Our 2017 11th Annual Seniors in Sobriety International Conference was held in Van Nuys California from September 14th to 17th at AirTel Plaza Hotel.
The program included our traditional introductory session on Thursday evening, History of SIS. The presentation included a valuable explanation of the difference between Seniors in Sobriety (SIS) and Cooperation with the Elder Community (CEC), service entities that have seemed to get confused by some members. SIS has traditionally held an annual “conference”, SIS meetings are started in some communities, while CEC has developed over the years as a type of service committee that provides outreach to various senior rest homes, retirement communities, and AA meetings or seniors-only groups. CEC Service groups have started in various parts of California, in Arizona,and in Hawaii. There are some CEC meetings as well.
General Sessions, workshops, and panels were held Friday and Saturday. A traditional Al-anon luncheon was held Friday, The banquet was held Saturday evening, and a traditional speaker breakfast was held early Sunday morning. All were well attended and the prevailing opinion of the guests was that the conference was a success, although attendance was down a bit from prior years. The conference was scheduled earlier in the year than past conferences and the committee concluded that in the future it will be better to schedule it later in the fall or mid-winter to attract more Sun-birds and vacationers.
The host committee met after closing ceremonies on Sunday and a group of attendees and planning committee members debriefed the weekend and made suggestions for future conferences. As of the date of this posting a 2018 Planning Committee has not been formed. However, if you are reading this post and wish to suggest that your Area of an interested planning group might consider hosting, please contact the 2017 Chair.
We look forward to continued participation from Seniors wanting more senior friendly meetings as well as General Service support from their Areas and other service entities.
October 17, 2017