WSZF – July 29-31, 2005

San Francisco, California

WESTERN STATES ZONAL FORUM

MEETING RECORD

WESTERN STATES ZONAL FORUM 
JULY 29-31, 2005 
SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Participants
Franny J. – Washington Northern Idaho – RD
Jack H. – Washington Northern Idaho – RDA
Ruben A. – Southern California – RD 
Ken M. – Southern California – RDA
Jim W. – Rio Grande – RD
Laura B. – Rio Grande – RDA
Kathy K. – Pacific Cascade – RD
Denise T. – Pacific Cascade – RDA
J.B. M. – Southern Idaho – RD
Harper N. – Southern Idaho – RDA
Steve F. – Central California – RD
Rick T. – Central California – RDA
Deric W. – Arizona – RD
Vince G. – Arizona – RDA
Bryan W. – California Mid-State – RD
Rick W. – Region 51 – RD
D.W. D. – San Diego Imperial – RD
George G. –San Diego Imperial – RDA
Jimmy Lee P. – Northern California – RD
Lenny R. – Northern California – RDA
Gene P. – California Inland – RD
Muk – World Board
Bob J. – World Board
Roseann  B.A. – Meeting Facilitator
Sue L. – Secretary

Approval of Previous Meeting Record
Corrections – Greg was not the RD from Arizona, Derek and Vince were the RD and RDA from Arizona. (Derek was not present). Minutes approved with this one change. 

REGIONAL REPORTS

Arizona Region 
Hello everyone from the Arizona Region of NA. Arizona is growing in all of our areas. Currently we have 12 areas that cover all of Arizon, and parts of California and Nevada. 
      We missed all of you at the last WSZF. We are happy to report that we have 3 new areas in Arizona. CAN area (California-Arizona-Nevada), Lake Havasu Area, and River Valley. We also have a new web servant and our technology on the net and in our phoneline system has continuously improved. We just had our regional convention (ARCNA XIX), which was more successful than any of the previous 18 conventions. We attended the WSO workshop in Burbank, CA this past April and once again was very impressed with the leadership at the World level of our fellowship. For the past year, three areas have explored the logistics with forming and setting up a Metro level service structure. East Valley Area, Phoenix Area and West Valley Area were all involved. 

California Inland 
      First, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Gene P., aka Corky, and I am the new RD for California Inland. When last we met I was the RDA. 
      California Inland is made up of 4 areas that hold over 200 meetings weekly. We meet the first weekend of July. We are currently doing a complete overhaul of our guidelines, part of which is changing the term for RD & RDA from 1 year to 2 years to come in line with the conference. Elections for these positions only are held in the off Conference year. 
      Our Region uses Resource Officers instead of sub-committees for all but our Convention and Activities. H&I is the only RO position that is filled at this time. The Activities Committee is not active. Our H&I RO meets quarterly to break bread with the 4 area H&I chairs to promote unity and share problems and solutions. Our Convention has come and gone. It was well attended and appeared to go smoothly. California Inland turned 10 this year, so for the opening speaker meeting Friday night, our Regional Chair lead the meeting and the body did the readings. It was a way to introduce ourselves and share a little bit about the history of how our Region was born. We invited NAWS to come do interactive sessions on the 2 Issue Discussion Topics. It went well and had approximately 5 round tables for each topic. 
      Something our Region is trying to initiate is holding an assembly to go over the CAR. Because of our large geographical coverage, we are looking at holding two assemblies, 2 areas per assembly. 

