MISSOURI ROUND ROBIN A Publication of Al-Anon Family Groups of Missouri

Transcription

1 SEPTEMEBER 2017 MISSOURI ROUND ROBIN PAGE 1 MISSOURI ROUND ROBIN A Publication of Al-Anon Family Groups of Missouri SEPTEMBER 2017 Greetings Missouri AFG, Delegate s Report Time is flying by! I can t believe it s already August and we are almost through our first year of this Panel. What a year it s been. I would like to share some information with you from the August 2017 Chairman of the Board letter. It s an exciting time in the Worldwide Fellowship of Al-Anon Family Groups! New Executive Director: At the 2017 World Service Conference (WSC), the Board of Trustees announced they were beginning the search for the next Executive Director. The Board is pleased to announce that the position has been filled. The Board stated, It s with great pleasure that the Board of Trustees, Al-Anon Family Groups, Inc., announces that on September 5 th 2017, Vali F. will begin her tenure as our next Executive Director. Vali brings with her over 15 years as an active Al-Anon member. She served as a Panel 53 Delegate from Arizona, Area Chair, and Treasurer. Additional Al-Anon service roles include AIS Chair and Alateen Coordinator. Vali also brings 20 years of business experience, including management of staff throughout the world. Vali has a keen understanding of the ever-changing landscape and how these changes have and will continue to impact the growth and diversity of our fellowship. Vali fully embraces the continued need to find new ways to reach those whose lives have been affected by alcoholism. Please join me in saying Congratulations to Vali F and Welcoming her as our new Executive Director! Our current Interim Executive Director, Mary G., has committed to working side-by-side with Vali beginning September 5 th through the October Board Meeting. This transition period will ensure that our new Executive Director, our World Service Office (WSO) staff and our fellowship as a whole experience a smooth transition World Service Conference: The 2018 World Service Conference will be held in West Harrison, New York. This site will afford the Delegates the opportunity to visit Stepping Stones. The Conference Leadership Team and the Board announced the 2018 World Service Conference Theme: Al-Anon There is no standing still! I can t imagine what visiting Stepping Stones must be like. I have heard stories from those of you who have served before and those stories send chills down by body every time I hear them. I love Al-Anon Family Groups. It s an honor to serve you as the Missouri Delegate. It s in my wildest dreams that I thought I would ever be able to visit Lois home. Stepping Stones is the historic home of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson and his wife, cofounder of Al-Anon/Alateen Family Groups Lois Wilson, in Bedford Hills, New York. The World Service Conference is one of the great Spiritual Experiences I ve had the pleasure of walking through. I can t imagine what that must feel like with a visit to Stepping Stones Road Trip! You and Your Board Connect: This year s Road Trip! You and Your Board Connect will be held Saturday, October 21 st in Aurora, Colorado! How many of you are planning on attending? I am planning on attending. I have heard there are at least 5 or 6 members from (Continued on page 3)

2 PAGE 2 MISSOURI ROUND ROBIN SEPTEMBER 2017 Chairperson s Report As I opened my One Day At A Time In Al-Anon reader today, I happened to flip to all the names and well wishes on both the front and back inside cover from the members of my first home group in Crestwood, MO. Triangle Al-Anon shared so much with me in those beginning years. They were all Concept 9 leaders. My first sponsor, first service positions, first area convention, first working of the steps, first introduction to the we of our fellowship, first changed attitude and first rethinking my concept of a Higher Power. Even though that meeting folded after many, many years and most of the members have passed, they still live in my heart and actions along with so many others of my chosen family. By the time this issue is printed, our second Area World Service Committee (AWSC) meeting will have concluded for Panel 57. You are all Concept 9 leaders to me as well. In Paths to Recovery on page 302, it talks about several leadership qualities that I have experienced in preparing for the meeting. In asking for help you shared your vision, kindness, generosity, flexibility and tolerance to name a few. I also witnessed what Lois shared (quoted on page 303) as, quiet strength. Thank you for continuing to demonstrate the unity, equality and we of our fellowship for the benefit of the newcomer, Missouri Area and Al-Anon/Alateen as a whole. P. S. Has your group considered choosing a piece of Conference Approved Literature (CAL) to sign and be raffled at Convention? Share your Concept 9 leadership and hope with others. It could be the one thing that makes the difference. Peace, Lynn C.-R. Panel 57, Area 31 Chair area31chair@gmail.com It is strongly suggested that groups pay for their Round Robin subscription. Tradition Seven states: Every group ought to be fully selfsupporting, declining outside contributions. The Round Robin is a service of the Missouri Area to Missouri Area groups. Groups not receiving the Round Robin should update their Current Mailing Address (CMA) with the Area Group Records Coordinator. Treasurer s Report Contributions for July 2017 DIST Group Name /Description Cont. 11 Just for Today Boonville AFG $ Stepping Out - Al-Anon $ New Beginnings $ Raymore AFG $ Women s Path in Recovery AFG $ Lunch Bunch $ There is Hope AFG $ Reaching for Personal Freedom $ Just For Today Group 102 $ Path to Serenity AFG-Men's AFG $ Spiritual Awakening Al-Anon Fellowship $ Parkhill Al-Anon $ Friendship Al-Anon $ Women's Strength in Unity $ Hope For Healing Al-Anon $ District 26 AFG $ Sharing Serenity Waynesville AFG $ Serenity Seekers Group 43 $ Attitude of Gratitude $ New Attitudes AFG Group $ 5.00 Serenity Al-Anon $ Serenity Express Women's $ Steps to A New Life $ Hope for Today AFG $ Ever Thankful $ Dorothy Q. $ Journey to Recovery $ Lois' Back Door AFG $ Focus on Solutions $ Experience Strength & Hope $ Eureka Sunday Sanctuary $ Lori H. MO Area Treasurer

