Posted on by Jonathan B

January 2024 Delegate Team Report

Greetings all.

A lot has been going on at the regional, zonal, and world levels, so there’s a lot of material to go over. In an effort to be concise, we will begin with a summary. The summary will then be followed by the full report.

Quick Links:

Summary

The World Convention will be in Washington, DC August 29 through September 1. Registration and hotel blocks are now open. The price of registration is $175 per person, and 24,000 registrations are needed to break even. Because of the configuration of the main meeting room, seating will be assigned in sections. Those who register at around the same time will probably be seated in the same sections. Visit na.org/wcna to register and book lodging. Click for more.

Three of four Issue Discussion Topics are now available: Gender-Neutral and Inclusive Language in NA Literature, Dealing with Disruptive and Predatory Behavior, and DRT/MAT as it Relates to NA. We held one workshop in Capital Area, have one planned in Greater Sandhills Area, and are tentatively doing one in Greensboro Area. If you’d like us to facilitate an IDT workshop, please contact us at wsc@ncrgion-na.org. Click for more.

We have several NAWS Updates.

Several dates have been published for the upcoming World Service Conference cycle. The Interim CAR/CAT materials will be released on November 28, 2024, and we will vote on its contents at the virtual Interim WSC February 28 through March 1 in 2025. Click for more.

The Southeastern Zonal Forum was held in December. Trusted servants were elected, and a sizable PR project involving advertisements on Facebook was approved. The next SEZF meeting will be held in North Carolina in July. Click for more.

The US Collaboration of Zones surveyed all of the US regions over the course of a couple of years. About 80% of regions responded, and over 80% of those responded favorably, so the body decided to move forward. A facilitator and a secretary were elected. Click for more.

World Convention

The World Convention of NA (WCNA), taking place August 29 through September 1 in Washington DC, is now open for registration. There were some initial hiccups with the website when registration opened due to the volume of visitors to the site, but this is no longer a major issue. In case you’re curious, this issue will not be fixed in any significant way. It comes up at most once every three years, and as such is not a worthwhile focus in terms of time or effort. To register for the convention and/or book hotel rooms (if any are still available) from the room blocks, go to na.org/wcna. Registration is set at $175 per person, with additional cost for ticketed events such as the brunches and the evening entertainment. Yes, this is expensive, but this is what we’re told is the bare minimum that NAWS is able to charge and still ensure the convention is safe and enjoyable for all. In order to break even in terms of cost, there will need to be 24,000 registrations. As of the CP meeting several weeks ago, we already had 9,000. The previous convention in Orlando had 21,000 people register, so NAWS feels this is a reasonable target.

We’re told that the main meeting room is long and narrow, which presents some challenges. In order to make sure the main meetings are fully accessible, seating is going to be grouped by different colors, and your color group is determined by when you register. People that register earlier will be closer to the stage, but there will be plenty of screens and such so that everyone can see. If you book right around the time your friends do, you will most likely be seated in the same group. And before anyone asks, THERE WILL NOT BE A BANQUET. It was not feasible for this location, I promise you will survive.

All the information currently available about registration and the convention in general can be found at na.org/wcna. This includes the link where information about volunteering can be found. You can also go to na.org/subscribe to sign up for email announcements from NAWS.

Issue Discussion Topics (IDTs)

Three of the issue discussion topics for this cycle have workshop material posted on the NAWS website at na.org/idt. These three are Gender neutral and inclusive language, dealing with disruptive and predatory behavior, and DRT/MAT as it relates to NA. The workshop material for revitalizing the service system should be available soon. So far, we have had one workshop in Capital Area where we went through the material for the first two IDTs. This workshop was fairly well attended and went smoothly. We got some solid input to pass along. We have another workshop planned in Greater Sandhills Area next weekend, where we will be covering Disruptive/predatory behavior and DRT/MAT. This workshop will be hybrid, and we will be experimenting with using Poll Everywhere as a way of gathering input from a larger group with mixed modes of attendance. This software was $120 for a one year license, reimbursement would be nice but is not required as we didn’t ask anyone first. Many thanks to the members who have agreed to be on standby to run breakout rooms as needed, depending on the number of attendees. We’re told it might be quite a few, more will be revealed.

