ACA Intergroup Quietly celebrated its 4th Birthday last March

With elections taking place next Monday, (See post below) it might be a good time to revisit the purpose of the Intergroup with a little history.

The Oregon Intergroup quietly celebrated its fourth year of existence last March. What was the first Intergroup meeting like? We had four members representing three meetings in the Portland area.

Below are the minutes from this second meeting which outlines some of the early goals. Be sure and take a minute to reflect on the importance of having an active ACA Integroup.

Minutes from ACA Intergroup Meeting

March 30^th, 2009

Present were Robin G and Don W from the Wednesday night groups, Ann W from the Thursday night group and Chuck from the Sunday night Group. The meeting started promptly at 6 p.m. In the Vending room at the Alano Club on NW 23^rd.

For inspiration we followed the start an Intergroup Guidelines on page 603 of the ACA Big Book.

Item # 1 Meetings: The Intergroup will meet every other week for month or two to expedite the process. It was felt that things have been moving too slow. Meeting times will be the same at the same location. The next meeting will be April 13^th.

#2 What are the reasons for starting an Intergroup?:  (a) Promoting attendance, (b)Organize speakers (once a quarter was suggested) (c) Identify other groups we can get the message out to about ACA (AA, Alanon, alano clubs, therapists) and make a Big Loud Noise. (d) Promote social events between the meeting groups.

More priorities are listed under Item # 13.

#3  List need in our geographical area: Institutional or Hospital meetings, Public Information Committee.  We talked about whether we were ready to undertake committees. It was discussed and decided that we could undertake to develop structures for committees, make them known to our members and solicit volunteers to work on committees. If there is an interest, great, if not the structure is there and we can keep promoting various opportunities for Service work.

#4  Locate and arrange for meeting space. We decided to continue meeting at the Alano Club for the present time and talked about relocating the meeting further south if Tillamook or Eugene want to attend. We also talked about alternating the meeting. Ann will contact Peter about inviting the Tillamook meeting or getting in touch with them.

#5. Invite adult children to attend this introductory meeting. If possible invite members from an established intergroup to join the first meeting.  From this we talked about having a Grand Opening Meeting down the line with balloons, refreshments, a couple of guest speakers, maybe invite some groups from Seattle, and members from Eugene and Tillamook. Planning will commence in the next few weeks,

#6  To create an agenda for the first meeting, get input from those who might attend the meetings. We agreed this was a good idea.

#7  Ask for help to set up the meeting and Chair the meeting.  It was decided that perhaps we could draw a speaker from the 90’s meetings, Seattle, or maybe even ask the world organization. Chuck said he knew someone in the Sunday meeting who met our criteria and Ann said she would volunteer to speak.

It was mentioned the more help we could get in setting up the meeting (Service Opportunities, there would be that many more people attending.

#8 Create a flyer for the meeting and its purpose. Distribute it to all ACA members at meetings for inclusiveness and ask if they are interested in ACA reach out to other adult children.

#9 At the meeting, distribute agendas and circulate a sign in roster with phone numbers and email addresses. This will facilitate correspondence between the meetings. Also pass out segments from the ACA Big Book about how to conduct a business meeting.

#10 introduce the organizational members of the new intergroup. Explain the reason for the meeting and the goals we hope to accomplish.

#11  Elect a temporary secretary and leader to take the minutes and present the agenda.  Don W was selected.

#12 Election of officers at the first meeting. No decision. Ann W was selected as temporary treasurer for the Intergroup.

    We got into a discussion of how funds might be donated to support the new Intergroup. Oregon City donated $20. SE Portland said they voted to donate $20.

It was suggested we need to explain what the funds would be used for.  We were able to identify the need for flyers, printing, mailing out flyers to health professionals (therapists), printing out correspondence to be available at meetings (i.e.) the ACA monthly Com Line (1 copy for each meeting), brochures, purchasing newcomer brochures.

#13 Prioritize any identified needs as urgent, Important, low priority.  Our main priority would be getting meeting flyers out where Adult Children can find them (therapists, Alano type clubs, Institutions, Treatment Centers, Alanon Adult Children meetings, Serenity Lane (family aftercare meetings in Tigard) and to bring the message to AA, NA, CA, MA Meth users.

Robin volunteered to identify all of the Alano type clubs & addresses in Portland for possible distribution of flyers by the next Intergroup meeting.

Don volunteered to print up 500 flyers on colored (stand out) paper to the next meeting, so we could begin distributing them.

–Because the Oregon City meeting had not received a recent survey for an upcoming World Service business meeting, it was decided the Intergroup would be a communication link for area groups, passing on information when needed,

–We also discussed the possibility of being a resource for helping others start a new ACA meeting. (During our outreach if someone says the current meetings aren’t located conveniently i.e. Vancouver, we could suggest they get three committed individuals and provide resources and emotional support to start a meeting in their area. Everyone like this idea!

–Another priority was identifying potential committees. This could be done by contacting ACA or other Intergroups to see how they operate and what they do.

–We discussed prioritizing these goals in relation to long term, short term,  importance, etc, at a future meeting.

–Action Items for the next meeting:  Bring Meeting flyers on colored paper:  Don

Find Alano Clubs and addresses: Robin

Look for Speakers?

Contact Tillamook about next meeting: Ann

Contact Eugene about next meeting:  Don

Get Karen’s email address so we can get therapist list ( we may have had them, but now we don’t):  Chuck

Think and look around for areas we can post flyers: Everyone

–The last item of business involved what we call ourselves? ACA or ACOA. Because the national organization recognizes itself as ACA, but still embraces  ACOA roots (as discussed in the big book), and because many adult children did not have an active drinker but still come from dysfunctional families, and to avoid confusion for those who are not from alcoholic homes; we decided out literature will be headed as such:

Adult Children Anonymous

(Includes Adult Children of Alcoholics and other dysfunctional Families)

Meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m.

Recorded by Don W