My, voluntary, Central Region challenge this month is to share how, in my opinion only, spirituality and money can mix in the ‘passing of the hat’ relating to self-supporting and Nar-anon’s 7th Tradition. It feels so good inside when I sacrifice what I can in financial support at, not only, my ‘home’ group meetings, but also at other group meetings I attend as well as to the Region or/and World Service.

How much is my serenity worth to me? Great question! I ask myself that and instantly and somewhat painfully, I remember how much my ‘control’ to fix or get the addict out of a jam has cost me. Wow, a lot! Not only did I pay with my wallet, but with my emotions, mentally and physically, in ‘helping’ them.

When I put money in the hat, I’m repaying for that ‘life saving’ help I received. The groups need money to pay expenses, buy Nar-anon literature, and obtain the critical information for the beginning, bewildered, future member, newcomer (me, lest I forget) just arriving, as Nar-anon refuses any outside contributions. It must in order to be totally independent from any actual or implied restrictions.

I ask, with your consent please, to share an excerpt from Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, because I feel that same compassion for my fellowship, Nar-anon Family Groups, Inc. I hope you can agree?

Until, I was reminded, I had skimped. Also, I became aware that all groups listed with the Central Region, and World Service is treated alike. Groups that can contribute nothing for services rendered, receive the same attention as groups that contribute a great deal. Wow, what a wonderful concept that is!

Some ideas to keep ourselves refreshed about this ‘way of living’ is maybe, to personally help support Nar- anon services worldwide, we can personally contribute (tax exempt) to Region or WSO on our Nar-anon birthday / anniversary, two dollars or more for each year of serenity. The group, if we wish, could be credited for our donation! Fund raisers are a great source of income to compile funds together! An extra ‘hat or can’ marked ‘Literature Fund’ is helpful. Hey, how about making February “Self-Support Month” with all donations be sent ‘outside the group’ to the Nar-anon entities? — Pick a particular date during the year and have a drive for each group member to donate $4.00. You might call it “Fellowship Day.”

Yet, another very vital means of self-support doesn’t involve money. It involves a personal sacrifice of time and energy invested at the group level, 12th Step level, and/or a Regional servant on one of the many committees including the web-site conveniently from a central (home/office) location. I feel so much gratitude inside when I’m being of service. It affects so many others positively along as with myself in strengthening my growth in recovery. I must give it away to keep it! What? Sounds kind of goofy, but after seeing it in action, along with experiencing it, I now know that it’s a ‘nugget’!

Now, I not only have encouraged myself, I hope I have challenged you to say, “YES, I can make a difference”!         Thank you for your ‘self’ support of me, the Central Region, as well as WSO!

Humbly, Rick…………Central Region Treasurer and Wapakoneta, H.O.P.E. Group self-supporting member

The best way to find a sponsor is to attend a meeting, you will many members that have been coming for different time periods, ranging from their first meeting or to where I have been attending since 2004.

A sponsor is someone that can help you look at yourself and see the part that you have played with addiction.  I have found that a sponsor has helped me with every aspect of my life.   I can still be the same person that can be judgmental even if it is not with the addict.   It can be with the person who cuts me off on the road, co-workers and other family members.   I have to change my actions and reactions not only with the addict.

When looking at the 12 steps which is for me, the 12 traditions which is to understand how the Naranon group works, and the 12 concepts which helps the understanding the Naranon world services.

My sponsor had me worked the step that corresponds with the tradition.   When working step 1, I worked tradition 1; step 2, then tradition 2, etc.

As I was working with my sponsor. I found that there were many things going on that I could not speak about at the meeting or else needed more time with someone one on one.  I had gone through three sponsors before the 4th one which I really clicked with.  Just a personal observation, you may find a sponsor and you may find that it is not working, that is okay.  A good sponsor will not take it personally.

My sponsor and I are not good friends.  She is not someone that I would go shopping with, she is someone that I can share everything and I know it will not go any further.   Especially when I worked the 4th step and shared with her when I did the 5th step.  

