I heard from MelbourneImpact100 on Monday that they are not interested in progressing our Buckminster Fuller idea to the second round.

I was initially very disappointed about this news – but quickly realized that the idea is still good, despite this setback, and that the idea might have been a little too radical/quirky/funky for the powers that be. I will watch with interest to see who wins the grant and how conservative, or otherwise, their proposal is.

I very much look forward to the time when I can manage to post daily into Pulse once more. As I seem quite incapable of such achievement at this time you will have to tolerate an occasional digest from me. Here we go ………………..

A local art/framing shop is closing. We have scored what must be thousands of dollars worth of free pictures/frames etc. Another local art shop has heard of us and is keen to donate.

Today we received a $5000 cheque from Hawthorn Community Chest towards the Narrative project. 2 other groups committed sums of $500 to us today also.

Amanda has started a well-deserved and long overdue 7 day break as of today.

RC Balwyn visited Carrical today to serve a hot dog lunch to resos.

I received 2 speaking offers today – both for October.

The filming component of Narrative commenced yesterday. It was a blazing success.

If I am not greatly mistaken Mark appears to be thoroughly enjoying his new role at Carrical!

Friday morning of this week photographer Esther and I are seeking the cover shot for Narrative. Exciting!

Esteemed local antiques dealer Sheridan Brown has presented Carrical with a beautiful, restored armchair. A very generous gesture indeed. When resident Wayne Brydon, whom some of you will know, moves into a flat at Carrical in a few weeks he will be taking possession of said chair. He will also take possession of a VERY posh Chinese dinner service that was a gift from some Chinese dignitary chap to Josh Frydenberg. Josh is unable to accept such gifts – so it came to Servants! A very nice score for Wayne!

I have been working steadily for a long period of time now to house a current inmate of Barwon prison. This process is now starting to move towards an end game – one which will see this gentleman housed by Servants.

The Halls are dealing with a difficult and unusual resident at Romana. They are doing a great job. However, please do keep them in your prayers.

The recent Trinity Trivia Night raised $900 for Servants. I speak next week at Trinity at another Chapel Service.

I am meeting with LV next week for further discussions re Schools Leadership.

I am investigating agreements/contracts/rights for the stories/photo to be used in Narrative. Eugene from Candlelight has been very helpful in steering me in the right direction.

Amanda, Warren and I are looking to hold our annual review with the Housing Registrar in early October – ahead of the October committee meeting.

Tuesday morning at Trinity Grammar I spoke at one of their house Chapel services. It was a terrific morning and I felt I spoke particularly well. A collection was taken for Servants.

In the evening Trinity held their Annual Trivia Night for Servants. The Servants team was made up of myself, the Hislops, Porters, Grace, Olga and Rhiannon. Patrick was on another table. Our team, strangely called ‘One Genuine Smart Guy,’ came 6th out of 14 – so we did Servants proud! I quickly learned who never to invite to another trivia night! I got to speak again to the attendees. It was a really good evening and we continue to solidify our relationship with Trinity.

Friday morning, about 9.50am.

I am sitting in Bar Ristretto in Burwood Rd, Hawthorn watching about 25 people waiting for their take-out coffees – happy in the knowledge that $2 from every coffee sold today boosts Team Servants ’14. This looks like being a profitable day!

Trinity Grammar will be hosting a Trivia Night on Tuesday 5th August with all proceeds coming to Servants. Their inaugural Trivia Night was staged last year and was a pretty good event – Grace, Olga and I represented Servants on the night. They raised many hundreds of bucks for us last year and this year promises to be a still bigger and better event. If you are interested in joining me on the evening please let me know. The time? 7.00 – 9.00pm. The venue? TBC. Cost: $10.

Warren is back in the country and resumes his role as President – a position temporarily held by Tim in the absence of both President Warren and President of Vice Connie.

Both Connie and Tim presided over their Presidential duties with great aplomb during Warren’s absence. Thank you to you both.

All houses are full. A really healthy waiting list exists for each individual house. There has been one reso exit to date this fin year – but no empty room nights. All houses appear to be running quite smoothly – there are no remarkably difficult issues to deal with at the present time. Management are reporting that overall they are happy with the progress of their houses. The demand for our housing is enormous and increasing all the time. The support we have within all the communities within which we operate is very gratifying to see/hear.

