The first German ACA convention 2019
First ACA event was hosted by the German ACA IG in Bad Bergzabern one hour northwest for Karlsruhe.
I let home Friday morning at 8.02 by train to Copenhagen and flew to Frankfurt. Then had a train ride from Frankfurt to Karlsruhe, was picked up in Karlsruhe by a fellow traveler, and spent 2 hours in traffic getting to the hostel, a ride that usually takes 45 minutes without the rush hour. Arriving at 6:45pm we rushed in for dinner. The first person to greet me was a fellow traveler from the host committee, a person I did not know. She knew my name, and thanked be for coming to their event. The Hostel was fully booked with ACAs only.
Die jugendherbergen.de in Bad Bergzabern
I received an envelope with everything in English incl a 911 ACA Kit (German), a brilliant idea, Our ACA meeting format and the free downloadable literature.
With this pocket size ACA kit you can start a meeting everywhere. I am bringing one for us to look at. I guess we should sell them for at least $1 at our events. And Alexia can put it together in English if we want. Dinner was delicious.
After getting to my room I joined the opening meeting, the speak/share was given by a fellow traveler from Switzerland. The feel in the room was somewhat apprehensive but people were open and smiling. After the talk everyone in the room got to present themselves and to tell what they expected from this event. The feedback from the room when the person said ; “My name is ....! and 75 ACAs answered hallo ...! “ overwhelmed almost everyone.
It is hard to explain the energy of a first event in a country. But for me it was extremely rewarding, having been the point of contact for the WSO, sending the a Starter Kit to Germany as a Lights ON for ACA, and seen their progress/growth through their translation process leading to up to their first convention.
After the shares in the first meeting, the host committee solved the sponsor/sponsee in a brilliant way. The ACAs needing a sponsor/mentor/fellow traveler wore a red dot sticker on their name-tag, the sponsors, who were available for taking on a sponsee wore a green dot sticker. That way people were visible and people in need could walk up to the ones available without risking rejection. Four out of eight found what they needed. A Danish fellow traveler, born in Germany, got a German sponsee, after having heard my share about sponsoring foreign ACAs, he came and told me. It is the right thing to do after 8 years in the program. I knew him from the Danish IG working with him for a year.
Saturday was busy, the program ran in 3 consecutive rooms. Topics varied Yoga in the morning to tools of the program, Working the Steps, to what to look for in a Sponsor/ mentor. Trauma, Service structure of the WSO, how to set up Step Study groups. The 3 layers of protection being an ACA & Dance meditations.
EKS Switzerland attended and just before dinner the IG chair (German, Austria, Switzerland) and I had a business meeting with them, because they want to become ACAs. They had a lot of questions how they would fit in, in the German speaking service structure, and were quit happy with the answers they got.
Saturday night’s entertainment was music by professional singers, both members of ACA, one born in Buffalo NY, living in Germany since the 80’. Another born and raised in Germany. The first number was spontaneously written for the occasion called “Hurt people hurt people”. I bought the CD and will bring it to Sweden. We 2 are 1 was another number about getting connected with your inner child. www.annemariehoeller.com The night ended with small group having fun or talking in depth about program. The apprehensive feel was completely and utterly gone.
Sunday morning we were informed that someone had already stepped up to do next year “Deutche ländeträffen”, Heidelberg will be hosting it in 2020. The people of next years host committee got all the ACA posters/banners, the Tri-folds with them when they left after clean up. It took about 40 minutes Sunday afternoon to clean up the conference rooms. 4pm the place was empty I and another fellow traveler were the last one leaving.
Approximate 110 YWB was sold. 480€ collected for 7th traditions donation. We know of at least 3 new ACA meetings who will be coming out of this convention because people met each other from the same town all needing an ACA meeting. A lot of new people stepped up to do service for both the German fellowship and the WSO apparently as well. There were people from Spain, Denmark, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, the USA, and as fare as New Zealand.
At the closing German IG busyness meeting the IG took their first steps to become a non for profit organization. Alexia was chosen to go to the ABC/AWC as the German delegate. It was amazing to experience the confidence people gained in their fellowship over the weekend and we owe a big thanks to Alexia, Angela and Domenic and a lot of unnamed volunteers for pulling everything together.
In 3 short years the German ACA fellowship went from non existing to having literature and starting to become a non-profit because of full support from the EC/ WSO.
From A place of Love and gratitude Majbrit
