My speech
Fountain house have been something like a second home for me. Only to receive food is elementary needs for me. And sometimes I have been sick, the protection and community gave me something really important. When I have a work to do after a period of sickness, it meant so much for me to have Fountain house. I remember once when a man said to me: you shall be healthy from your sickness. In the same time I had training in the kitchen. And this training was so much important for me. This meant for me, I had a place to spend my time, training myself to make recovery. I only worked three hours, but it was so much important. I trained myself in discipline and to come back to normal routines.
Fountain house was something that I needed for a long time, now it is thirteen years. When we started at that time we began from the real beginning. We were in another place at that time, much more little than today. From the beginning it was not so organized, and we hired workers, we who were members choose staff at that time. It began with the leader of Fountain house, he came to my home and advocated for me to begin as a member. I was number one and he convinced me to begin being a member. More members were added and the group increased. This group choosed worker in a kind of jury, to decide what workers we should employed.
After some time the first leader stopped working, and one of the workers continued as a leader. This is important, because without a leader it won´t work having a clubhouse. The name of this leader was Gitte Palo, and it meant we could continue. After some time we get a new leader Lennart Johansson, and later our financial situation went so bad for us we couldn´t continue with a staff, we had to kick three women from working because we had no money. They leave all together because they wanted to rescue the clubhouse from being without money. We continued The Fountain house with one leader and only members. We needed to choose two member leaders, and we continued. After sometime we had finances again to employ a new staff. When we came to this big place, we were firm as a clubhouse.
In thirteen years we have made Fontänhuskällan, the newspaper for Fountain house Falkenberg. Maybe it has meant a lot for our reputation. We make six to eight newspapers a year. I have written almost in every newspaper, since the beginning. Fountain house Falkenberg is now really big compared to how it was from the beginning. All members haven´t stayed for as long time as some of us. We have had new workers and staff, from the beginning. Also the president Lennart Johansson has not being with us all the time. He is the leader that has been here for the longest time.
I am grateful for the help I have got through Fountain house. I was elected to go to the world conference in Stockholm 2011, in summertime.
I am not so rich I can go to Hotels in Sweden, but through this Clubhouse I have visited several hotels because of Swedish conferences, and other kinds of meeting.
I believe Fountain house have been necessary for me as a member.
Rolf Karlsson, 2013-05-08, Falkenberg
