Last Day of the 60th World Service Conference
This is the third of a multipart series I’m posting on the 60th Annual World Service Conference. Check out the Delegate’s Corner on our website to read the other posts. The sunset picture above signifies an ending — the end of a day, the end of a Conference — but it also holds the hope of a sunrise to come. Tomorrow will be built on the work we did here today, this week. I am grateful to have been a part of the 60th WSC.
Today is Friday and the last “official” day of the 2020 World Service Conference (WSC). I say official day because the hybrid component of the Conference is still ongoing. Due to the structure of this year’s virtual/hybrid Conference, some additional time has been allotted for the reading and compiling of the information presented online. I will have access to the discussion thread until May 4th, and I will probably need that time to process all of the comments and questions that have been generated.
When I got up this morning, I thought about what my day would be like if I was at a physical WSC in Virginia Beach. I’m sure I would be tired from the long sessions over the past several days. The weather forecast for Virginia Beach today is for scattered thunderstorms with a high temperature of 74 degrees. I would have had an excellent breakfast and would be ready for the day. The agenda would probably have included some breakout sessions for the Chosen Agenda Item discussions, sharings from the outgoing Panel 58 Delegates, the closing dinner, and the spiritual speakers.
Last but not least, the Panel 58 Delegates had prepared an after-dinner presentation for all the Conference members. Some very creative members on my Panel rewrote the words from a song of a well-known musical and prepared a skit as part of our performance. We were rehearsing through Zoom when it was announced the WSC would not be held in its usual format. We are still hoping we can present it at a later time.
The Chosen Agenda Items were posted on the 2020 WSC forum yesterday afternoon and are currently open for discussion. There has been a good amount of feedback and ideas posted on the site. Once I have read everything, I will be able to present this to the Pennsylvania Area so we can continue the discussions based on our needs and expectations. There will be more to come.
As one of the highlights of the WSC for me, I will be attending the Annual Meetings of the Board today. Conference members are allowed to attend without voice or vote to these important meetings. I really enjoy the Board Meetings because I can see how the Board of Trustees conducts the “business” aspect of the Conference. Some people might find this type of meeting boring, but I get excited just thinking about it.
I wrote in my message yesterday that I was attending an Al-Anon Zoom meeting hosted by one of the Delegates on my Panel. The topic was “Share a Spiritual Principle you used during the Virtual World Service Conference, and how it enriched your experience”. I would like to say that was an enlightening meeting. During the meeting, I shared that the Spiritual Principle I used was acceptance. I am constantly saying to myself the first line of the Serenity Prayer;
“God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,”
I have accepted the way things are and the way they have to be. This is how I am able to feel that I’m a part of this Conference. I am very happy to be part of the World Service Conference, even if it’s not in the way I would have liked.
With that, I will close for today and begin my meetings. I will be back in a day or two with one more post, reflecting on the overall Conference, my part in it, and where we go from here.
Your friend in service,
Jeffrey F., Delegate
Panel 58, Pennsylvania
The picture below represents balance — the balance of acceptance of what is with the hope of what might be. For me, acceptance isn’t resignation or giving up. Rather, I feel that it is only in accepting the reality of today that we can build toward our vision of what could be tomorrow.
