MINUTES - April 15, 2018

MINUTES of SCINA Meeting - April 15, 2018

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERGROUP OF NICOTINE ANONYMOUS (SCINA)

INTRODUCTIONS:  John D. called the meeting to order at 10 am with the Serenity Prayer followed by introductions.

WAS YOUR MEETING REPRESENTED? Quorum was met with 9 members in attendance.  The following meetings were represented (some members might represent more than one meeting):  Costa Mesa 76, Sherman Oaks 185, Los Angeles (Silverlake) 229, and Joshua Tree 266.

TRADITIONS: Tradition #4, “Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or Nicotine Anonymous as a whole.” was read.

TREASURER REPORT:  Beginning balance is $766.53.  INCOMING donations from Costa Mesa #76 $90, and 7th tradition donations for SCINA’s March meeting was $11.00.  Total incoming is $101.00. EXPENSES are Grasshopper telephone service $31.81, P.O. Box Rent $50, Registrar expense $26.36, GoDaddy.com website expenses are $75.85, and Secretary’s Expense $21.50.  TOTAL EXPENSES are $205.52. So with the $3000 that Stephen donated to avoid the $18 bank fee our true balance is $3617.50. Our savings account has a balance of $500.13.

REGISTRAR REPORT:   No changes were made on the Administration List.  No Meeting information was updated, and no meetings were added or removed.  All Meetings have USPS contact through their Secretary, their Representative, or email. No H&I Listings were updated, added, or removed.  43 envelopes were addressed, and 175 Directories were printed.


COMMITTEE REPORTS:

HOSPITALS AND INSTITUTIONS:  Angela P. reports she’s had no response from the fellowship on her request for volunteers for panels.  To be of service, please call Angela P. at (949) 302-8465.

COMMUNICATIONS:  The phone lines are running smoothly.  No concerns at this time.

LITERATURE:  No report.  Brian K will meet with Halli soon to go over duties and go to bank to transfer name on account.

WORLD SERVICES:   The World Conference is April 20-22nd.  There is talk of making it possible for members attend the NAWS board meetings and World Conferences via conference calling.  The new revision of The Promises pamphlet will possibly be voted on this year. Sign up for Nic A News and get up to date information via email alerts.  NAWS hosts their monthly Outreach Committee meeting the second Wednesday every month. Public Outreach and Bylaws Coordinator positions are vacant at NAWS.  New Intergroup in Minnesota is doing a lot of outreach, and will be part of a nicotine dependence conference soon with over 200 doctors from across the country (no date yet).  There is an effort through NAWS to have meetings that are not part of an Intergroup be represented by either an Intergroup or NAWS - possibly creating Service Areas across the U.S. and Canada.  There will be a workshop at this year’s World Conference to discuss this.

EVENTS:  The annual SCINA Joshua Tree Retreat will be held June 8-10, 2018. SCINA has paid a $380 deposit. So far we have received one full registration ($185) and one “event only” (no lodging) registration ($100) for a total of $285.  A deposit to the caterer is due soon, so please send in your registration now if you can. Details on attached flyer. Reminder that if you pay with credit card via PayPal, to please notify Jane H. or Bill H. via email as the system does not auto-notify them.  If you want to go but can’t pay now, let Jane H. know so we can reserve you a spot. George R. reserved Rush Park in Rossmore for our annual Picnic in September. The annual picnic is Saturday, September 16.

NEW MEETINGS:  There are no new meetings.

PUBLIC OUTREACH:  SHARE Recovery Center in Culver City is hosting a full day of marathon meetings for various fellowships on April 28th.  There are currently no Nic A meetings scheduled. If you are interested in hosting a 1-hour meeting that day, please contact Claudia at Claudia@shareselfhelp.org or 310.305.8878.  It is an opportunity to circulate the Nic A fellowship and expand awareness of our meetings.

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

BYLAWS:  No report.

SAN DIEGO OUTREACH AD HOC COMMITTEE:  No report.

WORLD CONFERENCE AD HOC COMMITTEE:  Save The Date flyer was created and will be brought to the World Conference.  This committee meets at 11:30 am on the 3rd Sunday every month immediately following SCINA’s Regular Monthly Meeting.  We need your help in planning the conference. Please contact the Chair of the World Conference Ad Hoc Committee, John D., at johndarnell8@gmail.com or by phone at (818) 618-1501.

