TEAM Events

A TEAM event gives the NZ Al-Anon Family Groups’ New Zealand membership the opportunity to meet the Board, learn more about the New Zealand Al-Anon General Service’s Office (NZAGSO) and about the various AFG service arms and our service structure.

A TEAM event helps us better understand our traditions, practice our principles and participate more fully in the ‘service’ part of our three legacies.

A TEAM event is flexible in timing and responsive to the needs of your Area(s). The event timing and length are decided by the Area(s), and the Area(s) requests presentations and/or workshops on topics of interest. These presentations and workshops can be run by Board members or co presented with members from participating Areas.

To get the full benefits of such an event, six hours presentation time is the minimum (i.e. one day) time allocated to the Board to be considered for the TEAM event, it can be part of a whole day or weekend event.

It is preferable a date in the future of at least six months is given when a request is made.

This event is designed to fit in with what an Area(s) wants, it may be held in conjunction with an Area(s) normal assembly/business meeting, it may be a stand-alone event if that’s what an Area(s) desires.

Any Area(s) in New Zealand can request a TEAM event and the Board of NZAFG has agreed it will fund two Board members to attend and assist in the facilitation of any event. Other Board members may attend at their own cost. The decision as to whom attends on the Board’s behalf is made by the Board based on the topics that the Area(s) wish to focus on.

If there are a number of requests for a TEAM event in any one calendar year the Board will decide if it is able to attend to multiple requests.

How Does It Work?
An Area (or Areas combined) come together at a Area business meeting at an Area Assembly and decide that their Area(s) would like a TEAM event. Usually the Delegate and the Chairperson fill out the Team Event Request Form and send it through to the generalsecretary@al-anon.org.nz.

At this point the fellowship of the Area(s) should decide what they want to have happen at a TEAM event. Essentially the Area committee in consultation with the Regional Board Member and Delegate list the subject matter they would like covered at the event e.g. financial planning, IAGSM presentations, conflict resolution, Leadership, how NZAGSO operates, Traditions and Concepts workshops or any Al-Anon related issue.

The event is a partnership between Area(s) and the New Zealand Al-Anon General Services, this happens by the Area(s) and the Board developing an agenda suited to the Area(s) needs and expanding members understanding of our national and worldwide fellowship.

A request can be made by email to the General Secretary of the Board of Al-Anon New Zealand using generalsecretary@al-anon.org.nz.

What Areas Need To Do
• Have a point of contact (person) that the General Secretary can communicate with.
• Have a semi planned agenda and when making a request, a list of topics you would want to cover.
• Have a suitable venue that can be kept warm in winter or cool in summer.
• The venue should have comfortable chairs as people will probably be sitting for a period of time.
• It may be appropriate to have smaller rooms available at the venue which allows for smaller group work, however not essential.
• The Board Members will need access to electronic equipment (eg: data projector – screens). As many Board members use their laptops for their presentations/workshops. NZAGSO has a data projector and screen available for Areas to borrow at no cost except the cost of a courier getting it to the venue and returned to NZAGSO. Most presentations are likely to use the electronic format.
• A credible sound/speaker system for people presenting material.
• Depending on the format it is probably essential to have a facility within the venue for making of coffee/tea. Equally if it is an occasion where meals aren’t part of the package food outlets hopefully will be close to the venue.
• Attendance at a TEAM event and publicity is the responsibility of the hosting Area. NZAGSO will put it on the calendar of events (The Messenger) and on the New Zealand Al-Anon website when supplied with relevant information from the hosting Area(s).
• Any costs relating to the running of the event (venue hire costs – food – tea – coffee) are the responsibility of the hosting Area.
• Where practicable, Board members can be billeted by local members.

After the Team event a final meeting should be held to evaluate the TEAM event. Helpful suggestions can then be recorded in the TEAM event file for the next AFG TEAM event committee. Subjects you might cover: Length of event i.e. 6 hours etc, topics covered, what worked – what didn’t? Some commentary / highlights from participants. Please prepare a report covering this and submit it to the Board.

Experience, Strength and Hope from Areas that have previously held TEAM events 
AREA 1
The feedback we got was very positive.
Everyone liked the venue and the food, they also liked going out for dinner at night, and meeting and getting to know the Board Members.
The workshops were all very enlightening, the general feeling was that it was good to see what NZAGSO looks like everyone thought it was much bigger and were impressed at how well everything was set out and utilised.
The members that attended now had more understanding of the finances and are more aware that donations are need to be sent to support our NZAGSO more regularly.
The workshop on “Conflict Resolution” was the most popular one for the weekend.
We have got a lot of verbal feedback one member went onto the web site and ordered literature.
Also the meetings I have been attending are talking more about budgets and fundraising.
Everyone really enjoyed the sharing meeting and thought the topic “Humour” was great and rounded the day off on a high.
It was overall seen to be a successful and very enjoyable weekend and they were pleased it was over two days as this made it more relaxed.

AREA 3
I had the privilege of being the Committee Chair for the TEAM event that was held as a joint venture between Areas 3, 4 & 5 in October at Forest Lakes, Kāpiti. It was a wonderful day of learning, growth and fellowship, I felt very fortunate to have been there to hear from some very experienced Al-Anon Board Members. The feedback from the 25 or so members who attended was very positive, there was talk of holding another one in the future.

AREA 9

The decision for Area 9 to host a TEAM event in Nelson evolved from a suggestion made to the Area 9 delegate, at the 2018 June conference, by the SRBM for Area 9 to host this event.

It was at our Greymouth November Assembly that we voted to go ahead and apply to host this event at our November Assembly. However, at the Boards suggestion we brought the TEAM event forward to March so we could still have the outgoing IAGSM Delegate to come speak to us before her service term finished. We happily brought this forward and are pleased we did.

We formed a committee of 4 Nelson people plus the Area Chairperson by email (who lives out of Nelson), and met frequently to organise the event.

Highlights of the Event

• The members meeting with and seeing that the board members are real people and are members just like us. We could identify with them especially when they told their stories.
• The sense of humour and camaraderie was infections and made it a learning but fun day. This started with Health and Safety instructions complete with H & S fluorescent helmets and H V vests. This continued throughout the day.
• It worked really well hosting this as part of our Assembly, even though we had to significantly extend our day. We were grateful to our travelling members altering their timetable and travelling on the Friday.
• Having a speaker, from Stepping Stones, come and speak on the Saturday night was great and many enjoyed the opportunity.
• It was awesome to have our Bring and Buy table so well supported and Area 9 really appreciated our Board supporting this too.
• It was very helpful that the board members made independent arrangements for accommodation and travel.
• Financially we were in credit by $72.30 which has gone to Area 9. Members paid $10 for the weekend which included Saturday and Sunday lunch, tea coffee and the Stepping stones event. If members and AA only attending the Stepping Stones event it was $5 plus a plate of food.

Possible Improvements
Although it was great to have hosted the speaker from Stepping Stones, it did not leave a lot of time for fellowship between the TEAM event presentations and at the end of the day. Especially as it made our dinner very rushed and we had to schedule dinner earlier than we would have liked. We are not sure what the answer to this would be. It was a one-off chance and members were really pleased they had the opportunity to attend.

Summary
The whole event was very motivational and informative.
It was a lot of hard work but so worth it. One member has already made 5 puppets (following the Board skit). Thank you to the IAGSM Delegate and her able assistant. There is already more enthusiasm for Public Outreach and more than one GR is making enquiries as to obtaining a copy of Twelve Concepts banner and General Warranties for their meeting walls.
The ongoing feedback from our Area members has been overwhelmingly positive and is still being talked about.