WESTERN NEW YORK REGIONAL SERVICE COMMITTEE/RD REPORT
JANUARY 19, 2002

Major World Service Issues

We are now in the busy season for RD/RDAs and regions throughout the world. The Conference Agenda Report (CAR) is out-and has been out since early December. This is the earliest it has ever been released and the hope is that more people will have the time and ability to read and review it. The CAR is available online at www.na.org so if you are really excited, go home, log on and download!

It is critical that RCMs promote group participation in the CAR. Today, we will discuss holding a regional assembly to workshop the CAR but areas are encouraged to hold their own workshops or discussions. We need to determine a date and location for our assembly today, and I request that activities chair help set this event up. Last time the CAR was out (2002), I held a contest for the area that returned the most Home Group tally sheets. This year, we will initiate the contest once again! NiO and Chautauqua were 2000's big winners. Overall, the WNY region had about 16% participation which beats the average of 11-15% participation.

The 2002 World Service Conference (WSC) will be held April 28-May 4, 2002. For the first time ever, NA world services is funding one delegate form each region to the WSC. That means the WNY region only has to pay half of the normal costs-usually around $1,000 per person with hotel, plane and food costs.

Major issues/motions presented in the CAR include literature development discussions and the potential for a US only service conference.

MARLCNA (Mid Atlantic Regional Learning Convenference) will be held February 8-10, 2002 in Lancaster, PA. I will be attending and encourage RCMs and any other interested parties to attend. The main agenda item will be discussion of the CAR. The WNY region has funded RCMs in the past so we should discuss that today.

NEZF

The Northeast Zonal Forum (NEZF) met on January 5th & 6th in Cleveland, Ohio. I am extremely appreciative of Regional Chair Rodney M.'s willingness to accompany me-and drive-to Cleveland. Freddy did not attend.

We spent several hours discussing the proposed guidelines for the NEZF. It is now up to RDs to present the guidelines to their regions and to come back to the July NEZF ready to approve or disapprove. I would like to devote part of the agenda of our May 2002 RSC to discussing these guidelines (please note that I will also be presenting my WSC 2002 report at that meeting, so I will need some extra time).

The topic for the next NEZF is "Regional input to guide any changes to the NEZF proposed guidelines." It is up to the WNY region to determine if we want to continue to participate in the NEZF. My term as RD ends in May, so I will not be attending the NEZF as the WNY RD but I will be attending as the NEZF Vice Chair (and will be self-funded). Participation in the NEZF can be very frustrating-it seems like we've been talking about these guidelines forever! We did, however, have a lively discussion about how regions/areas are implementing the Guide to Local Service (GLS). Ideas included:

· As a supplement to regional guidelines
· To conduct regional/area inventories
· Regional/GSR assemblies
· As a reference
· Shared services
· Resource assignments
· Open forum/sharing sessions
· Fund flow

Much discussion involved the fact that the GLS has not been widely adopted and utilized-most NEZF participants felt that it is underutilized. Some regions, however, voted against the GLS and hence do not use it.

The NEZF will not give a verbal report at the WSC-we will yield the time to zones that are more functioning at a different level.

The next NEZF will be June 22-23rd in Pittsburgh, PA.

BUDGET

MARLCNA: (approximate cost per person)
$135 per diem
$65 Hotel
$25 registration