(Webmaster's Note: This is the most-recent issue of the new NA Way Magazine posted on the WSO website. You will find it in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Each file is complete and, because it captures nearly twenty pages worth of material, may take some time to load. Please be patient, we believe it will be worth the wait.)
The NA Way Magazine is a broad-based service magazine for the NA member. Besides standard reports from world services, editorial content ranges from personal recovery experience, to opinion pieces regarding topicsof concern to NA as a whole, to humor or nostalgia about the recovery experience. We look for a spirit of unity and mutual respect, and we don’t back off from controversy if a constructive solution is offered. We accept submissions in the same languages in which we publish editions of The NA Way: English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.
All manuscripts are subject to a review and editing process and must be accompanied by a signed release.
Criteria for the various sections of the magazine are as follows:
Feature articles
Everything from reports about current issues or events in NA to thoroughly documented historical essays on NA’s beginnings in an area, region, or country. Please send an inquiry first. Maximum length: 2,500 words.
Sharing
Personal recovery experience, from 500 to 2,000 words in length.
Parables
These are fiction pieces in which the writer illustrates a spiritual principle or some sort of recovery-related object lesson. Maximum length 1,500 words.
Picture This
NA groups are invited to send us photographs of their meeting places. We especially welcome photos that include meeting formats, recovery literature, posters, etc.—anything that makes the meeting room looked “lived-in.” Sorry, we cannot use any photos that identify NA members.
Humor and "Last Laughs"
"Last Laughs" are NA newsletter clippings (including material from The NA Way Magazine), misreadings of NA literature heard at NA events, etc. Other humor pieces can be anything from a "top ten" list to a parody of NA’s literature to a multiple-choice questionnaire. Maximum length: 1,000 words.
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As the summer season comes to a close in Northern
California this year, thousands of addicts from all over the
world will be arriving.
Could it be a Sixties revival? A Summer of Love reunion? No, but
close. It’s the Twenty-Seventh World Convention of Narcotics
Anonymous!
Up until 1996, the world convention was an annual event. Now
it’s biennial; that is, it only happens every two years.
Perhaps because of this, members have been anticipating this
convention with more enthusiasm than has ever been shown toward a
world convention.
Registrations began flooding the World Service Office within
hours of the convention flyer’s distribution to the
fellowship. The pre-registration pace is about twenty percent
ahead of what it was for the 24th World Convention, held in 1994
in Baltimore, Maryland. To date, that has been the largest world
convention, with 10,597 paid registrations and approximately
2,400 newcomer registrations. We expect attendance at the world
convention in San Jose to far exceed those numbers. The theme of
the convention, “Our Diversity is Our Strength,” will
be reflected in the sheer variety of addicts in attendance.
For those who have been to a world convention, no explanation is
necessary. But even veteran world convention-goers will be amazed
by the world convention in San Jose. We’re expecting the
main meeting on Saturday night, which will be held in the San
Jose Arena, to be the largest meeting of Narcotics Anonymous ever
to be held. Imagine up to 20,000 addicts in a professional hockey
stadium. If the sheer exuberance expressed during the clean-time
countdown doesn’t bring you to tears, the moment of silence
followed by the closing prayer surely will.
The World Unity Day Celebration will again have live telephone
hookups with NA communities all over the world. These local NA
communities are able to listen to the Saturday night meeting from
beginning to end and so share in the world convention from afar.
The celebration also includes a “mega-Seventh
Tradition.” The funds collected go directly to world
services to help carry the message around the world.
San Jose is the eleventh-largest city in the United States, which
makes you think it’s a big city. In terms of population,
that’s true. But in terms of atmosphere, San Jose feels like
a small town.
 |
It’s bigger— it should be better, too Up until 1992, we could fit comfortably into two or three large hotels, and we could usually hold the main meetings in one of the hotel ballrooms. Sometimes we were actually able to serve a banquet on Saturday night in the same room as the main speaker meeting. As attendance grew, we moved the main meetings into convention centers. Even with that allowance, the logistics of serving a sit-down dinner (edible or not) to several thousand people were simply beyond the capabilities of most caterers. |
We grew to the point where we were occupying a block of
rooms in every hotel in sight. We found that even the largest
halls in some convention centers no longer held our main meeting.
We found ourselves sitting in huge arenas, with banquets a
distant memory. No caterer in his right mind would attempt to
serve even a handful of peanuts to a such a crowd!
We had grown into a fellowship that could consume $50,000 worth
of espresso and cappuccino, $17,000 worth of candy by the pound,
and $12,000 worth of lemonade and funnel cakes, and tax the
resources and supplies of every area restaurant.
The Baltimore world convention marked a significant change in
what the world convention represents to our fellowship. Before
Baltimore, many people had expressed the opinion that the world
convention was getting to be kind of like a giant regional
convention—or maybe it was that regional conventions were
getting to be like mini-world conventions. In any case, world
convention planners felt that the world convention should be a
special celebration of our recovery and a demonstration of our
unity as a fellowship. It should have elements that can’t be
found anywhere else. So planning began to be geared toward
meeting that goal.