My sponsor has been there during the time when I did not know for sure if I was staying with my husband who is my qualifier.  She has been there when my sister and Dad died, she came to calling hours and spent a lot of time on the phone with me.   She was the first person I talked to when my Dad died and that was close to 1 in the morning.   As when NA talks about calling your sponsor before you use, it worked the same way with me, because I can have stinking thinking and justify what I do by saying that I am not an addict, just want to make sure that he is doing what he should.  My sponsor told me that I had no control over others and to accept where they are at and turn them over to God.   It has been hard for me at the beginning and sometimes I feel I know what is best.   Through working with a sponsor I created a God box where I wrote down things that I was trying to fix and turned them over.   I sometimes thought that God was not moving fast enough for me, but I had to realize that even when there wasn't a change in people it was God saying no.   It is progress not perfection, and even when I turned back to detective I told on myself to my sponsor and as the years went on, it did not happen as much.

When I call my sponsor, she does not give me advice but let's me talk it out.  I found the answers that I was looking for within me.  Working the steps with a sponsor has really helped me learn more about me and that is so important that I work on me and let others take care of themselves.   When I was doing my 4th step, my sponsor had me point out my good characteristics along with my character defects, she told me that she found this helps out, so you are not seeing all negative with you.

I think it is important to find someone outside the meetings, because i feel that was the only way I could grasp the program the way I did.   I became secretary, treasurer, currently now in the outreach program for the community and also GSR (group service representative) for the region,   I really do not believe that I would have came as far as I have come if I had not worked with a sponsor and wanted to work the steps with someone outside the meeting.

Our group has an once a month meeting for the steps prior to the regular meeting.  This is helping people to understand the steps and I hope this will lead to people  to look for sponsors.   If you cannot find a sponsor in your area, you can go to naranonforum.com and besides being online meetings, there are online sponsors.  You never know that there could actually be someone in your area and you just don't know it.

In service,
Judy K

From Sidney Daily News

SIDNEY — Family members, friends and employers of drug addicts now have a new source of help here.

Lynda Smith (not her real name), of Sidney, has started a local chapter of the support group, Nar-Anon, for people who face the daily horror of their loved ones’ addictions. Smith is one of them. A close family member is a recovering heroin addict.

The Sidney Nar-Anon meets weekly, at 7 p.m., Thursdays, in the basement of St. John’s Lutheran Church, 120 W. Water St. Until Smith established the group here last month, the closest regular meeting was in Wapakoneta.

That’s where Smith met Chrissy Jones (not her real name), of St. Marys. Jones’s husband is a drug addict. Jones, like Smith, used to attend Al-Anon meetings, where family members of alcoholics support one another. But each of them recognized that drug addiction is not the same thing as alcohol addiction. Friends and loved ones who have to watch people close to them ruin their own lives and the lives of those around them by using drugs need a different kind of help.

So 20 months ago, Jones and a friend started the Wapakoneta group, which meets on Fridays.

“It has literally saved my life,” Jones said. “It has helped me take the emphasis off of (my husband) and his addiction and put it on me and my sanity and serenity. When you’re dealing with an addict, their addiction becomes your obsession. You worry about why, about what they’re doing, about how you can stop it. When you come to Nar-Anon, you learn how to put that focus on you. You learn to react differently.”

Smith is aware of the mushrooming heroin problem in Shelby County. She participates in the Drug Coalition and has talked with police officers about the families they’ve seen who have been affected by court cases and overdoses. That’s another reason why Smith opened the local support group.

“Heroin is so deadly compared to some other drugs. This one is killing people,” she said. Although many area residents are having to come to terms with heroin addiction, Nar-Anon is open to all folks who must deal with someone addicted to any drug, from street drugs to prescription medicines.

“It’s a 12-step program based on spiritual, but not religious, principles, like respect, kindness, courtesy,” she said. “(At a meeting), you’re going to be working on yourself.”

Jones noted that it’s very scary for some people to walk into their first meeting.

“We hear all the time that ‘I was here last week’ or ‘the last two weeks and I never got out of the car.’ But they can expect to be accepted completely. You instantly feel like you’re at home. You no longer have to hide,” Jones said.

The Nar-Anon website, www.nar-anon.org, offers the same encouragement: “When you come into the family group, you are no longer alone, but among true friends who understand your problem as few others could. We respect your confidence and anonymity as we know you will respect ours. We hope to give you the assurance that no situation is too difficult and no unhappiness is too great to be overcome.”

Meetings last for one hour and each opens the same way: with a description of what Nar-Anon is and what addiction is. There are readings from a book, “Sharing Experience, Strength and Hope,” commonly known as “SESH,” which is a compilation of members’ stories, and then the meeting is open to participants for discussion. Jones said that no one is required to speak, but members help each other with the problems they face.

