Conference Report
VOLUME 18 NUMBER 2 -- MARCH 1999

Table of Contents

We will provide, on a space and time availability basis, meeting space for zonal forums upon request. All requests must be presented in writing to the WSC Administrative Committee no later than 15 April. Also, if you intend to have merchandise for sale at the alternative store, you will need to reserve your table space when you register as a WSC participant. The local fellowship will be hosting a meeting and dance on the opening Saturday (25 April) and providing recovery meetings throughout the conference week, as well as on-site assistance to participants when possible. 

Conference Mailings 
The Transition Group Final Report, translated into French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Swedish, was first mailed to conference participants, including registered regions and areas, on 5 December 1997. Part of that report was contained in the Conference Agenda Report, the first section of which was also translated into the same five languages. The entire report was sent again, along with the Conference Agenda Report, to all conference participants, registered regions, registered zonal forums, and voting members of all standing conference committees ninety one days prior to the opening of the World Service Conference annual meeting. 

All conference participants will receive a pre-conference mailing containing necessary documents and information for the annual meeting.

Activities Since November
Since our November report, the pace of our activities in preparation for the conference has increased dramatically. 

The WSC Administrative Committee served as a resource to the TG and all regions submitting motions for inclusion in the CAR, and helped write the motion 16 compliance language.
We worked with WSO staff to prepare the Conference Agenda Report for publication and distribution.
We have received and responded to correspondence from nine regions and two NA members since our last report, some of which you have received copies of in order to keep you abreast of issues you may face at the WSC.
We have participated in nearly all the multi-regional and Zonal Forum CAR workshops this spring and have enjoyed the opportunity to interact with many of you prior to the WSC.
The WSC Administrative Committee participated in the fellowship development trip at the Asian Pacific Zonal Forum in India in February.
We have worked with WSC Policy Committee leadership to develop two election procedures which will be in your WSC orientation packets as well as multiple conference agenda options.
We will have our final pre-conference meeting on the third weekend of March to finalize our plans for facilitating the complex conference process.
We will work with the Interim Committee in finalizing budgets and work plans for the 1998-1999 conference year.
We fulfilled our individual liaison responsibilities with the WSC boards and committees.

At 1:00 p.m., the WSC Administrative Committee will make a presentation, explaining the motion and amendment process, and also facilitate a discussion with the Transition Group and consulting attorneys about the legal aspects of the recommendations. It is designed to help all conference participants understand the legal, structural, and spiritual interface questions that can be very complicated and we know need to be addressed, with respect to the proposed Transition Group motions and recommendations. The consulting attorneys will be present for this discussion. 

Opening Session
The opening session of WSC’98 will begin at 4:30 p.m. The business part of this first day’s session will include adoption of WSC rules of order, the acceptance of amendments to the minutes of WSC’97, introductions, and seating of new regions.

The WSC Administrative Committee has proposed that the conference review the 1997 vote on the Guide to Local Services in Narcotics Anonymous. The WSC’97 minutes show that a statement was made to all participants present that a majority vote was required to carry the motion. The resulting vote was in excess of a 2/3 majority, which in fact, was required. The WSC Administrative Committee will ask that the 1997 minutes be corrected to state that a 2/3 majority vote was required and that the actual vote fulfilled this requirement. 

Please note that the adoption of election procedures is not included in this session. The Policy, Interim, and Administrative Committees have been working on election procedures since the World Service Meeting in Providence. We have developed two separate proposals for election procedures: one if Motion 1 is adopted, the other one if Motion 1 fails. The WSC Administrative Committee has developed two separate agendas as well. Both sets of each will be included in your pre-conference mailing.

Recognition Assistance Panel
Two regions have notified the WSC Administrative Committee of their intent to seek seating at the upcoming World Service Conference, the Imphal Region in India and Eastern New York. Both regions have fulfilled the responsibilities set forth in the WSC RAP procedures. An area presently in the Greater New York Region, the ABCD Area, has begun researching avenues to form its own region, and has been in communication with the second vice chair of Admin. The Recognition Assistance Panel consisted of Mary CV (WSC Admin), Stu T (WSB), Floyd B (WSB), Sandi S (WSC Policy), and Rich S (WSC Policy). Although RAP’s workload has been lighter than in previous years, we thank the members for their efforts and willingness to serve.

