Region One Collated BOT Agenda Reports

Contents20112August 20, 20112 November 19, 2011320125March 3, 20125August 18, 20126December 1, 2012720139February 16, 20139August 29, 201310November 23, 201312201416March 1, 201416August 23, 201418November 22, 201419201521February 28, 201521August 22, 201523November 14, 201524201626February 20. 201626

2011

August 20, 2011

Submitted By: Margie GarmanRegion: One

As of June 2011 Region I;

Groups Affiliated with an Intergroup:371

Unaffiliated Groups:42

Total Number of Groups:413

Total Number of Intergroups:26

The most recent Region I Board Meeting was held June 17th 18th in Port Orchard WA. The members of the Region I Board also spoke at a day long marathon on Sexuality and Body Image. Debbie G has continued to have Skype meetings with all the Intergroup Chairs and communication has improved.

In May, I led a one-day workshop in Spokane, WA on Abstinence and Service, which was well attended and well received. I have been using the PowerPoint Presentations which the folks from Region 8 have shared with us. A couple people there said that previously they had only been interested only in personal recovery and were now inspired to give back by doing service.

In June, my husband and I lead a retreat in Kelowna BC, and although the focus of the retreat was on recovery, I shared on service topics as well. It was a wonderful trip. Most of the meetings in that area are very small, 2 5 people and rather distant from each other.

Region 1 2011 Assembly

Region I Assembly and Convention will be held Sept 30 Oct 2, 2011 in Vancouver, WA (next to Portland) and is being hosted by Region I and each Intergroup is being asked to do some service toward the project.

The elections will be interesting because both of the two longest serving members of the current Board will be rotating off and there are only 5 Region I Board members and one Trustee.

I have answered many inquiries from individuals in the region which have been sent via WSO and some people (both service workers and individuals) have emailed me directly for clarification of Traditions and procedures. And I have also answered questions about Bylaw changes needed as a result of the vote at WSBC on the latest definition of an OA group.

It is a great privilege to serve as a Regional Trustee and I especially enjoy teaching about Traditions.

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November 19, 2011

Region I Assembly was held September 28 -30, 2011 in Vancouver, WA right across the Columbia River from Portland. There were 18 of 25 Intergroups represented, probably because Region I budgeted and let it be known that there was money available for helping Intergroups to fund representatives to the Assembly.

Elections were held on Friday and all of the Officers changed but 2 people continued on the Region I Board in different positions. Kim Halsey (former Communication Coordinator) was elected Chair. Merry Rogers (former Secretary) was elected Co-Chair. Deborah Ruppert was elected Treasurer. At the post Assembly Board meeting Cynthia Williams-Patnoe was appointed Communication Coordinator.

At Assembly we looked at the OA Strategic Plan and the committees of Region I. Debbie, Region I Chair, and I presented short information sessions on Strategic Planning. The representatives were then assigned to 6 small groups and given the task of reviewing the Strategic Plan, reviewing what the various Region I committees do and the small groups made recommendations about whether committees should be continued, combined or dissolved. It was a good process for the representatives.

In June at the OA marathon associated with the Region I Board meeting the Board members presented a workshop on Body Image and Sexuality and they made a set of handouts for all of the representatives to take with them and use if they would like in their own areas.

Because of the success of the Oregon Intergroup Yahoo group; I handed around a sign-up sheet and asked representatives to sign up if they wanted to participate in the OA Region I Yahoo group. There are now 20 25 new members of this group, and a total of 79 members. The exciting thing to note is that many of the questions and discussion has been on Traditions, Concepts and OA policy type subjects. The people participating are from the Intergroups all around Region I.

Upcoming Region I Board meetings are planned for;

January 14, 2012Nanaimo, BC, Canada.

March 24, 2012Vancouver, BC.

June 2012Bellingham, WA.

September 26th 30, 2012Region I Assembly and Convention will be in Spokane, WA.

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Attendance at the Convention was a bit low just over 100 people but everyone seemed to have a great time and really enjoyed Margaret Ann Brady speaking.

