ABA 2019 Highlights Annual General Meeting

We were joined online this year for our AGM and thank you to all who attended or sent their apologies. It's a different feel having this type of meeting over the airwaves rather than face to face and we made the most of it by encouraging AGM "parties" at various central hubs.
Joshua Wrest and the Canberra gang (Amber Nomchong and Lisa Petheram) gathered and could be seen munching on dip and celery. Jennylee Taylor hosted a group in Newcastle (Robyn Fernance and some student guests),  and Alakh was happily set up in the Northern Rivers area also snacking throughout the proceedings.

Congratulations to your newly elected committee for 2020:
President –  John Stamoulos
Secretary – Jennylee Taylor
Treasurer –  Margaret Schooneveldt
Membership – Margaret Schooneveldt
Committee Member – Liisa Halme
Committee Member –  Joshua Wrest

We particularly welcome John Stamoulos into his new role of President and Joshua Wrest as the newest committee member!

SAVE THE DATES 2020:
Member Mentoring
2 February 2020
Robyn Fernance
Birth Memory inside a Breathwork Session
 
Big Breathe
23 May 2020
Paddington Town Hall, Sydney

Breathe Australia Conference
5-8 November 2020
Govinda Valley Retreat, Otford, Sydney

2019 Committee and subcommittees met very regularly over the past year and here are some of the reported highlights for the 2019 year:

~ revamped website launched with and events page, meet your committee, members resources.
~ online membership joining and renewal project completed
~ All processes and procedures to run the ABA are documented and issued (13 of them) with the exception of the Operations Manual which is a work in progress
~ All ABA documents are now held in the cloud for more central record keeping
~ inquiries and signups via the ABA website have doubled this year compared to 2018
~ membership now stands at 50 members and consistently growing or upgrading
~ Group Facilitator (GF) Trainings Standards has been updated in consultation with Australian Trainers
~ Training Endorsement of 3 GF Trainings this year. Alakh Analda, John Stamoulos, and Robyn Fernance and Ann Harrison Trainings now endorsed at this level.
~ Breathwork Lineage has been documented for all current and past ABA members with a few gaps still remaining. We can give our thanks to Robyn Fernance for completing this task. Refer The Importance of Breathwork Lineage
~ ABA Facebook likes and followers is now 919 and 879 respectively and gaining momentum
ABA Member Mentoring sessions with John Staoulos and Ann Harrison have been a great success and members report how valuable it has been to learn, share and connect with the community online.

A big THANK YOU  to the outgoing President, Cindy Aulby who has been a rock and guiding light as we literally ploughed through some very large projects over the past 3 years. The work would not have been achieved with out the support of the Subcommittees consisting of: Website Subcommittee - Liisa Halme, Margaret Schooneveldt, John Stamoulos,  Integrity Subcommittee - Cindy Aulby, Treya Derrington, Nicholas De Castella, Communications and Marketing Subcommittee
Joshua Van Asha, Jennylee Taylor, Liisa Halme,  Training Endorsement Subcommittee Cindy Aulby, Ann Harrison, Robyn Fernance, Jonine Lee Gabay. Training Standard Subcommittee - Cindy Aulby, Ann Harrison, Robyn Fernance,  Green Book Subcommittee - Cindy Aulby, Jennylee Taylor

Whew! Its been a blast and feels great to be in such good shape for the membership.

We are looking forward to working with John and expanding on the vision for Breathwork in Australia, building community, creating connections and supporting the recognition and growth of this amazing modality.

With love
ABA 2019 and 2020 committee