Region 1 Chair Report - January 19, 2016
I was elected Chair at Assembly in September, and as the Board’s newest member, I am relying greatly on the experience of the rest of the Board. So, I want to start by saying THANK YOU to Ruth, Pat, Deborah and Margie for your warm welcome, and for helping me get my feet under me. You are wonderful and it is an honor to work with you!
As R1 Chair, I am also on the Region Chair’s Committee (RCC), which meant I joined them in Brisbane, Australia in October for the Region 10 Assembly and Convention. I learned so much observing the business meetings and workshops in R10, and was impressed with their commitment to carrying the message. I saw a very strong emphasis on PIPO (public information and professional outreach)--every one of the nine intergroups represented at Assembly reported on a PIPO project! In addition, they have a strong commitment to reach out to “OA Loners” (people who have no meetings close enough to attend) in R10. A Skype meeting (recovery, not business) was held during Convention, and was attended by OA members from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Israel. Shares alternated between someone in the room, and someone calling in on Skype. I came away realizing that we must also have “OA Loners” in R1, and would like to find a way we can reach out to these members.
It was also very good to meet with the other Region Chairs. The RCC is busy working on an Intergroup Renewal project, which is in the early stages, but I am excited to help create this resource to help intergroups around the world grow and thrive. We are also planning the forum for WSBC 2016 on the theme “Carrying the Message.” Also, as part of the RCC, I co-led a virtual workshop with one of the Trustees, sharing my ESH on Step 11 for the “Working All 12 Steps” podcast series, available on the World Service website.
I am the Board liaison to R1 intergroups, and host a conference call for all intergroup chairs, representatives, delegates and other interested OA members on the first Saturday of each month, at noon PST. My goal with these calls is to share resources and information, and to help intergroups connect with one another. We decided on our December call to set up a Yahoo Group (email loop) for R1 intergroup chairs to be able to easily connect and share solutions. Thank you to Mary, the new Greater Seattle Intergroup Chair, for setting up the group! We are still adding members, but should be up and running soon.
In December I emailed the Board of Trustees and the RCC a question:
"If you were speaking to a new intergroup chair, what are some of the "Do's and Don'ts" you would suggest they keep in mind in order to be an effective chair?"
I received some really thoughtful replies, which I will be sharing on our monthly conference call and on the new Yahoo Group.
I am Board liaison for the Bylaws Committee and the Assembly Binder Committee, and will be reaching out to those committees in the next two weeks so that we can get started with our work for this year. We have received one proposed Bylaws amendment already from Bitterroot Intergroup, and some policy changes from the Budget/Finance/Delegate Support Committee.
Regarding Assembly, I received input from a member that it would be very helpful if the Assembly Notebook were available online, in sections. I think this is an excellent suggestion, and see a great example of what form this might take on the R9 website. Check it out at http://www.oaregion9.org/region-9-membersgroups/region-9-assembly/2015-assembly-28th-october-1st-november-2015-in-parisfrance/
Assembly 2016 will be in Calgary September 15-16 and Convention is September 16-18! There will be some Bylaws and Policy amendments proposed, but the Board would like to make Intergroup Renewal a focus at Assembly, as well. We have also asked the Convention Committee to provide a time slot
for a workshop on Building Strong Intergroups at Convention. Stay tuned for more info!
We have two open positions on the R1 Board— partial terms for Communications Coordinator and Member-at-Large. If you would be interested in helping carry the message in R1,
please let me know by emailing [email protected].
Special thanks to our Trustee, Margie, for setting up a new Dropbox account for storing R1 documents. Margie also created a new email address that forwards to the entire R1 Board. If you’d like to reach the whole board at once, please email [email protected].
The Board is looking forward to putting on a workshop—open to the public—this weekend in Longview, Washington. Flyers have gone up in the community inviting people to come and learn about Overeaters Anonymous! We hope many OA members will come help us carry the message and grow the OA fellowship in Longview.Thank you so much for this opportunity to be of service to OA.
