This has been an amazing year for Region 9!
The reorganization of the services our region provides and the effort to reach out to more members in more countries that began in previous years, continues. A big thank you to all members who have served Region 9 in previous years, especially our former chair, Alexandra and our communications officer, Gudrun Kristin, who stepped down in 2023. We learned a lot from you and tried to continue your work to the best of our abilities. All the trusted servants, officers, service coordinators, committee members that served this year, worked cc, with enthusiasm and together we have managed to achieve a lot.
The new website, which was a big project from the previous year, and had only to be launched, was finally ready in February. This was a project that had long been forthcoming, since the old website was no longer functional. The joy was great because it is a beautiful website, but it became greater when our secretary, acting as Digital Officer, Sharlotte G., made major upgrades. The main upgrade that we celebrated a lot, is the ability to offer the translation of our Region 9 website into 122 languages! Now nearly everyone around the world can read the content of our website and our Region 9 announcements in their own language!
This amazing feature was an inspiration for the Board of Trustees and the World Service Office to take the necessary actions in order to also make our world-wide website oa.org translatable.
As a newcomer to this position of service there is a lot for me to learn. Many things were not so new to me, since I had gotten an idea of how things work from my previous service position as Region 9 vice chair, many things were challenging, because they were totally out of my comfort zone and of course the most difficult part of my role, which is to chair the assembly is still ahead of me.
Our Region 9 Board meets every month and every second month we meet together with our Committee Chairs, Service Coordinators and our Trustee Liaison. Each and every meeting was an absolutely amazing experience. Not because there were no differing opinions or difficult issues to be resolved, but because each one of the participants, of our trusted servants, gives their best to let the spiritual principles of the traditions and concepts of service prevail.
Our Trustee Liaison, Emilia, and I meet regularly as we share our thoughts and ideas before we take any step or action. Our discussions are always rich and empowering.
As Region chair, I participate in the Regions Chairs Committee. The work in this committee is a lot about sharing good practices and is also combined with the Strategic Plan meetings with the Board of Trustees. Many of those meetings are held virtually, but there are two that were face to face, one in May before the World Service Business Conference and one in August.
As a non-English speaker in these meetings, I was able to share my experience and contribute to some extent, in collaboration with our Trustee Liaison, Emilia, to help the Trustees and Regions Chairs who have no experience beyond English, understand the need to change the way we address our members in our fellowship, so that everyone feels equal. Except for the translatable oa.org website, which was a big step, small but significant changes are happening. One of the changes that has passed is that whenever our global fellowship takes an action that applies to English speaking America, the World Service Office will send instructions on how service bodies in other countries can implement these actions in their area.
In order to learn more about our region and how things work, I decided this year to participate in all three Region 9 Committees, where there are so many ongoing projects. I will mention those aspects that from my point of view are most outstanding. The rest you can read in the report of each committee.
The new Active Outreach Committee, chaired by Agnieszka from Poland, contacted all service bodies and groups in all the countries in our Region and managed to organize a fantastic “to-know-us-better” meeting with members from 21 countries. This is the first time that a meeting of Region 9 had participants from so many countries. It was a powerful experience to hear the Serenity Prayer in all those languages and sharing about our common problems as we try to carry the message of recovery in our areas. This meeting was the propellent force for new initiatives. Τhe needs of our Region 9 OA community were recorded and the committee will organize several actions in order to strengthen the service bodies and the groups in the different countries.
The Nuts and Bolts Committee, chaired by Nelly from Italy, together with our Bylaws Coordinator, Adele from Israel, worked on the rather confusing task of updating and revising our Region 9 Bylaws and Policies and Procedures. The majority of the motions in this year’s assembly is the result of this work.
The Service Traditions and Concepts Committee, chaired by Slowphie from France, organized the first Service, Traditions and Concepts Workshop, which was quite a success.
I also attended the World Service Business Conference. It was a bittersweet experience, since I got sick with Covid and missed two days out of five.
A big thank you to our former Region 9 chair and Red Dragon delegate, Alexandra, who replaced me and acted as Region 9 chair for the rest of the conference.
It was the third year that we created a Region 9 Delegates Committee in order to offer support and share our experience, strength and hope for all aspects of the Conference, whether this was the business part, or matters of recovery and abstinence. We have seen that this is something that helps all the delegates and creates a strong bond between the members. This committee has been helpful and very precious.
Region 9 had a strong representation of 18 delegates, from 12 different countries, Denmark, England, Germany, Greece, Iran, Israel, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and Wales. This is the biggest representation that Region 9 ever had and this is amazing and very promising. It was also a powerful representation. Region 9 showed to our fellowship that despite the geographical, cultural and linguistic diversity, unity and acceptance is possible, especially when at the end of the Conference we organized and presented the OA promise, sentence by sentence, in all 14 languages present at the World Service Conference (Danish, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh and English).
At the end of January, we managed to get the certificate for our legal entity, which has the form of a Charitable Incorporated Organization. This was a huge milestone because now Region 9 is finally legal and can operate without having to prove where we get our money from. The trustees for our legal entity are Alexandra D, our former Region 9 chair, Mel our banker and until now the solicitor who helped us establish the Charitable Incorporated Organization, but soon Natasha, our Region 9 vice chair will become the third trustee.
All in all, until today I can say that I am so very grateful for the honor and the privilege to serve as Region 9 chair. It honestly brings me so much joy!
I have only the best things to say for all the trusted servants that service by my side and hold my hand in this. Natasha (our current Region 9 vice-chair), Sharlotte (our current Region 9 secretary / communications officer, Ricki (our current Region 9 Treasurer), Hafi (our current board administrator), Nelly, Slowphie, Agnieszka, Adele, Mel (our current Region 9 banker), Alexandra (our charitable incorporated organization (our legal entity) trustee), Michal (Ad-Hoc translations committee Chair), all committee members and of course Emilia, who share a vision to make our Region strong. A very big thank you to every one of you. Your recovery, your devotion to what we do, your love for our fellowship is just inspiring.
One of the things that made me hesitant to take on service positions at an international level was the language. English is not my native language and I was afraid I would struggle, especially with legal texts and bylaws. But experience has shown me that in OA anything is possible. All the barriers my mind sets up are knocked down, as long as I am willing. I don’t need to know everything, speak the language like a pro, I just need to be willing and God does the rest. Not everything is easy, but it is possible. That is what I have seen in the last year of serving in this service position.
Please consider joining us, to serve with us the coming year. We have just created a new Ad-Hoc Committee that will work on translations and interpretations. We are always looking for new trusted servants since there is so much to do.
Service is after all strengthening our recovery, but serving in Region 9, being able to share our solution with so many different members from different countries is just amazing! It is something you should not miss!
With love for our fellowship and our Region 9
Loudovika P.
Region 9 Chair