Motion 1 Decision Will Determine the Balance of the Agenda 
The Administrative Committee, working with other WSC boards, committees, and staff, will be prepared, to the best of our ability, to proceed with the annual meeting, no matter what decisions are made on the Transition Group proposals.

As WSC Chairperson, I have sought the most expert advise available in the areas of parliamentary procedure and institutional conflict resolution so that we can be prepared to provide all voices an opportunity to be heard on all issues affecting the proposed structural changes to world services. It is our sincere desire to assist each participant in presenting his or her views and opinions in an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual respect and to give conference participants, as a body, the ability to determine the course of the conference. 

Resume, Nomination Forms, and Two Old Business Motion Deadlines
Resume and nomination forms for the proposed World Board, Human Resources Panel, and Conference Facilitators were first sent in the 5 December, 1997 mailing of the Transition Group final report, and included again in its final report that was mailed with the Conference Agenda Report. They are also included in the pre-conference package mailing.

Please take note that two distinct nomination forms exist, a special nomination form for World Board, Human Resource Panel, and WSC Co-facilitators and also a standard nomination form for standard election procedures. If a person is being nominated for more than one position, a nomination form must be filled out for each position. The deadline to turn in special nomination forms and NA service resumes is Sunday, 26 April, 1997 at 12:00 noon. The service resumes will serve for either election procedure. If motion 1 fails, the deadline for nominations for the standard election procedure will be Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.

Old business motions pertaining to the Transition Group must be turned in to the motions table at the front of the conference room no later than 3:00 p.m. Saturday 25 April. This will accommodate the Transition Group’s ability to review and make recommendations on these motions prior to the Sunday morning Transition Group session. The deadline for all other old business motions is 12:00 noon on Sunday 26 April. Boards and committees will meet Sunday evening to make recommendations on these motions, depending on the decision regarding Motion 1.

Issue Discussion Papers
The issue papers we have received on this years single topic of "Fund Flow" were included in the CAR mailing. Time will be provided during the conference week for the presentations and discussion on this topic. WSC 1997 allowed extensive discussions of this topic on the floor and then voted to make "Fund Flow" the singular topic for this conference year. We hope that, this year, there will be a free flowing discussion that includes any ideas fostered in discussions in your regions and how your groups and areas have begun to implement those ideas. 

Unity Day
World Unity Day will be held Saturday, September 5, 1998, at the World Convention of Narcotics Anonymous, at 5:00 p.m. (17h00) PDT (02h00 European Daylight Time). Once again we will be connecting with NA communities from around the world via telephone hook-up. This year there will be fewer communities invited to speak on the phone line but those fellowships will be provided with on-site technical assistance to enhance the spine-tingling experience for all who join in. The Unity Day program will end with the world-wide telephone broadcast of the Saturday night main speaker at WCNA. The time of the Unity Day activities at the convention will be earlier this year than in the past to help fellowships around the world join in. Please begin planning your Unity Day events now and coordinate your telephone hook-up with WSO staff no later than 1 August 1998. One free hook-up will be provided to each region outside the USA and Canada as it has in the past. Flyers for telephone hook-up reservations will be printed and available for distribution at the WSC.

WSC Treasurer
As we have reported several times during the year, the tragic death of the WSC Treasurer in July of 1997 shocked us all into a greater awareness of the need to better prepare world service travelers to seriously consider the need to be conscious of personal safety while traveling on behalf of world services. An improved travel protocol to help with these concerns is currently being developed by the Interim Committee.

Mary C-V, WSC 2^nd Vice Chair, was asked by the Interim Committee to fulfill Paul’s treasurer duties for the remainder of the conference year. She has served in that capacity with distinction since Paul’s death and has accomplished, with WSO staff support, all the requirements of the position except voting in Interim Committee decisions. We want to thank her for stepping up to the added responsibilities and succeeding beyond our highest expectations. 

