Area 75
	Alcoholics Anonymous in Southern Wisconsin

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Alcoholic’s Anonymous – Area 75

9:00 a.m. Saturday May 17, 2008

Spring Conference Assembly Meeting

Olympia Resort & Conference Center

Oconomowoc, Wisconsin

MINUTES

SPRING CONFERENCE ASSEMBLY MEETING

OFFICERS PRESENT: John B., Area Chairperson; Ron B. Alt. Chair; George P., Delegate; Stu E., Alt Delegate/Literature; Nancy B., Secretary ; Nancy H., Treasurer; Cynthia H., Alt. Treasurer

STANDING COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON PRESENT: Nancy G., Grapevine Chair; Matt Z., PI Chair; John W., Special Needs Chair; George D., Area 75 Registrar; Howard P., Conference Advisory Chair; Marty S. Corrections Chair; Cheryl M., CPC Chair; Chris C., Treatment Chair; Nancy S., Archivist

DCM’S PRESENT; D1-Art B.; D2- Denise E.; D3- Jim K.; D8-Bridgett A., D11-Dewey K.; D12- Terry H.; D13- Kane B.; D14 Frank S. Alt.; D15- Mike B.; D16-Theresa W.; D17-Linda N.; D19- John S.; D20-Doreen H.; D24- JD O.; D27- Gary C.; D28- Dave F.; D29- Gary E.; D30- Ken G.; D31 Benjamin B.; D34- Drew A.; D36- Paul H.; D37-Jeanne P.

GSR’S & DISTRICT COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS PRESENT; D1- Jeanette S., Brad B.; D2- Bob T., Jim DeB., D6-Connie M.; D8-Edna L., Toni M.; D11-Bob P.; D12-Molly K., Bruce D., Cathi W., Richard R., Ron M.; D13-Tom W., Leslie F., Rick S., Bob M., Phyllis R., Scott C., Paula F., Mark L., Diane P., Dolly H.; D14-Diane E.; D15- Clay K.; D17- Rob H.; D20-Flesha; Sunshine G. D24-Jonathan L., Matt K, Jared R., Jes B,; D25-Marty P., Marian B., George B., Jeff Z.; D28-Terry L.; D29-Miriam D., Lynn G., Gail S., Pat B., Dennis D.; D32-Kari E.,; D34-Erin J., Connie M., Susan E.; D36-Pete W.; D37-Sandy P.

OTHERS PRESENT: Past Delegates: John B., Joan J., Nancy G., Ken G., Leo M., Bill H., Bob B., Karen K., Will K., Bill A.;2008 Fall Conf. Annette D.; 2010 Spring Conf. Bob S.

• John B., Area Chairperson, opened the meeting with a moment of silence, followed by the serenity prayer.

• Stu E., Alternate Delegate & Literature Chair, read the Twelve Concepts.

• Nancy B., Area Secretary, took Roll Call.

SECRETARIES REPORT - Nancy B.

Reviewed minutes from Pre-Conference Assembly, Sunday April 20, 2008; containing Financial Statements, Chair Reports, and Proposal Results.

Reminder: please notify George D., our Registrar via e-mail (if possible) of any information changes regarding groups, DCM addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc. Thank you.

TREASURERS REPORT – Nancy H.

Balance Sheet as of 4/30/08

ASSETS
Current Assets
Cash in Checking-M&I	271.43
Prudent Reserve-M&I	3,350.00
Cash-Count On Us	197.56
Cash - Rainbow Can	1,374.22
A/R-Conference Seed Money	3,000.00
Equipment	1,467.37
Equipment Depreciation	<1,467.37>
Total Current Assets		8,193.21
Total Assets		8,193.21
LIABILITIES AND CAPITAL
Current Liabilities
Total Current Liabilities		0.00
Total Liabilities		0.00
Capital
Retained Earnings	8,629.07
Net Income	<435.86>
Total Capital		8,193.21
Total Liabilities & Capital		8,193.21

Budget vs Actual as of 4/30/08

Office/Committee	2008 Actual YTD	2008 Total Budget	2008 Variance YTD	%
Overhead	$1,227.50	$3,180.00	1,952.50	61.40%
Delegate	$1,953.48	$3,345.00	1,391.52	41.60%
Alt. Delegate/Lit.	$731.33	$1,996.67	1,265.34	63.37%
Chair	$3.50	$1,399.00	1,395.50	99.75%
Secretary	$326.16	$1,532.00	1,205.84	78.71%
Treasurer	$411.88	$1,316.00	904.12	68.70%
CPC	$541.00	$1,550.00	1,009.00	65.10%
Corrections	$262.37	$2,065.00	1,802.63	87.29%
Grapevine	$0.00	$1,467.00	1,467.00	100.00%
Public Info.	$0.00	$1,157.00	1,157.00	100.00%
Treatment	$58.60	$1,039.00	980.40	94.36%
Spcl. Needs	$110.03	$892.00	781.97	87.66%
Archivist	$1,353.30	$2,925.00	1,571.70	53.73%
Alt. Chair	$44.61	$390.00	345.39	88.56%
Alt. Secretary	$0.00	$321.00	321.00	100.00%
Alt. Treasurer	$0.00	$210.00	210.00	100.00%
Archives Chair	$0.00	$578.40	578.40	100.00%
TOTAL	$7,023.76	$25,363.07	18,339.31	72.31%
COU Literature	$0.00
Rainbow Literature	$1,566.90
TOTAL	$8,590.66

Income Statement as of 4/30/08

	Current This Year	Current Last Year	Year to Date This Year	Year to Date Last Year
Revenues
Group Donations	2,032.59	2,849.97	7,217.32	7,515.66
Conference Proceeds	0.00	0.00	198.31	0.00
Total Revenues	2,032.59	2,849.97	7,415.63	7,515.66
Expenses
Conference Booth Fee	450.00	0.00	450.00	0.00
GSO Fees	0.00	0.00	1,200.00	1,200.00
Interpreters/Equipment	0.00	25.00	0.00	72.99
Literature	0.00	0.00	156.80	65.46
Lodging	216.20	0.00	613.07	387.53
Meals	43.63	0.00	135.25	204.00
Mileage	997.99	263.46	1,694.51	770.60
Misc/Office Expense	158.03	34.93	203.70	306.77
Postage	287.77	349.40	453.11	405.53
Printing/Copies	127.92	96.06	310.82	395.23
Registration Fees	15.00	14.00	59.00	97.00
Rent	416.50	416.50	1,147.50	1,198.50
Archives Rent	0.00	0.00	600.00	600.00
Telephone	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.88
Travel/Airfare	0.00	0.00	0.00	398.20
Total Expenses	2,713.04	1,199.35	7,023.76	6,102.69
Net Income	<680.45>	1,650.62	391.87	1,412.97
Contributions Rainbow & Count On Us
Group Donations - Rainbow	593.74	433.79	1,336.85	918.33
Group Donations - Count On Us	74.00	5.00	136.00	40.60
Expenditures Rainbow & Count On Us
Literature - Rainbow/COU	684.80	377.00	1,566.90	1,750.00

Delegates (Panel 57) Report From 2008 General Service Conference - George P.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

• Arrived at the Crowne Plaza at about 3 p.m.

