May 2015, Birmingham, UK

On May 15-17, SA’s Europe and Middle East Region (EMER) held its third annual Regional SA Convention, with S-Anon participation, in Birmingham, UK. After our first convention in Warsaw in 2013 and our second in Jerusalem last year, our UK fellows took the initiative to host this annual event. The venue was the beautiful Royal Angus Thistle Hotel in the center of the city. The convention was preceded by a face-to-face Regional Assembly on Friday, where Intergroup Representatives from the nine different Intergroups participated in all-day sessions.

The Assembly meeting started with a spiritual exercise to identify beliefs that block us in service and to identify the spiritual viewpoints on service in our AA and SA literature. Our Delegates learned this exercise at the General Delegate Assembly meeting last summer in Detroit. After that, the morning session continued as the IGRs shared the developments, challenges, and successes in their countries, and they answered questions. In the afternoon regional business was discussed, and the meeting proceeded as usual.

The convention opened officially at 5:00 p.m., with talks from three speakers: UK Intergroup Chair Ed M., S-Anon Representative Karen W., and EMER Chairperson Luc D. Members from 18 countries attended the convention—showing that SA is getting a foothold in more and more European countries! Several brothers and sisters from our neighboring German-Speaking Region joined us, and their support and cooperation gave us much joy and strength.

Besides fellows from the nine EMER Intergroups—Ireland, UK, Flanders, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, Israel and the French-speaking IG (which includes groups in France, Luxembourg and the French-speaking part of Belgium), friends from Finland, Slovakia, Croatia, Austria, Switzerland, Cuba, and a US member living in Russia came to celebrate with us.

A large group of Jewish members also attended. Some of them were from the UK, and some were the party makers from last year’s convention, who came over to sing and dance with us again during the Saturday evening entertainment. They helped make the convention a joyful experience.

Meetings were held in Hebrew, German, Spanish, and Dutch. Additionally, 17 members offered their services as simultaneous translators, and many sessions were translated into Spanish, French, and German. Throughout the convention, there were three simultaneous meetings of 50 minutes each, and in each meeting a panel shared their experience, strength and hope on more than 50 topics. Open meetings (which included both SA and S-Anon members), were held in the main room. Those meetings were recorded, and for the first time in SA history, they were live-streamed. So members from Germany, Egypt, the US, and Belgium who could not attend were able to listen in live! Many members sent enthusiastic responses stating how grateful they were for this service. The recordings can be found on the EMER website (sexaholicsanonymous.eu/content/resources).

Next year’s EMER convention will be hosted by the Spanish Intergroup and will take place in Madrid, May 13-15. We hope to see more members there, from even more countries—including a sprinkling of members from the US. EMER is growing in members and sobriety, and our third convention was a spiritual expression of our regional unity.