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It Takes a Village To Raise a
Congress
A Message of Thanks to Everyone
By Marty N. and Marjorie J.
Organizing the 2002 LifeRing Congress was a great adventure. We owe its
success to the contributions of a great many individuals.
Our two guest speakers, Dr. Howard Kornfeld and Lonny Shavelson MD, deserve
very special thanks. Dr. Kornfeld gave a highly educational talk and
answered a long series of audience questions. Lonny Shavelson was our guest
at an informal lunch Saturday where he met the workshop leaders and members
of the LifeRing Board of Directors. He then gave a moving, inspiring talk
that had many in the audience on their feet in a standing ovation at the
end.
Many thanks for making the event a success are owed to the members of the
local Congress organizing committee. This body met three times and we had
numerous consultations with individual members between meetings. Members of
the organizing committee included Alicia B., Tracey D., Marylou B., Bill S.,
Gillian E., Chet G., David M., Francine M., Bill C., Leeza V., and
ourselves. The organizing committee, chaired by Marjorie, made the key
decisions regarding budget and program, and the enthusiasm of its members
gave the project wings.
Special thanks are due to the workshop leaders who came forward and took
responsibility for preparing a topic. Alicia B. and Teresa B., Jacquie
Jones, Betts, Angie N., Mark Connors, Glo, Gillian E., Deena B., Patrick B.,
Lin L., Leeza V. and Bill S. each spent a lot of time and energy sweating
out the issues and getting themselves ready. They and the whole organization
are the richer for it. We will be seeing a series of new publications in
coming weeks based on these workshop presentations.
The delegates who came to represent their meetings at the Congress proper on
Sunday morning deserve special appreciation. Each of them took on the
additional responsibility of preparing a report on the status of their
meeting and educating themselves on the issues before the Congress. Those
who attended the Delegates' Assembly were: Lori A. - Pleasanton, CA ; Larry
S. - Tues. Oakland, CA ; Tracey D. - Sun. Oakland Mandana House, CA ;
Patrick B. - Austin, TX ; Craig W. - LSR EMail list ; Mark C. - Wed. online
chat ; Raphael E. - Mon. San Francisco, CA ; LouAnthony G. - Union City, CA
; Chet G. - Wed. Oakland, CA ; Mary Lou B. - Sat. San Francisco, CA ;
Gillian E. - Thurs. San Francisco, CA ; Robert B. - Morgantown, WV and BOD
member ; Ben G. - Missoula, MT ; Syl S. - Bonita House, Berkeley, CA ; Ang
N. - Women's EMail list ; CA E. - LSR BodyList ; Aram A. - San Rafael, CA ;
Amy L. - Thurs. Oakland Mandana House, CA ; Marjorie J. - Herrick Hospital
Berkeley and BOD member, CA ; Bill C - Mon. Berkeley, CA ; Chris G. - Tues.
San Francisco, CA ; Marty N. - Wed. MPI Oakland and BOD member, CA ; Tom S.
- St. Petersburg & Tampa, FL and BOD member ; Glo M. - Online Chat and BOD
member ; Andree G. - Sat. Oakland CDRP, CA.; Jacquie J. - BOD member; Bill
S. - BOD member; and David Lee B, member.
The Congress would not have been possible without the help of numerous
individuals in setup, registration, and related assignments. Marylou B.
prepared the Continuing Education forms and staffed the CE registration
table. Mark Connors, Bill S., Larry S. , Aram A., Alicia B., Patrick B.,
Jenny A., Rick W., Terry H., and others helped with registration and book
table sales. Mark Fisher brought big urns of Royal Coffee both Saturday and
Sunday. Gillian E. made the sign on the lectern and the two-color
directional signs, as well as the red "Stop Stigma" buttons. Bill Carpenter
took photographs.
The Congress owed much of its upbeat ambiance to the contributions of a
series of talented musicians who donated their time and equipment. Terry R.
and his associate Bill provided first rate keyboard and bass performances at
the Friday evening reception at the Durant. Bill S. and Chet G. organized an
after-dinner entertainment program Saturday evening that featured
themselves, vocalist C.A. from Hokkaido Japan, Oaklander David M. on bass,
Patrick B. on bass from Austin TX., Itchy B. on guitar from Morgantown
W.Va., and Chris W. and his friend playing bluegrass. Bill S. and Glo M.
contributed poems. The night climaxed with a tight set by Chet's rock and
roll quartet, Easy Way Out; they had other hotel guests wandering into our
dining room to catch the sound.
