Hello North Carolina Region,
The Southeastern Zonal Forum was held on Saturday, July 22 and Sunday, July 23 in Charleston, SC. Jacob attended virtually, and Jonathan attended in-person. This is in keeping with our plan to exercise financial prudence by alternating travel to zonal events. We feel this is working well, so we will continue alternating travel.
Saturday Discussion
Note: Saturday is typically a full day of workshops and discussions involving the local fellowship. This time was a little different, because the World Board had scheduled the Conference Participants Webinar on the same day. As a result, we did not have as much time for discussions and workshops.
We kicked off Saturday morning by asking those in the room if there were topics they would like to discuss. Someone mentioned that they are seeing a lot of tension between trusted servants who prefer to attend service meetings virtually, and those who prefer to attend them in-person. Several others agreed this is an issue they are seeing in their communities – it seems this is a common source of internal conflict. Most regions in the SEZF are holding either fully virtual or hybrid RSC meetings with various degrees of success. It seems that investing in the correct equipment, and doing it well, seems to make things run a lot more smoothly. We are pleased that the North Carolina Region is making this investment.
Conference Participants Webinar
The CP Webinar is a meeting with the World Board, NAWS Staff, and all Regional and Zonal Delegates. It occurs roughly every other month. It happened that this CP Webinar was also planned on Saturday, so we are including it in this report. During the CP Webinar, we left a stream running in the meeting room to allow the local fellowship to listen in.
We approved four IDTs (Issue Discussion Topics) at the WSC. IDTs are accompanied by a set of workshop materials to help gather fellowship conscience about each topic. The focus of this CP Webinar was developing the workshop materials for the “Dealing with disruptive and predatory behavior” and “Gender-neutral and inclusive language in NA literature” IDTs. We were dropped into breakout rooms. We were both placed in separate breakout rooms to work on the “Gender-neutral and inclusive language in NA literature” topic, and both felt very positively about the experience. When the workshop materials are released, we will be sharing them with you, and facilitating workshops throughout the region to gather input to send back to the World Board.
NAWS also announced the formation of a new literature product, the “NA Survival Kit”. It is a book with five sections: Steps 1-2-3, Steps 4-5, Steps 6-7, Steps 8-9, and Steps 10-11-12. Each section will include the relevant chapters from the Basic Text, It Works, and the Step Working Guide for its relevant steps. The questions from the step working guide will be numbered, not bulleted. The FIPT authorizes the World Board to repackage existing fellowship approved literature without a CAR motion, so long as they provide us with 120 days notice. There is a link to the 120 day notice at na.org/fipt.
The next CP Webinars will be September 23 and November 18. We will keep you updated.
Sunday Business
Sunday begins with sharing of regional reports. When the SEZF minutes are shared with us, we will pass the regional reports along to you. The Bluegrass Appalachian Region (Eastern Kentucky) and the Central Atlantic Region (Virginia) are both considering joining the SEZF, so they both attended and gave a report. We expressed to them that if they would like to join, they are welcome. We then went into the business portion of the meeting.
When the SEZF met at the World Service Conference, it was brought to our attention that the treasurer still did not have access to the bank account. We made fixing this a high priority. It was reported that the treasurer now has full access to the account. The SEZF bank account balance was in the neighborhood of $21,000. The treasurer presented a proposed budget (to be voted on in December), and we made the decision to send everything above about $12,000 to NAWS. We will include the proposed budget in our next regional report, after we receive the SEZF minutes.
The US Collaboration of Zones is exactly what it sounds like, a meeting between representatives of each US Zonal Forum to begin looking at nationwide service efforts. Our region has expressed general support for this effort in the past. The SEZF had not been actively participating in the last couple of US Collab meetings, so we remedied this. Two representatives were chosen: Mat S from South Florida Region, and Jessie N from North Carolina Region. Both Mat and Jessie are extremely experienced trusted servants, and we are excited to have them participating on our behalf at the US Collab.
We ended the day by discussing the possibility of funding a large PR project for execution by the SEZF PR Task Force. Some members of the PR Task Force have had success with publishing Narcotics Anonymous PSAs using Facebook Ad campaigns. They would like to do the same for the regions in our zone. We discussed two different approaches, varying between $1000 and $5000. The folks in the room were supportive of the idea, some enthusiastically so. We should expect to vote on a more comprehensive plan at the December SEZF. If you would like more information, please reach out to us. We can put you in direct contact with those doing the work.
The next SEZF meeting will be December 1-3 in Mobile, AL. You can expect one of us to attend in-person, and the other to attend virtually.
Reimbursement
Jonathan stayed with a friend, so there are no lodging costs, but he did drive a total of 526 miles, and will be asking for mileage reimbursement.
Conclusion
Thank you deeply for the opportunity to serve Narcotics Anonymous. As always, you can find us both at wsc@ncregion-na.org. Please do not hesitate to reach out if we can do anything for you.
In Loving Service,
Jacob S, RD and Jonathan B, AD