Things that are griping me at the moment

(i) People who say they're going to show up for something and don't. Last week, we had our Rotunda night with John Clarke and had over 160 people say yes they were coming -- at which point we declared the session full and turned a lot of people away. And on the night, we had around 110. Lots of our students didn't come and said they had wanted to but didn't bother because they'd heard it was full. The night was fantastic -- John was informative, entertaining and so warm and generous with his time, Sherryl was a very relaxed and competent interviewer, and then we followed their session with some excellent student readings, so it was a shame that we had turned so many people away. I know sometimes there are genuine reasons people can't come at the last minute, but I doubt so many people had emergencies... Why bother booking if you don't intend to come? And if you can't -- please let us know!

(ii) Government bodies who think that the way to increase TAFE patronage is to increase fees. Please excuse the trumpet-blowing that's to follow, but I feel quite passionate about this. We have a fantastic course -- I truly believe that. We have a fantastic bunch of committed teachers who love our course and love teaching in it. We've worked hard to build it, to make it a dynamic, happening place, to recruit an enthusiastic staff -- and although we're tiny we're leading the university in terms of what we're doing online. We've embraced the university's community engagement directives, and are running events that are well attended both by students and those in the wider community. The feedback we're getting is excellent. We've risen in the pop pols since I started, from third to second place and have that final place, which we believe rests on its (excellent) marketing abilities, in our sights, even if it is way ahead of us. Our students love our course (most do, anyway -- I can't speak for them all, of course...). We have so much going for us -- and now we're under the gun. Thanks, people! Raising prices, yes, that's how I'd get people to come too. (Pardon the sarcasm!) What it means is that those who are thinking about studying at TAFE should jump in now and lock themselves into the current fee structure. 

(iii) Councils who do sneakies -- like putting up small no-parking signs without warning anyone that they're going to do this. That's what's happened at the end of my street -- and I got caught there the other day. $113 worth of caught to be exact. What made it worse was I had originally parked somewhere else and thought the car might be too near a corner so moved it to do the right thing. Argghh. Clearly, I wasn't looking for signs because I've often parked there. Mind you -- my brother got caught somewhere after a council erected the signs while his car was parked. How rude is that! Fortuitously (and fortunately), he happened to have photographic evidence, but still had to go to court to get out of it. After my exhausting efforts to get another fine (only $75 worth in a different council) overturned last year -- I won, but I'm still wondering whether it was worth it, given the amount of time and grief it caused me, I've decided that this time I'll have to just suck it up. In this house, we have a process in place that works well: if one gets a fine they think is truly undeserved and that they're pissed off about, the other quietly goes away and pays it. It's just as though the fine has disappeared...