California Mid-State
Greetings from California Mid-State Region,
      Our region’s seven areas serve the northern and central San Joaquín Valley and the central Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Our region serves cities such as Fresno, Stockton, Modesto and Visalia, as well as the Mother Lode Gold Country and Yosemite National Park.
      We have more than 425 meetings each week.  All areas continue to experience substantial growth.  Our smallest area has grown from 8 meetings to 20 meetings per week in 18 months due to drug court diversion programs.   We have dances, campouts, retreats, learning days and many other celebrations of recovery.  This year, Fresno celebrated 25 years of continuous NA meetings with a free party.  We expected 300 and had more than 500 show up (we thank our HP that there are places to buy barbequed meat since we ran out!).  We had a memorabilia room that was better than any I have seen with items such as approval drafts of the first Basic Text, It Works How and Why, and the sign-in sheet from the 5th Northern California Convention from 1983.  We had a multimedia presentation with photos of addicts across the years and finished with our longest-term members, who started the first meetings that stuck in April 1980, as speakers.
      California Mid-State Region carries a Regional Insurance Policy that covers every meeting and area or regional event that is held within the Region.  Our policy covers all who attend our functions and meetings.  We pay an annual premium and distribute the cost to the areas based on the number of meetings in each area.  This year, our $1,000,000.00 coverage costs us $8100.00.  Our cost for meetings has remained the same for the last four years.  We have a new carrier who charges us less per event and per additional insured, although we have more events so our cost savings is a wash.  If anyone is interested hearing more about our coverage, we would be more than happy to share the information with you.
      With regard to doing service at the Regional level, our administrative body is fairly typical. California Mid-State Region operates with Regional Information Coordinators instead of subcommittees.  Our RIC’s are to become the best-informed person in the region on his or her subject and act as a resource to local subcommittees.  We have Hospitals & Institutions, Public Information, Activities and Literature RIC’s.  Our Literature RIC is coordinating PR Handbook review and is putting on a Basic Text Writing Workshop.
      Our region participates with NA as a whole by sending our RIC’s to Western Service Learning Days, our Convention Chairmen to the NAWS Convention Workshops (when we have them), by participating in the Western States Forum, Worldwide Workshops, World Services Meetings (when we have them), and the World Service Conference.
We held a regional assembly in November, 2004 to write our position papers on the fellowship-wide discussion topics.  We also held a three-day assembly at Yosemite over the 2005 Memorial Day Weekend.  We use what we have learned at the Worldwide Workshops and WSC to act as facilitators and not as lecturers.  Responses from attendees have been positive.
      We continue to make use of regionally sponsored, area hosted learning days and have bids in for the next round.
      Our 9th Biennial Convention will take place in June, 2006 in Modesto.  This committee has been using very new and clever ways for raising funds.  They have sold blankets and director’s chairs.  They held a murder-mystery dinner where the participants had to solve a murder that happened during dinner.  It was certainly a lot of fun.
      We have been sending literature to prisoners who write us asking for it.  We budget $500 per six-month period and utilize a charge account with NAWS.  We have at least seven state prisons, including the women’s death row, a youth authority prison, five federal facilities and several state and federal hospital facilities as well as fire camp, nine county jails, and juvenile halls.  We will no longer service facilities outside of our region.  We are continually baffled that the Fellowship Services Team gives our address to any prisoner incarcerated north of the Grapevine.  Tehachapi, Inyo-Kern, Wasco and North Kern State Prisons are not in our region but are in Central California Region.  We request once again that the WSO purchase a map and look at it before answering prison mail with follow-up addresses.  We now forward letters from outside the region to the RSC that serves the facility.
      Our region has been engaged in a search for our identity.  We are in the process of bringing in lawyers and accountants to answer business related questions with respect to our region, its structure, and its place in the legal world.  We met with Anthony at the WSO before the Worldwide Workshop that took place in Burbank.  We sent a delegation of eight members; administration, RCMs, RD team and convention chair team; to Chatsworth to hear the experiences of our most experienced members and special workers at the WSO.  We were given direction on questions we should be looking into and held a very informative conversation.  We asked for referrals from NAWS lawyers and accountants to professionals in Central California and were told that they would seek them out for us and get back to us.  We also discussed pooling insurance resources by coordinating with one company in California for all of our regions along with NAWS to help lower everybody’s costs.  Unfortunately, we have not heard from the WSO since our meeting, and we now have several RCMs very displeased and other members claiming “I told you so!”, feeling that NAWS does not care about helping regions.  As an RD, it is a difficult characterization to overcome because of no follow-up.
      We look forward to entering into the heavy-work part of the cycle.  We are ready to plan for CAR Workshops and our Literature RIC is ready to workshop anything we will need to approve.  We do hope that the board will increase communications with the fellowship as NAWS News and Conference Report issues have been very few and far between.  An issue after each board meeting should be sent to those the board is directly responsible to.  A report to the RDs five times a year is not too much to ask for. 

