Co-Dependents Anonymous, Inc. (CoDA)
Meeting Update PolicyIt is impossible for CoDA volunteers to know with absolute surety whether a meeting is active or not at any given time. CoDA relies on the meeting contacts to provide us that information. The CoDA Board stresses that it is the responsibility of the contacts for the meeting to keep meeting information up to date. We gratefully thank those meeting contacts that keep their meeting info up to date, even when the meeting closes.Certain words are use throughout this policy to indicate actions taken on meetings. Their definitions are provided for clarity here:
New: The meeting contact sends in information on a new CoDA meeting that has not previously been submitted to CoDA.
Update: Some change to the meeting's information. Every change made by the Fellowship Services worker causes the "Last Updated date" to change to the date that she makes the changes. Meeting contacts can use the online form or download the PDF form, fill it out and mail it in to update meeting information.
Active: While not seen by the fellowship, there is a field in the meeting database that indicates whether the meeting is active or not. As long as the Active field is checked, the meeting will show up in the meeting searches as active.
INACTIVE?: This does not mean that the meeting is inactive. This means that CoDA is unsure whether the meeting is active. Therefore the meeting is annotated as follows: The Facility Name will be labeled as INACTIVE? Facility Name, where Facility Name is the actual name of the facility. Note: This is done so that attention will be drawn at the summary listing level. Then in special instructions, a message will be added; such as, This meeting may be inactive. If you have any information about this meeting, send it to meeting @ coda.org.
Deactivate: This means that the meeting's active field will be cleared indicating that the meeting is not active. When a meeting is deactivated, it is not deleted! The meeting is still in the database, but will not be visible in meeting searches. If a meeting is deactivated by mistake or the meeting becomes active again, the Fellowship Services worker can re-activate it without re-entering all of the data.
Deleted: As a general policy, CoDA does not delete meeting records. However, there have been several times when converting from one type database to another, that deactivated meetings have been copied to backup spreadsheets and deleted from the database. The Fellowship Services worker does not have a way to delete meetings.
Fellowship Services (FS) worker: Responsible for updating the meeting database. No one else is allowed access to the database besides the Web Coordinator. When a person uses the online form and submits it, the data is sent via email to the FS worker.
Policy #1 (Update of meetings, primary responsibility)
Policy #2 (Update of meetings, secondary responsibility)
Policy #3 (Update of meetings, general Fellowship)
Policy #4 (Update of meetings, Outreach Committee)
The following represents CoDA's policy for updating meeting information:
Policy #1 (Update of meetings, primary responsibility)Each Group's primary or secondary contact is responsible for submitting new meeting information and updating the meeting information either by online meeting update form, email to meeting @ coda.org or mailing in the meeting update form.
NOTE: Primary and secondary contact information should be provided with meeting updates even if the individuals do not consent to this information being released to the public. In the event there is no information provided and a person states that he or she is a contact or a new contact, the FS worker will take this statement at face value.
RECOMMENDATION: Meeting contacts should update their meeting information on a yearly basis. Even if the information is correct, send an email to meeting @ coda.org stating their meeting number and that all information is correct. This will ensure that your meeting is not listed as INACTIVE?.
Meeting contacts can do a meeting number search on their meeting in the Meeting Resource Center (Meeting Locator.) This search will either give them the meeting details, tell you that the meeting is not in the database or that the meeting is in the database and has been deactivated. At that point the instructions will tell you that you can email meeting @ coda.org to reactivate the meeting.
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Policy #2 (Update of meetings, secondary responsibility)Local meeting coordinators, intergroups, VE Assemblies, delegates and our Outreach Committee are secondary sources of update information.
No direct access by meeting contacts or area coordinators will be granted to the meeting database. These individuals must use the online meeting update form, email or mail in form to update the meeting information and must identify themselves and the position that they are in.
The FS worker is not responsible for determining the right of the individuals to update the meeting if they identify themselves as one of these secondary sources of information.
From time-to-time, the Web Coordinator may dump the database to a spreadsheet for use by various CoDA Committee's as they request data for special mailings.
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Policy #3 (Update of meetings, general Fellowship)If someone other than the meeting contacts or secondary sources sends in a meeting update request and does not state that they are the new contact for the meeting or a secondary source, the FS worker will:
Compare their name to the primary and secondary contacts for the meeting.