Weeks before the Congress, a publicity committee got the word out via
mailings. Marylou B., Mark C., Jenti W., Andy Y., Nanita S. and others
participated in mailing design, production, and with the stuff-and-lick
operation. We did all the mailing and publicity in-house.
Thanks are due also to individuals whom few participants had occasion to
meet. Michiko Murillo, the Facilities Coordinator at Alta Bates Hospital,
spent many hours meeting with us before the event and helping us get set up.
Her attention to detail and her cooperative attitude and patience were very
much appreciated. Bee Bernstein, the Education Coordinator at the hospital,
contributed forms and support. Suzanne Stromme, also of Alta Bates, drafted
the workshop feedback forms. Melissa Holley, the Parking Coordinator,
extended every courtesy to provide discount parking stickers. Security and
kitchen personnel went out of their way to help us whenever we asked.
We had many compliments during and after the Congress for a well-planned,
smooth-running operation. The credit belongs to the wonderful spirit of
volunteerism and cooperation that everybody involved in this project caught
from early on. Many times we were faced with seemingly impossible deadlines
and last-minute crises, but each time someone came up with a save and pulled
it out. It was a great experience working with this entire ad hoc network of
people to make this event happen. Of course it was a lot of work, but it was
a great privilege to have been at the center of it and we're already
thinking about the next one.
II.
Now, for those who may be interested in a look behind the scenes, we'd like
to share a little background. First off, we're veterans of the September
1999 "Secular Recovery Convention" in Berkeley. Marty was the over-all
coordinator then and Marjorie was in charge of finances, registration, and
everything else. That event had its rocky moments but we felt that its basic
format was a success and we should do it again, so we used that as a model.
This time Marjorie was over-all coordinator and Marty headed the program
committee.
Although we'd like to take credit for experience and foresight in making it
work again this time, the truth is that luck played a big role here. Take
the venue, for instance. We originally planned to set the workshops in the
conference center in the basement of Herrick Hospital, same as in 1999. But
the hospital's Facilities Coordinator delayed and delayed the room assignment - somehow
the events of 9/11 threw off the timetable here - and finally told us there
was a conflict, we could not have that venue on our weekend. We felt panic
rising. But, said the F.C., the conference facilities at nearby Alta Bates
Hospital were available instead if we were interested in those. We had never
seen those facilities and weren't enthusiastic about an unfamiliar venue,
but what was the alternative? Reluctantly we visited Alta Bates - and were
blown away. Alta Bates is a much nicer venue in every respect. It's newer,
lighter, cleaner, has a good cafeteria, and there's a slew of restaurants
ten minutes away. And the price was the same - absolutely nothing. That was
stroke of luck No. 1.
(A couple of weeks before the event we learned that one of the conference
rooms that had been assigned to us had been remodeled into a mail room, and
we would have to do some squeezing, but everyone rolled with that punch and
no one had to be turned away for lack of seating.)
Stroke of luck No. 2 was finding Lonny Shavelson as principal guest speaker.
His book was a great read and we gave it enthusiastic reviews on the
www.unhooked.com Booktalk page six months earlier, before we were thinking
Congress program. As it happened, Shavelson lives in Berkeley. Not only
lives in Berkeley, but has a day job as a physician in the Emergency Room at
Alta Bates Hospital. And was very happy to cut a deal with us for a very
reasonable honorarium. We didn't have to pay him travel or hotel. Thus we
got a star speaker on his way up to a national reputation at a price our
micro-budget could afford.
Shavelson was also a big sweetheart to agree to have lunch with our workshop
leaders and other invited guests in the hospital cafeteria. We each got a
chance to introduce ourselves and he got a chance to see what we looked
like. Now he can tell the people he knows that he met a bunch of the
LifeRing people from different parts of the country. That never hurts. He has been a really kind, decent person
to deal with.
