Adrien H. presents the H&I report
CLOSING REPORT C.A. WORLD SERVICE CONFERENCE 2015 CAWS H&I COMMITTEE REPORT
INTRODUCTION AND OPENING COMMENTS
Say hello to your new H&I Committee!! This is a very energetic group of people and we have some exciting plans for the upcoming months. It has been a pleasure chairing the breakout sessions; there were some great conversations and some new and refreshing ideas were thrown around. I am excited to work with this committee throughout the year.
Our returning members are:
Adrien H.
Anita I.
Chris W.
Will W.
Michael C.
Loni S.
Please welcome our newest members to the H&I committee:
Paul B.
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Colleen M.
Gregg I.
Chris M.
Al P.
Jason H.
Ferd-Jan K.
Creative Writing Sub-Committee
Chair: Loni S.
Co-Chair: Colleen M.
Statement of Purpose: The creative writing committee is looking forward to getting our fellow C.A. members excited about sharing their experience in print, and enlightening them to how they are able to write their story and inspire all the readers of our quarterly NewsGram, from newcomers to old timers alike. Our duties are to encourage, solicit, and collect the wonderful masterpieces that are submitted by our fellowship as well as collecting the release forms in order to publish their stories.
Goal for the Year: We want to be a link between the editor of the NewsGram and the members of the fellowship. This year, we, the creative writing sub-committee of H&I aim to make sure that all are aware of this opportunity to be of service by sharing our stories of Hope, Faith and Courage. Last year we issued a flyer that stated the need for submissions of H&I stories and we included contact information, for the H&I corner of the NewsGram publication. This year, we thank Heidi for going to the different regional meetings and asking them to select a NewsGram delegate from each region. We want to stay connected with those delegates so we will be informed of how many people actually submitted admissions to the H&I corner of the NewsGram. LET’S GET WRITING!!!!
Correctional Referral Sub-Committee
Chair: Will W.
Co-Chair: Jason H.
Secretary: Chris M.
Statement of Purpose: Responsible for answering inmate letters and informational inquiries. This sub-committee has set up a system with the WSO to retrieve and answer letters; this will help us to ensure all people get a proper response mailed to them.
The system set up is as follows:
Letters are sent to the WSO.
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The letters are reviewed by the WSO and literature is sent to the inmate right away. Once the Literature has been sent, the letter is then scanned and saved to the Correctional Referrals folder on the H&I Yahoo group.
The secretary of the CR sub-committee retrieves the letters from H&I Yahoo Group and then sends them via email to the appropriate area.
Personal responses may include many different items, such as: Meeting lists, Websites, Hotlines numbers, Sponsorship, information of how to start a meeting, and any other information requested about the program of Cocaine Anonymous.
Follow up with sub-committee members to make sure that responses were sent.
Goals for the Year: Our goal is to continue responding to letters that we receive in a timely manner. This year we answered 13 letters.
Outreach Sub-Committee
Chair: Michael C.
Co-Chair: Chris W.
Alex M.
Paul B.
Gregory I.
Statement of Purpose: Our primary purpose is to carry the message of recovery to the still suffering addict and newcomer. We are committed to being accessible to all H&I Committees in our fellowship to assist them in any way possible. It is our mission to outreach to the existing Cocaine Anonymous H&I Community to assist with any H&I related concerns, we will also continue to track H&I worldwide and promote the awareness and development of C.A. Lifeline Committees.
Goals for the Year:
To help facilitate greater awareness of C.A. Lifeline and encourage the formation of C.A. Lifeline within the H&I Committees within our fellowship.
To continue to track H&I within our fellowship by maintaining regular contact with our Regional Trustees so we can compile quarterly H&I meeting totals, and encourage growth. We will further develop contact with H&I chairs from our Areas and Districts so that H&I meeting information can be readily assimilated.
To handle concerns related to H&I within the C.A. fellowship by maintaining a relationship with our Regional Trustees, our H&I, Area and District Chairs and respond to requests related to H&I issues.
To develop a contact list of H&I Chairs within our Areas and Districts to open a channel for information to be readily exchanged. This goal will be achieved through contacting
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our Regional Trustees, our Area Chairs, and Area Delegates to find out who their H&I Chairs are and by obtaining contact information for the H&I Chairs. C.A. Lifeline Sub Committee Guidelines (WSM H&I pg 14-20)
C.A. Lifeline is a service sub-committee of the Hospitals & Institutions Committee. The primary purpose is to help the newcomer transition from treatment to the rooms of Cocaine Anonymous. We do this by providing a temporary contact in the newcomers local area. Members of C.A. usually acting in pairs meet the patients after their release from treatment and accompany them to their first C.A. meeting. Participation in C.A. Lifeline is always voluntary.
