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Service Group Support Committee Minutes - Sunday, May 2, 2021


3:30pm – 5:00pm ET

Serenity Prayer

Attendance

There were 43 fellows in attendance:
Aeida D MI, Andrea W CA, Anita F Fl, Barb C AB, Barbara S FL, Bob F FL, Charlotte S MI, Delores W GA, Ella Ray, Jackie W DC, Janice M MA, Kathryn W NY, Ketura DC, Leona WC CA, Linda B ON, Linda C Toronto, Linda P MI, Lisa D ON, Lloyd, Lois R FL, Lucinda UT, Lynn S NY, Marcia W MI, Mary Ann MD, Mary Lou NY, Meg W ME, Melissa D MI, Michelle B VA, Nancy M Toronto, Nora B DC, Pam K BC, Randi R CA, Reina D ME, Roberta B NJ, Sarah W CA, Selena AB, Shauna S ON, Sheri J CA, Sherry W FL, Shirley H Maine, Susan T ON, Ursula N NC, Yaser AB 

 

Intergroup and Chapter Updates

Eastern Area Intergroup - Report to follow

Western Area Intergroup

  • There are no recent or upcoming events in the five San Francisco Bay Area service areas (Contra Costa County, San Francisco, Mid-Peninsula/South Bay Area, Foothills-Sacramento, Sonoma County) due to Covid-19 restrictions.
  • Pacific Rim/Western Area Intergroup Service and Fellowship-Building Conference Call was held in January 2021 with a likely follow up in June 2021
  • Regional reports were given from fellows in Melbourne, Australia; Sydney, Australia; Gold Coast, Australia; Western Australia; and Wellington, New Zealand.

Maine Chapter

  • The Maine Chapter will be electing a new slate of officers in May.
  • The May Chapter Meeting will be having a presentation from the WSI 12th Step Committee, the MESA (Meeting Effectiveness Safety and Accessibility) subcommittee and the TOR (The Only Requirement) workgroup.
  • The Chapter will host a FA Information Booth at the 1st in-person outdoor health fair since the start of the pandemic.

Presentation: Virtual Information Session

Key ideas:

  • The term local is now taking on a new meaning
  • Determine how to register people
  • Determine how to get the meeting invite details to those that registered
  • Lined up the speakers and moderator
  • Identified the virtual literature table with a show and told of the FA website and a walkthrough of the newcomer package
  • How did we spread the word
  • through meetings
  • announcing in online calendars

Lessons learned (adapting format from in-person to online):

  • When you bring together a group of people who haven’t seen each other in a while, everyone wants to say hello to the fellows they know. This can be daunting for the newcomer. Be sure to welcome everyone, be inclusive.
  • We had to adapt the “time’s up” warning. Instead of interrupting the speaker, have a timer with an alarm or an actual bell.
  • We had to adapt how photos were shared. They were sent to the host of the meeting, who then shared them when prompted
  • People who raised their virtual hands were called on during the question period. For those using a phone, they were instructed to raise their hand by using *9.
  • Make sure we have available sponsors on the call (or names of people).
  • Ask sponsors to announce themselves so their name and number will pop up on the video

What does success look like:

  • Even though the seed was planted not everyone showed up
  • We got the word out
  • Each iteration of the virtual information session resulted in more and more people inquiring about the information session
  • The first session resulted in 14 inquiries, of those there were 4 newcomers
  • In the next session, there were 20+ inquiries
  • The third session had over 60 attendees

Q&A/Discussion

Q - Linda P Michigan - How did you recognize newcomers?

  • the contact person who registered the newcomers was able to identify who they were
  • the newcomer was not called out, they can be as anonymous as they want

Q - Susan T ON - What contact phone number was used to announce the event?

  • a fellow offered to use her personal number

Q - Pam K BC - How unifying was it for your fellowship?

  • very unifying, the team had a focus and was able to band together, the process created a structure on how to do similar events in the future, additional meetings in the “local” area supported the efforts

Q - Will the presentation and the format be made available to us?

  • Yes, they will be sent out with the minutes

LSG Reports

Kathryn W NY

  • The local service group was able to create a health care providers guide

Selena - Western Canada Area LSG

  • Had a viewing of the Health Care Professional Slide Show presentation - This LSG is redefining the boundaries of the term local.
  • The LSG covers 4 provinces over multiple time zones
  • Most of the fellows are on the Frontier
  • We have created announcements on Craigslist and Eventbrite referencing the FA website - There were 15 people on the last call

Susan T - Greater Toronto Area LSG

  • We are hosting a viewing of the Health Care Professional Slide Show for the local fellowship - We are looking at updating the trifold

Sherry - South West Florida LSG

  • We have focused on announcing FA in Eventbrite and have since been zoom bombed
  • They would receive inquiries from odd email addresses with odd characters, most of these were at odd times of the day - 2:43 am
  • Did have an auto-response with too much zoom invitation details; this is being rectified
  • We also have a direct phone # for the LSG, which is now getting robocalls. This local number is paid for by each of the local meetings
  • Google voice does generate an email instead of an actual call, and these can be screened
  • Recommended to generate different meeting IDs and passwords for each meeting
  • Each meeting now has a meeting contact - the zoom details were removed

Collect LSG Meeting Information

  • Introduction of the google form requesting information about you, your LSG, and how we can guide you in supporting your LSG. At the close of the Bi-Monthly/Global meeting, there were 22 responses.
  • The information will be correlated in the coming weeks.

Serenity Prayer

Contact sgsc@foodaddicts.org for copies of:

  • Virtual Information Session Presentation
  • Format of Virtual Information Session

WSI Service Group Support Committee - Conference Call Schedule – 2021

3:30 pm - 5:00 pm ET

DATES (Third Sunday of the Month*)

  • September 19
  • November 21

*Note: Revised dates due to national or religious holiday 

The Service Group Support Committee (SGSC) is a World Service Inc. (WSI) committee with the purpose of supporting local service groups, Chapters and Intergroups with the goal of carrying the message of FA to the still suffering food addict. The SGSC holds bi-monthly conference calls for anyone in the world-wide fellowship interested in learning more about service. The agenda for each meeting includes a discussion topic on service and a time for either Intergroups and Chapters or local service groups to share about their recent activities.