Respond to the individual with CoDA's meeting update policy, but will not update the meeting.
As an exception to the above, if someone other than the primary or secondary source for a meeting emails/notifies/updates/etc. and says that the meeting is not meeting, CoDA will annotate the meeting as INACTIVE?.
Note: Notification by someone that tried to attend a meeting and could not find anyone at the meeting will only cause the meeting to listed as "INACTIVE?". It could be that the meetings has moved to another day of week or location, decided not to meet that particular date or numerous other reasons that the meeting may still be active, but not there when the person tried to visit.
As another exception to the above, if someone in the general fellowship notifies us that a meeting marked "INACTIVE?" is active, the annotation will be removed and the last update date field changed to the current date.
A second or third notification of the same meeting on a different date will prompt the deactivation of the meeting without further notice. Please realize that the FS worker may not always realize that it is the second notification and may not take immediate action.
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Policy #4 (Update of meetings, Outreach Committee)Policy #5 (Update of meetings, Web Coordinator)As the Outreach committee receives various notifications of meetings becoming inactive, meetings that have not updated their information for a period of time or questions concerning whether a meeting is active or not, the Committee may contact the meeting directly by mailing, email or phone call.
Outreach Committee decides when and to what extend to contact the meetings. Usually for a mailing, the mailing is sent to the Facility address (a returned mail from an individual will indicate the person moved or is not interested, but may not indicate that the meeting has closed.)
Note: Providing full addresses for meeting Facility, contact names, address, email, & phone numbers assist Outreach in this update process.
If our Outreach Committee sends out a mailing to the meetings and does not get anything back in 4 months after mailing or the mail is returned to CoDA unopened, the meeting will be deactivated by the FS worker.
If Outreach Committee emails the meeting's contacts and does not receive a reply within 1 week, they may notify the FS worker to deactivate the meeting at any time.
If Outreach Committee calls the meeting's contacts and does not receive a reply within 3 days, they may notify the FS worker to deactivate the meeting at any time.
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Twice a year, the Web Coordinator will prepare three lists of meetings:
INACTIVE List 1 will be a list of meetings that have been annotated as "INACTIVE?" by various processes during the last six months.
INACTIVE List 2 will be a list of meetings that have not been updated in 3 years from the beginning of next six months.
Deactivation List will be a list of meetings that have not been updated in 5 years from the beginning of next six months.
These lists will be posted on the website under "Breaking News", the Meeting Resource Center and in the QSR.
Also the lists will be forwarded to the Outreach Committee with contact information for them to take action as they determine reasonable. No action on these lists will be taken by the Web coordinator till the end of the six months.
At the end of the six months, the Web Coordinator will update and take action on the three lists as follows:
INACTIVE List 1: No action.
INACTIVE List 2: Web Coordinator will update the list to remove those meetings that have been updated. Those meetings remaining in the list will be annotated as "INACTIVE?".
Deactivation List: Web Coordinator will update the list to remove those meetings that have been updated. Then the Web Coordinator will deactivate the meetings leaving the last updated date as the original date.
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Meeting is created and updated by primary or secondary contact on a yearly basis. If meeting is no longer active, the primary or secondary contact will inform CoDA and the meeting will be deactivated.
Meeting is not updated by meeting contacts and secondary sources step in to accomplish the updates.
OR
No one updates the meeting information.
THEN
Someone tries to attend meeting and meeting is not active. They notify CoDA. The meeting is annotated as "INACTIVE?".
On a second notification or confirmation from Outreach Committee research, the meeting is deactivated.
On notification that the meeting is active, the annotation of "INACTIVE?" will be removed.
OR
Outreach Committee acts upon various indications that meetings may not be active, sends out a mailing, emails or calls the meeting's contact to confirm the status of the meeting.
If no response is received (mailing - 4 months, email-1 week, call-3days) or response indicates that the meeting is inactive, the meeting will be deactivated.
OR
After posting list indicating action will be taken the next six months at the beginning of the six month period, Web Coordinator will update the lists to remove meeting that have been updated and then take the following actions:
Meetings not updated in the last 3 years will be annotated as "INACTIVE?".
Meetings not updated in the last 5 years will be deactivated.
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