The Congress was great. I am so glad that
I decided to attend. I feel energized about LSR and supported in
my sober journey.
The weather was fairly brisk yet we had
some sunshine and even a very short yet strong sleet storm. The
food was great, my accommodations comfy. I had the good fortune
of flying into Buffalo and being picked up and brought to Canada
by my good friend Fireman Jack. We then drove further north to
London to pick up Don. The drive along the lakes was beautiful
and of course if you know Jack, made more colorful by his
stories. It was great to receive a big bear hug from Don and
chat with him on the trip as well.
The reception on Friday night was very
laid back. It was so wonderful to be reacquainted with old
friends such as Craig, Bob (Itchy), Jackie, Gillian, Katie,
Marty, Matthew, Kathleen, Vancouver Jack- as well to meet
several new folks from the list and chat as well with folks that
attend LSR F2F meetings in Canada.
Saturday was a full day of programs. It
was unusual for me to attend an LSR event with recovering folks
that knew nothing about our group and with treatment
professionals that also knew very little about LSR. The first
speaker, Alan Ogborne talked about addiction research- the ins
and outs of the research. I felt like I was in a review class of
similar course from grad school.
The second speaker was Ronald Warner. I
found him to be excellent. His topic was Solution Focused
Interviewing. I found him to be both a good speaker (I am a hard
audience since public speaking is my livelihood) and very
knowledgeable and helpful.
We had a great lunch and I had an
opportunity to spend time catching up alone with Craig.
After lunch Marty did a talk on LSR
101/the DNA. Although for me what he had to say was of course
nothing new; it was terrific to see him capture the attention
and stir up excitement with the many attendees new to LSR. Marty
also did a great job presenting.
The ending presentation was Charlotte
Kasl. She spoke on the Tapestry of Connections, based quite a
bit on the thought she shared in her book, Many Roads, One
Journey and a later book, If Buddha Dated.
I skipped a networking session in order
to rest for an hour or so.
Despite no dancing or offering of a
dance, the banquet was great. The food was delicious, the
company delightful with wonderful background music. A fire broke
out underneath one of the elevators and we had to evacuate from
the fifth floor. This was between the first two courses-
standing waiters luring us with shrimp and smoked salmon and the
first course of spinach and cheese manicotti. I think we were
all sort of grateful for the hour or so interruption to allow
our tummies to rest for the remaining 3 delicious courses.
Congress itself was special for me. It
was nice a nice closure to be alone with a group of LSRians
only. The minutes of the Congress will be posted soon.
I would like to offer a special thanks to
Itchy for agreeing to renew his term on the board. For Katie's
acceptance of her first term. And particularly to Gillian for
her years on the board. I have been amazed at the last two
conferences how much Gillian offers to make the Congresses run
smoothly. Thanks and ((((((((((((((((hugs)))))))))) Gillian.
What a difference another year makes.
Last year in Berkeley I was so nervous walking into the
reception. When I left California, I felt a real sense of loss
at saying good by to the many people that had shared with me.
This year I walked into the reception as
bold as brass you might say. And although a bit sad saying
goodbye to several of my friends, I felt that I had gained a 100
attractive pounds of love, caring and support.
Jason Kelly and everyone else that made
this year's Congress such a success for me and so many others-
thank you.
Love, Jane
Hi All,
The reasons I had for coming to this
year’s LifeRing Congress were varied and numerous. I felt that I
wanted to give back to the organization as a delegate for one of
my meetings here in the Bay Area (Oakland Kaiser CDRP’s Saturday
morning meeting). I felt a need to learn more about recovery and
some new ideas that are on the leading edge in the fight against
addiction. I wanted to meet up with the friends from last year’s
Congress. I got all that, and more.
A vacation of sorts though it was, it was
the first trip I’ve ever really planned on my own, and certainly
large and foreboding to me. I found myself surprised to risk
both the exhaustion of travel through three time zones, and
going through Customs with the slight risk of not getting back
through the American side of the border. I found myself highly
anxious over the concerns of not finding the way to Guelph from
Toronto. I worried about haphazardly losing my papers or money
at some point along the trip. I realize only now that I must put
some value in this organization and its principles to take such
risks, even if many of those risks were unfounded.
