Hello! ELOs!
… and all members of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous
Welcome to the December 2015 issue ofHello ELOs !
This is the newsletter from, about and for Employment Liaison Officers (ELOs) in Alcoholics Anonymous.
Hello ELO was last published in June 2015, we hope you found it informative.
It was the hope of the Employment Sub Committee that we would produce two Hello ELO’s each year to begin with. It might have taken some time to get this going, but here is number two issue for 2015.
In our previous newsletter we asked for submissions from ELO’s.
Once again we are still looking for submissions
This newsletter is your newsletter, and as such we rely on submissions from you, the ELOS at Intergroup and Region.
Our previous editor asked the question. “What are we looking for?
Today, we are asking you the same question
We ask you to think of this as your ELO Seminar in print.
Let us know about your experiences. Share your success stories and your failures. Let us know what works for you and doesn’t work.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Submissions can be sent to: or to
JohnP
On behalf of the Sub Committee: Maxine W. Pat M. and John P. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous and Sober New Year.
Sandy MacV. ( Trustee for Employment)
TRADITION SIX
“An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.”
HELLO! ELO’s
… and all members of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous
2015 Regional Employment Officers (RELO) Forum York
Following the Sub Committee meeting on the 19th June 2015 we met for the annual RELO meeting.
Their were nine liaison officers and four Sub ~Committee members in attendance.
The meeting was chaired by Sandy MacV, Trustee for Employment and Steve E acted as secretary taking the minutes for the event.
The meeting commenced with the Preamble, 12 Traditions and The Declaration of Unity.
Following a welcome and a report from the chair we then went on to the Regional Reports and Feedback.
This session took up the remainder of the evening.
This proved to be a very comprehensive, constructive and enlightening session.
The work being carried out by the Liaison Officers throughout the country is amazing.
Our Liaison Officers have and are contacting a variety of businesses and employers such as Occupational Health and NHS Managers. They are in contact with and are arranging meetings and presentations with Job Centres, DWP, Unions, Law firms, Banks, Local Councils Construction Companies and many other employers from large , medium and small companies throughout the country
The overall response appears to be positive and the work being carried out is extremely encouraging indeed.
The delegates were each given a copy of the draft HELLO Elo to take for bedtime reading with a view to giving their feedback in the morning.
The meeting broke at 19:30hrs.for the evening with the Serenity Prayer
(cont.)
The meeting resumed at 09:00hrs on Saturday morning.
We discussed the HELLO Elo as presented to the delegates the previous evening.
It was agreed unanimously that we should run with this as our resurrected newsletter.
It was suggested by Maxine W. that we should consider adding the Sixth Tradition to the cover page and that copies be sent to all Regions and Intergroups. This was agreed. Arrangements were put in place for the re- launch of the newsletter. We agreed that we would endeavour to produce a biannual newsletter with our next edition around the end of the year.
ELO Starter Pack
There has been much discussion over the past 12 months regarding an ELO Starter pack.
At our previous Sub Committee meetings it was agreed that we should hear from the Liaison Officers. They would be the people who would be using the packs and their experiences should be what leads us.
At present London Region (N) have a pack which works well for them.
The delegates agreed that we should stick to a ten point plan.
How to become an Employment Liaison Officer?
Job Description.
Best Practices.
It was felt that the pack should be as user friendly and easy to use as possible.
The delegates made many suggestions as to the content of the pack.
This would be discussed by the Sub Committee, agreed with the ELO,s and presented to the Board for approval.
A generic Power Point Presentation for both Employers and the Fellowship has been put together by the Sub Committee and was shown at the meeting.
The Chairman went round the room and asked each delegate individually if they had any other business.
There were a few suggestions and comments.
It is hoped that we can have an Employment Seminar next year.
This has since been agreed by the Board and will be open to Regional and Intergroup Employment Liaison Officers
Provisional dates for next meeting including seminar on 25th June in the Park Inn, York
24/25th June 2016
Overall the meeting was a great success. With delegates looking forward to out next meeting.
The meeting closed with the Serenity Prayer.
Sandy MacV (Trustee for Employment)
FOOTNOTE:
Hello ELO was launched on the AA website on Monday 22nd June.
Copies to be distributed to Regions and Intergroups.
The next edition is planned for December 2015.