We are now 2 weeks away from Run Melbourne and the appearance of Team Servants ’14. There are some good things happening behind the scenes in regards to the Team – we have 2 schools who are seriously supporting us with sponsorship, Amcor have just given us their support and 3 local cafes (all heavily patronized by Servants) are supporting/promoting us – one of them very heavily. To date the Team has received about $6500 in donations – based on the donations of last year it will be the week before the event when the most giving will be made. I am hopeful that we will be featured by Fairfax Media in the days leading up to the event; this would not hurt the fundraising figures!

Progress on Narrative is excellent – in the week just completed the 2 new recruits – Joy and Justine from MLC – commenced their work on the book. We are absolutely on track to be ready to go to print on 18th September and work is well underway for the launch night of Friday 24th October.

The end of the financial year is also the end of the Rotary year. I recently attended the Presidential Changeover Dinner at RC North Balwyn and Servants was significantly acknowledged on the night. In addition the Rotary involvement with Romana was recently recognized with THE community services award for the year.

Plans are underway for the fundraising Carols @ Carrical event we will host at Carrical on Monday 22nd December for the benefit of Hawthorn Community Chest.

I have meetings lined up with Leadership Victoria in regards to the Schools Leadership project and I will have a proposal for committee to consider on or before the August committee meeting.

I am currently working on a grant proposal for Melbourne Impact100 that I feel particularly excited about. I have been working with Eugene from Candlelight and our own Temporary President Tim on this proposal.

Since 1st July we have entered the brave new world of managing our own maintenance at Carrical under the 6 month period we have committed to under our amended HPF lease. We are predominantly using a maintenance group based in Camberwell for our maintenance. So far, so good.

Our audit is booked in for 24th July. Matrix are continuing to do a little wok with us to ensure that all is in readiness for a successful audit.

I have many talking engagements booked in for the weeks ahead – including one Sunday morning in August at Canterbury Baptist Church.

The Hislops first night in Carrical will be Tuesday 22nd July. This of course corresponds with the end of an era as Amanda brings to a close a period of 4.5 years living in the mansion.

Some nice donations have come in of late. $2500 from one foundation today and $1000 from another yesterday. The Philanthropy Club of Melbourne High raised over $1300 from their recently held Talent Quest. Hawthorn Community Chest recently raised inxs of $5000 for the Narrative book at their Cocktail party. Team Servants ’14 donations are starting to trickle in – with 2 days this week seeing inxs of $250 donated – these daily totals should/will rise considerably as we get close to the event date of Sunday 27th July.

We are now ready to sign the Option 2 amended HPF Lease which will take us from 30/6/14 thru 31/12/14. Amanda has been doing some considerable work ensuring we are Option 2 compliant. We are entering a brave new world of managing our own responsive, emergency and cyclical maintenance.

The first 2 vacancies have occurred at Romana – and have been immediately filled. We will almost certainly end the fin year with all 89 rooms tenanted and rents in a terrific position. There continues to be a huge number, nay, an overwhelming number of folks looking for Servants type accommodation.

I will be working on 2 grant applications, both due mid-July – one for further Narrative funding and one for a quite unique, one winner only grant, that I have begun talking with Tim and Connie about. Far too complex to enter into in detail within this missive – yet to whet your appetites I have given it the working title of The Buckminster Fuller Theory.

Narrative continues to progress nicely. I have recently brought on-board a 4th school, MLC, as the demand to have stories told is significant within our resident population.

All things Team Servants ’14 are ramping up nicely. Bar Ristretto (the café preferred by all at Servants!) has become Servants Central in the past couple of weeks as advertising for the Team (not to mention the free coffees they provide for our resos) reaches new heights. As a result of this a potentially very beneficial relationship with Amcor has developed. Watch this space …….

All things financial are in shape for the end of the fin year. This year’s audit will be towards the end of July. Matrix are helping us out in a few areas and this newly reinstated relationship appears to be progressing well.

A date for you diaries here: Servants will be hosting Carols @ Carrical on the evening of Monday 22nd December. The venue, not surprisingly, will be Carrical. This event will be staged to raise funds and profile for our friends from Hawthorn Community Chest.

I have spent more time talking in schools these past few weeks than ever before – I am forging terrific relationships with both Strathcona campuses, developing nicely at Melbourne High, continuing pleasingly at Trinity, Xavier and Carey and have just started to infiltrate the masses at MLC.

I cannot remember a couple of weeks when I have give away soooooooooooo many copies of Anthology – literally hundreds of copies. Anthology continues to be represent Servants in a powerful way.

