SCA’s International Service Organization (ISO) is the service body responsible for SCA as a whole. 

The natural progression of service within SCA usually starts with personal and meeting level service
as a secretary, treasurer, literature representative, sponsor, greeter,
etc., followed by a period of service with a local Intergroup, either as a meeting’s
Intergroup Representative and/or on their local service board for the area. 
Each Intergroup’s elect ISO Representatives to attend the annual
International Service Conference.  ISO is also served by several other
members of SCA who do service in a variety of ways for ISO and SCA as a
whole.

Among ISO’s tasks include developing, publishing and distributing SCA-ISO conference-approved literature; internal communications within SCA; answering our postal mail, e-mail and telephone communications;  outreach to hospitals, institutions, the legal system, mental and sexual health professionals, and other 12-Step S-fellowships; developing content for and maintaining the sca-recovery.org website; accounting for SCA’s finances; recording the minutes for our meetings; archiving important documents; and a myriad of other tasks in service to SCA’s Intergroups and the fellowship as a whole.  It takes many trusted servants to make all of this happen to help individuals, meetings and Intergroups around the globe carry the message of SCA recovery.

Service supports our both sexual sobriety and our recovery.  Some would
quote the old 12-step adage, “You need to give it away in order to keep
it.”  If you are looking for a new service commitment and a new challenge, then perhaps you might consider serving at the ISO level.

There most basic way to get involved with ISO is to request to be added to the ISO e-mail list serve.  To request to join the ISO list-serve, please send an e-mail to
webmaster@sca-recovery.org

You might stand for election as an ISO Representative for your local Intergroup.  If your meeting does not belong to an Intergroup, then your meeting may elect it’s own ISO Representative to attend the ISO Conference.

Another way to get involved that does not necessarily require attendance at the annual ISO Conference, although all SCA members are welcome to attend, is to join one of ISO’s three standing committee’s by requesting to join their Google group.

The three standing committees of ISO are as follows.

INREACH COMMITTEE
Chair: 
  John F.  inreach@sca-recovery.org
http://groups.google.com/group/sca-inreach

* The Inreach Committee is responsible for contact between ISO and
the Fellowship as a whole. 
* It serves as the primary communication
channel between ISO and the various Intergroups and meetings.
* It maintains contact information for Intergroups, or where there
is no Intergroup, individual meetings.
* It solicits and
develops SCA literature.
* It oversees publication of the
SCAnner (currently an online blog at http://www.scanneronline.org/)
* It gathers information on perceived needs of
meetings, and provides support for isolated meetings.
*
Except for the Outside Director positions, it solicits nominations for
vacancies as they occur in the Executive Committee or the Standing
Committees.

OUTREACH COMMITTEE
Chair:    Joe S.  outreach@sca-recovery.org
http://groups.google.com/group/sca-outreach

* The Outreach Committee is responsible for contact between ISO and
those outside the Fellowship.
* It deals with requests
from the media and develops a public information policy in alignment
with the 12 Traditions.
* It handles relations with
hospitals, prisons and other institutions, other 12-Step Fellowships, as
well as professional associations.
* It takes
responsibility for communications to ISO, whether by postal mail, electronic
mail, telephone or other means.
* It solicits nominations for
vacancies as they occur in the Outside Director positions.

FIDUCIARY
COMMITTEE
Chair:   Sid W.    fiduciary@sca-recovery.org
http://groups.google.com/group/sca-fiduciary

* The Fiduciary Committee is responsible for the daily business of
ISO.
* It maintain ISOs financial records and is
responsible for drafting its annual budget, and overseeing its bank
accounts, whose signatories are designated by ISO.
* It
publishes and distributes ISO-approved SCA literature in a timely
manner.
* It manages literature sales and inventory.
* It handles legal records, including copyrights of ISO literature.
* It maintains the ISO Archives.
* It produces minutes
of ISO meetings.

Please contact me at iso-chair@sca-recovery.org if you have any questions about how or where to get involved.

Yours in Recovery,

Dan W.
SCA-ISO Chair

The Los Angeles Intergroup has entered into a year-long group inventory process which asks two simple questions:  “Is our group aligned with the Twelve Traditions?” and “What can we do to carry the message to the sexual compulsive who still suffers?”

Of course, If I had titled this entry “The Importance of the Third Tradition” you would no doubt have skipped it with a big fat yawn.  But after our Intergroup meeting, I had a discussion with Peter C. about a surprising  direct link between the Third Tradition and the SCA program.

Irma Livoni was an AA member, in Los Angeles,  who was kicked out of that fellowship by a self-appointed group. Why? In a letter dated December 6, 1941 from the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, Irma was kicked out “for reasons which should be most apparent.”  According to Peter, she was sleeping around in AA. Sexually compulsive perhaps?

