Japan Holds its First RSC

A Full Report on this Historic Event

Japan has 44 groups belonging to 8 areas with 125 meetings a week. After studying various Regional reports, we had our first RSC meeting for 3 days on 3rd Oct 1998. Representatives from 18 groups attended this meeting. The agenda of this meeting was as follows :

1. Plan of Regional Convention

2. Plan of Service Workshop

3. Communication between Groups & Areas

4. Establishment of Service Structure

5. Translation

6. Fund raising & Contributions

 On 13th Feb.'99, our RSC met again for a day. At this meeting 23 groups out of 44 attended. The agenda was as follows :

1. Demarcation of Areas

2. Translations

3. Fund raising & Contribution

A service workshop was held prior to this RSC meeting. Anthony E, Mary V, & Larry R of NAWS participated, Bob B, Tom M, & Tali M of APF attended this meeting. There were over 130 members who attended this meeting. The topics that were discussed at this meeting were as follows.

• History of World Services and NA in Japan

• Our service structure, what is the role of each level of service and how do we work together effectively.

• Japan's role in World Services, where do we fit in ?

• The 12 concepts & The 12 traditions.

• What is our primary purpose in NA ? (H & I)

• Group conscience, how do we make decisions ?

• Translations

• Fund Raising & Contributions.

 This meeting was a real eye opener for us It got us united with a vision of our future. It was just the kick - start we needed for our service structure. We thank NAWS & APF for participating at this meeting.

A brief introduction to our various service committees is mentioned below.

 Public Information :

• Individual groups regularly hold PI meetings every year.

• Each group has one contact person.

• Every area has a meeting list which is distributed at PI meetings.

 Hospital & Institution

• Recently an area has formed a H & I committee to carry the NA message to addicts in Hospitals.

• The message is regularly carried to addicts in Hospital by individual groups. Depending on the group, these presentations are done either weekly or monthly.

• Jails in Japan have strict rules &regulations due to which H & I has not been able to pass the NA message to inmates in jails.

Translations

• The Little White Book and IP # 2,6,7,8,11,13,16 & 22 have been translated and are being used all over Japan.

• The Group Booklet has been translated but it has yet to be approved.

• Currently we are working on the Basic Text.

• We are also working on translating Key Tags into Japanese.

Regional Newsletters.

• The title of the Newsletter is "Recovery in Unity".

• In our newsletter, we publish personal stories, Recovery topics, Regional Service activities and reports, events etc. "Recovery in Unity" is distributed freely to all members.

Other Activities.

• Groups and Areas hold a variety of events such as Cherry Flower Blooming party in Spring, a Beach party in

• Summer, a Barbecue in Fall and Skiing Party in winter. These events bring us together in unity & love.

 A report by Masa (April '99)

  A HURRICANE IN BHUBANESWAR

A few weeks ago a Hurricane hit Bhubaneswar, a city on the east coast of India. It has a growing NA fellowship of 10 to 15 members. Nihar, a member from Bhubaneswar had attended an APF Meeting at Kuala Lumpur. The city has been virtually cut-off from the rest of India and the world. Efforts are being made by the fellowship in India to contact members in Bhubaneswar. We hope and pray that members in Bhubaneswar are safe and well.

  EUROPEAN DELEGATES MEETING - BARCELONA, SPAIN

 Aloha! This July I attended the European Delegates Meeting (EDM) in Barcelona, Spain. I was unable to attend the first day of the EDM due to communication failure between the EDM Steering Committee and I.

I arrived on the evening of the first day of the EDM (Thursday, July 1, 1999).

Friday, July 2, 1999: I was warmly welcomed by the EDM. I was requested to participate fully at the EDM and to present a report on the APF.

Representatives at the EDM were from: Denmark, Finland, France, German Speaking Region, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Quebec, Canada, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom

World Board members present were David J from the United Kingdom, and Susan C, from the United States. An employee of the World Service Office, Ann P, did not attend the EDM meetings, however she did maintain an information table with the European Service Office manager in the convention hall to serve the attendees of the ECCNA.

Regional/NA Community Reports:

The representatives from each region or NA community made a verbal report on their status, concerns and activities. This is the same method of reporting as members of the APF use. They used this same reporting session to share experience, strength and hope on problems brought up during the reports. In my notes, I recorded only a part of what was shared as I was asked to speak to different individuals outside the meeting room on PI or personal matters.