Director of Web Operations:   SCINA renewed the domain name with godaddy.com for five years.  Last month we had 191 unique visitors to the website - that was a 9.8% increase from the previous month, with 321 unique page views. Our most popular page last month was the Meeting list page. Last month we had at least one visit on every page of the website.  The webpage is a good source of outreach and information for members and those looking for information on quitting nicotine. The Website - which is separate from the domain - is due to renew on June 20, 2018. The Renewal Rate for that for one year is $192.00.    

OLD BUSINESS:  SCINA will contact NAWS to set up ability to use their WebEx.

NEW BUSINESS:  The webmaster presented to the intergroup some information on if we might want to update the website to a different host (wordpress.com) or at least transferring the domain hosting to the same host as our website - at Squarespace.

BIRTHDAYS:  Jeff M. (9 years),  Belated for Brian K (10 years in Feb.), George O. (16 years), Robert (19 years), Kay M. (9 years)

SECRETARY REPORT:  Motion was made and approved for this month’s minutes.

CLOSING PRAYER:  George O. led us in the Serenity Prayer at 11:17 AM.

 

MINUTES - August 18, 2013

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERGROUP OF NICOTINE ANONYMOUS

INTRODUCTIONS: Brian K called the meeting to order at 10:14 AM with the Serenity Prayer followed by introductions.

WAS YOUR MEETING REPRESENTED?  A quorum was met.  The following meetings were represented:  001, 023, 029, 034, 047, 076, 185, and 231.

TRADITIONS: Tradition #8. Nicotine Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

TREASURER REPORT:  Beginning balance $984.94.  Income:  Donations this month: $50.00 from meeting 1 West Hollywood, $20.00 from mtg 241 in Glendale.  Also deposited $28.44 personal donation from Angela P. and $12.50 from Mtg #231 Long Beach.  $13.00 was 7th tradition from June SCINA mtg.  (total incoming $123.94).  Expenses:  Bank Fee $3.00; Registrar expenses, $33.88; Secretary expenses $32.66; $93.05 AT&T Long Distance (two months) (total outgoing $162.59).  Ending balance $946.29. The report was moved and approved.

REGISTRAR REPORT: Administration List: Public Outreach contact information updated. Meeting with updates: 231: Phone Contact All meetings except 059 have USPS contact through the Secretary, the Representative, or both. No H&I Listings were added or removed.  70 envelopes were addressed.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

HOSPITALS AND INSTITUTIONS:  No report.

COMMUNICATIONS:  Carol is operating our hotline.

LITERATURE:  Everything is running fine, we are fully stocked with all literature and chips - Please contact Mary for all your literature needs at the Monthly Intergroup meeting.

WORLD SERVICES:  Our new website is up temporarily.  You can pay by PayPal now.  Board meeting was in July.  Donations are up.  We are going to update our Bank CDs to 35 months to get more interest.  We need an outreach coordinator, contact info@nicotine-anonymous.org if you can help.  The person would plan all the ideas and delegate certain jobs to others who want to be of help.  We also need a Web Servant for our main website.  We have our two-way talk program if you want to get an email several times per year to hear what’s going on.  We got a letter from someone in Iran, they have their own Intergroup and are trying to coordinate with us.  They can’t put their mtgs on our website because they would be in Farsi, they have between 150-200 mtgs.  The ‘Gift of Gratitude’ program asks at least 200 people to donate $10 per month and that would cover our costs every year.  Glenn K. might not be doing the recording at the conferences each year.  Jeff M. is trying to find a better way to do that for us.  Gary is coordinator of the snail mail/pen pal program and he has about 14 people helping with that.  Contact Gary 310-755-5582 or garynica@att.net if you would like to help.

EVENTS:   The picnic in the park will be September 15th from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. in Culver City   in Veteran’s Park at 4117 Overland Avenue, Culver City, 90232

NEW MEETINGS:  Everyone should think about starting a new meeting.

PUBLIC OUTREACH: Michelle wants to make a form letter email to send out to radio stations along with the PSA which is available on the www.nicotine-anonymous.org website.  Michelle suggests each meeting make a flier to leave in the meeting room to advertise their meeting.  Angela brought a flier to send out to all the secretaries of the meetings regarding posting a free online ad on pennysaverusa.com to advertise their meeting.

SPEAKERS BUREAU/BY-LAWS:  We still need Chairpersons for By-Laws and Speakers Bureau, 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 quitnowla@gmail.com, add yourself to the list!

OLD BUSINESS: Remaining conference t-shirts will be available for sale at the picnic for $5.

We discussed what our monthly balance was so that we can talk about contributing to World Services on an on-going basis.  We decided to send $200 to World Services and look at this monthly.

