We want to first thank you for the extraordinary response to our first decision making poll. We received responses from 120 Conference participants – 96.8% of regional and zonal delegates.  We are grateful that there was clear support for a direction for us to move forward together.

Survey Results

The questions that received support from two-thirds or more of Conference participants are:

• Do you support proceeding virtually with a partial WSC 2020 to decide essential business only?
• If a virtual partial WSC 2020 is approved, do you support conducting discussions and decisions on the minimum – an emergency budget and the project plans outlined in the 2020 CAT?
• If a virtual partial WSC 2020 is approved, do you support conducting discussions and decisions on the FIPT operational rules moratorium end date?
• If a virtual partial WSC 2020 is approved, do you support conducting Elections?
• If approved, should the partial virtual WSC 2020 be scheduled at two sessions of two hours per meeting day between 25 April and 3 May?

 The rest of the questions were not supported by two-thirds or more. All of the results are provided to you with this email and are posted on  www.na.org/conference.

HRP Information and WSC Deadlines

We have used the results you provided to the decision making poll to have discussions with the HRP and the WSC Cofacilitators this week, and believe we have a beginning frame for a partial virtual WSC.

The HRP will be sending you a report and their nominations, and they will be posting candidate profiles to the CP Dropbox. If there are any nominations from Conference participants, they need to be sent to us by 16 April, to ensure that we proceed without delay in conducting elections as outlined in the plan below.

Because participants have not yet decided on how to proceed with CAR business, the deadline for amendments is not relevant for now, but if you have regional or zonal CAR survey results, please complete the online survey form for regional/zonal responses posted on the Conference page by 16 April. The CAR survey results will help participants to frame the focus of the projects.

Partial Virtual WSC Plan

We are recommending that we convene this first partial, virtual WSC 2020 as follows:

Two sessions per day scheduled from 11 am – 1 pm and 2-4 pm Pacific Daylight Time

Friday – Sunday                24-26 April

Wednesday                       29 April

Saturday-Sunday              2-3 May

On the closing weekend, participants will have to decide whether or not to leave WSC 2020 open until a future date (of their determination) for CAR motions, most CAT motions including seating, and other issues.

Our initial outline is:

24 April Friday

• Orientation to a virtual WSC
• Business and/or agreements needed to engage in a partial virtual WSC

25 and 26 April Saturday and Sunday

• NAWS Report
• Emergency budget and project plans
• FIPT inspection clause moratorium

These are times allotted for presentation and discussion. Polling for decisions will follow the close of the Sunday session. It will take us some time to finalize the poll and have it translated into Portuguese and Spanish. Participants will have a deadline to vote and then results will be discussed when we reconvene Wednesday.

29 April Wednesday

• Polling results
• HRP report and preparation for elections

The ballot for elections will be sent out following the last Wednesday session.

2-3 May Saturday and Sunday

• Recap of decisions made, announce elections results   
• Where we go from here and questions emailed to the World Board during the week

We have a lot of details to work out and frame how all of this can work most effectively. For instance, we know we must address questions such as What about members who would like to observe? and How are we going to handle translations? We are working on those and other details as quickly as we can. Again, thank you for providing us with such clear direction. We expect that there may be additional decisions required before we meet. We will do our best to keep you updated.

We have had to furlough or lay off the majority of staff at the five NA World Service locations so everything will take a little more time. Thank you in advance for your patience.

The World Board will be meeting this Saturday. If you have ideas or input for us, please send them to wb@na.org.

We hope this finds everyone safe and healthy.

World Board

Yesterday Zoom announced that they are forcing all zoom meetings to have a passwords enabled, since many NA meetings who are meeting through Zoom did not have a Password set this is going to effect those meetings. Please update your webservant and members who are attending your meeting with the new URL with a password enabled, and provide the meeting password so that members joining via phone can attend the meeting as well.

All of our Regional Zoom meetings have been changed to include passwords, please view the Zoom Calendar for updated URL links and passwords.

Video Tutorial of this change

March 31, 2020

Dear NA Members,

We regret that we have made the difficult decision to cancel WNIRCNA 2020 that was to be held in Pendleton on May 15-17, 2020.

