WHATSAPP DOC

The WhatsApp SCA Group is over a year old and has over 90 members.  You can easily download WhatsApp on your cell phone.  SCA Speakers will be sharing their experience, strength, using SCA Literature.  There have been some recent changes to our format to include one recorded long share on Wednesdays and readings of the SCA Daily Meditations. Members can now respond via recorded voice or by text.

To join the Saint Louis Whatsapp Group or invite others to join go to:  https://chat.whatsapp.com/J4hvQ5EZYdc0JxfNtO0yc1This is like having a meeting in your pocket that you can take anywhere.  For anyone new to the Fellowship, please go to the SCA Website, sca-recovery.org , to find in-person meetings or more information.

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  

New SCA Telephone Meeting

Online Intergroup is pleased to announce that a new weekly
telephone meeting, open to all SCA members worldwide, will start July 17, 2011.
It will be held Sundays at 4:00 p.m. New York time and will be conducted in
English. 

The starting time outside North America will vary depending on whether New York
is on Daylight Savings Time or not. Currently, that means 9 p.m. in London,
2000 GMT, and 5 a.m. in Tokyo, for example, but in six months the starting time
will be 9 p.m. in London, 2100 GMT, and 6 a.m. in Tokyo. Services like http://timeanddate.com can tell you when it will be 4 p.m. New
York time in your locality.

If you are interested in participating, send an email to oimoderator@gmail.com, and
you will be sent an invitation and password to access the call. You must have
both before the call begins in order to participate. Passwords are
user-specific, and have an accompanying tag that is used to identify you online
to the moderator and other participants on the call. The tag is usually your
email address or first name. You can say how you would like to be identified in
the email you send when requesting a password.

To join the meeting, you can use a regular phone and make a local call (in most
countries, see the list at http://www.calliflower.com/getting-to-know-calliflower/international-dial-in-numbers/), or
call a default US number specified in the invitation, or from a computer you
can use Skype (free worldwide) or Google Voice (typically free as well). If you
use your phone, you will pay the regular tariff to whatever number you choose
from the list. You will then be connected to the international conference call
and asked for your PIN number. 

You can also participate online and see who else is on the call, and
“chat” with participants by typing messages as the call proceeds. You
should be able to do this by clicking on the “join online” link in
the Calliflower invitation you receive. If you are unable to connect in this
way, you will need to create a free account at www.calliflower.com.

 

There are recorded
instructions for how to use the conference call features when you first call
in. For instance, when not speaking, it is recommended that you mute your line
to eliminate background noise. You can raise your hand so the moderator can see
you want to say something, and call on you when it is your turn to speak.

 

In keeping with SCA’s 7th
Tradition, contributions can be made by PayPal online at the ISO website by
using the link 
http://sca-recovery.org/donate.html, or
by check drawn on a US bank via mail to the SCA New York address provided in
the same link. Please be sure to note that funds are from an Online Intergroup
participant. 


Online Intergroup is very excited to be offering this new option. We are keenly
aware of the number of sexual compulsives who will appreciate being able to
participate in a telephone meeting, especially where there is limited or no
access to face-to-face meetings. As time goes on we hope to expand to more
meetings per week, but one step at a time! 

We hope you will join us on Sundays, and please pass this news on to anyone who
may be interested.


Yours
in recovery,

Kevin – SCA Toronto

(Regional Co-ordinator for the
Americas outside the USA, including Online Intergroup and Telephone Meetings)