Service Group Support Committee Minutes - Sunday, May 17, 2020

3:30pm – 5:00pm ET

Serenity Prayer

Attendance

Akia W, Alia B, Anita F, Barb C, Barb C Alberta, Bronna G Toronto, Chichi E DC, Deme S, CA, Diane K., CA, Elizabeth K TX, Erica N CA, Helen R, Joe P from ME, Kathryn W NY, Kathy M KY, Ketura, Linda B, Lisa B, Lou H, Mac M CA/TX, Marcia, Margaret, Michele, Nancy M, Pam K Toronto, Paul B, MA, Paula W, CA, Reina, Rod B, Roz H, Sherry W Cape Coral, FL, Sheryn N, Shirley H ME, Tara B PA, Tracey J DC, Valerie from PA, Vicki R, Wendi

Intergroup and Chapter Reports

Western Area Intergroup

• Podcasts
• The subcommittee makes a select number of pre-existing FA speaker audio recordings more accessible to the general public for free downloading or listening through podcasting platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, and Podbean.
• Since the inception of the podcasting project in Nov. 2018, there have been 30,000 downloads. For comparison, the number of downloads on our website in one year only amounted to 6,000. So, we have surmounted that by 5 times in just about 1 year of podcasts.
• Right now, there are 17 qualifications available for download through the FA podcasts, including one in mandarin Chinese which has been downloaded over 850 times since just the end of December! Over the last 30 days there have been 4,500 downloads total, a little shy of what has been downloaded from the FA website in a year. We continue to add new podcasts each month.
• Blogwatch
• This subcommittee posts world service board approved comments to any online article or blog that has room for discussion.
• February 2020:
• 17 attempts
• 13 appear
• 3 pending
• 1 rejected
• Totals to date
• 1419 attempts
• 778 appear

Eastern Area Intergroup

• EAI still plans to host the annual service support weekend in early November. The service support weekend committee is currently exploring ways to make this an engaging, meaningful event given the current travel situation. More information will follow shortly.
• In June, our EAI service group support committee meeting, will begin working through ways we can centrally fund LSG-run fellowship days. We’ll share more on this in the coming months.
• During the monthly EAI meeting in June, EAI members will vote on whether or not they support our offering remote voting for elections, etc.

Maine Chapter

• COVID-19 Response:
• Of the 23 meetings 16 are gathering by phone and/or zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions.
• 7 meetings have decided to either partner with other meetings or attend gatherings around the Chapter and world.
• FA members have been joining these gatherings from the frontier and other meetings. This has been a tremendous support to many smaller meetings and has enriched the fellowship during this amazing time. At my little meeting in Newcastle Maine we have had people attending and sharing from 3 other states and one other country.
• Chapter meetings:
• We normally meet as a Chapter once a month in person. We are now meeting by phone and/or zoom. We are working out the technical kinks.
• The Chapter is sending out Highlights to all FA members affiliated with the Chapter. This now includes gathering information 16 gatherings in our region.
• Chapter updates:
• The Chapter Office Committee is a much-needed communication hub for the groups. They respond to requests from members and the community. They also are keeping our information up to date on the FA website.
• The 12th Step Committee is in the process of planning a series of Chapter wide gatherings online:
• Skit: Don’t Eat No Matter What, No Matter What Don’t Eat and sharing session
• Connection Writing Session
• 12th Step Sharing Session (looking at the 3 sections of Step 12)
• The PI Committee will be placing announcements re FA online and in papers re how to connect with FA and learn more about FA. They are also exploring options re healthcare community outreach.
• Maine chapter elections are delayed, terms will be extended and next year’s terms will be for only one year.

FA Website Overview

General

• Search bar: use the search bar to search for anything you’re looking for. You can’t search too many times!
• On the home page: hover over “Meetings” and then “Meeting Guidelines” for all the meeting guidelines documents for use in meetings.
• There are two ways to change the menu bar at the top of the page:
• For Members – changes the top menu bar to show the WSI committees
• Hover over “Member Home” and click “Member FAQ” for tons of good information, or search FAQ on the search page
• Service Group Support – click on Eastern Area Intergroup, Western Area Intergroup, or Maine Chapter to see the committees for the intergroups or the chapter
• Click on the FA logo on the top left of any site to go back home and reset the top menu bar
• Log in to your account to see information about your connection subscriptions, past purchases, and change your contact information. If you have a service position, make sure to keep your contact information up to date so that you get the information you need.
• Questions
• Where do we email feedback on the website?
• Feedback can be submitted to SGSC@foodaddicts.org.

PI

• Click on “For Members” and use the “Public Info” menu to get all the public information and documents you could want!
• Health Fairs contains information about health fairs and handy documents you can use when you’re working at a health fair
• Media Outreach has information about interacting with the media and best practices
• Information Sessions gives you all the information and documents you need to host an information session
• PI Materials is where you can order banners and tablecloths if they’re needed – intergroups have sets that can be shipped on loan, so you don’t necessarily need to purchase these for yourself
• Sponsor A Rack gives great information about how to start a rack program to get FA information into the community including a rack tracker
• Trifold and Flyer Templates are for EAI and WAI and how to update the meeting directory trifolds. Sometimes intergroups can help with printing costs
• EAI PI has a Teens and Twenties outreach kit
• For more help, you can email Lisa G. at EAIPI@foodaddicts.org
• To find the digital newcomer packet, go to the home page and click where it says “If you’re new to FA, click here”
• Questions:
• Does the Help for PI Reps tab replace “So You’re a PI Rep, Now What?” brochure?
• These resources are complementary
• Can you talk about the Waiting Room booklet?
• The Waiting Room booklet is something that’s used in EAI that can hold trifolds and can be left in medical office waiting rooms. EAI can send them for help with meetings.
• For some of the documents like the rack tracker, there are just so many pieces of paper to do with FA. Maybe with the redesign, could we make this a PDF form instead of a PDF file? Australia has made its own excel sheet.
• Please send in the excel sheet, and we can bring feedback to the board.

Staying Connected: Telephone Trees Tracey J. 202-853-7276

• Phone tree in the D.C./MD/VA/PA/DE area was established to distribute information to the 33 meetings in the area
• Two types of positions with 1-year length of service
• Two co-leads who can attend the meetings organize the phone tree and call the phone tree member (suggested 1 year continuous abstinence)
• Phone tree member calls meeting contacts for the assigned day of the week (ex. Sunday, Wednesday meetings – suggested 6 months continuous abstinence)
• Good way to get to every meeting because not every meeting has a PI rep, but every meeting has a meeting contact
• The phone tree updated the meeting contacts by email and phone as the pandemic was happening to get information to as many people as possible.
• They also used the DC-area phone list, which is a collection of meeting phone list members who have people on it who want to do service by making their information available. The area phone list is updated by a Google form and is distributed on the literature table at meetings. The updates are made quarterly. (about 200 fellows)
• They created a DC Area email address with an auto-response with information about cancellations, Zoom meetings, and phone gatherings.
• Questions/comments:
• In Michigan, they’re planning a fellowship day for Oct 3, and they get every contact together in Michigan. They have a call-in once a month and that seems to be working.
• Maine Chapter is interested in knowing more about the auto-response email message.

Serenity Prayer