Central California
Our Region is comprised of 5 Areas that are made up of 276 meetings a week. They are: Central Coast with 84, County Line with 23, Gold Coast with 50 (1 is Spanish speaking), Kern County with 107 (2 are Spanish Speaking), & Santa Barbara with 12. We meet every other month and conduct our business utilizing Consensus Based Decision Making. At least two of our areas also utilize C.B.D.M. We hold our Regional Assembly in March. We hold a single day Assembly in the off Conference years where we workshop the issue discussion topics, generate additional ones, and elect our Delegates. On the conference years we hold a 2 ½ day Assembly where we also workshop I.D.T.’s and generate additional topics in addition to addressing the CAR. We revised our guidelines during our last Assembly to reflect the 2-year conference cycle, Delegate terms of service, elections, and the abolition of the 2nd alternate. We forwarded our Region’s nomination of our outgoing Delegate George L. to the position of World Board Member. All in all conscience of the members of our region is being carried through the service structure. 
In the area of subcommittees, we are proud to report that our Hospitals & Institutions Committees carry over 100 panels monthly. We have formed a new subcommittee; Sponsorship Behind the Walls. They are still in the process of formalizing guidelines, and are expected to offer opportunities to further our primary purpose in new and exciting ways. We have a Website www.ccrna.orgfor the dissemination of our Regional events, guidelines, reports, and related information. It also serves as a source for Area events, meetings, and contact information. It is updated regularly and has become part of the Public Information Subcommittee. Our Public Information Subcommittee is struggling a bit with only a chair right now. Meanwhile our Area P.I. efforts are continuing. We also have no regional activities, literature development, or literature distribution at this time. 
Our last convention was in Feb. 2005 in Ventura, CA, celebrating our thirteenth anniversary. Our growth has made it impossible to hold our Saturday night main speaker meeting in the hotel, so we had to shuttle members to the Oxnard Performing Arts Center. This, in addition to the weather shrank our attendance to approximately 1000. This is making holding our convention anywhere but Bakersfield an insurmountable hurdle. We hope to see you all at our next convention February 17th thru the 19th in Bakersfield. We are continuing the process of researching the incorporation of our convention, or the Region as a whole. 

