A N O N Y M O U S

Artists Recovering Through the Twelve Steps 
 

Give us Five, see A.R.T.S. Thrive!
 

Five minutes a day keeps our ART Alive
Five dollars a month supports A.R.T.S. Worldwide
Five minutes to read so A.R.T.S. Thrives!

January 2024 edition

Free Download of the A.R.T.S. Basic Pamplet: A reminder that the Basic Pamphlet, containing A.R.T.S. Steps, Traditions, Traits, Talents and Tools is available as a free download on the A.R.T.S. website. Please let the newcomers know! Conference-approved A.R.T.S. pamphlets are available for purchase in electronic format on the Literature page of the website.  

Free Workshop Script! Writing Personal Stories in A.R.T.S.: The script for meetings or groups or any members who wish to get together and write personal recovery stories in A.R.T.S. is available for download on the website. It is laid out as a workshop. Please make liberal use of this valuable resource in support of A.R.T.S. recovery. Such a workshop can also be used to collect contributions in support of your meeting and/or A.R.T.S World Services. Members may submit what they write for use in a new A.R.T.S. book.   

Treasurer’s Report: Click to see the Treasurer’s Report for December 2023, the Financial Management Report for all of 2023, and the Treasurer's Report to the 2023 World Service Conference.

Updated Traits and Tools: This past October the World Service Conference amended and approved some updates to the Traits, and updated Tools from what had previously been approved by the Conference in 1993. These are  posted on the Welcome to A.R.T.S. page of the website. 

Click here for the January 2024 Service Calendar  

Click here for the February 2024 Service Calendar    

Service Calendars are posted on the A.R.T.S. website https://artsanonymous.org/news/ where you can find news and information about events and service meetings, plus past issues of this Newsletter 

For 2024: Writings on the Steps 

While the Twelve Traditions guide us in the primary purpose of A.R.T.S. Anonymous, the Twelve Steps guide us to recover our inspiration and joy in expressing our creativity. What better way to celebrate 2024 than with a focus on the Steps that corresponds with each of the twelve months. Below in this January newsletter is one member’s contribution on Step One. 

February’s Newsletter welcomes your response to Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.   

The following series of questions are suggested as a guide when writing a response.  

• What does Step 2 mean to you? 
• How do you feel about Step 2? 
• How may Step 2 help your creative expression? 

It will be wonderful to receive your thoughts, feelings, and application of Step 2. Please send your response to the editors at newsletter@artsanonymous.org for possible publication. 

Step One – A Personal Response 

Step One: We admitted we were powerless over our creativity – that our lives had become unmanageable.  

Step One in A.R.T.S. had me a little confused at first. I’ve been in other 12-step programs, so I knew what it was like to be powerless over something. Food, alcohol, drugs – that all made sense to me. I was powerless over them, and I needed help to stop.  

But powerless over my creativity? My creativity isn’t a bad thing, it is not a negative in my life. That didn’t seem to make sense. Not until I looked at the last part of the step, that my life had become unmanageable.  

In my case, what brought me to A.R.T.S. was at a time right after participating in a large Christmas craft fair....

Click here for the complete essay

A Celebratory Acknowledgment of 2023 

A look at a few of our accomplishments this past year: 

• The membership almost doubled  
• Twelve straight months of newsletters that each featured a member’s contribution of their experience strength and hope with a Tradition in A.R.T.S. 
• The end of the Zoomathon, the beginning of the Sharathon
• Workshops on Facing Avoidance and Writing Members Stories were held, the latter in translation 
• Finances have stabilized 
• A special One-Day Conference approved a pamphlet and approved updates to another 
• The Members Stories sub-committee is receiving stories for a new book 
• The website has undergone changes, including a sortable meeting list and testimonials from the membership 
• A.R.T.S. 39th Birthday was celebrated 
• The Board established the Literature, Talents and Skills, and Policy and Procedures Committees 
• Conference-approved Trait 7 and Tools were updated and approved again by the Conference 
• A Literature Development and Approval Process was developed and adopted by the Conference 
• Pre-Conference meetings (now called Conference Planning Meetings) were held every other month 
• The second consecutive World Service Conference was held and concluded just this month 
• A Committee to organize how the World Service Conference is run is beginning (there is hope! More details further in this newsletter) 

... it goes on and on and on. This is not an exhaustive list! 