The C.A. Lifeline Committee’s activities include:
- Provide a vital link between treatment and the fellowship of C.A.
- Meet and correspond with representatives of local treatment facilities to ask for permission to work with their patients.
- Correspond with patients desiring C.A. Lifeline on release.
- Maintain a list of C.A. volunteers willing to do C.A. Lifeline work.
- Print and distribute appropriate formats
Guidelines Sub-Committee
Chair: Adrien H.
Co-Chair: Ferd-Jan
Anita I.
Allen P.
Statement of Purpose: The Guidelines sub-committee is committed to revising Guidelines through re-formatting and adding Conference approved literature. Any changes to the existing guidelines must go through the approval process and maintain a proper copy of the guidelines available on the World Website.
The guidelines are subject to ongoing housekeeping; this housekeeping will be directed at making the guidelines as clear and concise as possible. This sub-committee is responsible for incorporating all changes decided on at Conference in response to the referrals received.
COMMITTEE WORK THAT RESULTED IN MOTIONS None
REFERRALS THAT RESULTED IN MOTIONS
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Please remove all mention of the H&I can in the H&I guidelines – the ‘earmarking’ of funds is in contradiction to our service structure. Page 4 of our conference approved Financial Guidelines states: “• Do not spend funds without group conscience: Funds belong to the group, and the group should know what the money is being spent on.
Therefore, before funds go out from the group treasury, the group should have an opportunity to vote on this action. There may be group expenses that are “agreed” upon expenses, such as rent, coffee, etc. and therefore the treasurer pays these as they come due. All other expenses should be voted on.” What would happen if each group was to decide that they wanted an PI can, perhaps a convention can etc? The H&I can verbiage promotes this behavior to a group and thus detracts from the process of trusting our service structure in spending our members contributions wisely.
Personally I think that H&I work is really important and know that in my area we recognized that this earmarking of funds was inappropriate and made the decision as an area that we would no longer promote the use of H&I cans to groups or districts all though of course they are free to do whatever they like. Our experience is that our members still contribute just as much money and our area or districts are able to allocate funds as required and I have never heard a request for funds to the H&I committees turned down as we all feel that this is important work. I noticed in referral #748812 (referrals that did not result in motions) H&I response was that groups autonomous and can chose to pass the can or not. My concern is that H&I guidelines seem to encourage and promote this practice by groups else why would there be 1 and a half pages of information about what, how and why to pass a H&I can, furthermore there are downloadable labels for H&I cans? Of course a group will always be autonomous as per tradition 4 but many members respect and follow the guidelines that the conference approve and publish. Please consider a different approach, perhaps guidelines detailing duties of an H&I person to speak at groups and encourage more trad 7 contributions and then trust the process (God) as He works in our service structure
Unknown person – Motion: to amend H&I Guidelines pages 5 and 6 (H&I Can section) as follows:
The H&I Can funds
H&I funds are a part of the Area or District budget; if your district or area does, or wishes to raise funds to do a separately collection to support the H&I Committee, labels for the “H&I Can” may be obtained free of charge by contacting the C.A. World Service Office. Regular C.A. Meetings which pass a collection for H&I, have found the following a suitable modification of the meeting format. At the point where the 7th Tradition is honored, insert:
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“The 7th Tradition reminds us that we are fully self-supporting through our own contributions. The can being passed is to support the Hospitals and Institutions Committee of Cocaine Anonymous, it goes to buy key-chains and literature for addicts confined in Hospitals and institutions. I have asked to read the 12 Traditions for us while we observe the 7th. Newcomers need not feel obligated to contribute.”
Subsequently, all funds collected for H&I should go into the general fund of the local District or Area to be available for use by the corresponding H&I committee. the H&I Committee. H&I Committees would be well advised to allow H&I funds to be deposited in their existing area or district bank account and thus save the additional bank charges. In addition, H&I committees are always a sub-committee of the area or district service committee, and in keeping with the Ninth Tradition are directly responsible to those they serve. More information on starting an H&I collection in your district or area may be obtained from the C.A. World Service Conference H&I Committee Chairperson or the C.A. World Service Office
PASSING AN H&I CAN – THE HOW AND WHY OF IT
Since this fellowship was founded, it has been a custom at each meeting to drop a dollar in the basket. Unfortunately, while costs have increased in every area, the amount of this donation has remained the same. Many Areas have made up for this growing deficit by becoming increasingly dependent on special fund raising events. Consequently, the number of conventions, camp-ventions, roundups, etc. increases each year. When one of these events flops however, it may spell financial disaster for the District or Area which it was meant to support. From time to time, we ask members to drop an extra dollar in the basket when the fellowship is in need, but after a while, the donations drop off again. When the fellowship is having financial trouble, supplying regular C.A. meetings is not a problem as they buy what they need. Not so for the H&I Committee, having no income, they depend on the donations from open C.A. meetings for all their supplies.