Northern California Region
Greetings Western States Zonal Forum,
The Northern California Region consists of 20 areas and approximately 1200 meetings. The RSC meets monthly at the Regional Service Office (RSO) in Vacaville, consisting of the RCM’s, H&I, PI, NCCNA (convention), RSO Board (an incorporated entity). We had elections and approved our budget in June. The regional web page is www.norcalna.org.
Regional PI has been operating under the coordinator structure for a year now, and it seems to be working quite well. Attendance at the bi-monthly PI sharing forum is up and the time that is being saved by not being bogged down with business is filled with PI informational workshops that are conducted by area PI committee members.
Regional H&I is beginning discussions on whether the coordinator structure will work as well for them as it has for PI. Initial reaction is negative, as it was with PI, but as stated, they are just getting the discussion process underway.
Northern California hosted Western Service Learning Days in October. By most accounts it was a success. Financially WSLD paid for itself and made a modest profit. Spiritually the event went very well. Feed back from the attendees was positive. The all day NA/CDC/Drug Court presentation was very informative. After a rocky start the committee pulled together and did what was needed.
Our RSO Board meets monthly at the RSO. The RSO supplies insurance, that is paid for by the RSC, for all meetings in our region and is currently leading a revamping of our regional website.
As was reported at last year’s forum our RSO Board of Directors was under a lot of pressure from having to handle our regional convention, WSLD and area conventions as well. It was the wish of our RSC that the BOD come up with a way to continue handling all of the events that were being sent to them as well as their other responsibilities. An adhoc committee was formed and met for almost six months. The conclusion of the adhoc was that there was no mechanism for dealing with area conventions that would not bring our region into conflict with the 12 Traditions and 12 Concepts. The RSC agreed with this conclusion and passed a motion not to send any area events to the BOD.
Mostly as a result of being overworked our BOD ran into difficulties carrying out its normal functions and maintaining the degree of accountability we are accustomed to. With the help of our RSC treasurer and RD, the new BOD treasurer did a re-vamping of the BOD’s accounting procedures. After determining that the BOD was operating at a loss the RSC gave the BOD an infusion of operating capital and agreed to take measures to increase their income.
Our annual convention,NCCNA 27 was held in Sacramento this year. The convention was a success both spiritually and financially. It was largely as a result of our convention that the RSC was able give the BOD the financial help that they needed. The NCCNA committee is financially accountable to the BOD and spiritually accountable to the RSC.
Most of our Areas have functioning PI and H&I Subcommittees, Phonelines, monthly ASC’s and Activities Committees. Some of our areas in the more rural part of the state are experiencing problems common to us in NA, more work to be done, with too few people to do it.
Our RD and RDA are in the process of revising our Conference Agenda Report Guidelines. Our region instituted a new process for dealing with the 2004 CAR. Rather than holding 20 CAR Workshops our Areas were divided into 5 zones. Each zone held a pre-CAR and post-CAR assembly. Although the pre-CAR assemblies were quite successful, the post-CAR assemblies were not well attended and will be eliminated for 2006. Instead, the post-CAR assembly will be done with the RCMs, who will then bring the information back to their areas.

Pacific Cascade Region 
Our region currently has 13 Areas, 1 has been inactive at Region for almost  a year, and one is a brand new Area that split from our largest Area, Portland.  Geographically our region covers all of Western Oregon, most of Central/Eastern Oregon, small part of Northern Cal. And little pockets of S. Washington.  Areas range is size of 7-10 meetings/week to @300 meetings/week. The Portland Area is having growing pains and will probably split into 3 Areas,  but they are also looking at Metro. More will be revealed.
Our annual Regional Convention was held in Grants Pass this past May and was a success both financially and a great celebration of recovery.  The Area worked very hard for almost 3 years to make this a fun event with great speakers.  The upcoming Regional Convention will be in Portland, OR May 12-14, 2006.  Also, the PNW #29 October 2006 will be held in Eugene, OR.
Our RSC meets quarterly and rotates around the region. Areas host the one day event. Our region holds 2 Assemblies each year in conjunction with the Winter and Summer RSC. We have the Assembly on Saturday and the RSC on Sunday. 
On conference years the Winter Assembly is a 2 day event separate from the RSC, so we can discuss the CAR, CAT and workshop issue discussions.  This year at the February Assembly we did small discussion groups on Infrastructure.  2 weeks ago we had our summer assembly and we did Public Image and also a workshop on writing for the Basic Text. We used the 90 minute model suggested on the website. It seemed to go well. At all of our Assemblies we use a feedback form that is very helpful in making any changes to the format, one comment that we consistently get is that they much prefer the small group discussion format rather than people standing up giving reports. So our challenge as Delegates is how to disseminate/communicate all of the interesting things that we get from NAWS with out losing their interest. One way is to make copies of  documents for them to take with, digest later and just touch on the highlights in reports.  We have had 2 summer assemblies at the coast  and they are not as well attended.
Our Region finally has a web site!  www.pcrna.org. Check it out. It is new so I’m sure there will be changes.  
Life is good in the Pacific Cascade Region.