We will suspend conference proceedings at the beginning of the conference to ask for a moment of silence for Paul. In his spirit of service to the ideal of accepting financial responsibility for the WSC, we would take this opportunity to remind you that coming into the most expensive season of the conference year, we still lack approximately $160,000.00 (as of March 1) in anticipated donations to accomplish our WSC 1997-1998 budget which was approved last year.

Admin’s Motion and Motions Committed to the Conference Agenda Report
The WSC Administrative Committee is forwarding a motion to rescind Motion 16 from WSC 1996 which stated "All motions submitted to be placed in the Conference Agenda Report that attempt to change, amend or delete WSC Policies, shall include those policies, or sections of those policies, it attempts to amend. Further, it shall be the responsibility of the maker of the motion to provide this information along with the motion." It is our belief that the overwhelming amount of financial, staff, and volunteer resources required for Motion 16 to be accomplished, in fact and spirit of intent, is probably beyond our means in the future. For the past two years, Jon T, the WSC Vice Chair has been able to devote a large part of three full months to the accomplishment of Motion 16 requirements. We are incredibly grateful for his efforts but don’t believe we can depend on a volunteer in the future with the time to do the work required. With the potential downsizing of world services trusted servant base and the increase in staff effort that downsizing would require, neither can we imagine the WSO could provide the resources needed to fulfill motion 16 requirements. The last part of the problem with Motion 16 is that RDs have also struggled with the ability to meet the requirements of this motion. For all of these reasons, we do not believe that our organization is prepared, at any level, to meet the stringent requirements of Motion 16, and we are asking you to rescind it.

Motions 13 (79 b from WSC 1997) and Motion 14 (102 from WSC 1997) were committed to the Conference Agenda Report. We have explained our distress about this process in our last conference report. We have included them in the CAR as per your direction and they are the property of the conference. It will be the responsibility of conference participants to bring these motions to the floor for action.

Closing from the WSC Chair
In 1992, at the quarterly meeting in Cincinnati, I was in my first year as WSC Treasurer. The Interim Committee met in closed session to discuss recommending to the WSC that we stop and take an inventory of World Services; what was working, what was no longer working, and how to find solutions to the problems we found to be crippling service delivery and how to better serve the fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous. Five-and-a-half years later, following a Composite, Resolution, and Transition Group, and countless meetings of painful reflection later, we will arrive at the 1998 WSC in April, poised on the threshold of a new future for Narcotics Anonymous world services. 

Throughout the years which have brought us to this threshold, I have watched us grow as individuals and as a collective of service bodies focused on our new mission and a clearer vision of what world services can become, perhaps what it must become, if we are to be able to rise to the challenge of making the message of recovery available in an increasingly demanding trans-national environment. When we were admonished by the Resolution Group to put aside our individual agendas and aspirations, from RD to trustee, we all winced at the sting of truth. When they told us "our fear of change would confront us at the end," we thought we were all better than that, but it has proven to be another unsettling truth. 

It is time now for Narcotics Anonymous world services to find the courage and the wisdom and the determination to seek the healing of old wounds, and to come together in unity to provide a solid foundation from which the message of recovery from active addiction can freely flow to any culture in any country, in any language. We must decide to learn how to become truly trans-national in our perspective and our approach to the new waves of fellowships developing around the globe. It is now time to live our new vision of what we can become.

It has been my pleasure and privilege to be given the opportunity to serve the Higher Power through Narcotics Anonymous world services. I will strive to become the best chair possible at the conference and to help each of you accomplish the tasks and deliver the ideas your service bodies send you to the conference to present. May our Higher Powers help us all.

The Transition Group members participated in a total of nine Conference Agenda Report workshops, and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who attended for participating. We look forward to the World Service Conference in April. 

As we approach the 1998 World Service Conference, we all still have a lot of work ahead of us. As you review the 1998 Conference Agenda Report, you will see that the WSCLC has a number of motions included: two under our own section and one under the section titled "Motions Pertaining to The Transition Group Proposals."