One lasting solution to this problem is passing an H&I Can at meetings. This helps us in two ways: First the H&I Committee becomes self-supporting, and is able to provide: Bookmarks, Key-chains, Big Books, Pamphlets and even C.A. Storybooks. Secondly, as H&I is no longer a drain on the financial resources of the fellowship as a whole, these funds are free to be used elsewhere. In one district having 60 C.A. meetings per week; passing the H&I Can produced an income of $6,678.93, in 1993. Least we seem overly concerned with money; let’s look at what it bought. Funds from the H&I Can were used to purchase: 480 Big Books, 10,000 pamphlets, and 7,736 Key-chains. In 1994, this same committee will begin distributing the C.A. Storybook at H&I meetings as well. Big books are stamped on the inside cover with the C.A. logo and the number of the local Info-line; this insures that we who pay for the books get
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credit for their distribution. The H&I Can not only helps H&I carry the message; the support it represents is a very important morale booster to those who carry it.
If you desire to start doing this in your area; go to the District or Area Service Committee to solicit their support and approval. Each C.A. group is of course autonomous; the decision on whether or not to pass the H&I Can must be the result of a group conscience by the meeting in question. Then you’ll need the cans themselves; we suggest one pound coffee cans paint white. Any C.A. H&I Committee may obtain labels for the H&I Cans free of charge by contacting the C.A. World Service Office. The importance of using labeled or painted H&I Cans cannot be stressed enough; attempts to do this by passing another basket, have proven to be a failure. Another important point concerns the Meeting Format. The H&I Can is usually passed at the same time the 7th Tradition is collected. The format would read something like this: “The 7th Tradition reminds us that we are fully self-supporting through our own contributions. The Can being passed is to support the H&I Committee of C.A., it goes to provide Bookmarks, Keychains, and Literature for addicts confined in Hospitals and Institutions.” If the format remains unchanged, what often happens is that the H&I Can ends up gathering dust in the bottom of the box.
One concern which may be voiced is that funds collected actually go to H&I. The simplest way would be for the meeting to send a representative directly to the H&I Committee, a method successfully adapted by at least one area. Unfortunately, it is difficult enough to get one person to show up for the District or
Area Service Meeting; trying to find two reliable people each month may prove unrealistic. An alternative arrangement is to have the G.S.R. bring both the H&I Donation and the 7th Tradition to the Area or District Service Meeting, after noting the amount collected in each. The money is then deposited by the treasurer in the Area or District Service Bank Account. The funds remain separated on paper, and dispersed to H&I by the Treasurer. At the end of the year, the amount collected is divided by twelve. This figure becomes the monthly budget for H&I. In order to maintain the integrity of this process, one district amended its by-laws to state that the monthly budget of H&I must always be equal to, or greater than, the average monthly donation from the H&I Can.
Tony D. – Motion has been made and seconded.
Tom P. – Should this have been SR-14?
Tony D. – Yes. This is being ruled out of order.
REFERRALS OR ITEMS TABLED UNTIL NEXT YEAR; AND ITEMS THE COMMITTEE WILL CONTINUE WORKING ON THROUGH THE YEAR
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None
REFERRALS OR ITEMS REFERRED TO OTHER COMMITTEES; WORLD SERVICE OFFICE, OR BOARD OF TRUSTEES None
REFERRALS THAT DID NOT RESULT IN MOTIONS None
NEW COMMITTEE STRUCTURE AS OF THIS CONFERENCE
Anita I. Chair
Michael C. Vice-Chair
Loni S. Secretary
Colleen M. Co-Secretary
CLOSING COMMENTS
I really appreciate the opportunity for chairing the H&I committee; it has really helped me grow in both recovery and as a person outside of the rooms. The new committee is on fire and is ready to get started on new initiatives such as: reaching out to the areas around the world to see where we can help; connecting inmates with members in areas nearest them; pushing to get encouraging stories of our experiences with H&I; reviewing the guidelines for obsolete information/housekeeping; and pushing the Lifeline around the world.
Please take the news about the Lifeline back to your areas; H&I already brings in so many newcomers and the lifeline could make an even bigger difference. Please let your H&I committees know that we are here as a resource for them anytime!
Thank-you for allowing me to be of service, Adrien H.
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Tony D. – Any questions for H&I?
Brian T. – Doesn’t that presentation satisfy the SR-14?
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