WSBC 2008

I am too exhausted to post a long entry this evening, so I’ll do a little teaser with some stuff I heard today:

• Do any service you are asked to do if you can do it without resentment.
• Train your sponsorees to do your service.
• Don’t let service activities replace recovery activities.

These, I have on good authority, come from OAs with lots of experience, strength and hope.  These are from people who have what I want. What do we do when we find someone who has what we want? We do what they do.

Peace

Speaking broadly, we do two kinds of service here: Committee work and Business Meeting work. Today was committee work.

I have been involved in the Public Information Committee at WSBC for the past three year. For the last two, because the elected Delegate Co-Chair has resigned, I have filled that role.

A word on committee leadership: Each WSBC committee has a Delegate and a Trustee Co-chair, together these service volunteers lead the committees for one year. One of my responsibilities is to run the meeting. The really good news is that Sandy Allen at the WSO has this all down to a science. Agendas, report forms, all this sort of stuff is ready to go when you get to conference. All that is left to us, is to follow the script. In truth, that means we have a lot of blanks to fill in.

As a committee, we have a pretty clear mission statement. Paraphrasing in part:

1. Encourage and assist regions and intergroups in making the public aware of OA through public media, community participation and any means which is traditions compliant.
2. Provide IGs and regions with ideas and materials for their local efforts
3. Address concerns within the Fellowship related to anonymity and misinformation about OA on the public level by using the PI manual and PSAs.
4. Encourage the purchase and use of the PI Manual and PSAs by IGs and regions.

So, we spent four hours organizing goals and actions around those larger mission statements. I won’t summarize all the results here. Rather, when the final report is written, this week, I’ll post that and provide a link.

Another important task, before closing for the day, was electing our committee officers for the coming year. Our very own region 6, Carol B. from Westchester IG was elected Delegate Co-Chair. Sonia, from Miami Dade IG was elected Vice Delegate Co-Chair (or is it Delegate Vice Co-Chair. Don’t get me started!).

After committees were done and dusted, delegates from region 6 all gathered together for a brief meeting. Karin, our region chair led the meeting. We had announcements introductions and a little chit chat. Many other regions have a region dinner, but because we have so many delegates, there is no local restaurant that can accommodate us, so we’re on our own.

That was it for me. I wrote about the rest of my evening under today’s other entry. I blew off the Parliamentary Procedure workshop and the Q&A session on the proposed new literature. These are both worthwhile sessions but, considered against a little down time, I choice the down time.

Don’t eat!

Steve

This should be a short post as free time was rare today. Conference has picked up the pace.

The day started much too early. After all my computer problems yesterday, I was restless and didn’t sleep as long as I would have liked. I did my blog update sitting in the lobby and listening to NPR via the Internet. I would have listened to WBUR but with the mother’s day fund raising going on, I was tired of hearing the roses pitch.

As I was up before 4, I was honestly hungry at 6 and moved from the lobby to the Weaver’s Room to prepare my abstinent breakfast: 8 ounces cottage cheese. 6 thin wasa crackers and 2 small Gala apples. I was sitting by myself as I was the first person to the room. I felt a small resentment when two women came in and sat by themselves. I turned it over and accepted maybe they had private business to conduct, until another woman came in and they started chatting with her and invited her to join them. The resentment came back but I was able to turn that one over too. We did end up chatting. It all turned out ok. It’s not about me. That I believe.

Off to the morning OA meeting. The topic: Working the Steps. Nice shares. I was there on time and shared a bit myself. I can’t for the life of me remember what exactly, except I think I shared that at meetings, I have been known to develop three momentary resentments against:

• OA members who have lost more weight than me
• OA members who came to program younger than me
• OA members who are funnier than me

I ain’t making that up! I have to turn those over some days.

All in all, a good meeting.

Nothing by workshops and business until lunch, which was 16 ounces of salad (cabbage, carrot, tomato), 32 grams blue cheese dressing, 1 medium apple and 2 ounces hard cheese. About the same as yesterday. Today, shared lunch time on the terrace with Marilyn from PA, Beth from…WA, I think, and…that’s all. Nice lunch. Good conversation.

After lunch, business again until dinner time. Five folks from MA (Bob P, SCMI, Jeffrey, Joanne, Rhea from Western MA, and I)plus Tricia from CT went to dinner at the Church Street cafe. I enjoyed my meal. The service was so-so. The company was great.

Tricia and I walked to the grocery store after dinner and had a lovely conversation. I bought a red onion, 6 tomatoes and a package of wasa crackers. Exciting huh?

Back at the hotel, I did what I promised myself I would do: I took some down time to visit the hot tub. Of course, other smart OAs where there relaxing, and more showed up. There where more when I left than when I arrived. I wanted to get back to my room so I could update this blog. The lesson: Blog early. Hot tub late.