Motion #23
The first of our motions is Motion #23. In this motion we are asking the fellowship to approve The Narcotics Anonymous Step Working Guides. This project is the culmination of a lot of hard work by many individuals, groups, areas, and regions. In fact, 36 regions worked on this project in many forms in the years prior to it becoming an "A" work list item of the WSCLC. There was an overwhelming amount of source material and input provided in the years that this project was developed. Do not let anyone confuse the facts; this project was actively worked on over many years by many different entities within Narcotics Anonymous. 

Motion #24
The second of our motions, Motion #24, requests that the fellowship approve the WSCLC’s 1998-99 "A" work list. This includes two new chapters for eventual inclusion in the Basic Text, as well as the compilation of personal stories from our worldwide fellowship. This motion is a result of responding to fellowship requests. The two chapters we have recommended initially were proposed by two separate regions. Incidentally, there is a motion which has been submitted by the World Service Board of Trustees, Motion #21, which the WSCLC would like to give a recommendation on. We will not do so now, but we will at the conference. What we do ask the fellowship to do prior to entertaining this motion is to consider the impact another extended delay in literature development would have on our fellowship and the regional and area literature committees. We believe that modified, this motion (Motion #21) has merit. As it is currently stated it could cause hardships in both the short and long term. 

Motion #25
Finally, we have submitted Motion #25. In this motion we ask the fellowship to reaffirm a decision which it has previously made and that the committee feels the Transition Group has willfully and knowingly gone against. We would like to show the obvious hubris of the Transition Group by pointing out that they have rejected each and every motion pertaining to the Transition Group proposals not made by the Transition Group. This borders on the unconscionable.

Future Role of WSCLC
There have been a number of motions and discussions about the future role of the WSCLC and our fellowship’s literature development process. We believe that these are necessary discussions and we applaud everyone who has taken part in them, whether we agree or disagree with the conclusions drawn by the participants. We do feel that it is our obligation to share certain observations we have made. Literature is a necessary component of our recovery process. New literature will be written either by the fellowship through an agreed upon development process or it will be written by addicts who will take it upon themselves to produce recovery literature for distribution to other addicts outside of our agreed upon conference process. This is most apparent when one sees what has already occurred. On one hand we have a group of well-meaning addicts who have taken it upon themselves to create new literature outside of the normal channels. Their reasoning is varied and in most cases well meaning. On the other hand we have a book-length piece which has been written by an addict for addicts and distributed by a large book distribution firm. This piece, under the same title and in the same format as a project currently on the "C" work list of the WSCLC, has already been produced by an addict and is being sold. It is entitled, "Living Clean in NA." We believe that this author’s intentions are well meaning, also. What we are showing is that many addicts have a desire and see a need to develop new literature, either through the fellowship’s development process or on their own and they will do so even if we, the fellowship, do not or if we take too long to do so. We are not judging these actions by our fellow members; we are just pointing out a reality. 

Literature Revisions
Finally, to those members who are so resistant to change, especially in matters pertaining to revisions of our literature, we would like to point out that recovery is dynamic and so should our literature be. As we mature individually and as a fellowship we are in the process of spiritual development and awakening. Our literature should reflect this.

Closing
We close with a heartfelt appreciation for the support provided us and look forward to serving NA selflessly in the future.

We have not met as a full committee since WSC‘97, but instead have relied on the telephone and e-mail to carry out some of our business. All of the voting members were contacted via phone to provide committee conscience on the three regional motions referred to us for the 1998 CAR. We also utilized a conference call in January, that consisted of the chair, vice-chair, the three team leaders, and WSO support staff. During that call we discussed the current status of assignments, plans for outstanding tasks, new tasks, and planning for committee activities at WSC‘98.

Events and Contacts
Also in January, the chair and vice chair attended the American Association Winter Conference in San Antonio, Texas. We were particularly excited about our attendance at this event since we were selected to participate in a program workshop. The theme of the work shop was, "The Effectiveness of 12 Step Programs Vs Other Treatment Modalities". The other presenters were a representative from Hazelden and Cornerstone Treatment Network, respectively. Our presentation consisted of a paper titled "Narcotics Anonymous, an Alternative Way of Life During and After incarceration," along with color slides to compliment the paper. I felt we provided an excellent and informative overview of NA and H&I service.

