The History of DATIG
From early in the life of the Debtors Anonymous Telephone Intergroup, we have referred to it as DATIG. Many people pronounce it “day-tig.”
The history of DATIG is not dramatic. It is merely a story of Debtors Anonymous members volunteering to step up and give service where they perceive a need.
Part I: Events at the 2008 World Service Conference in Salt Lake City
General Service Representatives (GSR's) attend the Debtors Anonymous World Service Conference (WSC), which takes place once a year in August. At each conference, each General Service Representative joins one of the eight World Service Conference Committees. These include Public Information, Literature, Operations, etc. In addition, each General Service Representative may attend one of the three (World Service Conference Caucuses: Technology, Diversity, and Intergroup. Caucuses are like junior varsity committees; they meet in the evening hours after the daytime events are finished, and they only meet for three separate sessions of one hour each. Caucuses are not allowed to bring motions to the floor of the convocation.
Part of the work of each committee and caucus is to answer Issues and Concerns (often abbreviated I&C). These are one-page concerns sent into the World Service Conference from all over the country. Each issue is sent to the appropriate committee or caucus for an answer.
There were 96 Issues and Concerns presented to the 2008 World Service Conference . Eight were directed to all committees and caucuses. About twenty were directed specifically to the Fellowship Communications Committee. One of these was “Issue 18: Is there a phone meeting Intergroup? If not, would it be helpful to set one up?” The Fellowship Communications Committe (FCC) decided to send this to the Intergroup Caucus.
The Intergroup Caucus response was (quoting from the World Service Conference report) “The Intergroup Caucus will craft a statement to send out via eNews, that it has been suggested that the phone meetings might benefit by forming an Intergroup, and to invite anyone who would be interested in that to contact the Intergroup Caucus for assistance.”
There seem to be a lot of 'weasel words' in that statement. For one thing, no statement can go out on the eNews without General Service Board (GSB) approval. And there was considerable discussion in our Caucus meetings that any new Telephone Intergroup should spring from the telephone meetings themselves, and not be created by fiat of the World Service Conference .
Part II: The Telephone Meetings of the Intergroup Caucus
Each Committee and Caucus arranges to have monthly telephone meetings, where they work on the topics which have been chosen at the World Service Conference.
