Last year the Central Office Oversight Committee (COOC) felt that the high cost of producing and mailing the Essay should be offset by a subscription to cover these costs, and beginning December 1993, the newsletter was sent to subscribers only. An immediate result was an unforeseen and regrettable drop in readership. Although subscriptions have increased steadily in 1994, circulation is still only about 25 percent of what it was in 1993. That means less than one-fourth of the fellowship can participate in fellowship-wide communication! Correspondence to the Essay has also dropped, and sometimes there is not enough relevant material to produce an issue every three months.
Recently the Literature Committee voted unanimously that the Essay once again be the fellowship-wide medium of communication and that it be provided free of charge. Now, when SA is setting about to create its first fellowship-wide organizational structure, it is more important than ever that all SAs know what’s going on so they can participate in this historic process.
The Literature Committee suggested that if the fellowship were made aware of this dilemma and the special funds needed for Essay, members, groups, and intergroups could brainstorm the issue and come up with innovative alternatives to individual reader subscription.
Elect Essay Representative
During a recent meeting the SA Literature Committee voted that “The SA Literature Committee recommend to the fellowship that each SA group elect an Essay representative who will create the Essay consciousness, implement its distribution, and receive input from the group and from individual members for possible inclusion in the Essay.”
What do you think? How can we make Essay available to all and still afford the cost? Please discuss and give us your creative ideas.
Essay Statement of Purpose
Essay is the newsletter of Sexaholics Anonymous, addressed to those who “desire to stop lusting and become sexually sober.” It is a life-line linking recovering sexaholics with each other around the world and carrying SA news, notices of events, and our common experience, strength and hope.
“The Essay has a Calendar of Events section, describing the various conventions, marathons, retreats, and other regional, national, or international SA functions that take place throughout the year. Sections on Group and Member news provide excerpts from letters from around the world on group and member experiences. The Essay also contains Central Office news and financial reports and news of matters affecting the whole fellowship, with articles on various subjects and personal experiences reflecting what is happening in SA. Essay has proven to be an important channel of recovery and link for union of our fellowship at the broader levels—something that has become rewarding to a great many of us.” (Sexaholics Anonymous, p. 212)