The Washington Northern Idaho Region and 2020 WNIRNA Host committee have been monitoring the COVID-19 (coronavirus) concern closely. The safety of our members and community is of ultimate concern.

The current directives are: Washington Governor Jay Inslee has issued a statewide order “Stay Home-Stay Heathy, and Oregon Governor Kate Brown has issued an executive order that Oregonians stay home except for essential needs. We do not have an indication when these orders will be lifted, or when large gatherings will be safe to take place.

This decision wasn’t reached lightly and was made by the RSC Chair and C&E Chair with input from the WNIRCNA 2020 Host committee. Our guiding principle was how do we practice the principles of our program and act as responsible members of society in a situation that none of us have previously experienced.

Thank you for your support and understanding in this challenging time.

Tracy L., Washington N. Idaho Region, Covention & Event Chair

Hello everyone,

We hope you are keeping well.

CAR Survey

Don’t forget that individual responses to the CAR survey are due soon. We are extending the deadline through the end of the day Sunday, 5 April. You can find links to the survey in Arabic, English, French, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish from the survey button on the NA Meeting Search app or on the survey page www.na.org/survey.

Contribute Link

We emailed you all just over ten days ago to let you know that we had reduced office hours and were struggling financially. Since then, we’ve been forced to close the office entirely due to state order in response to COVID-19. And as so many meetings have gone online around the world, literature orders have been reduced to a trickle.

We have set up an easy contribution button www.na.org/contribute, and we hope you will consider pitching in to help World Services stay afloat. Many of us on the Board have set up a monthly recurring contribution in the amount of our clean time and have encouraged our friends and sponsees to do the same. Thank you to those who have already answered the call! Together we can.

Literature

As more and more meetings go online in response to the global pandemic, we wanted to remind you that recovery pamphlets and booklets are available in 53 languages at www.na.org/ips

In addition, we are doing what we can to get physical shipments of literature out as we receive orders.

Online Meeting Resources

We have posted a page with online and phone meeting lists and resources to help members host meetings in virtual spaces https://www.na.org/?ID=virtual_meetings. You can find the page if you click on the FOR OUR MEMBERS tab at the top of the home screen. If you are logging on from a mobile device, click on SERVICES and it’s the first link.

Send us any resources you have that may help so that we can post them for others.

Periodicals

One cost-saving measure we are implementing immediately is to discontinue paper mailing of periodicals. This will both save us money and allow us to continue making our periodicals accessible while working from home and practicing physical distancing. Thank you for understanding. If you need to update your email information, you can do so at www.na.org/subscribe.

Service Day

The second annual Service Day is coming up on 1 May. You can download the flier from our events page www.na.org/nawsevents. Many of us have had to stretch ourselves to meet our personal recovery needs and the needs of our NA communities in these past few weeks. A Service Day celebration could be as simple as hosting or participating in a conversation about how we can all support each other and carry the message in the context of this current crisis.

Thank you everyone for continuing to make the message of recovery available to addicts. Our determination as a Fellowship is a bright light in a dark time.

In service,

World Board

Hello members of the Washington Northern Idaho Region. At this time many of us have concerns about the uncertainty of the future, however, we wanted to let you know that the WNIR Admins are working together to connect us during this unprecedented time. Along with working together to keep us connected we also have hope for the future of our Region and Narcotics Anonymous.

The first thing we wanted to let everyone know is that the regular RSC meeting, along with C&E and all subs will be meeting this quarter via Zoom. Due to this we will be making adjustments to the agenda to accommodate doing business virtually.

The following is the current timeline for this quarters’ regional meetings:

• Subcommittee Chairs please email your reports and include any open forum topics/motions to the RSC secretary that you would like addressed prior to RSC.
• RCMs please email your area reports along with your area’s consensus on the CAR motions to the RSCsecretary prior to RSC.

We understand that for some this will be difficult if you are not able to meet as a home group. We encourage you to do your best. The WSC will not be meeting physically. Instead the Conference participants will be meeting with the world board virtually on April 28^th to discuss how we move forward.

