Alternate Delegate’s Report on NERAASA 2018
In February, I attended NERAASA, which was held in Cromwell, Connecticut. NERAASA stands for Northeast Regional Alcoholics Anonymous Service Assembly and is attended by GSRs, DCMs, Delegates, Alternate Delegates, Area Officers, Committee Chairs and any AA members who wish to attend.
There were 3 panels on Friday and 3 on Saturday. Each panel has 3 speakers and then there’s 2 minutes at the mike for anyone in the audience who wishes to share or ask questions. Usually the topics tie directly back to agenda items for the upcoming General Service Conference, but there were some exceptions this year. The panels this year were:
– Are we communicating effectively outside of AA?
– Redistricting: setting the districts up for success
– Future of AA
– Integrity and Accountability in AA Service
– Mi Esperanza en la Estructura de Servicio *
– Is God a Requirement for AA Membership? **
* yes, that’s right. The entire panel spoke in Spanish and there were translators who shared their messages in English. We also had a panelist who shared entirely in Russian and another in ASL. They both had interpreters as well. It felt very inclusive!
** this panel had a subtopic of “Are we inclusive or subtly divisive” that led to a discussion that felt, at moments, overtly divisive and it gave me a renewed appreciation for some of the open mindedness I find in Area 47!
Friday and Saturday nights were Roundtable sessions, which gives you an opportunity to break off into a group with the other people in the northeast who hold the same service position as you. So there are separate roundtables for CPC, Archives, Corrections, DCMs, GSRs registrars, etc. It’s a great way to share issues, solutions and information and just generally pick one another’s brains. It’s always amazing to hear how differently the various Areas do things. On Sunday morning, one representative from each roundtable reports back to everyone attending NERAASA on the highlights of their roundtable’s discussions. Roundtables went until 11:30PM Saturday and the report backs were at 8:30 AM Sunday, so I was most impressed by how many people were reading from typed, printed notes!
On Saturday afternoon, our regional Trustee gave a report on how the past year had gone and what GSO has been working on. You can see the PowerPoint of his presentation here: http://www.neraasa.org/from-the-trustee.html
Sunday morning is also the Delegates time to shine, with the Panel 68 delegates sharing their Area highlights, and the Panel 67s answer questions from the Ask It Basket.
This is always a great, informative weekend, well worth attending.
Barb C
Panel 67, Area 47 Alternate Delegate