• Dinner at Gallagher’s Steak House with about 17 ECR folks. Steaks are $40! This came out of my pocket.

• Delegates’-only meeting

  • France J. is Delegate chair

    • Her English is much better but still has interpreter to help.

  • Several presentations

    • Conference procedures

    • How to do a delegates report

    • Proposal for Delegate’s-only email discussion list (Google group)

  • Two panel 57 delegates from each region share experience from last year’s conference.

    • Don’t be afraid to go to the mike

    • Trust the process

    • You will hit the wall

    • Get plenty of rest

    • You are not alone. We all felt afraid and had that “deer in the headlights” look.

    • Reach out to others

    • Serenity group meets mornings at 7:30 a.m.

  • Question period included lots about the proposed email discussion list. It will be voted on at the Tuesday night Delegate’s-only meeting.

  • Meeting ended at about 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

• Breakfast at McDonalds, just three blocks north of hotel

• Mass at St. Malachy’s Church – the Actor’s Chapel – just across the street from hotel

• Registration materials were picked up at 11 a.m. I was given $170 in cash to cover breakfasts and a few dinners during the week.

• 11:45 a.m. Lunch with East Central Region delegates and trustee. We had discussions about ECR business and about conference procedures for new panel 58 delegates.

• 1:15 p.m. Opening session begins. I was privileged to read a portion from p. 288 of AA Comes of Age to officially open the conference.

  • Greg M. took roll call

  • France J., Conference Delegate Chair read a stirring greeting statement in English. Last year, she could speak hardly any English at all. This year, she was able to read many pages in English we could all understand.

  • Chuck B., Trustee, delivered the keynote address.

  • Greg explained conference mechanics and procedures and we agreed on certain of these. Doug R. went through certain agenda and manual-related items and there was a brief time for questions.

• 2:45 p.m. I had an hour break because my committee met during the second of three “slots” of meetings between Trustees and Conference Committee members. It was raining outside so all I could do was stand in the hotel entrance and watch people with umbrellas walk by.

  • 3:45 p.m. Joint meeting of Trustees Finance committee and Conference Finance Committee

    • I met the panel 58 members of the Finance committee. Vincent K., chair of the Trustees finance committee gave a short overview of AA finances. There was time for asking questions of the Trustees. Having read the various financial statements, I asked why the Royalties paid on the Big Book had decreased from 2006 to 2007. I was told that one of the recipients had passed away.

• 4:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. spent time in the room with my wife.

• 6:30 p.m. Opening Dinner and AA meeting

  • Sat with some volunteers from the New York Central office.

  • 5 AA members had 10 minutes to share their experience, strength and hope from the podium. Meeting lasted until about 9:30

• 9:30 p.m. Bed time.

Monday, April 28, 2008

• Breakfast at Pax Wholesome Foods

• 9 a.m. First Conference Committee Meetings

  • We agreed upon using “substantial unanimity” to decide on any Recommendations out of committee. That meant that we would need 6 votes to pass something instead of 5 (simple majority). We also agreed to use the “round robin” method of conducting committee business. This means that each person in order is polled and allowed to speak in that order. Motions can be made and seconded but sharing is always in order around the table.

  • We covered our first agenda item regarding the discussion of the creation of a “Finance Kit” by deciding to make and “additional consideration” regarding adding the Finance Guidelines document to the Self Support Kit. This kit is a service piece and not even available in the Literature catalog. Thus, we did not think this issue merited discussion and voting by the Conference.

  • Upon consideration of our second agenda item, we ran out of time before coming to any decision on what to do with it.

• 12 noon Lunch

  • Lunch was sandwiches with several kinds of breads and meats and several salad-type dishes.

• 1:15 p.m. Monday Afternoon sessions

  • Panel 58 delegates from the Southwest Region and the Northeast Region delivered area Service Highlights.

• 2:00 p.m. General Service Board Report by Leonard B., Chairperson of the General Service Board

  • Questions were presented about various details of the “Minority Report” regarding the handling of the GSO General Manager situation.

  • Leonard reported 131 hotel room nights he spent on AA business last year.

• 2:30 p.m. AAWS Board Report, Howard L., SE Regional Trustee, AAWS Board Chair.

  • Responsible for Finances, GSO and Publications

  • They welcomed 1477 guests to the GSO in 2007.

  • Welcomed reps from Mexico’s General Service Structure to the Board Weekend February 1-4, 2008

  • Net increase of 941 AA groups last year. They try to get kits in the hands of new GSR’s and DCM’s within 21 days. Usually delays are caused by delays in getting the information to AAWS. FNV has aided in the process immensely.

  • New ideas are continually being explored regarding the AA Website.

  • There is a full page in the formal report describing International Travel by staff and trustees.

  • Finances: All things were up. Sales were up. Contributions were up to over 6.5 million dollars for the first time. Revenue was hugely up. Net profit was up. It was a good year financially.

  • There were many things to report in Publications. Spanish language Big Book was the most notable achievement. Sold over a million Big Books.

  • Converted VCR tapes to DVD’s …have done everything except a few American Sign Language items.

  • They discussed whether Areas should be requested to “anonymity-protect” the Final Report of the GSC if they wanted to put it on their websites but did not take action on that. If you do a Google Search on “Howard Lowery AA” you get lots of hits. This should not happen.

  • Translation projects include AA in Hebrew, Amharic (for Ethiopia) and Greek-revised.

  • Fellowship New Vision is fully integrated and proving to be a great asset to AA.

  • Questions

    • Why does Grapevine have a “bulletin board” but AAWS does not provide that for Areas?

      • Concern about monitoring and being authority over the sharing that people might do. Resources needed to do this are a concern as well.

