The service structure has evolved over the past several years, and has been designed to reflect SA’s unique purpose and requirements.
The Group. The basic unit of the Service Structure. Local groups get together to form an Intergroup. Each SA Group in the area elects, among their trusted servants, an Intergroup Representative (IGR). All the IGRs attend the local Intergroup meeting, which meets regularly (perhaps monthly).
The Intergroup. An Intergroup is formed when several SA groups in a geographic area decide to work together to carry the message. An Intergroup helps with the service work, and may do some or all of the following: establish an SA “hotline” telephone number with an answering service, develop 12-Step procedures for interacting with newcomers, tabulate local meeting lists, plan local marathons or “retreats,” provide communication and information on a local level, etc.
Each Intergroup selects, among its trusted servants, one Regional Delegate (RD). The Regional Delegate’s term of service would be established by the individual Intergroup, with a recommended term of two years minimum. The sobriety recommendation for a Regional Delegate is established at a minimum of two years SA sobriety. Hopefully each region will hold its first annual Regional Assembly some time in 1995. All the RDs will attend the Annual Regional Assembly.
Regional Assemblies. Regions have been established as follows:
Northwest: AK, Yukon, NT, BC, ALTA, WA, MT, OR, ID
Southwest: CA, HI, NV, UT, AZ
North-Midwest: SASK, MAN, ND, SD, MN, WY, NE, IA, WI, MI, IL
South-Midwest: CO, KS, MO, NM, OK, AR, TX, LA
Northeast: QUE, ONT, NB, ME, VT, NH, NY, CT, RI, MA
Mid-Atlantic: PA, DC, MD, NJ, OH, VA, WV, DE
Southeast: IN, KY, TN, NC, SC, MS, AL, GA, FL, PR
International
Regional assemblies are attended by the Regional Delegates from each Intergroup. The assemblies are held to discuss and deal with matters affecting the SA Groups and SA Fellowship within the region. A prime order of business is to select one of the Regional Delegates to be that region’s Oversight Representative (OR) to the Annual Oversight Assembly. (The International SA Fellowship could also send a Representative, selected through a process to be self-determined, to the Annual Oversight Assembly.)
Annual Oversight Assembly. The First Annual Oversight Assembly (planned for January 1996 in Phoenix) will be attended by the Oversight Representative from each region. The first Assembly will nominate and elect the first Oversight Committee (OC), consisting of nine “Overseers”: five sexaholics and four non-sexaholics. The sobriety requirement for sexaholic members of the Oversight Committee is five years of SA sobriety. [One of the SA Oversight Committee members would be elected from the Nashville area because the Central Office is located there.]
Subsequent Assemblies would concentrate on matters affecting the growth and functioning of the SA Fellowship as a whole. Information would be exchanged and concerns would be shared from the groups to the Oversight Committee (group → intergroup → regional assembly → oversight assembly), and from the Oversight Committee to the groups. Future Oversight Assemblies would select replacements for the original Oversight Committee members as their terms expire. Replacements would serve for five years.
Oversight Committee. In general, the Oversight Committee will carry out the agenda of the Annual Oversight Assembly, that is, it will do what the groups want to have done. One thing groups seem to want is a central office function, so among other things, the Oversight Committee will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the SA Central Office, working through the committee member from Nashville. Additional committees would be formed, which would deal with such matters as Translations, Finance, Publications, Prisons, etc. The Oversight Committee would meet as a group three times each year — once at each of the semi-annual International Conferences and again, for five or six days, in Nashville, in conjunction with the Annual Oversight Assembly.
What Does this Have to Do with Us, Here in Our Group?
If there is no Intergroup in your area but you know of other existing groups, get in touch with them to consider forming an Intergroup. For guidelines on forming Intergroups please contact Bill T. via the Central Office, Nashville.
If you have a local Intergroup, but have not yet contacted other Intergroups in the region to plan a Regional Assembly, don’t wait… just do it! Elect your Regional Delegate and make it possible, using Intergroup money if necessary, for your delegate to get together with the other Regional Delegates from other Intergroups. This could even be by conference call. For further information on existing Intergroups in your region, contact the Central Office in Nashville, TN. If there are no other Intergroups in your Region (see the above list of states), your Regional Delegate could become the Oversight Representative, and could participate in the 1st Annual Oversight Assembly, planned for the Phoenix Arizona International Conference, 2:00 p.m. Friday, January 12, 1996.
