Western States Zonal Forum
Meeting Record
July 18, 19, 20, 2008
Download this in MS Word format here.
Meeting was opened July 18, 2008, 7:30 PM, with a
moment of silence followed by Serenity Prayer
Read 12 Traditions - Michael M.
Read12 Concepts - Vince
G.
Introductions & Roll Call
Dan F. -
Julia RV –
Ken Mason –
Southern
Deb W. –Southern
California-RDA
Laura B. -
Freddy O. –
Denise T. -
Pacific Cascade - RD
Tauni M. -
Pacific Cascade - RDA
Mary Ellen
–
Tony O. –
Vince G. –
Clif G. –
Doug C. –
D.W. – San
Diego Imperial – RD
Pam J. –
San Diego Imperial- RDA
Lenny R. –
Matt S. –
Northern
Mike M. –
Oscar L. –
Karen R. -
Sierra Sage - RD
Robin P. –
Sierra Sage - RDA
Rick W. - Region
51 RD
Shelly S. -
Region 51 RDA
Mary Banner
– World Board Member
Steve Rusch
– NAWS Staff
Jack H. - Meeting
Co-Facilitator
Vandy A. –
Meeting Co-Facilitator
Dennis B. –
Recorder
Approval of April 30, 2007 minutes
Approved
World Board – Mary Banner
Building Communication
Topics at Conference
Moratorium of Seating
New Regions
PR Events
Priority Rankings
Website (still in
development)
Discussion on Service
Structure Leadership
in NA
- Announced Board
is working on facilitating workshops materials
- Our Freedom, Our Responsibility, and
Communication will be
ready shortly
-
PR
Events Priority ranking Web Page. Hoping
to be done by
end of the year
- New Discussion
Bulletin Boards going up
- IDT Board and other service related boards
ready bye early fall
- H&I Board and other service related
boards
- Service Structure Board has seating of
Regions
Input on Service
pamphlets from CAT (Conference Approval Tract) Due by July 31st.
Info
gathered from fellowship as a whole
Work Groups from World
Pool:
- In Times of Illness – Will be meeting in
early August
- Service System Work Group – 4 year project
- Book Length Work Group will be finalized by
August
- Business Plan Work Group – taking on Self
Support pamphlets
WCNA
6th Edition
still on target for October 1 release.
It’s never too late to
give feedback to WB
Ø NAWS News:
·
IDT’s:
·
Region Seating: Washington/Northern
· Website: They are hoping to launch by the end of the year. Bulletin Board-new Service Bulletin Board.
· WSC 2008: Some of the Regions were not happy with how some of the sessions ran. Everyone was reminded that they can always give their input and feedback through email to NAWS. (Several Regions clearly had not submitted written WSC Evaluation Forms.)
·
Input on Service Pamphlets: Deadline for
input is July 31st. Nor
· Leadership: Fall 08 there will be 2 different session profiles.
· Working Groups: In times of Illness (2yrs), Service System (4yrs), Book Length Piece (4yrs), Business Plan-Self Support (2yrs).
·
WCNA 2009
· Discussion Bulletin Boards: IDT’s 6 to 8 weeks.
· 6th Edition Basic Text: Release Date October 1st, 2008.
· RBZ: HRP – please remind everyone that your Region can recommend a member through the RBZ process.
Ø Bids
for WSZF 2009:
Ø Sunday Topics: Fund Flow, NAWS/RD’s Train the Trainer, Meeting Lists, WSLD, Workshop Location-Member perception, Area Splits, WSZF Website, Disaster Contingency Plans, Alternative Store Merchandise at events.
Ø Inventory: (11 people responded)
· Parking Lot: Facilitation Practices. Rotation Schedule.
• RBZ
process which allows Regions and Zones to nominate people to forward Region,
Boards, Zones nominees to HRP. Share
processes with each other. Human
Resources. Will be put up on ftp sites.
Site Selection bids for next WSZF 2009 (Discussion
and decision carried over until Sunday)
Shuttle service cost
minimal
Past WSZF
Meetings
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
NAWS Board Meeting
(Summer 09) June 25,26, 27, 2009
WCNA in
Adjourned
at 10:15 ;m
Called to
order July 19, 2008 at 8:30 AM
ZONAL FORUM INVENTORY
Facilitated by Steve
Rusch, NAWS Staff
Received 11
responses to survey forms for WSZF Inventory sent out – consolidated replies.
Our Purpose
(As presented on
WSZF Website)
The Western States Zonal Forum is a
service-oriented sharing session that provides the means by which NA
communities in the
The Planning Cycle The Planning Process
· Purpose (now): Share on specific topics, provides report to WSC, support for service efforts, provides means of communication.