Region 51 
Not much new these days. We are in the process of changing the structure of our regional body. Currently we are a resource body only, providing information and support to our member areas. It was decided at a regional assembly to form a service body, based on the model of the majority of regions in the USA. And AD-HOC committee was formed to facilitate the process. Membership, as well as an outline structure, was established by the AD-HOC. Currently that committee has appointed representatives for each subcommittee to write guidelines to facilitate the tasks that were identified by the committee. 
I wanted to submit a motion for consideration to be placed in the CAR. After making the rounds to my member areas I lacked the time to give the motion the proper attention it required for formal submission. I might consider submitting at the WSC. The motion was: to make the HRP a formal subcommittee of the World Board, utilizing the existing election procedures. If there are any other regions that might want to support this please contact me.  

Rio Grande Region 
(SENT EMAIL REQUESTING REPORT)
Representative from Twin Cities, three communities broke off from the twin cities area formed their own area. Holding a meeting this month to decide if they are going to a region, form a new region, etc. Board is still struggling to figure out their responsibilities, how they function. Areas have been coming to them to help out with events, some concerns. Greater Albuquerque area looking into opening an ASO. 
Will have a written report tomorrow. 

San Diego/Imperial Region
Greetings from the sunny south, Since we last met…
            We have had two annual regional conventions. Our 2004 convention was held in September at Barona Resort and Casino in eastern San Diego county. It was saturated with controversy; the Casino element, a new site from our previous ten plus years, too far away from local transit lines for newcomers, and as such did not have strong support by our local fellowship. 
            Our 2005 regional convention fared much better; centrally located, a large local hotel hosted us and we booked almost 300 rooms that helped to defray convention room costs. It was held Memorial Day weekend, a hot weekend and the many pools that the hotel had helped. We also had a “historical” theme as it was our twentieth regional convention and many old-timers came out of the woodwork to see us. 
            Areas within San Diego/Imperial Region have been supporting our region more strongly these days. We just had our 1st Regional United Learning Days which was reported a success by many. Regionally, we used to have a Confenverence several years ago to facilitate the CAR workshop. With the current biannual state of the CAR we decided to host a Regional United Learning Days on the off-CAR year cycle. Basic service was the theme of the event; teaching Group Servants. Music, food, and fun were the attraction. 200 plus in attendance. 
Problems our region is encountering and topics for this 2005 WSZF

All and all, we survive and stay clean. Rich is the spiritual bounty of NA service. 

(Letter from DA Follows)
TO:                  ADA Contractors

FROM:            Connie Moreno-Peraza, LCSW, Deputy Director

NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS (NA) MEETING ADVISORY

Alcohol and Drug Services has received information from the Probation Department via the District Attorney’s office that a young people’s Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting is allegedly being facilitated by a registered sex offender who is not to have contact with minors.  The District Attorney’s office is taking appropriate actions. Programs are strongly encouraged to refrain from referring youth to the following NA meeting: 
NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD

