ACA European Committee Newsletter – April 2016

Dear Fellow Travelers,

Welcome to the first edition of our new monthly newsletter that shares a brief summary of news and important developments about the ACA fellowship around Europe.

We hope it will inform and inspire you to further develop and serve the growing ACA fellowship in Europe and around the world.

Please feel free to forward it to any ACA members you know who might find it interesting. Soon we will have a new web site where you can register to receive this newsletter.

Yours in Service,

Majbrit M. (Denmark), European Committee Chair, WSO Vice-Chair, and Trustee
Jeffrey F. (Czech Republic) European Finance & Literature Sub-Committee Chairs, WSO Trustee

CONTENTS
1) The next European Committee Teleconference is Saturday 7 May at 14:00 CET.
2) A short summary of the 2016 ABC and AWC held in Florida last month.
3) The first European Committee plan and budget was approved at the 2016 ABC.
4) A call to serve the European Committee to help manage fellowship growth.
5) An update on ACA literature production and availability in Europe.
6) The 30% InterGroup discount is now live. But read this first before you order.
7) To Russia with love – 3
rd annual ACA European Meeting to be held in Moscow.
8) Does your group or intergroup have something to share with the European fellowship?

1) The next European Committee Teleconference is Saturday 7 May at 14:00 CET.

Join us for the next European Committee Teleconference which will be held this coming Saturday 7 May at 14:00 CET. On the call we will be discussing many of the ideas included in this newsletter as well as answering questions from fellowship members across Europe. Below is the access code and local dial-in numbers to join the call. If you don’t see your country in the list below then you will have to dial another country number to join the call.

Participant Access Code: 878137 Local dial-in numbers (see list below:

Participant Access Code: 878137

Local dial-in numbers (see list below):

 

#
Country
Conference Number
1
Austria
+43 (0) 1 2650500
2
Belgium
+32 (0) 3 294 11 60
3
Bulgaria
+359 (0) 2 437 2540
4
Croatia
+385 (0) 21 770 719
5
Cyprus
+357 77 788850
6
Czech Republic
+420 225 989 110
7
Denmark
+45 78 77 25 22
8
Estonia
+372 614 8043
9
Finland
+358 (0) 9 74790022
10
France
+33 (0) 7 55 50 02 04
11
Georgia
+995 (0) 706 777 059
12
Germany
+49 (0) 221 98203420
13
Hungary
+36 1 987 6825
14
Iceland
+354 539 0308
15
Ireland
+353 (0) 90 646 4151
16
Italy
+39 02 8998 2260
17
Latvia
+371 67 881 162
18
Lithuania
+370 (8) 37 248941
19
Luxembourg
+352 20 30 10 02
20
Netherlands
+31 (0) 20 322 3000
21
Norway
+47 56 90 10 20
22
Poland
+48 22 116 80 20
23
Portugal
+351 21 005 1180
24
Romania
+40 (0) 31 780 7000
25
Russian Federation
+7 (8) 499 371-06-96
26
Slovakia
+421 2 333 255 40
27
Slovenia
+386 (0) 1 828 02 25
28
Spain
+34 931 98 23 72
29
Sweden
+46 (0) 8 124 107 04
30
Switzerland
+41 (0) 44 513 30 07
31
Turkey
+90 (0) 212 988 1703
32
Ukraine
+380 (0) 89 323 9906
33
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 330 606 0182
34
United States
(641) 715-3810

2) A short summary of the 2016 ABC and AWC held in Florida last month.

The 2016 ACA Annual Business Conference (ABC) and first annual ACA World Convention (AWC) “Children in the Sun” was held in Delray Beach, Florida, USA from 22-24 April 2016.

Attending the ABC were more than 50 voting delegates, mainly from the US, but also from Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Spain/Ecuador.

The ABC entertained some lively debate, perhaps because no ballots garnered a 2/3 vote from the fellowship in order to be voted on at the ABC. But one of the major discussions and outcomes was that many delegates were new and did not know what to expect or how to prepare for the ABC.

