Notes from PPN Vic-Tas meeting 29 May 2019

STARS Conference

Peers4Peers was an initiative that emerged from the STARS conference. This chapter (Vic-Tas) has been very active. Now, however there are groups in WA, SA, Auckland, NSW and Qld. These groups have been meeting together online as the PPN (Australasia) and planning the PPN session to be held at the STARS conference in July. The Australasian group has decided to use the name Peer Programs Network. Today the Vic-Tas group agreed that we would also use the name Peer Programs Network (Vic-Tas).

There will be a review of what has happened in this group at the STARS conference including the projects:  Directories, Good Practice Principles, Masterclass, Newsletter. Janet Abbott will attend for that day to answer questions about the SharePoint; Isabella will also support Janet and give feedback. Ros will be presenting the Directories at the STARS conference. It’s about benchmarking; people want to know what everyone else is doing. Everyone wants access to other chapters. Melissa Z from Wollongong is doing a similar benchmarking project. Sally will report on the Good Practice Principles.

As we have a distributed leadership model, and if you are interested in representing the Victorian and Tasmanian chapter, please contact [email protected].

Katie from NSW has sent a message to people registered to attend the special interest group at the conference, asking for topics of interest. If you are coming and would like to explore a particular topic please contact Katie at [email protected].

Newsletter

The Newsletter is called Community Notes. Each of the chapters will submit a report to Community Notes.

Dawn thinks it’s time for someone else to take over editing the newsletter. Dawn has been the editor of the newsletter until now and the June edition will hopefully, she says, be her last. There should be one more edition this year, though. Please let Dawn know if you are keen! She would support the handover. It is on Mailchimp now and there is a template available.

Masterclasses

For the Masterclass project it was suggested that we should decide on a day and organise this one-day event well in advance. Sally, Isabella and Liz McK offered to work with Ros McFarlane in a working group. Apparently Isabella has some ideas ready to go. *Ros was absent today.

Discussion Activities

1. Indigenous groups

This was a whole group discussion. Tasmania, Latrobe and RMIT members offered a brief outline of the support offered to Indigenous students at their institution.

At Uni Tas they have two programs for Indigenous students. One is a new program/group who make welcome phone calls to Indigenous students new to the University, promoting engagement. They also have an on-campus presence to engage more with Tasmanian Aboriginal community. They also have Riawunna tutors; more peer learning principles are being introduced here. At the Riawunna centre the attempt is being made to bring peer learning principles into the space.

Sally commented that we don’t necessarily know the diversity that exists in peer learning groups.

There was some information about what’s happening at Deakin, Latrobe and RMIT.  It was suggested that we collect information about what exists and share through the Sharepoint https://deakin365.sharepoint.com/sites/student-life/projects/Peers4Peers/SitePages/Home.aspx.

2. Training

Here are some points that were made:

• training days should be announced up front 
• training is an ongoing process of upgrading the training manual and training
• people spoke of the crossover training that can be held for groups which makes the need for specific training minimalised
• at Tas a record is kept of every leader so that if they move to another area this info can be provided
• What is foundational or mandatory training?
• Deakin College use a video that covers a lot of basic training
• Deakin offer master classes unpaid to peers around seven times per year, offered at all campuses
• RMIT is developing a large credential; training has a digital focus – it’s global
• Some differences in what’s mandatory and what training is paid or unpaid
• there was a range of paid and unpaid positions and the number of hours.

At the end of the discussion Rachel/chair commented that everyone’s programs are very different. What is a constant in training? Should we create a chart of what is offered?

The issue of recruitment was also introduced and could be the topic for the next meeting.

Attendees, left to right: Rachel Hanley, chair Deakin; Daena Ristevska, Latrobe; Isabella Ofner, Deakin; Diane Backwell, Deakin College; Jade Sleeman, Latrobe; Liz RMIT (Also attended: Sarah George, RMIT (took the photo); Dawn Jones, Deakin – left early; Jenny Hurley and Angie, Deakin – Skype; and the crew from Uni Tas headed by Sally Fuglsang and including James, Julia and Cathy – Skype)