Southern California Intergroup of Nicotine Anonymous
INTRODUCTIONS: John D. called the meeting to order at 10:04 AM with the Serenity Prayer followed by introductions.
WAS YOUR MEETING REPRESENTED? A quorum was not met. The following meetings were represented: 001, 007, 022, 023, 037, 047, 076, 163, 185, and 229.
TRADITIONS: “Tradition #10. Nicotine Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the Nicotine Anonymous name ought never be drawn into public controversy,” was read.
TREASURER REPORT: Beginning balance $765.97 [+ $93.05 AT&T erroneously entered twice in Aug and Sep] = $859.02. Income: Donations this month: $100 from mtg #12 Long Beach, $110 from mtg #34 Newbury Park, $20 from mtg #23 Costa Mesa, $13 from mtg #231 Long Beach; $44 from mtg #76 Costa Mesa. 7th tradition from September SCINA meeting $35 (we should have a picnic every month!); remaining tee shirt sales at picnic $40; (total incoming $362). Expenses: Bank Fee $3; Registrar expenses, $33.88; Secretary expenses $32.20; AT&T Long Distance $70.09; $125 to Event Chair George R. for picnic supplies (food, drink, bbq); $125 to Calvary Baptist Church for use of facility at November marathon meeting, $192 SquareSpace annual website renewal; $12 to NAWS donation; $40 PO Box quarterly rental (total outgoing $633.17). Ending balance $587.85.
REGISTRAR REPORT: Administration List: No changes. Meeting with updates: 231: Phone Contact information updated. All meetings except 059 have USPS contact through the Secretary, Representative, or both. No H&I Listings were added or removed. 70 envelopes were addressed.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
HOSPITALS AND INSTITUTIONS: The old H&I list was sent to Chuck T. for review.
COMMUNICATIONS: Carol is operating our hotline. She says they haven’t been getting any calls in quite a while. Our monthly AT&T bills have been between $23 - $47 per month since January of this year. In looking at the itemized calls on the most recent bill, we have 24 calls lasting only 00:30 seconds which are probably hang-ups. Perhaps we can update our outgoing message in some way. Please send your suggestions to Angela at apendergrass24@gmail.com.
LITERATURE: Marty was sick and couldn’t bring the literature to the meeting. Please contact Marty for all your literature needs at the next Monthly Intergroup meeting.
WORLD SERVICES: Our profit/loss is showing growth compared to last year. Gift of Gratitude donations have grown. Discussed if we should still use Glenn K to do recording at Conferences, hire local people, or purchase our own recording equipment but that’s assuming we could always find someone to volunteer. We still need a Chair Elect, if anyone is interested please email chairperson@nicotine-anonymous.org. Also need an In- Reach Coordinator who takes care of getting NicA info to the fellowship through Constant Contact via email every 3 months. If interested email chairperson@nicotine-anonymous.org. We do have an Outreach Coordinator now. We are thinking of writing an article to submit to a medical journal about NicA. Smoker’s Anonymous meetings are popping up. One leads you to a medical center and another leads you to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT’s). The name Smokers Anonymous is owned by the same doctor who led to our name change. The thing is if you open the link and follow through it says they are Nicotine Anonymous. What to do about it we do not know. There is one on FB saying they are Smokers Anonymous and its intent is to link us to them. We will have the new website up pretty soon. We have a PayPal button but it needs work. It will not accept international orders through PayPal. International orders need to purchase with credit cards. We discussed why the membership is dropping. The ideas for Conference workshops are (1) The Evolving role of the WSO Chair, (2) Rewriting the Nicotine Delivery Systems Pamphlet, (3) Editing the traditions for modern times, (4) Increasing membership, and participation, (5) Step study guide book to make ready for vote at NJ conference, and (6) Endowment workshop. These are not set in stone yet. We discussed why membership is down but didn’t get into what we can do about it yet. We are always looking for phone and email servants and 7th step prayer on the website under “What’s New”
EVENTS: The Marathon Meeting hosted by the Bellflower meeting is always the Saturday before Thanksgiving from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. Please call Joseph W. at (562) 644-5225 to volunteer to host an hour of the meetings. This is the weekend following The Great American Smokeout every year (3rd Thursday of November) so we want to be of service to everyone who is willing. Please also see the telephone marathon meeting that same weekend. Information is on our website, www.SCINA.org. Please try to support these meetings.
NEW MEETINGS: Please think about starting a new meeting.
PUBLIC OUTREACH: No new report.
SPEAKERS BUREAU: Angela P. has offered to be the contact for Speakers Bureau. Please let her know if you are willing to be on the speakers list by signing up on the www.SCINA.org or by calling her at (949) 302-8465 or email apendergrass24@gmail.com.
BY-LAWS: We still need a Chairperson for By-Laws so please let us know if you can help. If interested please come to the Intergroup meeting.
WEB CZAR: As we move forward with the modernization - We can now have more information on our website. We currently have an average of 310 views of our website per month - the most popular items are the home page of news and the meetings pages. The Website is a great resource - and it is optimized for mobile! Check it out on your smart-phone and use this resource in your recovery. If you have not yet signed up for the Email list please go to the website - www.scina.org or www.quitnowla.com, add yourself to the list!
OLD BUSINESS: No old business.
NEW BUSINESS: As new Officers are elected every September at the Intergroup meeting before the picnic, we would like to thank our outgoing Chairperson, Brian K. for being of service to us this past year. He will continue to be of service as our Web Czar for the immediate future.
BIRTHDAYS: No birthdays at the Intergroup meeting this month.
SECRETARY REPORT: The October report was read but not approved as we did not have a quorum.
CLOSING PRAYER: Gabe led us in the Serenity Prayer at 11:07 AM.
