The ISO Serves

 The ISO – through its Delegates, Board, Literature Committee, volunteers, and staff – develops, approves, prints, warehouses, and distributes SAA literature, and other approved items such as medallions.  The ISO also distributes some non-SAA literature from a list of works that have been approved by the Board of Trustees.

 Two of the main services provided by the ISO are communication and outreach.  All of the following efforts come under these headings.

• The ISO publishes a bimonthly newsletter, The Plain Brown Rapper (PBR), which is sent free to all who request it.

• The ISO maintains a toll free phone line and a central e-mail address for members and groups who seek guidance about SAA Traditions and precedents or want to contribute ideas that are of potential benefit to the fellowship as a whole.  Communications of these types are received daily.  Each is answered quickly and in detail.

• The ISO maintains a database that lists all registered SAA meetings and posts group authorized information on its website in order to provide referrals to those who call, e-mail, or visit the site seeking a meeting.

• Through its website the ISO also communicates news about SAA events and items of interest to members, those seeking help, and even casual visitors.  It posts the PBR in electronic form and operates a store from which literature can be purchased via the internet.  The ISO also operates a number of secure websites, such as the one for the annual convention, to provide sensitive information to members only.

• The ISO provides a central information source for those seeking help and for members who are traveling or relocating.  From May 2004 to April 2005, 6,368 people contacted the ISO Office for help by phone, e-mail, and postal mail.

• Last year the ISO Office answered letters from 659 inmates and sent them free literature.

• Almost weekly, ISO staff members coach and provide literature to members in isolated areas who are trying to start new SAA meetings.  Groups from Kaunakakai, HI, to Sharon, VT, from Kalispell, MT, to Pompano Beach, FL, and from Latvia to Costa Rica have been started that way.

The ISO Coordinates

The ISO coordinates the annual convention, which serves both as the location of the yearly business meeting and as a haven where SAA members can gather to celebrate and strengthen recovery.  Out of the business meetings come Conference Approval of SAA literature and both directives and recommendations to the Board of Trustees who are responsible for managing the corporation.  Out of the convention come speakers and workshops that are available, not only to those who attend the convention, but to all members through recordings.

The ISO coordinates and pays the costs of major projects, such as the public service announcement video, the translation of SAA literature, and the development and publication of Sex Addicts Anonymous, the fellowship’s basic text.

The ISO Board continues to work toward establishing fellowship-wide bulletin boards so that members can participate in service areas of their interest, e.g., Interfellowship Relations, Intergroup Communications, International Development, Literature, Outreach, and Women’s Outreach.

The ISO coordinates Prison Outreach by answering letters for help with literature and by providing links to regional coordinators, who spearhead efforts to find SAA members to correspond with recovering inmates.

The ISO Literature Committee works with members who submit manuscripts for SAA approval, guiding them as necessary to bring their work into agreement with existing SAA literature and to be of optimum service to the fellowship.

The ISO strives to develop and maintain policies and procedures to insure that the information it provides to those seeking help is as correct and current as possible.  This takes continuous coordination with groups and entails entering new data provided by them as well as reminding them to review and verify meeting information at least annually.

The ISO coordinates requests from local media with local SAA groups, mindful that each group is autonomous and responsible for its interaction with local media.

The ISO Conducts the Business of SAA

As a non-profit corporation, the ISO must take care to comply with all laws and regulations that govern it, including quarterly and annual reporting and collection of sales tax whenever and wherever they are mandated.

The ISO is responsible not only for registering SAA trademarks and copyrights but also for aggressively protecting them from unauthorized use lest they fall into the category of public domain.

The ISO accounts for SAA resources.  This means money, assets, and workforce. There must be an accounting for every dollar spent and received.  Inventory and expenses must be controlled.  Vendors must be selected carefully and evaluated continually.  Effective staffing must be maintained.  Volunteers must be solicited and supervised.

These tasks require office space, utilities, insurance, payroll and payroll taxes, computers, printers, and other office equipment and supplies.  Among the ISO’s expenses are those related to banking, credit card processing fees, freight, shipping, packaging, teleconferencing, phone, websites, staff benefits and education, printing, meetings of the Board, committees, and delegates, administrative, legal, and professional fees, and equipment and facility maintenance.  Unfortunately, there is even an occasional bad check that cannot be collected.  The ISO pays all of these expenses and more.

In Summary

 The importance of the ISO might be best summarized in the context of SAA’s First Tradition: 

“Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon SAA unity.”

 Without the ISO, SAA groups and intergroups[1] would not only be autonomous, they would be isolated and fragmented.  Communicating and coordinating within such a diverse and far flung membership as SAA’s presents a challenge.  Without the ISO, the challenge could not be met.

1] As of January, 2007, there were 794 groups and 32 intergroups in the ISO database.