Thursday, August 26, 2010

September

Tradition Nine: A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

If you need to get in touch with the East Tennessee Intergroup Central office our phone number is : 865-974-9888 or you can send us an email at etiaa@msn.com.

If you think you have a problem with alcohol you can call our Hotline at 865-522-9667

A meeting schedule and further information about A.A. in East Tennessee can be found at: http://www.discoveret.org/etaa/

I am responsible. When anyone, anywhere reaches out for help, I want the hand of AA always to be there, and for that, I am responsible.

Chairman's Message

East Tennessee Intergroup Newsletter is available on-line at etiaa.blogspot.com. You can access it yourself and also be put on the notification list by sending your e-mail address to me at
pon1023256@aol,com put newsletter in subject box.

Two questions have been asked in the past month that I would like to answer:

1. Why do we need a Hot Line and

2. How does Hot-line work?

In any area where Alcoholics Annymous functions the hotline has one purpose. That purpose is to provide information and support to people fighting the disease of Alcoholism. Have we fogotten our 5th Tradition and/or our Preemble which deal with our primary purpose?

In some areas we have 24/7 hot lines in others it is manned on a availability basis.

To find out how it works in your area check your Intergroup or Central Office Representative.

This is how we have it set up in East Tennessee:

Calls to our hot-line number 974-9888 are answered 7 days a week from 9A.M. t0 10 P.M. On weekdays they are answered form 9-5 in our Intergroup office and from 5-10 by a volunteer on thier land line or mobile phone. On weekends and holidays all calls are answered by volunteers working 3 shifts each day. Our hot-line volunteers are rotated every other week to answer calls.


The calls we receive are for either meeting information or help. Meeting information calls are handled by our volunteers. Help calls are referred to other volunteers (who have requested to be put on our 12 Step list) forcall backs to the person requesting help.

Help can be in the form of someone needing meeting directions, a ride or someone to talk too. We refer all calls to persons of the same gender.

To be on our hotline or 12 Step list one year of continuous sobriety is required.

Peter O'N.

Intergroup Minutes

Meeting was held at Rockford and was opened at 1:05 by Pete with the Serenity prayer.

Pete read from the AA Service Manual the 3rd Concept "Right of Decision" and 4th Tradition explaining briefly how each affected Intergroup.

Business Conducted:
1. Hot-line discussion on need for volunteers and back up volunteers to keep hot-line functioning. Thomas B. (Blount County Group) suggested that information be put in newsletter. Pete told him it would be in next newsletter. (see Chairman's message)

2. Discussion on Unity Newsletter. Peter brought up fact how lack of subscriptions was falling below the minimum postal requirement for mailing. The monthly cost of newsletter is $180.00 and mailing is $93.00 With less than 150 paid subscriptions we are losing $2,600.00 a year.
After much discussion a motion was made by Jay J. and second by Kay S. that Starting Jan 2011 it be published every 2 months and canceled with July 2011 edition.

We have an on-line edition since November 2008 and will use that as our monthly means of communication. Motion was passed by all reps in attendance.

Jay J.(Rockford) and Ben S. (Monroe County) will work on a new format for on-line edition.

On-line edition is available at etiaa.blogspot.com.

Information was given out on

1. South East Regional Forum next year.

2. Atlanta 2015 and Detroit 2020 International Conventions.

3. Freedom Group men's and women's meeting at Blount County Jail.

4. 47th Women's International Convention.

Meeting adjourned at 2:15

International Women's Convention

The 47th International Women's
Convention will be held Feb10-13
in Anchorage, Alaska. For more
information contact Alison K. at
akgypsy@artic.net or committee
e-mail icw47@hotmail.com .

Blount County Jail Meeting.

I'm the GSR for the Freedom Group (Blount County Jail Men's Group) and we
are looking for volunteers to help carry the message into the jail. We are
currently holding meetings at 6:30pm on Tuesdays and we get a large turn-out.
It's been so successful that we been invited to explore the possibility of
holding a meeting on Wednesday nights as well. Before we can do that, we need a
few more volunteers.

The Sheriff's staff, deputies, and correctional officers have been great to work
with and the inmates are very grateful for the opportunity.
We do ask that volunteers have at least one year of sobriety and have a sponsor.
If anyone is interested in learning more or wants more info, they can email me
at jay10603@gmail.com.

The Freedom Group is also looking for softcover Big Books. The hardcover books
cannot be used in the Blount County Jail.

Jay J.
Rockford Intergroup Rep
Freedom Group GSR

Fall Recovery Campout

Greetings all:

The 48th Great Smoky Mountain Recovery Campout is scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend, 2010, at Greenbrier Island Campground 500 yards off of US 321 on Pittman Center Road (TN Highway 416/ address: 5406 Pittman Center Rd, Gatlinburg, Tennessee 37738). After the record heat for some of us this summer, the promise of fall is a welcome reminder that another Recovery Campout is right around the corner.

As the fall campout has become increasingly popular, take the time if you have not made reservations to call Darlene or Ron at 865-436-4243 for RV or tent reservations very soon as the campsites have been filling up quickly in recent years. Please note the campground info re: the website for the campground at

http://greenbrierislandcamp.com/index.html

For the non-campers, there are many motels on that end of Gatlinburg as well. We also have a Facebook page: Great Smoky Mountain Recovery Campout. Look at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000184666614#!/pages/Gatlinburg-TN/Great-Smoky-Mountain-Recovery-Campout/180036009996.

Our community cookout is scheduled for Saturday, September 25 at 5 PM. If you want to give or pick up a chip at the 7 PM speaker meeting on Saturday then bring one or let me know as soon as possible so that I can get one from one of the clubs.

Also, a flyer is attached to post and announce at your AA/Alanon club or group. If you know anyone who may like to attend, please send this email to them. If you have trouble with the flyer format, contact me after printing and I will accommodate you. You can contact me at recoverycampout@gmail.comor 865-237-9030.

All my best in recovery and remember that Recovery IS STILL AVAILABLE IN Fall 2010.

Tom M.

September Birthdays and Group Annoucements

Rockford
August 2010

Norma J. 8-10-96 14 years
Jerry M. 8-25-03 7 years
Jeff H. 8-9-91 19 years
Laure B. 8-9-2004 6 years
Mike M. 8-13-99 11 years

Blount County Group
Larry C 3 yrs
Frank E. 22 yrs
Steve F. 22 yrs

Seymour Group
Kay S. 6 yrs
Michael O. 3 yrs

Tellico Village Group
Neil B. 2 yrs
Jim N. 28 yrs
Dick J. 42 yrs

HAPPY DESTINY
KAREN C 6 YRS
TUGBOAT 6 YRS
JEN H 2 YRS
CANDA R 2 YRS
MELONY 1 YR

NORTHSTATION
RON 1 YR

GROUP NEWS
NEW WOMENS MEETING- MADISONVILLE
BILLS GIRLS,
BRANCHES (IN BACK Kitchen) 106 Main St
FRIDAY 11AM
WOMENS/CD

Next Intergroup meeting
Sunday SEPTEMBER 19
1 P. M. at Rockford