Survivors of Incest Anonymous

For Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

http://www.siawso.org

410.877.1779

New Mailing address: PO Box 7078, Pittsburgh, PA 15212

siaboardoftrustees@gmail.com

• 11th Biennial Spiritual SIA Retreat, Uniontown, PA, October 19 – 21, 2018 "Connecting with your Deeper Self” http://events.eventzilla.net/e/11th-biennial-spiritual-sia-retreat-connecting-with-your-deeper-self-2138936565 
• SIA SoCal Retreat 2019, Joshua Tree, CA, March 1-3, 2019, https://siasocal.org/retreat/
• SIA Mid-Atlantic Retreat, Ocean City, NJ, Mar 1-3, 2019
• Brentwood Women's Retreat, May 16-19 in Bayshore NY

Hope you are able to take advantage of these wonderful healing opportunities. Click above for registration information or visit http://www.siawso.org.

• Alabama, Huntsville. Sexual Abuse Survivors. Monday 7pm-8pm. Huntsville Library,915 Monroe St SW, Huntsville, AL 35801. Meeting room C marieeitsyybitsyy@gmail.com
• Arizona, Scottsdale. You Are Not Alone. Saturday 2:00-3:00 Bethany Lutheran Church 4300 N 82nd Street, Room 10 sia@fearlesssurvivors.com
• British Columbia, Vancouver. SIA Vancouver. Sunday 6:00 Vancouver, Avalon sia_van@yahoo.com
• California, Los Angeles. Hollywood 12 Step Writing Study. Tuesday 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Epiphany Space. Lower south building, fireplace room 1763 N. Gower St, Los Angeles, CA 90028 Hollywood12StepSIA@gmail.com
• California, La Crescenta (near Los Angeles) Emotions (Anger) Release 1st Sunday of the month, 3-4:30pm Center for Spiritual Living-Friendship Hall 4845 Dunsmore Ave, La Crescenta, CA, 91214 (in the back) 2recoveryandbeyond@gmail.com
• Florida, Winter Park THE LOST CHILD Tuesday 7-8 pm St. Richards 5151 Lake Howell warriorsam61@gmail.com
• Florida, Pinellas Park . Women Survivors of Incest and Sexual Abuse. Tuesday 7:00 PM TO 9:00 PM Email for Details salsawomn@aol.com
• Georgia, Atlanta. Tuesday Evening SIA. Tuesday 7:30pm - 8:30pm Galano Club room, 585 Dutch Valley Rd 2 survivorsatlanta@gmail.com
• Illinois, Pekin. Central Illinois SIA. Thursday 6:00 - 7:15 First United Methodist Church 1315 Court Street, Second floor, centralillinoisSIA@yahoo.com
• Massachusetts, Cambridge. SIA Cambridge. Tuesday 6:15 PM - 7:45 PM Cambridge Women's Center 46 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA3rdFloor SIAWomenCambridge@gmail.com
• Massachusetts, Brookline. SIA Brookline Sunday Night. Sunday 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM Brookline Police Station Community, 350 Washington Street, Room on the left, across from police desk SIABrooklineSunday@gmail.com
• New Jersey, Westmont “Be gentle with yourself” SIA meeting. Saturday 9:30-11AM The Starting Point, 215 Highland Avenue ,Suite C Westmont, NJ 08108 Sandycrx7@aol.com
• New York, Albany. Albany Survivors. Sunday6 pm to 7 pm Newtonville Methodist Church 568 New Loudon RD 2nd floor parsonage
• New York, Ithaca Community Recovery, Saturday 3:30 - 4:30 PM, 2nd Floor, 518 West Seneca Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
• New York, New York. Women's Step Writing Meeting. Thursday 6:00 - 7:00 pm 152 W. 71st St., New York, NY, 10023 Note: Ring Rectory Bell siawomen.nyc@gmail.com
• New York, New York City. SIA Sunday Women's and Men's Meeting. Sunday 11:00am-12:15pm LGBT Center 208 W 13th St. Room Number on Bulletin Board sia.sundaygroup.nyc@gmail.com.

