5th February 2002

Around the Gold Coast - with apologies for it being a time-delayed snapshot

The city of the Gold Coast is over 25km in length. Therefore two screening locations - one "north" and one "south" have operated for some time.

Events - Due to ongoing difficulty to meet the monthly costs, even though continual streamlining has been practised and concerted efforts to encourage financial support have always been made, the team had to make the decision to discontinue one of the events. This came into operation in December. Therefore currently there are two weekly events - Broadbeach (average attendance 28) and Tugun (average attendance 15), where the satellite broadcasts are screened, and the "video event" on Thursday evenings was cancelled.

At the end of January 02, financial dire straights were still being experienced. So a further decision has to be made regarding the continuation of the weekly event at Broadbeach, due to the inability to meet monthly costs. A meeting is planned for 12th Feb. to decide on future action. The general concern is that as a community we are not actively supporting the wider vision, as we are continually enmeshed in covering monthly operational costs.

The quality of the venues, and all event aspects such as the Material Resources, lending library, Direct Viewing and Information displays, and the operation of the AV are of high quality and are reviewed regularly at the planning meetings.

Lending Library - This has always been of key importance, and very well used by the interested, aspirant and pwk. It is operated very efficiently. It has become, and will continue to be indispensable with the viewing transitions that are occurring. The most recent tapes are available.

Aspirants - Twenty people are developing an interest in receiving Knowledge. Of those, eleven are regular attendees.

PRRK - Six of the eight people who received Knowledge in April 01 continue to attend regularly. (One older gentleman passed away). Some of these people assist at events.

DA - Seven homes in this region now have dishes for home viewing. Several of these residents keep an open invitation to any others who might like to attend the broadcasts.

Planning - A core of approx. 10 committed people meet regularly to work as the team behind the local scene. The planning meetings are "advertised" so that they remain open to all people who might like to attend/contribute/observe/participate.