Recent work by Dasha B., © 2024, all rights reserved 

A.R.T.S. Meetings and World Services

In accordance with the Seventh Tradition, we, as meetings, as a Fellowship, and as individuals are self-supporting through our own contributions. Contributions come in many forms, and yes, this includes monetarily. When someone buys a piece of art from one of us, an exchange of value is passed – however limited in concept, money is an acknowledgment of value. Members in A.R.T.S. meetings experience value in what they receive, and many of us find that when we give back, we are able to better keep what we have. As Bill W. once famously pointed out, the collection basket is where money and spirituality meet. 

According to our records, the following meetings collected funds, took care of its own expenses first, and then donated to the World Service Office in 2023: 

• A.R.T.S. West London: $190.00 
• Sherman Oaks Surrender to Creativity $153.34 
• A.R.T.S. South East London: $120.00 
• An Anonymous Meeting in Richmond VA: US $105.00 
• Second Life: $18.46 

Click here for more 

What are the Rights and Responsibilities of the World Service Conference?

It's time! It's time for the first World Service Conference Policies and Procedures Committee meeting!

All A.R.T.S. members are welcome to participate at the Conference Policy and Procedures Committee meeting on Saturday January 27 beginning at 10am PT/11am MT/1pm ET/18.00 Ireland and UK/19.00 Paris/21.00 Moscow/5am Melbourne. (Please see the Zoom link at the end of this article to register.) 

 
A.R.T.S. Anonymous has held World Service Conferences two years in a row. Many of us think it's time to take the next step. 
 
A.R.T.S. has a Conference Charter that spells out the rights and responsibilities of the Conference. Here is a link to the entire A.R.T.S. Anonymous Conference Charter posted on the website. One excerpt is here:
 
Article 6: World Service Conference Organization: The WSC governs itself, although it collaborates with the Board of Trustees. The Conference chooses its election methods and rules for voting, such as percentage of votes required to pass resolutions. 
 
Conference Committees: The Conference may choose to establish committees. Any A.R.T.S. member may serve on committees. Each committee may have a Board member serving as Board liaison. The committee will elect a member as committee chair. 
 
Board Committees: The Board of Trustees may also establish committees and include Program Members as well as Conference Delegates. 
 
In December, the Conference expressed interest in establishing a Policies and Procedures Committee. (I honestly can't remember if this was voted on or just talked about with enthusiasm and general agreement.) This Committee will be accountable to the Conference, and not the Board of Trustees. (That's what makes it a Conference Committee.) 
 
The function of the Conference Policy and Procedures Committee would be to propose rules to govern how the Conference operates. These would be brought to the 2024 Conference as motions to be voted on. Up to now, the motions for the Conference have come from Committees of the Board of Trustees. But now that the Conference is more firmly established, the Delegates can vote to set up a procedure for bringing motions to the Conference and other matters related to the running of the Conference. 
 
Also noteworthy is Article 7 of the Conference Charter, quoted below. The World Service Conference (WSC) has an annual meeting, but it is also in existence all the time. The WSC is the group conscience of the A.R.T.S. Anonymous fellowship. We are the guardians of the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions! (Check out Article 1 of the Charter. We voted on it. We passed it unanimously in 2022!) 
 
Article 7. The World Service Conference Meetings: The Conference will meet yearly through an online platform or in-person, or a hybrid of the two. Special meetings may be called should there be a reason. The Conference may also render advisory opinions at any time by mail, e-mail, telephone or virtual meeting poll in aid of the Board of Trustees or its related services. 
 
For purposes of conducting business at the World Service Conference, a quorum is met when there are at least twice as many voting delegates from meetings and committees present as the number of members of the Board of Trustees present. 

 At Saturday's meeting, registered Delegates (or their Alternates) will vote, unless the Committee decides on another procedure. Our first order of business will be to elect a Chair, Co-chair and a Note-taker, unless the Committee decides otherwise. 

We will then brainstorm policies and procedures that might be needed, decide on priorities, and set out a meeting schedule to get motions crafted before the next Conference. It might be a good idea to prepare by reading the Conference Charter before the meeting, but if you can't, please come anyway. 
 
This is a very exciting opportunity for service, and we hope to see you there. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact victoria_deneroff@outlook.com 
 
In love and service, 
Vickie D. 

Recent work by Dasha B., © 2024, all rights reserved 

God, grant me the serenity 

To accept the things I cannot change; 

Courage to change the things I can; 

And wisdom to know the difference. 

Copyright © 2024 ARTS Anonymous, All rights reserved.

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