What does sponsorship in ACA look like? Are you looking for a sponsor? Have you been asked to be a sponsor? Should you be? The San Francisco Bay Area Intergroup is presenting a Sponsorship Workshop on September 19th from 7-8 PM Eastern Time (6-7 Central). Through the “miracle” of Zoom we now have the ability to take in learning opportunities from around the world. For further information please go to the ACA WSO website at https://acawso.org/calendar/sponsorship-workshop/ for further information and connection instructions.
Remember you cal always have this monthly newsletter delivered directly to your email address by updating your preferences on the ACA WSO website at this address: https://adultchildren.org/newsletter/
A new Ready, Set, GO!! session is set to begin on September 10, 2020. This will be particularly exciting since the materials that we’ll be using are nearly ready for publication. Once again this will be a virtual 6 week session, this time on Thursday mornings starting at 9:00 am Central Time. See below to download the introductory flyer and send an email to acatoni5617@comcast.net for RSG updated material.
Oh My! We have quite the plans for our Annual Conference this year. Our Annual Conference and Business Meeting will be virtual, using Zoom, which gives us the opportunity to NOT be limited by geography or room size! The conference will be held on October 17th & 18th. We are planning to hear from speakers from around the world, across the nation and down the block and making it as interactive as possible.
We want to spread the work around on that day. We have opportunities for people to host and co-host the zoom meetings, monitor breakout groups, monitor the chat room for questions to feed to the speaker as well as some tasks we haven’t imagined yet. If you have a familiarity with Zoom and messaging please let me know. Right now we envision asking people to serve for about an hour each so everyone gets a change to be in service as well as ample opportunity to participate in the program.
The estimate on the back of my napkin means we can use from 30-50 volunteers so don’t be bashful. Please send your first name and last initial, your email address and phone number in an email to secretary@westgreatlakesaca.org and let us know that you might be interested. We’re still working on the tasks and the timing so we’ll know more soon but the more people who let us know they have interest the easier it will be to plan.
Seems like we just finished the virtual 2020 ABC/AWC and it is time to start preparing for 2021 and this starts with all our participation. With that in mind we received the following invitation from the WSO.
Dear Fellow ACAs,
Each year the ACA WSO holds our Annual Business Conference (ABC) and ACA World Convention (AWC) in April. This coming year they will be held April 22-25, 2021 both virtually and in-person in Boca Raton, Florida.
If your group has an idea that may benefit ACA Worldwide, you can submit it as a Proposal for potential inclusion on the agenda at the ABC. All Proposals will become part of a Ballot published in January.
The specific process and timing are as follows: If your group feels it may have a Proposal to submit, your first step is to go to the Ballot Prep Committee (BPC) website page https://acawso.org/category/ballot-prep/ to find the following information:
Proposal Guidelines (including whether it should go to a Committee or be a Proposal)
A schedule for “Crafting a Proposal” Workshops
When you’re ready to submit your group’s Proposal to be considered for the ABC agenda, do the following:
Remember you cal always have this monthly newsletter delivered directly to your email address by updating your preferences on the ACA WSO website at this address: https://adultchildren.org/newsletter/
The Adult Children website maintains an extensive list of meetings all over the world with times and locations and contact persons. To find your meeting or one where you are traveling you can go to https://adultchildren.org/meeting-search/ and enter your search criteria and your meeting and all those that match what you’ve entered will be listed. If you are the Contact Person for that meeting you have the ability to update that information yourself and keep your meeting information fresh and available.
For years the West Great Lakes ACA Intergroup website has also provided meeting information for all the meetings in our area. This has has taken an inordinate amount of time to keep up to date and accurate. We have recently realized that we are duplicating the work that is already being done at adultchildren.org. This reduces the amount of time we have to communicate with people and groups in our area about Recovery opportunities and events.
Over the next few weeks you should start to see some changes at https://westgreatlakesaca.org. We will begin eliminating the extensive meeting information on our website and promoting the information that is on WSO site. We will still have updates when there are meeting changes that everyone should know and inform visitors of any events in our area and beyond, but for regular meeting information we will start to point visitors to https://adultchildren.org/meeting-search/.
Because of this change we are asking every meeting in our area to go to the Adult Children meeting search page and check your information. Make sure your day, time, place and content are correct. If anything needs to be changed please use the link at the top of the page for the “self-service update feature.” If it has been a while since you’ve made any changes you might need to update the identity and email address of your contact person.
Thanks so much for your help. Whenever there is a change to your meeting information please think first of adultchildren.org first and then of West Great Lakes. Having the Adult Children site up to date will centralize where our fellow travelers need to go to find a meeting. Please also let secretary@westgreatlakesaca.org know about any changes as well. While we will no longer be updating maps and brochures we will have a running list of changes to help keep our folk informed.
7th Tradition: Every ACA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. BRB, pg 522
So many of our meetings are now being held virtually through Zoom or FreeConferenceCall or on the phone. Not only are we missing the human touch, frankly, we don’t get to pass the basket! Each meeting, a buck or two, a quarter, helps to grease the ACA wheels, local group expenses, the facilities that host our meetings, the Intergroup and WSO, a whole infrastructure in place to support us in our recovery. Even if we are not physically meeting there are still costs to bear.
Many have asked how we can exercise the Seventh Tradition during the pandemic. Many of our hosting facilities, whether they be a clubhouse, church or other facility, have created ways to continue support during this downtime. You might explore their web sites and see if they have created a way to provide a Seventh Tradition Gift. The ACA WSO, as well, has provided a way to offer a Seventh Tradition Gift on the Adult Children web site which you can access by clicking here: https://adultchildren.org/contribute/7th-tradition-contribution/. For local group giving you might ask during a meeting if a way to offer a Seventh Tradition gift has been created as well.
The West Great Lakes Intergroup has also provided a way to offer a Seventh Tradition gift. If you would like to send a check you can make it out to “West Great Lakes ACA Intergroup” and send it to P.O. Box 681276, Schaumburg, IL 60168. You can also send a gift using a credit card or PayPal account. Click here to use your credit card or PayPal account or use the QR code attached to this article. When you make the gift you will be given the opportunity to write a note indicating from whom the gift is coming. This information can also be found on our web site, https://westgreatlakesaca.org. You can find all this information in one of the boxes on the right side of the page.
Now that so many ACA events are being conducted online due to the requirements to be socially distant and avoid large crowds it creates some opportunities that we would have otherwise not been able to take advantage of. Sidney Unity Day is just such an opportunity. We’ve received notice that the Sydney Intergroup, yes, that Sydney, is holding their 5th “Unity Day: Living in the Solution” on the weekend of July 19th. There will be sessions on Beyond Survival/Practicing Self Love, From Surviving to Thriving, Step up to Love and What does your ACA Recovery look like. I will attach the flyer below, however, please note: the times on the flyer are AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time). For US Central Time the event will begin at 6:00 PM on July 18 and run through 1:00 AM on July 19. Seeing ACA Recovery in process around the globe is quite an enriching experience. You might want to take a nap on Friday!