· Purpose (Inventory Results): Sharing on specific topics, provides report to WSC, provides means of communication.
· Issues: Website, no structured communication between meetings, Lack of leadership (Admin Body), not fully using “Training Opportunities”, Benefit to meetings/local community, Consider Zone benefits, redefine purpose, no collective “memory” (archives), consider a vision.
· “Admin” Issues: Lack of leadership (delegation/responsibility), no collective “memory” (archives), No structured communication between meetings, Website.
· Issues: Purpose/Vision: Redefine purpose, consider a vision. Benefit Identification and articulation: to meetings and local community to the zone. Not fully using training opportunities.
· Purpose/Vision: Networking opportunities (sharing resources, face to face), Training opportunities (identify benefits to zone and local community), NAWS Interaction/WSC Preparation (fellowship development, workshops).
Ø No Structured communication between meetings: email body for clear communication, SPOA, Video Chat, Quarterly written report - RD Zonal update (WSZF News), Invite other RD’s for workshops, post power points and reports on website, have a clear concise format.
Ø No
Collective Memory: Maintain history, solution based archives, accessibility
to members, access to past and present RD’s, FAQ’s, Scan Archives and post on
website, orientation session for zone members, change minutes to better reflect
discussions.
Ø Lack
of Leadership: Training and retention of information, communication between
meetings, defined responsibility and roles, identify leadership for the next
WSZF, Handbook for zone members, more collaborative efforts between Regions,
continuity in leadership, mentorship, have leadership skills, willingness to
actually choose leaders, NAWS training for zone members at the forum,
communication SPOA, ZPIF (Zonal Pool Information Form).
Ø Website:
SPOA: webmaster (add to guidelines), Links to NA.org, Discussion Board, FTP
Site, Zone FTP and discussion board for group, identify how to fund, email
mechanism for individual members to access and post questions, outsource,
guidelines and purpose, wiki. Prioritize-functions: PR Piece, Intra Zone, Intra
Fellowship.
·
Top Goal for No Structured Communication
Between Meetings: Quarterly reports between Zonal meetings.
·
Top Goal No Collective Memory: Solution
Based Archives.
·
Top Goal for Lack of Leadership: Defined
Leadership Roles and Responsibilities. (ADMIN and Ongoing)
·
Top Goal for Website: Intra-Zone
Site-SPOA-define purpose and function.
Ø Leadership:
Possible “Chair” or “Facilitator” for a 2 year cycle for continuity.
Possible Secretary.
·
Tasks (routine): Facilitates meeting,
distributes [agenda, minutes (meeting records), location info, general info],
NAWS contact, local fellowship contact, prepares WSZF report for WSC, Presents
WSZF report to WSC, finds meeting location, recorder of the meeting records
(minutes).
·
Talent (who?): RDs, ADs, Local Members,
Past RDs, Regional Trusted Servants.
Action Plan Process:
Ø Plan
to rewrite the WSZF Purpose:
·
(Task) A rewrite of the current WSZF Purpose
using the group input from the Inventory Process.
·
(Time Frame) First Draft – 30 days, Response of
the First Draft – 30 days.
·
(SPOA) Jack, Laura, Doug, Pam, Deb.
·
(Resources) Notes from group input, current
Purpose.
·
(Completion Date) Final Approval at the 2009
WSZF (
Ø Tasks:
·
Facilitate: Vandy, Jack
·
Distribute Agenda: Jack, Ken
·
Distribute Location Info: Dan, Ken
·
NAWS Contact: Lenny, Jack
·
Local Fellowship Contact: Laura, Dan
·
Prepare WSZF Report to WSC: Michael
·
Present the WSZF at WSC: Michael
·
Find Meeting Location: Dan, Rick
·
Record Meeting Records (Minutes): Karina,
Dennis
Ø Time
Frame: First Draft in 30 days, any input or responses – 30 days, Final
approval at the WSZF 2009 Meeting.
Issue Discussion Topics
► Zonal forum meeting
time
We discussed the possibility of moving our
meeting to a different month so as to utilize this forum to prepare for the
WSC. January and February were
considered, and we will all be in contact with Lenny to give him our schedules
for events, workshops, RSCs, etc. We
will discuss this via email.
► Zonal forum meeting time
We discussed the possibility of moving our
meeting to a different month so as to utilize this forum to prepare for the
WSC. January and February were
considered, and we will all be in contact with Lenny to give him our schedules
for events, workshops, RSCs, etc. We
will discuss this via email.
►
WSLD in
Some regions send reps, RDs, ADs, H&I,
PR, Phonelines, Regional Chair, and fund their travel. NorCal prepares a report which is available
to us all through Lenny. Be aware that
all participants vote at the end of the conference on the location of the next
event. The issue of single point of
accountability is still a problem for some.
