Minutes of CODA South East Regional Meeting
3rd May 2011 @7.45pm, Hinde Street
Attendees: Georgia (Enfield), Diana, Len (Camden/Chair), Frank (Clapham/NSC Liaison), Stephanie
Apologies: Brenda (secretary/Watford), Jason (Treasurer), Jane (East Finchley)
Introductions
CODA Preamble & CODA Traditions were read.
Minutes of Last Regional Meeting were approved.
GSR Reports
Len Camden Sunday Night - the meeting had to be closed suddenly due to security issues, the meeting are looking for new locations and hope to be up and running again by mid May.
Diana Camden Saturday Womens Group - new location has been found, details are on the CODA website, it is called Pirates Castle on Oval Road.
Diana Brighton meeting - also attends this meeting.
Georgia Enfield meeting - Treasurer problem has now been sorted. New group contact via website. They need a chair finder.
Georgia East Finchley - recently the room for their meeting was double booked, the people who were in the room moved somewhere else and then there were concerns about confidentiality as the other meeting was being held nearby. The venue then offered them a refund and admitted to the error. The meeting then had a group conscience to decide whether to accept the refund because there were concerns about them being self supporting. They voted to accept the refund.
Frank Clapham - well attended meeting.
Karen from Ladbroke Grove Meeting dropped off a £10 donation before the meeting started, she was unable to stay but reported that the meeting is going well.
Sponsorship Workshop
Diana provided an update on the plans for a sponsorship workshop in September 2011.
-There are now three members on the committee (Diana, Brenda and Jo) and they are in regular contact on email.
-The flyer has been drafted but needs to be approved by the whole sponsorship workshop committee and requires the CODA “statements” from the NSC to be included on the flyer.
-The date of the workshop needs to be put on the website
-Brenda is looking for people to give chairs on their experience, strength and hope of sponsorship.
-Brenda plans to email the flyer to all the GSRs when it is finalised and then the expectation is that GSRs will announce this at their meetings.
-Len took an action to contact Geraldine from the NSC to see if it would be possible to see some of the excess literature they have at the sponsorship workshop. He will report back to the workshop committee and if this is not possible he will submit an order.
-Frank said that Clapham would like to make a donation towards the cost of the workshop possibly to pay for some literature which could be sold but someone will have to go to the Clapham meeting to collect the money as we are not aware of a current GSR for Clapham.
NSC Report - Frank
Frank stressed the importance of service in the fellowship. There is a large range of service positions at the NSC which need to be filled as the NSC committee is very small. Len is interested in the NSC/Region Liaison role.
Some groups are finding it very difficult to find chairs. It is worth being aware that some meetings such as Clapham keep a list of people who can do chairs in their we care book.
Any Other Business - to go on next month’s agenda
Discussion about how to get more people to attend the regional meeting. There used to be a Where to Find person who would be responsible for reaching out to the groups and checking their contact details are correct. Steph made a suggestion that we look at having a new service position for the region which is Public Information for Groups. The role would be to make contact with meetings in our region and offer to visit them to tell them more about the region and inform them about project which are happening in CODA currently. Len suggested perhaps we should have another workshop after the September workshop which would be on the subject of service specifically you can only keep what you have by giving it away. Georgia said she was happy to try to contact some meetings between now and the next regional meeting. Stephanie said she would draft a job description for discussion at the next regional meeting.
Proposal by Paulette - request to discuss having a camp out as retreats are expensive. This was not discussed as Paulette was not present and no report or proposal was received from her. To be carried forward to the next regional meeting.
Literature - Georgia suggested possibly a project could be setup to get meetings which are smaller to share the cost of ordering literature together, to be discussed at the next meeting.
Regional Meeting Time - Frank asked if people felt it would be helpful if the meeting could start at 7pm. Everyone was in general agreement that this should be discussed as it may mean more people can attend, especially those with long journeys. It could be that we have to change our regular day from Tuesday in order to keep the meeting at a central venue like Hinde Street or look at using a different room/venue. This will be discussed at the next regional meeting.
Tradition 7 was collected - £11.70.
The meeting was closed with the Promises and the Serenity Prayer.
N.B. Jason provided an update on finances which is attached.