So now a new sub-committee is being formed with volunteers from the ABC delegates to provide training and orientation for next year’s 2017 ABC delegates.

The first AWC however was a different event entirely. By Saturday evening, about 200 attendees (mainly from Florida and the US) descended on our venue, the Duncan Center, to experience an amazing spiritual and growth program that words cannot describe.

We are sure that in the coming months audio recordings, photos and more content from this truly unique event will be available to share. But in the meantime here are some links that will give you a feel for what went on:

The program http://acaworldconvention.org/program-2/
Workshop details http://acaworldconvention.org/program-2/workshop-details/

We would like to take this opportunity to recognize and deeply thank WSO Trustee and ABC Chair Bill D. and his event committee for the excellent program, venue and service they provided. They sure made it look easy and makes us want to come back to Florida next year.

3) The first European Committee plan and budget was approved at the 2016 ABC.

The first ACA WSO European Committee (EC) plan and budget was approved at a meeting of the Board of Trustees that was held on Saturday 23 April in conjuction with the 2016 Annual Business Conference (ABC) at Delray Beach, Florida, USA. Our basic goals and program of activities until the end of this year are as follows:

a) Create a simple website for the EC to communicate and connect with the European fellowship. b) Appoint as many Country Representatives as possible throughout Europe (see point 4).
c) Attend the annual ACA European Meeting in September in Moscow, Russia (see point 6).
d) Send an EC member to as many national annual events as possible (budget and availability). e) Continue to support the fellowship’s needs on a case-by-case basis per country.

f) Establish tracking and reporting mechanisms with the help of the WSO Finance Committee.

4) A call to serve the European Committee to help manage fellowship growth.

Now that the ACA WSO European Committee (EC) has a vision, plan and budget, it is time to officially ask members to step up and volunteer their service to help realize this vision and plan. We have an immediate need to fill the following service positions associated with the EC:

Committee Secretary

The Committee Secretary will be responsible for writing and/or editing the monthly agenda, minutes, newsletter and report of the European Committee. These written communications are in English so experience, skill and a desire to write in English would be required.

Website Content Administrator

The Website Content Administrator will be responsible for helping to design the new EC web site as well as uploading new content and updating existing content. Basic knowledge of web site content management systems (CMS), HTML code and related web site skills are necessary, including the ability to communicate in English, the working language of the EC.

Literature Sub-Committee Liaisons

Literature Sub-Committee Liaisons will be responsible for helping the EC Literature Sub-committee research and contact external agencies and vendors in Europe for the purpose of verifying translations and setting up local printing, sales and distribution of ACA literature. Knowledge in any of these areas is advantageous but not necessary. Good internet research and email skills along with the ability to communicate clearly in English is required.

Country Representatives

Country Representatives are similar to ACA WSO Group Representatives in that they act as the EC’s eyes and ears in a specific European country to report on information, developments, news and local concerns regarding meetings, literature, translations and 7th Tradition donations. Since a Country Representative acts as an ACA Ambassador for their fellowship in their country, it would be advantageous for this person to be an active trusted servant of the fellowship in their country as well as have the ability to communicate clearly in English.

Additional information

All of the service positions listed above require the trusted servant to attend the monthly EC teleconference calls held on the first Saturday of the month at 14:00 CET (see point 1). The initial duration of all of these positions is until the end of 2016 and may be renewed by mutual consent for the calendar year 2017. The time commitment required for each position varies but is estimated to be in the range of 4-8 hours per month. If you are interested in serving please contact Majbrit ([email protected]) or Jeffrey ([email protected]) by email.

5) An update on ACA literature production and availability in Europe.

English – If you have been listening in to our monthly teleconference calls you will know that we have been working for months to get stock in a warehouse in England in order to start selling English language ACA literature online through Amazon in the UK. According to the latest information the initial shipment will soon be ready to go so we hope this program can finally be launched sometime in May. Stay tuned!