First and foremost, convention planners focused on the recovery
meetings, trying to add something special to the traditional mix
of main meetings with speakers each evening and workshops during
the day. One of the new additions was to have the final meeting
of the convention on Sunday morning feature a panel of speakers
from around the world. Following on the heels of the Saturday
Night Unity Day Celebration, where attendees from more than
thirty countries will stand up and be recognized, the speakers
will drive home the fact that recovery in NA transcends
geographic and cultural boundaries.
The definition of “workshops” has also expanded to
encompass service-related concerns or topics that are challenging
our fellowship. In the past, topics have included HIV and AIDS,
prejudice, and how our fellowship defines abstinence. At this
writing, the workshop topics for WCNA-27 haven’t been
finalized, but they’re sure to center on the most important
issues facing NA today.
The on-site WSO will be back again for an encore after its debut
at WCNA-26 in St. Louis. Members will be able to visit this
temporary office and register or update their group information.
Other WSO services will be available and staff members will be on
hand to answer questions about WSO and how the services it
provides can help members, groups, and service committees. Copies
of the NA Way will be available, and members can sign up to
receive it in any of its different language editions.
The WSO is very excited to be presenting a historical display
this year. It will include some of the material that the WSO
received from Jimmy K’s estate—original writings of
early NA members, records of business meetings, general
information about how the fellowship started, and even some
photos of early meeting places. The WSO will also be introducing
Miracles Happen: The Birth of Narcotics Anonymous in Words and
Pictures. This will be an oversized coffee-table type book,
approximately 100 pages, in color.
And there’s more . . .
Even before Baltimore, world convention planners had created
programs that are diverse and fit the theme of the convention. At
WCNA-17 in New Orleans, a Mardi Gras parade, a masked ball, and a
riverboat ride down the Mississippi River were among the
highlights. At WCNA-23 in Chicago, Illinois, the convention
featured a blues concert and comedians from the Second City
Comedy Troupe.
WCNA-27 will continue this course with a Seventies kickoff party
on Thursday night. A costume company will be on hand with all
sorts of retro-duds from that era—platform shoes, flare
pants, and double-suede-polyester whatever. The music will fit
the theme and the entertainment will feature Kurtis Blow as
Master of Ceremonies and disco divas Gloria Gaynor, Evelyn
“Champagne” King, Thelma Houston, and Kathy Sledge.
Friday’s comedy show will be headlined by Craig Shoemaker,
aka “The Love Master,” who, since his performance at
WCNA-26, has won the American Comedy Award for the stand-up
comedian in the country; Craig is host of the VH-1 series,
“Our Generation.” Craig received an uproarious response
in St. Louis and we’re sure he’ll be just as warmly
received in San Jose.
Saturday morning will start on a cool note with the Jazz
Breakfast headlined by Larry Coryell and featuring an all-star
band of top jazz musicians. And Saturday night, in what promises
to be a unique and intimate event, there will be a concert
starring legendary guitarist Eric Clapton. Eric Clapton was a
founding member of world-renowned bands Cream, Derek and the
Dominoes, and Blind Faith, followed by a long and distinguished
solo career. He has been twice inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.
In addition to these paid events, there are many activities that
are included in the registration fee. There will be a dance each
night of the convention. Some will have music provided by a DJ;
others will offer live entertainment. Once again, there will be
the coffee house each night. On Thursday night, Marty Balin, lead
singer and founding member of both Jefferson Airplane and
Jefferson Starship, will be performing. On Friday night, Chuck
Negron, the voice of Three Dog Night, will perform. Saturday
night’s coffee house entertainment was not booked as of this
writing, but it will also be a talented national performer.
During the dinner hour on Friday night, there will be a Salsa
Festival featuring Latin-flavored food and music.
Other attractions
The World Convention Corporation has negotiated a thirty percent
discount at Paramount’s Great America Theme Park. Discounted
prices are $21.50 for adults and $16.50 for children 6 and under.
Take your family and have a blast!
While you’re in Northern California, take a few extra days
and take advantage of one of the pre- or post-convention tour
packages available in San Francisco or Monterey.
Coinciding with our convention, the city of San Jose will play
host to the “Talent in Tapestry Festival,” one of the
largest arts and crafts festivals held in the United States. It
usually attracts more than 100,000 people. Offering international
food and music throughout the day on both Saturday and Sunday,
this festival will offer convention attendees yet another fun
activity.
It’s your
world convention
Whether you decide to fill every second with fun
and recovery and attend every possible event or get into the true
California spirit—that is, laid-back—we hope attending
the world convention will be the experience of a lifetime for
everyone.
Make no mistake, we will virtually take over the city of San
Jose. WCNA-27 will be one of the largest conventions ever to be
held there, so our presence is a big deal to local merchants and
business people. People who might not otherwise ever hear the
name Narcotics Anonymous will get an up-close look at us and the
quality of our lives expressed through our collective recovery.
Does this sound like something any member should miss?
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