The LifeRing Service Center sent a mailing in mid-January to 37 licensed chemical dependency treatment programs in the Bucks / Montgomery County area of Pennsylvania, in support of the new meeting being started there by John R. and Denise S.  The list of 37 programs came from the federal SAMHSA database.  The mailing contained a cover letter, a flyer advertising the meeting, a flyer advertising the Recovery By Choice Workbook, a copy of the three main LifeRing brochures, and a copy of the Presenting LifeRing Secular Recovery booklet. 

The mailing was similar to other mailings to treatment providers sent by the Service Center to support new or ongoing LifeRing meetings.  Treatment providers are important referral sources and the mailings serve to keep them informed of the availability of a secular alternative for their patients/clients.  Click for a list of the facilities. 1/20/03

The LifeRing Service Center in mid-January mailed a copy of the current San Francisco Bay Area LifeRing meeting schedule together with a copy of the Sobriety Is Our Priority brochure and a flyer advertising the Recovery By Choice workbook to a list of 265 licensed chemical dependency treatment providers in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties. 

There are LifeRing meetings in each of the counties. The Service Center periodically mails the current LifeRing meeting schedule to the treatment providers to inform them of the current availability of a secular option.  The list of providers comes from the federal SAMHSA database.  Click to see a copy of the list for this mailing.  A follow-up mailing to a list of 60 additional providers who had previously contacted the Service Center went out at the same time.  Syl S., Carol J., Marjorie J. and Marty N. helped with the mailing.  1/20/03

Our group was three years old in October, 2002. Although the number of attendees can vary widely, so far we have been able to continue meeting in the private homes of members who have enough room. The meetings are at 7 PM on Thursdays. They generally last two hours, and include snacks and sometimes more.

If there is anything that can be called a central tenet of the group, it's that rigid 12-step routines don't work for everybody, and like LSR's credo, that religion and sobriety don't necessarily have to go together. The Santa Fe group is a secular alternative for people who want to stay sober, but have trouble with a 12-step approach. Some members attend both types of meetings.

Members have become aware of the group in many different ways: two somewhat differently worded newspaper ads, LSR, recovery program referrals, and word of mouth mentions by members of other groups. It is an open meeting format. The meetings usually begin with 30 or so minutes of informal discussion and check-in, which sometimes can suggest a sobriety-related topic. Other times a member will come with a pressing concern they'd like to discuss with the other members.

For more information, or directions, you can contact Jim C. jcadysf@netscape.net  or 505-474-4177 Mike M.  mikemont0@earthlink.net  or phone 505-466-3566 (11/02)

More than 15 current and potential future LifeRing convenors assembled in a meeting room at Herrick Hospital in Berkeley from 9 am to 3 pm on Saturday, Sept. 21, for a Convenor's Workshop hosted by the LifeRing Service Center in Oakland.  (See photo.)  This was a continuation of previous such events, but was the first one to run all day.  We spent most of the morning discussing issues of meeting format, and there was lively participation and sharing of experiences by the veteran convenors present, including Marjorie J., LouAnthony G., Bill S., Gillian E., Lin L., Mark C., Sue T., Chet G., Syl S. and Marty N., and a series of good questions and points of discussion from the participants interested in becoming convenors in the future, including Sharon T., Doris T., Tony P., Powell H., Matthew R., Andree G., and Sharon B.  After a lunch of delivered pizza, we spent about an hour discussing the basic LifeRing "Three S" philosophy (Sobriety, Secularity, Self-Help) led by Marty N. and then had a very productive round-table discussion on starting new meetings, led by Marjorie J. 

LifeRing Board of Directors Resolution on Smoking

A motion was place before the Board of Directors of LifeRing Secular Recovery on June 24, 2002 by Glo M.

A board meeting was convened on July 6, 2002 to consider and vote on the motion.

Present in the online meeting were: Marty N., Marj J., Glo M., Robert B., Bill S., Tom S.

The result of that meeting and vote is as follows: All present voted and the motion carried unanimously.

The effect of the motion is: The motion will be published, for informational purposes in all LSR venues (e.g. email lists, websites, etc.)

Motion as carried:

1. There is no official policy on smoking within LifeRing. As such, the act of smoking does not negate one's sobriety;

2. Individual members, however, may wish to include nicotine as one of their own restricted substances and can expect support in this;

3. Individual meetings can agree to offer encouragement to its members to quit smoking. (all meetings are autonomous & can do anything they want as long as it doesn't violate the 3S philosophy); No meetings are required to do so.