Sierra Sage Region

Southern California Region
Our region has approximately 1260 meetings and 151 Spanish speaking only meetings throughout its 20 areas.  Of those 1127 meetings, 4 are Armenian, 3 are Farsi, 1 is Hebrew and 3 are American Sign Language. The RSC recently revised its regional guidelines. On the off year of the WSC we encouraged the GSR’s and RCM’s to attend the WorldWide Workshop that was held in April in Burbank. As Ken and I start on our 2nd term in office we have been going to several areas meeting to answer questions and introduce ourselves to the GSR’s. It has been a rewarding experience to be able to do that as no RD or RDA has done that in our region for quite some time. One of the hottest topics in our region this year has been the holding of raffles at our regional and area events. As we all know raffles can be a great source of revenue for our areas as well as our region. But with the information that we got last year from the Northern California Region at the WSZF in Las Vegas about raffles and the law that the State of California came out with in 2001, it makes raffles illegal unless you register with the state. I hope to put this on the agenda for discussion for we feel it is a very important issue that needs to be looked at by the regions within California and to be looked at by the regions outside of California to see how they are covered in those states. 
Regional Service Office (RSO):  Our RSO is maintaining itself. They have fallen way below their prudent reserve but are working on new marketing strategies to bring sales up. They currently have 9 directors of the 14 available positions. The RSO carry’s insurance for the regions 20 areas as well as, our events. Earlier this year we lost our insurance coverage because of a lack of payment for an additional insurer that we didn’t know that we had to pay. So because of that the groups and events were with out insurance for a period of 4 ½ month.
Hospitals and Institutions (H&I):  All 20 areas including the Spanish Speaking area attend the monthly H&I subcommittee meeting. The region carries 57 panels that go into our Hospitals and Institutions within our region. The 19 areas, along with the Spanish Speaking region carry approximately 618 panels. The subcommittee holds an annual Learning Day in the month of May which has been moved this year to September 3, 2005 because of some facility problems.
Public Information (PI):  The subcommittee continues to reach out to the community and by educating our young people by carrying presentations into the schools. The website committee works under the guidance of the PI committee. The website committee currently is working on guidelines. One of the issues that has come up is the subject of anonymity on the website. We are currently running at about 85% accuracy for meeting information on the website.  8 of the 20 areas have websites.  We are still trying to set up a meeting with NAW’s to take a look at their database so that we can function together in updating meeting information on the World’s website.
Regional Activities:  The regional activities committee puts on 3 major events per year. The NA Birthday, New Years Eve and the Regional Campout. They also help with the H&I Learning Day and the Regional Assembly Workshop. They help out the 20 areas with their events by providing a calendar so that the areas can have regional dates so that no area event conflicts with another areas regional event. They post all areas events whether they are a regional or area event on the regional web site.
Phone lines (PL):   Phone lines are currently running a 24 hour 7 days 800 number with live addicts answering the phones. 7 areas are helping accomplish this.  The Spanish speaking area is helping the region man the Spanish speaking hotline.
Literature:  We currently have no Literature Review committee because of lack of participation.
Regional Convention:  The Convention committee is getting ready for this years convention which will be held over the Thanksgiving weekend at the Ontario Convention Center. They had a nice convention last year, but lost money. No donation to the region. 
Cruise Committee:  The Cruise Committee had another successful event this past September 2004; it didn’t donate as much as the 1st and 2nd cruise but it still was able to donate to the region. 
Spring Gathering Committee:  The Spring Gathering committee also didn’t have a successful event this year; they didn’t donate to the region. This is a small but active committee showing how diverse our region is.

Southern Idaho Region
            The Southern Idaho Region is comprised of five areas: High Desert, Treasure Valley, Magic Valley, Minni-Cassia and Snake River Valley. The region covers all of the Southern part of Idaho, Jackson, Wyoming and Ontario, Oregon.  There are between 70 to 80 weekly meetings. 
            The region meets on a quarterly basis that rotates between the five areas. Depending on which area you are in, the travel to region can be as much as 300 to 325 miles. We have a two day region meeting. The Saturday meetings are the sub-committee meetings, RD and RDA meeting and the executive committee meeting. The Sunday meeting is the region business meeting. 
            We have a regional assembly in the spring, which addresses the topic discussion, CAR Workshop and voting in the conference years. 
            Our region is still having problems with subcommittee support from the areas. At present we do not have literature and activities committees chairpersons. 
            Our regional convention and annual campout rotates between the five areas. 
            We have just submitted guideline amendments and will be voting on them in October. One of the submitted amendments would reduce regional finances to only two quarters operating expenses. Along that line also one area has stopped sending donations to region because they feel we have two much in our regional treasury. 
            Nominations were done in the July meeting and we have four positions with no nominations. At present by guidelines, the RD has three other positions at region, regional vice chair, activities and literature. 
            We have a website with an elected webmaster. 

 Washington/Northern Idaho Region  
We have 21 Areas consisting of approximately 700 meetings spanning over 74,000 square miles that include Washington State, North Idaho, and a bit of North Eastern Oregon.  
RD team has implemented a quarterly report to the region.  The report summarizes NAWS News, NA Way Magazine, World Board reports, and Western States Zonal Forum.  The purpose is to increase communication throughout the levels of service reaching the individual group member.  It is a one page report and we bring enough copies to our region for RCMs to distribute to all groups.
We have held several Issue Discussion Topic Workshops and have forwarded all info to NAWS.  Several Areas have initiated work groups to review/input the proposed PR Handbook.
We implemented a significant transition from a Regional Conventions Association (corporation) to a Regional Fellowship Services Association (corporation).
The only noteworthy issue we have is a resistance to move away from CAR Workshops and use the Regional Assembly as a communication mechanism.

