From the 08-23 Area Stewart Council mtg meeting

Greetings Men,

We are planning for next year and the continuation of our work. The past year has been a restart of doing NWTA on a regular basis, getting community together and focusing on being ready for the next man. There are still men at the door who want to experience what it is like to live a life focused on mission of service and doing the work to understand the shadow behaviors that can undermine that mission. There has been a lot of change as we revised our NWTA protocols to be more in alignment with who we are. It has not been easy and we are still here. As a community I see signs that we are waking up from a Covid induced sleep and more men are interested in helping out with the NWTA, making sure we follow up with the Primary Integration Training to get new I-Groups going, and supporting their welcome homes. A huge thanks to each of you who has supported this work with your time!

As I look toward next year I see a couple of challenges. We have had some difficulty getting enough staff for our weekends. This is a national trend and we have been relatively lucky, but at times we have had to look beyond our area for staff. The other area of difficulty has been finding and encouraging men to step into leadership roles for the Area. This is partly a result of not doing the NWTA for a couple of years and not consistently asking men to step into leadership. At this point we have almost no men on the certified leader track. We have a small core of dedicated men who are helping to steer the Area Stewardship Council. These men are guiding the Area at a policy level which includes setting the 2024 budget priorities.

Budget message

For the next year I asked for and received Area Stewardship Council support for the following policy-level priorities:

1.) We are targeting 4 NWTA for 2024. Three of these will be at WaRiKi and one an outdoor format at Gray Owl Hollow.

2.) We will offer 1 ST-1 (Staff Training) and an elder gathering.

3.) We are budgeting for 10 Primary Integration Trainings held after the NWTA, looking at one in each of the major communities (possible 3 PIT after each NWTA).

4.) We are raising the NWTA tuition to $895.

5.) Staff Fee will be $150 and MOS fee is $100

6.) The PIT fee (I-Group Training) is $99 with a 6 man minimum for a new PIT. We have budgeted money for food ($150), site rental ($250) and copies of the manual ($50).

7.) We will compensate our Area Administrative staff and are still modeling what we can do within our budget. Right now we compensate the Area Administrator and Area Finance Coordinator. These men do a lot of work managing our weekends and tracking initiate and staff paperwork, fees and weekend expenses. I would like to see the Area Steward be compensated in the next year and perhaps bring on an enrollment coordinator to reach out to our backlog of inquiries.

This are the policy level priorities. The budget spreadsheet is a set of linked spreadsheets that covers every aspect of our operations. For perspective the NWTA income is mostly used to cover expenses. Even in the best years we ever had, if we came away at the end of the year with a $5,000 gain, we felt pretty lucky. If we make some money we have almost always sent it toward scholarships, equipment improvements or saved some as a cushion for a rough year. The NWTA is not a big money maker and never has been.

We did have a discussion about raising the NWTA fee amongst those who attended the last ASC call. There is discomfort with raising the fee and creating a barrier for men. For perspective, right now, we have one of the lowest fees for a normal NWTA in the country. Most other Areas are moving to $900 to $1,000 fee. Our budget barely breaks even at the $900 mark.

If you have questions please post them to this list. I will be offline from August 20 to August 30, but can respond when I return. We are moving to finalize the budget with MKPUSA and I will report out on the details once we have a summary sheet and supporting Spreadsheet data.

I look forward to the next year and appreciate each one of you for keeping the door open for the next man.

Best,

Steve Newcomb