By the time I got to Friday’s reception,
I was exhausted from travel and jet lag. I was happy though to
see the people I’m use to seeing in the Bay Area: Gillian,
Marty, Katie, and delighted to see faces I hadn’t seen in a
while, Jason Kelly, Jane, and to meet some new faces as well,
Katherine, David, Gary… Much thanks goes to Jason Kelly for
providing last minute lodging accommodations.
Saturday’s Speaker presentations were
exceptional. Dr. Ogborne started off the proceedings with a
detailed presentation called “Research Evidence for the
Effectiveness of Different Treatments for Substance Abuse.”
Although a bit on the academic side, his focus on what gets
people into treatment and what factors keep them sober or keep
them relapsing is reassuring. He opened his speech with the
caveat that our way is consistent with what research shows works
in keeping people sober.
Dr. Ronald Warner, C. Psych., CSFT, went
into his presentation on “Solution-Focused Interviewing” with a
zeal: he had been to a local LifeRing meeting the night before
and was astonished to find very similar principles at work in
the meeting process that occur in his solution-focused therapy.
His foundation principles are (1) Accentuate the Positive, (2)
Non-Expert Posture, and (3) Solution- Building Process. He
breaks down this third step, the Solution- Building Process,
into three parts: a) demonstrating understanding, b) discovering
“what’s wanted”, and c) Strategies: a list of questions designed
to drive the session and help the client build solutions to
their problems. I’m just going through the handout I was given
at the presentation, but one particular thing that I remember
hearing that stood out was the importance of paying attention to
the client and his or her personal strengths while avoiding
dwelling too long on the problem or focusing on and speaking in
terms of “what’s wrong.” As both an attendee and a convenor,
these are key things that I find in LifeRing meetings. And it
really excites me that I can come to a totally different part of
the world and find that these ideas are being discovered and
catching on.
Despite that fact that I’ve heard Marty
speak before I couldn’t help but find myself listening to his
LifeRing 101 presentation in a different light, particularly
with Warner’s presentation right on its heels. Marty went over
the concept of how the model of the self with two selves, an
addictive self and a sober self, and how we go to these meetings
to have our own sober selves talk to another sober self, and
thus strengthen our sobriety. But what struck me was his focus
on choice, how we choose to be here, how we have a choice in our
sobriety, and how for him, that became the key when he was in
treatment and someone told him that he had the choice of going
to AA or SOS. You can find Marty’s presentation at unhooked.com/lifering.org/02%20Congress/02materials.htm.
I came to these speaker presentations
with doubts about Kasl, not too familiar with her work, and not
just a little suspicious, being as I had personal concerns
regarding a conflict of interest between LifeRing and anything
involving the word “Step” in it. I was reassured to find that
those doubts and suspicions were unfounded.
Kasl’s presentation was a heartfelt
exploration of some of the roots of addictions: and how many of
them stem from masking other problems such as anxiety and
trauma. Much of her presentations focus I found was on the
relationships that we develop in our youth with our parents and
ourselves. She develops an idea of Connection Points that help
us develop stronger more sincere relationships with others and,
primarily, ourselves. Perhaps what stood out to me was
Connection Point #1: I Am. Instead of focusing on the
perceptions we have of ourselves (or others have of us), focus
first and foremost on the very essence of existing, and simply
meditate on it. We often tend to get stuck in thoughts of what
other people think of us or what we should be doing that we
overlook the ability to focus on merely being.
One thing that I think deserves
mentioning was the Addictions Ontario booth outside the
presentations on Saturday. Addictions Ontario is a non-profit
organization to support people in recovery as well as recovery
organizations in Ontario, and they were promoting a Recovery
Ribbon Campaign and selling silver ribbon pins at their booth.
People in recovery now have a silver ribbon pin to raise
awareness, show support, and symbolize hope for those in
recovery. This is a great idea. For those who want to find out
more about the Recovery Ribbon Campaign and buy a silver ribbon
pin either for themselves or for someone they know in recovery,
they can go on the web to addictionsontario.ca/ribbon.htm or
call 1-800- 965-3307 for more information. It would be neat to
be able to sell these direct through the unhooked.com website as
well, IMHO. Thanks goes to Gillian for making the announcement
to the audience at Saturday’s speaker presentations.