        • Grapevine reviews the postings and editors edit them once a week – Robin B.

      • Question about FNV customization of reports and lists?

        • Suggestions and comments are taken and changes are implemented as time and resources allow.

        • Greg- Release 2 should be out by the end of summer. But this is only relevant to changes needed for stuff that GSO wants. This may or may not improve things for Areas. They are already taking suggestions for Release 3.

      • Question about links to places other than Online Intergroup on the AA website?

        • There are links to all of the Area and Intergroup websites on the AA website.

      • Follow-up: What is the procedure to get your Area website linked?

        • Answer: Just ask.

      • Area would like to have a Forum in Puerto Rico? How do we ask about that?

        • It is possible to have a local forum in PR and Rick W. should be contacted regarding such a local forum.

      • Friend whose native language is Sunni. What guidelines are used to decide translation into a given language?

        • Chris, Publications Dept, Typically there needs to be distribution ability available. Otherwise, they will try to honor all requests. i.e. There was a large Armenian population in Los Angeles so they translated the Big Book and other literature into that language.

      • Translation was done into Ojibwa and 400 copies were made. How can this be adopted by AAWS and made an inventory item?

        • Ojibwa Big Book was recorded but there is not yet vetted. No evaluation as to spirit of our fellowship has been done.

      • Spanish translations also include English on our videos. In the future will our DVD’s include more than one language?

        • Chris: We are working toward blanking out other languages and only having one language on the DVD.

      • Does AAWS nominating committee have procedures? Do they include procedures regarding the GSO General Manager?

        • Yes. They do have procedures.

        • AAWS board received General Manager’s resignation in January.

      • Why aren’t the Delegates’ only meeting minutes available anymore? They ended in 1987.

        • Greg: That was the decision of the delegates to cease keeping a record of Delegates only meeting.

      • Why did Rick W. go to the NA convention in San Antonio?

        • Rick: They used the same venues that we plan to use in 2010. We needed to see how they conducted their conference in these venues, heat management, how people were moved from one venue to another, etc. Their attendance was lower than anticipated. There was not a precedent but this seemed like a good time to assess this venue.

        • There was an observation of Promise Keepers in Minneapolis prior to the International Convention being held there in 2000. The fact that Rick went to the NA convention had nothing to do with them being NA.

      • Regarding Spanish Language Big Books: We have been told that each Spanish Language District will receive a complementary case of these books.

        • Eva: Some offices had incorrect addresses. Just contact us and we’ll send them out.

      • How many requests are enough to make a decision on translation to a given language?

        • Chris: Adequate distribution is the chief issue, not the number of requests.

• 3 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. coffee break

• Grapevine Board Report – Ray M.

  • He used a PowerPoint presentation

  • Bob M. and Herb G. will rotate off

    • Conley B. was recommended as a replacement for Bob M. The class A trustee position will remain vacant.

  • Circulation of the print magazine was 3099 higher than budget and 2221 higher than last year.

  • “Emotional Sobriety” was a “blockbuster hit”.

  • 40,000 hits per month on the Grapevine website.

  • In Dec. 31 a loss of 25,295 which was over 50,000 ahead of budget

  • La Vina was also way ahead of budget although they experienced a loss.

  • Questions:

    • Is the PowerPoint of this available?

      • We’ll make it so.

    • What is an AA disaster plan?

      • Ray: I came to the Board just after 911. We want to make sure that AA is protected in case of a disaster. Our stories are safely put away and protected.

    • Considering the mission statement of the Grapevine, questions probed about this statement. (Can there be a hidden agenda here having to do with the “grey pages”?)

      • It was pointed out that the mission statement was crafted essentially for internal use and not to be interpreted externally.

    • Have any of the other 58 General Services offices throughout the world ever asked to reprint issues or articles out of our grapevine?

      • Yes. They often start out borrowing from us and gradually move on to using more of their own. We do not charge a fee.

• Finance – Vince K.

  • Vince used a PowerPoint presentation to deliver his report.

  • Entire presentation is available from the GSO (Ivy)

    • We spent 3.1% more than 2006

    • In 2006 a fund was created to fund future payments to our pension fund.

    • $6.88 per member would allow the fellowship to be fully self-supporting in 2008.

    • Group contributions increased 7.6% from the previous year. This is the third year in a row that contributions have gone up.

    • 2008 projected Grapevine profit is 3202 as opposed to losses of 48K and 25K the previous two years.

    • Questions

      • Do we have any knowledge of how many sales of AA literature we have lost due to other people printing our literature?

        • We do not.

• 4:30 p.m. break to 4:45 p.m.

• 4:45 p.m. East Central Region panel 58 delegates give Area Highlights

• 5:10 p.m. Western Canada Region panel 58 delegates give Area Highlights

• 6:00 p.m. Dinner was prime rib…pretty good but I’m not nuts about all their salads and dressings…my tastes are simple…this food is pretentious?

• 7:15 p.m. Pacific Region panel 58 delegates give Area Highlights

• Southeast Region panel 58 delegates give Area Highlights

• 8:00 p.m. Presentation/Discussion – Unity

  • John F. – Saskatchewan – Our Common Welfare Should Come First

  • Linda S. – Louisiana – Principles Before Personalities

  • Paul A. –Oklahoma – Diversity, Reaching out to all alcoholics

• 8:30 p.m. Break

• 8:45 p.m. Sharing Session – What’s on your mind

  • Can we get the PowerPoint of Vince K.’s Finance presentation and Ray M.’s Grapevine presentation on the Dashboard?

    • Greg M.: The Dashboard is under the Trustees purview

      • They are using Microsoft SharePoint software for the Dashboard.

  • Is there a policy for handling minority reports at the Board level? Do they get included in the Board Minutes

    • There is no policy. No. It’s a board decision

  • Inmates in a Correctional Institution asked me if AA could provide a “Big Book for Dummies”?

    • Polite giggles….no answer

  • Can we make the packaging of the Grapevine more attractive? I don’t like the black plastic wrapper.

    • Robin B.: Black was chosen because other colors were not opaque enough.

  • Is posting photographs of Bill and Dr. Bob putting personalities before principles?

    • No response was offered.

  • Can PowerPoint presentations and other documents be burned to CDs and sent out to delegates?

    • No response was provided.

  • Why are we operating with one trustee short right now?

    • The Eastern Canada Trustee died shortly into his term. The delegates from that region were given a choice regarding filling the term right away……Answer was interrupted because this pertains to an agenda item and discussion regarding agenda items is forbidden during Sharing time.

