European Committee (EC) Annual Report (2018) 

For the 2019 ACA WSO Annual Business Conference Sweden

Committee Members

  • Majbrit M., Denmark, Chair, and Member of the WSO Board of Trustees [email protected]
  • Charlie H., Chair of Literature for WSO member of the board of Trustees
  • Jeffrey F., Czechia, Chair of Finance / Literature Subcommittees, [email protected]
  • Tanya M., Czechia, Secretary European Committee [email protected] 

Websites:

Statement of Purpose

Our mission has been to be the human face and local presence in Europe of the World Service Organization (WSO) for the Fellowship of Adult Children of Alcoholics / Dysfunctional Families (ACA). From a place of unconditional love, we carry the message of the 12 Steps, by supporting the growth of the European Fellowship through a wide range of services that help build their own local service structures: facilitate the translation, local printing and distribution of ACA literature in their own language; assist in understanding our concepts of service, traditions, and the structure of the WSO. We are not organized for the private gain of any person, and function as an autonomous body for Europe, as part of the WSO.

Fellowships in some countries tend to be much smaller and/or underdeveloped compared to the US, because of the need to first translate ACA literature before it can be distributed. As a result, much of our time is spent nurturing the often-fragile development of local translations and service structures, which have to replicate the ACA wheel (meetings, service structure and local literature) in their own language by themselves. Despite these overwhelming odds, we do make a difference. We are like the movie “Hidden Numbers,” having phone calls with local fellowships. The result is only measurable when the literature is printed or the fellowship comes together for a national event.

History of European Committee 2014 – 2019

In 2013, ACA WSO held its first non-US Annual Business Conference, in Denmark. What grew out of the ABC in Denmark was a wish to stay connected within the European fellowship of ACA. At the end of the ABC, the Latvian representatives suggested that the Europeans meet in Riga in 2014. And so began carrying the message throughout Europe.

When the European Committee was formalized in 2014, it was a pioneering idea.  Majbrit had just 5 email contacts from foreign fellowships to start connecting the European community of ACA; and it grew fast from there. More and more came to find out how to build service structures, communicate with WSO and how to address issues in local fellowships such as understanding the traditions, concepts and getting our literature translated.

Here are some highlights of the European Committee’s work in the last five years: 

2014 Majbrit attended the “European Meeting” in Latvia and tried to bring as many Europeans to that.  There were 77 attendees.

2015 The Finns hosted the 2nd European Meeting in Helsinki. Jeffrey joined the EC, primarily to print and distribute literature in Europe, as Chair of the EC’s Literature sub-committee. He subsequently became responsible for the EC’s Finances and acted as Secretary and soon thereafter was invited to join the WSO Board as a Trustee, where he served for two years.  

2016 The EC website was developed and national fellowships were invited to use the EC website if they didn’t have their own. The European Meeting was held in Moscow. Seven Group Representatives were expected (WSO listing) but forty-four came! The German IG was formed based on support from the EC.

2017 The European meeting was held in Spain in conjunction with release of the newly translated Castilian BRB.  It was the first European Meeting planned and paid for by the EC in conjunction with local members. The EC helped facilitate the birth of an IG in Madrid.   Tanya M. attended this meeting and joined the EC, becoming its new Secretary.

2018 No European Meeting, but plenty of travel participating in national ACA events around Europe. Translations also continued to boom as a direct result of EC support.  

Fellowship growth is accelerating, so a new Structure is needed to support European growth. 

Growth of Translated Literature and Publications

Literature is essential to the growth of the European fellowship. The first translated edition of the Big Red Book was published in Danish in 2013. Since then, six nations can read ACA literature in their original language, and more translations are on the way. 

Fellowship translation work is supported by a European Committee translators committee, which meets every other month. In addition, ACA literature now is printed in Europe, greatly reducing cost and time needed to deliver translated books and pamphlets. 

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As a direct result of a publishing bottleneck starting to emerge, a new template system was created to speed up the process of designing and printing foreign translations. Charlie, Mabrit and another fellow traveler had spent hours every week to come up with workable solutions. Again, this was pioneering, a solution needed, that could be applied to the worldwide fellowship, in how the WSO engage with foreign countries by sending a Starter Kit with our literature, follow through with support, and finally print the literature in an acceptable timeframe. (*The data in the chart Titles Printed or Ordered to Date covers the period from 2017 until the time of the 2019 ABC in Sweden.)