NEW BUSINESS: None.

BIRTHDAYS: Bill H. will celebrate 14 years this month.

SECRETARY REPORT: The August report was read and approved.

CLOSING PRAYER:  Brian led us in the Serenity Prayer at 11:03 AM.

MINUTES - August 19, 2012

MINUTES August 19, 2012                                                                      

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERGROUP OF NICOTINE ANONYMOUS

INTRODUCTIONS:

Mary P. called the meeting to order at 10:09 AM with the Serenity Prayer followed by introductions.

WAS YOUR MEETING REPRESENTED?  

A quorum was met.  The following meetings were represented:  1, 12, 22, 23, 47, 76, 84, 185, 186, 227, 229, 231, 250, 270

TRADITIONS:

Tradition 8:  Nicotine Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers ,was read from the book Nicotine Anonymous.

TREASURER REPORT

 July Report

Beginning balance $528.24.  Donations: Mtg#1 $100, 7th tradition $11 (total $111).  Expenses:  Bank Fee $3, Retreat $220, Registrar $80.81, Web Site $192 (total $495.11) Ending balance $144.13. The Treasurer’s report was moved and approved.

Registrar Report

No changes or corrections were made to the Administration Service List.  No

Meetings were added.

No Meetings were removed. All meetings in the Directory have USPS contact through the Secretary, the Representative, or both. No H&I Listings were added. Kaiser Permanente Dept of Addiction Medicine was removed, due to “unknown address” returned mail.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

HOSPITALS AND INSTITUTIONS:  

No report. The mail was returned from Kaiser Permanente in Orange, CA, so we have lost the contact at that hospital.

COMMUNICATIONS:

No reports, no concerns

LITERATURE:

We are in full stock on supplies. Based on suggestions, we now have various colors for chips and are fully stocked with the new colored chips.


WORLD SERVICES:  

The Meditation CD was sent back to redo the music. The music has been changed and the Meditation CD will be available soon. The website will be changed soon. The Adobe pdf of

7 Minutes

is now available for free on the website.

EVENTS:

The retreat was held in Joshua Tree on June 23-June 24. The event was very successful, with 22 people sleeping over, and 10 day participants. All the bills related to this event have been settled. George R. has reserved Rush Park in Rossmoor for the annual picnic on the third Sunday in September. Mary designed a wonderful flyer with details about the picnic to be posted on the website. Please remind your members that this is our Annual Election of Officers Meeting.  If you are interested in serving the membership at the Intergroup level, please attend. Directions to the park are printed on the August Directory. After the Annual picnic, the Marathon Meeting in November will be the next event.


NEW MEETINGS:

None

PUBLIC OUTREACH/SPEAKERS BUREAU/BY-LAWS:  

No report.There was discussion about the bylaws. It was recommended that we change the quorum from 10 to 7 people. This change will be made when we republish the bylaws. We will revise the bylaws to reflect our current committee structure. If interested in volunteering for outreach activities, please contact Jeff at

jeffinjt@gmail.com

.WEB CZAR:  

The Website has been updated to Square space 6 - This allows some exciting new changes to the website - like new Multiple Contributors for the website.  Now, Committee members can update and add information for their committees directly to the Website and to make sure that the information is the most current and up to date as possible. If you want to be a contributor to the website - Contact quitnowla@gmail.com.

OLD BUSINESS:

Brian K. will donate a $100 Google offer that he received to set up a simple Google Ad designed to direct people to the SCINA.org website.Also we are still in need of volunteers for the following Intergroup Positions: Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer. Those interested are encouraged to contact George O. 562-310-0874.

NEW BUSINESS:  

No new business

BIRTHDAYS:

Bill H. celebrated 13 years! Awesome!!!

SECRETARY REPORT:

The August report was read and approved.

CLOSING PRAYER:  

Brian K. led us in the Serenity Prayer at 11:26PM.

MINUTES - January 15, 2012

MINUTES JANUARY 15, 2012

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERGROUP OF NICOTINE ANONYMOUS


INTRODUCTIONS:  George O. called the meeting to order at 10:13 AM with the Serenity Prayer followed by introductions.

WAS YOUR MEETING REPRESENTED?  A quorum was met with 12 members in attendance.

TRADITIONS:  Tradition 1:  Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on Nicotine Anonymous unity was read.

TREASURER REPORT:  Beginning cash balance including donations totaled $538.55. Meeting donations totaled $28.00. Total paid out was $177.17. Ending balance totaled $501.77.