• The Netherlands, The Hague. Topic and literature meeting. Tuesday 13.30 - 15.00 Westeinde 101, Den Haag, Stadsklooster mtabaeten@gmail.com, www.sia-nederland.nl

First SIA Women’s Annual Retreat, June 1-3, 2018 "ME TOO"

The first annual women's only retreat at Camp De Wolfe, Wading River, New York was a big success. We had an amazing turnout - 34 women! We had women from all walks of life. We had a wide array of workshops to choose from including Yoga, Beach Walk, Making Friends with your feelings, Living life with PTSD, and Release with Fire to name a few. Women & Sexuality and Sculpture were very popular. We shared delicious and nutritious meals together and fellowshipped every chance we had. We are looking into a new location for next year. We had laughs, tears and a whole array of emotions. We fast forwarded our recovery together and shared new tools that work for us.

- Marianne T

Attention Retreat Committees: We love to hear about your retreats. If you have a report to share, email your text to siaboardoftrustees@gmail.com

Maintaining the most accurate meeting directory possible is very important to carry the message to the survivor seeking fellowship. If your group has found it difficult to update your meetings information, here are a few tips.

• If you happen to be the secretary for several groups, have each group create an email just for that group with a password that can be handed over at a rotation of service.On our website, you cannot use the same email to create more than one account.
• If you have forgotten your password use the forgotten password feature and a new one will be emailed out to you.
• If all else fails, email siameetingupdates@gmail.com. We will work to fix your issues and help you get back on track with the self-service options.

Since our last full-length newsletter, the WSO has received $2376.70 in donations. Your commitment to keep our fellowship alive and fully self-supporting is a beautiful testament to survivorship. If you'd like to make a donation, you can do so here: http://www.siawso.org/donateonline.

We strive to send out an acknowledgment which also serves as a charitable giving document for tax deduction. If you or your group sent a donation but did not receive an acknowledgment please email us siaboardoftrustees@gmail.com

Also, we are receiving support from your donations through networkforgood.org - Thank you!

In the transition from actual to virtual office some checks for literature orders were cashed or Paypal payments accepted, but the literature was never mailed out and is no longer available. If this happened to you and your group the WSO will issue you a refund. Please email beckysiawso@gmail.com with the details so we can make it right.

Also, we did not realize until recently that the link to sign up for email announcements has been broken. If you attempted to get on the list but never received a newsletter, we are truly sorry. If you did not receive this newsletter in your email inbox, but would like to, send an email with no subject to sia.list@gmail.com.

SIA like other 12 step fellowships works very differently from most organizations.  We are an inverted pyramid. The individual Survivors are at the top, followed by Groups, Intergroups, Regions, and World Service Conference (WSC) Committees. The Board of Trustees (BoT) oversees the operations of the World Service Office (WSO) and its mission and is governed by the 12 Traditions, 12 Concept of Service and a set of by-laws. The BoT also serves on or works closely with the WSC Committees who are also guided by the 12 Traditions and 12 Concepts of Service. More information on all these is available on http://www.siawso.org

The SIAWSO Board of Trustees is in need of members. Download the qualifications and requirements here. If you know someone who you think would make a good BoT member, please encourage them to answer the questions and email it to siaboardoftrustees@gmail.com.

We would like to hold a face to face World Service Conference in 2019. Our hope is that each Region will be able to send a representative (Regional Trustee at Large) to the conference. This would be a working conference where each committee would have the opportunity to work in person on their goals for the fellowship. If you have offered to help but not been taken up on it, this may be your opportunity. More information will be coming up soon. As we continue to strive to live up to our service structure that we have set in place, we are reminded of progress and not perfection.

I Am a Garden by John+
 

I.

It is a seed—

a small black bit of possibility—

easily dismissed

easily ignored,

pushed aside

forgotten—

its black brittle skin

hiding green unfoldings:

Hope wrapped by darkness

Light bound by night.

II.

Earth, seed, water, hoe—

Each needs the other

for the garden to grow.

III.

Seeds are dangerous—

Small bullets that can delight or kill;

Sometimes when planted

they fail to grow,

Sometimes after sprouting

they become unrecognizable—

seem foreign, alien;

Either way, hope withers,

Dreams gasp and lose their air

when green becomings fail to break free:

Light dead—everything black seed husk prison.

IV.

Plant, wait,

Encourage, fertilize,

Hoe, weed,

Flower, fruit,

Pluck, cup in palms, and

Bite in!

Savor sweet scent and flavors—

The dream that finds its way

Up and out and into the world,

Rising like and oak tree—

Assured, solid, strong.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at my computer.  I stopped what I was doing.  I thought about how I felt.  I realized that I was happy.  I was probably happy before, but did not realize it.  Now I can worry about my feelings and putting myself first.
Maria 

• SIAWSO Financial Report
• More about the World Service Conference in 2019