October 2024

October 2024

Hello Area 78! The month of October means Thanks Giving to me. And this year has unfolded with so much to be thankful for! Even the difficult stuff helps me grow and practice my program of letting go. This year at our family Turkey dinner we went around the table and each of us shared what we are thankful for. Earth, life, home, family love, natures beauty to name a few.

Personally I am so thankful for our Program! All I have I owe to AA. I am honoured and privileged to be happily of service to you.

I can only imagine what my life might have been had members not brought the message of recovery to me. Only through the eyes of newcomers who come to my meeting with the stories of terror, bewilderment, frustration and despair do I understand how I almost missed it.

We have a solution that has worked a miracle in my life! And as I attend the meetings, service Assemblies, Workshops as well as Fellowship events I see for myself that this solution is working for many others as well! AA is in over 180 countries with over 2.5 million members world-wide!!

I am responsible when anyone reaches out for help I want the hand of AA to be there. Your hand and mine. Together we each do what we can to keep our fellowship strong and united. All the different ways we can be of service! I am so Thankful for all the contributions each of you make in your own unique way.

In the beginning of sobriety, I was on the receiving end of the “We”, I wasn’t alone anymore. I could call people, or more often, people would call me. They asked how I was doing, usually at opportune times when the “loop” thinking, the obsession of not only drinking but thinking was driving me crazy! I always felt better after talking, after being picked up and taken to meetings.

We spent a lot of time in the meetings after the meetings and around kitchen tables talking about what a Higher Power could possibly be! Sober members played an active role in my day to day finding sobriety. At four months sober I moved “just for the winter” to Calgary where I attended meetings and got to go on my first 12 Step call. I started giving back what was so freely given to me, my heart warmed up a bit and my self-esteem grew.

Since then I have always been doing something for this program that has changed my life. Now instead of the four horsemen of terror, bewilderment, frustration and despair, I live a life with peace, love, acceptance and self respect. Its not always a walk in the park but it is always real, and I evolve.

Just like our program! Evolving still after all these years! As Delegate I am in communication with all the other 92 Delegates, half of them have been holding Election Assemblies to vote in their new Panel 75 Delegate! I get to send each one of them a welcome and congratulation’s letter just like was sent to me when I became Delegate.

There will be approximately 45 new Delegates to participate in the Conference this coming April! Where all of us who have experienced the miracle of sobriety get together to help AA continue to evolve to help the still suffering. There is a way out. We have that solution and we guard it with our very lives.

Faith without works is dead. Action and more Action. Share what we find and we shall meet you as we trudge the road of happy destiny.

In January District 85 is hosting the Area Committee Meeting! This is where the Area 78 District Committee Members, Committee Chairs and Table Officers discuss and plan for the Area Budget, Agenda and new business to be brought to you in March. March Assembly will be in Red Deer this year!

So what’s new? November 1st the Plain Language Big Book will be put on sale! Pick it up wherever you get your literature from! Check out aa.org the quarterly report is available, new young peoples videos, new Public Information videos for use on TV’s and social media. Informing the Public of our solution is a big part of where your group contributions go!

The International Convention coming up July 3-6 in Vancouver BC has already 30,000 registrations! Hotel rooms are being released as they come available so if you are struggling finding housing just keep going on the aa.org website. The Western Region will be hosting a hospitality suite in the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel – we are still planning some fun stuff to go on there – it will also be a place to come and regroup during all the busy activities of the celebration.

The deadline for the upcoming 75th Conference PAI’s ( Pre Agenda Items) passed by September 30. Area 78 voted on one item to be considered for an Agenda Item to be discussed at the Conference, that the Daily Reflections book be printed in Large Print for the French speaking population!

This item  along with all the other PIA’s will be looked at and discussed at the Trustees and Committee Chairs meeting in January. The AAWS staff will go through them all to search out and add to the background materials so that we can make informed decisions – this is the exciting part of our Conference where you give your delegate your voice to take to the Conference. The other 92 Delegates will also add their voice and together we will vote until a 2/3rds majority is reached. Nothing happens without that 2/3rds majority. And after a vote, we trust that the best decisions was made for the good of AA.

There is a Service Manual Study being put on by Carolyn W, current Trustee at Large of the AAWS Board, please plan to attend! Monday nights at 7 PM MST. zoom address 87083768965 code 414768 Currently we are going through the concepts as a new Service Manual will be on sale mid November – then we will go through the rest of that amazing book!

If you are interested in writing a book about your District or group or your experience with culture in Area 78 please email me as I have a format to follow! Area 79 wrote three books “Pioneer Skirts in AA”, Our Stories, First Nations, Inuit and Metis in Recovery as well as The Bottle Book AA comes to BC/Yukon.

Karen OC

Area 78, Panel 74 Delegate

delegate@area78.org

cklinservice@icloud.com

403-479-6883

Public Information Committee

International/Regional Forum Committee

75th GSC Delegate Chair

“Forget me, but go you and do likewise. Add your own link to our chain. With God’s help, forge that chain, well and truly.” Dr Bob “AA Comes Of Age”