She received her letter the on December 8, 1941 — the day after Pearl Harbor. Los Angeles was totally blacked out because there was a real fear that the Japanese would attack the mainland. She’s all alone. It’s Christmas time. The end of the world and the only group that had offered any hope to Irma had just kicked her out.  Much of this has been whitewashed on the internet sites but according to Peter, Irma went to the roof of her building and jumped to her death. Irma’s sponsor in AA was Sybil Corwin. (Sybil is an important part of AA history herself) Sybil wrote to Bill W about the incident.

No one knows to what extent Bill W. was referring to Irma Livoni when he wrote the Twelve Traditions ten years later.but the phrases seem to apply:

 “. . . experience taught us that to take away any alcoholic’s full chance was
sometimes to pronounce his death sentence, and often to condemn him to
endless misery. Who dared to be judge, jury and executioner of his own
sick brother?”

Before my conversation with Peter, the Third Tradition was just this wise, yet dryly stated reminder that we have to put up with all the annoying people that show up at our meetings (present readership aside of course!) But when Peter told me this story, it hit me. This all happened not too far from where we were having lunch!  I got chills on the back of my neck and the tradition became REAL for me.

A sexual compulsive in Hollywood, acting out,  killed herself when she was kicked out of the AA program.  The empathy and compassion her suicide brought forth from the good people of AA served as the basis, in part, for the Third Tradition. This is not something we have blindly adopted or cut and paste into our meeting formats

As Peter noted,  the sexual compulsive is directly tied to the AA Third Tradition. In fact, I would argue that sexual acting out is one of the reasons the Third Tradition exists.

Why am I writing this now?  Because we all have the opportunity to work the steps with Peter! He will be conducting a First Step Workshop in Los Angeles at Plummer Park, 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood on Saturday, July 24 from 9 am to 4 pm.  The suggested donation is $10. No one will be turned away. Bring your AA Big Book and Twelve & Twelve, a notebook and a pen.   

Even better, no matter what you say or do, you can’t be kicked out!

We’re experimenting with a Twitter feed, but there’s a problem — all our followers are publicly identified. This can automatically create an anonymity problem!

As a result, you can search for our tweets (we’re @scanneronline on Twitter) but cannot follow us without permission. If you have an anonymous Twitter account and ask to follow us, we’ll approve it; otherwise, you can subscribe to our RSS feed (see the link at the far right) or search for our tweets.

Feedback welcomed!

Wayne in New Mexico reports:

I started an SCA meeting here in Las Cruces in April of 2001 after being a part of SCA-St Louis for 10 years. We are keeping the Sunday evening meeting from 5 to 6 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 2000 South Solano, Las Cruces, NM 88001.

We are begining a GLBTQ meeting at the new Las Cruces GLBTQ Center,1210 North Main Street, Las Cruces, NM 88001. The time is Monday night from 7 to 8 PM. 

Who: All members of SCA, from the New York fellowship and beyond
When: Friday-Sunday, Sept. 10-11-12.
Where: Incarnation Center, Ivoryton, Connecticut.

Retreat begins with: Dinner at: 6:30 pm Friday.
Transportation: Take the 3:07 Metro-North train from Grand Central to New Haven, where you will be then picked up by luxurious school-bus coach to woodsy Ivoryton, about 30 minutes beyond New Haven.*
Retreat ends with: Our bus will return you to New Haven on Sunday in time for the 4:32 Metro-North train back to Manhattan.
Cost: $200, which includes all accommodations, activities, meals and the coach from New Haven to Incarnation Center.** You will need to purchase Metro-North train tickets separately.
Accommodations: Everyone gets their own room!
What to bring: Yourself, willingness and a bathing suit! (Getting in the water is optional, of course)
What to expect: Fellowship, workshops on the steps, good food, an opportunity to take time out and work on your recovery, fun games and laughter! Oh, and swimming too! The exact schedule of events will be determined closer to the retreat date.
Registration: Spots are limited; first come, first served. A $100 deposit will hold your place. Payment in full*** is due by August 15. Contact SCA.NY.Retreat@gmail.com

The fine print:
*You must catch the 3:07 Metro-North train from Grand Central to New Haven if you want to catch the complimentary coach to Incarnation Center. We cannot guarantee that anyone will be able to pick you up at another time at the train station. A taxi to Ivoryton will be expensive. Please plan accordingly. Train schedules are subject to change; we will send you an e-mail reminder the week of the retreat with current departure times.
**Scholarship funds are limited. Scholarships up to $100.00 will be given out based on availability of funds, the order in which requests are received and how recently applicant has received a retreat scholarship. Donations to the scholarship fund are gratefully welcomed.
***Important Cancellation policy: Full payment for the retreat is due August 15. If you must cancel (we hope you won’t!), if you notify us by September 1 you will get 100% of your money back. If you notify us by September 5, you get 50% back. After that, no refunds are possible. However, you may sell your spot to another program member.