For those of you who were not able to attend our July 29 Volunteer Orientation Call, the recording of the meeting can be accessed online: https://fccdl.in/6QFUnfd5r

ACA WSO Literature Development Committee Meeting

July 29, 2017 11 a.m. Eastern Time

US: (515) 604-9640 Access Code 761909#

Open with Serenity Prayer

Guest announce themselves…

Tamara:  Literature Development Sub Committee and how it works, with the projects that are lined up. Then we’ll talk about the process with myself and Robin. Minutes: we are recording the call, for internal use, to help us to do a summary of the call; minutes will be posted on ACA website. All volunteers will receive a copy of the minutes and what is needed.

Priority of projects. Many have signed up to volunteer in San Diego; the reason for this is because suddenly there is a lot of ACA activity. We have several projects lined up. We are actually trying to bring in volunteers to assist.  How does something become a priority? Tasks. Submit a proposal, then ABC votes, then it comes to the front. Several of our projects fall in this category. Anybody in the fellowship can submit a proposal to [email protected], then Literature Committee Chair and Evaluation subcommittee chair look at that project, then it can move forward that way. Afterwards, the Literature Committee determines if we need to move on that project. All of the work depends on the level of need, then it goes to the literature committee, then back to the Board. By the time it is done, ACA members everywhere can have input on whether it can move on or not. This is reflective of the whole fellowship.

Most of the projects need some developmental conceptually before we start writing; then the project can be started and then editing begins.

LOVING PARENT WORKBOOK – This will be an experiential workbook similar to the Yellow Workbook. Built on Chapter 8 of the BRB. It was put to ABC Ballot measure, unanimously voted on. This workbook will fill a hole, as we just don’t have enough literature to help people do it. Biggest slate? What would it look like? It will take reviewing every piece of literature we have, another basic look at physical and emotional care. Is there new information needed? Then an outline will go to the Committee, and then the project will move forward.  It helps to do this in small pieces, not to write 110 chapters and then submit. We hope to make the Loving Parent Workbook available by 2019 for approval for ABC, but this is huge undertaking starting from scratch with new volunteers. Most likely it will be in 2020. It will be a developmental process, and then we will decide how to move forward.

2017 ABC; SPONSORSHIP LITERATURE.  Lot of Fellow Travelers/Sponsorship information is confusing. This mission is smaller in scope to evaluate our existing ACA literature, possibly engage in broader process with focus groups, then propose new chapter for the BRB.  It will be a smaller project than Loving Parent Workbook.

YELLOW WORKBOOK UPDATE: After first four steps in the Yellow Workbook, questions become too skimpy. Invitation has been sent out asking people to submit additional materials. We will be evaluating the material that has been submitted for Steps 5-12 and then we’ll do revisions all in one step. Then once we have that, we will draft the new version.

ALTERNATIVELY THE LITTLE RED BOOK. The plan is to produce a condensed version of the BRB.  Solution  and Promises are to be up front. Sometimes the BRB is daunting. Foreign language translations are extremely difficult. I have talked to a number of people, what we’d like to do is sort of an introductory text: two different outlines. This will be more of editing a book that is already there. Then drafting a smaller book, updating trauma, with the goal to be more easily understood.  Deadline of this could be a year, actually midsummer 2018, because this will be editing material, not creating something from scratch. Reparenting, sponsorship, hard to be or get sponsors, complete this project to update the step workbook, and finally the Little Red Book that will greatly spread this message to other countries. All of these projects are coming together at the same time. Charlie is getting ready to turn it over to Robin and Tamara. Barbara: you mentioned trauma which lays the foundation, good for the newcomer in all of us. How do we do a reversal of trauma? This project will contain some of the most essential information, almost like a reader digest version. LOL. Simple and inclusive by Marjbrit from Europe: it is critical for the wording to be simple to understand and to translate.

Robin: We’ll be doing developmental editing: this is a broad approach to achieving a more narrowly-focused product. The BRB contains information all through it, light. What we need to find, a beginning point A with a through line to point Z as a sequence. The theme will be like a runway to direct us to the conclusion via the through line. Developmental editing helps to pinpoint which information fits the sequence, or if a piece of information merely supplemental, or distracting from the primary message.

Tamara:  preliminary ideas on how this might work. This is an exciting new challenge. It’s big. With each team, we are still developing the process. Hopefully we’ll have it laid out in the call a month from now. We’ll overlook on how the groups work together. There are different types of feedback; and potentially lot of different rules. Some might be a one coordinator for every project – an editor in chief. Here’s a list of all the tasks that need to be completed, and then we’ll develop how those tasks are completed. We’ll need someone to review the proposal so we all understand what they are working on. We’ll need someone who is good at seeking public opinion: focus groups, surveys, emails, etc. which will be done throughout the project at any point. We’ll need a point of contact for the author, but we can have someone work one on one with the person; we’ll need editors, proofreaders for grammar and flow, and we even need people to tell us of their particular interests. We’ll need someone to manage the projects, what is needed, what are others are doing. Trello.com is a new software, that is freeware; we’re setting it up to use; it’s really pretty, we may use it for all of us to communicate, because it’s visually easy to understand what is going on. Similar to Slack, we can use it to talk to other people.

