20201108 – LSC – November 2020 – Minutes

LSC NOVEMBER 2020

Date: Sunday November 8, 2020

Times: Session 1: 10 – 12am and Session 2: 1 -3pm

Venue: Zoom only

Objectives:

To discuss the different activities of the Board and their plans for the next 6 months.

To discuss the different activities of the GSF and their plans for the next 6 months

To carry out a SWOT analysis of service delivery/ etc.

AGENDA

Session 1: 10am – 12 midday

1. Acknowledgement of Country – Meredith
2. Open, welcome and ID (10) – Facilitator: Tony
3. Overview of Service Board /GSF activities since last LSC (15) Facilitator: Meredith
4. Supporting GSFs – General discussion – Facilitator: Bonnie

Session 2: 1pm – 3pm

1. Open, welcome and ID (10) – Facilitator: Jason
2. Website discussion – Facilitator: Bonnie
3. GSF representation and the board – Facilitator: Meredith
4. Treasure discussion – Facilitator: Michael
5. LSC planning – Facilitator: Bonnie

MINUTES

Session 1

1. Overview of Activities of Groups, Service Bodies, Areas

• Meredith – overview of the board activities and experiences.
• Michele – growth of logan. No activities since COVID19. Working on safety planning. Young fellowship. Only a few OCMs in area. Lots of involvement in GSF. Not a lot of fund-flow due to no meetings running. All money going to zoom. No prudent reserve. Starting to get some more funds.
• Brad – Caboolture. Organising an event. Moved from online. New meetings starting up.
• Krishna – Cairnes – lack of interest. Things move quickly and get done fast. People don’t want to attend the LSC.
• John C. North side. Two new meetings starting up. Numbers maintained. But rehab has dropped off due to COVID19. Groups had to work out all the COVID19 restrictions. There was discussion and disagreement about this. But we worked through and followed recommendations from NA and QLD gov. Social distancing issues. Issues with internet connections and moving online to Zoom. GSF normally has bbq 3 times a year – cancelled in in Nov due to covid19. Will reassess in January. Haven’t looked into PR yet, but have been discussing it. Keeping things simple.
• Matthew and Matthew in Darwin. Introduced the GSF system and have found it more organised and enabled communication amongst the 4 groups in Darwin. Feels a bit disconnected to other meetings in the NT. Monday group is struggling a bit. Lot of energy at beginning but struggling to keep momentum. No new members coming through from that area. Other meetings going well. Rehab supported meetings. Also supported by travellers. Small core group of members makes it difficult to provide services beyond meetings. Meetings didn’t really shut down due to COVID19. Did operate Hybrid meetings for a while.
• NA online – interested in asking Board about financial management and communication
• Sami – Townsville – not a lot of clean time and very little interest in service work. COVID19 did not impact them a lot. However still following COVID19 safety procedures which is not supported in the area.
• Bob – Hervey Bay. Had quite a bit of growth in Bundaberg meetings. A lot of growth in Hervey Bay and continue to do Hybrid meetings. About 13 regulars now. Out of literature stock – especially JFT books and banners.
• Bernie – Alice Springs. Couple of meetings in Alice Springs. Adapted to COVID19. Lost some of the newer members or more sensitive and paranoid members in the process, but was able to get back to regular meetings pretty quickly. Resumed H & I in prison / halfway. Both going well / literature available in prisons and rehabs. People leave fellowship regularly. Also short on sponsors. Makes it hard for the fellowship to grow. Finances ok. Hard to maintain Aboriginal members. Very little support in the town, a bit more in the communities. Its hard because you can’t get away from old contacts in a small area. Have had a BBQ and maybe another event next week.
• Frances – Sunshine Coast. Womens prison. Stopped going during corona virus but back on track. Has been gaining in numbers, and has resulted in more NA Members.
• Matthew – it’s important to have a presence on the board to be able to communicate between GSFs and the board. Continual issue of not having enough human resources. Interest in H and I. Lots of passion, but this does not mean we can follow through with all the things we can do.
• Meredith – H&I – Process of getting things sorted out for H&I. Developed the H&I hub for a sense of community and support. It took 3 years to get a womens prison roster going. There is 10 people on this roster, but it has taken a lot to get that organised. The men’s prison has been a bit slower too. Woodford prison is starting next week – and has worked largely through working with Sunshine coast area. Often a lot of time an energy goes into organising the H&I meetings, yet very little people turn out to meetings at times which could be due to lack of organisational support from the prison.
• Tony – H&I – Lack of resources. Issue of doing things all on your own and dealing with sometimes the obstructive support of prison staff. Can be quite taxing without support.
• John – question about how to pass on info on getting involved in H&I. Answer – through website and emailing HandI hub
• Cameron W. FSO – issue of limited literature from FSO due COVID19 and issues getting it from the States. Also, Human Resources issue is global.