NA World Services (NAWS) – No written report. 
Previous to this actual report Bob J. (WB) discussed the lack of NAWS News due to loss of staff, but one will be coming out soon, hopefully in time for the convention. If you know anyone that has writing skills and abilities who would consider taking a position at the World Service Office, please have them send their PROFESSIONAL resume (not World Service Resume) to the office.  
Currently there are two major projects going on:  
1) Basic Text Project – Really encouraging people to send in stories. Suggestions for how to get people to do this: one on one communication, ask them directly to write up their story and get it in; flyers (handed out at the session); suggestions on what they could write about (specific things they’ve talked about in meetings); set a 30 day deadline from the time you ask them to write it; tell them you’ll help them with the submission and follow-up with them on it.  
2) Public Relations Handbook – Roseann (facilitator) and Jack (Wash/No Idaho) are both on the workgroup. Chapters 5 through 9 going out on September 1st.   Handbook going great, biggest criticism is that H&I is being overlooked but this concern should be addressed in Chapters 5 through 9, it’s in there. 
Other World Service News/ Issues: 

Leadership – HRP is sitting down with the board to discuss methods to get people to take on leadership roles in service. Change in how the workgroups are being filled makes a difference. Delegates elect other delegates historically. Would be nice to change this, but realistically? Motion 58 – Allows for the nomination from a region, zone or board to forward a nomination to the HRP after the blind selection process, not an automatic nomination to be put on the ballet. There is some confusion on this issue. Nominations can still be made from the floor, but Motion 58 actually allowed for the person to be inserted into the process post the blind selection. HRP, nominations committee and the full board have worked closer together then ever before. Leadership isn’t just about cultivating people for service on workgroups, boards, WSO, etc. It’s for cultivating people that can work in all the various circles of service. We need to grow our infrastructure to make this a 2            1st century infrastructure. Leadership cultivation is part of that infrastructure of service.

Self-Support – people at her local level that believe that if they are putting more than a dollar or two into the basket they are breaking the traditions, needs to be explained that this isn’t what is meant by the traditions. No changes to prices and shipping and handling in the next year.  

Guideline Review – Changes are being made to the guidelines to include: 1) Bring Copies of Reports. 2) Spell California Mid-State Correctly 3) Bullet Points 3 and 4 under Hosting will include information on the website and getting the information regarding the upcoming WSZF to the website as well as the meeting record after the meeting has taken place. Please see guidelines for changes. 

Website Information in Guidelines Discussion/Decisions: 
A bullet point under hosting, the host is responsible for putting the information on the website (or getting it to the appropriate person for the website prior to the meeting as stated in (bullet point 4). 

Discussion on Rio Grande hosting the site or maybe some other area hosting the site, maybe even having our own site on an area’s server. Talked to Ron and he is willing and capable of maintaining the site. He is also willing to mentor anyone else if they decide to do it. Ron suggested that if we want our own domain name some region should offer to sponsor it. Southern California is willing to take this back to their region and see if they’d be willing to do to this and host the sites. Suggestion to discuss this in April at the conference or via email or mail, right now maintaining the status quo.

Discussion on asking Rio Grande to link the WSZF page to the page on www.na.org. After minimal discussion it was decided that Rio Grande would like this page. They agreed to handle this issue.

Discussion on content on the site: 

Under Site Selection and Hosting Process Discussion on start time on Friday, decided to keep the time as is, but please follow the six o’clock time. 

Blind Copy when you send out the email lists. 
Decision was made that the names should be first name last initial only on this website information. 
Discussion on getting topics early and prioritizing. No changes made. 

