Hello!
We are writing to let you know about
And remind you about
FIPT review draft and bulletins
We have posted two different items related to the Fellowship Intellectual Property Trust, or FIPT for short. The first is proposed revisions to the FIPT that are posted for six-month Fellowship review from 1 December 2020 through 31 May 2021 at www.na.org/fipt.
In 2018, the World Service Conference decided to make zones with two or more unseated communities full voting participants at the WSC. Currently, the FIPT refers only to regional delegates as the decision makers, not to zonal delegates. WSC 2020 passed a motion to begin the process to revise the FIPT to reflect this change in Conference participants and approved a project to draft the proposed revision. The revision being proposed would allow seated zonal delegates to participate in FIPT and recovery literature decisions at the World Service Conference (WSC), in keeping with the 2018 Conference decision.
If changes are made to the Trust, corresponding changes will need to be made to the FIPT Operational Rules, but those changes can be made by the WSC itself. Any proposed changes to the Operational Rules will be discussed with Conference participants after the Fellowship review deadline for the Trust document and before all of this material is finalized for inclusion in the 2022 Conference Agenda Report (CAR).
The cover memo of the posting explains the revision and background in more detail. Please check it out if you have questions, and dont forget to send in any input by 31 May 2021.
The other posting related to the FIPT is two new official World Services bulletins. You may already be familiar with the two communications from the Board: Group Conscience and NA Literature and Narcotics Anonymous Copyrights and Literature. Because these two pieces so clearly spell out some of the issues surrounding NA literature, copyrights, and group conscience, we have decided to make them Bulletins #34 and #35, respectively. You can find them with the other FIPT material at www.na.org/fipt and on the page that lists the other bulletins, www.na.org/bulletins .
As you may know, World Services was recently involved in a US court case in which a group of members sought to remove NA World Services as Trustee of the FIPT. The judges final order has been issued, and the judge ruled that the members did not have standing to bring such a case. It seemed like a good time to issue these bulletins.
We have written a new introduction to Bulletin #34, and heres a passage from that:
Decisions in NA are made by group conscience, and the vehicle to hear group conscience on a world level is the World Service Conference (WSC). The WSC is the means by which NA groups have a mechanism to guide and direct the activities of NA World Services (WSC Mission Statement).
No matter how convinced a group of individual members may be that their cause is legitimate, we can only be governed by a loving God as expressed in our group conscience. The individuals who brought the legal action were seeking to cancel the WSC decisions through a legal court. That is not how we make decisions in NA. We have paths to follow for issues that the Fellowship wants to discuss. When those paths tell you no, guided by our Second Tradition, the answer is not to try to go outside of NA to change that outcome.
We are unified as a Board in our commitment to the Fellowships conscience.
We have added a Media page to the NA website: www.na.org/media. This should make it easier to download and repost items on social media and use videos and other graphic-based resources at groups, events, and service bodies. Let us know what you think and whether youd like to see anything added: worldboard@na.org.
We also just started posting these NAWS Update emails to the website on the same page as NAWS News www.na.org/nawsnews to make it easier to reference the information.
The rest of this email is reminders of items that were reported in the last eblast. If you want more information, you can find that eblast on www.na.org/nawsnews.
Virtual meetings survey reminder
The survey will be posted until the end of the year: www.na.org/toolbox.
Remember, you dont have to answer every question. We welcome any input for the project. Please spread the word!
The next open webinar will be 19 December, 11:00 am-1:00 pm, Pacific Standard Time. The focus is on PR service efforts to carry the message virtually to jails, prisons, and parolees. The webinar will be on Zoom and live-streamed to YouTube at the same time. The Zoom log-in information is below, and the live-stream link will be posted on the Local Service Toolbox project page when the webinar begins: www.na.org/toolbox.
Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish interpretation feeds will be available on the Zoom platform. We would be happy to provide an interpretation feed for any other language community that needs it and that can provide an interpreter.
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://NAWS.zoom.us/j/98909745931
Webinar ID: 989 0974 5931
Or Telephone: US: 877 369 0926 (Toll Free) or 855 880 1246 (Toll Free)
International numbers available: https://NAWS.zoom.us/u/auXgSkuH4
Sponsorship Day is tomorrow. Reach out and thank your sponsor! Sponsorship Day medallions are still available in our webstore: www.na.org/webstore.
We also have WCNA mystery grab bags and gift books for sale. Youll find them in the Exciting Deals section of the Catalog drop-down menu in the webstore: www.na.org/webstore.
In service,
World Board