You guessed it, from the hot tub I came here. I’m done with this entry. Next, the entry for the business of the day. It might be shorter…might be. Depends how tired I really turn out to be.

Have I mentioned we need a service volunteer to do this next year? There are requirements but if you have them, it’s great service and you do not have to blog. That is just my preference.

Later…

Steve

P.S. Another pretty picture. This of a nearby statue of a sheep herder and his dog…

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a reporter. I wouldn’t, IMHO, make a good reporter. My mind wanders. I hear everything, but a lot of it just drifts through my brain un-retained. Therefore, what I report from the workshops is not a comprehensive dissertation on what was said. Rather, it is the ideas I captured because they resonated with me. I tend toward more detail when it comesWSBC 2008 › Edit — WordPress to the OA business sessions.

Pedaling Together: How Sponsorship Strengthens OA as a While

Led by Lucy from Australia and Ev from somewhere else, this workshop really focused on the gift of being a sponsor and a bit on how people sponsor. Some things I took away from this:

• Not enough sponsor (not news to us, I know).
• Encourage sponsorees to raise their hand to sponsor after 30 days of abstinence, remembering that we sponsor to our level of experience.
• Work hard to set boundaries.
• If our sponsorees know that we that we sponsors love and accept them, no matter what, then we can give a healthy dose of honesty in our sponsoring.
• As sponsors, we need to learn how to help without interfering.

One thing that really got me thinking was someone’s share that Sponsorship is a tool, not a step. I thought about that and realized that sponsorship is part of Step 12. Step 12 is about giving it away in our acts and deeds so now, I believe I can only being living Step 12 if I am sponsoring (which I am).

The Road Home: Carrying the Message Back

Lead by Mike from Maryland and Teri from somewhere else, we were challenged to share how we bring WSBC back to our local membership. I don’t think I got a lot of new ideas from this but here is what I wrote down:

• Dry recitations of facts and figures don’t work.
• Report back on the “life” of WSBC
• Use the Internet (I think I will).

A Pack without Leaders: An Anonymous Program, Not a Secret Society

Led by Cheryl T, one of our General Service Trustees, we spent 90 minutes hearing about, asking questions about and getting answers about our new Public Awareness campaign (PAC). You may recall that last year, we approved 20,000 dollars in seed money to this campaign. Over the past 12 months, the seed money, taken from OA reserves, has been replaced and doubled by contributions from the fellowship.

To get us started, Cheryl introduced Dodie H from Albuquerque, our current Board of Trustees (BOT) chairperson. Dodie shared some history about the PAC, which had its roots in the 90’s when a member, with a lot of experience in this field, pitched ideas to the BOT and really sold the idea that we could do this ourselves with her help. It sounded like we were really headed in that direction when this member lost their abstinence and the effort get derailed. The important lesson here was that this is one of those select areas of expertise where it just makes sense to use those “special workers” permitted by our traditions.

Dodie left the board for a time, but when see returned and after she became chair, she made Public Awareness a key part of her agenda. The board agreed and the effort became last year.

Next, Cheryl shared her OA story and a lead into more discussion of the PAC. Without breaking anonymity, I think I am safe in saying that Cheryl’s story clearly drives her passion for our Public Awareness effort.

There was a discussion about the selection of our Rick Johnson & Company (RJC) as the firm to handle this effort. In short, bids were reviewed from several local companies, each company was interviewed and RJC came across as best understanding OA, our members, our goals and very importantly, our traditions. It didn’t hurt that they provided an excellent non-profit organization discount.

Much has been done to date including:

• Press kits: Our press kit was updated and RJC is the point of contact with the media for this kit. The media like working with a “pro” on this and having a single point of contact.
• Pay per click ads have been placed and are in use on site like Google
• Two press releases have gone out to the media.
• Four podcasts have been produced. One is live, others are coming.

Efforts have started to new Public Service Announcements (PSA). The firm selected, Banyon(sp?), has lots of experience doing this work for AA and Al Anon. Pretty darn good resume.

The meeting opened for questions and comments from the floor. Nothing earth shaking but Carol from Westchester (NY), shared what has really worked for them: Place mats in dinners. Wow. The OA ad is one of many, but they got a great corner location. Get a look at the ad:

Cost, only $250 for 100,000 place mats.  Sounds pretty cheap. I think they said it lasts 4 months.

Can we do this?

Steve

OK. I look at the WSBC as having several faces. The reason MWI pays for my travel is to participate in the world wide OA Group Conscience which is World Service Business Conference. The real reason I come is to be with the OA people I meet here. It’s to go to the meetings, listen and share in the workshops and to live a clean and abstinent life with a group of men and women who are here to do the same thing. It’s amazing. It’s powerful and this is my last year doing this (for a while). Step up. Now is your chance. Get involved. Service has to rotate, it can rotate to you if you’re willing.

Pitch done.