“What do we do with this? How did you handle that?” Smith said, quoting some of the questions attendees ask. “Once you find out that people are experiencing the same kind of problems, you don’t feel so alone.”

Both women stressed that the emphasis in Nar-Anon is on the non-addict who must deal with an addict.

“Sometimes people come to meetings thinking they’re going to learn how to get their addict to not be an addict,” Smith said. What they’ll learn instead is how to stop enabling behaviors in themselves.

“They’re so focused on getting the addict fixed they don’t realize they need help, too,” Jones said. Listening to attendees has taught Smith that “when it’s your child, it’s harder than when it’s your spouse.”

The meetings are places where people can practice what to say when situations come up with their addicts. The 12-step process allows participants to work through issues that may be hindering their growth and the addicts’ growth.

“If a wife calls (an addict’s) employer and says he’s sick, he’s off the hook,” she added. “He has to start to take responsibility.” The 12-step process leads people into thinking through the consequences of taking that responsibility and planning to handle them.

Changing behavior is a lifetime process, so people shouldn’t think that they’ll learn everything they need to know in one or two meetings, Smith said.

There is no charge to participate; however, because local groups are self-sustaining and cannot receive outside donations, a basket is passed each week. The average voluntary donation is $1. The SESH book costs $15. Purchasing it is also voluntary.

For information, call 622-5488.

By Patricia Ann Speelman
[email protected]
Reach the writer at 937-538-4824. 
Follow her on Twitter @PASpeelmanSDN.

All groups who participate in the Central Region should have a GSR or Group Service Representative.
We are somewhat new at this and hope this helps as we begin to organize.
Basically, a GSR has the responsibility to bring all region info to their group and to bring their group's conscience to the region.
Our region chair, Tim V. sends out emails regularly concerning region issues.
Those emails are titled "Region Updates".
You will find information such as treasurer's reports, updates on our website, and information regarding the formation of the region subcommittees in those email updates.
 
An example of how the GSR serves the group and the region...
In August of 2015, the region update email contained information concerning the formation of subcommittees.
The region was looking for members who were willing to chair one of two subcommittees:
1) Outreach
2) Conventions and Events
The GSR shared the subcommittee info from Tim's August update with their group and ultimately two people volunteered and the positions were filled.
This is just one example of a GSR responsibility as a communicator between the group and the region.

The Guide to Local services defines what a GSR is and what a GSR's responsibilities are.
Below, you will find information from the Guide to Local services with some added details from the Nar-Anon Central Region.

WHAT IS A GSR (Group Service Representative)
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The GSR is a vital link in the continuing function, growth, and unity of worldwide Nar-Anon. GSRs are elected by their groups for a three-year term. GSRs should be members with experience and stability in the Nar-Anon program and an understanding of the Twelve Traditions and the Twelve Concepts and how they work. It is suggested that each group have an alternate GSR.
The GSR
1. Becomes familiar with the Nar-Anon Guides for Local and World Services
Central Region Note: You can obtain these guides here: http://www.nar-anon.org/service-literature/ Click on Service Literature and scroll down to access both the "Guide to Local Services" and the "Guide to World Services"
2. Attends all area meetings and region assemblies, and reports to the group on the proceedings of these events
Central Region Note: We are not currently organized into areas but we will be organizing region assemblies where GSRs will be expected to attend.
3. Votes their group’s conscience at area meetings and region assemblies
Central Region Note: Again, we are not currently organize into areas but we will be organizing region assemblies where the GSRs will vote their group's conscience. The first vote will concern voting for the chair of our now forming subcommittees.
4. Completes and submits the GSR registration form to the Regional Service Committee (RSC) secretary (form available in Guide to Local Services)
Central Region Note: We have not adopted this practice yet, for the time being, please register all meetings with World Services here: http://www.nar-anon.org/groups/ You can either submit a group (if your group is new) or edit a group. Please use the edit a group tool to submit any changes to World Services, the Central Region is notified of any changes to groups in our region.
5. Brings the group’s viewpoint on any situation or problem concerning Nar-Anon to the area meeting or region assemblies
Central Region Note: As we are not currently organized into areas, we invite any and all feedback concerning any situation or problem concerning Nar-anon to be submitted directly to the region through this link: http://www.naranoncentral.org/contact.html