We are working with Greensboro Area to hopefully schedule a workshop there, and there is a possibility that this would be done in conjunction with Twin Cities Area/Carolina Region. We will continue providing these workshops as many times/locations as asked, and may be coordinating with the delegate team from Carolina Region for parts of our state. For those interested, I would encourage you to check out the FAQ on gender neutral language that can be found on the IDT web page.

East Coast Convention

The East Coast Convention of NA has given us 28 soft cover Basic Texts. These are intended specifically for jails/prisons. Please reach out to us if there is a facility in your area that could use some books.

NAWS Updates

H&I Basics

One of the issues discussed at the 2023 WSC was service material available to those interested in H&I. H&I basics is a resource published by NAWS/the World Board that provides information and guidance useful to this area of service. Originally published in 2010, H&I Basics is in need of updating, and this was prioritized in the results of the CAR Survey and ensuing discussion at the WSC. There is currently a web page posted with information on how to participate in this. The page can be found at na.org/survey. The deadline for input is Mar 31, 2024.

NAWS Strategic Planning

As discussed in previous reports, the Conference and World Board are moving forward with a strategic planning process. This is not new for the board, but this is a far more inclusive version of that process that is intended to gather input from every level of the fellowship. The following image shows the path we’re currently taking.

The survey referred to was something we tried to gather input on last year and submitted that to the World Board. This examined the internal and external forces that we feel are most important to address for the fellowship at this time. The top six factors were as follows:

    • External Factors
      • Evolution of technology
      • Harm reduction models or approach
    • Internal Factors
      • Development and organization of trusted servants
      • Impact and rise of virtual NA
      • Sense of safety, welcomeness, and inclusion
      • Redundancy and lack of cohesion in the service system

This brings us to Part 3.

Over the next several months, the various zonal forums around the world will be meeting to workshop these six issues and discuss tools that may be useful in addressing them. These meetings will include every zone and will be facilitated by several board members and staff. Our zone, the SEZF, will be meeting online with the Northeastern and Autonomy zones in February. In total, there will be nine zonal planning workshops, which will include the RDs, ADs, and zonal contacts. All of the results will be posted online. Once this is complete, the World Board will develop more specific milestones/objectives to work towards.

This is the most collaborative planning process that’s been done of this kind in the fellowship, and we will keep you all informed as it continues to develop.

Meeting Finder/Search

A new meeting finder website will be rolling out shortly. You can test the beta version at na.org/phoneweb and you should report all issues to us or NAWS so that they can be addressed. The new meeting finder works by matching geographic location with the closest service body, and then sending the user to that service body’s website for the most up to date information. As many have pointed out, virtual groups are now fully recognized by the Conference and NAWS following a CAR motion at the Conference, and not all of these groups are members of local service bodies. As such, NAWS will maintain a separate directory of virtual meetings, and the directory will have buttons for reporting errors/changes. Hopefully this system will provide much more timely and accurate information to those trying to find our meetings.

Webinars

The future of the WSC workgroup and the HRP are both meeting in the coming months. The sponsorship webinar from December went well, and the recording is available at na.org/webinar. There will be an H&I webinar open to all on March 23 from 2-330pm Eastern.

na.org

There is a new media page on the NAWS site as well: na.org/media. You can find a variety of useful videos and resources there.

This report also has several useful links to the NAWS website scattered throughout. Here’s a list of them all in one spot:

Audio Basic Texts

If you speak Greek, you will be very pleased. The Basic Text is now available as audio in 11 languages for free. Go to na.org/audio.

