NJ Regional Service Conference

Report from WSC 2002

Day Two

This morning, in preparation for old business, CAR & CAT, we had an open forum with the World Board. The many changes to the Treasurer’s Handbook/Workbook were discussed. The finished product will be ready for us to consider this afternoon. We spent a lot of time on these modifications and a lot of time discussing the current policies and terms of floor participation. Right now only the RD and RDA are allowed ‘on the floor.’ There is a gallery provided for others. Some Regions have second RDAs. They hoped for more ‘floor’ rights, more participation rights for these people. The issue will come up again this afternoon or evening. What I am thinking is that the 2year cycle and the changes to the operation of the Conference are themes that raise questions about RD?RDA terms of office, training for office etc. I’ll have more ifo on that issue to discuss at our workshop before Region next month.

Old Business

# of Regions present :95: total participants 112.The World Bd participates as individuals

TREASURER’S WORKBOOK & HANDBOOK ISSUES

MOTION 1 Unfortunately pages of record keeping were lost. In that record keeping the process of approving election procedures (We passed this by consensus which is like our consent calendar in that we are asked for objections, no objections equals passing the motion) And, in that loss, the process of amending the Treasurer’s Workbook was recorded. The Treasurer’s workbook was amending by adding the bulletins from the Handbook , (fund Flow, Fund Raising & Theft of Funds) by adding a line from Region to world in fund flow chart.(Motion 17) and by adding daily & weekly reporting pages, by adding prudent reserve line. (Motion 37)

PROCEDURAL ISSUES

MOTION 11 Adopt Rules Of Order

& MOTION 13 amendment suggestion-that is the question about whether the policy that allow RD & RDA only on the floor should be changed to allowing Region to select which 2 people it wants on the floor.

The new way of doing business is causing a bit of confusion. But, we are plugging away and making headway.

PROS

Motion is made because, regardless of the way some people understood it, some actually believed that RD/RDA only allowed region to select which 2 would be on the floor.

Allowing Regions to send 2ndRDA to conference would help create continuity of service.

CONS

We decided to try the RD/RDA only rule in 2000 and we should have a chance to use the system as we selected.

Gallery seating can be part of the learning process.

Sending 2 alternates will cost regions money they could better send to world.

MOTION 13 failed

MOTION 11 Rules of Order passed

MOTION 16 Allow Le Nordet & Alaska to retain their conference seating and facilitate their funded participation. Passed

This question arose because at 2000 conference there were 4 regions that hadnt been to 3 conferences. We decided they would not be funded for the future. We thought that meant that they would lose their seats, their status, as conference participants. These regions seemed not to understand the consequences of their situation. Once they did, they objected. This motion is an attempt to make the overall situation as fair as possible to these 2 communities.

We actually do not have a process to unseat a participant. But, if ever again a participating community is going to be deprived of its status, they should be notified in writing ahead of time

MOTION 15 Approval of minutes. Passed

TREASURER’S WORKBOOK & HANDBOOK ISSUES

Motion 1 passed by consensus.

ISSUE DISCUSSION ISSUES

Consensus discussion: Unanimity is when everyone agrees to a decision. Consensus is when no one strongly disagrees with a decision. We need to amend our rules to actually use this process.

MOTION 2 Remove Topic Discussion selection from CAR

There was nothing in the discussion at WSC that wasn’t spoken of at our workshops.

What the Board has now suggested is that we choose between several alternatives: The Board will come with a list of topics gleaned from WWW or from WSO inquiries or from topics suggested by Regions or from strategic planning concerns. Or, conference participants will generate topics during the week. We are trying that process now based on our tree idea from yesterday. (the tree was something we did yesterday where we wrote down ideas and posted them on a tree pasted to the wall. These ideas were collected. They are being typed. We will be given a list of these ideas. We will choose one. For the 2nd topic, the BD would like us to discuss the 7th tradition.

There was a great idea spoken about by a delegate. In their region they discuss the topics as workshop topics at conventions. They have an intro speaker and then people come to the mike and share. This is very successful. I think we should consider this as a way to handle whatever topics are decided.

Motion 2 Passed

Regional Motions

MOTION 10 Delay Basic Text evaluation project until 2006 in order to spend more time on sponsorship publication.

Called to a vote quickly after straw poll that suggested little support for this motion.

