The SCA International Service Organization held its annual business meeting at the Manhattan Plaza Health Club, New York City, February 21, 1998. Representatives from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Washington, DC, were present to share recovery with each other, and to do the business of the fellowship.
LA. The February Conference was well received. Patrick Carnes was the keynote speaker and attendance was high. The international meeting list has been revamped. Updates to this list may be sent to the LA post office box. LA Intergroup still holds retreats in Santa Barbara on New Year's day, Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Milwaukee has gone from two to four meetings. Intergroup is setting up a hotline. It is working on a mailing to health professionals and lawyers, in cooperation with SLAA.
Chicago is going to host a fund-raiser in May and wants to make a donation to ISO. They continue to have monthly social events. They have released the PSA to WBBM radio and hope it will be aired on a program called "Private Lives." Their phone lines continue to take calls from potential members and from therapists looking for information. They are also doing a mailing to therapists.
New York Intergroup has been researching stations who might run the PSA. It is also developing a "guidelines for meetings" document from the historical Intergroup minutes. The NY Conference is April 17-19, and the theme is "From I to We: Into the Heart of Recovery." Intergroup has returned to contributing 30% to ISO from 10% in the last year.
Washington DC has three meetings. The meetings have voted to form an Intergroup, and the first project will be to invite ISO to meet in Washington in 1999.
St. Louis now has about 9 meetings. New meetings include a newcomers meeting and a step meeting. The step meeting has attracted more women and straight people than before. They are hoping to do a Midwest convention with Chicago and Milwaukee. Intergroup has started a committee called "Twelfth Step Within," which sponsors events aimed at the fellowship.
1. Spanish Literature. Translation of the fourfold has been completed and is now in use.
2. Archives. Mark S LA is storing the archival material. David N (NY) tentatively agreed to take the role of archivist. Jerry (LA) agreed to go through the archives and generate, by June 1, a summary of what is in the archive and send it to ISO and to David. David will also generate a description of the duties of an archivist, for action at next year's ISO meeting.
3. InterFellowship Forum. Jim M and Joe F attended the gathering of the four S-fellowships in Ann Arbor (sponsored by SAA). SLAA may sponsor the next forum in Boston. The Forum voted to encourage the different fellowships to share information about the other fellowships, especially in areas where one fellowship doesn't have meetings while other fellowships do.
4. SCA Book. Peter C (LA) is willing to take on the commitment of compiling an SCA Book. It was agreed to let Peter form a Task Force, under the direction of the Vice Chairperson, to consider the next appropriate steps. This Task Force may evolve into a fellowship-wide Literature Committee at the next ISO meeting. David A-S (NY) was given a mandate to lead a process to form a piece of literature on the Traditions. John F will also look at the masturbation piece and propose changes that might need to be made to make it consistent with other literature.
5. Copyright. Susan F (Milwaukee) has succeeded in obtaining a copyright for SCA literature.
6. Safety at meetings. ISO agreed to take no official stance on the topic of whether to encourage meetings to adopt a statement on disclosure of reportable sexual crimes. Intergroup representatives were encouraged to take the issue back to their individual areas for discussion.
7. PSA. (Public Service Announcement) Brian K reported that stations were often more interested in a script than in a recording, and he presented some completed ten and thirty second scripts for potential distribution.
1. Self-identification statement. ISO agreed to the self-identification statement, which would be distributed to the public, other S-fellowships, and therapists. It is not a substitute for the statement of purpose in the fourfold.
2. SCA office. ISO agreed to ask the ISO chairperson to investigate the needs for and costs of establishing a permanent SCA/ISO office.
3. Bylaws. The proposed bylaws were adopted.
4. SCAnner. ISO decided to return to the 1995 version of producing the SCAnner, eliminating the professional desktop publishing, and to spend no more than $500 on the SCAnner in the upcoming year.
1. Beginner's pamphlet. New York has drafted a beginner's pamphlet, and ISO adopted it as a piece of draft literature, with formal approval to come next year.
2. InterFellowship Forum. ISO agreed to link our Web site to those of all other S-programs. Despite resigning as chair, Jim M agreed to continue to represent SCA at the InterFellowship Forum.
3. Twenty questions. ISO voted to remove 'especially AIDS' from the 17th question in the fourfold. This change will occur the next time the fourfold is reprinted.
Chairperson: Vice-chairperson Dennis (LA), succeeds Jim (St. Louis), who resigned mid-term. Dennis will serve a 1 year term.
Vice-chairperson: Gary (LA) 1 year term. Scanner Editor: David A-S (NY) 1 year term.
Washington was accepted as the site for the 1999 ISO Conference and Chicago for the year 2000.
Income 7th Tradition LA $ 750.00 Milwaukee $ 200.00 NY $ 174.00 St Louis $ 550.00 Total 7th Tradition $1,674.29 Donations $ 35.00 Literature Sales $3,633.18 SCAnner Sales $ 239.00 ISO Meetings $2,089.03 Total Income $5,581.47 Expenses Bank Charges $ 30.50 InterFellowship $ 494.05 ISO $2,089.03 Literature $2,726.00 Nat. Co-ord $ 94.38 Phone $1,190.43 SCAnner $2,942.30 Web Site $ 170.03 Misc $ 125.91 Total Expenses $9,862.63 Total Income less Expenses -$4,281.16