More than 160 students from the central western and northern regions of Melbourne attended this conference conducted by the Flemington Reading and Writing Program. The Moonee Ponds Clocktower Centre hosted the day, on Friday the 7th September as part of the Adult Learners Week activities. The conference was funded by the Central western region of Adult Community and Further Education (ACFE) and was an extension of the 'Our nation has many cultures' Centenary of Federation project, which concluded with the launch of the web site in May 2001.

A string quartet from the Princes Hill Secondary College in Carlton provided a delightful backdrop to the registration process and set the mood for the day. Rod Espie and Josie Viola from the Electoral commission conducted the first session which involved all participants. Their task was to educate students on the democratic voting system of Australia. They did this by conducting a mock election where a sample of 20 voters had to come to a democratic decision about what to have for lunch. The choice was between fish and chips, hamburgers, pizzas or a salad roll. Rod and Josie used this to explain the preferential system of voting. Participants were very involved in the process and asked many questions in the discussion that followed.

The program for the rest of the day provided participants with the opportunity to the following workshops:

'Bushdancing' with Rick E Vengeance.

'Story writing' with Barry Dickins, a well known Melbourne writer.

'Exploring the Internet' with Phil Brandon and Richard Wahl.

'Australian film' with Jan Lacey.

These workshops were repeated after a delicious lunch where another talented group of musicians from the Princes Hill Secondary College provided a slightly more upbeat tempo to revitalize participants for the afternoon's proceedings. Stay tuned for more pictures and comments that capture some of the spirit of that day, so the story goes…..