Another highlight came later when the Director for Corrections and Substance Abuse Activities at Centers for Disease Control (CDC) came by our booth. I had made contact with him at the Summer ACA after learning of a plan by CDC to set up correctional/community panels around the United States, to bring people together in a cooperative effort to reduce drug addiction. They have targeted six states: California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Florida, Georgia, and the District of Columbia, to begin public awareness efforts to address the linkage between corrections and substance abuse, and highlight community based self-help organizations such as ours. We have been invited to meet with some of their representatives and discuss this initiative further. My feeling is that this presents an excellent public information opportunity that would help advance awareness of NA, and fulfill our vision of others finding the opportunity for a new way of life. Just the fact that he extended the invitation speaks volumes about the level of credibility we are attaining.

Another key contact was established with the Federal Bureau of Prisons that could serve to assist in efforts to carry the message within the prison system. We were not selected this time to conduct a formal presentation during the 1998 ACA Summer meeting. They have been overwhelmed with requests this year, and it appears the emphasis was put on in-treatment programs. We also had the opportunity to interact extensively with the area and regional NA communities while in Texas. I believe strongly that world services has a responsibility to be available and responsive to the fellowship we serve and to seek out and take advantage of the opportunity whenever possible. We deeply appreciate the hospitality shown us by NA members in Texas, and I felt our visit served to foster goodwill, unity, and mutual understanding—it strengthened the ties that bind us together.

Teams
As you may recall, the committee is divided into three work teams to carry out assigned tasks. This team concept has allowed us to improve communications, maximize resources, and to be more efficient in serving you.

The services resources team is continuing to work on enhancing the sample resource section of the H&I Handbook, particularly the sample letters provided. We hope to have any changes ready for committee approval at the conference. We are also making progress on the initial development of a curriculum for correctional workers who wish to start NA meetings as defined in the Public Relations Plan. Our goal is for presentation to the BOT/External Affairs Committee at the conference. You can assist in our efforts to catalog H&I service materials at WSO by sending us any area/regional H&I committee guidelines, orientation packages, reference letters from facilities, and any materials from learning days and workshops. That way you can help us help you in more successfully carrying the message by sharing our resources, experience, strength, and hope with each other.

The learning days/workshop team has completed our module of the H&I "Train The Trainer" tool. We are very optimistic about this material being a valuable resource to the fellowship. The "Train The Trainer" material helps support one of the objectives of the PR plan by providing a flexible, practical training tool that can be utilized in areas, regions, and multi-regional/zonal events. This team will also be coordinating an H&I workshop during WSC‘98. We plan on working with WSC PI in conducting an informative, interactive, and fun-filled event. While at the conference, my hope is that we can help arrange for members to participate on an H&I panel at a nearby facility. This can be particularly beneficial to those members from developing NA communities to experience firsthand being in an H&I setting. In addition, we are working on our "H&I Guide." Originally developed as a quick and easily translated, four-page piece using excerpts from the H&I Handbook, the guide certainly has proven to be helpful. Recent input leads us to believe that changes are necessary to keep up with fellowship needs and desires. Before proceeding though, I feel a needs assessment is required from those members in developing NA communities we are attempting to help in H&I service, in order to gather direction on how best to help. We will be developing and utilizing a mechanism to gather that input before and during WSC‘98.

The communications team has been working on two new resource papers: "Men with Men, Women With Women," and "H&I Meetings in Adolescent Facilities." We have requested that these types of service materials, when approved, be made available on the WSO website, to provide an additional medium to serve you. This team has also been soliciting and submitting H&I articles for inclusion in the NA Way Magazine, and working closely with the NA Way editor in defining an efficient process. We hope you have enjoyed those articles thus far. We will be meeting soon with the editor to review that process to catalog what worked best this year, and what needs refining. I will be reporting the results to you at WSC‘98.

