8th January 2000

Dear Anne,

I have been closely reading the communications in the Resource box and have been very grateful to do so.

I/we am/are a little overwhelmed with what we are trying to comprehend and so have appreciated taking in the considerations of others who are trying to do likewise. We met as a "community' on Wednesday 29th December, and gave time to looking at how we could come up with a proposed budget to link in with the assumptions of what is in store for 2000.

It was extremely difficult. The one decision we all agreed on was that we as a group of people (who up until now have driven approximately 2 hours each way to attend the satellite events at Amaroo) want to organise receiving delayed broadcast videos in the local vicinity. This is especially so as there may be so many. (We are not yet able to access a satellite dish on the Gold Coast, though the research has been thorough.)

Present Outcomes:

1. Yes, we will plan to receive the videos locally

2. If the broadcasts occur as approx. 1 per month and then later, maybe 1 per week:
It was guesstimated that a maximum of 9 people would be able to support the proposed contribution to the full over twelve months. An approximate other 15 to 20 people would be able to each contribute a small amount on the ongoing basis.

3. We will build a budget on this as a starting point. It was emphasised in the meeting that no one should feel they cannot attend due to their inability to fully support the initiative financially. This was a concern that I believe we will have to really address - there were people in the meeting who obviously felt troubled (personally) about this and they are people who participate very actively.

4. Meeting the budget will mean:
Continue to encourage local sponsorship
Continue to have full financial reports (these are made to the planning and update meetings, to which everyone is invited, that are held on a regular monthly basis and their outcomes are widely communicated.)
Continue with sporadic(?) or regular(?) fundraising events according to the state of the ongoing budgeting.

I hope this is of interest even though it is so preliminary.

Thank you for all of your input.
Kind regards,
A.