The NCT are having a laugh aren't they???!!!!

[lubella]

I just applied for Ante Natal classes and the literature came thorough at £180 for a 2 day intensive course.

Before I sign up to these can someone out there honestly justify to me that they are worth it; I'm sure it said £100 on the leaflet I recieved as a member and I just feel like WTF??(&&&&!!?

I know our branch has been talking about trying to do separate classes for various local community groups. There was talk about offering one place per course to suitable parents who couldn't pay, but that would be a bit strange, I think. I think a separate class for young mums etc would be good, but organising it is a bit tricky, to put it mildly.

If we had teachers with spare capacity, all this would be much easier.

ok well i am impressed then. especially the prison stuff.

maybe i will get back involved.

Wow, a lot of info.

I was completely surprised by my NCT teacher, who always tells us how lucky we are in this area to have such a great community midwifery service and several great consultants in the hospital.....not what I had expected as a result of what I'd heard about NCT (also very thorough on intervention and pain relief too!).

I also plucked up the courage to ask for a discount as I was struggling and DH doesn't work and the response I got was pretty negative and she also offered for me to pay weekly (by bringing the money to the class ). I was embarrassed and didn't ask again and paid in full, but the bookings clerk who told me that is also no longer there and messed up my booking in more than one way!!!

Being a bookings clerk is a pretty annoying job (although I prefer it to being treasurer). Everyone is desperate to get on the course, and then they forget to fill in the right forms, send you cheques from an old chequebook etc etc.

(I can't imagine asking someone to bring money to the class! When I've had people who paid less than the normal rate, the only people who knew that happened were me and the treasurer - I wouldn't dream of even telling the teacher!)

Oh, they are talking about having paid workers do the bookings. But a) that will make classes more expensive and b) I'm not sure that branches will make money off classes any more, which means we'd have to make more from advertising etc to have the newsletter. Oh, and c) head office itself isn't always that organised or responsive, so I don't know how good the bookings people will be - I guess it will vary.

First bookings clerk, in addition to doing the aforementioned, also lost my cheque and then promised I still had a place whilst not mentioning it to the new (paid) bookings clerk despite promising me she had!!

Mind you, new paid one messed up good and proper with a couple of things, too!!!

Sue: Does it take a lot of your time up "being a wife" ?

ahem, surely an online bookings service could be offered, which would mean that you would need just a few people nationwide to (wo)man the telephones and take bookings from those who don't have internet access?

Although as i recall, when i phoned the NCT breastfeeding line desperately looking for advice (oooh, about 5 times) there was a message saying that it was a voluntary service and no-one was available at the moment.

And Morningpaper... don't you wear an apron when you make your gambling muffins?

hello first time mum here due 14th feb

just want someone to talk to about my pregnancy who understands

becs - There are threads arranged month by month in the antenatal topic. If you go to Feb 07 it'll be full of people around the same stage as you and you'll find loads of them happy to chat !

Here - warning - the thread is huge !

Your posts might just get a bit overlooked here. You could always start a new thread if you feel like chatting !

You can currently fill in an online form - they send me an email when that happens.

Helpfully, the online form doesn't do things like insist that dates be a) valid and b) in a certain format. Grrr.

and can you pay online? i had to post a cheque, as i recall. felt like i'd travelled back in time...

£180 sounds high. I do the accounts for our local branch and I must admit I made them put the price up to £94 so that it breaks even if the courses are full.

It is a charity and £94 for us breaks even after teachers fees and expenses. We are allowed to charge what we need to.

It is a charity but as a branch we don't recieve many donations - even though we live in a pretty affluent area, people keento keep their money in their pockets round here.

£180 though - is that in London?

No, you can't pay online.

We (as a branch) don't take credit cards. I guess we could take bank transfers, but that would involve quite a bit more work for the treasurer ... not that she enjoys slogging to the bank with the cheques all the time.

i'm not complaining, nqc, it's just that someone said (possibly you) was talking about doing all the bookings in one central place, and i thought that if they could do the bulk of them online (including taking the money) that would be the cheapest way to do it.

Oh, I wish we could take bookings online, take money online, do it all that way.

I do 99% of my job online, or via email, anyway, but there's a brief bit of them sending me a cheque, and me sending back a newsletter etc.

i watched this for the first time yesterday... found it very peculiar. does nayone know why granny murray is called granny, when she is only about 35? (no disrespect to young grandparents, of course.)

Um. What?

laughs and points at aitch

wha? what just happened?

how did that turn up here? very bizarre...

BUT NOT AS BIZARRE as Me Too!, the new children's programme from BBC Scotland. Featuring one Granny Murray, who is a child minder and dogwalker (of course) and whose opinions on the NCT are as yet unkown.

(Seamless, that, absolutely seamless...think i got away with it)

Nice try aitch, but we all saw you