The New PR Handbook

[Rod A]

Have any of you in your region been reading it? Has there been any renewed interest in PR? We are trying to get on our feet with it. It has een such an abandoned piece of the NA puzzle in our area and region. Anyone in PR please contact me to have some discussion on it. I am in another region but boucking ideas off each other sounds like a great idea.

The New PR Handbook Rules.

[WilnOkla]

Yes I have been reading the new Public Relations Handbook, but it was the PR workshops at the World Convention that has renewed my zeal for Public Relations.

Currently we are working on have an open discussion, mutual workshop with Drug Court for Oklahoma County. This will not be the old way of us giving a presentation to them only. They will present to us as well. The only way to get to know other organizations in our communities is to sit down and talk with them face to face.

NA is over 50 years old -- it is time we started getting involved in our communities so that the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous is not anonymous. We want them to know we exist and we are about recovery from Drug Addiction.

[Rod A]

So since May when I first posted this a lot of progress has been made in our area with PI. We have written and approved Guidelines for Area PI. We have established an "Introduction to NA Workshop" which is a workshop open to the community and anyone interested in finding out more about NA and what we are and are not. It may be referred to as a "Newcomer" workshop but it is the foundation for other work in PI. Most presentations we will do to professional or community members will mention the Intro Workshop as a place for new members to start.

Most places we have had a booth or have held a presentation have had an almost overwhelming response from the community and professionals looking at NA with interest and wanting us to start meetings here and there. We have had to explain to many organizations and individuals that our service structure, currently, does not have the manpower or resources to start new meetings around town, bring meetings into additional places but wishes we could. We have to explain that our responsibility is to get addicts to our regularly scheduled meetings to hear the NA message and until we have trusted servants with (1.) A clear message of NA (2.) A Commitment to show up and follow PI or H&I guidelines & (3.) Members who have both 1 & 2 and a working knowledge of our traditions then we will only be able to welcome addicts seeking recovery to our currently estalished meetings and nothing more at present. This is the hard part of the equation; to responsibly and honestly decline invitations to do more than we are capable of. It takes some one with a realistic view of our current capabilities as an area to handle these requests. This realistic outlook is in line with the suggestions in the PR handbook.

We just handled a woman in our area who was working on her graduate thesis and wanted to use NA to set up a meeting of NA in the schools to complete her thesis. This was not revealed to area PI until 2 months after her initial contact. We treated her very nicely, stated our case regarding the traditions and were willing to open communications with her, she persisted in going around our current efforts to contact the Schools through one contact and instead she went to the Superintendent and started using the name of NA in her efforts and generally pissed me off. She had other motives too which were clear from the start. I referred her to the Area PI COmmittee meeting but she didn;t come for 2 months, I referred her to ASC which referred her to PI too. She attended the PI committee meeting and once we found out her intent was to use NA to finish her higher education she was dismissed from our PI meeting by our chair after explaining to her that she was in fact an outside interest and NA did not support her personal project. Big learning event personally.

We have now done presentations to the Juvenile Probation Department, The Meth Alliance and have placed and are maintaining additional IP Racks in the community. We are now working on a "Schools Project Group" to carry the message of NA into the county schools. We have intentionally moved slowly in creating this schools project and have approved guidelines for the project group and approved training materials for the presentations. We have met with the "Drug Prevention Specialist" for the entire County School Dsitrict and the meeting was favorable for both parties, After hearing that PI will only speak about NA as a program and not share personal histories our contact was confident she could work with us on the project. We will be doing rehearsals in the next 2 months and then scheduling presentations to faculty, parents and students in January.

The problems we have encountered have nothing to do with acceptance by the community or faith in our program by the community but instead are internal fellowship issues (personalities) with NA Members; competing sub-committees, lack of faith in our works by fellow members, lack of trusted servants willing to step up to PI, lack of experienced PI committee members, a willingness by general NA members to disregard suggestions in the PR Handbook, conflicts with our regional PI (solo member committee ), flaky members joining PI, area NA members misunderstanding what PI is, people having lives and dropping commitments due to their lives.

Same NA shizzle different day. A few strongly committed PI members to provide the framework and not fall apart when others fall out of the boat attracts other strong members to come and join the effort. Acting "As if" can help the committee look attractive too. We make attractive announcements at meetings about PI instead of desperate pleas for help. We announce that the PI Committee is a cohesive group of individuals learning together, discussing the PI handbook and working on projects to raise community awareness of NA as a viable option for those seeking recovery in our community. It is true that we rarely have conflict in the group and we learn by reading and discussing a chapter from the PR handbook at each meeting before Old and New Business.

Western Service Learning Days MP3's from 2006 really fired my interest in PR and I have been blazing ever since. The lack of interest or passion by others in our area has only made me realize how ignorant some of our members are and that if I hate the apathy of members then the change should begin with me.

For anyone interested here is a link to the entire WSLD XX MP3's online - http://www.pcrna.org/wsld.htm

So progress is being made for our area with some commitment, faith and a willingness to move past the feelings that arise when things don't turn out as one plans them in a sub-committee of NA.

If anyone wants to look at any of the materials we have on the projects that we are currently engaged in just drop me a line. Caring and Sharing the NA Way will ensure that we reach those who want desperatey to hear our message.

We just had our regional convention and a couple folks from Oklahoma were here for it. I thought that was cool.