  • There were many comments about diversity, especially as it pertains to the Board level.

  • Is the Big Book Dated? Can it be simplified? Modernized?

  • Only 9 people “of color” have been trustees since 1935.

  • Could we benefit by having a Class A trustee who has “credibility with the media”?

  • Point was made that diversity is not so much having a balance of skin colors, as it understands other cultures.

  • Finally, it as pointed out that WE ALREADY HAVE A BIG BOOK FOR DUMMIES

  • MEETING adjourned at 9:45 p.m.

Tuesday, April 28, 2008

• 9:00 a.m. Second meeting of Conference Committees

  • My committee worked right up until the deadline but managed to finish our business and elect a chair and co-chair. Suzanne W. from the ECR was elected Chair of the Finance committee for the 59^th General Service Conference and will attend the Board Weekend in January of 2009 in preparation for that role.

• Noon – Lunch was hamburgers, hot dogs, ribs, and frozen Ice Cream treats…my favorite meal!

• 1:15- 1:45 p.m. Area Highlights presented by Eastern Canada and West Central Regional panel 58 delegates

• 1:45 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Presentation/Discussion

  • Communication and Participation

    • Claude M. , Southeastern Quebec: Sharing the Message of Service.

    • Kiki R., District of Columbia: Our Key to Keeping AA Strong.

    • Bob C., Southeast Michigan: Leadership in AA: Building Communication.******* Best presentation so far!!!

• 2:15 p.m. Sharing session

  • Box 459 often addresses JUST what we need to hear.

  • Background material is being distributed much more widely that it used to be. Raw information is getting out there. Delegates have to work harder to explain it. Should the way that background information is distributed be examined?

  • Service is Sponsorship. Sponsors promote service.

  • Groups that call themselves groups are acting more like meetings.

  • Is the Audio Grapevine affecting the print version? Is the Audio version growing?

    • Circulation for Audio grapevine went up since the price was lowered.

      • 70% of those who get the paper Grapevine also get the Audio Grapevine. No. Audio Grapevine has not negatively affected the Print Grapevine – Ray M., Class A trustee and Grapevine director.

  • Too much conference time is spent on revising the service manual. There are too many pamphlets. – Vernon – Hawaii

  • Could we develop an AA member’s handbook? A book like “Living Sober”. A book that talks about sponsorship and tells people how to use our literature.

  • The I-Say bulletin board gets about 2000 hits per month….20-25 posts per month. Maggie K. – Grapevine Director

  • Have a laptop at AA events that members can step up to and subscribe to the Grapevine.

  • What is going on right now regarding translations of the Big Book?

    • Chris – AA publications director - There are 58 translations right now. There are three more in process. There are 84 languages that our literature has been translated into.

  • It’s great that the fellowship as a whole is seeing the background for conference Agenda items but the Delegates are the end-users who are responsible for acting on it.

  • How much does it cost to translate the Big Book into another language?

    • 5-8 thousand to explore

    • 10-14 thousand for the actual translation

  • Why is the Sign language BB so much more expensive?

    • The AAWS board set all translations at $6. The ASL BB also costs that.

• 3:15 – 5 p.m. Trip to GSO and Grapevine offices

  • Rode the subway up to 116^th and Broadway.

  • Visited GSO on 11^th floor, took self guided tour, there was much cake and goodies.

  • Visited Grapevine offices on 10^th floor.

  • Rode subway back to 50^th and Broadway with Michealene from Southern Indiana.

• 6:30 p.m. Dinner – Turkey and dressing and squash and cranberry sauce. Didn’t each much. Cake at GSO must have filled me up.

• Delegates-only meeting

  • There was lots of discussion on setting up a Google Group for email communication. After the smoke cleared, the vote was only about 50-50 so no action was taken. Many people do not understand what was being proposed and many seem to think this is not needed.

  • Lots of people got to share about their perception of the Conference. Opinions range all across the board.

• 9:00 p.m. AA meeting at St. Malachy’s Church.

  • This is across the street from the Hotel. Jeff Y. from Ohio was celebrating 23 years. It was an anniversary meeting. There was also a guy celebrating 90 days. Many other members who shared were young and still very much “counting days”. They ask all who are counting days to tell how many days they have. There were maybe 25-30 people there and the majority looked under 30. When they reach a certain time, people who still want to share are asked to raise their hands and the chair picks who will share. The meeting ended promptly at 10 p.m. Cake was served.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

• 9-11 a.m. Workshop: Love and Tolerance, Now More than Ever

  • My group had 14 members including Class A Trustee, AAWS directors and lots of delegates. We shared around the table with suggested 2 minute limit on the following three questions:

    • What does the face of AA look like? Is there diversity in my group, district, Area and at Conference? If not, what can or should we do about it?

    • How are twelfth step calls being made these days?

    • What challenges have you faced while participating in AA service with placing principles before personalities? In terms of love and tolerance, how well or badly did you deal with these challenges?

• 11 – 11:15 Break

• 11:15 a.m. Sharing Session – What’s on your mind?

  • We are at the halfway point in our 58^th General Service Conference. It has gone by in a flash. Though I feel like I’m in another world, it seems I have been here only an instant.

  • Could we have a list of the names of the people on the search committee for our next General Manager?

    • Adrienne B. – it is in the General Service Board report in our manual.

  • Our area (Central New York) sent in an Area Fact file to Chris C. What happened to it?

    • Chris – Publications director: I’ll check on it and get back to you.

  • Does the AAWS Board and/or the corporate entity take their inventory using the 12 Traditions.

    • John S.- we do it continually - Yes.

    • Follow up: When was it done last?

      • Ans: It’s a continual effort. The GSB formed a subcommittee on this. It’s a 2 year old process that is ongoing.

  • Member shared that he had been involved in AA in prison. He is now a delegate. He knew the importance of getting to that first AA meeting once he got out. He grabbed hold of AA like it as a life preserver. 22 years later his life has become very wonderful.

  • An online group wants to know which district they belong in?

    • Jane T. – AAWS Director – They are not part of our geographical structure. They are separately listed and handled outside of our service structure.

  • Why isn’t there any representation on the search committee for a new General Manager from the middle of the country?

    • Leonard B. Class A trustee and Chair of the GSB

      • Trustees represent AA as a whole. They tried to give it a balance in many other ways but not geographically.