Additionally, we want to make everyone aware we are developing an ad hoc committee named the Fellowship Unified Crisis Response Subcommittee. The goal of this committee is to assist our Region’s service system in continuing to carry our message of recovery during the current health pandemic. This will be a place where the committees, subcommittees and the region can bring challenges, problems and concerns seeking big solutions. The ad hoc committee can offer recommendations to service members, the RSC, host committees and the sub-committees. If you have any questions, please email them to assist@wnirna.org.

•    •    •

A message from our Delegate team:

As we move forward in this unprecedented time–connecting members to each other, and sparking the lantern of hope, is the most vital service we can provide.  Remember we are all at different points on this journey.  Some members are flooded with recovery through technology and feel secure.  Other members may be frightened, alone, and/or have a strong desire to use.  Here are some solutions that we offer:

• Put on your oxygen mask first.  If you are struggling, reach out.  It does not matter if it is a sponsor, sponsee, friend, or to this e-mail–let others know if you are hurting.
• If you use Facebook, and are not on the Delegate’s closed group you can find it here: 
  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/askthedelegate/    
  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/askthedelegate/announcements/ 
    As of today there are over 100 weekly options for virtual meetings on this announcement tab, and it will continue to grow.  All flyers for recurring virtual meetings are being consolidated under the announcement tab:     Please email rd@wnirna.org if you want us to add a flyer.
• Other resources for locating virtual/phone meetings:
  • https://virtual-na.org
  • http://www.nabyphone.com
  • https://neveraloneclub.org

• If you need info on starting a virtual meeting:
  • Our regional IT has done a great job setting up a page proving info on starting virtual meetings using Zoom and Free Conference Call:see this guide
  • To learn about the BlueJeans platform: see this guide
• Other options:  Some members have shared about using Marco polo and messenger to stay in touch with each other constantly throughout the day, to relieve some of the feelings of isolation.  Also for our tech-savvy members you may be interested to check out the app Discord and the following Channel: https://discordapp.com/invite/Zwdkn5E (invite embedded).  H&I /PI/PR subcommittees “H&I PR connect” is round table discussion with others in the western state’s zonal forum on how and what services we can provide in this unique time in NA. Please see attached flyer to this Email.

The following area’s have virtual meetings listed either on their home page, or under the meeting section of their website. (Because of the number of virtual meetings, the most acurate information should be provided on the area’s website)

https://www.bluemtnarea-na.org/
https://www.cwana.org/
https://cdcna.org/
https://www.everettna.org/
https://www.gclna.org/
https://www.gha-na.org/
https://www.nopana.org/
https://www.newana.org/
https://www.neo-na.org/
https://www.nwwana.org/
http://pcana.org/
http://seattlena.org/
http://skcna.org/
https://www.spsana.org/
https://www.swanaonline.org/
https://www.3citiesna.org/

If you are a webservant for your area or, your area does not have a webservant please let Regional IT know by opening a ticket.
http://support.wnirna.org/open.php

For information on Starting / Joining Virtual Meetings please see the following link.
 http://support.wnirna.org/kb/faq.php?cid=8

For Virtual Meetings outside of our region please check na.org for all virtual meeting infomation.
https://na.org/?ID=virtual_meetings

Or the following resources.

Virtual NA Meetings
https://virtual-na.org/meetings/

NA by Phone
http://www.nabyphone.com/

Hello everyone,

Judging by the number of calls and emails we have received, NA seems to be adapting quickly all around the world to the challenges of COVID 19. This email is about the ways in which we find ourselves having to adapt. It covers:

• Virtual Meetings
• Reduced Hours
• Contribution Button

Virtual Meetings

We have created a new page on na.org for resources related to virtual meetings: https://www.na.org/?ID=virtual_meetings . You can find the page if you click on the FOR OUR MEMBERS tab at the top of the home screen. If you are logging in on a mobile device, hit “Visit full website” first. If you have any related resources that others might find useful, please send them to worldboard@na.org and we will post them.

Reduced Hours

As many of you know, World Services was facing a challenging financial forecast even before the effects of COVID 19. For a long time we have relied on literature sales for close to 90% of our income, and as NA has grown more rapidly in places where World Services provides free or subsidized literature or has local printing arrangements, this has become an unsustainable approach.