Finnish – The next printing of the Finnish Big Red Book (BRB) should begin as soon as the order process is completed in the next week or so. The current estimated delivery date would probably be sometime in June. The first printing of the Finnish Yellow Work Book (YWB) is expected to begin in May/June now that the translation has been verified and the design layout completed. It is further expected that this will be the first piece of ACA literature in Finnish to be printed in Europe – either in Finland or in the Baltic region.

Russian – The Russian BRB is currently in the process of researching outside vendors for translation verification and printing. This is expected to be completed sometime in June, and like the Finnish YWB, is expected to be the first piece of ACA literature in Russian to be printed in Russia, which is currently estimated to take place in July/August.

Greek – The Greek meditation book has been translated and is at the early stage of researching outside vendors for translation verification and printing.

If your fellowship in your country is working on translating ACA literature and/or would like help with setting up local translation verification, printing and distribution, contact Jeffrey F., the Chair of the European Literature Sub-Committee by email ([email protected]).

6) The 30% InterGroup discount is now live. But read this first before you order.

As some of you have known for many months the WSO has been setting up a 30% discount program in the online shop for ACA literature sold to recognized InterGroups. This new offering finally went live just before the ABC in Florida and several shipments have already been made.

Note however that some restrictions apply and here is a link where you can find more information:

https://www.acawso.org/repository/519-special-intergroup-discount-roll-out

But...as much as this initiative is appreciated, we still do not have things automated on the web site, to make the shipping cost much cheaper for InterGroups outside the US placing their orders. Here is the back story.

Just as this discount program was about to be rolled out, a similar purchase order was being put together by Jeffrey F. (who serves on the WSO and EC Committees regarding literature) to help give fast growing groups in Sydney, Australia a boost. It was this order that revealed a gap in this InterGroup program, and that gap was that the WSO Distribution Center (DC), was only shipping orders abroad using the United States Postal System (USPS) - because they thought this was the cheapest way. However, the numbers told a different story: Six boxes of books (116 books in total made up of all four titles currently in print) would cost the IG about USD 1,000 after their 30% discount. But the shipping alone, using USPS, would cost even more – about USD 1,200! The total order would have cost USD 2,200! So Jeffrey F. did his own research and found several major carriers that would ship the books at a significant discount. Further discussions with said carriers resulted in a final offer that was made by TNT to ship these six boxes a books for only USD 400 – a third of what USPS was charging. As a result, the WSO DC is now using these alterative shippers to fulfill foreign orders, but this is not yet built into the shopping cart. Until this is complete you may need to first contact the DC in order to have them manually calculate a cheaper shipping rate. If you need any assistance with this you can also contact Jeffrey F., the Chair of the European Literature Sub-Committee by email ([email protected]).

7) To Russia with love – 3rd annual ACA European Meeting to be held in Moscow.

Mark your calendar and plan to attend the 3rd annual ACA European Meeting which will be held in Moscow, Russia on 23-25 September 2016. More details of the program will be forthcoming soon but in addition the EC would like to consider holding a European InterGroup meeting as well as a best practice workshop for trusted servants in Europe translating ACA literature. For more information about the ACA European Meeting in Moscow please contact Denis, the InterGroup representative in Moscow: [email protected]

8) Does your group or intergroup have something to share with the European fellowship?

It could be an announcement of an upcoming event, new service position appointments or milestones such as submitting a translated manuscript for a piece of ACA literature. We will consider all related information for inclusion in this newsletter and/or our new web site so please contact Majbrit ([email protected]) or Jeffrey ([email protected]) by email.

___________________________________________________________________________ Disclaimer: The information published in this newsletter reflects the opinion of the ACA WSO European Committee (“the EC”) and does not necessarily represent any official policy or position of the ACA WSO. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication, the EC makes no warranty, express or implied concerning the content, products or services offered herein, all of which are provided "as is". The EC expressly disclaims all liability for reliance upon the information contained herein. In no event will the EC or the WSO be liable for direct, special, incidental, or consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from the use of (or failure to use) or reliance on the information contained herein. If you are receiving this newsletter it is because you have been in contact with the ACA WSO but you may opt out at any time by sending an email to [email protected] with “Unsubscribe from newsletter” in the subject line.