European committee minutes
December 2nd 2017 Teleconference call

Chairing the conference call - Majbrit
Opening – Serenity Prayer
Tradition 12

EC CR Present:
Majbrit - Chair
Frederik – Sweden
Sylvia - IG Spain
Michael - Ireland
Erhard – Germany
Alexia – Germany
Mikkel – Denmark
Mihai - Rumania
Linda – Latvia
Kadri Liisa – Estonia

Apologies: Tanya - CZ

Majbrit reporting
EC Chair –
Visiting Belgium – modern facility/hostel for Dutch/Belgic Weekend Recovery retreat 9-12th November. Alexia from Germany
Theme – Hurting to Healing to Helping
International with English meetings, Polish, Dutch too
Fellow travelers from Central America, USA, Switzerland, Poland, UK
& Sweden
Email correspondence requesting sponsorship – German speaking
I found a sponsor for some in Norway this month
Swedish Intergroup have submitted application for ABC 2019
2 email country reports – Latvia & CZ

Jeffrey – Finance & Literature
Have got reprint of Swedish BRB – in Baltic's
Also printing in Baltic's Yellow book will also be printed for Danish reprint x 1000 due early Jan
BRB reprint due in 10 days Not sure about these you have to ask Jeffrey

Country Representatives
Frederik – Sweden – application submitted for 2019 ABC in Sweden
A lot of work done over 3 weeks.
Also sent invite to groups to vote yes/no for 1 month if they want to have ABC .. don’t know if it will be accepted.
It’s a relief to have the application submitted
Sylvia – Spain
Are holding IG together and are getting organized re literature/translations (priorities) and volunteers. More info at next EC TC Changed website from Madrid to represent all of Spain – in progress.

Mikkel - Denmark
Service board meeting in Jutland – quite good attendance.
Re-elected the Exec Service group with almost same people + 1 new
Hasse and Mikkel were re-elected and will continue for another 2 years as the WSO representatives for Denmark and will probably go to Toronto
Thrilled that Swedes have applied for 2019.
IG in Denmark has expressed willingness to do service to support Sweden.
7th tradition – income is lower so will see if Hasse & Mikkel will make it to Toronto.

Linda – Latvia
Reading report
10 groups – 8 F2F & 2 Skype
9 in Latvian, 1 in Russian
IG meetings 6 x/yr both F2F & Skype with 7-11 attending
Secretary, web administrator/event , literature & translation, tech support for Skype, website in Latvian, Russian & English
2 events – Feb/March and July
Conference includes meetings & about 45-70 pax – helps connect and strengthen
Next conf in March – currently looking for date/venue – theme will be Sponsorship. Call for experienced members

Kadri Liisa – Estonia
Estonian group got some free literature ?
Maybe they’ll have a translation of daily meditation book
Only 1 professional who can proofread
Maybe Estonia group can do a combined Christmas event with Russian groups?

Mihai – Rumania
Started to do the Country Report
1 year since ACA started in Rumania!
Slowly growing in Bucharest – looking for a new meeting space
??? still have 2 meetings on 2 different days.
Otherwise we are making slow but steady progress - the group in Bucharest has added also one extra hour for the new members - so at 17:30 we have this slot for catching-up and then from 18:30 until 20:00 is the regular meeting...we are just beginning Step 4. In the city of Cluj (north-west of Romania, in Transilvania) they are just beginning a second group, one will be Saturday at 10 am and other one Monday at 19:00, both of them in a clinics space. We also have Monday from 21:00 the online group for everybody from everywhere on the zoom platform.  We have the secret FB group that counts in total 95 members from all over Romania. Otherwise, the fellow-travelers in the two cities are also meeting themselves in subgroups for socializing and different extra-curicullar activities. We kind of translated a rough version of the 12 steps ACA program and the meeting format including the reading materials that are going with it for internal groups working purposes...

hope everything is allright with you, keep in touch
warm greetings,
Mihai
Bucharest, Romania Also an online meeting on Zoom
Curious how the second year will see the development of ACA in Rumania.

Michael – Ireland
All is continuing in Ireland
2 meetings have briefly stopped – Cork & Limerick
Looking to create an Intergroup.

QUESTIONS/issues
Mihai – Rumania – 2 queries
1) if the update should be a regular monthly?
2) EC website – waiting for a sign to give information for each country
Jeffrey responded
regular basis – Tanya will follow up with individual CRs – extensive annual report from 2 countries for each Teleconference and other smaller updates from others – eg Latvia & Spain this month, CZ & Belorus next month ..
TM comment – those “reports” are basis for country website pages to stimulate them
Web template for CZ will be completed in next few days as example

Frederick – where to find the reports from other countries?
TM comment – these reports should come in, be uploaded to web (where?) and in the Meeting minutes that get send out, a link be provided to (for example)
recording
Repository
Website country pages that have been updated

Majbrit – reports should be posted on the Repository – offered to send links.
TM Comment M – I feel protective of your time/energy when you offer to do more by sending links – can we get them to do their own research!
http://acawsoec.com/meetings/monthly-teleconference-calls/ has June teleconference link? Who does this?
Who wrote up the committee Minutes prior to April 2017 – they’re good!

yes just let them look up the link. The link should also be played on ou EC web site

Tanya – CZ

M – is it still necessary for you traffic direct to get permission to contact each other? I hope that we will all have each other’s contacts in future to go direct but is there a confidentiality reason for not doing this? It really depends of what the question is. And yes, the WSO gets memoers email addresses for the purpose of sending emails TO members, we need permission to give out the email addresses. This according to the traditions of anonymity

ACA 40th anniversary – exact date for beginning of ACA was unclear so it’s decided to be the last Sat of January The Wso decided at the ABC 2014 in Chicago that the Birthday should always fall on the last Saturday in January

Any further desires to share? 44.21
Mikkel – question to Kadri Liisa for Friends in Recovery contact in USA; The Danes need to ask for permission of the authors of the workbook to get it reprinted in Danish
Jeffrey responded – our Prague used Friends in Recovery book for many years before BRB in 2014 but noticed change in the group and BRB got much deeper recovery. 
A previous attendee returned and noted a leap in recovery through using the ACA literature/BRB.

Mikkel – where is WSO at with Yellow Book revision?
Personally agrees but many Danes like White book from Friends in Recovery. Sees it’ll take years to be replaced for old-timer to have completed the steps in the YWB. This sentence makes no sense (this is not true, we already have the YWB in Denmark.) Have a workshop currently going on using Friends in Recovery material. Looking for Experience around that.
Many old timers using Friends in Recovery find YB not as extensive …
Majbrit – Exec Lit committee is writing a condensed version of BRB which will be for Newcomer for re-parenting & trauma – easier to translate – hopefully ready for Toronto. (since learned that it will at least a year out in the future)
Also looking into insufficiency of Step 6 & 7 in YWB.
Find people would like more questions like Friends in Recovery but volunteers are needed to take on the task …?????
Meeting with Exec Literature Committee tonight.
They’re also looking into getting the Purple booklet in Denmark ACA approved for Newcomers.

Mikkel – clarification of YB
Majbrit – meant YB but not sure when.

Frederick – thanks to Denmark for support for ABC
Mikkel – had a vision for a Denmark/Sweden combined ABC in 2019. all those who volunteered in the ABC in Copenhagen 2013 to assist the Swedes
Meeting minutes prepared by Tanya M – Dec 2nd