Network Facilitation Collective

The Network Facilitation Collective - Kay, Jo, Glen, Rob and travelling
Margaret - continues to meet to look at how best to support the nonviolence
network around Australia.

One of the highlights of the May and June meetings has been planning how to
spend the $8000 kindly given to the Centre for Nonviolence by the Lance
Reichstein Foundation.  Rob has done thorough work writing submissions and an
article for the Philanthropy Journal about ANN.  We're enjoying the novelty
of having spending money and are researching which brand of photocopier,
laser printer and fax machine to buy.  This office equipment will help
provide resources for network communications.

As for the ongoing finances of the Centre, pledges and donations have been
few in number recently, but have been generous.  We are covering costs. 
Thankyou to all those who have helped the Centre financially.

The two resource co-ordinators, Kay and Jo, have organised a "Day in the
Centre" coming up soon.  The aim of this day is to gather a small team of
committed workers to assist the Resource Co-ordinators in running the Centre.
At the moment, Jo and Kay each work (unpaid) two days a fortnight and this is
really only enough to do maintenance jobs.  We need more workers so we can
put more energy into bigger projects such as organising all the nonviolence
resources in the library.  A lot of work remains to be done in establishing
the Centre in preparation for the nonviolence boom we keep predicting!

Another exciting step the Collective has made is our decision to Pay the Rent
to a local Aboriginal group to acknowledge our gratitude for the use of
Aboriginal land for the Centre at Commonground.

We have also spent time sharing excitement about current nonviolent events
around Australia and the media coverage this has been attracting - and the
hundreds of people being attracted to nonviolence.  There's the Save Albert
Park campaign in Victoria, the Kuranda Sky-Rail campaign in Queensland, big
forest blockades in Western Australia... (see the phone-link up report for a
summary of nonviolent action happening in Australia at the moment).  We have
started thinking about how to meet the demand for large scale nonviolent
training needed in several places in Australia.

We also reviewed our interstate contacts and have identified gaps in
Canberra, Darwin Alice Springs, and Sydney - so if any nonviolent types are
in the areas or in any other unusual location (!) we'd like to hear from you
to strengthen our networking.

The Collective has been keeping in contact with its Outreach member (hello
Margaret) while she's campaigning up North and for all those living in
Darwin, Alice Springs and Adelaide, Margaret will be visiting in late August
to early September to meet people and share nonviolence skills and resources.

The Centre has been running smoothly with day to day maintenance being done -
filing, banking, accounts, correspondence...  We have decided to subscribe to
Nonviolence Today, Peace News and Reconciliation International.  We've had
several requests for the Centre's pamphlet and the introductory nonviolence
workshop kits - and these are still available for those interested.

The Centre for Nonviolence can be contacted at: PO Box 474, Seymour VIC 3661,
Phone (057) 938400. Please ring or write if you need support for your
nonviolent venture.
Jo Barter
Network Facilitation Collective