Last night Servants hosted this year’s Leadership Victoria Williamson year at Carrical and then Hawthorn West Baptist Church. we have enjoyed many wonderful evenings with LV – but last night’s gathering was stunning. Just stunning. We have several other LV evenings established for the remainder of the year.

I have just started talking with Mike Cutter in regards to the creation of my first ebook – a leadership number entitled Ripple. I look forward to sharing this with you over the next few weeks.

Development with Boroondara Cares/Servants/Boroondara Council re a housing development for Servants remain very positive – of course, at this stage, there is very little that Warren and I can say about this as we are currently bound by an NDA. I am not quite sure at this stage as to when the NDA will be lifted.

The folks of the Carey Grammar community recently provided the resos with a HUGE amount of clothing. Other material gifts continue to be received – bicycles, ridiculously expensive TVs, food ……. the list goes on!

Last Sunday I preached at Kew Baptist Church – talking re homelessness and the work of Servants. It was very well received.

All relationships with major stakeholders appear to be strong at the present time.

I am developing a positive way forward with LV for 2015 for the Schools Leadership Project. There is no lack of interest from local high schools.

On a personal level I am pleased to report that Isabel will be discharged from hospital tomorrow (Friday) morning. This adds up to a 5 week hospitalization for her. She is doing well and the time is now right for her to continue to heal at home. I am greatly appreciative of all the support I have received from both the Servants and Hawthorn West Baptist families.

Romana is occupied by 23 residents. It becomes full Tuesday 3rd June when the final reso moves in. Hamer and Carrical remain full. This means all 89 of our rooms will be full and the trick now is to find the next few resos to move in when vacancies occur. Fin year to date empty room night figures are 2 for Hamer and 22 for Carrical. Romana stats will only be recorded once the house is full for the first time. To date nobody has left Romana.

Some donations came in last week – nothing enormous but they added up to several hundred dollars. I am speaking this Friday at Melbourne High School where they are hosting a fundraising talent contest for Servants. Melbourne Girls College and MacRob girls are also involved – so a great opportunity to spread the word about Servants.

Other speaking opps and events for Servants continue to roll in.

This morning I picked up a donation of 2 new filing cabinets and 2 as new printers.

We have locked in the audit date for late July. Talks with Matrix of late have been productive.

Amanda and I are currently working on issues pertaining to us transferring onto the Option 2 (did it yourself maintenance) HPF lease ahead of signing the General Lease later this year for Carrical. To date all progress has been positive.

On a personal level Isabel remains in hospital and is slowly but surely starting to mend.

Most of you will know by this stage that Isabel is very unwell. Friday and Saturday were very traumatic days. Isabel is currently being nursed in St Vincent’s psych. She is, sadly, an involuntary patient. The good news is that she is now safe and has the expert care around her that she very much needs at this moment in time. My hope is that within the next few days she will show signs of being on the road to recovery and will be able to be transferred into the private system.

In terms of my Servants workload I am imaging it will be very much business as usual – perhaps with a slightly reduced number of hours for the next few days.

All in the Wonderful World of Servants appears to be in a good place right now; Romana is filing beautifully; the other 2 houses are full 100% of the time; donations have just started coming in for those participating in Team Servants 14; speaking opportunities at schools and other places continue to come in; work on Narrative becomes still more exciting; I am starting to ‘own’ the finances more than I ever done have previously; we are becoming more and more known within the community and so on and so on …………………

The biggest help you can all be to my family at this time is to hold us all in your prayers. Thank you.

I had a very interesting morning/early arvo today at Swinburne Uni’s Festival of Ideas. It was cold and rainy and the stage was outside! I talked to perhaps only 20 people – but this included some of the top brass from Swinburne who were very interested in talking about how they could partner with Servants in various capacities. They also took 100 copies of Anthology to distribute to various students/connections. I guess one of the things about a morning like this is that you just do not know what might come from it!

A Community Dinner was held at Carrical on Saturday evening. 11 guests from 2 church groups were in attendance. It was as spectacular as usual; I expect several speaking opportunities to arise as a consequence of this Dinner.

We will be welcoming our first residents into Romana on Monday 5th May. Work at the house continues at pace. It is a veritable hive of activity!

One of Carrical’s favorite sons, David Northcombe, is currently in hospital – his first psychiatric admission in 14 years. Please pray for David’s healing. It has been touching  to see the number of staff/committee members and residents who have visited him.

The week ahead in Servants is looking quite enormous as we prepare to welcome residents to Romana a week tomorrow.