REGISTRAR’S REPORT:  Rick W. reported Mike S. has been removed from the Literature Service Position of the Service Position Roster. Meeting 254: Updated Secretary, Representative, and Phone Contact information. Meeting 257: Time of meeting changed from 7:30 to 7:00 p.m. No meetings were added or removed in the past month. The following meetings lack valid Secretary USPS mailing address: Meeting 047.

COMMITTEE REPORTS


HOSPITALS AND INSTITUTIONS:  No report. No concerns.

COMMUNICATIONS:  The 800 phone number is back up. Please refer to SCINA.org or  Quitnowla.com. for information. SCINA is considering removing the 800 number and moving towards a free web-based communication system.

LITERATURE:  Marty was able to activate the Union Bank account and deposit money into that account. A motion was made to remove Mike Stobaugh’s name from the Union Bank account. The motion was approved. Marty will inventory chips this month and literature next month. Marty will send Brian K. a Price List to put on the website.

WORLD SERVICES
Mary P. has copies of the registration form for the World Services Conference 2012 in Albuquerque New Mexico on April 20-22. The registration form and all other information is on the http://nica-wsc2012.com website. In April 2013, the World Services Conference will be held in Los Angeles. George O. needs volunteers. Please contact George O. at 562-310-0874 to help with this event. Thank you.


EVENTS
The Post-Holiday Party in Fullerton was very successful. George R. attempted to book the park in Rossmore for our Annual Picnic in September 2012 but was told that reservations can be made 6 months in advance at the earliest. Cost will be approximately $35.

NEW MEETINGS
No new meetings.

BYLAWS
No report, no concerns.

PUBLIC OUTREACH
No concerns.

WEB CZAR
Brian would like people to send information regarding meetings or committees to him at QUITNOWLA@gmail.com. We are updating the Website to include The Intergroup Meeting minutes and any Committee reports.  If your meeting has any updates that you would like included, please send them to the quitnowla@gmail.com.

OLD BUSINESS
We are in need of volunteers for the following Intergroup Positions: Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer. Those interested are encouraged to contact George O. 562-310-0874.

NEW BUSINESS
No new business.

BIRTHDAYS
Jim T. had 25 years December 20th. Congratulations Jim!!!!!

SECRETARY REPORT
The January report was read and approved.

CLOSING PRAYER
George O. led us in the Serenity Prayer at 11:10AM.

MINUTES - December 18, 2011

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERGROUP OF NICOTINE ANONYMOUS


INTRODUCTIONS:  George O. called the meeting to order at 10:19 AM with the Serenity Prayer followed by introductions.

WAS YOUR MEETING REPRESENTED?  A quorum was met with 11 members in attendance.

TRADITIONS:  Tradition 12:  Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities was read.

SECRETARY REPORT:  A motion was made to approve the minutes at the end of each meeting. The motion passed. A motion was made to include the content of the October minutes in these December minutes for mailing purposes. The motion passed. The November minutes were read and approved.

TREASURER REPORT:  In September, we started with $384.06, $118 in donations, $11 in 7th tradition, $100 from the 7th tradition at picnic. We paid out $100 for the picnic, $50 for long distance, $66.20 for Secretary, $37.23 for Registrar and ended with $359.63.  Consolidated Oct. and Nov. started with $359.63, plus $100 in donations, we paid $200 for long distance, $72.58 and Secretary and $74.76 Registrar expenses, leaving us with ending cash of $112.29. It was moved and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s report.

REGISTRAR’S REPORT:  Rick W. reported there were no new meetings added or removed. Mike S., Literature address was deleted and mailing was suspended. Marty W. was removed from Co-Chair position per last month’s discussion.  Meeting 047 was deleted due to Inactive Phone contact information. Meetings 047 and 254 lack a valid Secretary USPS mailing address.

 

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS


HOSPITALS AND INSTITUTIONS:  No report. Gary M. and George O. continue working with Kaiser.

COMMUNICATIONS:  The 800 phone number is down. Please refer to SCINA.org or Quitnowla.com. for information. SCINA is considering removing the 800 number and moving towards a web-based communication system.

LITERATURE:  Mike S. is not able to continue the Literature Position. Marty W. does not have room to store the literature boxes. Susan C. is currently storing the literature in her garage. There was discussion around storing the chips and literature at the hospital. Kimberly H. has offered to help organize the chips and literature materials. We will do an inventory at our next SCINA meeting.

