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.

Looking for a new SCAnner editor

The SCA International Service Organization is looking for a new SCAnner editor. The SCAnner is the News Letter of the ISO. If this is something you like to do please contact the ISO Inreach Committee.

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!!!

Telephone Meeting News

The following is being posted to the SCAnner, ISO List, Inreach Committee List, Outreach Committee, Fiduciary Committee, Online Intergroup Ops. List, and members of the Sunday and Wednesday telephone meetings.

The Sunday telephone meeting recently celebrated its second anniversary, and the Wednesday telephone meeting is steaming towards its first, in October! Happy anniversary to all our members!

There are now some 205 members registered for Sundays, and 140 members registered for Wednesdays. In other words, our total membership has tripled in the past year! Members to date hail from various parts of the USA, Canada, Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

Sundays are usually attended by between 10 to 15 members, and our biggest meeting so far has been 18 members. Wednesdays are usually attended by between 5 to 10 members, and our biggest meeting so far has been 15 members.

Both meetings are weekly at 4 p.m. New York/Eastern Time, 3 p.m. Chicago/Central Time, 2 p.m. Denver/Mountain Time and 1 p.m. Los Angeles/Pacific Time. They both last for one hour, with the line being left open and time allowed afterwards for fellowship and informal conversation.

Each meeting has a separate group email list which is open to members who have attended six or more telephone meetings. Each email list is closed and only circulated to those members who are on it. In this way, members are able to be in contact with each other in between meetings if they like, similar to the workings of a phone list at face-to-face meetings.

In view of the substantial growth to date, and looking towards the future, this year saw the adoption of a Telephone Meeting Service Structure by Online Intergroup and the Sunday and Wednesday telephone meetings. This sets out the various service roles involved in running the telephone meetings such as the Telephone Meeting Steering Committee, Telephone Meeting Coordinators, Telephone Meeting Moderator Captain, and Telephone Meeting Moderators, and formalizes their respective duties.

We currently have 11 trained moderators who chair the meetings, meaning that 5% of our members are actively involved in service. We are grateful for this service but would like to see the pool increase. It is not difficult to learn the additional Calliflower features that are needed to chair a phone meeting once you are familiar with attending the meetings and signing on to Calliflower online. Moderator training takes about an hour. Anyone interested in chairing can let any of the existing chairpersons know, or send an email to the OI Moderator email address which is supplied to all members on registration.

Upcoming plans are for a standard reading list to be drafted for readings at the telephone meetings, to give chairpersons some guidelines for what would generally be appropriate reading at the meetings. It is intended that the list will focus on SCA literature, other “S” literature and other 12 Step programs’ conference approved literature, but still be flexible. The general thrust of the effort is that SCA’s primary purpose of staying sexually sober ourselves and helping others to achieve sexual sobriety is paramount, and that the newcomer especially has to be borne in mind where readings are concerned, as well as those in early recovery.

The telephone meeting flyer has been updated to include the new telephone meetings access link at the new Online SCA web address Online Intergroup purchased earlier this year. The flyer is now being distributed throughout the fellowship in three versions, the international one being that reflecting the 4 p.m. New York start time. We have included additional formats for Pacific (Los Angeles) and Central (Chicago/St. Louis) times in view of the substantial SCA populations in those areas. Please circulate these to your members, groups and intergroups as appropriate.

Telephone meetings are a great means of recovery for those who are unable to get to face-to-face meetings, for those who have limited meetings in their area and/or want to supplement their face-to-face attendance, for those members who are travelling, who are perhaps confined by illness, or who have special concerns about anonymity and the like. Above all, telephone meetings are a great way to keep sober!

The Calliflower conference call service we use provides local numbers in many cities worldwide, and Skype-to-Skype or Google Voice calls are free. If you or someone you know are interested in attending a telephone meeting, but are not yet registered, please sign up via the SCA Online Intergroup website at http://www.onlinesca.org/telephoneaccess.htm.

Thanks to all those who have helped to make the telephone meetings a success!

In service,

Kevin – SCA Toronto

& Online Intergroup

ISO Conference Dinner Meals

To Those Attending the Chicago ISO Conference,

We are looking forward to seeing you in Chicago on April 26 – 28. We are writing now with more information about the self-pay dinner on Friday, April 26 and dinner plans for Saturday, April 27.

The self-pay dinner will take place from 4:30 – 5:45 pm at Cozy Thai restaurant, 3456 N Sheffield Ave, Chicago, IL 60657. Phone: (773) 327-0100. The approximate cost will be $12 per person, including tip and drink. We have made a reservation for 12 based on responses we received from Conference registration forms.

If you would like directions on how to get to Cozy Thai restaurant from O’Hare Airport, Midway Airport, the Majestic Hotel, or any other location in Chicago where you might be staying, please feel free to contact one of us.

Cozy Thai is a 10-15 minute walk from the Center on Halsted, which is where the ISO meeting will begin at 6:00 pm. The Center on Halsted is located at 3656 N. Halsted St. We will be meeting in the Board Room on the second floor. We sent directions on how to get to the Center on Halsted from either of Chicago’s two airports in previous emails. Let us know if you need these directions again.

Saturday night’s dinner, sponsored by SCA Chicago Intergroup, will take place at 7:00 p.m. at the Taste of Heaven restaurant, 5401 N. Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60640 Phone: (773) 989-0151. We have made a reservation for 19 based on registration response. We will be joined by several members of the SCA Chicago fellowship at dinner. We will review transportation options from the Center on Halsted or your hotel to Taste of Heaven at the meeting on Saturday.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Arnie A.

Anthony P.

UPDATE: 2013 ISO Meeting in Chicago

This is a reminder and update about the upcoming ISO Conference in Chicago, April 26 – 28, 2013.

The registration deadline for the conference is March 29, 2013. To date, we have received the following 8 registrations from Intergroup reps who will be attending the conference in person:

Gary S. (Los Angeles)

Kevin B. (Toronto)

Zoe M. (Los Angeles)

Frank H. (New York)

Anthony L. (St. Louis)

Sid W. (Los Angeles)

Marty S. (Online)

Joe S. (New York)

Please let us know if you intend to participate in the conference electronically rather than in-person.

A few members of Chicago non-SCA S Fellowships (SAA, SLAA) who are familiar with SCA and have attended SCA meetings have expressed a desire to join the Saturday night fellowship dinner sponsored by Chicago Intergroup. If you are attending or plan to attend the Saturday night dinner and have either a question or an objection to this, please let one of us know as soon as possible.

Reminder on Accommodations:

The deadline for reserving a room in the block of rooms at the Majestic Hotel is March 27, 2013. Details about the hotel and how to make a reservation appear below.

A number of individuals have inquired about staying with Chicago SCA members willing to host ISO representatives. To date, one SCA member has volunteered to serve as a host, and an ISO representative who requested home stay will be staying with him. While we continue to ask at meetings for hosts, to date no one else (to the best of our knowledge) has stepped forward to serve as a host.

For those opting to stay at the Majestic Hotel, please provide the hotel with your credit card information, etc. by March 27th. The phone number is: +17734043499.

We look forward to seeing you all soon!

In fellowship and service,

Anthony P. + Arnie A.