SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERGROUP of NICOTINE ANONYMOUS
INTRODUCTIONS: George O. called the meeting to order at 10:10 AM with the Serenity Prayer followed by introductions.
WAS YOUR MEETING REPRESENTED? A quorum was met. The following meetings were represented: 022, 023, 047, 076, 185, 229, 231, 241, 250, and 273.
TRADITIONS: Tradition #6. “A Nicotine Anonymous group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the Nicotine Anonymous name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.” was read.
CHAIRPERSON REPORT: Our primary purpose is to offer support to those who are trying to gain freedom from nicotine. Intergroup does this by helping on the business side of things. We encourage everyone to volunteer with Intergroup whether it's in a big role or a small task. You are welcomed and needed.
TREASURER REPORT: Our beginning balance is $757.11. Income: Donations: $50 from meeting #250, Bellflower, $39 from meeting #231, Long Beach, and $25 from meeting #241, Glendale. Thank you! Our first annual potluck brought in a 7th tradition of $26. The June SCINA Intergroup meeting brought in a 7th tradition of $13 (Total incoming $153). Expenses: $3 Bank imaging fee; Secretary expenses $32.46; Registrar expenses were $31.69. (Total outgoing $67.15.) Ending balance $842.96. The report was moved and approved.
REGISTRAR REPORT: Administration List: Carol, our long-time Leader of Phone Angels has honorably retired, and George O. has offered to be the 800 Number Coordinator. Meeting #034 Newbury Park, Monday 7:00 pm, Phone Contact and Secretary information updated. Meeting #185 Sherman Oaks Thursday 8:00 pm, Phone Contact information added. No new Meetings were added. Meeting #277 Downey Friday 7:00 pm was disbanded. All meetings have USPS contact through their Secretary, their Representative, or e-mail. No H&I Listings were added, no H&I listings were removed, and no H&I Listings were updated. 59 envelopes were addressed, and 200 Directories were printed.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
HOSPITALS AND INSTITUTIONS: Vee K. contacted a couple places but gets brushed off. Please call (818) 660-3315 if you have a contact for him. If you have a doctor or dentist that is willing to put out our business cards and our meeting list in their lounge every month, please get their contact name, business name, address, phone number and email address. We will add them to our regular snail mail and send them our new meeting lists and any flyers we have for events every month.
COMMUNICATIONS: Our entire membership would like to thank Carol (in Fullerton) and her "Phone Angels" for their many years of service managing our 800 number. They are stepping down at this time so that others can be of service.
If you are interested in taking on this commitment, please contact George O. at (562) 310-0874. Your responsibility is to return calls and provide information on our meetings. Our phone carrier has recently been changed from AT&T to Grasshopper.com, which has made it easier to monitor the phone lines. We can now receive notifications via email or smartphone app when a voicemail is left on the 800 number. If you download the app, you can even return calls using your smartphone, but it will show the 800 number instead of your cell number. Again, please contact George O. if you are interested in taking on this commitment.
LITERATURE: We are in full stock on chips and literature. If sending a check to pay for literature, please remember to make it payable to Nicotine Anonymous.
WORLD SERVICES: No report from Gary. Nola called as she is the recently elected NAWS Chair Elect and wanted to know if there were any action items we wanted to present to the Board for their upcoming meeting July 25th. I told her we were going to discuss hosting the Conference in 2017 or 2018 near Burbank. We haven’t decided yet if we can host.
EVENTS: The Potluck in Hollywood was a great success. Jack R. was the guest speaker and members of Nicotine Anonymous came from all over the Los Angeles and Orange County area. Thank you Intergroup and their volunteers for starting up this new event. It is our hope that we can do it again next year. The Joshua Tree retreat is coming up in one month. Please get your checks in so Jane can purchase the items she needs and pay for the reservation and food. If writing a check, please make it payable to SCINA. Our picnic will be the 3rd Sunday of September at Tellefson Park, Washington Place and Tilden Avenue, Culver City, CA, please mark your calendars. See flyer included with this mailing. Saturday, November 21st will be the date of the Marathon meeting this year. Also remember, we need our membership's support. As part of our recovery, it is important for us to practice reaching out to others. Intergroup events are an opportunity for that.
NEW MEETINGS: Gary reports there haven’t been any requests for new meeting material.
PUBLIC OUTREACH: John D. hasn't sent a formal letter yet to the City of Los Angeles, but he will do so soon. We have been endorsed by someone in the city so that we are able to possibly have an ad on the city's news channel. If anyone has any ideas for public outreach, then please contact John D (818) 618-1501. Please remember that John D. took on this role because nobody else was doing it. He is doing what he can in this role, but he and his wife just had a baby so it's a little slow. If anyone wants to step up and be the Public Outreach Chairperson for Intergroup, then John D. is open to give it up. If not, then John D. is committed to doing the amount of work he is able to do.
SPEAKERS BUREAU: Call Angela P. (949) 302-8465 if you would be like to join the speakers list or need a copy of the list. Please invite one of the speakers to your meeting.
BY-LAWS: No report.
WEB CZAR: No report.
OLD BUSINESS: No old business.
NEW BUSINESS: We discussed having a raffle at our events to see if we can generate more interest at our events. Perhaps a 50/50 raffle. Marty thinks we should remind groups that the policy of Nicotine Anonymous is to welcome people who have a desire to quit using nicotine and welcome their participation. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or Nicotine Anonymous as a whole. He is concerned that some meetings don’t allow people to share if they don’t have time off nicotine and that makes them feel unwelcome. Marty made a motion that Intergroup should advise groups that new members should be allowed to share even if they are still using. A friendly amendment was made to please give your input to your Intergroup Representatives so that we can discuss this further next month.
BIRTHDAYS: Patty is celebrating 3 years this month. Please let us know if you are celebrating a Smober birthday/anniversary in July.
SECRETARY REPORT: The June report was read and approved as we did have a quorum.
CLOSING PRAYER: Vee led us in the Serenity Prayer at 11:42 AM.