3 SEPTEMEBER 2017 MISSOURI ROUND ROBIN PAGE 3 Missouri who are planning on attending. Congratulations Missouri AFG! We will have a great representation from the Show-Me state. The event will be held at the Radisson Hotel, 3155 South Vaughn Way, Aurora, Colorado. Consider going early or staying a few days late. I actually booked a condo in Winter Park so I am looking forward to my time in Colorado. I am hoping to pick up some AFG meetings while I am out there. There are only 150 seats available! Please register early! The registration forms can be located on the Members website: images/a5_102117_roadtrip.pdf If you would like to stay at the hotel, the hotel has offered to extend the rate to those who are traveling in for the event. The rate is $104/night + any applicable taxes. We do not have a block held there so the rooms will be on a first come first served basis. When you call, please ask for the Al-Anon rate of $ Road Trip! You and Your Board Connect : The Missouri Officers are pleased to announce that the Missouri Area will be submitting a bid to host the 2018 Road Trip. The Missouri Area Officers discussed this on our monthly call. We decided to move forward and start gathering hotel information for the submission process. We can submit 2 different cities for consideration. They are St. Louis & Kansas City. Lynn (Area Chair) and I have been gathering hotel bids in St. Louis. We will be gathering information from hotels in late August. The deadline for submission is September 15 th. The 2018 site selection should be announced this October. This would be an awesome opportunity for the Missouri Area to host Board Week and have our very own Road Trip. WSO Website: Have you seen the WSO s newly designed website? The entire staff, led by our new Digital Strategy Manager, has been involved in the redesign of the website. The site is fresh and exciting and reflective of our world today, the needs of our fellowship, and those who have yet to find help and hope. Please visit the new site and don t forget to let the World Service Office staff know how much you appreciate the work they are doing. August AWSC Meeting: There is so much more that I wish I could report to you in this Round Robin Article. Truthfully, I could probably take up half of the Round Robin if I reported it all. I will have a complete report in August at the AWSC Meeting. Please communicate with your Group Representatives and District Representatives for the information. It s a very exciting time for Al-Anon Family Groups! Visiting Districts: One of the highlights of this position is that I get to visit different meetings and districts when invited. I ve had an amazing time so far. I would like to say Thank You to Districts 04 and 08. I have visited both of those districts and got to share on two completely different topics. I received and accepted a few invitations in September. Thank you Districts 14 and 17. Thank you Missouri Alateens for the invitation to Super Sunday. Alateen Super Sunday My Journey from Alateen Service to Missouri Area Delegate District 14 September 14 District Meeting Synopsis of Delegate s Report District 17 September 17 Picnic Sharing Personal Statement Of Purpose The Missouri Round Robin is the monthly service publication of Al-Anon Family Groups of Missouri. Please protect the anonymity of all whose names appear in it by keeping this newsletter within the Al-Anon/Alateen fellowship. Our deadline for material is the 10th of the month BEFORE the month in which your article is to appear. We publish no poetry. The Missouri Round Robin is not copyrighted nor Conference Approved Literature. For yearly subscriptions (group or personal), make checks or money orders for $10.00 payable to: MISSOURI AREA AFG and send to: Jenn Burger, 916 Brands Hatch St. Charles MO Send articles to: Cheri House, 127 Ehmler Lane, Elsberry, MO or roundrobin57@yahoo.com

