is back. The 2008/2009 tour played to 8,000 children in 25 communities (excluding metro Vancouver and Victoria) in BC & the Yukon. This new edition of BR! features a single set of performers - Alberta’s Trad’badour - offering a concert and two workshops with each school booking. In addition, this time chapters and schools in metro Vancouver and Victoria will be eligible to book a BR! performance. Finally, Trad’badour will be touring a specially commissioned piece with BC-specific content, celebrating core Canadian values like bilingualism and our shared history.

The booking process will open soon - book a September BR! performance by August 1 and save $75! We will post booking and other BR!-related information on our website later this month. Remember that a BR! performance is eligible for socio-cultural funding in the next round of applications in September.

Over the past few months, the branch has been making deposits to chapter accounts using a new direct deposit system. Some chapters may not have known what the deposits were for, and wished to be notified every time a deposit was made. We have addressed these two issues by posting the information online and by creating an RSS Feed. Chapters can now access deposits directly from the branch website at http://cpf.bc.ca/site3/index.php/chapters/chapter-deposits. In addition, you can subscribe to an RSS Feed and be updated the instant we update the information.

About RSS Feeds:
RSS literally stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a way to subscribe to information on a website so it gets delivered directly to you. In order to take advantage of RSS, you need to have an RSS reader that will grab the new information in our feed and alert you that it’s there. So instead of checking our site to see if there are updates, your RSS reader will alert you when there’s something new you might want to read.

Read more about RSS feeds and CPF RSS Feeds at: http://www.cpf.bc.ca/site3/index.php/component/content/article/911

Do you know someone who has really made a difference to the health and vibrancy of French programs and activities for children in your community? If you do, nominate them for CPF-BC & Yukon’s coveted Bouquet de Merci Award! The Bouquet de Merci recognizes the outstanding contribution made by an individual or an association in BC or Yukon to the goals of Canadian Parents for French, such as: • helping to ensure each young Canadian has the opportunity to acquire as great a knowledge of the French language as he or she wants to attain; • helping to establish and maintain effective communication between parents and educational and governmental authorities responsible for the provision of French language learning opportunities; • helping to provide opportunities for young Canadians to learn and use the French language.

CPF members are invited to submit their nominee’s name on the form available on our website. Don’t delay! Go to http://cpf.bc.ca/site3/index.php/about-us/bouquet-de-merci. Deadline is June 30th.

Due to low registration numbers, the Fort St John chapter cancelled its first Rencontre Francaise. In its stead, the chapter will organize a day camp. The branch still hopes to see Rencontre française picked up by other CPF chapters or third parties as part of its effort to decentralize its socio-cultural programming and create major events like Rencontre française in the four corners of the province.

Our website lists a number of summer camps at http://cpf.bc.ca/site3/index.php/events/camps

CPF National is pleased to inform you that the deadline for nominations to the CPF National Board of Directors has been extended! Details on the nominations process, and information regarding time commitment, etc., are available on the CPF National website. If you know someone who would make a great member of the CPF National Board of Directors, forward his or her name to Laurel McIntyre ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) by June 15, 2010 to enter that person as an official candidate for the top governing body of our organization.

The CPF-BC & Yukon branch administers on behalf of the BC Ministry of Education a matching (50/50) grant program worth $95,000 annually. These funds are to be applied towards organizing socio-cultural events, and the latter should aim to substantially improve a student’s understanding of French or their appreciation of Francophone culture. Chapters should make sure that their proposed events have a cultural component or some sort of French language cultural content to them. The next application deadline is October 1, 2010.

A reminder to successful applicants: Help us report to the Ministry of Education on the impact of your event(s) by circulating an audience survey form (a generic form is available online at http://cpf.bc.ca/site3/index.php/chapters/42-social-cultural-grants/629-socio-cultural-approvals-2009-2010) and sending the branch office a summary sheet of the survey results.

CPF – PEI Branch has developed a great tool for parents who wish to help their child with their homework and support their French learning experience as a whole. The Toolbox for Parents can be ordered from CPF - PEI at a cost of $5 + postage. For more information, email Gail Leckey at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit their website at http://www.cpfpei.pe.ca/, where a full product description will be posted in the near future under RESOURCES & LINKS/PARENTS.

ArtStarts, a not-for-profit located in Vancouver, has an excellent roster of Francophone performers available for school performances throughout BC. Visit their new website at http://www.artstarts.com/index.php.

Sophia Books was a multilingual book and media store in Vancouver, specializing in languages including French, English, Japanese, German and Spanish. After years of providing excellent French second language resources for French immersion families, the business closed last month, a victim of Vancouver’s high retail property rents. Sophia Books expects to continue as an online business. In the meantime, other online distributors and retailers are listed in the resources section of our website at http://cpf.bc.ca/site3/index.php/resources-and-research/purchase-resources.

Attachments:

629_SC Survey 2009.doc	[ ]	34 Kb
BOUQUET DE MERCI APPLICATION.doc	[ ]	67 Kb
June CRU.pdf	[ ]	42 Kb