  • Comment: When did the God Grant us, in the Serenity prayer change to God Grand me? Eva S. responded within one day on my question. “AA does not own or endorse the serenity prayer”.

  • What is the Bulletin Board?

    • It’s part of the Dashboard that we are not currently using.

  • South Dakota Delegate thanks the delegates for selecting him alternate delegate chair.

  • Thanks to the conference committee for the Conference Buddy thing. His Buddy got him involved in the Remote Communities meeting.

  • My area wants to put a paragraph back into a story in the back of the Big Book. Is this a waste of time?

    • Chris C. – Publications director: Stories were edited for pagination reasons. It got to the Trustees literature committee and perhaps to the Conference Literature committee and no action was taken.

  • Thanks to Amy for digging issue out of the Archives that helped his committee.

  • The quote in the Big Book attributed to Herbert S. is not rightly credited. How do we go about getting this changed?

    • Doug R.: First I’ve heard of this. Send it to Eva S.

  • There is a change on Page 100 in the Service manual. When did the Grapevine change from a subsidiary to an affiliate?

    • Howard L.: AAWS Board Chair: I don’t know.

    • Tom J.: I don’t know either but, back when I was a directory it was referred to as a subsidiary. The corporate structure has evolved. It may never actually have been a subsidiary. From 1983 on it never was a subsidiary

    • George M. – Non trustee director of AAWS

      • AAWS is the successor to Works Publishing. In the 60’s the GSB, Grapevine and AAWS all became membership corporations. We still think of them as subsidiary corporations but they are affiliates in a very technical sense.

  • Leo S. - If you ‘d like to return my Herbert S. bookmarks, you can return them. (laughter)

    • Last year there was an issue about a minority report. The result of that minority report was an apology. Why was that?

    • Leonard B.: The board had a thorough executive session on this minority report. During this discussion it became clear that spiteful and hurtful comments had come out. We felt we should apologize. We did and we made a subcommittee to present that apology and to deal with the fallout.

  • Bob M.: Regarding the inventory process: Had three inventories. Beginning in Spring 2005. AAWS did one in December. GSB did one in 2006. A subcommittee formed in 2006 prepared questions. The 12 traditions were not necessarily used in creating those questions.

  • Janet- Western Pennsylvania – Thanks to conference committee chairs and secretaries who worked late into the night.

  • Gayle R. – GSO staff: What’s in my heart. During a sharing session yesterday a delegate complained about the obscurity of the background information. I talked to that delegate this morning and we had a wonderful conversation.

  • Sharon B. – California Northern Coastal area There are two different versions and the older one has a different version on Feb. 29 than the newer one?

    • Chris C.: I don’t know the answer. I’ll get back to you.

    • Tom J.: There was probably duplication at some point.

• Doug R.:

  • Regional elections begin promptly at 1:15 p.m.

• Noon – Lunch with East Central Region: The joke that forms the basis of the ECR official greeting was told expertly by Jeff Y.

• 1:15 p.m. Election of Regional Trustee

  • Election of West Central Regional Trustee

    • Kenneth P. B. was elected after 4 ballots from the hat after the motion for a 5^th ballot failed.

      • Four voters were chosen from the Trustees Nominating Committee, 4 from the Conference Committee on Trustees and the 8 Regional Delegates from this region were the electors and the only ones voting in this election.

  • Election of Western Canada Regional Trustee

    • Victor (Vic) P. was elected after 4 ballots from the hat after the motion for a 5^th ballot failed

      • Two voters were chosen from the Trustees Nominating Committee, 2 from the Conference Committee on Trustees and the 4 Regional Delegates from this region were the electors and the only ones voting in this election.

• 2:55 p.m. Presentation/Discussions

  • Liz O. – Central New York - Unity and Communication

  • Madeline P. – Pacific Region Trustee and Grapevine Director – Participation: The Privilege of Passing it on.

• 3:15 p.m. Sharing Session

  • Area decided they wanted “staple-less” Grapevine. Proposal was not put on the agenda. They told delegate to introduce a floor action. He said, “I can’t/won’t do that” Upon meeting with staff here, he was told that it’s too expensive right now. If subscriptions go up, then maybe it will be possible.

  • Story about Diane, a lone drinker who is forcing herself not to drink….She called after 45 days of sobriety. Was told about the Grapevine. She sent the sub form off and now subscribes. Teller of story has other sponsees that also use the Grapevine. Diane called and said, “I’m isolating.” That turns out to be the title on the cover of this latest Grapevine.

  • How to purchase F2 “About Alcoholics Anonymous” or the Conference Report. How do we order those? How many of them were distributed?

  • Linda S. from Louisiana explains that the people in her Area are concerned that those in the corporate entity are looking at things in the corporate way and not in the spiritual way.

  • Tim D. – Is the home group really the top of the line in our structure?

    • Of 14 recommendations forwarded for consideration, only 4 were passed on to the conference. What criteria are used to evaluate whether proposals are presented to the conference.

      • John S. – GS Trustee – There is no set of fixed criteria that apply equally well to every agenda item submitted. We look long and hard at the merits. Has it been before the conference in recent years? Is it or is it not a conference matter? Should it more appropriately go to a board?

  • Tom K. – Western Canada Regional Trustee – We host and annual roundup in our area every year and we give a subscription to the Grapevine to each speaker. We give one to the newest person at each roundup.

  • Dave B.- 58/78 – We buy subscriptions for sponsees, etc. They expire at different times of the year. Have you considered a multiple subscription where the invoice goes to one person and the magazine delivered elsewhere?

    • Robin B. – We don’t do that now. But the first renewal notice for gift subs go to the giver and subsequent ones go to the recipients.

  • Debbie J. – Would like a new goal set for each DCM to get 4 new subscriptions. Commit to getting 4 new subscriptions before next years conference for all delegates here today.

  • Mike – Slowly recovering – P. 567 second paragraph, “Or a religious experience”. This leads someone to believe this is a religious program.

  • Al D., Rhode Island – Grapevine is the best anniversary gift. Is it so important that the paper Grapevine so important? Should we stop worrying about the subscription rate of the paper version? Should we focus more on electronic publishing?

    • Robin B. – We have been thinking about that a lot. We are including the online circulation in our circulation efforts. We are looking at other media. CD’s and other magazines. We are trying to be “media agnostic”.

    • Bob M. – ECR Trustee – Grapevine Director – We talk about our pass-on rate of 4 for the printed version. How does this apply to the electronic version? We do talk about this.

    • Herb G. – Class A trustee – Member of GV board.

