Home - Seattle International NA Convention 2009

Welcome to S.I.N.A.C. I
THE SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS CONVENTION

July 24, 25 & 26, 2009
Seattle Center, Seattle, WA

The first Seattle International Convention of NA is just around the corner. We are counting the days! Seattle in July is spectacular. There’s nothing better. We encourage you to register and also make your hotel reservations now if you haven’t done so.

We on the host committee are tying up all the loose ends in anticipation of a gathering of friends and celebration of recovery Seattle style. So many people from all over the Puget Sound region have devoted their time and energy to help plan this wonderful event.

One event we’ve added since our last update is the lighting ceremony for the Addict who Still Suffers. The Ceremony will take place around the International Fountain at the Seattle Center at 11:15 Saturday night. Also, we are planning a morning meditation around the same fountain on Sunday before breakfast. Both of these events promise to be moving and powerful, an expression of what we can do together that we could never do alone.

The merchandise committee is excited to roll out our exclusive SINAC convention merchandise. Some of the styles and selections have never been seen at other conventions. You’ve got to check this out!

We are so excited about all our speakers. One of them is an addict named Laura W. from Detroit. She is credited by many early Seattle recovering addicts as the person who started traditional NA meetings in Seattle. She was living here in 1979, and felt the need to carve out a place for herself and other recovering addicts. Thanks to Laura, other recovering addicts and a meeting starter kit, Seattle received the gift of Narcotics Anonymous. We are grateful for all our early pioneers who started meetings in other cities, states and countries.

Our convention ambassador, Michelle A, can help with any questions or problems you might have prior to the convention. Feel free to contact her at ambassador@seattlenaconvention.org.

This is our last update. We can’t wait to meet you all and celebrate our recovery together.

Nick H. and Andy S., SINAC Committee members
POSTED BY ANDY, SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2009, 10:49 PM

With less than 90 days to go, Seattle is getting ready to roll out the welcome mat to addicts from all over the world!

Our site at the Seattle Center is less than 100 yards away from the famous Seattle Space Needle. The views from the top are spectacular. Another short walk, and you’re at the Experience Music Project, Seattle’s own Rock and Roll history museum. There are many other attractions on the grounds, too many to list here. We’ve been busy holding fundraisers such as dances (Motown dance, blues dance), dinners, auctions, merchandise sales and more. We’re glad to say that our goals are being met. We want to thank everyone from around the world who has pre-registered; this has helped tremendously.

Jack W. is our programming chair with over 37 years clean. His committee has sought out speakers from all parts of the world who got clean outside the United States. What a great way to learn how NA works in other parts of the world! It wasn’t too long ago that NA started with a meeting in the San Fernando Valley, CA. Now we have 25,000 groups with 44,000 weekly meetings in at least 127 countries. We do recover! We will have speakers who got clean in Japan, Ireland, Canada, India, Germany, Mexico and Australia. More to be revealed. We’ll have a wide range of workshop topics including:

We are also planning on having a morning group meditation around the International Fountain at the Seattle Center. Can you picture hundreds of addicts meditating together on a beautiful Seattle summer morning? The grounds there are beautiful and expansive, and it will be a great way to start the day. We will be having dances, comedy and LIVE music throughout the weekend, so there is something for everyone. Hotels: We have made arrangements with two hotels close to the Seattle Center: The Holiday Inn and the Holiday Inn Express. The Holiday Inn Express has a pool and continental breakfast; The Holiday Inn has a restaurant (no pool). The Marathon Meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn. More info on our Hotel Info page.

There are other hotel options available in all price ranges. Seattle is a very busy place in July, so we suggest you make reservations soon for the best rates. Here is a link for more info.

Again, this is a special event…by invitation only—and everyone’s invited! Hope to see you there.

Nick H. and Andy S., SINAC Committee members
POSTED BY ANDY, SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2009, 10:49 PM

First of all, I would like to thank all of those people who have offered to help spread the word about our world class event. It is really great watching recovery in action, recovering addicts asking how they can help.

We have launched a new program under the heading of Convention Ambassador. It is still a program under construction; and with input from the membership, it will evolve to become a fantastic method to keep all who want to know about what we are up to in the know. We now have convention ambassadors in three countries and throughout the U.S. We have started an ambassador page to assist ambassadors with communicating with the convention committee. We are always looking for people who would like to become ambassadors.

The convention committee wants our attendees to feel connected with other attendees and we are exploring ways to make it easy to do so. We can still feel alone in a crowd, especially when we do not know the people around us.

We are really excited about the upcoming convention and again, we would like to invite everyone to our precious corner of the world.

The Seattle International Convention started as a grass roots effort initially supported by recovering addicts from four areas in the Puget Sound region. It has blossomed to include people from all over the world.

Hope to see you in July

Nick H., SINAC Committee member

The planning committee is very excited and honored to host the first International Convention in Seattle. We know we have taken on a huge and ambitious endeavor.

We are progressing very well, and it is due to the hard work and talent of the committee members. We are diverse and motivated with a goal to make addicts from all over the world feel welcome and accepted.

Of course, with international in the name we are selecting speakers from all over the world. I have been told by our Program Chair, the convention main speakers got clean in countries other than the US. The convention committee is on a mission to provide as much recovery as possible from borders beyond. This certainly does not imply that we want to leave out the great recovery we have here. Quite the contrary, we feel that recovery in the States is pretty awesome.

I cannot think of a better place to have a large gathering of recovering addicts than Seattle in the summer. What a place to be in July!

The Entertainment Committee is all about providing first class musical acts. Music will be filling the air from different areas of the venue and at varying times during the day. Saturday’s music starts around noon and runs most of the day.

The convention starts Friday morning, with recovery workshops ongoing both Friday and Saturday.

We have made it easy to register. There are three ways in which to do so: online, downloading the flyer and mailing it in, and also we still have a limited number of Premium Pre-Registrations available.

The committee’s goal is to make our web site interactive with communication flowing between the committee and those people who would like to attend. This option is something we are working on and hopefully have available shortly. You can always contact us by email at info@seattlenaconvention.org. Or if you wish to call, you may leave a message at 206-781-7720 and a committee member will get back to you within a day.

The committee would like to invite all of you who are reading this to come and make the Seattle International Narcotics Anonymous Convention a huge success. Without you it would not be the same!

We are looking for convention ambassadors from areas near and far to help in spreading information about the convention. If this is something you might interested in helping with, please contact the planning committee. The committee can be reached at info@seattlenaconvention.org.

Hope to see you in July. Be sure you bring shorts.

Nick H. SINAC Committee member