NAWS participation has created a high level of quality in workshops. We may look at eventually merging our WSZF
meeting with that event and meeting just prior.
Having this event in
► Fund
flow
How are you getting
people to put more in the basket?
Ask people to think
about giving as much as they might have spent on a night out using
Break it out for groups as to how much it
costs the Region per month for all the services it provides, and put the number
out to groups
Educate members on
fund flow
Create local customs (put number of dollars
to equal your birthday years) and talk about the gratitude of being able to
give
Ninth step
financial amends that cannot be done directly may be done in the basket
Workshop on money
Areas have large prudent reserves that are
excessively high. We may need to educate
areas on the fund flow process
Take the basket
outside to members that are outside smoking
Calculate what it takes to be fully
self-supporting per meeting, & pass the basket again if the collection does
not meet the amount
Don’t keep a prudent reserve in groups that
have a large population – in a money healthy group about a dollar a head per
month will go to area
If each group in
the world donates $2/wk to NAWS, it would fund all world services
► Alternative Merchandise at Conventions
NorCal has had vendors go to groups and ask
them to pay the group to get a letter saying it is the group’s
merchandise. These are, in general, definite
6th Tradition violation issue
Vegas only allows Areas and Regions (not
groups) who are approved prior to the convention to sell at Alternative
Merchandise
Educate local events committees as to NAWS
approved vendor (legal permission to use the logo) versus the permission to
sell at an event, which is up to the hosting committee
FIPT determines that there are certain ways
that the NA logo is not to be displayed, e.g., displaying it with another
logo. FIPT gives groups and service
committees access to the trademark, but not on some items, such as non-approved
literature.
► Area splits – any Metro co-op experience
Meetings in Seattle
Area attempted 3 times to split – never completed
Districting did not work for
A geographical split created a new area
based on the Guide to Local services model, and it worked perfectly.
► Regional meeting schedules
Pacific Cascade and
Regional schedules
are printed bimonthly
Website has all the information online with
each area having access to make changes online and printer prints info directly
from that website. This could be linked
to the na.org website.
Take current area meeting schedule and
compare it to na.org. Provide it to area
schedule person.
It benefits treatment center clients and
treatment professionals to provide them a single regional schedule and one face
of NA
Helpline numbers
and websites for region and world are printed on the meeting schedules
► Zonal forum website
Vince has set up a
Google group for the Zone and will send it out to all members
► Disaster Contingency Plan
WS has a contingency plan for the WSO – it
would be 48 hours before NAWS would be up and running in
All regions should have backup of their
records
WSO replenishes and
replaces literature for any place that suffers a disaster
The community that is hit with the disaster
is gone. The need evaporates and the
members go to other places. Members of
the fellowship traditionally want to help those affected areas, and WS will
pass on donations. Individual members
have done extraordinary amounts of work in service to one addict helping
another for displaced addicts. WWW was
done in
Local PR people should be in contact with
local Red Cross to set up contingency for meeting places.
Craig’s List was a
great resource for members to network
The places that don’t have the disasters
are the ones who need the contingency plans, as there will be many requests for
help from displaced members.
Define Leadership Roles
(Admin/Ongoing)
Ø Facilitate Meeting - Vandy
Ø Agenda – Jack
Ø Meeting location – Dan
Ø Meeting record – Vince
Ø NAWS Contact – Lenny
Ø Local Fellowship contact – Laura
Ø Prepare WSC Report – Michael
Ø Present WSC Report – Michael
Ø Find Meeting Location – Rick
Ø Record Meeting Activities – Karina
Action Plan to re-write the WSZF
Purpose
Ø A re-write of the current purpose,
using group input
Ø 30 Days on all drafts and responses
Ø Final approval Summer WSZF 2009
Ø Need notes and current purpose
Jack,
Laura, Deb, and Dave volunteered for Task
Project Plan For Administrative
Tasks
Ø Define the assigned task
Ø First draft in 30 days
Ø 30 Days on all drafts and responses
Ø Final approval at Summer ’09 WSZF
Ø No additional resources needed
Ø Tasks assigned to current/past
members with that experience
Future Project Plans
Ø Purposes
PR
Intra-Zone
Intra-Fellowship
Ø Role/Guidelines
Solution
Based Archives
Adjourned
at 5:00 pm
Meeting
called to order at 8:37 by Vandy Andersen, Co-Facilitator
Opened with
a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer
Robin P. read
the 12th Traditions
Dan F. read
the 12 Concepts
Issue Discussion
Topics
(With number of “dots”)
Regional Meeting Schedule (1)
Change month of WSZF meeting (10)
All
to E-mail list of Regional dates, other activities, etc., to Lenny as point
person
General
consensus was to move meeting date, (see suggested purpose of WSZF)
NAWS & RD Train the Trainer (10)
RD’s
give info to RCM’s who fail to pass info along
Using
“dots” versus power point presentations
Attempt
to align with World topics
WNIR
has two small group discussions at two yearly conventions
WSLD in
“Everyone”
wants to attend
There
is a perception problem “vacation vs service”
Point
of accountability is a problem – who votes for next location
Fund Flow (5)
Put
money that you spent on a Friday night (while using) in the basket
Break
down cost per meeting basis that Region spent
Educate
Area’s of how money is used
Once
a month at meeting, put in amount equal to years clean
Create
customs such as above
Alternative stores – outside vendors
(7)
Vendor
is member of fellowship, go to groups, give them a token donation, then ask
that they “sponsor” them, then sell
at conventions. 6th
Tradition violation
Alternative structure
approaches to Area splits (3)
Zonal Forum (WSZF) Website (3)
Vince has set up a Google group for the zone and will
send it out to all members.