List of Upcoming Literature 

1. Greek YWB - about to be final proof-read

2. German YWB - printed for 1st National Convention March 29-31, 2019

3. Swedish YWB - printed for 2019 ABC/AWC 

4. Russian YWB - at printer, due for delivery at Convention in September 2019

5. Danish SMR - started March & due beginning June 2019

6. Lithuanian BRB

7. Polish YWB

8. Dutch YWB 

Additional translation efforts are underway in Greek, Castilian, Slovakian, and Hungarian. 

Assistance to National Fellowships in 2018

The EC has been a sounding board for service structures in Spain, Germany, Netherlands/Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Norway, Hungary, Belarus, and the Czech Republic

EC offers ESH for building Service structure growth, drawing on examples from how different national fellowships have evolved.

Now fellowships are working as teams, where previously it was individuals.  

In 2018, the EC:

1) Conducted ongoing EC communications via email newsletter, a monthly teleconference call with minutes of the call posted on the WSO repository and the EC site.

2) Supported the launch of book sales in several countries through Amazon UK. Now most of ACA’s major titles in English can be shipped to most countries in Europe through Amazon fulfilment. This drastically reduces the cost of shipping English-language titles from the US and further raises the profile of ACA in the UK.

3) Attended country events in Romania (Bucharest, April), Bulgaria (Sofia, April), Belarus (Minsk, July); Hungary (August); UK (London, September); Belgium/Netherlands IG (September); Russia (Moscow, October); Sweden.  In December in Slovakia, Majbrit, Jeffrey and Tanya attended the AA English speaking Central European Regional Assembly to learn more about the AA Service structure, how they provide service, and build a bridge of communication and trust.  We were well received and many AA members spoke of the emotional sobriety they had achieved through ACA attendance. 

By attending country events, European Committee members also share about the structure of the WSO, how we work, and how it is guided by our traditions, funded by 7th tradition contributions and the sale of ACA literature. This also helps us get to know national fellowships and their trusted servants, and to speak about the need of having a service structure in Europe and how we make this happen. See reports on the new website at www.acawso.org

4) Continued to develop the EC website (www.acawsoec.com) communicating and connecting more efficiently with the European fellowships, asking for their updates for country pages in English about meetings, history of their fellowships and links to their local websites in their local languages.

5) Continued to engage with existing EU Countries and invite and support Country Representatives from Romania, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia.

6) Welcomed WSO Board members to monthly calls, which helps them understand the cultural differences and challenges the fellowship faces in Europe, and to act as another voice for the EC on the WSO.

7) Continued to support the fellowship’s needs on a case-by-case basis per country.

7th Tradition Contributions 

7th Tradition Contributions from Europe continue to grow. They were down in 2017, but rebounded significantly in 2018, due in part to gratitude from being able to print foreign language literature in Europe. The chart (7thTradition Contributions from Europe in USD) shows an average annual growth of more than 25% over the past six years.

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Goals for the Year Ahead

1).  Support the growth of the European ACA structure translation Committees for different languages are needed. It only takes one dedicated service sponsor to support the translation chair of a translation committee, a person who know our service concepts, and be a person to go to for mentorship. Our most recent succes is Germany, see report on www.acawso.org/european-connection. So at this point we would like anyone interested to join our workshop on Saturday.

2) Continue printing ACA literature in Europe in different languages as they become translated or stock runs low on existing titles.

3) Hold our 5th annual European Meeting in Minsk, on Saturday July 27th , to engage more members to participate in service with the European Committee and grow the fellowship.  

4) Organize and set up a database using MailChimp connected to our website and actively build a list to communicate with as regular outreach to members for information, inspiration and support.

5) Continue educating members in Europe (through our “to-be-organized” database of contacts and web site) on the importance of 7th Tradition contributions.

6) Continue to develop an accurate overview/balance sheet of finances for Europe, based on all sales of literature (to and from Europe) and 7th Tradition contributions originating from Europe, along with expenses incurred by the WSO to support EC operations and activities.

7) Add more content to our EC website so that it becomes an even more valuable international communications tool and platform for members in Europe.

8) Explore changes to long-term service model for supporting growth of European ACA fellowships. 

Conclusion

Our prediction is that translated titles will continue to grow fast, as local fellowships get the support they need from the EC/WSO. The EC will continue to follow our traditions to help unify the European fellowship for the good of all adult children out there who are not yet a part of our ACA family.

Sincere thanks to all the volunteers who made this growth possible.

With gratitude of service. 

Charlie H, Jeffrey F,Tanya M and Majbrit M