Motion 10 Failed

MOTION 8 Additional Discount for service offices (annual contract customers)

Phila made a moving statement about the needs of less affluent communities in the USA. He said that there were serious needs that WSO/NAWS refuse to meet. Phila and others are now appealing to the WSC for the help they believe they need.

Motion 8 failed

MOTION 7 6yr moratorium on seating of new USA regions. (no USA regions added until 2008)

Show Me Region read their intent statement

Motion 7 failed

MOTION 6 NAWS facilitate US Assembly

Motion was not seconded

MOTION 4 World Board collect GSR info

Straw poll resulted in an unfavorable to the motion reading.

Motion 4 failed

MOTIONS 5 & 9 never came to the floor because maker and or other interested persons decided not to bring them to the floor.

Seating Committee

You may remember that last cycle (2000) when we decided to have World fund RD attendance at the WSC, we also decided on a process to ‘qualify’ NA communities that desired to join the WSC process.

It used to be that all that was required is that Regions come to the Conference and ask to become a recognized participant—kind of like our 3rd tradition “you are a member when you say you are.” When the Conference was small, there seems to have been no problem about this process. In later years, the process did trouble some because Regions would come and join and then fade away, or Regions that were not self-sustaining would happen over minor disagreements with ‘mother’ Regions. Nevertheless, regardless of how sloppy the process was, no one could generate a suitable substitute because every attempt at filtering out Regions would be overcome by that Region’s representatives making a successful emotional appeal based on principles of inclusivity.

The new process for ‘qualifying’ Regions was suppose to avoid this failure this emotion based decision making.

I was privileged to serve on the first seating committee. Some day I would love to tell you more about that experience. Tonight, however, as it approaches midnight, the details of my participation will have to await a more convenient time. What you get now is that the seating committee recommended the seating of Greece as a conference participant and recommended against seating any of the other 5 applicants who got their requests filed on time. In 4 of these not recommended cases the committee determined that the applying communities did not meet the 3 year service history requirement. In the last case, the committee determined that the Region did meet our time standard. And, in fact, the committee would have loved to have been able to recommend seating. However, that community’s failures to stay in communicate with the committee led us to recommend waiting another cycle. What the committee believed is that if communication was that difficult for the service bodies of the applying Region, it was not going to be able to participate in an informed manner.

Today, the committee made its report. Later in the week the Conference will get to vote on whether to act in accordance with its recommendations.

The Informal Sessions

I am too tired to provide adequate coverage. The 3 major sessions we had today dealt with Strategic Planning and Service.

The Strategic Planning session was facilitated by a professional. This is only the 2nd time in my life I have participated in a professionally guided session. The benefits of professional handling are the heightened --because skillfully stimulated—energy and, therefore, the intensified sense of community and contribution. In our session today we were directed to use the 10-to-a-table groups I described the other day to discuss WSC 2007. Every table generated its own vision. The sharing of these individual visions generated a sense of how far we have to go to reach the international community we imagine. Some ideas of particular note: We should allow non-English speaking communities to write some literature- We English speakers should get the work in translation; We should work toward getting all service materials translated; We need to tie the Groups, Areas, Regions together with World with better communication; Service must be spiritual; We should try to be fully funded by donations, allowing us to give away our literature.

The next session related to developing ways of effectively communicating with professionals and governments in order to help us reach and serve suffering addicts. The ideas that emerged from that session are: We need to refine our presentation of ourselves insofar as making and maintaining contact with these people or institutions are concerned; We need to continue and to expand our participation at Addiction, Health, Corrections, Treatment related Conferences; We need to make our meetings accessible to professionals who wish to visit and evaluate; We need to live our belief that we- recovering addicts- are the best possible evidence that NA works—we should try to conduct ourselves accordingly.

The final session related to new ways to bring people into service work. As a group we identified about 300 ideas. Because of time constraints we only got to see a few of them. We will get a full list to bring home. Among the most popular ideas were: Get rid or Robert’s Rules of Order; Speak out our personal experience that service and recovery cannot be separated; Have a service IP that emphasizes the spiritual values in service; sponsorship ans role modeling as ‘the way it works.’

I apologize for writing a report that seems to have made a stimulating and sometimes moving day seem a bit bland an unimaginative. Being this tired, its hard enough just getting the sentences to stay ordered. We, at local service, are going to benefit greatly from this new, informal way of operating. I hope to report more expressively on our literature workshop tomorrow.

Love to you all--Love and gratitude for allowing me this opportunity. I wish everyone of you could be here.

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