Minutes
European Committee Meeting in Helsinki
Saturday, August 29, 2015
8:30 a.m. CET
The Helsinki meeting is being held from August 28-30 at Stadia ammattioppilaitos, Vilppulantie 14 (in the neighborhood of Malmi, Helsinki)
Please notify the secretary at [email protected] with changes or additions to these Minutes.
A. Welcome from the EC Chair
The WSO is responsible for providing literature. Finances is a central part of this process. 7th traditions are what make literature possible.
The EC is working to connect Europe. At 14:00 CET on the first Saturday of the month, the EC has a monthly Skype call. The contact details can be found here:
Skype access information: The meeting will be held under the Skype name acaeurope. If you would like to take part in the meeting, please contact acaeurope 5-10 minutes before the meeting starts.
The call is open to all members of ACA. An agenda will be sent out in advance to provide groundwork for the discussion, but all members are encouraged to call in and take part. The main goal is to carry the message in Europe.
Europe is growing incredibly quickly. We are opening up new meetings every second month in a new country worldwide. In the past year, five new countries have opened meetings, and they are moving fast. In January, Greece contacted the EC. Majbrit sent out a starter kit in English. Last week Majbrit spoke to the first member from Greece, and they had already translated the first four chapters of the Red Book and the Yellow Book.
In order to expand the fellowship in your area, putting up a website is incredibly helpful. A few lines of information about what ACA is and a contact can go to great lengths to getting the word out, especially in the digital age.
At this point, Europe is moving towards creating a Region. But why do we need a region? For starters, Intergroups will receive a discount on bulk orders of literature. A European Region would also be looking into other ways of shipping literature, for instance over Amazon. At this point, distribution through Amazon should be available by the end of October.
Currently, there are difficulties with the X-cart on the ACA WSO website. Due to differences in the sizes of shipping boxes, the pricing on the website is unfortunately not correct. This is being worked on, because the EC and the WSO do realize how important literature is. The distribution center is also always trying to ship as cheaply as possible, but there are only three ways of shipping: US, USPS and a third private firm. Amazon should help alleviate this problem in Europe and empower us all to order books more affordably.
Information on the Annual Business Conference will be coming out soon. The EC would just like to say that as a fellowship, you have the opportunity to bring motions forward from the ground up. And if you have a representative there, you have the chance to represent your group/country on what’s happening in ACA worldwide. What gets decided at the ABC is what the WSO Board works on for the next year. The Board works from ABC to the Next ABC. This is your chance to let the Board know what it should be doing for the fellowship. The next ABC will be in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, at the Duncan Center. There will be a speaking event, so it will not all be about business, but there will also be a great opportunity to fellowship.
Translations: What is the process of translation? What’s required for a translation? There seems to be the understanding that once you have translated literature and present it to the WSO, that the WSO will then check the translation. Unfortunately, the WSO does not have the capacity to check translations. A few pages throughout the book will be checked at random, but the entire document will not be checked for accuracy. It costs approximately 60,000 USD to translate the Big Red Book word by word into a new language, and the WSO does not have the funds for this kind of expense. This is also why 7th tradition donations are so important to help the fellowship move forward.
The basic process is that you send a piece of translated literature to the WSO. A special worker ( professional editor) will then translate it into English with a specialized program, to approve the basic accuracy of our special concepts. Once approved, the WSO needs a PDF in order to layout the document in the native language. The layouted document will then go back to the mother country for approval, as the WSO cannot check that the international language is put into the layout correctly.
Sweden, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Spain, Canada: all of these countries are making great headway with their translations. These books should be finished in around a year, which means that the fellowship will be growing. In Denmark, for instance, the publishing of the Big Red Book in Danish increased the size of groups from around 10 people, to over 20 people, so an increase by 100%.
The European Committee works with the WSO, but it is separate from any future European Region. Once a region is created, the European Committee will be a separate entity. By creating a region, the 7th tradition funds would first go to Europe, instead of going straight to the US.
The Laundry List workbook is a direct result of the kind of service work we are talking about here. This will come out as a type of workbook, which can definitely help in doing a 6th step. The workbook was originally uploaded to the WSO website for almost three months for fellowship review. As a result, many questions were asked, and the workshop was expanded accordingly. The flipside of the Laundry List is mentioned in the Big Red Book, but it was not necessarily explained in detail. As such, the WSO went about creating literature to expand upon this in more detail.