Dropbox might be used.  Might not work as well as Trello.  By August 19, we have central workspace/storage area.  London suggested box.com. We need something that works for Mac, too.

Basically we are establishing the development process: Writer, editor, research skills, pulling it together and chart it, we’ll need a group conscious group. The next call will be August 19, one hour later, we’ll send out reminder notices. Noon Eastern Time. Same phone and telephone information.  We’ll give you some instructions for you to attend to by the next call.

Intellectual property protection. For WSO to have clear ownership, we need for each volunteer to sign two contracts: The first is a non-disclosure agreement. This protects existing content and newly created content. We agree not to share digital files, as this jeopardizes the fellowship’s copyright ownership. The second is the copyright release form. This defines that any new content generated  is original, and it becomes the property the fellowship. All of this is part of service work.

Charlie: Basically we have four projects: What I would like people to do, is to email [email protected], state up to three projects in order of your preference, or definitely this is the project I want to be involved with. There will be a development evaluation sub-committee, here is the project in order I want to work on. Give your telephone number so we can contact if need be. We will need writers, editors, researchers, opinion and feedback gatherers. List the roles you prefer the order you would like to do. Robin will send you the two forms: 1) non-disclosure form and 2) copyright release form. Print, sign, email it back….to allow you to have access into the editing tools we are talking about it. Once you are signed in, we will help you to sign into the tools as Trello or Box, etc. Goals are to complete this enrollment process as I have described as we make it possible for you to get the preliminary tools. Those are the things we would like to accomplish in the next three weeks. We have moved the time to one hour later, trying to get a time that works for the global community time wise.  31 people called in; 28 people on the call, besides Charlie, Tamera and Robin. What a wonderful start and group!  We will become several groups.

Question: Roles? One is for every group to have a project leader/editor in chief, to make sure time tables are being followed or if you are stuck. If someone is good at being a writer, that is one important role. Some people are great editors; these people make sure there is a good flow, and we’ll need more than one person who is comfortable with that. We’ll need volunteers to go through the BRB and identify related topics that are scattered throughout the book, culling them into an orderly chart. Tamara mentioned somebody who is comfortable doing surveys, follow-ups, and feedback before we march through. Little Red Book comments from you all are extremely important. We are nurturing fellowship here, every group will find what it needs to move forward harmoniously. We need to be open and to respect the process, be willing to listen and to hear the opinions of others and remaining open. Writing styles in ACA BRB are definitely a mixture of different styles. We have the Chicago Manual of Style. However, there are other aspects of our literature that have unique forms of expression. For example, is “ACoA” acceptable? Do we write ok, OK, okay, or what? Robin is developing writing guidelines, so we can focus on finding the essence of a piece of literature without worrying if we are to adheres to a strict set of grammar and punctuation rules.  The most important thing is to have the voice we can understand. Write what you are comfortable with.

Footnotes in the BRB. AA already has a little red book.

Majbrit: thank you for your great power.  Avoid really long sentences, “recovery” in a foreign language is a medical term; every country has to translate re-parenting into their own language. Please make it simple. Our BRB is complicated and “heavy” to read. 

Heather: some of our English speaking natives, don’t understand the BRB complexity and big words. Do we have a list of words that are sensitive wording? All invented words for our program do not exist in other languages. Robin has a list “glossary” of words to simplify. We are developing tools to help guide people. Europe doesn’t have the same build up/construction of the language; sentence structure is so different.  There is no need to explain it in 20 different ways. 

Bonnie: I love the idea of sensitive wording. Do we have a vision on reparenting?

Tamara: there are additional ways to view reparenting. Because we are looking at BRB Chapter 8, it’s only about 15 pages of text, then first person stories. Is that enough material for a full workbook? Do we incorporate basic needs, proper food, proper sleep in the loving parent workbook; what is the right scope of this book. It needs to probably be more than 15 pages. 

Summary:  List three projects in order of your preference. Evaluation/review committee. Phone number. What is your preferred role: writer, editor in chief, opinion, information gatherer?  Intellectual property form and copyright release form will be sent. The meeting will be on the 3rd Saturday of the month. Noon eastern, August 10th. We will organize people by projects. Thank everybody again, it has been a fantastic call, sizeable, engaged; I’m looking forward to working with you. Tamara is very excited too, and it will all fall together.  Robin?  Thanks again. 

Close with ACA Serenity Prayer