HELLO! ELO’s
… and all members of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous
East Kent Employment Liaison Officer report September 2015
Activity this quarter has considerably picked up :
- Awaiting news on transfer of email account to new address
- Now we have a WTF co-ordinator (thank you Annie) I will be able to send out an up to date WTF to contacts.
- Meeting 8th June 2015 with Jo James MD of Invicta chamber of commerce. Agreement reached to publish attached article in South East Business news in Dec/Nov 2015 in a feature page. The strapline will tie the article into Alcohol Awareness month and of course the publication date will mean that when January kicks in the information will be available to those who need it in the post-Christmas rock bottom period. The article will then post publication will be followed up by a chamber social media campaign raising awareness of the article amongst its membership. So all in all a concerted effort to spread the word over a two month period in our geographical area.
- In discussions with Jill Sargent, PA to Rev’d Dr John Walker Dover Team Rector and Rev’d Sue Dean Area Dean I have offered a PI talk to the Dover Town Team as employers and people who come into contact with our fellow suffers on a daily basis. I propose that the talk will be led by me and supported by two of our Dover members who have recovered using the meetings in St Marys Dover. I await their response. Awaiting confirmation as the new Rector is getting his feet under the table
- Through these discussions Jill Sargent was comfortable in referring a still suffering alcoholic to the Wednesday and Monday Dover Group. She was greeted and made welcome and is now an early days regular attender
- Attended PI event at Canterbury Christchurch for mental health students 23 June 2015 presented alongside a female member Sarah C and EKHLO Hugh to 20 students. Who will work directly with the still suffering Alcoholic over their careers. Once again feedback was very positive and the message that there is a solution was well truly lodged. Over the last year and a half we have done three such presentations to different cohorts which means that over 90 newly qualified or soon to be qualified professionals now have AA as a resource they are able to refer their clients onto as they know who we are, what we do, and what can be achieved. The lecturer who is a professional who has spent her career working with people like us made a stunning statement which reminded me of the humility of Dr Silkworth when she said that during her career she had worked with Many of our Brother and sisters and had never achieved a single result anywhere nearing sobriety. She went onto say that AA since its conception has produced more positive outcomes in achieving sobriety than any other physiological or medical interventions combined. Please see text of email attached.
- Proposal to run a PI presentation Workshop to enable more members to be confident to undertake PI presentations is awaiting further contact with EKHLO
- My service will end in March 2016 and given that we do not have PILO in place and I am unsure what the intentions of EKHLO is uncertain I an minded not to continue as carrying this task of carrying the message alone, would be too much given the limited time I have to dedicate to it. if however we could create a PI EL H team I will re consider my position if anyone is interested please have a chat with me.
Planned activity for the next quarter
- Negotiate strap line and ensure anonymity of article into November/December issue of Invicta chamber magazine for maximum impact
- Follow up any leads that come out of the magazine article
- Provide where to finds to Invicta Chamber of commerce
- Provide where to finds to Jill Sargent St Mary’s
- Attend any regional ELO events as they occur As always I am open to discuss with other members any ideas that they may have which relate to carrying the message to the still suffering alcoholic in the work place.
HELLO! ELO’s
… and all members of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous
Employment Report –South East Region
SER consists of 11 Intergroups of which 5 now have ELOs in post (East Kent Nick D, Brighton
David N, North East Surrey, Graham K, Solent, Andy Mac, West Kent Graham F)
I also have specific and established points of contact with the other Intergroups with the
exception of East Sussex where I have not been able to establish contact with the ELO or PIteam in two and a half years of trying.
ELO Sub Committee meets again on October when we hope to approve the ELO starter pack
Reports
Brighton - David N; New into post this summer and working on aquainting himself with
previous ELO contacts. He has also built a target list of companies to contact,
East Kent - Nick D: Reports progress with dedicated email accounts and up to date Where to
Finds now being available in EKIG,
Invicta chamber of commerce are publishing an article and running an awareness campaign,
Awareness raised amongst Dover Town Team which has already resulted in newcomers to the
Fellowship.
Attended PI event at Canterbury Christchurch for mental health students 23 June 2015
presented alongside a female member Sarah C and EKHLO Hugh to 20 students,
Proposal to run a PI presentation Workshop to enable more members to be confident to
undertake PI presentations is awaiting further contact with EKHLO
West Kent - Graham: New into post this year and reports that activity has been minimal but
he expects this to change. Graham has PI experience to draw on and get some activity going.