The German Speaking Region, represented by their RD Wolfgang W, shared that they have reduced the size of their service committees and wanted to note that although their effectiveness rose, their time to accomplish tasks or projects took longer.

The representative from Denmark shared that they had scheduled their first service conference and that they needed help with problems of disunity. A member of the World Board responded to their request for help on translations.

The representative from Turkey, Tolga O, shared that his Fellowship was experiencing disunity. Other representatives shared similar experiences on how they had overcome the problem by sharing on the Traditions, direct appeals to those involved, and letting time heal the wounds as the Fellowship grew.

David J, World Board member, shared his belief that NA communities need to focus on the basics of NA service (the Traditions) and learn what the underlying principles are to enhance their efforts to reach the still suffering addict.

The representative from Poland, Arthur, reported that they had two groups in prison although they do not have an H&I Committee to support these groups. The representative requested help on translations and how to coordinate projects.

Finland reported plans for a fellowship development trip to Petersburg, Russia later this year. It was decided that the Finns would work in closer communication with EDM and World Services.. In addition, it was reported that the Finns need guidance with writing their personal stories for the Finnish Basic Text.

The Greek representative, Nicholas reported that NA started in Greece in 1987 and blossomed in 1993.For the most part, they grew up on their own without outside assistance. Public information work is not being done, it needs to be started again. Translation of Literature is carried out as per plan.

Attila M, the Swiss representative, reported that many NA members in Switzerland and throughout Europe do not know much about EDM and its importance. He requested that at the next ECCNA a presentation on EDM should be made to NA members. At the next ECCNA would be held in Lausanne, Switzerland in July 2000, Euro PI will make a presentation to the public.

Barrington, the UK representative, shared that the UK RSC is still working on the "Queen's English" personal stories for the Little White Book. Some groups calling themselves Narcotics Anonymous are using the "baby blue" Basic Text. The UK Region has asked the World Board to help with legal support to stop these groups from using the NA name.

Jail inmates in the UK are not allowed to hold cash due to which they were unable to purchase NA literature. To solve this problem, the UK Regional Service Office decided to accept unused postal stamps as payment from inmates. Every month, inmates are given an allotment of postal stamps for their personal mail.

Claude G from Quebec reported that they are working with the French and the Swiss on the Book II of the Basic Text. They have a new web site and have linked with previously launched area web sites. They have arranged with the WSO to have NA medallions printed in French in Canada. Claude cautioned other NA communities need to be vigilant with vendors and to make sure that our copyrighted materials are protected.

At this time, I was asked to make a report on the APF. I was given 15 minutes which I used to go over the highlights of Ron B's report to WSC 99, the first APF convention in Japan, the priorities of the APF and the APF concerns about the Resolution A process.

We then broke up into two discussion groups, one on the Resolution A process and one on Fellowship

Development Trips - Follow Up Activities. I was assigned to the Fellowship development group to discuss the following questions

1. What do we hope to achieve by the Fellowship Development projects?

2. What follow up activities will help us achieve our aims?

3. How does Fellowship Development activity help or hinder emerging communities to be self-supporting?

4. Considering the above questions, what conclusions can we reach concerning Fellowship Development projects at the EDM?

Saturday, July 3, 1999: The meeting began at 9:30 a.m. with a session on sharing personal feelings concerning the previous day.

ECCNA 17: The host committee for ECCNA 17 in Lausanne, Switzerland, scheduled for July 28-30, 2000, made a presentation on their work. They have decided that their main goal is to get as many NA members from outside of Switzerland to attend this convention. Throughout the coming year, the host committee will conduct fundraisers locally and at other European conventions to help defray pre-convention costs.

I was told by the ECCNA 17 Host Committee that they report to the EDM Steering Committee and that they are given seed money. Merchandise monies are kept separate from all other convention costs.

Euro PI: The outgoing chair of Euro PI, Paulo R from Portugal was given a standing ovation. Peter O from Sweden was elected as Chairperson of Euro PI. Simon J from England was elected as Vice-chair. It was decided that the new Chairperson Peter O would attend the UN conference on Alcoholism and Addiction at Austria, representing Euro PI along with World Services.

