NATIONAL SERVICE
CONFERENCE REPORT

It was my distinct pleasure and
my privilege to attend the 1998 Coda National Service Conference
as one of two delegates for the state of Tennessee. This act of
service work ran true to form (I learned more about myself and
about Coda as I participated). I would like to report to you just
a few of the things I learned at the NSC in Houston, TX.

First, I learned that I am
definitely not "cured"…. I am still codependent. When
you have difficulty saying "no," there quickly arises a
shortage of available hours in each day. I spent all day on the
floor with the other delegates, wrangling out a total of 37
amendments to the by-laws, and approving the budgets for Coda
National, CoRe, and World Services.

I then spent most of my nights
doing committee work on one of the two national committees of
which I am a member. If this sounds like I am complaining, I am
not, it was a wonderful experience (but tiring).

The most important thing I
learned about myself was that I can still have control issues. In
the past, I have done my share of complaining about various board
members and other folks in leadership positions of Coda having
"control issues."

I was right, they do have
control issues and they (the Coda National Board of Trustees)
admitted it at the conference in a joint fourth step. As I
participated in the process of rewording and voting for or
against various amendments, I soon realized that I too was
exhibiting some "control issues."

In the five days I was in
Houston, I must have worked step ten more times than during the
past five months combined. It seemed that every time I turned
around, I needed to do another tenth step. I soon began to
realize that asking a codependent to bear the responsibility of
not only making a decision, but of making decisions that affect
all of Coda, virtually guarantees control issues.

The result of this experience
is that I no longer expect our Board members to be
"perfect," I just expect them to actively work their
program (which includes step ten).

Another thing I learned,
although it saddens me very much to report, is that there exists
a high level of apathy across the United States toward Coda
National.

Only twenty states even sent
one delegate, and only 36 voting members (including Trustees and
Committee Chairs) were present. Also, along the same lines, I
learned that seventh tradition donations are not being sent to
National by the majority of meetings.

Tennessee has 25 meetings and
of those 25 only 8 sent 7^th tradition
money to National last year (Tennessee Ranked third in the
percentage of meetings contributing).

The average percentage of
meetings contributing by state was around 10% or less. This 7^th
tradition money is desperately needed to finance the activities
of Coda National (including the activities of the committees such
as the literature committee which is now trying to create a great
deal of new Coda literature – even a workbook for step study
groups).

We don’t notice, on a
daily basis, all that we get from Coda National, for instance,
where would the meetings be with no literature and no chips and
medallions?

I am most sad to report that we
approved a budget this year which will require, for the first
time, the use of Coda Book sales funds to finance the activities
of Coda National.

In the past the profits from
the sale of Coda Books has been placed in an interest bearing
account and only the interest has been used to fund Coda National
beyond that which was funded by 7^th
tradition donations.

The idea was to not use the
profit from book sales for any purpose other than reprinting more
books (to ensure that there would always be Coda Books
available).

Although most of us agreed that
approval of this budget was dangerous, we also felt that the only
alternative was to severely curtail the activities of the various
committees (such as the literature committee) which may have
resulted in a downward spiral that could have led to the demise
of Coda.

The obvious answer to avoid
this problem next year is to make every attempt to increase the
level of 7^th tradition donation sent to
Coda National.

Finally, I learned that I am
truly not alone. This organization (called Coda) goes way beyond
the 25 meetings in Tennessee, there are people like me wherever I
go throughout the United States and the World.

Lee T.