World Service Conference

See the dates listed here for when stuff is happening:

    • 28 November 2024 – Interim CAR/CAT released
    • 28 February & 1 March 2025 (2pm-4pm & 5pm-7pm, EST) – Interim WSC
    • 3 November 2025 – 2026 Conference Agenda Report (CAR) released
    • 3 December 2025 – Translated CARs released
    • 3 February 2026 – Conference Approval Track (CAT) material released
    • 3–9 May 2026 – World Service Conference 2026

We will have a better idea of what will be included at the Interim Conference closer to the fact, but the agenda is decided by the Conference Participants. We will workshop all material as much as possible once it is released. We just didn’t want this to sneak up on anyone.

The Southeastern Zonal Forum

There are several things going on at the zonal level. At the last SEZF meeting, we were informed (well, we already knew because Jonathan figured it out, but…) that a bug in Yap (our phone line software) allowed malicious jerks to make OUTGOING calls from our helplines and did some robocalling. This was quickly recognized and dealt with, and should not be able to reoccur, but we also aren’t getting the $300 it cost us back from the service provider.

The zone has decided to adjust guidelines to fund the webservant’s travel, and we also put them in charge of facilitating the hybrid part of the meeting with our new equipment. Some other guideline changes were on the table and were put off for further evaluation. We passed a budget(!) and elected Mat S from South Florida as the facilitator, Belynda B from Florida as secretary/treasurer, and Michelle C from Florida as web servant. We are going to try and have the web servant create a zonal Slack in order to better facilitate record keeping, information exchange, and coordination (something our region may also want to consider).

The biggest item of business (I think) was the passing of $3,000 expenditure for targeted posting on Facebook. Just like any other NA PR effort, we need to let people know who we are and where to find us. This will hopefully direct that information the right way. A full reporting will be done on the impact of the campaign so we can decide if it’s worth doing again in the future.
In terms of scheduling, there’s two things. First, the next SEZF meeting is in July, and we are hosting. It will likely be at a hotel by the Raleigh/Durham Airport, and all are welcome. We do need to address the fact that the zonal meeting (not real flexible) is the same weekend as our July RSC meeting (maybe slightly more flexible?). We recommend moving the RSC to the first Saturday of August, which is August 3.

The next meeting after that will be in December, where we will be workshopping the interim car/cat for the interim WSC. This will be in Atlanta, along with several other workshops, to show that the zone is useful to the Georgia Region.

US Collaboration of Zones

Adjacent to all this is the US Collaboration of Zones, which we’ve discussed a little in the past. After their survey was posted for more than two years asking whether to move forward, 80% of regions responded and 80% of those responded favorably. Therefore, the US Collaboration of Zones is now an official thing. They elected a facilitator and a secretary and approved guidelines, which we can provide to anyone interested. Each zone gets 2 representatives (shout out to our own Jessie N). The plan is for the US Collaboration to organize/distribute requests in the US to the relevant service body and then provide support as needed. This is intended as a resource to help with any service projects they can, and is still not intended to be another layer of the service structure. More information can be found at usa-na.org.

The New Mailbox

It works great. Jonathan didn’t set it up to bill the RSC debit card, so he needs to get with Michael Mc to deal with that, it’s about $10/month. Reimbursement for previous months not required.

Other Upcoming Events

There are two service symposiums coming up in the next few months, the Florida Service Symposium and the North Eastern States Service Symposium of NA (NESSSNA). I (Jacob) am going to Florida because the next SEZF meeting takes place there, and historically we have funded the delegate to attend. Originally it looked like the zonal planning workshop for the strategic planning process was going to take place at NESSSNA, but this is no longer the case. I would still like to attend, however this may be part of the larger conversation we suggested last quarter about regional funding for service symposiums. If the RSC is willing to send me, great, if not, other opportunities will no doubt arise.

There have been several regional PR requests that are being addressed by the delegate team, Craig R, and Kristen F. I believe Kristen will fill everyone in on those shortly.

I believe this covers everything at this time. Do not hesitate to reach out with questions, comments, or concerns, or if you would like more detailed information on anything covered. Thank you for your patience and for allowing us to serve.

Jacob S and Jonathan B

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