      • Some people leave copies of the GV in doctor’s offices and medical facilities with approval. Often the Doctor asks for more. They say it disappears. It is a great 12 step tool in corrections where online tools are not so valuable.

  • Bill F. – Colorado – My sponsee asks “why does the GV always seem to be right what I need to hear?”

  • John C. – No. Illinois – Thanks to Greg M. for all his service to AA.

  • Robert H. – South Carolina – Questions on how a proposed agenda item is treated. Would like explanation of “What is not a conference matter?” Would trustees be willing to make a written explanation of why a particular item was not carried forward?

    • John S. – Frequently requests come for publishing in a different format. Those are sent to the publishing department. They are “not a conference matter”.

    • We try to be neutral in our language when we reject an item. We use “take no action”. Often the staff secretary will talk to the delegate involved for clarification. We are willing to discuss this.

  • Maurice H. – Chicago Area 19- When I was in treatment they gave me all these books. Then they brought a GV. That was easier to digest. Can we give some consideration to putting a GV in the Newcomers kit?

  • Torvald – Alaska 02. Setting up a laptop at assemblies is a good way to get lots of subscriptions.

  • Sylvain L. – I am administrator for LaVin, our magazine. In Quebec we have over 30% subscription rate. I think GV has only 9%. As I look at subscriptions it’s an average of 2 per group. In Quebec the district orders LaVin and all the issues are sold in all the groups. Our 30 % subscribers come from districts or groups because the individual rate is only 2%.

  • Dennis W. – Arizona 03 – I thought there was a flaw with the way we were putting our Boards together. There was too much emphasis on corporate skills. The flaw my friends thought was exactly the opposite of what I thought it was.

  • Vernon 57/17 – I attended Board Weekend. I saw how things work. There is a perception that the Trustees are not responsive to the fellowship. There is a lot of action that takes place before the Board says “No action”. Want to see Trustees realize that there is an issue with this and perhaps take a second look at things.

  • Jim B. – Grapevine Director – I began receiving the GV early in my sobriety. On the road of happy destiny, I have not found a clear white line down the middle. When you lose the copyright to the first edition of the big book, you are not listening with the Language of the heart.

  • Claude – 57/88 SE Quebec – Thanks to Liz and Madeline for their presentations. He appreciates the Grapevine. It helps him improve his English. It is an inspiration for the French language LaVin.

  • David M. 58/16 Georgia – I take meetings into 2 different prisons. We have many Hispanics who do not speak English but do come to meetings. Recently gave a new 3^rd edition of the Spanish Big Book to an inmate. I also take LaVina into the prisons.

  • Brook 58/76 – Can the delegates being given a list of what proposals were sent in and how they were disposed of? Which ones were passed on? Which ones were not added to the agenda? Can you do that? No answer.

  • Newton P. – South Carolina – More concern about items submitted as agenda items but for which “no action was taken”. Please provide more reasons why a proposal was not passed forward.

  • Gustavo – 57/05 – There are different factors as to why items do not make it into the conference agenda. Does the GV have funds for LaVina in digital format?

    • Robin B. – We don’t have LaVina scheduled for digital access. It is on the horizon but we don’t know when.

  • Mike – Iowa – We will not be able to discuss one particular topic regarding the GV if it does not come out of committee.

  • Roghelio F. – Class A trustee - Gave an offender a GV and told her to write an article about it. She wrote about every story in that issue. He now gives the GV and LaVina to offenders. Every public defender should have copies of GV and Lavina in their offices.

  • Francis – Eastern Mass. – Former delegate has every issue of the GV except the first one. He was able to help her complete her collection by providing that missing issue. The pass-along rate is very important.

  • Suzanne W. – 58/56 – Thanks to the Board for their efforts.

  • Dot D. 57/83 – Eastern Ontario International – 3 of our districts are in the US. One of these districts is dark because they can’t cross the border to get to assemblies. Would ask the help of any delegate who has groups on both sides of the border to help make this better and manageable.

  • Dodi – 58/74 – When an Area brings something forward its not just an Area. It’s a lot of people. When that item gets rejected we need to know why. Dinged.

  • Joe S. 58/12 – Member of Grapevine committee. The Grapevine is Wonderful.

  • George M. – non-trustee director – Concept 3 talks about right of decision. Concept 6 applies too. Why is my great idea rejected? Why wasn’t mine selected? Concept 6 talks about large matters of general policy and finance. The filtering system we have has worked quite well. Don’t take it personally. Good ideas will eventually make it through. Maybe not on your time but on God’s time.

  • Julie S. – Correctional friendly GV…no staples. How many subscriptions do we need to be able to afford staple-free GV?

    • Robin B. – it costs $2500 – $3000 more to produce a edition staple-free. We have been providing the July issue staple free every year and demand for that issue has gone down. Encourages us to have staple pulling parties. Dinged.

  • Chris C. – answer to previous question.

    • F-2 distribution 300673 in 2007

    • M-23 distributed 53704 in 2007.

    • Why aren’t these listed with other items in the binders? We don’t list everything. The list is not meant to be all-inclusive.

    • We will re-evaluate the list for next time.

• 4:40 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. Free time. I walked over to 6^th Avenue and then up to Central Park then back down Broadway to the Hotel. My walk was the first good one I’ve gotten in all week. It was a bright day with plenty of sun and about 55 degrees.

• 6:00 p.m. Dinner

  • I sat with Ward E., Class A trustee, and delegates from Eastern and Western Washington, Colorado, Ohio, New Hampshire, Michigan and a staffer from GSO

  • Dinner was salmon.

• 6:45 p.m. Went up to my room to catch up on these notes.

• 7:45 p.m. Evening session Committee Reports

  • Floor Action #1: To amend the 1959 Conference Advisory Action to display certain flags

  • Floor Action #2: Recommend that the trustees committee develop guidelines for acceptance of motions and present these to the 2009 conference for review.

  • Review of How the Conference operates.

• Committee on Corrections - Bill N., NE Texas

  • They made no recommendations.

  • Kevin S., New Hampshire is new chairperson and Dodi A., Area 74 is the alternate chair.

• Treatment - Andrew W., Area 40, Montana

  • One recommendation: The committee recommended that he trustees Finance and Budgetary Committee gather input from the Fellowship on the benefits and liabilities, both spiritual and practical of fully funding GSO Services to the Fellowship (G.S.O. functional expenses) by the voluntary contributions of AA members and groups and that this information be forwarded to the 2009 Conference Committee on Finance.

