The Good is the story of Reso Don from Carrical. Right now, for the first time in 40 years, Don is visiting his sisters in the USA. For those of us who were present when we first interviewed Don less than 3 years ago this is about as unbelievably a good story as we get! The transformation in this man’s life since he came to Carrical is amazing – for further reading have a look at his story in Narrative.

The Ugly involves the Carrical reso we are keen to see move on. He has not vacated since being given his official Notice to Vacate. Amanda and I have sought legal advice as to the likelihood of our case winning in VCAT. The answer was not encouraging.  We are now back to the drawing board. The positive is that the reso in question is currently behaving quite appropriately. I believe Heartbeat to be the appropriate forum to let you all know re this situation – but I would ask you all to be mindful of confidentiality and privacy as we would not like this info to ‘get out.’

Today I attended the pre-conference day of the above named conference in Sydney. Today was based around how to build a cause related marketing campaign. Expecting a conference room filled with delegates where I could enjoy anonymity I was mighty surprised to realize I was one of 6 delegates. No anonymity! Instead – an expectation to contribute!! It was a terrific day led by 2 ace presenters. The networking was good – having time to consider some different aspects of Servants was encouraging and I am looking forward to what the next 2 days have I store for me/Servants.

In the Progress Leader this week I was reading a response from Josh Frydenberg to a letter which criticized the work the Government is doing to end homelessness. He finished his article by encouraging the person he was disagreeing with to get on board with his Christmas Giving Tree Appeal and donate to Servants. We have not been informed that we have been chosen as the recipient for a 4th consecutive year – but reading between the lines it sure does sound this way! This is a very beneficial gig for us each December. We have deliberately NOT budgeted for this so it would be a lovely bonus.

Warren and I had brekkie with Peter Allen this morning to discuss all things Boroondara Cares/Foundation Boroondara. It was an encouraging time – full of big dreams – as it always is when we meet with Peter. There were some terrific ideas raised in regards to housing for Servants specifically and for the City of Boroondara in general.

I had my first glimpse of the new Scotch/Servants theatre piece – ‘Reflections’ – this week. It’s looking good! To recap, this is a piece of theatre that has been developed by drama students at Scotch based on a concept I presented them with at the start of the year. The piece will show in The Cramond Theatre at Scotch – those of you who saw the initial, dare I say, now legendary, first season of ‘Voices’ will understand the significance of going back to The Cramond. The piece lasts about 45 minutes and entry is by gold coin donation at the venue – no need. to book.

Dates: Sunday 4th October @ 4.00pm (preview show) and Monday 5th, Tuesday 6th, Wednesday 7th October commencing 7.00pm.

I hope you will consider attending.

On Thursday morning I met with Dr. Davies, the Principle of Trinity Grammar. Good guy – big shoes to follow as his predecessor was greatly loved and was at Trinity for an age. He wanted to talk about the Trinity/SCH relationship in general and just where we might take it – but specifically wanted to talk about a 20 hour a week employment opportunity at Trinity for one of our resos. Gold!!! From that conversation he realized Trinity could significantly help some members of our reso group with other opportunities. All good news!

In other employment news many of you reading this will know Paul Beagley – Romana reso. He has started some paid employment with a contact I made via Hawthorn Community Chest. Paul’s boss is keen to employ up to another 9 our of resos doing some work for his business in a paid, occasional employment capacity. Good things are happening.

In

I spoke to a handful of souls at the Welsh Church in the city earlier this week about the work of Servants. Although few in number they were pleased to hear what I had to say – and I was amazed at some of the work with homeless folks that is coming out of one of their communities. It was really very encouraging.

A few of you out there in Heartbeatland will know of Carrical reso Nick. Nick is a special and unique individual who is greatly loved by all who encounter him. He loves his heavy metal bands (good man Nick!) and also loves sporting the most offensive of heavy metal band t-shirts – including the now infamous Cannibal Corpse t-shirt which shows many decapitated heads less than elegantly displayed on poles. Charming!

The table is now set for the story. Nick turned up yesterday to the Sunday morning service at Hawthorn West Baptist Church (wearing an offensive t-shirt but not the Cannibal Corpse one)

Prior to the service Nick mentioned the following to the chap who brought him along:

‘God?!  Yeah. I saw God once. I climbed up a tree and knocked myself out. I saw a light and heard some Enya shit playing in the background!!’  Profound!!