2. Discussion / Questions.

• Would like to see more transparency. Would like to have the minutes and financial documents. It is difficult to get access to this information. Also the board should be going to the groups with big decisions. People did not understand how we came to this decision. Resolution could be more transparency.
  • Documents available on the website. Decision to move to new name happened at the LSC. Possibly this should have gone back to the groups as it did cause some issues.
  • Discussion about name change had been going on for sometime since supporting NT. Website not well used.
  • Sounds like there is a disconnect between Board and GSF. Although the information is not presented in an ideal way – but it is there.

• Website is difficult to use and people on the ground don’t use it. Also people didn’t know that we had a new name.
  • There also has to be regular communication with GSFs – this is also an issue here.
  • There is a possibility that you can register on the website and receive updates. Bruce is happy to come out and provide training and demonstrations for how to do this.
  • All regions will be using the same website soon.
  • People don’t know where the board’s minutes are on the website, didn’t know that they were there. Also, difficult to download the document from the website. Major issues. Regular communication and information about how to do this is needed.
  • Issue of constant state of change. Dislike of using third party applications like event brite. Why are we using it?

• Communication Issues
  • The website – single point of truth. Issue of functionality with the website. Difficulty achieving one way of communication. Difficulty to get a two communication. Who should plan for this / problem solve this Board or LSC?
  • How did we find out about the LSC? Saw it on the website and then emailed to other people. Needed help from Bruce. Saw it on the events page on the website. Also facebook page – na should have one.
  • Issue within the LSC. No one reading information about the LSC. Two way communication not working. Representation from all GSF on the board and the LSC is needed too.
  • Facebook page is already operational Link shared: https://www.facebook.com/groups/649518222545577
  • Teams meeting issue was terrible. Now using zoom.
  • Announcements about the LSC needs to be early. Perhaps a regular occurrence. That allows for in-meeting announcements. Perhaps we can plan ahead and have this scheduled.
  • The website is not accessible.

• Wrap up and discussion about strengths. Particularly, the participation of members at this LSC and all that they do in service. Thankyou all for attending and taking part.

Session closed at 11:55am

Session 2 1pm

1. Website

• Website is clunky. Issue with navigating the website. Issue of going to new member’s page.
• Can we simply change the name on the main website at Greater Qld and NT? This was done on the spot.
• Suggestion for new website work group – no consensus
• Proposal for members to seek members feedback and ideas for improvement for the website and bring it back to the next LSC. All members agreed.

2. GSF representation on the board

• Identification of GSF reps to have a Service Board Rep who they can link up with, ask questions and generally have contact with.

3. Treasurer led discussion about NA funds (reporting system) – Facilitator: Michael

• Financial reporting processes
• New bank account to ease some issues with the old bank
• Need for signatories in NA.
• Implementation of sub bank accounts for groups.
• Issue of the groups getting accounts and being added as signatories for their sub account.
• It is a lot more efficient and useful now.
• Would like to see groups doing monthly financial reporting has put that to the LSC to consider.
• 11^th concept is that funds must be used to further our purpose and must be managed responsibly
• Use of sub accounts has aided transparency
• Move to Not for Profit for Australia region
• Elliot from Region gave a great discussion about this project

4. LSC Forward Planning – Facilitator: Bonnie

LSC Decisions:

• LSCs will be Quarterly – (3 monthly LSC)
• Via Zoom
• One day meeting
• 2 x 2 hours sessions
• First meeting is introduction updates and setting agenda for discussion and second session is discussion and problem solving
• Advertise via NA Regional calendar and events online
• Dates for 2021 LSCs:

February 7^th

May 16^th

August 8^th

November 7^th.

• The use of Event Brite and other free services are acceptable as long as they support the efficient use of resources and improve service delivery.

5. Summary and feedback. Close at 3:30pm