    • Most questions had to do with specifics about GSO services.

    • Bill N. moves to close debate. Motion passes with more than 2/3 majority. 101 – 22

      • Minority opinion: Not enough time to gather information.

      • Motion to reconsider: 45 – 84 fails (only needs simple majority)

• Agenda Committee – Tim D. – Alabama / NW Florida

  • Recommended that the Theme for the 2009 GSC be “Our Commitment to Carry AA’s Message –Enthusiasm and Gratitude in Action”

    • Carried with none in opposition.

  • Recommended topics for presentation/discussion at 2009 GSC

    • One vote in opposition. No minority opinion offered

  • Recommended workshop topic: “Language of the Heart – Keeping it simple.”

    • Passed with no opposition.

• Conference Committee on Trustees - John M., Northern New Jersey

  • Recommended slates of Trustees and officers of the General Service Board.

    • Passed after considerable attention to the fact that we are operating one Class B short.

  • Recommended appointment of Donald M. as Assistant Treasurer and Adrienne B. as Assistant Secretary

    • Passed without opposition

  • Recommended slate of directors of AA World Services, Inc.

    • Passed without opposition

  • Recommended slate of directors of AA Grapevine Corporate Board

    • Passed with only a few votes against. No minority opinion

  • Recommended language regarding length of Service of the General Manager, G.S.O.

    • “It is generally recognized that it is in the best interest of the Board and the individual to agree on a maximum length of employment for this position at the time of hire”.

• Thursday, May 1, 2008

  • 9:00 a.m. Morning session opens.

  • Request to reconsider the minority opinion on the issue of whether votes are being counted. Chairman takes a hand vote and while it looked to me that 2/3 did not want all votes counted especially when the vote was not close; he said all votes would be counted.

    • Ray M. questioned as to why, when the vote of the body was obviously in favor of not counting all votes, the chairman called on “Chair’s privilege”

  • Discussion continues on the language regarding the specific timeframe referred to at the time that a General Manager is hired.

    • It is pointed out that this advisory action only suggests to the Trustees nominating committee that they THINK ABOUT changing a policy that is their right alone to change. Whether the motion passes or not, there is no obligation to the Trustees Nominating committee to do anything.

    • Ward E., Class A trustee who works with labor lawyers all the time: Points out that having an at-will employee is good for both sides. Either side can choose to terminate the agreement without any cause. Under other circumstances, it is nearly impossible to remove an employee unless there is strong evidence of gross misconduct.

    • People will just NOT GET OFF their insistence that we MUST rotate out of every service position including employees of the GSO.

    • Limiting the term of a General Manager could deter younger talented individuals from being willing to pull up stakes and take a job that lasts only 5-7 years.

    • Point: We want a contract without a contract. Are there any other GSO employees who are not “at-will”? Answer: NO

    • Is it the message you don’t like or the messenger? When we are disrespectful to each other, the entire message is lost.

    • Delegate thanked the committee for their good work and then called the question. He was ruled out of order because of his comments prior to calling the question.

      • I had resentment.

    • Motion to close debate 62-65, motion failed

    • We are trying to craft limits that cannot be crafted. This is about personalities over principles and that’s not right.

    • My heart moved me to speak on this issue. I said that I have been uncomfortable with this “minority report” ever since I first heard about it. If it isn’t broke don’t fix it.

      • After the vote, two trustees complimented me on my remarks and one even suggested I consider standing for Trustee.

    • 10:15 a.m. Move to close debate: Passes 107 yes, 23 no.

      • Vote on main motion: 50 yes, 84 no

      • Break of 15 minutes was taken

        • Many minority opinions were heard. No motion came forth to reconsider

  • 10:55 a.m. Recommendation regarding consideration of both Class A and Class B trustees when selecting the Chairman of the Board and including options for interim changes to member/trustee ratio and composition.

    • Motion passed 121 – 1

  • The committee felt that since 2004 information and discussion has been going on as to whether a Class B can serve as chair of the board. That’s why they chose not to make a recommendation; only an additional consideration,”took no action”.

    • There were many questions regarding the additional considerations, especially as they apply to the lengths of terms of a class B who might be elected chair of the board( could be 8 years), a class B who completes the term of another who has died or left service and then runs for an additional term (7 years), and the fact that no action was taken to revisit the issue of a Class B being eligible to serve as chair of the Board.

    • A floor action was introduced to revisit the 2007 General Service conference advisory action to consider all eligible Class A and Class B trustees when selecting the Chairperson of the General Service board. This precluded further questions on it at this time.

• Policy and Admissions Committee – Gus H. – Southwest Texas

  • Recommendation that the 2011 GSC be held May 1-7.

    • Passed 125 for, 0 against

  • Recommendations regarding guest observers at the GSC. No more than 3 countries and 2 reps from each. Expenses at discretion of the GSB.

    • Motion carried and if they hadn’t insisted on getting a vote count each time, we’d already be moving on and I would not have time to type this. 129 – 0

  • Recommendation that responsibility for General Service Site Selection be delegated to the General Service Office Management.

    • It’s debatable as to who has responsibility for this now. They are trying to clarify. This was discussing in 1991.

    • What does “Office Management” mean? Why not insist that Trustees Conference Committee approve site selection.

      • This generally means the GSO staff. The committee never considered asking the Trustees Conference Committee.

    • It was pointed out that the conference voted to move outside New York for two years and was moved to Rye, NY. A floor action at that conference moved it back to New York City the following year.

    • Allowing the GSO staff to make this decision gives us flexibility in case of a double-booking or other disaster.

      • 12:02 p.m. Vote taken, Motion passed. 104 yes, 23 no.

• Noonish: Lunch: Icky stuff…..spicey meats, spicey rice, some kinda beef I ate lots of.

  • Ate with Dodi 58/74, Mikealene 58/Southern Indiana, Doug R., GSO, Gayle R., GSO, Paul C., trustee, others

  • Beautiful sunshine outdoors as we talked amongst ourselves and watched the “Street Scene”.

• 1:15 p.m. Presentation/Discussion

  • Self-supporting Through Member’s Voluntary Contributions only – Gail H., Western Washington

  • I agree with her presentation and her ideas on this subject!

    • It is OK to operate like we do now. It is not wrong to use book profits to fund the reserve fund and to use the reserve fund to make up for shortfalls in group contributions. When we in the fellowship buy books and literature, we are making contributions from within to our own welfare.