Bids for Western States Zonal Forum 2006
Central California Region submitted a written bid for hosting in Santa Barbara, CA. 
After much discussion a regional straw poll was taken about accepting this proposal. More discussion on this ensued. Accepted the bid from Central California. Date of next Western States Zonal Forum will be July 28 – 30, 2006.

Presentation at Conference
Bryan from California Mid-State Region volunteered to put together a report and do the presentation at the WSC this year. 

Discussion Topics

SPANISH SPEAKING AREAS
The Area representative from Southern California, Christina was invited to speak. Here is her report: 
      The Area de Habla Hispana Sur de California Narcoticos Anonimos (AHHSCNA) is actively functioning with a total of 28 groups that are providing 167 meetings per week as my PI chair informed me. 
      Our first meeting took place on February 9, 1997. The idea was then to gather the Spanish Speaking Groups for a Learning Day. The “area” meetings rotated throughout the existing groups at the time. Help and guidance was asked from Southern California Region. Spanish Speaking Subcommittees began forming according to the needs of the groups always working in the spirit of unity along the side of the Regional Committees.  On December 19, 1999 SCR recognized this body as a Spanish Speaking Committee that had the functions of an area Comite Regional de Servicio de Habla Hispana Sur de California Narcoticos Anonimos. SCR guidelines were amended to include this committee. Because of our name we created confusion and our Spanis speaking members were confused and thought we were a region. To avoid any further confusion and with the help of our friend Bruce, the former RCM and currently the vice chair of the area, we requested to be recognized as an Area and SCR recognized us as an Area. In October 2004 we submitted our registration to the World Service Office with our name; Area de Habla Hispana Sur de California Nacoticos Anonimos. 
      The sub-committees that are currently active are Public Information, H&I, Activities, Phonelines, and Convention. Our area is in the process of organizing their first convention in May 2006. Again the region gave us guidance on how to establish this committee. Unfortunately, due to lack of members able or willing to be of service we do not have a website or a literature committee at this time. Again, we have received the full support of SCR to update our meetings information by the Website Coordinator of the Websites regional committee. The Grupos en español have current information on the web page. 
      We continue to work closely with the Regional Committees. Unfortunately, when the chair does not speak English this becomes a problem. Nevertheless, our objective has been met. To take the message of recovery to the addict who still suffers in their language. In this case the message is needed in Spanish. 
      Our Area invested to have me attend the Latin American Zonal Forum this past June. It was a precedent that an Area was voted in representing the Latin American Community in the United States. Their proposed guidelines allowed for Areas and communities representatives to join. We were admitted and are now active voting members of this forum. We are able to participate and hopefully be helpful in some of their projects such as the translation committee, the writing of the personal stories, and completion of their guidelines. 
      When attending the FZLA I learned that the Spanish population has grown immensely in Latin America the in the United States. I met the convention chair of the Area de Metro de Hable Hispana of New York. 
It is great to see the sprouting of new groups and areas for the Spanish speaking addicts. 
      AHHSCNA at this moment is in the process of updating the guidelines and to establish a prudent reserve. 
      I like to thank my region for inviting us to be part of this forum. I am so grateful to be of service and to have been blessed to be a part of these projects. To learn every day that I can be of service makes me a grateful addict. 
Christine PJ, RCM AHHSCNA

LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP

INCORPORATION/ ASO’S/ LEASING BLDGS

INFRASTRUCTURE

DONATIONS/ FUND FLOW AND SELF-SUPPORT

COURT INTERACTION

RAFFLES AND FUND RAISING

REGIONAL INFORMATION COORDINATOR

ACQUIRING MEETING LOCATIONS

INSURANCE

CHILDCARE

RE-SALE / TAX ID

H&I CLEARANCES

PREDATORY BEHAVIOR

SPONSORSHIP BEHIND THE WALLS

TRANSLATION APPROVAL PROCESS

RURAL AREAS

POST MEETING GAMBLING

BASIC TEXT APPROVAL PROCESS

Meeting Closed at 12:10 p.m. after all topics had been discussed. 

Thanks for allowing me to be of service. 

Sue L. 

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