Disaster contingency
plans (3)
How do we
prepare our members for possible disasters?
No Regions
or Areas have plans
NAWS
furnishes support, ie., money, literature
Local PR
might develop relationship with Red Cross
Craigslist
is another resource
Workshop locations and
perception (1)
Covered under WSLD in
REGIONAL
REPORTS
Region 51
Our small,
isolated region is growing by leaps and bounds.
We currently have 4 areas that consist of the original Southern Nevada
Area, East Las Vegas Area, the North by Northwest Area and our newest area, the
South Valley Area. Our boundaries
consist of the cities of
Our
Regional committee was intended to be an informational body from its inception
approximately 9 years ago and has now evolved into a service body in most
recent years. We now have a Regional
Public Information Committee, H&I Committee and a Unity & Activities
Committee. Our Public Information
Committee’s tasks are to provide an updated regional meeting schedule and
provide information to the general public.
The committee has been asked to do presentations to professionals and
have been very well received. They are
in the process of creating a regional website where you can view all our
meetings, our regional calendar along
with other pertinent information. They
are working on developing a user friendly “live” phone line. This new phone line would allow the other
areas to disconnect their current phone lines in an attempt to not duplicate
services. The H&I committee is
working hard at expanding their commitments to facilities but are moving at a
cautious pace due to not having the personnel to facilitate these
meetings. The Unity and Activities
Committee now has several regional activities they are responsible for
including the Regional New Year’s Dance, The Women’s Spiritual Breakfast (held
in May), the Unity Day Picnic (held in October) and are looking at possibly
holding other functions in the future.
An Adhoc
committee was just recently formed to research the possibility of having a
regional convention. For many years, 23
to be exact, the original Southern Nevada Area has been hosting an annual
convention. Due to the tremendous growth
in our Valley, members expressed having a regional convention that would allow
all areas to participate or possibly rotating the host committee to each
area. The East Las Vegas Area has been
holding a convention about every 18 months.
Rick W.’s
service commitment as Regional Delegate will be ending on July 27, 2008. He has been a great asset for our Region and
will continue to be a great resource for us as well. ILS,
Shelly S.
Our region
has approximately 1380 meetings and 151 Spanish speaking only meetings
throughout its 20 areas. Of those 1380
meetings, 4 are Armenian, 3 are Farsi, 1 is Hebrew and 3 are American Sign
Language. The RSC recently revised its regional guidelines. We had elections of
new officers of the RSC in May and Deb W. is our new RDA. We have also recently
formed two new sub-committees of the region. The youth committee was approved
many years ago, but due to the length of time it took to get the guidelines
approved, there were no longer any interested members left to form a committee
then. They are now a fully formed and functioning committee now, with the
purpose of helping young people finding their way into the existing service
structure. They are currently sending a representative to each of the regional
sub-committees. They are putting on their second regional youth activity on
August 9th at the Ontario Double Tree Hotel, which they are doing
through the activities committee of the region. You can access the information
for the event on our website at www.todayna.org.
We have
also passed the guidelines for a Sponsorship behind the Walls committee. They
have elected officers and are receiving more requests for sponsors than they
can currently handle.
Regional
Service Office (RSO): Our RSO is maintaining itself. They are still
below their prudent reserve but are working on new marketing strategies to
bring sales up. The RSO carry’s insurance for the regions 20 areas as well as,
our Regional events. They are also now offering to cover the four Area
Conventions held within our Region.
Hospitals
and Institutions (H&I): All 20 areas including the Spanish Speaking
area attend the monthly H&I subcommittee meeting. The region carries 61
panels that go into our Hospitals and Institutions within our region. The 19
areas, along with the Spanish Speaking region carry approximately 619 panels.