4. Individual members are not prohibited from expressing their opinions vis-a-vis smoking and actively encouraging their fellow members to quit. In addition, groups of members are not prohibited from forming committees for the express purpose of encouraging smoking cessation. (Members not interested are free to ignore them.) (Individual members who also hold office will clearly indicate whether they are speaking as a individual member, or as an elected board member or officer.);

5. Members who are still smoking are welcome to participate in our groups. We will offer education and support for anyone who wishes to quit.

Respectfully submitted,

Tom Shelley LSR Board Secretary

Good Time Is Had By All
At Independence Day BBQ

Thanks to Andree G. for lending her home, and to Nicholas, Caroline, and Debbie for help with setup and cleanup.  Marjorie and Marty organized the event. 

The Service Center mailed out the local meeting schedule and a workbook flyer to a list of 100+ area substance abuse counselors on June 29, 2002, the day before postage rates went up.

This list is separate from the list of about 60 referral sources to which we mailed this material a week earlier. 

For a PDF copy of the schedule, click.  For a PDF of the accompanying flyer advertising the workbook, click.   Marty and Marjorie did the mailing with help from Caroline.

With postage rates about to go up, there was no time to lose.  On Thursday June 20, two mailings of about 60 letters each went out from the Service Center.  One contained the new local meeting schedule, including the new Redwood City Meeting, plus a flyer advertising the Workbook.  This went to a list of substance abuse treatment providers who have asked to receive current LifeRing meeting schedules.  For a PDF copy of the new schedule, click.  For a PDF of the accompanying flyer advertising the workbook, click. 

The other mailing went to San Francisco Bay Area LifeRing convenors, former convenors, and friends, also enclosing the new meeting schedule plus a flyer announcing the upcoming July 4 barbecue.  For a PDF of the barbecue flyer, click. 

Thanks to our database, our own folding machine, an office-quality laser printer, and a postage meter, getting out small mailings like this is well within our capabilities of an evening.  As we get bigger we're going to need heavier artillery, and it might be useful to start keeping an eye out for possible donors of faster printing and mailing equipment. 

Marty did the mailing solo.   -- MN 6/21/02

On June 5, 2002, I attended a four-hour Nicotine Dependence Treatment Training organized by the Alameda County Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug (ATOD) Network.  Approximately 40 people filled a fifth-floor conference room at the beautiful new Alameda County Behavioral Services Center at 2000 Embarcadero on the Oakland waterfront.   

All the participants except myself were employed as treatment providers with substance abuse or mental health treatment programs.  Continuing Education Credits were offered. I met several friends there ... [more]

Recovery historian William L. White, author of Slaying the Dragon, gave an all-day workshop on the history of addiction and recovery in America on May 16, 2002, at the Moose Lodge in Vallejo CA.  White presented new material to be included in his forthcoming history of addiction in America, titled Chasing the Dragon, as well as previously published material.  He closed with an outline of new trends emerging in addiction treatment and recovery in our time.  Marty N. and Marjorie J. attended and were gratified to hear the speaker mention LifeRing Secular Recovery three times in his presentation, which was attended by about 50 people, mainly people working in the substance abuse treatment field. 

You Can Make LifeRing T-Shirts for Special Occasions

 It seems you can print any image off a computer onto a transfer and then iron it onto a t-shirt.  The result is in the photo:  custom-made LifeRing t-shirts for a special occasion.  There's Bill, Amy and Marjorie, all of Oakland CA, at a recent barbecue in honor of their sobriety anniversaries.  (More)

People Develop Commitment Through Having Choices:  A Lesson From Harvard Business Review

"A fascinating study found that blood donors perceived significantly less discomfort when they were allowed to select the arm from which the blood would be drawn. The lesson is clear: people are happier and more comfortable when they believe they have some control over a process, particularly an uncomfortable one."   (more)  By Marty N.

The Texas Drug Felony Punishment Facility:  Is It Working?  By Patrick Brown

A former Texas drug prisoner and now a social sciences student, Patrick Brown submits this detailed analysis of his former drug treatment program in the country's largest prison system and makes some policy recommendations.  Posted here for reader comment.  Please post feedback to the author or to the lsrcon list.   PDF file.

Literature Racks Can Offer the Person in Treatment a Choice of Support Groups

On any given day an estimated 900,000 people in the U.S. are in treatment programs for substance abuse.  Most of those treatment facilities have literature racks for their patients/clients.  Most of those literature racks carry only one kind of literature -- the 12-Step kind.  It doesn't have to be so.   (more, with photos)