WORLD SERVICES
World Services Conference 2012 will be in Albuquerque New Mexico on April 20-22. All information will be on the website. Discussion at the last World Services Board meeting revolved around the following: Shipping costs on Literature went down to $5.95. There was also discussion around Gender Neutrality. You can get information about participating in the survey at Secretary@nicotineanonymous.org. Please consider Live and Give as an ongoing donation.  In April 2013, the World Services Conference will be held in Los Angeles. George O. needs volunteers need. Please contact George O. at 562-310-0874 to help with this event. Thank you.

EVENTS
The next event will be the Post-Holiday Party on Wednesday, January 11th in Fullerton. Susan C. will mail a flyer with all the information out with the current minutes. The information can also be found on the website. Please join us; it would be wonderful to see you.

NEW MEETINGS
No new meetings.

BYLAWS
No report, no concerns.

PUBLIC OUTREACH
Silverlake meeting is looking for speakers. Please contact Tomoko B at 323.821.1852.

WEB CZAR
Brian would like people to send information regarding meetings or committees to him at QUITNOWLA@gmail.com

OLD BUSINESS
We are in need of volunteers for the following Intergroup Positions: Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer. Those interested are encouraged to contact George O. 562-310-0874.

NEW BUSINESS
World Services is looking for a new publisher for 7 Minutes.

BIRTHDAYS
Gary M. is celebrating 13 years this month. CONGRATUATIONS GARY!

CLOSING PRAYER
George O. led us in the Serenity Prayer at 11:56AM.

MINUTES - January 2011

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 not met with 9 members in attendance.  

Traditions:  Tradition 1 was read, Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on Nicotine Anonymous unity.

Secretary report:  Susan C. read the December minutes. They were corrected and it was moved, seconded and approved to accept them.  

Treasurer report:  The December financial report was presented. The beginning balance was $490.00; donations totaled $169.00. Total paid out was $454.27 leaving an ending balance of $205.32. SCINA also has $937.81 in a reserve account. It was moved, seconded and approved to accept the December report.

Registrar’s report:  Rick W. reported that no meetings were removed or added from the Directory this month.  Meeting 185 information has been updated. Meeting 265 has gone dark and has been removed from the Directory. Meetings 252, 254, and 255 lack a valid Secretary USPS mailing address.  If you are a member of these meetings or if your meeting is not receiving our mailing, please send the representative and/or secretary’s address to Rick whose phone number and email appear on the cover of our monthly directory.

 

Committee Reports

Hospitals and Institutions:  No report.

Communications/Speakers Bureau:  No report. No concerns. 

Literature:  Mike S. reported that we have purchased 500 pamphlets for the committee outreach program Carry the Message Day. We have enough chips and literature at this time. 

We are in the process of opening a new account. Marty W. is following up on that. Things are running smoothly.

World Services:  World services officers are coming for the Quarterly Officers meeting in Bellflower. SCINA will have to notify World Services as to who will be SCINA delegates in Baltimore, MD. If anyone from your group would like be a delegate for SCINA at the World Services Conference, please contact Gary M. to attend. Thank you to Peggy O. for housing all the members.

Events:  The next event is Carry the Message Day on January 22nd and 23rd. Literature is available to pick up and disperse to your groups.  George O. reported that we will have to find another park for the picnic in September because there will be construction at Palms Park. George R. is looking into some other parks as options. George O. will follow up with that. Tomoko reported that she spoke with Jane regarding the annual retreat and that Jane would like to move the retreat date up to May. Jane would like confirmation to begin planning. All SCINA members agreed that May would be fine.

New Meetings:  Nothing to report.

Bylaws: No report.

Public Outreach: No report.

Web Czar:  Brian K. was not in attendance at the January Intergroup meeting. Tomoko reported that Brian set up Twitter account for Quit Now LA and he is developing an app to find meetings. If you have something you would like to post on the website, please send it directly to the Web Czar, Brian K.

Old Business:  The positions for Secretary Elect and Treasurer Elect are still open. These positions were created to allow members to train and learn the duties during the year before taking over as the active Secretary or Treasurer.  

We need your help in filling these positions.  Please present this request to your group.  If you are interested or know of another member who may be interested, please attend the next SCINA meeting (3rd Sunday of every month) at White Memorial Hospital or contact George O. at 562-310-0874.  Nicotine Anonymous needs Armenian translation for NicA materials. If you are able to translate, please contact Stephanie E. at (818) 352-3903. 

New Business:  No new business.

Birthdays:  Bob C. celebrated 6 years and Jim D. celebrated 4 years. Congratulations Bob and Jim!!! Fantastic! 

The meeting adjourned at 11:05am with the Serenity prayer.