Men’s Centre Annual General Meeting
Men’s Centre will be having its Annual General Meeting, to elect new Committee members, at my house:
Wednesday 24th October 2007
34 Valley Road,
Mount Eden,
Auckland.
phone 638-7275
Men’s Centre has been ticking along without much formal activity by the Committee, partly due to the main focus being trying to help people to cope with their parenting/familycaught experiences.
The main activities have been Monday Night meetings at Northcote and behind the scenes time given to people who come along.
Because of this, the Committee has not required a large commitment of time, a few hours for about 4 meetings per year.
If you would like to contribute, then your help would be much appreciated.
If you are not able to attend on the Wednesday, please let me know if you are interested to play a role, as we will be happy to include you in the Committee vote.
Please give me a call if you may be attending.
Thanks,
MurrayBacon.
Please present my apologies Murray, The distance is just to great. I am available to help (From a distance) however I can
Comment by Alastair — Wed 17th October 2007 @ 9:12 am
I would like to come and I would like to bring a couple of other males.
Comment by julie — Wed 17th October 2007 @ 10:38 am
Hope the AGM went well Murray. It is good to see that Julie went along. At the Labour Day Picnic it was clear that there is support for the idea that groups are able to knot together helping eachother with issues like funding applications and increasing and improving communiction. Hopefully the AGM proved to be a good start ands some of the cobwebs on the MCNS can be dusted off and blown away. Any help I can give – you’ve got it. The MCNS has done an incredible amount of good for an extraordinary number of people where the community support for those people has been absolutely “zip”.
And nothing much has changed. The political community – sure have advanced and slowly absorbed some of the issues of gender inequity, recognising possibly that every dad loves his child: Yet that hasn’t and is unlikely to boil down to recognise that those people who have been at the work face of faith securing those individuals dissafected by the masses with some hope that they do not have to believe that they are “deadbeats” or “losers” or “no hopers” have to be protected, or else noone will register the truth.
So good on you Murray and Julie – hope the AGM instilled the kind of commitment to the community we saw at the picnic into the attendees at the MCNS.
Comment by Benjamin Easton — Wed 31st October 2007 @ 11:21 am
Ben, I’ve corrected your NSMC to MCNS (Men’s Centre North Shore) – it’s important for anyone looking in the phonebook, etc.
Comment by JohnP — Wed 31st October 2007 @ 2:01 pm
Alas, the only people who showed up were Jim Bagnall, Dave Llewell and myself. (This is not enough for a quorum.)
Each of us is being taken away from Men’s Centre, by health and political ambitions. Thus Men’s Centre desperately needs new blood, to keep it in working order. We do have quite good attendances at the Monday evening meeting in Northcote, about 4 to 6 regulars and anywhere from 0 to 5 people who have been before and up to 4 completely new people each week. Sometimes, we reach up to 15 people.
However, to keep the finances strong enough to support the Monday evening meeting room costs plus telephone line, we need just on $1,000 per year. This is just minimal functioning level and can be funded by say 35 memberships at $30 per year. At present, a few supporters give large donations, which are the mainstay of Men’s Centre, but our finances are slipping backwards from a stronger historical base.
I am wishing to spend more time on helping people who come to Men’s Centre 1 to 1, behind the scenes. Also to encourage a group of people to lobby politicians with well researched presentations, to further family and men’s issues (which I generally believe to be in women’s reasonably family interests too). Dave will be putting more time into Republic of NZ Party campaigning next year. Health is starting to limit the time that Jim Bagnall can put in, for helping other people.
Therefore, we do need a few people willing to put in enough time on the Committee, to keep Men’s Centre in existence.
Please pass on this request for help, to anyone you know, that has been associated with Men’s Centre and may be willing to put in some time to keep the helping tradition alive.
Helping other people is costly in terms of time and incidental expenses. However, it also develops the heart and gives broader perspective. This does help develop – I hope! – wisdom and caring. Despite some people’s rather using attitudes toward men, men are as rewarding to help as children and women.
Please think whether you have some time, to put into keeping the Men’s Centre traditions alive, by a bit of Committee work.
Best regards, MurrayBacon.
Comment by MurrayBacon — Thu 1st November 2007 @ 9:04 am
Murray,
I don’t wish to put in a single ounce of energy that dissaffects the solid, dedicated, and without return work that you do, have done or are willing to do in the future. Nor, and I urge you to pay attention to this part of the sentence, for any comment, want you to feel challenged or direspected.
Collectively men are missing the boat. There is a large hole in our waka and we are in danger of sinking.
Think about it. At the Picnic Julie piped up that there was sufficient room for collaboration in the community to adopt MCNS and that the practical difficulties were not insurmountable: or at least that is how I interpreted her comments. I replied going directly into teh history of the centre and described that there was nothing wrong with it. Emotionally it is a bastion of security for those many who have sat through any of the Monday night stories. It is the only really sanctuary that I know of that has housed unconditionally men’s pain. And it is being held together my the most miniscule thread possible.
What it needs is for you, or those any with an interest to look at what you have to do. You, as you have have got the finances back into order. Excellent. Stage 1. Now – stage two is Julie. SHE told you at the Picnic that SHE could assist you to get funding. SHE said there is buckets of funding out there. BUCKETS.
Concentrate: Buckets!
If you, Dave, or any others cannot find amongst us any man brave enough to carry a bucket, like they were a water boy, then we really have got a problem. “There’s a hole in my bucket dear Laila, dear Laila”.
In one of my earlier posts I urged people to put their hands in their pockets and employ Paul Catton. He would get the funding applications organised and have them into the right department immediately. Instead of doing this he needed to work on his own case, live his own life and fight his own other battles, and pin the IRD Commissioner to the wall. You could still get him employed. You just need to prioritise the tasks.
Optimally you know me well enough by now to recognise that I am encouraging you and not berating you, but really, if we have effective champions in our ranks, like you surely are one, then you need to pick the right paths to follow and carry the right equipment. At the moment we seem to be out of water. Get a new bucket. Find a new tap, and then you’ll pick up some carriers.
Chhers bro,
Benjamin.
Comment by Benjamin Easton — Fri 2nd November 2007 @ 11:02 am