This is the 11th in a series of excerpts from the CoDA Workbook. We are in the process of sending you 1 tradition each week for a total of 12 weeks.
Previous mailings can be found here: https://codependents.org/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/list/main/ You may want to enter traditions in the search box.
The traditions are the foundation of our program & of our yearly Service Conference.
Please note that all material below this paragraph is taken directly from the CoDA Workbook & is Conference approved. While we are sharing it with the fellowship in the spirit of recovery and service, the copyright to this material is fully owned by Codependents Anonymous, inc (2013).
Tradition #11 - Our public relations policy is based on attraction
rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the
level of press, radio, and films.
..... Two guidelines are established. First, CoDA’s
“public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion.”
Second, as CoDA members, we each “maintain personal anonymity at the
level of press, radio, and films.”
..... Simply by living our program, attraction is possible. When others
recognize our changes, our serenity, our honesty, we begin to hear
questions such as, “How did you change?” or “What did you do?” If
appropriate, we then share our personal experience, strength, and hope
about how we live in recovery today and how that differs from the way we
used to live. Honestly sharing our recovery with people attracts
newcomers into the Fellowship.
..... Promotion can be identifying ourselves professionally; offering
opinions; and offering particular outcomes, such as suggesting that
attending CoDA meetings will straighten out a marriage or that you’ll
feel better within a month. Another form of inappropriate promotion
would be ...... advertising that goes beyond simply informing the public
about meetings.
Another aspect of this Tradition speaks to anonymity. Anonymous means
unidentified or undeclared. Personal anonymity supports a boundary for
each CoDA member to stay unidentified at the public relations level.
When all in recovery maintain personal anonymity, we find the CoDA unity
we need for personal recovery. We rely on living our individual
programs. CoDA has no hierarchy; therefore, no one person speaks for
CoDA as a whole.
......
• What does “attraction rather than promotion” mean to me? How is
attraction different from promotion?
.....
• How does breaking anonymity harm CoDA?
• What does maintaining personal anonymity at the level of press, radio,
and films mean to me?
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The purpose of this list is to share information with any & all CoDA members, especially that which may effect CoDA as a whole.
We will be sending out regular emails with CoDA events, announcements, issues & CoDA business of interest to both specific regions & to the entire CoDA fellowship.
Per the 2nd tradition, For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority, a loving higher power as expressed to our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern. Developing a group conscience requires an informed fellowship, & to be effective trusted servants those you've elected must know the group conscience of the fellowship.
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