Los Angeles to celebrate 40 years

“40 Fabulous & Fun” is the theme of an event in November to celebrate 40 years of SCA in Los Angeles. Mark your calendar and spread the word …

UPDATE: The celebration will take place from 7-8:30 p.m. Feel free to come early to help set up or to enjoy fellowship. While there will not be a request for a $20 donation, there will be a 7th Tradition collection.

WHEN: Nov. 9, 2013, 5-9 p.m.

WHERE: Plummer Park, Great Hall, 7377 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90046

COST: $20 donation

WHAT TO EXPECT:

  • Meeting
  • Guest Speaker
  • Panel with 20 years Experience, Strength and Hop
  • A question-and-answer period
  • Fabulous food/cake

Please download and distribute the flier.

New Outreach chair for ISO

I am pleased to announce that the Executive Committee, acting on behalf of ISO between annual face-to-face meetings, has voted Russell P. of Chicago into the Outreach Committee Chair service position.  Russell is currently serving as Chair of the Chicago Intergroup of SCA as well as having held other local service positions, so he is well suited to join the ISO Executive Committee to help us all carry the message to the addict who still suffers.  This action will be placed on the 2014 ISO agenda for affirmation by the delegates.  The Executive Committee will be working to support Russell as he moves into this position and will assist him in reaching out to current members of the Outreach Committee.  Please help me in welcoming Russell to ISO service.

 

In service,

John S.

ISO Chair

Recovery weekend in Paris

DASA, the French version of Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, will be holding its seventh annual convention on Oct. 19-20 in Paris. It will offer workshops, speaker meetings, a cafeteria, a meditation space, and literature. While it will mostly be conducted in French, there will be one 90-minute meeting in English on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 4 pm. 

DASA, which offers meetings daily in French and has occasionally had English-language meetings, requests an admission fee of 15 euros for the conference. More information is at http://dasafrance.free.fr/

A visit to Berlin

It was Friday the 13th and my flight to Berlin was about to take off. I’m not superstitious, but …

I’m the regional coordinator for SCA’s International Service Organization for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (or EMEA). What that means is that if anyone (individual member, meeting, or intergroup) has an issue with ISO, I’m the liaison. I’m fortunate to live in Paris, and I’ve been to meetings in Belgium and the U.K. (though the London meetings have since folded). I’ve corresponded by e-mail with people from throughout the EMEA region, but I had never been to an SCA meeting in Berlin.

There are four meetings there now, all conducted in German, a language I studied a bit in high school and college, but that was a long time ago. I knew there was a Friday evening meeting at the gay community center, Mann-O-Meter, but just a week earlier I had sent an e-mail to some locals telling them I’m planning to come — with no response. Well, actually, I did get a reply from Wayne, who used to be our Oslo contact and then moved to Berlin … but his reply was that he was moving permanently to Barcelona and would not be in Berlin.

So I had no idea what to expect. I hoped the meeting would be held as scheduled, at 6 pm, and my hotel was a five-minute walk away. So I got there about 5:30 and walked around the neighborhood a bit. It turned out that it was the weekend of the Berlin Folsom Street Fair, a tiny version of the San Francisco event, and some people asked me if I was in town for the wild parties. No …

So back to Mann-O-Meter, which was quite a nice place. It has a small bar with snacks and drinks at very reasonable prices, free Wi-Fi, and of course all the normal listings of events. It also has a meeting room off to the side, which was empty at 5:55, and no sign of anyone who might be waiting to enter. Sigh.

But just then there was some commotion. Somebody went over to the welcome desk and exchanged a few words of welcome in German, picked up some literature, and entered the meeting room. A couple of others joined him, so I went in, making four of us. I said I would be speaking in English, which one of them, replying in English, said would be fine. Soon the meeting began with a Serenity Prayer, Statement of Purpose, and all the recognizable form of an SCA meeting anywhere, but in German. I found it quite comforting to pass around a Four-Fold with the Steps, even though I didn’t read aloud. Soon a fifth member joined us, and we did a reading from the Little Blue Book on the Sexual Recovery Plan. I was able to follow along with their pamphlet, and even though I didn’t understand a lot of the words, I was familiar enough with the literature that I knew what was happening.

At one point during the meeting the chair admonished a member not to read a news magazine while others were sharing, that the focus of the meeting was SCA and not what was happening outside the rooms. The member put his magazine away, and we all said a Serenity Prayer and resumed. In the middle of the hour, we collected a Seventh Tradition and heard announcements. I mentioned that I was the European liaison from ISO. Someone had an anniversary and we all applauded. No different from other meetings I’ve been to.

There were some variants, of course. Only part of the literature has been translated. The Four-Fold has been split into two pamphlets, sold at 20 cents each. I bought one of everything they had, including the part of the Little Blue Book about the recovery plan and a translation of For the Newcomer. They have a committee working on more translations, which I have been in touch with. Their website is http://sca-berlin.org/

At the end of the meeting, another Serenity Prayer. Then the treasurer tallied up the Seventh Tradition contributions and recorded them in a ledger. We shook hands and said our goodbyes, some in German, some in English. It was a good start to a good and sober weekend.

In service,

John F. 

Chicago Day of Recovery

2013 Day of Recovery

“Became Willing”

Speakers, Workshops, Fellowship, and Food

Saturday October 12th, 2013

@ Unity in Chicago
1925 W Thome Avenue
Chicago, IL

Tickets on sale now / $20 in advance, $25 at the door. 

Commit to your recovery by commiting to service work. 

Please E-mail us for more information.

 

TO BE or TO GET a Sponsor

SPONSOR–Calling all sponsors!