Now with meetings around the world closing their doors and the general economic upsets from the COVID 19, we find ourselves having to make some hard choices in order to ensure the health of World Services for the future.

Effective immediately, World Services’ Offices will be open reduced hours:

• Monday and Tuesday: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
• Wednesday: 9:00 am – noon
• Thursday and Friday: closed

This will help us to reduce our operating costs and ensure that World Services will exist tomorrow just as it does today. Of course, the situation is changing rapidly for all of us. If we have to make other adaptations later, we will let you know.

Together we will get through this.

Contribution Button

One of the ways you can help NA World Services right now is by making a contribution. We have created an easy button to make it simpler to logon and use PayPal to make a one-time or recurring contribution: www.na.org/contribute

Many of us on the Board as well as staff members and some of you receiving this email choose to make a recurring contribution in the amount of our clean time each month. For us this is a way to put our gratitude into action and to share the gift we have been freely given.

If you do make such a contribution, thank you! If you do not, we are asking you to consider it, and to share this information with two friends or sponsees who might do the same. Thank you for all you do for NA.

These are scary times in many ways, but as addicts we may be particularly well suited for these challenges. Yesterday’s Just For Today reading quoted from the Basic Text: “Those who make it through these times show a courage not their own.” As NA members we know we can collectively accomplish the “impossible” because we do it every day.

Keep coming back everyone.

In service,

World Board

To make joining virtual meetings more accessible the Regional IT committee has created Tutorials on how to Host Virtual Meetings, and How to Join Zoom meetings via Smart Phone, and by dialing in with non smart phones. If there is a need for more tutorials please let WNIRNA IT know by submitting a ticket. Please check your area’s site for any local Virtual Meetings

Or check the following resources

https://wnirna.org/areainfo

Virtual NA

NA By Phone

Virtual Meeting Tutorials.
http://support.wnirna.org/kb/faq.php?cid=8

Hello All,

Over the last few days WNIRNA IT has had discussions over the COVID-19 situation that happening around our communities; over the last few days there have been requests from homegroups to use the Regions Zoom license to host their NA meetings. We only pay for one license, and only one room can be run at a time this doesn’t seem like the fairest way to handle such requests (As well as being a logistic nightmare for the IT committee). During our discussions a suggestion was made to look into a free option, where the groups could be in charge of setting up the meeting. The following documentation has tutorials, and a video walking through setting up a Free Virtual Meeting, and instructions for Area Web Servants to post this information under the Meeting info on the Area website.

Added Zoom instructions

http://support.wnirna.org/kb/faq.php?cid=8

Thank you all for your service,

Tim A

NA World Services
Statement Regarding Coronavirus

We have had many inquiries and questions about health concerns regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19). While it is not our role to make statements regarding health issues, we encourage NA groups to discuss the situations you are facing and the options you have to provide safe environments for those who attend your meetings. Groups may want to consider asking members to temporarily stop some of the common practices found at NA meetings such as hugging or shaking hands, or offering refreshments. You may also want to consider alternatives to “circling up” at the end of the meeting.

Some groups are discussing contingencies for the possibility that they will not be able to meet face to face for some period; ideas include hosting phone meetings or online meetings. These are just a few thoughts; we honor each NA group’s responsibility to discuss and determine what is best for their meeting.

You may want to contact your national or local public health agencies for specific guidance regarding meetings and gatherings. We are aware of the guidelines and recommendations provided by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), https://www.cdc.gov/ and there are similar agencies in countries outside of the USA. The World Health Organization (WHO) may also be a resource https://www.who.int/. 

If you are seeking information about specific local NA events or meetings, please contact the service committee responsible for hosting that event or meeting, or visit their local NA website. We have heard that some events and meetings have been affected by mandated closures, but we do not maintain a list of those and we are not the best resource for current information for local events and meetings. On our Find a Meeting webpage, local websites are listed in the window on the top left side of the page: https://www.na.org/meetingsearch/

We are hopeful that NA members and groups can continue to provide support for one another as we move through this current situation, and we will update this information as necessary in the coming weeks. You have our best wishes. 

Don’t forget to fill out your CAR survey before the 1 April deadline: www.na.org/survey