Enclosed with this ESSAY is a document which is a first for SA—a proposed method for determining a fellowship-wide group conscience. This tells how every SA group will be involved in voting on matters affecting SA as a whole. This proposal must be ratified by the fellowship—that includes your group—before it can take effect. You must now take part in this process if you want any say in whether or not this enclosed proposal should be made binding on all of SA.

In the past, when the number of groups was relatively small, such matters were handled through the Central Office via mail or conference calls. The proposed procedure establishes a method by which an elected committee with staggered two-year terms represents the whole fellowship and acts on matters affecting SA as a whole. Note that if you are a member without a group, the only way you can vote is to get in contact with and vote with an existing group.

Group Feedback Deadline

Every SA group: Please study the enclosed proposal from the Committee to Determine SA Procedure for Taking an International Group Conscience. Make sure all interested members receive copies of the proposal. Send in your initial group response to this proposal by March 31st of this year. This is your group feedback per item 6 on page one of the proposal. In other words, as of now, your group and every other SA group has the ball: Respond per item 6 by 3/31/88. This should allow time for the final vote (item 8) to be in by the Rochester Convention. Let’s get the wheels rolling on this crucial issue: Discuss, pray, reflect, feed back. Remember: Group, not individual feedback, and summarize on enclosed sheet where possible. Mail or call in your group’s item 6 response to:

IGC Committee
c/o SA Central Office
POB 300, Simi Valley, CA 93062

IGC Committee Chairman Requests Group Action

Dear SA Members:

Please take time to carefully review the procedure for taking a group conscience for SA. Pray over it, discuss with your groups, and send your group reflections back to the Central Office. We’d like to get all reflections by the end of March if possible. I know it is often difficult to do the “business” of SA, but the more responses we get and the better the quality of the responses, the more representative a sample we’ll be able to send back to the groups for final reflection and group conscience taking. As SA grows, it’s important to discern how to best determine our international conscience on the important matters we are and will be facing.

Thanks,

[Ed: As a reminder and convenience, use the enclosed sheet for your group (item 6) response to the IGC proposal.]