The board is currently talking to members in Canada who have a more in-depth 4th and 5th step. This may one day be added to the workbook, because everything is possible.
There has been some discussion on making the tri-folds free, but this would only be possible when enough 7th tradition funds are coming in. Also, by providing the WSO with pamphlets in different languages, you could also host your pamphlets on the WSO website. Until a pamphlet has been approved, Intergroups should not distribute pamphlets with the logo on it.
In Finland, there has been some discussion about using ACA.fi rather than aal.fi, to help members who may not speak Finnish. The actual ACA logo should be used as well. This could be discussed at the next ABC. It’s also possible to transition the web address gradually with something like aal/aca.fi. Something similar was done in Denmark.
B. Address from Intergroup Liason Martin C.
At times, ACA in the US can feel a long way away from Europe. Here, we can bring a new perspective to ACA in the world. The largest attendance at an Annual Business Conference was in fact in Europe. This does depend on the people among us who come forward to do things.
A set of 10 tri-folds has been put together for each country represented here today. In addition, there are 100 copies of
25 Questions: Am I an Adult Child
What is Sponsorship in ACA
The reason behind this is that there has been a lot of talk about making the tri-folds free. In Europe, most people don’t have these tri-folds, in part because the shipping is so expensive. An initial motion to make all tri-folds free unfortunately did not pass, but a new motion has been made to make these two tri-folds free and accessible through the website.
Identification is very important to the program, but also the understanding that we are all equal here in ACA.
At the moment, there are only 5 people on the Board: Larry, Chair; Joe, Treasuer; Ines, Translations & Secretary, Majbrit Vice Chair. ACA is growing, and there are growing pains. At times we do forget that we are here to pass the message to the still suffering adult child. If you are interested in service at your local group, Intergroup, Region or the WSO, we do need you.
How do we get IGs to communicate with each other and support each other? If you don’t have an IG, please consider it. You can decide how to do that. You can do it for a whole country, or part of a country, or for an even larger geographical area. There are many models for how IGs can work, and they are all fine. Each IG has something to share with others, and each IG has something to learn. We’re trying to create a Forum for IGs to be able to talk with each other.
If you do have an IG, please make sure it’s registered on the WSO site. Also, please make sure you have one individual registered as the official person for doing literature orders. This person will be able to receive a 30% discount on shipping on behalf of the IG.
Also, the UK will register any English-speaking meeting in Europe.
Adult children have a tendency to isolate, and at times this can apply to groups as well. For this reason, it helps us to act together. Buying books is cheaper if several groups order books together. Putting together a website is easier. Finding someone to answer phones or emails is easier.
The basic service structure of ACA:
Individual ACA Member
Group–a group of individuals
Intergroup–a group of groups (in Europe, often a national IG, although it doesn’t have to be)
Region – we are looking to establish a European Region
WSO–a registered non-profit charity organization to serve the whole fellowship. The ABC is the Annual Business Conference of the WSO, where it listens to what the fellowship needs. This is where the tasks for the coming year get decided, and all members are invited to come. Motions can be made until 30 September. Then the WSO chooses the motions, translates them, and sends them back to all IGs for discussion.
In order to have a European Region, people in Europe would need to come together and form one. At the moment, the UK has voted to become one of the founding IGs to form a Region. We are looking for a second IG to help set up a Region, as two IGs are needed to create a Region. An invitation will be sent out to European countries to join.
Many people from Europe at times contact the EC because members do not feel safe in their own meetings. It is often helpful to read the section in the Big Red Book called “The Handbook”. This helps describe how service can be done.
A European Region could provide the opportunity to come together and exchange information and experience with each other, as well as support with shipping literature.
IGs make decisions based on a loving higher power expressing itself through group conscience.
The WSO would like to ask individual groups to upload literature in their own language to the new WSO webpage, to help increase awareness about ACA around the world.
Access number for the Teleconference: 712-432-0075, Pin 427266#. Press *6 to mute or un-mute.
You can also attend the Teleconference using your computer. For more information, please visit https://www.acawso.org/teleconferences/78-wso-board/162-teleconference-flash-phone
Announcements:The next EC Skype Meeting is scheduled for October 3, 2015 at 14:00 p.m. CET.
A motion to close the call with the Serenity Prayer was seconded.