Resignation
We regret having to inform you that Wendy S has resigned from WSC H&I due to personal reasons. Wendy has been an active and valuable member of our committee, and her contributions will be missed. We appreciate her selfless efforts throughout the years, and wish her well.

Closing
In closing, on behalf of WSC H&I, thank you again for the opportunity and privilege to serve you. We look forward to seeing each of you at WSC‘98. As always we welcome any questions, concerns or input. You can contact us, WSC H&I Committee c/o Jeff Gershoff at the World Service Office (extension 131).

Guide to PI & Guide to Phoneline Services
We are proud to announce that the projects to revise the Guide to Public Information and the Guide to Phoneline Service are coming to their first phase of fellowship review. At the time of this writing (February 1998), the review and input drafts of our work are being developed for distribution by the WSO. It is now the fellowship's responsibility to analyze the WSC PI Committee's work, giving us needed input to finalize the drafts.

We believe that your priority in reviewing these drafts should be on their content rather than on grammatical or punctuation issues. We are including guides to this review process and welcome your requests for guidance on this work.

We are very excited about this phase of the project. For many years we have seen the need for the revision of these PI and phoneline service guides. We see great value in their content for the fellowship in carrying out our primary purpose. We look forward to your input and suggestions concerning content and organization.

We acknowledge that the World Service Conference is considering sweeping changes to its organization at this year's meeting in April. The WSC PI Committee recognizes the need for a fundamental reconstruction of world services. We submitted our work plan motion in this year's CAR (Motion 22) to fulfill our responsibility and promise to the fellowship concerning these projects. We did not do this to imply that we are not supportive of the changes proposed by the Transition Group. It is important for our fellowship to enter the next millennium with these newly revised guides to meet the public information challenges facing a growing worldwide fellowship. Our expressed desire is that if the Transition Group's motions are passed, that the Conference continue to support and prioritize these projects for completion in CY 1998-1999. If their motions are not passed, the WSC PI Committee stands committed to complete the task at hand.

We have passed on to the Transition Group information concerning our core work, along with our committee's vision statement, mission statement, and long term goals paper. This material was requested to assist the Transition Group with its work and planning. We hope that a "World Board" for NA will use this material in its mission when it concerns public information activities in the future.

NA Way Magazine Articles
Our committee is participating in the new NA Way Magazine with articles on public information topics. It has been quite a challenge for us to change our style of communications, having in the past written more directly to the PI subcommittee rather than to the individual NA member at the group level. As a standing committee of the World Service Conference, we have become quite accustomed to our way of communicating! We hope that you have gained knowledge from our contributions to the magazine, and we look forward to writing more articles in the future.

Train the Trainer
At the Western Service Learning Days in San Francisco, California, USA, last November, leadership from WSC PI and WSC H&I introduced the "Train the Trainer" kit. We recognized this event as a good opportunity to hear first-hand what regional or area H&I and PI Chairs thought of our work. This introduction was "testing the water" to see how we could refine our presentation process and the kit itself. We received many positive comments on this introduction with good suggestions on how the work could be improved. We thank all of those in attendance for their patience and goodwill.

This project is currently under review by the World Service Board of Trustees. The WSC PI Committee and its leadership have completed contribution and input to this project. It is our hope that the WSB and its External Affairs Committee will bring this project closer to fruition. This will benefit the fellowship greatly with training manuals for H&I and public information presentations.

Resource Papers
Work has been completed on two "resource papers" written by our committee concerning the World Wide Web and new phoneline technologies. The World Wide Web Resource Paper and the Phoneline Technologies Resource Paper are now available from the WSO PI Coordinator. Both papers are incorporated into the new PI and Phoneline Handbook drafts. Please use these papers as guides for your service committee discussions concerning these two topics. We would like to take this opportunity to communicate some information about the World Wide Web and the WSC PI Committee. We have received requests for clarification about NA web pages, particularly the content and operations of the WSO's web site. The WSC PI Committee is not involved with the policy setting or operation for the WSO web site. All questions or issues concerning the WSO web site should be directed to the proper WSO staff, the WSO Board of Directors and if necessary, your Regional Delegate.

