AMF to close Creches in all VIC Centers

[mikeymikey]

Im guessing only the people affected by this closure would know which leaves the other 95% of bowlers in the dark.

4 weeks ago AMF announced the closure of its creches through out all of its Victorian centers.
The Childcare rules in Victoria have changed and will take effect from the 1st of July this year.
Center managers and staff have been great doing what they can but then there is upper management !!
After having an inital chat 3 weeks ago with Lloyd Klaman who is a regional Manager he has not gotten back to me on 2 follow up occasions.
Im also trying to find out from AMF head office in Sydney what the go is.
I know the rules have changed regarding childcare but exactly what rules have changed, no one seems to want to tell me or even seems to know.
For all centers in Vic to close and none being at a standard to meet the new rules kind of surprises me.
Even a compromise to Bring Boronia up to standard would allow bowlers from Knox / Forest Hill to still be able to bowl instead of just stopping and would make it worth while having a creche with greater numbers.

Its very hard when no one wants to tell you exactly whats going on especially when i hear "ITS ALL JUST TO HARD" being mentioned as a phrase coming from AMF head office.

Ive been bowling for about 22 years now and didnt really want to take a break.
Ive heard that in some day leagues some of the mothers have been brought to tears as this was their 2 hours a week break when they got to bowl.

I dont know what can be done if anything.

I have also had a chat to Rob out at Greensborough regarding the new center opening up at Chirnside Park after Xmas this year and they are looking into the creche situation to see if it is a possibility so maybe there will be an option there, who knows but lets hope so.

Cheers
Michael.

 

[krusty]

Rumour has it that all child care centres must have an outdoor play area to be approved by new government standards.
You can now take your kids to the bowl where they can run around, sit in the bar and hang out in the games room.
We love you Mr Brumby!

 

[Easy Tiger]

How stupid is this rule.... and another way to see bowling decline further. Good one.

 

[jockey]

Just shows the problem we have we government thinking they are improving things all the time when they only ever seem to stuff existing good things up.

Vale the day leagues at AMF centres I guess another funeral for AMF bowlers to not attend!

 

[Reusy]

I sounds very strange, I thank AMF Forest Hills & Boronia and Ed Flemming lanes for having a Creche while my kids were younger, it allowed me to keep bowling.

I was up at Epping Bowl on the weekend and that had an outside play area, so I would assume Chirnside park Oz tenpin will as well. It appears AMF is slowing killing itself by a 100's cuts, cost cuts to save money only work short term then people leave to find better service/lanes/equipment/environemnt/etc and then you loose revenue, then make some more cuts to become profitable then others leave, it is a poor cycle to be in. Perhaps customer satisfaction needs to be improved (the ones paying the money). I think Boronia will have a large number of vacancys in a lot of leagues next year once Chirnside park opens, I personally have been very impressed with my 2 trips to Epping and 1 trip to Greensborough. At boronia we had to vote on weather we wanted 5 minutes practise with pins or 10 without, 5 minutes with pins gave us 3 or 4 frames each in 4 man teams, which wasn't enough. I assume this is one of those cuts!!

 

[zoombi]

This may help your fight-

I'm not sure what licence AMF used to hold but at this link -- http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/earlychildhood/regulations/restrictedlicencefactsheet.pdf --
it says
"Existing restricted licence services from 25 May 2009 are deemed to have a limited hours type 2 licence with the existing licence expiry date."

If they had a restricted licence then they already have a limited hours type 2 licence now.

And from the same link-

What is a limited hours service?
Typically limited hours services provide occasional care for children, including sports and leisure services and neighbourhood houses.

These services are not required to meet all the premises requirements of a standard service, they are not required to have outdoor space, and they care for or educate children for limited hours.

It sounds to me as though a limited hours type 2 licence is exactly what they need (if they dont already have it by default).

Whether they are prepared to obtain one is another matter.

I have already written a letter to my local MP about this issue and in his response he says, and I quote
"Accordingly, it is my understanding that the management of AMF may seek an exemption from these regulations" Nick Wakeling MP for Ferntree Gully

Hope this helps

 

[mikeymikey]

From my understanding and after talking to the department of education i'm lead to believe that the only Victorian center to hold a licence was Chadstone.
The DOE told me that they had no records of any other center having a creche licence which would mean all AMF centers would have to go through the whole process of getting a creche registered.
AMF did tell me that they had looked into the 2 hour restricted licence but there was still too much to do to get them up to standard.
Some how im thinking this was just a smokescreen to hide the fact that they wern't registered in the first place.
I may be wrong but it seems that way.

 

[androooo]

We haven't had a creche down here in over a year.

Kids running riot up and down the concourse during leagues makes it fun.