4 PAGE 4 MISSOURI ROUND ROBIN SEPTEMBER 2017 (Delegate report continued) Story and Alateen Journey. Both of these events are listed on our Calendar of Events on the Missouri Al-Anon website if you would like more information. It s always an honor to share my Experience, Strength, and Hope. Thank you for having the trust and confidence in me. By the end of Panel 57 I m hopeful that I will get to visit each of your Districts. California South Trip: Today, I received a very special invitation to be the featured speaker at the 2018 Service Workshop in California South. Every time I get an invitation by a Group, District, or Area I am blown away that members are actually asking me to share my thoughts. Prior to Al-Anon, organizations were telling my Parents to remove me and not allow me to come back. What a dramatic change. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I begin to prepare for each of these opportunities to carry the message as the Missouri Area Delegate. The California South Workshop will be held on January 20, 2018 near Los Angeles, California. They asked me to share on Service. Conclusion: I look forward to seeing each of you at the upcoming Missouri Area Events. I would love to see you at the upcoming September Missouri Al-Anon Convention. This position has been the journey of a lifetime so far. I can t wait to see what else I might get to experience in the next 2.5 years. Thank you for your love, support, and encouragement. I am truly honored and humbled to serve the Missouri Area as the Delegate. See you soon, Love in Service, Sarah S. Panel 57 Missouri What we believe, we can achieve! 2017 WSC: Our Members: Our hope for the future! Living With Faith Alateen Group On August 5, 2017 we had an Ice Cream Social for the Alateen s to raise money to go to Come Be A Teen (CBAT), Super Sunday and Assembly. The ice cream social is every summer on the first week of August. This year for the ice cream social we did a BIRTHDAY PARTY for the Alateen 60 s Birthday. A lot of people came to support the Alateen s and we sold12 packs of hot dogs to eat. I went up to talk to the people that came to the Ice Cream Social and it was so much fun to talk to the people that came. Alateen Group Representative Al-Anon Internet Sites

5 SEPTEMEBER 2017 MISSOURI ROUND ROBIN PAGE 5 Hello All! Area Archives Here we are in August already and I have heard a great deal from many of you this year, looking for different pieces of historical information. I can tell from the many requests that you are all working hard putting together various projects for the good of Al-Anon in Missouri! Below is a partial list of 2017 requests for Archives Information that we have received: A particular Alateen pamphlet, which is now out of print. KC area History for material their October Workshop. We are sending a folder of misc. items, and also referred them back to the Area history on the Website that we did a few years back. Procedures digest information for past years/ financial section. Also researched in the Area Minutes for where several particular motions were passed. St. James Group information for start date (District 26). St. Louis Al-Anon Office request for very early average room rental and average contribution. District 2 history of past DR s used RR researching Names and dates of those who served were typed with list given to the current DR. Researched District 23 past DR s and when it was active at the Area Assemblies. Researched when we voted to do Block Voting at Assemblies. Information on Crosstalk was also researched and sent to a group requesting it. Also, Loretta and I have just finished a yearlong task of going through all the Group files for all 28 districts that were sent from World Service Office around the time they moved from our New York Location in There was a separate folder for each group, so we sorted through each of them, and kept the most important papers from groups that are still in existence today. We did keep some records from the earlier groups, from the 50 s and 60 s and a few from the early 70 s that are groups no longer active. We find such fun tidbits and learn much as we search for your requests. We have such a rich history in our Area, with many past and present members to be grateful for and their tireless contributions! May Peace be with you, Sarah M. MO Archives Serenity Patrol Coordinator Hello everyone, happy end of summer to you all As the Serenity Patrol Coordinator, it is my commitment to provide Al Anon Member Involved in Alateen Service (AMIAS) volunteers to stand watch outside the rooms of our teens to protect their safety while they are participating in overnight Area functions. This is an area of service that anyone who is certified as an AMIAS and present at the event, may be asked to volunteer for and participate in our Serenity Patrol. Upcoming events requiring Serenity Patrol participation: September MO Area Alanon/Alateen Convention Inn at Grand Glaize (Two Nights) November 5 MO Area Assembly Inn at Grand Glaize (One Night) This opportunity for service is an easy way to help guarantee the safety of our teens. It is a simple matter of volunteering to serve. It will require a time commitment and a basic understanding of Alateen protocol. Basically, if you are an AMIAS, you can volunteer. You can commit as little as two hours or as many as eight hours. You can choose the length of your shift. Typically, we provide coverage from 12 midnight to 8 a.m. in the morning (or the Sponsor check-in time), depending on the event. Serenity Patrol provides two AMIAS volunteers to sit in the hallway outside the rooms of our Alateen participants. This guarantees that the teens get a restful night s sleep and so do their Sponsors. No one is allowed outside their rooms or to roam the hotel property unless they are accompanied by two AMI- AS volunteers. Serenity Patrol volunteers qualify for reimbursement for this service. The Area offers to provide this reimbursement, if the volunteer is not reimbursed through other avenues. This reimbursement includes the AMIAS portion of their room cost for the night that they serve, and mileage per the guide-