Beverly M. Region One Chair [email protected]
I was elected Chair at Assembly in September, and as the Board’s newest member, I am relying greatly on the experience of the rest of the Board. So, I want to start by saying THANK YOU to Ruth, Pat, Deborah and Margie for your warm welcome, and for helping me get my feet under me. You are wonderful and it is an honor to work with you!
As R1 Chair, I am also on the Region Chair’s Committee (RCC), which meant I joined them in Brisbane, Australia in October for the Region 10 Assembly and Convention. I learned so much observing the business meetings and workshops in R10, and was impressed with their commitment to carrying the message. I saw a very strong emphasis on PIPO (public information and professional outreach)--every one of the nine intergroups represented at Assembly reported on a PIPO project! In addition, they have a strong commitment to reach out to “OA Loners” (people who have no meetings close enough to attend) in R10. A Skype meeting (recovery, not business) was held during Convention, and was attended by OA members from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Israel. Shares alternated between someone in the room, and someone calling in on Skype. I came away realizing that we must also have “OA Loners” in R1, and would like to find a way we can reach out to these members.
It was also very good to meet with the other Region Chairs. The RCC is busy working on an Intergroup Renewal project, which is in the early stages, but I am excited to help create this resource to help intergroups around the world grow and thrive. We are also planning the forum for WSBC 2016 on the theme “Carrying the Message.” Also, as part of the RCC, I co-led a virtual workshop with one of the Trustees, sharing my ESH on Step 11 for the “Working All 12 Steps” podcast series, available on the World Service website.
I am the Board liaison to R1 intergroups, and host a conference call for all intergroup chairs, representatives, delegates and other interested OA members on the first Saturday of each month, at noon PST. My goal with these calls is to share resources and information, and to help intergroups connect with one another. We decided on our December call to set up a Yahoo Group (email loop) for R1 intergroup chairs to be able to easily connect and share solutions. Thank you to Mary, the new Greater Seattle Intergroup Chair, for setting up the group! We are still adding members, but should be up and running soon.
In December I emailed the Board of Trustees and the RCC a question:
"If you were speaking to a new intergroup chair, what are some of the "Do's and Don'ts" you would suggest they keep in mind in order to be an effective chair?"
I received some really thoughtful replies, which I will be sharing on our monthly conference call and on the new Yahoo Group.
I am Board liaison for the Bylaws Committee and the Assembly Binder Committee, and will be reaching out to those committees in the next two weeks so that we can get started with our work for this year. We have received one proposed Bylaws amendment already from Bitterroot Intergroup, and some policy changes from the Budget/Finance/Delegate Support Committee.
Regarding Assembly, I received input from a member that it would be very helpful if the Assembly Notebook were available online, in sections. I think this is an excellent suggestion, and see a great example of what form this might take on the R9 website. Check it out at http://www.oaregion9.org/region-9-membersgroups/region-9-assembly/2015-assembly-28th-october-1st-november-2015-in-parisfrance/
Assembly 2016 will be in Calgary September 15-16 and Convention is September 16-18! There will be some Bylaws and Policy amendments proposed, but the Board would like to make Intergroup Renewal a focus at Assembly, as well. We have also asked the Convention Committee to provide a time slot
for a workshop on Building Strong Intergroups at Convention. Stay tuned for more info!
We have two open positions on the R1 Board— partial terms for Communications Coordinator and Member-at-Large. If you would be interested in helping carry the message in R1,
please let me know by emailing [email protected].
Special thanks to our Trustee, Margie, for setting up a new Dropbox account for storing R1 documents. Margie also created a new email address that forwards to the entire R1 Board. If you’d like to reach the whole board at once, please email [email protected].
The Board is looking forward to putting on a workshop—open to the public—this weekend in Longview, Washington. Flyers have gone up in the community inviting people to come and learn about Overeaters Anonymous! We hope many OA members will come help us carry the message and grow the OA fellowship in Longview.Thank you so much for this opportunity to be of service to OA.
Beverly M. Region One Chair [email protected]