Members of the fellowship are expressing concern about personal anonymity, the posting of NA literature, "cyber-group" meetings, and NA merchandise sales on the World Wide Web. WSC PI has endeavored to stay within our purview of public information service. We do not present ourselves as a "final authority" on all issues concerning NA on the Internet. Our resource paper on the topic and the eventual revision of the Guide to Public Information contain our conscience on these public information matters.

The WSC PI Committee shares the same concerns of NA on the Internet as have been brought to us by the fellowship. We acknowledge the need for fellowship-wide guidance on all of these issues. We hope that the World Service Conference will demonstrate leadership on these issues, seeking to resolve these fellowship concerns in the near future.

Closing
As always, we welcome your experience, strength, and hope in fulfilling our mission and vision for the WSC PI Committee. Thank you for allowing us to serve you. May the blessings be.

Orientation Workgroup
As we reported in November, we have been working on conference orientation material. WSC‘98 will be the second year of our involvement in the conference orientation session. The work group has developed sessions reflecting input that was gathered, via questionnaire, from WSC‘97 conference participants.

The sessions include:

explanations of the two election models voting participants may encounter at the conference, depending on voting for the Transition Group motions. 
How to survive the conference from an RD's perspective. 
Roles and Responsibilities of conference participants. 
Policies and procedures while the conference is in session. 
A skit on parliamentary gymnastics and 
A question and answer session.

Elections Workgroup
Has reviewed the elections procedures used during WSC‘97 and input has been submitted to the WSC Administrative Committee.

The elections workgroup will also provide input on an election model that has been developed by the WSC Administrative Committee for use if the Transition group motions are approved.

Regional Assistance Panel 
Policy committee representatives have worked with the RAP committee to review regional requests for seating during WSC‘98.

TWGWSS
This workgroup has reviewed A Temporary Working Guide to our World Service Structure (TWGWSS) and has been developing a log of conference decisions. 

Other Activities
Committee members have submitted articles for each edition of the new NA Way Magazine. The articles have focused on the utilization of sections from A Guide to Local Services.

The Policy Committee will be assisting WSO staff at the nominations table during the conference. We are also planning to provide a resource table for participants during the conference.

Closing
As always, should you have any questions or input on any of our work, we invite you to contact the WSC Policy Committee in care of Jeff Gershoff at the World Service Office. Thank you for your support and interest during the past year. We look forward to seeing many of you at the conference and until then we wish you well.

Usually, the March conference report contains information about the committee’s business and activity during the past conference year, but since our next meeting is not scheduled until March 2nd through the 4th, two weeks after the deadline for this report, this will somewhat limit what we can report to you now.

Handing over the WSTC
In our report to you in October we roughly explained our major task between October and the conference in April. As we stated in that report, we see it as our responsibility to provide the proposed new world service board with as much information as we can think of, along with tools necessary to meet local translation committee (LTC) needs in an adequate and responsible way. Keeping this objective in mind, we started with an assessment of our committee, as well as what we assumed would be the new function in the changed world service structure, as well as the future of recovery literature translations. We decided to categorize our responsibilities and set out to define and then design a framework, and plan tasks for the hand over process. We used the SWOT assessment (an acronym for strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats) to broadly stroke out an overview of insights and experience, information, and tools about what will need to happen to continue the work at hand.

In a brainstorming session, we compiled what we later considered to be key-points. We agreed on those items that we believe are integral parts of an effective hand-over process. These keypoints were: tools (packages), structure (organization), human resources, policies, events (NA and non-NA), communication, composition of committee, financial resources, services provided. In our next step we identified tools and assessed which items from our key-points lists need to be passed on to the new world services translation group. We ended the weekend with an action plan: all committee members were sent home with writing assignments on the following items: tools, structure, resources, communication, services provided and planning.

This work has been going on since last October. The framework that we are developing should be finalized at our March meeting. The committee’s efforts will culminate in writing the components of our shared experience and recommendations as a contribution to help the new structure’s formation process. This means that the final report on this work will be given to you at the World Service Conference in April. More will be revealed!