“Sponsorship is two people with the same problem helping each other to work the program. It can provide a framework for a sexual recovery plan and for doing the Twelve Steps, and can bring emotional support at difficult times.”

BE WILLING,
BE OF SERVICE,
BE AN OUT-OF-MEETING SPONSOR!

The Inreach Committee of the SCA International Service Organization (ISO) is setting up an out-of-meeting sponsor pool for SCA members worldwide who are in need of sponsorship. This is a great way to do service and carry the message to those members who are in countries, cities and places where there are limited or no face-to-face SCA meetings, or to loners and isolated meetings. Contact can be by telephone, mail, email, Skype and internet messaging services!

If you are interested in providing distance sponsorship and helping another member to work the program, please supply the following information:

  • First Name and Last Name Initial
  • City and Country of Residence
  • Postal address and/or email address
  • Phone number (optional) – indicate best time to call/restrictions
  • Languages – spoken or written, plus degree of fluency
  • Background details – time in recovery, areas of familiarity e.g. sexual anorexia, internet addiction etc., other recovery programs, will sponsor men, women or both, preferred method of communication, other pertinent details.
  • Any questions that you may have.

Send details by email to: sca.iso.inreach@gmail.com 

OR by mail to:
SCA Inreach Committee
P.O. Box 1585, Old Chelsea Station
New York, N.Y. 10011
U.S.A.

NOTE: Your contact information will only be given to SCA members that request a sponsor via the SCA Inreach Committee Sponsor List. SCA members worldwide are welcome to put their names on the list and become an out-of-meeting sponsor.

“Service is a way of helping ourselves by helping others.”

Los Angeles Workshop on Careers

Our workshop on Career Development in Recovery will take place Saturday, October 12, 2013, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., in Plummer Park’s Art Room #3, 7377 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90046. This is in the southern end of the park. Please take note of the parking restrictions. With this workshop we will be discussing:

  • How to make your career plan part of your sexual recovery plan.
  • How to assess your true passions which can translate to a career – not just a job.
  • When getting more education and/or another degree can make a difference in career success.
  • How to develop resumes that work.
  • Determine if/how self-employment can be a good option.
  • Action Steps for getting organized for a job search campaign that works.

This continuing series of workshops is to help retain those new to the Fellowship of SCA, for those seeking a breakthrough in their recovery from compulsive sexual behavior and to help other members move forward in staying sexually sober, through working the Twelve Steps of SCA and using the other Tools of the Program. Please bringa large Spiral bound notebook and pen or pencil. We ask a $10.00 donation, to help cover our costs. Net proceeds go to the SCA Los Angeles Intergroup. No one is turned away for lack of funds. The workshop will be conducted in English. Please download our flier and feel free to distribute it to your meeting. We hope to see you there.

We have done workshops on each of the “Twelve Steps of SCA,” and the “Tools That Help Us Get Better.” We are always interested in finding new facilitators to lead workshops, especially workshops like this one, that we have not done before. Please give us feedback, as to the next workshop you would like to see, or persons in the Southern California region whom you would like to nominate to host a workshop.

The next workshop after Socializing is tentatively to be in January of 2014. The deadline to volunteer to facilitate a workshop in January is Wednesday, November 6th, because of the lead time necessary for preparation of workshops. You may email us at: workshops@scalosangeles.org. Look for information on upcoming workshops from your Intergroup representative, or right here.

Next LA workshop on Sept. 14

The Los Angeles workshop on Socializing in Recovery will take place 

Saturday, September 14, 2013
1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Plummer Park’s Art Room #1,
7377 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90046
(Park in North lot, workshop is at South end of park)

Please note that this is in the afternoon.

SCA Socializing Workshop

What is Socializing in Recovery about?
What Are Ways I Can Socialize?
How do I Socialize in a Healthy Way?

With this workshop we will continue where we left off, discussing what socializing in recovery is all about, and how to socialize as one of the Tools To Help Us Get Better. Attendees are encouraged to bring and share their ideas for using the Tool of Socializing. We will have a revised version of the draft piece of literature on Socializing, on which we worked in the previous workshop. We will revise this piece as well, as we see fit. If all goes well, we may submit it to the Los Angeles Intergroup for use as literature on its meeting tables.

Please Bring: 
SCA Little Blue Book 
Large Spiral ring notebook 
Pen / pencil

Donation: $10.00
Suggested donation to pay for materials.
None turned away for lack of funds.
Net proceeds go to SCA / LA Intergroup.

Contact: workshops@scalosangeles.org 
More Info: www.scalosangeles.org

This workshop is for the Newcomer, Returning Member or any Member of an S-Fellowship who is interested in using the Tool of Socializing to aid in their recovery from compulsive sexual behavior. This includes recovering Sexual Compulsives, Sex Addicts and Love Addicts.

NY Holiday Show planning meeting is Sept. 15

The Elves have begun planning our Holiday Party and Show!!!

Our Holiday show is “Company”

A meeting for actors, dancers, and those wanting to be in the show will take place
Sunday, September 15th
3:00 – 5:00 pm
Shetler Studios 
244 West 54th Street
NY, NY

We are in need of a “Music Director”.  If interested contact Adam L. or Steve A.

Volunteers are needed to help with planning our holiday party, craft folks are needed for things like lighting, sound backstage work, We need people to promote the event by publicizing our Holiday Party and Show, including people to take and sell tickets the day of event, raffle sellers and set up and clean up folks.

Want to help?

Contact an Intergroup Rep or contact Tony D. at the Friday Beginners Meeting or the Saturday 1st Step Meeting.

Your help and the service you provide is greatly appreciated!!!