6 PAGE 6 MISSOURI ROUND ROBIN SEPTEMBER 2017 (Continued from page 5) lines for Area reimbursement. Each volunteer will need to submit an expense request form, provide at the time of your service, to the Serenity Patrol Coordinator. Each Serenity Patrol volunteer is free to read, play cards or games, or just sit and talk with the other volunteer while working their shift. If you feel like this is an area that you would like to explore, please let me know. On the certification form that you submitted, there is a box at the bottom of the form to indicate whether you are interested or not in Serenity Patrol. If you did not check this box or have changed your mind and decided you want to be a part of the Serenity Patrol Adventure, it s not too late I am excited about the possibilities we have before us. I would appreciate your input and your help. Blessings to you all as we continue to develop our Panel responsibilities. Again, I welcome your ideas of how to make Serenity Patrol more efficient, more effective, and more beneficial for all of us, Al-Anons and Alateens together. If the thought of sitting in the hall outside hotel rooms reading or playing cards or spending time getting to know new friends in the fellowship or you are a night owl and would rather do something different than watching TV from 2 4 am on a Saturday night Boy, do I have a deal for you In service, Sherri E., Serenity Patrol Coordinator Al-Anon s Three Legacies of the Month Step Nine Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Tradition Nine Our groups, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve. Concept Nine Good personal leadership at all service levels is a necessity. In the field of world service the Board of Trustees assumes the primary leadership. Reprinted with permission of Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc." Conference Approved Literature Our goal is to build healthy, respectful relationships. By applying the Al-Anon slogan, Let It Begin with Me, we can see that it is not good enough to wait for others to treat us well before we are considerate of them. Most of us find that after a while we begin to attract what we give out. If we are consistently warm and respectful, we tend to attract respect and warmth from others. It may not take the form we expect or come from everyone we encounter; but if we focus on ourselves, choose behavior we feel is appropriate, and let go of the results, our communication as a whole is bound to improve. (Taken from How Al-Anon Works Ch. 13 Communication)

7 SEPTEMEBER 2017 MISSOURI ROUND ROBIN PAGE 7 Lois s Corner This article is from The Forum March 1989, which was entirely dedicated to Lois due to her passing October 20, 1988 In Lois last letter to the Delegates from 23 countries gathered in London at the 1988 International Al-Anon General Services Meeting she said, The discovery of just how universal our fellowship is cannot help but deepen the appreciation for the gift we have. One way to picture the universality is to see the growing number of languages the ODAT has been translated into; Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Flemish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese and recently we have added Afrikaans and Greek to the list. We can now share the gift of Al-Anon with the Russian people as well. Our first piece of Conference Approved Literature, Purpose and Suggestions, worked on by Lois in the early days of Al-Anon is now in Russian along with Understanding Ourselves and Alcoholism. Recently we sent a mailing of these pieces to all the professional contacts made over the past two years through the Soviet American exchange on alcoholism. To a postal employee, the envelopes looked like business as usual, but we know went To Russia with Love. We know our literature in translation is a valuable tool to all who reach out. On January 3rd, the WSO registered the first Al-Anon Group in Moscow. The appreciation for Al-Anon that Lois spoke of is growing as more people read the healing words of the program in their language and become part of our worldwide fellowship. Mary Ann K., International Administrator Al-Anon Declaration Let It Begin With Me When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, Let the hand of Al-Anon and Alateen Always be there, and Let It Begin with Me. For Missouri Round Robin Subscriptions Send $10.00 check or money order payable to: Missouri Area AFG and send to: Jenn Burger 916 Brands Hatch St. St. Charles MO The Missouri Round Robin is not forwarded. Please keep your mailing address current. You may address changes to: wrkerb@yahoo.com Group Subscription Personal Subscription Change Current Mailing Address Group Name District # Subscription Go To Address> Name Address City State Zip+4 address For Area Contributions Make checks or money orders payable to: Missouri Area AFG and send to: Lori Hassler P.O. Box 121 Hazelwood, MO ~~~~~~ Group Contribution Group Name: District #: ~~~~~~ Personal Contribution Name Address City State Zip +4 address

8 PAGE 8 MISSOURI ROUND ROBIN SEPTEMBER 2017 AFG of MISSOURI NONPROFIT ORG Missouri Round Robin US POSTAGE 916 Brands Hatch St. PAID St. Charles MO Florissant MO RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED PERMIT 10 JUST A FRIENDLY REMINDER! If 09/17 appears to the right your name your subscription is expiring this month PLEASE RENEW NOW