MINUTES of SCINA Meeting - Sunday May 21, 2023
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERGROUP OF NICOTINE ANONYMOUS (SCINA) 

INTRODUCTIONS:  George O. called the meeting to order at 10:05 am with the Serenity Prayer followed by introductions.

WAS YOUR MEETING REPRESENTED?  Quorum was not met with 5 members in attendance. The following meetings were represented: Long Beach 012, Palm Springs 288 and 283.

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

TREASURER’S REPORT:

Balance from April report $959.77

Donations 61.74

NAWS Conference reimbursement
    for one delegate -25.00

Stamps for Treasurer -12.60

H&I mailing -13.20

Current available balance* 970.71

Donations this month include a $25 donation from Judi M. in honor of her NicA anniversary ~ thanks and congrats, Judi!

**There is an additional $5,000 in the checking account that we do not touch to avoid $18/month bank fee. Savings account (prudent reserve) balance is $1000.70.  

REGISTRAR REPORT: Secretary position updated to “Acting Secretary Angela P.”  Meeting 294, Westside Alano Club, 7:45 pm, was added. Video Conference Meeting 283, Palm Springs, Monday 5:30 pm, Meeting ID, Passcode, and Contact Information was updated.  No Meetings were removed.  No H&I Listings were added, updated or removed.  32 Directories were printed, and 27 envelopes addressed.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

HOSPITALS AND INSTITUTIONS:  Please send additional email contacts (which don’t increase our postage costs) for our meeting list; ask your doctors and dentists.  For more information, or to be of service, call Angela P. at (949) 302-8465 or angela.socal9@gmail.com.

COMMUNICATIONS:  No concerns at this time, any questions or concerns can be directed to SCINAinfo@gmail.com 1-877-879-6422 or 1-877-TRY-NICA.

LITERATURE: No concerns at this time. The current balance is $835.27. 

NICOTINE ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES (NAWS):  SCINA Treasurer Bill H attended the 38th Annual NAWS Conference in Baltimore, Maryland last month where he was the featured Saturday night speaker (and completed his fourth year on the Board). Recordings from all the meetings will be available for sale at the nicotine-anonymous.org store soon. In addition to some wonderful speakers and great times of fellowship, this year’s hybrid conference saw the passage of several bylaws changes including: (1) expanding the definition of an Intergroup from a geographical area to “… representatives within a common boundary, such as geographical or technological.” And (2) changing from 30 to 60 days the amount of time an intergroup must submit their list of delegates, hopefully giving everyone more time to review materials such as the 75-page “Butterfly Book” of meditations that was sent out this year. [“The Butterfly Book” was deemed to be not yet ready for publication and did not pass.] Another amendment to the bylaws that did pass is the recommendation that all NAWS Officers have at least a year of continuous clean time, which came as a result of several recent resignations from elected officers who needed to step down to concentrate on their recovery. The Treasurer’s Report from NAWS also revealed that donations were down 16% in 2022, literature sales down 25%, and net income down 22% as well. The move to the virtual world has resulted in baskets not being passed. Consider a gift of gratitude at https://www.nicotine-anonymous.org/gift-of-gratitude

EVENTS: Bill H and Jane H are looking into the possibility of a Joshua Tree Retreat this year and will report back at the June SCINA meeting.

NEW MEETINGS: If interested in starting a new meeting, call Gary 310-755-5582 and leave a message.

PUBLIC OUTREACH: If you’re interested in being of service and taking on the commitment of Public Outreach Chair, please contact George O. at (562) 310-0874. Send your Meeting Representative to the Intergroup meetings to tell us how we can help you. 

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

BYLAWS:  No report.

WEB OPERATIONS: Directory, Calendar, and News pages have been updated. In the past month, we had 64 visitors and 133 page views.  The top views after the Welcome Page (48 views) were Meeting List/Directory (26 views), Virtual Meeting Quick Reference (20 views), News and Updates (12 views), Google Calendar (9 views), In-Person Meeting Quick Reference (7 views), and Intergroup Meeting (5 views).

In addition to 56 visitors within the United States, we had 4 visitors from Canada, 1 visitor each from Denmark, Spain, Italy, and Russia.

John D. is in charge of the shared Zoom account for SCINA. Please contact him at (818) 618-1501 if you have any questions.

OLD BUSINESS: No old business.

NEW BUSINESS: Reese N. has expressed interest in taking over as Intergroup Secretary.  Due to lack of a quorum, the vote will be tabled to accept him until next month.

BIRTHDAYS: Reese N. 4 years, Judi M. celebrates 12 years, William G. 40 years this month. Yay!

SECRETARY REPORT: The May minutes were read and corrected, but due to a lack of a quorum, approval will be tabled until next month.

CLOSING PRAYER:  Reese N. led us in the Serenity Prayer at 10:45 am.