NA Northern Australia Service Board Meeting minutes held 25th March 2024

Location:  Virtual Zoom
Meeting ID: 487 569 8440
Pass code 865364
Meeting Link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86913016074?pwd=QjVpNFhXektBZUpiTXR3ajU5MFgwUT09
Date:  25th March 2024
Time:  7:00 pm
Facilitator:  Sami
Minutes: Sami
Attendees: John C; Sami; Cameron; David T; Brad; Jason T; Krissy; Sally B; Rouz; Bob; Joymaree; Nina; Michael B; Meredith; Kerrie
Apologies:

1. OPEN
1.1. Chair’s welcome.
1.2. Service prayer:
God, grant us the knowledge that we may serve according to your divine precepts. Instill in us a sense of your purpose, make us servants of your will and grant us a bond of selflessness that this may truly be your work, not ours, so that no addict, anywhere, need die from the horrors of addiction.
1.3. Acknowledgement of Country
Today we stand in footsteps millennia old. May we acknowledge the traditional owners whose cultures and customs have nurtured, and continue to nurture, this land, since men and women awoke from the great dream. We honour the presence of these ancestors who reside in the imagination of this land and whose irrepressible spirituality flows through all creation.
1.4. ID of those present
1.5. Apologies.

2. ITEMS
2.1. RCM
2.1.1. Region was a couple of weekends ago with a lot of forward planning for the next 2 years; Coming up in November is the face to face region meeting on the Gold Coast;
2.1.2. NA’s public liability will not cover a tattoo service at the convention; however, if the member contributing can bring their own insurance, this would cover the Public Liability insurance requirements.
2.1.3. Regional PR Chairperson was approved by the ARSC to be funded to present at the PR Forum in July at the beginning of the Convention

2.2. Treasurer
2.2.1. Reports are posted on the web
2.2.2. Everything is going well, nothing out of the ordinary;
2.2.3. had a meeting regarding finding cashless payment systems with other groups and areas; region has established a committee to help
2.2.4. The board agreed that more sub-accounts be created
2.2.5. Rouz has emailed draft policy and procedure around cashless payments for Michael to review; they will connect to discuss

2.3. H & I Hub
2.3.1. Chermside Mental Health Secure Facility: 2 meetings happening;
2.3.2. RBWH Hospital Alcohol and Drug Service (HADS): going along nicely
2.3.3. Moonyah (Rehab): Rachel is now the co-ordinator for roster this week; Michael has sent her all the documents that he was using; meetings will be increased to 2 a week
2.3.4. Logan House (Lives Lived Well): ticking along
2.3.5. Lives Lived Well (Caboolture; ticking along
2.3.6. Southern Queensland Correctional Centre (Gatton; still going
2.3.7. Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre: roster is very strong; going in every fortnight; Meredith has approached them to take meetings into protection unit which will be done once more women are on the roster
2.3.8. Helana Jones Correctional Centre: still going
2.3.9. Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre: about to gain a new male member for the roster which will take it to 4;
2.3.10. Maryborough Correctional Centre; Bob has been approved to take in meetings; Bob has to chase up about the induction; Meredith to check what the next step is; Kerrie advised that Bundaberg fellowship are interested in doing H&I
2.3.11. Townsville Women’s Correctional Centre inmates are wanting NA meetings; Meredith and Sami to have a discussion;
2.3.12. David raised the issue of people going into correctional on their own; Meredith advised the difficulty of getting people to do H&I service and it was decided at a group conscious decision was that one person was better than none;

2.4. PR
2.4.1. Chris and Dan left the PR forum group; accusations were made against John via email and John responded using facts available to him;
2.4.2. The start time for the PR forum will be 11am; John spoke to Michelle who would like the forum to start earlier; it is possible to start at 10am and John has asked the board if that is ok;
2.4.3. Alex is the Art & Graphic chairperson and john has given him a brief of what to put on the flyers;
2.4.4. John does have the draft PR budget for the convention and he will email it to Sami;
2.4.5. John has an NA member who can do the acknowledgement of country;
2.4.6. John sent a letter co-signed by ** to the Governor who will respond within 8 weeks but there is a Plan B if that falls through;
2.4.7. David may be able to help with a screen;

2.5. Policy Working Group
2.5.1. Policy Workgroup Report
The Policy Workgroup continues to meet every two or three weeks and work our way through all the resources to put together a comprehensive guideline document for review; input and finally groups approval at a LSC.
So far we have compiled and are continuing to review:
• Vision
• Introduction
• GSFs
• LSC’s
– meetings
– participants
– Decision Making
– Elections
– Grievances
– Membership -still going over
– Facilitator/Chairperson – still going over
Our next meeting will be focused on tidying up the tasks and document as well as turning our focus to the LSB.
We are requesting the Board’s input and/ or preferences in writing by 8 April on the following:
• LSC – Elections & voting – do all participants present at the LSC vote for nominees or just the GSR’s?
• Does the Board think there should be one Facilitator or 2 Co-Facilitators at the LSC?
• What term length do the current Board members think would be appropriate in keeping with the spirit of service roles.
This will help the Workgroup to streamline the Guidelines in keeping with the thoughts/ opinions of current trusted servants for our fellowship.

2.6. Website
2.6.1. Nothing to report

2.7. Board enquiries and contacts – email/ mail / etc.
2.7.1. Emails:

2.7.2. Mail: letter from correctional centre forwarded to sami

3. GSF FEEDBACK
3.1. Logan area are having a Unity Day on 13th April, venue is Uniting Church Hall in Winnetts Road, Daisy Hill; money raised will be going to the area for the convention;
3.2. Brisbane North is having a BBQ on 14th April, same as usual; the GSF thought that they could have buckets to collect funds for the convention; John will organise for that to be put on the website;
3.3. Inner City GSF – asking for more visibility of the ARSC after the convention; they queried about the general activities committee in the old structure and whether that could be resurrected; Kirssy advised that that was something to be bought up at the LSC for the groups to decide;

4. CONVENTION (Chairperson has requested 25-30 minutes to discuss the following)
4.1. NAC24 Chair Report: (see attached)
4.2. NAC24 Working Groups Report: (see attached)
4.3. Support requested from the Board
• Review of NAC24 activities.
• Insurance Query to Region.
• Approval in principal of additional funding of $2,500 in June 2024.
4.4. Questions: to be deferred to next board meeting

5. COVENTION TO DO LIST:

6. NEW ITEMS
6.1. No new items

7. ACTION TABLE:

8. CLOSE
8.1. Next meeting 29TH April, 2024 at 7pm
8.2. Serenity prayer in the plural:
God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change. The courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.