The following was written by Jamie Itterman
LifeRing Secular Recovery-Canada
November 2018
Canada Regional Representative: Jamie Itterman
Vancouver Hub: Jamie Itterman
Victoria Hub: Calla Raglan
Our meetings in Canada have continued to have regular attendance as last reported. We have some people that come regularly for a while but eventually move on for whatever reasons, back to their own communities or on to other options. Overall, attendance is steady with all meetings having regular attendees.
Our push to find new conveners continues to be a struggle, but we have good dedicated members still doing multiple meetings per week along with other duties within the organization.
Interest from individuals, societies and other organizations involved in substance use treatment continues to grow. This keeps our hopes and ambitions up that more is to come. We are currently making connections with several groups and sending out “Starter Packages” to potential conveners.
Book sales are a big issue as we no longer have any “Empowering Your Sober Self” or workbooks to sell or advertise. We have to order our books from Amazon USA, which results in the books costing about $80.00 each after shipping and duties. George Gidora is currently researching getting the books printed in Canada.
We have recently added new meetings in Eastern Canada in Moncton, New Brunswick and Charlottetown, PEI. We welcome Sean Pauley and Jocelyn Harnois to our team. The meetings in Toronto and Saskatoon will hopefully be running by December. Both are at hospitals and approved by faculty.
LifeRing Canada recently had our AGM meeting in Victoria BC. It was held over two days and besides regular elections for the Board of Governors, we focused on building conveners and training, expansion and connections with out of town meetings and fundraising. Several committees were organized to work on these items. We now have 8 BOD members with George Gidora remaining as President. This event was funded by a very generous donation from Denis Power and organization and agenda by Barb R.
By Jamie Itterman
itterman@me.com
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