The West Coast SCA Conference took place on St Valentine's Day weekend, February 13, 14 and 15, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. This is where the Academy Awards used to be held when they were just a small dinner party.
The theme of the Conference this year was "Reclaiming Our Lives". The keynote speaker on Friday night was Patrick Carnes. There were between 150 and 170 participants. Workshops over the weekend included topics such as: Welcome to SCA, What is a Sponsor, The 12 Steps, Multiple Addictions, Relationships. During each workshop session one of the workshops was always devoted to the newcomer to ensure that the fellowship continued to be seen and acknowledged.
Two workshops that captured a lot of attention were the Recovery and Incest Workshop and the Sexual Anorexia Workshop, which was a topic for a workshop probably for the first time. On Saturday night a banquet was served while 3 speakers, Marshall, Maciek M and Bill M recounted the beginning of SCA in LA.
After the banquet (a new feature this year) there was a country dance (with instructor), and everyone (some less willingly than others) got to participate in country dancing. On Sunday afternoon there was a musical based on Hair and set in pre-historic times called "The Dawn of Addiction." A raffle was drawn. The winner won a trip to the Bahamas, which was donated by a member.
The Conference was a great success, especially since the Conference was able to make a donation of $500 to Intergroup after all expenses were accounted for.
The new location was a great coup for the Conference. St. Barnard's had been used for the NY Holiday Show last year and had proved to be such a success that it was felt the conference could benefit from being wholly in the one location instead of split up between two venues as has occurred in the last few years.
All the workshops were able to be held on the one floor and all the assembly activities were able to be held in the school theater. There were no other people in the building to either disrupt or compete with the conference.
The Friday evening opening meeting featured three speakers: Paul W (outgoing chair of NY Intergroup), Mary Anne and Frank T of Chicago (ISO Treasurer).
Throughout Saturday and Sunday there were workshops that were divided into four categories: Back to the Basics, Spirituality, Healing Our Relationships and a group of workshops that were categorized as Miscellaneous. Workshops dealt with topics like: From Shame to Grace, Sexual Co-Dependency, The Power of Abstinence, Do You Have the Recovery You Want, Facing Sexual and Social Anorexia
On Saturday evening there was a catered dinner, followed by a show entitled "Double Insanity" (a parody of Double Indemnity), written by Former SCAnner Editor Joe F, and to finish the evening a dance.