The subcommittee holds an annual Learning Day in the month of May.
Public
Information (PI): The subcommittee continues to reach out to
the community and by educating our young people by carrying presentations into
the schools. Almost every area of So.
Regional
Activities: The regional activities committee puts on 3
major events per year. The NA Birthday, New Years Eve and the Regional Campout.
They also help with the H&I Learning Day and the Regional Assembly Workshop
as well as the new Young Peoples Unity Day. They help out the 20 areas with
their events by providing a calendar so that the areas can have regional dates
so that no area event conflicts with another areas regional event. They post
all areas events whether they are a regional or area event on the regional web
site.
Phone
lines (PL): Phone lines are currently running a 24 hour
7 days 800 number with live addicts answering the phones. 7 areas are helping
accomplish this. The Spanish speaking
area is helping the region man the Spanish speaking hotline.
Website
: The website committee no longer sits under
the PI committee. They have adopted guidelines two years ago and are now their
own sub-committee of the region.
They have
finally completed their project to make our database easily uploaded to the
World database. We also now have our own server and are hosting any Area
websites that wish to utilize it.
Literature:
We currently have no Literature Review committee because of lack of
participation.
Regional
Convention: The Convention committee is getting ready for
this years convention that will be held the weekend before Thanksgiving weekend
at the Ontario Doubletree. They had a nice convention last year in
Cruise
Committee: The Cruise Committee had another successful
event this past
Year. They
went on a longer cruise to the Mexican Riviera. They don’t hold cruises on the
same year as the World Convention, so their next cruise is in two years
Spring
Gathering Committee: The Spring Gathering committee also didn’t
have a successful event this year; they didn’t donate to the region. This is a
small but active committee showing how diverse our region is. They are now
going to have a one day event next year and move off of Easter weekend. More
will be revealed.
We have 21
Areas consisting of approximately 800 meetings spanning over 74,000 square
miles that include
At Clean
& Free, one of our annual convention, we did a small group discussion on
the “Sponsorship”, and collected information on topics for “The Journey
Continues” book from our workshops, and
presented updates on the “6th Edition Basic Text”. This continues to be a successful way to
communicate information and it in included in our Conventions and Events
committee guidelines for both of our regional conventions. We also did a post conference report at the
Washington/Northern Idaho Regional Convention, and one at the July RSC.
Our RD team
continues to utilize a quarterly report to the region that summarizes NAWS
News, NA Way Magazine, World Board reports, and Western States Zonal
Forum. The purpose is to increase
communication throughout the levels of service reaching the individual group
member. It is a one page report and we
bring enough copies to our region for RCMs to distribute to all groups. We have
also been keeping busy with facilitating inventories and participating in
Learning Days throughout the region.
We
currently have 13of our 21 areas utilizing the Public Relations handbook, and
have a PR committee. Our RD team
finished reading and discussing it at
our quarterly All Subs meeting, and has been asked to continue to do a
presentation at All Subs. Our Region
will be meeting as a combined RSC/All Subs day in October and April as a trial
to improve communication and be more efficient in providing services. We will decide at next July RSC if we want to
continue in this fashion, or go back to splitting RSC and All Subs up
again.
The only
noteworthy issue we have moved away from CAR Workshops and use the Regional
Conventions as a communication mechanism.
A Regional
Service Member Contact List is included for reference.
New RD
Team:
Julia Reed-Voldal (email address removed - see original doc via link at top)
Rio Grande
Region report to the WSZF, July 18-20, 2008
In March,
2008 the Rio Grande Region voted to
continue with four year terms for RD and AD and elected RD Laura Brown and AD
Freddy Olsen. Freddy was unable to
attend this weekend, but I look forward to working with him in his new service
capacity. He has rich service history in
our region and is extremely competent and motivated. We will facilitate a Leadership workshop at
our RSC weekend in September.
Our region
has a Regional Convention Corporation whose scope covers only our one regional
convention. The areas in our region are
finding a need for an expanded corporate body to sign contracts for area and
group events, and to own insurance for groups and their meeting places
throughout the region. There are several
models within this zone that I will present as examples for our region’s
consideration.
I am
looking forward to our inventory process, and hope we find a role for the forum
that we consider valuable for our regions, as I enjoy the interaction, the
fellowship, the training and the exchange of ideas that occurs when we meet
together.
Laura Brown
RD
Pacific
Cascades Region
Hi,
my name is Denise and I am the Regional Delegate for the Pacific Cascade
Region. Unfortunately, our Alternate
Delegate, Tauni M. cannot be here. She
is in
Our
Region consists of 14 Areas, as listed below:
Area City Help Line
Number
Linn-Benton-Lincoln
Area
1-877-ADDICT
541-883-4976
Rogue
Redwood Area
Southern
Oregon Area
Siskiyou
Area (CA)
Greater
Williamette Vallley Area
Our
website, PCRNA.org shows the location of all of our Areas. We also have links to NA.org and each of our
Areas. Our wonderful webmaster is also
including our Regional minutes, budget reports, and Regional events.