(Sam S)
HELLO! ELO’s
… and all members of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous
My Employment Article
Taking up the post of Employment Liaison Officer
I took up my post as ELO for Glasgow East on May 2015. I had never participated at Intergroup level due to my family and work commitments, my AA service had always been at Group level. A group member encouraged me to consider taking the ELO post and we attended our Region meeting and she introduced to Pat, the ELO Region Rep.
He explained the role to me and answered my questions. I felt that post was ideal for me to combine my work and AA experiences. I attended my Intergroup meeting and I was proposed and elected to the post. Initially I was elated, it was a good feeling being encouraged by my fellow members but then a good old dose of fear settled over me! I contacted Pat and he reassured me that we all have to start at the beginning.
I attended an Open Day for Employers at Monklands District in June where I observed and listened to presentation followed by a questions andanswers session.
I decided to start by contacting my local large employers which were three of the biggest supermarket chains. I researched their Human Resources/Occupational Health contacts and using the suggested AA guidelines I plucked up the courage I made the calls. The outcome was two out of three retailers agreed meeting me for a chat. I visited both stores spoke with the reps that were both sales floor personal with limited power. They both agreed to me leaving some AA literature and said they would speak with management. I contacted them a few weeks later but no further input was requested.
I sent an introductory letter to Head of Occupational Health for Glasgow and Clyde Valley NHS and I was recently contacted by their Liaison Addictions Nurse who has had employees referred to them with probable drug/alcohol problem. After a long discussion it was agreed that he would encourage possible twelve step to contact our helpline if they wished to attend meeting or just talk to a member. And some simple literature like the "Who Me Pamphlet" provided.
I then sent letters to the two unions Unison and RCN. I was contacted by a Unison Rep who was very interested but he told me that they had just recently had their training days, but encouraged me to contact them in a few months. RCN did not respond. I carried out some further cold calling and two follow-up letters requested but no further contact. I felt rather disheartened at that point but I meet up with my Rep assured me that I was on the right track.
n October my Region Rep informed me that AA had been in discussions with Job Centre Plus whereby they had agreed to sign post potential alcoholics to AA. I visited my local Job Centre Plus and eventually managed to track down the Human Resources Officer for Strathclyde and Strathkelvin.
I called her and she agreed to meet with me giving me the opportunity to inform her of what AA had to offer. She asked me to send her a letter containing all the information and she agreed to take it to the half yearly meet with all the managers on November 6th 2014.
Within one week of this meet I was emailed by several of the Jobcentre Plus managers requesting information. We arranged several visits to various offices throughout December/January/February. Each meet varied depending on time allocation. The meets were comprised of AA presentation, a short share then Q&A sessions
We also had a variety of literature on display. The responses, on the whole, were all very well received and they would have liked a longer session. We were contacted for more literature.
I have recently contacted Police Scotland but they going through a transitional period so I will revisit in 6 months. In May I sent out introduction letters to five senior reps for UNISON and also UNITE. Replies waited.
I have been invited down to York to the ELO Sub-Committee in June.
I am really looking forward to it as I feel I would gain from hearing other officers experiences.
When I took this role on I had mixed feelings but there is no doubt that service enhances your sobriety. This member has experienced it first hand.
Yours in Fellowship.
Elaine C. Employment Liaison Officer Glasgow East
HELLO! ELO’s
… and all members of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous
The Problem Drinker in Employment
The following articles were sent in by Julie
This fact sheet is reproduced courtesy of Alcoholic Anonymous in order to promote greater awareness and understanding that problem drinking may cause in the workplace.
The AA Solution
What is a problem drinker?
Not too long ago alcoholism was viewed as a moral problem. Today many regard it as a primary health problem. To the problem drinker it will always remain an intensely personal matter.
Members of Alcoholics Anonymous regard themselves as suffering from an illness, a progressive illness, which can never be cured but which, like some other illnesses, can be arrested. For them the illness consists of a physical allergy to alcohol;, coupled with a mental obsession with drinking which regardless of consequences cannot be broken by will power alone.
The Work Situation.
It is commonly held that the costs of alcoholism to industry are severely underestimated :
•Up to 14 million working days lost each year through alcohol related reasons
•Estimated annual cost to industry, £2.0 billion.
•25% of all accidents at work may be attributed to alcohol related problems.
It is the experience of AA that some of the difficulties created for employers by problem drinkers can be reflected in declining standards of work, lower output, lateness, higher levels of sick leave, increased number of accidents in the workplace and strained relationships with fellow employees.