I slept late today. Late for me that is. I woke shortly after 6 local time and actually had to wait to take a shower. Usually Gaston is fast asleep when I get up and I can monopolize the facilities. As I hadn’t been able to go shopping yesterday, I had to organize my breakfast out of the cheese(2.25ounces cheddar), apple(1, medium) and rye crackers(6 thin) I carried with me. No problem. I did this, packed it all in a plastic bag and hustled off to the 7am OA meeting. I was late but I showed up. The topic was HP and prayer. Not my strongest topics, to be sure. I listened. Learned. Took what I wanted. Held hands. Said the OA promise, gave and got hugs.

After this, of course, I ate my breakfast with Gaston, Jack from somewhere and…geez, I think Denise from somewhere else. A nice breakfast. I was glad I had my own food. While the restaurant certainly serves food I can and will eat, I so prefer my simple meals.

Breakfast over, I popped upstairs, checked and replied to e-mail and then, with Gaston, I walked 0.8 miles on a beautiful spring morning, to the closest grocery store. I stocked up on breakfast and lunch items to last me a few days. Cheap money at about 23 bucks considering one meal in the hotel is $10, to start (forgetting the tip and taxes…don’t get me started)!

Taking care of the food being a big part of job #1 (taking care of myself), I attended my first workshop: Pedaling Together: How Sponsorship Strengthens OA as a whole. I’ll report on this and other workshops in another log entry.

I skipped the next workshop to take a little down time but returned for the 4pm session: The Road Home: Carrying the Message Back. After the close of this session, guess what time it was? You got it, dinner time. Plans took a while to organize, and so did the kitchen. I ended up sharing dinner with Bob P from SCMI, Charles A. from Atlanta and John from PA. Good company, mediocre dinner in the hotel restaurant. They have done better. Tuesday’s are usually slow for them but we kept them hopping. They were understaffed and it was a problem. Fortunately, though we are demanding, we are understanding too.

After dinner, which, as I suggested took much too long, there was the evening workshop on OA’s on-going Public Awareness Campaign (PAC). Good session. More in a separate post.

The really frustrating part of the evening came after the workshop. I couldn’t, for the life me or the lives of the various and sundry life forms I offered to sacrifice on the alter of wireless technology, get connected to the Internet. In a remarkable display of good decision making, I shut down my computer and went to bed, before tossing my laptop off my 11th floor balcony (yes, I have a balcony. Be very jealous, I have a view of the minute man missile!).

The next morning (now) I woke too darn early with an idea that if I needed to contact tech support, I would need to get it done early, before the days work began. So, with Gaston asleep, I sat on the edge of the bathtub and tried one last thing to fix this beastie before calling support. Fixed it. It was…well, user error. Go figure?

Steve

P.S. I don’t proof read these too much. Sorry about that

We arrive in Albuquerque 10 minute early and were safely in the hotel before 8pm (local time). Not just that, but I met 3 other OAs at the shuttle counter and I knew them all. One from region 6 and the others from WSBCs past. It was a great, short ride.

The flight from Manchester to Chicago was full and on time. In Chicago, three things to note:

1. There was a man wearing a skirt. Not a kilt, a man-skirt. It looked comfortable.
2. The longest line in the food court was at Ben and Jerry’s (this is not an endorsement).
3. I had no trouble organizing an abstinent dinner.

Arriving at the hotel, it was hug city. Lots of well know faces.  Some from Region 6, others from points near and far. It all comes back when you see these folks. Good people doing service. It doesn’t get any better.

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate them, a lot.

Steve

This is my first time flying out of Manchester Airport in New Hampshire. I was nervous on the way as I’d never been here before and worried a little about missing my exit. No problem there as it was well marked. I made good time, found a great parking place and had plenty of time to organize myself before locking my car and heading to the terminal.

As I was unloading the car, my phone rang. A number I’d not seen before. Lo and behold, a newcomer looking for information about the Acton Friday meeting. We talked for 4m39sec (ok, so I looked). I think she’s excited about coming back to program after 20 years away. Very cool.

What at the gate for my flight, taking advantage of the free wifi connection.

Two good omens than: newcomer and free wifi

Steve

Here I go again! On Monday, May 5, I’ll be off to WSBC 2008. This will be my last year of this service, at least for now. As in prior years, I’ll do the best I can to keep you posted on the business and other events of the conference. A commitment I’m making to myself: Slow down (a little) and enjoy the hotel. At least twice, hit the pool or something. If by Wednesday I haven’t posted about taking some real down time, give me heck!

Thanks for visiting. Please comment. Ask questions. Send jokes. If I can reply, I will. As this is a busy week, I may not be able to reply but if as in prior years few people do comment or ask questions, I’m sure I will be able to attend to your query.

Remember: Don’t eat, no matter what. No matter what, don’t eat.

3-0-1

Steve