I
enjoy our Regional Assemblies. During
the Two that Tauni and I facilitated this past year, we covered issue
discussion topics and the CAR. Our
Region is struggling to find trusted servants to fill Regional positions.
It
has been an honor and a privilege to serve my Region and to take part in the WSZF.
Denise
T., Honored Trusted Servant
None Submitted
San
Deigo Imperial Region
Greetings
from sunny
I am Pam J,
RDA for our Region. DW, our current RD
is not attending and we will be holding our Post CAR Forum August 2nd
at which point we will find out who will be elected into the RD and RDA
positions.
Regional
Convention was held
this past June; with much greater attendance at a larger facility than last
year where we had controversy with requiring a badge to attend the
PR: We have yet to ingest the PR
Handbook; however, we do have a Regional Ad Hoc Committee in process of
developing a PR Handbook Workshop whose developers include current Chairs of
each of the categories involved in the PR Handbook.
RSO news; we have over $60K in
Literature stock arriving this weekend.
Our insurance covers all NA events as well as all NA meetings within our
region. We’ve had no Policy Committee
for many years and the RSO is currently taking on the task of updating our
Guidelines with past motions over the past years as well as developing a book
of motions cross categorized by date and issue.
Phonelines: we have regional as well as two
areas co-hosting a hotline together. Region has been operating under a computer
based phoneline to facilitate the service when we aren’t physically at the
RSO. We also have an “addict to addict”
on the RSO phoneline.
New
Literature. We
haven’t a Regional Lit Review chair so the RD and RDA spearhead Literature
Reviews committees in Areas of interest. One Area has adopted cloth bags for
literature distribution to GSR’s finding bulk rates as inexpensive as plastic,
yet reusable to enhance global conservation efforts.
Regional
Outreach
‘Reach and
Teach’ the newcomer is in the works as an introduction to NA meetings/events.
It’s still in its infancy modeled on
Our Region
is submitting a bid for next year’s WSZF.
With response to request that we change weekends, we found Comi-Con
Convention is on the 4th weekend of the month (the largest
convention of the year) for which rates increase to starting at
$159/night. Outside of this, we can
offer Mission Valley Resort at a room rate of $129 per night for 7/31 – 8/2,
2009. This is located 6 miles from the
airport offering spacious rooms among a 20-acre property with complimentary
high speed wireless internet in each room and the meeting rooms. Included with the package is a “Board Room
Break” package which includes: Early Morning coffee, tea, milk, juice, muffins,
Danish, and fruit; Mid-Morning soft drinks, coffee, teak and milk; and
Mid-Afternoon cookies, brownies, soft drinks, mineral water, coffee, tea and
milk ALL COMPLIMENTARY in lieu of meeting room cost. It’s also located central to all major
tourist attractions should you wish to extend your visit. We also have a similar offer from Hilton at
$139 per night with same amenities, same location, and the same weekend.
As always
it is with great delight that we serve our fellowship.
Pam &
DW
The
Northern California Region consists of 21 Areas with approximately 1400
meetings per week. Our number of areas has increased–by one–with the creation
of the Sacramento Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous. This new area is comprised
of groups that split off from the American River Area.
The NCRSC
provides insurance for all of it’s meetings and most of the events that take
place in its region, as well as acting as the point of accountability for
H&I, PI, convention committee, and a Regional Service Office Board of
Directors.
RSC:
We
are excited to share some of the exciting changes we are in the process of
implementing within Northern California Regional services. Many of these changes are long overdue, and
all will help us focus more on providing services to the fellowship.
Our Inventory:
In
the summer and fall of 2007, the Northern California Regional Service Committee
spent considerable time undergoing a thorough evaluation of its efforts, using
the Area Planning Tool as our guide. As
a result of our discussions, the NCRSC agreed upon making the following
substantive changes to the way we operate:
ü We want to
hold quarterly regional assemblies/workshops throughout the region, focused on
member training and development and utilizing creative approaches.
ü We want to
hold 2 traveling “Regional Weekends” a year that would encompass 2 of these
workshops, as well as a meeting of the RSC in remote locations.
ü We want to
embrace “task-based” service; by establishing a “regional pool”.
ü We decided
to eliminate the standing Regional H&I Subcommittee and replace it with two
coordinators, as we had done with PR two years earlier.
