3/9/2024 – Area Delegate Report
Greetings Area 17!! I’m excited to be serving as the Area Delegate and am humbled you have put your trust in me to serve the Indiana Area.
I’m working hard to prepare for the WSC in April and am slowly getting things wrapped around my head. There is so much information to go through, but I’m working through it slowly.
Please remember for love-gifts to be sent to the WSC, they need to be delivered to me to go with me in my luggage. Otherwise, cards or letters of support may be delivered to the following address:
Brenda K. (Hold for WSC 4/18–4/21, 2024)
The Founders Inn and Spa
5641 Indian River Rd.
Virginia Beach, VA 23464
Please have cards set to deliver after April 13, and before April 19. I’m looking forward to learning about the conference. My orientation date is April 18, so I am looking forward to understanding more about it at that time.
If you have any questions of me or want me to share my conference report in your district or meeting, please let me know and I’ll work out arrangements. Thank you all for your support.
Brenda K.
Area 17 Delegate
Panel 64
12/7/2023 – Public Outreach Report
Public Outreach Winter Update
Have copies of the Al-anon Faces Alcoholism available in your meeting. WHY? Give a copy to newcomers, observers, plus encourage all in the fellowship to pass forward this magazine to professionals involved in their life. Another idea is to give some AFA’s to an AA meeting, saying to first read and then to pass forward to anyone.
This was in the September Loop, and I think bears repeating, so here goes.
Welcoming Observers to AlAnon Meetings
When groups register with the World Service Office (WSO), they are asked to indicate whether they welcome observers at their meeting. These observers may or may not be affected by someone else’s drinking; however, they may be in a position to refer those who are and simply want to get a better understanding of how our program works.
Moreover, some nursing programs require students to observe AlAnon meetings to obtain first-hand knowledge of how the AlAnon program provides support to those affected by the family disease of alcoholism.
If your group is designated “Families and Friends Only,” you may want to consider welcoming observers at least a few times a year to share how AlAnon works. For instance, the following could be added to your group’s meeting listing on al-anon.org: “Observers welcome at the first meeting in January, April, July, and October” (or any dates your group chooses). This would ensure that professionals, students, and anyone from your community who is interested in AlAnon will feel comfortable attending your meeting to learn more about our program.
The Forum, September 2023
Feel free to reprint this article on your service arm website or newsletter, along with this credit line: Reprinted with permission of The Forum, AlAnon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., Virginia Beach, VA.
Onward, The first of June 2023, district 8 received this email. Past reading, I requested permission to share, which Lori B. granted. Lori and her family are living one day at a time in a RV.
Also- just a testimony….
We were back in Indy in April (for yearly Dr., dentist, eye etc appts.)
I had gone to my home group & left feeling that “I can’t sponsor anyone.” I feel like God has something for me to give, but what?!? Well, at the campground we are at in Ohio (for 10 weeks), a young mother & I began doing little volunteer projects together. Then WHAM! She began opening up to me & later said “I think God has put you in my life because He knew I needed some Godly wisdom”. To which I said “Well fancy that! I’ve been asking God ‘what can I do, being on the road?’” And here he puts this gal & I together. She came to Alanon with me last night & we’ve begun working thru the 12 steps. She is so eager to learn & grow.
I say all this to say. Don’t give up! No matter where you are in life, God can use you! THY will be done!
God bless each & everyone of you!
Lori B
WOW, that is what Public Outreach is all about—sharing the program.
Another service opportunity and all you need is a library card. Did you know that books in the library that are not check out, are PURGED, so first check your library to see if it has any CAL literature. If not, Donate a book or two, then once a month or so someone needs to check it out. Make that a project for the meeting you attend. Would it not be great if every meeting had a service project?
As we come to the end of 2023, and I come to my end of this rewarding service opportunity, I wish all Holiday Blessings and a Grateful New Year one day at a time.
SERVICE HUGS TO ALL,
Linda S.
