Letter from the Chair

Concept 8: Regular, two-way communications are essential to the fulfillment of all these concepts, and to the integrity and effectiveness of our services themselves.

© Copyright 2014 Nar-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc. Used with permission.

Nar-Anon service communicates with groups in several ways. Some of our communication channels are strong. But two of our primary arteries of communication were severed - Email and Websites. We are trying to recover.

Email - Our primary communications artery from our region to our members is email. We had about 390 subscribers listed in our email database. Over the last few years there have been times when our email administrator did not respond to requests to send emails. I built up an alternative list of 120 members and we have used that alternative list several times during the previous four years. Based on consensus formed during the January 2019 Regional Assembly, I uploaded my contacts into a new regional email database.

I was also able to locate a backup copy of the email list from April 2016. After discussion within the RSC, I sent an email to the 330 people on that old list who are not in our current list. In that email we invited those members to join our new email list. As of today, we now have ??? additional members in our new email list.

Websites - The primary way new members find us is through the internet. Once the meeting information on our old website started getting stale, it was as if we had severed another of our major arteries. This has been addressed and we are on the mend. The new website is up and running and it has content. Please check out the new website at www.NarAnonSoCal.org or www.NarAnonEspanol.org.

An urgent appeal was then submitted to the World Service Website Committee (WSWC) to change the link on the Other Sites page on the www.nar-anon.org website. I am happy to report that update has been made. Additionally, the WSWC is now conducting a thorough review of the site content, checking for consistency with the Nar-Anon Principles, proper uses of Conference Approved Literature (CAL), and proper protection of anonymity.

This site is now tri-lingual. It is primarily in English as our service is conducted in English. We possible we have duplicated the English in Spanish. We need assistance in improving the Spanish content. Beyond that, there is also a Farsi page with meeting information and a little of the Nar-Anon principles posted in Farsi / Persian.

Assemblies - Our Assemblies are stronger than ever. Please remember to update your committee report on the service website: https://sites.google.com/nar-anon.org/socalregion-rsc/calendar.

Areas - This has been greatly strengthened with the efforts to get groups talking with one another. Areas really help. San Diego is reorganizing. Inland Empire is thriving. Orange County talked about it, and will be easy to organize when the right volunteer steps forward. North by Northwest is thinking about it and has begun planning.

Member to member personal communication - A lot of members are now talking with other members, not just in their group but in other groups. You know I do a bit of traveling. Our Delegate also traveled to groups and held workshops. Members are going to Area and Regional Assemblies, Narathons, and other events and making new friends. Most importantly, members are just getting up and going. It really helps a struggling group when a visitor shows up and shares about how much Nar-Anon has changed their life.