New Budget Process:
At
the July 2008 RSC, we took a dramatic step forward by empowering the
Administrative Committee to operate as a “Fellowship
Services Team.” The RSC approved an
annual budget that identifies “Routine” ongoing operating expenses, such as
rent, regional insurance policy, PR Presentations at non-NA events,
Institutional Literature fund, and the administrative overhead for conducting
our regular RSC meetings.
We
then approved a process whereby any proposed projects or fellowship development
travel will be funded on a discretionary basis, provided our operating reserves
are flush. This new process allows any
NA member with a project idea to fill out a “Project Request form” that
identifies the type and scope of the project, number of members needed in the
work group, rent, travel, supply cost estimates, and a target completion
date. All project proposals are
approved by the RSC. The Administrative
Committee then prioritizes project funding based on available resources,
selects working group members, and gives final authorization for the project to
commence.
For
any fellowship development travel requests made of the RD, AD, H&I, or PR
Coordinators, or Administrative Committee members, the requesting service body
will submit a “travel request form” to the Administrative Committee. All travel requests will be prioritized based
on which events are likely to have the greatest fellowship impact. The Administrative Committee will also decide
which travelers, and how many, to send to a particular event, based on the
nature of the request. We may utilize
“pool” resources to fund pool members if we determine they may have the
skills/abilities or otherwise fit the bill for the given event.
RSC Weekends:
The
RSC has agreed that we want to hold up to 2 RSC weekends a year in various
locations throughout the fellowship. We
have agreed to fully fund all RSC participants to these weekends and the RSC
has approved the funds to do this. The
weekends will consist of a full day of training/presentations/fellowship
workshops all day Saturday, followed by the formal business meeting of the RSC
on Sunday morning. Of course, we will
look to the “host” area to provide a recovery meeting and event on Saturday
evening as well. Usually the content of
the Saturday workshops will be something along the lines of the IDTs,
PR/H&I Training, or other fellowship topics. Prior to the WSC, the Saturday workshops will
become a Regional assembly on CAR/CAT issues.
By funding all of the RCMs, including hotel stay, we will be investing
in “training the trainers” by having them fully participate in Saturdays events
as part of their regional service commitment.
Regional pool and RNP:
At
the July 2008 RSC, the participants were presented with several policy
documents, which will ultimately create the “Regional Resource Pool” and a
Regional Nominations Panel. We will be
utilizing a pool system similar to the one NAWS employs; starting with Regional
Resource Pool forms, in editable PDF format, on the regional website. The Administrative Committee will administer
the pool, and, with the newly approved budget process, have the ability to
manage work groups and utilize pool resources for fellowship travel,
presentations and participation in events.
Additionally,
in January of each year, the RSC will empanel a 4 person working group to serve
as a Regional Nominations Panel. This
group will utilize the pool, as well as interviews with current regional
trusted servants, to act as the regions ‘head hunters” for identifying and
nominating talented persons to regional service positions. In June of each year, following RSC
elections, this panel will be disbanded.
The idea is to keep it a short-term working group, rather than a formal
committee.
The overall
vision is to merge the PR and H&I Coordinators in with the RD, AD and rest
of what’s currently known as the Administrative Committee, and have a single
cohesive group called the “Fellowship Services Team” as the Single point of
accountability and administration for fellowship services. As a group, we will plan regional assemblies,
workshops, presentations, manage fellowship development travel, and oversee
project working groups by utilizing pool resources. Although the vision below is not completely
implemented at this time, several key elements were approved last month, and
others are up for approval at the August RSC
RSO:
Our
Regional Service Office–a California 501-3C corporation–serves our region through
literature sales, insurance matters, website coordination, as well as providing
committee meeting space for all regional committees.
After
a couple of shaky years our RSO seems to be turning the corner. Although there
are still months when losses are posted, there are also months that are showing
a profit. A significant reason for this turnaround has been our online store.
Although somewhat of a hassle to get going, the online store has shown itself
to be worth the effort.
The
RSO Board of Directors is also responsible for maintaining our website. Since
we met last year the redesign of the Northern California Regional Website (www.norcalna.org) has been completed, and
has been well received in our fellowship.
We are continuing to seek new ways to make our website a useful tool for
the fellowship.
As
with many NA service bodies, the BOD has been struggling to maintain a full
board of directors. At our July RSC we had to give the RSC Rep. temporary
authority to vote at the board of directors meeting. This is something that we
don’t take lightly, but under the circumstances it was necessary.
NCCNA (Northern
California Convention of Narcotics Anonymous):
Northern
California’s 30th annual convention was held in
The
convention was not without problems. Maybe because we’re growing so much some
deficiencies in our committee structure showed up. In an effort to maintain
participation by our areas NCCNA bids out its subcommittees to our areas. Some
problems with the relationships between the regional committee and its subcommittees
arose that have caused us to take a look at the accountability structure.