Carrying the Message
We do have good news for you! Even if the above mentioned process has been time consuming, we still made progress in the realm of approving of NA literature translations, which of course is our main task! Here are some highlights from what has been approved and published throughout this conference year: 

Castillian It Works, How and Why book 
French Just For Today meditation book, 
Italian Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text, 
Swedish An Introductory Guide to Narcotics Anonymous, 
Nederlands IPs 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 14, 16, 19, 22, 23, 
Turkish IPs 1, 9, 16, 19 and key tags, 
Bengali IP 1, and 
Manipuri IPs 1, 7, and 16. 

Some Housekeeping
As conference policy provides, conference committees are allowed to revise their internal guidelines with notice to the conference participants of the revisions. We revised some language in the WSTC guidelines to improve clarity in our section of criteria for prioritization of translation projects. Please note the following "housekeeping" revisions: 

[see: World Services Translation Policy And Committee Guidelines; Internal Guidelines; Criteria For Project Prioritization]

The following criteria have been established to prioritize translation projects. 

Consideration of need: NA communities that have no translated materials take priority over those that already have translated NA literature. The WSTC considers all requests regardless of the number of NA members in a given community or language group. Once placed in the "consideration process," projects are then prioritized. 
Dialects grouped under languages: For example, there are many countries that have several languages. Within these languages may be dozens of different dialects. However, only official languages of a country can receive WSTC consideration.
Consistency: Because translations are basically LTC-driven (that is, it is up to the LTC to do the actual translation work and prompt each step in the translations process), LTCs that communicate regularly, prepare their work list promptly, and adhere to timelines, agreements, and project schedules may receive priority consideration.
Resources: Financial impact (available budgeted funding) and availability of staff resources plays an important part in determining translation priorities.
Duration: When a project has been in-progress for an extended period of time and its completion long awaited, WSTC may give it priority over others.

Some Parting Words
Another conference year is drawing towards its end. We don’t exactly know what’s waiting for us at the other end of the WSC, but it’s very likely that we will see some changes in the way world services handles and organizes translation efforts. We should all be patient in these times of change, because the new group will surely need some time to get organized and to adjust, and indeed some projects may be slowed down when this occurs. Hopefully, these changes will not seriously impact the LTCs. It will be helpful to remember that the future changes will ultimately benefit all of us in NA. 

The growth and development of new language groups working on translating NA literature during the last three years has been astonishing. So has the development and publishing of NA literature in non-English languages. We will probably see an increase in the number of language groups who work on book projects. In fact, this trend shows in this year’s number of published book translations. 

The phenomenon of ever increasing local service activity reflects the international growth of our fellowship. And in my own opinion the activity of the local translation committee is the initial driving force. The WSTC helps to keep this process of local growth and development going. Translated literature is certainly not the only condition for worldwide development, but in our experience a very necessary one. It most certainly is a crucial component for all non-English recovery in NA. The growing non-English speaking parts of our fellowship surely need continued support, no matter how world services are going to be organized. I take this opportunity to thank the conference participants for all their support to our work. We sincerely hope that you in your wisdom will continue to do so.

The WSTC also thanks the whole WSO staff for their dedicated work throughout these years. Especially, a big thank you to the special workers in WSO Translations, Eileen Perez, Jayne McCrary, and coordinator Uschi Mueller; they have done an excellent job getting things done. It’s a given that their work increases as NA grows, whether the world services structure changes or not. In translations there is no "down-time," the show must go on; we can’t afford to have a wait-and-see attitude until the structure has changed. 

Tata and I also say thank you to the committee members, past and present, with whom we have been so fortunate to work. Thank you for your dedicated work.

On a personal note, I take this opportunity to say thank you to the conference for giving me the opportunity to do service in the WSTC. My term is over, both as a committee member and as the chairperson. It has been a three-year adventure, and I have learned a great deal. It has been a great gift for me in my recovery. A heartfelt thank you goes out to my fellow committee members, and to all the LTCs and dedicated translators around the world. I will never forget you. Keep up the good work.

In loving service,