Stroke of luck No. 3 was finding Dr. Howard Kornfeld. This was a real coup
for us, which we owe entirely to the efforts of Tracey D. with an assist
from Alicia B. They are both patients of Dr. Kornfeld, and Tracey personally
conveyed the invitation to the good Doctor and had the pleasure of
introducing him. Dr. Kornfeld generously donated his time. Let's hope that
he picked up some patients from the trip by way of compensation. Dr.
Kornfeld's waiting room has featured LifeRing literature for a long time and
he has been consistently supportive of the patient's right to have a broader
choice of support groups.
Dr. Kornfeld waited until almost noon, hoping to meet Lonny Shavelson, but
just before that happened his cell phone rang and he was called away.
But probably the most amazing and significant breakthrough of this whole
Congress was achieved by Marylou B.: getting LifeRing certified as a
provider of Continuing Education credits for the presentations by Drs.
Kornfeld and Shavelson. Professional counselors, like members of many other
professions, have to take continuing education classes. To get certified as
a provider of CE credits requires jumping through a long and time-consuming
series of hoops, and neither Kornfeld nor Shavelson thought that it could be
done in the time available. They did not reckon with Marylou's diplomatic
skills and persistence. With incredible speed, just in time for the mass
mailings, Marylou got LifeRing certified as a provider of CE units not only
for holders of the LCSW and MFT licenses (Licensed Clinical Social Worker
and Marriage and Family Therapist) but also for counselors with CAADAC
certificates (California Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors).
All the CAADAC counselors work in treatment programs.
Marylou also obtained for us the mailing list of CAADAC members in the Bay
Area. We are sure that this mailing was the very first time that many
treatment counselors had heard of LifeRing. Their first impression of us was
a strongly positive one: we provided CE credits, and we had prominent
speakers on our program. Even if the counselors did not show up this had to
leave a positive impression.
And counselors did show up. At the '99 convention, we had exactly three
counselors in the audience. This time, based on incomplete figures, we had
well over a dozen and perhaps twice that many. Not only counselors, but
several program directors were present to check us out, and two of them
approached us afterward and expressed interest in having LifeRing speakers
and possibly LifeRing meetings at their facilities. We are following up with
that.
We want to give Marylou B. a big hand for her role in engineering this
portion of the Congress. We have been striving for years to gain a measure
of recognition from the treatment profession as a legitimate support group
option, and Marylou's initiative moved us a big step forward toward that
goal. This should translate into more meetings and an increased flow of
referrals to our meetings in the future.
Scheduling the program presentations required a lot of difficult choices and
tradeoffs. It was impossible to predict what kind of turnout the different
workshops would get. Fortunately, with one exception early in the morning,
all the workshops got a good audience and workshop leaders felt rewarded for
their efforts in preparation. We very much appreciate the flexibility of the
workshop leaders with room reassignments. Some of the sessions were highly
participatory, others were straightforward lectures. We made a mental note
that we would title the workshops "breakouts" or "sessions" next time so as
to give the leaders more flexibility in choosing their format.
Marty wants to give a special Pioneer Award to workshop leaders Mark C.,
Jacquie J., Gillian E. and Lin L. Mark and Jacquie's Surviving 12-Step
Treatment is a groundbreaking effort that required a tremendous amount of
preparation. They wrote an extensive handout that will be posted on unhooked.com soon and will probably become a LifeRing Press publication.
Gillian tackled an issue area - confidentiality, anonymity, and stigma -
that has received very little discussion in our groups so far. We all know
we cannot approach this exactly the same way as AA, but few people have
given much thought to what we ought to be doing here. Gillian's preparatory
work will benefit the whole organization when we get around to discussing
these issues. Marty was responsible for suggesting the Sex in Recovery
workshop and for inviting Lin to lead it. Marty feels that there is too much
prudishness and hypocrisy in the recovery atmosphere on the sex issue and
that Lin was well qualified to break through it and help us get into more
real-life and open-minded territory. People ought to be discussing sex in
recovery openly, instead of sweeping it under the rug, and Lin's wide-open
workshop went a long way toward getting the discussion moving.