After this day's EDM session, Paulo R and I conducted a workshop on Public Information, which was attended by 30 or more people. Many of the questions asked were similar to questions asked by APF participants at Bangkok. This has reinforced my belief that basics of PI are the same everywhere!

Sunday, July 3, 1999: The meeting started at 9:30 AM with an open sharing session on the previous day's meeting. The EDM Secretary, Michel, Vice-chair declined to stand for re-election. Paul T, Treasurer, rotated out and the Chairperson, Joao from Portugal will continue for one more year. Barrington of UK and Francoise of Israel were elected to the EDM Steering Committee. The EDM closed with the Serenity Prayer.

Recommendations:

• I recommend closer relation with the EDM, as there are many similarities to our zone (multiple languages, translations, and emerging NA communities, for example). Exchanging information and representatives at each other's meetings can accomplish this.

• I recommend that APF make an official invitation to EDM to attend the APF meeting in Japan.

• I also recommend regular communication and sharing of reports with the EDM Steering

Committee and Delegates.

In closing, I want to thank the APF for placing its trust in me to represent it at the EDM.

An abstract of a report by Erik R, PI Resource Person for APF.  For a full report, e-mail Erik at : bullit@desperados.com

  A Note from the APF Newsletter Committee.

We apologise for publishing this issue late. We plan to publish 4 issues per year. Your co-operation and support through articles is needed for the success of our newsletter. Members wanting to have articles and other materials printed in the next issue of APF Newsletter should send it by 15th January, 2000 to apfnews@hotmail.com or mail to Ivan, 28/D, Police Court Lane, 3rd Floor, Fort, Mumbai - 400 001, India.

We wish to thank Bella and Ron for giving our newsletter a quality standard. We hope and pray that we can keep up to this standard for our newsletter.

  From The APF Admin.

 Last year the EDM sent an invitation to the APF inviting us to send a representative. As Erik was planning a holiday in Spain, he represented us with our blessing. The APF will send a letter to the EDM inviting a representative to attend our meeting in Tokyo next year. Wolfgang (RD German Speaking Region) will most likely be visiting us on behalf of the EDM (I should add that Erik and Wolfgang pay their own fares for these journeys, they are not funded by the Zonal forums).

We have about $6,500 in our bank account which is a really healthy amount for the APF. We have estimated that to fund the same communities to Tokyo 2000 that went to Bangkok 1999, we will need approximately $10,000. We have had many fundraising activities including raffles and T-shirt sales and even massages. Hopefully we can come close to the amount we need with continued efforts in these areas. We are very grateful for contributions from regions and service bodies outside the APF for donations this year as well.

The APF Admin has agreed to pay $300 towards funding Sumit D. and Amitava D. from Calcutta India to travel to Dhaka in Bangladesh to meet with members there and work on Bengali Translations. Similarly we are looking to assist members from Northern India to travel to Pakistan to work with Urdu speaking members, we are not sure about the political situation at this stage.

Other News; World Board member Bella B and WSO Special worker Jeff B. are travelling to Mumbai, India to facilitate a discussion group for the CTF (Communications Task Force) on 18th December1999.

 An Indonesian speaking and an English speaking NA meeting has started in Denpasar, Bali, previously there was only AA meeting. Shuradi has reported from Jakarta that Bahasa Melayu literature and key tags from Singapore have been very helpful. The Tuesday meeting in Jakarta has been growing with up to 50 recovering addicts attending.

We have had contact from members in Dubai (Unites Arab Emirates) Arrangements have been made for the WSO to send English and Arabic literature. .....Masa has arranged for leaflets for the APF2000/Japan/Asia Pacific Convention to be sent to Florida for the world services meeting and Unity Day.

 Current APF Contacts:-

Chairperson,
Ron B. 61 3 9866 2074
bellron@vicnet.net.au

Vice Chair,
Masahiko S. 81 33 299 3605
na-japan@rsc.hot.co.jp

Treasurer,
Tali M. 1 808 2543 7181
talitom@aol.com

Web-site,
Simon T. 61 3 9525 7888
steese@bigpond.net.au

Newsletter,
Ivan T. 91 22 261 9195
idlprojects@vsnl.com

Public Information resources
Erik R. 1 808 833 1845
bullit@desperados.com

Professional events resources
Garth P. 61 2 9558 8224
garth@mypostbox.com