I made a commitment to the Business Meeting of the 11th NAW last year in Phoenix that this year in Niagara Falls I would bring at least one more person with me to pass on the message of Archives. The Archivist for Ontario South Al-Anon is a friend of mine and she came with such enthusiasm that it was inspiring. Cathy U. from Peterborough drove down with her husband. The new secretary for the GTA AA Intergroup, Pam J., drove me down. Though I surely cannot take credit for the other 3 Areas of Ontario being in attendance, it was unbelievable to be reading a name tag that ended in "Ontario"- me looking up with great delight! From Ontario Northwest came France L. She took a bus from Timmins to the airport in Sault Ste. Marie; took a flight to Pearson, a bus to the downtown bus station, a bus to the Canada-US border, and a cab across the border - it took over 13 hours to do the whole thing and she and her friend had to do the whole thing over again in reverse to get home. She carried the message to me that weekend!
What a weekend it was. Thursday was packed from the opening of registration and the hospitality room at 1:00. There was a discussion meeting, a 2 hour seminar on the Four Founding Moments of AA, a presentation by a Trustee on the General Service Board Archives Committee, and a final meeting at 9:00 pm on the value of an archives [collection].
Friday was a day of hard work and gentle rewards in the evening. As we do in every NAW we spent the whole day learning how to actually do preservation and conservation work. Some of the material from last year is on this blog and was covered again this year. In repairing paper tears, removing tape and other debris, and repairing binding, we worked on the rare treasure of the the Big Book belonging to Dr. George Little, accredited with being the founder of AA in Canada which was presented to him by Adam C., Ontario's first General Service Delegate.
We also learned what to do with all of our old Grapevines in terms of taking out staples and sewing them along with how to re-do the green binders that house volumes.
We were treated in the evening to a panel of longtimers. Though the two men on the panel each with close to 50 years each were great, it was Joy with 50+ that stole our hearts and left not a dry eye in the room. Father Pete W. closed the evening with the best talk I have ever heard him give.
Sunday picked up the pace again with simultaneous panels on oral histories, trade marks and copyrights, group histories, support for local archives, setting up a repository, and databasing the collection. After a sumptuous banquet with everyone suited up, we listened to a fantastic presentation by Gail L., Akron Archivist, on the life of Nell Wing (Bill's secretary for many years, AA's first archivist, and dear friend of Lois W.) who died February 14 of this year. As if this wasn't enough, when all was said and done for the day there was one final presentation on how the Rockefeller's helped AA.
Sunday is the business meeting and there was lots to discuss. Let me not tire you with this right now but do let me tell you that next year's NAW, the 13th will be just outside LA and the 14th in 2010 will be in Macon, Georgia. I think it is time to bring the NAW to Canada. How about we bring the 15th in 2011 to Toronto?