The Saturday night banquet turned out just right in terms of numbers. The
room holds a maximum of 55 and we had 57 guests. Fortunately there were a
few no-shows or there would have been a worse overcrowding problem than
there was. We made a strategic decision not to have a head table and to
avoid long boring speeches at the dinner. Instead, Marjorie briefly thanked
those who had contributed and asked them to stand and get a round of
applause. Then we went on to the entertainment.
The musicians had very little room to maneuver in the crowded dining room,
and this contributed to some delays in the entertainment program. Dinner
guests who left early because of slow spots in the entertainment lineup
missed C.A.'s enthusiastic vocals and the smooth, memorable performance by
Chet's rock and roll band that closed out the evening. We made a mental note
to tighten up the entertainment program next time.
Hotel staff produced a good quality dinner, as in '99, and the servers,
notably Calliope, worked hard to accommodate all our wishes. One of the two
desserts offered, a tiramisu, caused surprise and consternation because
it tasted of rum. Marjorie immediately went to the kitchen about it and
learned that it was a flavoring containing no alcohol. We had ordered the
same menu as in '99, and the tiramisu had contained no such flavor at that
time. Apparently the hotel had a new chef. We'll make sure that there are no
such unpleasant surprises next time. Fortunately there was an ample supply
of the other dessert, a chocolate mousse cake with a chocolate violin on
top.
It rained heavily the next morning, but there was a good turnout bright and
early for the Delegates' Assembly. Both of us had participated in the
fateful business meeting at the Sept. '99 convention and there could not
have been a greater contrast. People at the '99 meeting had no votes - all
decisions in those days were in the hands of our then financial sponsor --
and the atmosphere then was acrid with bitterness and division. This time it
was a true Congress, a meeting of meetings. The assembled delegates are the
masters in the house now. As Board members and officers we were conscious of
our duty to report to the Congress about the organization's activities and
finances, and to hold ourselves answerable. Remembering the bad old days, we
both had a warm wonderful feeling that this here now is the way it ought to
be. We were thrilled to look around and see that most of those present had
no history with our predecessor organization, and took our current form of
organization for granted as the normal way things ought to be. And rightly
so. As a free-standing democratic organization, we have unlimited potential.
This was our first full year of life as a national organization, and we have
reason to be cheerful and confident about the future.
Congresses are hard work but they make a vital contribution to the
organization. Because of the Congress deadline, we got out the financial
report and the Board's report to the membership. Because of the Congress, a
bunch of bright people hit the books and studied up in their area of
interest so they could make workshop presentations. Because of the Congress,
we made contacts with prominent speakers and became part of their map of the
recovery world. Because of the Congress, we sent out mailings to our
constituency and to our referral sources and got our name into their hands
and minds. Because of the Congress, dozens of people reflected on the past
year's experience of their LifeRing meetings and summed it up for their
report to the body. Because of the Congress, we could make collective
decisions and amend organizational rules and hold elections for leadership,
and enjoy leaders who are answerable to the delegates and the whole
membership. The Congress awakened new initiatives such as our certification
to give CE credits. The Congress will directly lead to new meetings and to
new Press publications. Most of all, the Congress created new bonds among
participants and charged up many of us with a tremendous new energy that
will send its ripples far and wide into the future. The Congress is like the
organization's heartbeat; it refreshes and re-energizes everything in the
whole circulatory network, near and far.
We were very pleased with the way the 2002 Congress turned out, but we also
see considerable room for improvement. The Congress is still a kind of novel
idea for many of our members worldwide and locally, and we have not yet
succeeded in getting the message across that the Congress is a gathering for
the entire membership and friends. We need to work out better ways of easing
financial barriers to attendance. The three-part format of the event here
needs to be explained and popularized earlier and more often so that people
understand what is happening when and why. If we do a better job explaining
what the Congress is about we will see substantial growth in participation.
And as the numbers increase we will face new challenges in the area of
venue, program, housing, finances, entertainment, transportation, and
organization. Fortunately, as a free-standing democratic organization we are
attracting and holding the collective talent that is required to solve each
of these problems and to organize the LifeRing Congresses of the future.
-- MN & MWJ
Marjorie J. was Congress Coordinator and
Marty N. chaired the Program Committee for the 2002 LifeRing Congress.
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