Another
problem that reached a tipping point was outside vendors selling merchandise at
our alternative store. Although our alternative store is meant to be used as a
fund raising vehicle for NA service bodies, more and more we are finding that
outside vendors are “buying” permission form uninformed groups to use there
names as a way for these vendors to gain access to the alternative store. When
confronted, these vendors (most of whom are members of the fellowship) showed a
certain amount of hostility and wanted to insist that these groups actually do
sell jewelry, medallions, buttons etc. Because they have a signed letter from
some trusted servant, at the group level, they expect NCCNA to allow them to
sell whatever they have, while at the same time they believe that the letter
exempts them from showing a NAWS license to sell merchandise with the NA logo
on it.
The dilemma
we face is that, while members who like to shop at an alternative store like
the diversity of merchandise these vendors bring, the legitimate NA service
bodies don’t like having to compete with professional vendors.
PR
Not much
new going on in PR. Our PR Coordinators continue to professional events, and
conduct trainings at the regional sharing forum. We are having trouble keeping
two PR Coordinators. It seems that even the lure of an all expenses paid trip
to Hawaii, for WSLD, was not enough to get anyone to step up for the second
coordinator position. In the end it was probably a good thing since our RSC
decided to only send two people to WSLD instead of the usual four.
There was
some resentment at our RSC over WSLD deciding to hold their event at such an
expensive location. Some of our areas have decided not to send anyone to this
event. Others
are sending representatives even though they can’t really afford it. There
seems to be an attitude that because
we send someone every year we need to send someone this year; whether it’s a
prudent use of fellowship
funds, or not.
H&I
I wish I
could tell you that things have changed with our H&I subcommittee, but I
can’t. Our H&I chair and vice chair continue to get bogged down in the
subcommittee structure. While in reality this committee has no real business to
do and is in really just a sharing forum, they continue to waste time making
motions and voting on things that don’t really amount to much.
For at
least two years we’ve been trying to change the structure of this committee, so
that it somewhat mirrors our PR sharing forum. However, every time change is
suggested it is met with what seems to be a universal H&I response. “You’re
trying to take something from us”. All efforts to insure the career H&I
professionals that the change is to enhance the effectiveness of the committee,
seems to fall on deaf ears.
A part of
the problem is bad communication between the RSC administrative committee and
this subcommittee. Currently the H&I and PR committees meet at the same
time as the admin committee. With no consistent RSC Rep. in attendance,
communication is not good. What the RSC is proposing is to have these
committees change the day that they meet. This way and RSC rep will be able to
their full attention to these committees, and the committee coordinators will
not be limited to pushing out an incomplete report to the RSC, because they
have to write it the hour between the time their committees close and the RSC
begins. We’ll see.
Thanks,
LennyR.
Matt S.
None Submitted
Sierra
Sage Region
Our region
consists of approximately 130 meetings in five established areas, four of which
regularly attend RSC, RSC rotates quarterly through the
Greater
Our region
will be traveling to the Greater Owens Valley area on August 9th,
2008 to have our RSC meeting held there in the spirit of Unity. Events for
these areas include Lone Pine Float trip July 19, 2008 & a campout August
29, 30 & 31st.
PI
B.L.A.W.
Area puts on a monthly newcomer workshop. This is an introduction to the NA
program. It is open to the public, anyone introduction to the NA Program. It is
open to the public. Anyone is welcome. It covers topics such as:
¨
Types
of meetings-Open vs. Closed
¨
Meeting
Verification slips
¨
Steps
and Traditions
¨
Sponsorship
¨
Total
Abstinence
¨
Higher
Power
¨
Service
Using the
Public Relations Handbook. Pi has also been able to implement PSAs on TV and
radio. Thanks to Vince for the disc and John Doe, aired on many radio stations.
Pi is in the development stages of a Schools Project group to carry the message
to local schools.
Convention
Committee is in full swing. SSRCNA is being held at Circus Circus Hotel on
October 31st, November 1st and 2nd, 2009. The
convention has already been booked for the same location. The pdf printable
version off our registration form is available on our awesome website (www.sierrasagena.org. We will be having
an event “A Day at Lake”,
H&I
Has an
estimated 20 meetings around all areas of our region to include prisons, jails,
and mental health hospitals for both adults and juveniles. We are pleased to be
able to carry the message, in early intervention to a new 72 hour detox center
for adults in
Region has
nominated and elected a chair, vice chair, and Outreach Coordinator who are all
looking forward to their service to our fellowship.
Our RD and
RDA are in the scheduling phase for workshops on IDTs in areas around our
region.
We are very happy about the growth in our region.
Thank you for letting me be of service,
Robin P., AD
None Submitted