After much consultation with various people and making a direct connection with Shari B about the Birthday Party videotaping; I felt that Shari and the committee would be very careful with the handling of the video and that it would not be placed on the web in any form. Therefore, the Birthday Party was allowed to do the taping at the Region I Assembly. The plan is to only show the video at the actual Birthday Party event. I personally know and trust several of the people involved and I know that they are very savvy about internet privacy and would not risk the breaks of anonymity that would happen if the video was to get out on the web. Therefore, I myself recorded a short segment of my own story and enjoyed the experience.

In mid-September I conducted a Tradition workshop in Baker City, OR. Baker City is the home of Eagle Cap Intergroup which has only 3 or 4 meetings. It was a very interesting group and there were a total of about 15 people who came by for at least part of the day, including a couple of people who usually attend virtual meetings and a couple from Boise, ID.

2012

March 3, 2012

Submitted By: Margie GarmanRegion: One

Region 1 Groups Affiliated with an Intergroup:364

Region 1 Groups not affiliated (Unaffiliated):44

Total Number of Groups in Region 1:408

Number of Intergroups in Region I:26

In November I reported on the new officers for Region I and as of January there has been a major shake-up of those officers. Our newly elected Chair, Kim, resigned so the Co-Chair, Merry Rogers from Calgary is Chair. Cynthia Williams-Patnoe is the Communications Coordinator although she may be having some trouble with the website part of the job. Deborah Ruppert will continue as Treasurer. There are already 2 applications for the Co-Chair position, which will be decided at the Board meeting in March. There has been some discussion of Cynthia applying for the Secretary position rather than Communications Coordinator but I do not know if she has actually applied for the position or not.

The Region I Yahoo group has been very useful for communicating with the fellowship, especially the Regional Representatives. I have sent many announcements to that group and there have continued to be many questions filtered through the group. Last week we had a question from a new Intergroup Chairman who had asked the Treasurer to submit to an audit. The Chairman was wondering what to do when the Treasurer balked; several people from various Intergroups answered her inquiry as well as me.

I have not been asked to lead as many Traditions/Concepts/Service workshops this year. I do have one scheduled in Regina, SA for the weekend of April 20-22, 2012.

In addition, I have;

Reviewed Intergroup Bylaws Answered inquires

Participated in monthly Region I conference calls

Participated in a live internet radio show about OA, with Naomi Lippel and Dr. Lerner.

In Love and service, Margie

August 18, 2012

Submitted By: Margie GarmanRegion: One

Affiliated Groups

Feb 2012

364

June 2012

352

Unaffiliated Groups

44

62

Total Number of Groups

408

414

Total number of Intergroups

26

26

Region I Board

Region One Board met June 29 & 30, 2012 in Bellingham, WA. We welcomed Candace Ohannisean from Portland to the Board. We are still missing a Communications Coordinator. Now, including myself, there are three board members from Portland, one from Calgary, BC and one from Tacoma, WA. We seem to be working very well together and feel great about the group.

Our main topic of discussion was the upcoming Region I Assembly which will be in Spokane, WA on Sept 27 and 28th leading into our once a year Convention September 28-30, 2012. We have most of our committees in place and are ready to go.

We have been holding once a month phone meetings on the first Saturday of the month. In July we reviewed the proposed changes to our Bylaws and Policies. I have been working closely with Candace on the Bylaw proposals. The 4 amendments proposals for the Region I Bylaws include: a.) one with the new group and abstinence definitions, b.) one making sure that Region I has a process in place to bring forward a Trustee nominee between the Fall Assembly and WSBC, c.) removing a sentence about the duties of the Communication Coordinator which says that they should join the WSO webmasters Yahoo group, d.) rewording a sentence which refers to a lone group considering itself an Intergroup updated to calling it an unaffiliated group.

Other Activities for Region I

I have also been doing some of the website updating because we are lacking the Communications Coordinator. We are actively looking for a webmaster and I have been reviewing how to set up a website using Wordpress, which is rumored to be very simple to make changes.