Area 17 Public Outreach Coordinator
11/13/2023 – Alternate Delegate/Chair Report
Area Assembly – November 11, 2023
Meetings
2023
-
- Area Assembly: November 11 (Hybrid)
2024 Dates voted on
-
- AWSC:
- January 27 – Zoom
- June 1 – In-person at the Carvel club
- September 28 – Zoom
- AREA ASSEMBLY at Crowne Plaza – All Hyrbrid:
- March 9
- July 13
- November 9
- AWSC:
Audits
The 2023 Convention account has been audited; no problems arose.
Area accounts (Treasurer, Literature, Alateen, Conventions 1 & 2) will need to be audited in January 2024. I will send out the audit documents early in January.
Crowne Plaza
2024 Contracts: Price Increases for Area Assemblies
I have the contracts for 2024: March, July, November.
They do include some price increases as follows:
Lunches: Increased prices of salads, sandwiches, and drinks by a few dollars were reflected in today’s lunch options (Assembly, November 2023). Prices should remain in 2024 but are not guaranteed. (Not part of contract.)
Hotel Sleeping Rooms: Increased from $120 to $123
Meeting Rooms and AV Equipment:
*My question at AWSC in June was: Do we want to have one wireless mic ($120) and one wired mic ($50) for a total $170, rather than two wireless mics for $240??
At AWSC, we agreed to have one wireless mic ($120) to move around room and one wired mic ($50) at the podium.
Savings: $70 per Assembly; $210 savings for one year
Thank you for the privilege of being your Alternate Delegate/Chair for the past three years!
Konie H.
Area 17 Alternate Delegate/Chair
10/16/23 – Forum Coordinator Report
Forum Magazine race to 500 🏎️ 🏁
The Forum Magazine subscriptions sales report for Indiana in October 2023 is 361 subscriptions for all of Indiana. California is a larger state with 2,075 subscriptions. Illinois has 791, New York 828 and Texas 925 subscriptions. Can we improve our numbers for 2024?
We have 189 Alanon meetings in Indiana. It’s recommended that each group have one subscription to The Forum to use in meetings.
Let’s have an Indiana 500 Race in 2024 and shoot for 500 Forum Subscriptions for our fair state. You can start today!
That’s only 139 new subscription sales. If every meeting in Indiana subscribed we would be over our goal. Let’s race to the finish with 500 subscriptions. Can we do it?
I’ll post how we are doing every 3 months or so. Let’s get started: https://ecomm.al-anon.org/forum#vaff
Patti Mc
Area 17 Forum Coordinator
After the Earth Collapsed
Reprinted with permission of The Forum, Al‑Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., Virginia Beach, VA.
When I walked through the door of my first Al‑Anon meeting, I felt desperate and broken. I was hoping for some guidance or enlightenment and really needed some reassurance that I wasn’t going crazy. I was so entangled with my adult son and his young family that when the bottom fell out with regard to his disease and he fled his marriage and his baby son, I felt as though the earth had collapsed under my feet. I couldn’t make sense of anything, and I desperately wanted to help “fix” the situation.
I knew that only someone who had experienced something close to what I was going through could help me understand and come to grips with what was happening to me and those I loved. I was greeted so warmly at that first meeting that I immediately felt I belonged.
Because I was a newcomer, the members made it a Step One meeting and shared what had brought each of them to Al‑Anon and how long they’d been coming. I was shocked to learn that some had been attending for decades. One gentleman shared that he had been attending for 30 years, and the meetings had helped him find happiness and contentment in his life, even though his spouse was still actively drinking.
When I shared about my own pain surrounding my son’s disease, I was told that I didn’t cause it, I couldn’t control it, and I surely couldn’t cure it. At the end of the meeting, the Chairperson looked at me and spoke the entire Suggested Closing completely from memory. These lines were especially fitting: “A few special words to those of you who haven’t been with us long: Whatever your problems, there are those among us who have had them, too. If you try to keep an open mind, you will find help. You will come to realize that there is no situation too difficult to be bettered and no unhappiness too great to be lessened.” It was an incredible feeling.
After the meeting, the members suggested some Al‑Anon literature, and I bought two daily readers that I put to immediate use. I visited a few other meetings in my area and finally settled on one that best fit my schedule as my home group. In Al‑Anon, I truly feel that I have been welcomed “home.”
By Mary S., Indiana
The Forum, August 2023
https://al-anon.org/blog/after-the-earth-collapsed
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