I was unable to attend the convenor’s
meeting due to the jet lag and retired to my lodging to sleep
for a number of hours. I have to say the banquet was a wonderful
affair where I was able to get to know better some of the people
I had met the other day at the reception. After delicious
appetizers of shrimp cocktail and salmon, we had a delightful
Manicotti. A burnt motor in an elevator set the fire alarm off,
sending us outside on an impromptu banquet intermission much to
the relief of our full stomachs. We had an informal conversation
outside as the local fire department went to work. When the
problem was resolved we went back in. Although I found the beef
to be a little tough, the vegetables were very good. All in all
a delightful dinner. I don’t know how we’re going to replicate
that acrid smell of burnt motor at next year’s Congress.
To those readers who have only been to
the speaker portion of our yearly LifeRing Congress, the actual
Congress is a much smaller and more relaxed affair. Jeans and
t-shirts is the standard dress code. Congress begins with a
report of the meetings by each of the delegates. Often these are
much like check-ins at a LifeRing meeting. However, since I was
reporting on three meetings I tried to organize the report a bit
by typing it out beforehand. So mine sounded much more official
than it needed to really be. But I feel I covered my bases well.
(Curious convenors and future delegates will be interested to
know this report was the result of suggestions given by Marty on
what constitutes a “meeting report” at last year’s Congress,
which I had printed out, and can post on this list if anyone is
interested. I only used these suggestions as a way of dealing
with reporting on three meetings and not taking up too much time
in the process.) After my report I made a point of mentioning of
each of the meetings who helped with donations towards travel
expenses to this year’s Congress which include Monday’s Berkeley
Herrick Hospital meeting, Tuesday’s Walnut Creek meeting,
Tuesday’s San Francisco Kaiser CDRP meeting, Thursday’s Walnut
Creek meeting, Saturday’s Oakland Kaiser CDRP meeting, Sunday’s
Oakland Kaiser meeting (LifeRing w/ A View), the Walnut Creek
Women’s meeting, and the Oakland Convenor Workshop meeting.
Much of our Congress this year was
focused on Convenors: how there aren’t enough of them, the idea
of having two convenors for meetings, and the possibility of a
“Convenor College”, a class or workshop for the would-be
Convenor. Personally, I like the idea, but I think (and I would
say a majority felt this way) that this in no way should be
anything like a requirement for starting a meeting. I feel
strongly in the idea of being peer-run and having a non-expert
status.
We discussed and brought back the idea of
a Media Committee and appointed people to it who were interested
in bringing LifeRing more into the public sphere. We also agreed
on and approved a new LifeRing Newsletter. Also approved was a
Financial Committee, chaired by Jason Kelly. The notion of a
Fundraising Committee as well as a general Congress Fund to pay
the expenses of going to a LifeRing Congress for would-be
delegates was brought to the table. The difference between a
Fundraising Committee and the Financial Committee was discussed
and clarified as well. The Board of Directors had its election.
I nominated Owen P. from Walnut Creek onto the board and had two
other nominations for him. However, Katie from Oakland and Itchy
from Virginia won the two open positions on the Board in the
vote. Itchy’s term was renewed but Katie’s term is her first, as
she replaces Gillian from San Francisco on the Board. Gillian
had a gracious departure from the board of directors and was
given a heartfelt round of applause for her term on the BOD. The
Board of Directors itself convened briefly to decide on Berkeley
as the location for next year’s Congress after which the
Congress closed.
(Disclaimer: These brief sketches of the
Congress as well as the entire three-day event, in no way
constitute the “Minutes” proper, which is a function of the
then-acting Secretary, Gillian from San Francisco. I have a
horrible memory, was suffering from both sleep deprivation and
jet lag during much of the duration and I’m sure lots of things
happened at this event that I’m in some way distorting or just
plain forgetting about.)
In closing, I have to say this Congress
was a blast. Jason, you put on an excellent show, both in
getting this year’s event organized and making sure it happened
without a hitch. Bravo. I really felt that after all was said
and done, I walked away from this year’s Congress with a renewed
sense of why, after more than three years, I continue to come to
LifeRing meetings. I really feel that the structure of these
meetings, the circle of people, the welcoming crosstalk, the
focus on not just what brought us here, but what’s going to get
us into next week, is something that I truly value.
- -Matt R.
