MINUTES - May 19, 2019

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERGROUP OF NICOTINE ANONYMOUS (SCINA)

INTRODUCTIONS:  George O. called the meeting to order at 10:12 am with the Serenity Prayer followed by introductions.

WAS YOUR MEETING REPRESENTED?  Quorum was not met.  Only 6 members were in attendance.  The following meetings were represented:  Costa Mesa 76, Fullerton 84, Laguna Beach 257, and Long Beach 231.

TRADITIONS: Tradition #5, “Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the nicotine addict who still suffers.” was read.

Chairperson’s report:  I would like to acknowledge and thank all the conference committee members and volunteers for their time, efforts, and hard work which made for a successful 2019 NAWS World Conference.

TREASURER’S REPORT:  No report this month.

REGISTRAR REPORT: No changes were made to the Administration List.  No meetings were added, updated, or removed. All Meetings have USPS contact through their Secretary, their Representative, or email. No H&I Listings were added or updated.  White Medical Association, Whittier, was removed due to returned mail. 37 envelopes were addressed, and 100 Directories were printed. John D. will ask the Intercity Fellowship if they can host our Intergroup meeting every month.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

HOSPITALS AND INSTITUTIONS:  If you have any hospitals or institutions we can add to our monthly email please let us know.  For more information, or to be of service, please call Angela P. at (949) 302-8465. Pasadena Salvation Army contacted us about doing a cessation class Thursday nights at 6:00 pm.  Still waiting for details. Bill H. might be able to go once a month and host a meeting. Call Bill H. if you can help him (818) 800-3449.

COMMUNICATIONS:  The phone lines are running smoothly.  No concerns at this time. For more information, or to be of service, please call George O. at (562) 310-0874.

We discussed canceling the @scina.org email addresses and use gmail. It costs about $60/year to use the GoDaddy @scina.org domain email addresses.  Gmail is free and we’re able to use Google Drive which has a lot of benefits. We can save files together in the Google Drive like PDFs, and of course the Minutes.  John D already started using scinasecretary@gmail.com.  Here’s some other email address ideas:  scinaregistrar@gmail.com, scinatreasurer@gmail.com, scinainfo@gmail.com, etc.  If a different person becomes Registrar for example then that person can just get the login info and start their new role.  No names attached. It is easy to add an email account to our phones. For example, John D has his personal email and the scinasecretary@gmail.com on his phone’s email app.  When he replies it shows what email address is responding.  Very easy. If a future SCINA group wants to change it something like @scina.org (a paid service), then fine, but this might be the best thing for now.  John D. will look into how we can use these but still keep our anonymity. When a new Gmail account is created, it might reference the person who created.

LITERATURE:  $38 worth of Chips and Literature were purchased and delivered to the Friday night meeting Secretary.  $670.54 is in the balance of the bank account for literature. Sales from the World Conference is being counted, but no report yet.  We need someone to take over SCINA Literature. Please consult your Higher Power, and if interested, please contact George O. at (562) 310-0874 or come to one of our Intergroup meetings.

WORLD SERVICES:  New officers were elected this year during the Nicotine Anonymous World Conference.  Congratulations to Bill H. for becoming Chair-Elect of World Services! And, congratulations to Angie for becoming Secretary-Active!  Thank you to everyone who helped plan for the Nicotine Anonymous 2019 World Conference. It was held in Fullerton, CA on May 3-5, 2019.  The last time Southern California hosted the World Conference was in 2013 in Long Beach, CA. The 2020 Nicotine Anonymous World Conference will be in Lancaster, PA.  The Treasurer report for the 2019 World Conference is in progress. Suggestions for next conference: chat room/shared file for people who want to share hotel rooms and transportation to and from hotel, Serenity Shredder, link registration form with Paypal, ask members what they want their name badge to say (city, state, meeting, intergroup, service position, and what else?).

EVENTS:  The 2019 SCINA Joshua Tree Retreat will be July 12-14, 2019.  This is the 20th anniversary of the retreat! Flyers have been sent via email and mail from our distribution list the past two months.  Six people have registered so far. There is still plenty of room, but register soon before it fills up. Chips and literature will be available for sale at the retreat.

For the meeting/elections/picnic in Sept, George R. reserved a spot at the Cheviot Hills Recreation Center in Los Angeles for $119.  The Annual Picnic is Sunday, September 15, 2019.

We are not able to have the annual Marathon Meetings event in November at the same location.  Joseph can’t be there the whole day, and the church won’t let us have it there unless a member of their church is present.  The Long Beach Saturday morning meeting (meeting #231) asked the owner of their location if they could do it. They will get back to us soon.  Joseph is looking for other locations too. Discussion was had to shorten the hours for this event, and to move to another location. The event will be held Saturday, November 23, 2019.

NEW MEETINGS:  No new meetings.

PUBLIC OUTREACH:  If anyone is willing to take on or share the Public Outreach position, please contact John D. at (818) 618-1501.  We need more help with outreach. The Nicotine Anonymous World Services (NAWS) Outreach Committee meets on the phone on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 5 pm Pacific Time.  Contact Jeff M. for details at (760) 401-6503 or jeffinjt@gmail.com.  Angie B. was able to attend the NAWS Outreach meeting on 5/8/19.  

SPEAKERS LIST:  Invite a speaker to your meeting.  Call (949) 302-8465 for a list.

BY LAWS:  No changes at this time.

Director of Web Operations:   If anyone is willing to take on the Web Operations role, please contact Brian K. at (310) 497-5925.

WORLD CONFERENCE AD HOC COMMITTEE:  The Conference was held May 3-5, 2019.  This committee is now dissolved. The email address, conferenceinfo2019@gmail.com, is now defunct.  John D put a vacation responder on it for a long time that has a message to contact SCINA if anyone has any questions about the 2019 World Conference.

OLD BUSINESS:  No old business.

NEW BUSINESS:  George O. received confirmation from Vicky Hirshberger of the Health and Healing Program at Torrance Memorial that the 7pm Monday meeting had gone dark some time ago.  Conference t-shirts are still available for $11 each. Please contact scinasecretary@gmail.com if you’re interested.

BIRTHDAYS:  William G. (36 years), Ken R (32 years).  Congratulations!

SECRETARY REPORT:  No quorum met, but Minutes were read.

CLOSING PRAYER: Angela led us in the Serenity Prayer at 11:48 am.