I am Heartbeating during the arvo tea break on Day 3 at the Funding & Philanthropy Conference. This is the 3rd and final day. I fly home tonight in readiness for birthday and Father’s Day celebrations this weekend! The conference today has proved to be an extraordinary experience for me. Not so much in terms of who I have watched present (although there have been a couple of standout presentations) but in terms of whom I have met. This has been a very special day of networking and I have several things to follow up with in the next couple of weeks. I often think that many chance happenings occur within SCH at JUST the right moment – I believe this has been true again today. Exciting times!

I am in Sydney attending the annual Fundraising & Philanthropy conference. The conference started with a half day on Wednesday followed by full days today and tomorrow. Last year I attended not really knowing what to expect – and was delighted by what I heard and learned. This year’s conference to date has built on my experiences of last year – especially in light of some of the outcomes some of our efforts in this area have produced over the past 12 months. I would be very surprised if SCH was not the smallest org by revenue represented at this conference. The majority of the orgs here are BIG and are 100% dependent upon gifts/donations to survive. This puts us in a very different arena of operation – however, the principles of what I am hearing/learning are relevant to a group of any size. It confirms to me that we do very many things well in this field – clearly with room to improve of course.

Gifts that keep on giving – got to love them!

In our case one of these is certainly Leadership Victoria. I would struggle to even guess now how much value/benefit/$$ income has come our way since we became involved with LV in early 2012. The latest benefits have arisen from the recently held WCLP visit to Servants in late July (I Heartbeated at the time that this had been an extraordinary visit even by the high standards SCH/LV are used to operating within.) One of the chaps in the program that night is a Director of  charitable foundation – he asked what we needed for the houses – easy answer – freezers, always freezers. (Freezers are the closest thing we have to a license to print money – any guesses as to why this might be?!) He asked me to put in an application for some goods to the foundation. We put in for 6k worth of goods – adding a coupe of other items alongside the freezer. Last night he informed me that not only was the 6k approved – but the foundation had decided to give us 10k. Now, in my experience, this NEVER happens. Good news eh?! This foundation is keen to develop an ongoing relationship with Servants.

Other occurrences from the late July evening saw participants donate such large amounts of money to Romana resident Paul for his Team Servants fundraising campaign that he finished on top of our fundraising leaderboard; a Romana reso has been offered a scholarship place on an LV course being held in 2016 and I have commenced communication with a couple of other participants from that night who are keen to be involved with Servants having been well and truly ‘infected’ by what we are on about.

Hurrah!!

Candlelight Productions are offering Servants committee members/staff and resos free tickets to this Saturday night’s session of their latest theatre piece – Stone the Boats. It is playing at the Mechanics Institute in Brunswick. Kick off 7.30pm.

If you would like tickets for yourself/resos please send me an email and I will have tickets reserved for you.

One of the Carrical resos has started offering tuition in the basics of computing to fellow resos. A group of about half a dozen Carrical resos have started a weekly Bible study group. Two resos from Hamer who have been off the booze for a few months each now are looking fabulous – both having shed considerable amounts of weight – one of whom is using the treadmill that was recently donated to Servants. The 2 new greenhouses have arrived at Romana – the installation occurred to day in the pouring rain! Employment opportunities for a few resos continue to arise.

We received a $10,000 donation today – no strings attached. Another potential donor has been in touch with Servants wanting to know more about how we operate prior to making a donation. Run Melbourne is turning into the gift that keeps on giving – since the Run a couple of individuals have signed up to ongoing giving – one monthly, the other fortnightly. It is worth remembering that our first ever monthly donor has been donating 60 bucks a month to us for over 6 years now – this adds up to a significant amount over time.

I am off to Sydney next week for the annual Fundraising & Philanthropy Conference – I am very much looking forward to this. Last year was the first time I had attended and it left me with much food for thought.

I started back at work on Wednesday (yesterday) following holidays. Amanda and the Housekeepers have worked brilliantly over the past few weeks – especially as they have had some delicate matters to sort out. The saddest occurrence of August to date has been the death on site of one of the Carrical resos – Patrick.

Some of you might remember former Carrical reso Janet Poole. Janet was a lady who Isabel and I took out of Carrical and invited her to live with our family. Janet lived with us for about a year before she moved into private rental. Sadly, Janet passed away a few weeks ago.

The Leadership Victoria Williamson 2015 cohort visited Romana for dinner this evening followed by a presentation at HWBC. The Servants/LV nights are always wonderful affairs – but tonight’s occasion went to new heights. The level of engagement, always high, was just extreme tonight. I wonder if my presentation this evening was as good as anything I have ever delivered – anywhere. Paul and Richard from Romana accompanied me for the presentation part of the evening – both speaking publicly for the first time. They excelled.