    • We should not inflame our groups by criticizing the way we operate now.

  • Contempt prior to investigation – Dot D., Eastern Ontario/International

    • It did not matter so much about our financial condition as it did about our spiritual condition.

  • Responsibility to Communicate and Participate – Mike M., Iowa

• 1:36 p.m. Return to minority opinion on the Recommendation that passed regarding allowing the GSO management to select the site for the GSC.

  • Visit to the GSO and Grapevine and Archives is very important

  • Motion to reconsider. 77 – 48. Motion passed.

  • Debate continues on the original question.

    • Management of the Crowne Plaza has changed. The new management has been vague about 2010. This is the reason why they want to look elsewhere.

      • We have a contract 2009 but not for 2010. How many facilities around here would meet our needs?

        • Don M.: There are several facilities. We sent requests for proposals to about 4 other properties. There are others but we might not want to sleep there. <giggles>

        • Hotels in the tri-state area. Long island, Westchester, Manhattan. Several of these places have lower rates.

    • Motion to table (must be brought up again during this conference) Motion carries. 91 – 32

  • Floor Action: Consider only all eligible class A trustees when choosing a chairman for the GSB.

  • Floor Action: That the secondary Archives committee be recognized as a standing conference committee.

• Conference Committee on CPC – Nora B. – Arkansas

  • Recommended that the video segments directed to Professionals in the legal/criminal justice and medical fields to be streamed on GSO’s AA website be approved with suggested changes and that the trustee’s committee on Cooperation with the Professional Community/Treatment Facilities oversee there changes.

    • We viewed these two presentations.

      • It will be available close-captioned and will also be available in DVD to local committees.

• 2:45 p.m. Break for coffee, etc.

  • Committee convened over break. Now they would like to amend their motion.

    • Committee would like to change the words “Medical fields” to the word “Healthcare fields”

    • They weren’t crazy about the choice of music and wanted to audio quality to be consistent. It’s really loud when Allen A. speaks, etc.

    • Nobody opposed to the amendment 127 in favor.

• Conference Committee on Public Information – Trish LaN.

  • Recommended that the 2008 PSA for television, I Thought, be approved.

    • Does the tagline include “check your newspaper”? Nope.

      • The 2004 Conference advisory referred to by the questioner about “Check your newspaper” applied only to radio PSAs.

        • Vote on amendment passes. 118 -4

        • They are beating this PSA to freakin’ death!!!

        • It has been tabled pending consideration of yet another amendment. They want the voice to say “We can help.” At the end.

  • Recommendation in Part C. The first one. Voted on and passed by 121-4 or so.

  • Reopen the discussion on the amendment that says add the following words to the voiceover at the end “….we can help”.

    • Vote on the amendment. It’s gonna fail big time! 6-122.

  • Back to the amended recommendation.

    • Immediately moved to close debate. Motion passed. 125-3

    • Vote on the amended motion: ??

• Dinner from 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.

• 7:15 p.m. Evening session

  • PI Committee proposal B. Recommended that the 2008 television public service announcement, “I Thought”, be centrally distributed, tracked and evaluated at a cost not to exceed $35,000 in addition to the work of local Public Information committees.

    • Opinion stated that this technology is outdated. Mentioned something called Pathfire.

      • Response: Our professional from Banyan communications indicated that this method is a best practice at this time. This will be translated to French and Spanish and will be close-captioned.

    • We did the same thing last year with “A Force of Nature”. Do we have numbers on how that one went?

      • Yes, we do. That’s what Banyan does. They provide us with tracking information and distribution to television stations. Includes market share, time of day, dollar value. Estimated ad value was 10.7 million dollars.

    • Are there any other companies besides Banyan that responded to the request for proposals?

      • There was no formal RFP sent out for tracking. We have worked with Banyan since 2002. We send out RFP’s for production but not tracking.

    • Is the tracking chip only found in the media that is provided by centralized distribution or is it also in the media that is bought by central offices?

      • Yes. It costs 40-50 dollars extra to put this chip in other copies of the PSA

    • Have we ever changed our minds or behavior based on the tracking information?

      • Nope. It is, however used by local committees. It is also useful to know the dollar value of the ad time that our PSAs are getting.

    • Banyan’s tracking data is used to select the stations that most likely will play our PSAs.

    • What would be the cost without the tracking and distribution?

      • Production costs $45K. Tracking and distribution costs an additional $35K

    • There are other companies besides Banyan that do tracking and distribution. We should issue a Request for Proposal.

    • Would Banyan be willing to distribute without tracking and evaluating?

      • Irene K.: The bulk of the work is in the beginning when you put the product together. So it would probably not be much cheaper for them to distribute but not track and evaluate.

    • Vote taken: Motion carried: 125 votes, 117-8 it passes!

      • Minority opinion:

        • We take away a lot of PI work from our local committees by centralized distribution.

        • It would be only prudent to check pricing from other vendors.

  • Second Recommendation under C. Recommended that the Conference Committee on Public Information annually assess the need for a new television public service announcement.

    • How will you assess this?

      • Banyan data is one way. Best Practices implementation is another way.

    • How did your committee see the roll of the Trustees committee on PI in deciding how to determine whether a PSA was still relevant?

      • Trustees PI is asked to consider methods of evaluation. We aren’t sure how to determine when a PSA is no longer useful. We rely a lot on Banyan.

    • How many PSAs do we have out now and how old is the oldest one?

      • We currently have four television PSAs. They go back to 2003. “We know what it’s like” is the oldest one but we are not retiring it.

• I RAN OUT OF PINS TODAY. GUESS I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT 125 INSTEAD OF 100.

  • Mercifully someone moved to close debate just when I got up to do so.

    • Motion passes 116-11

  • Vote on the main motion: It is going to pass big time: 124-6

    • Minority opinion: We spend too much money on this.

  • Floor Action: Recommend that all future PSAs include the phrase, “Look us up. Check your phone book, newspaper or AA.org.”

  • Recommend that a new PSA be developed for review by the 2009 Conference Committee on PI at a cost not to exceed $45K and that no current television PSAs be retired at this time.

    • There are lots of questions being asked that I know the answers to because of my time on the PI committee.

    • Irene says we get a big bang for our buck compared to what other companies pay for their PSAs. She thinks it’s amazing that people will even do business with us for $45,000.

      • Question is called? Motion to close debate passes. 128 votes 106-22

      • Vote on main motion: 127 votes. 70-57 fails to get a substantial majority.

• 8:40 p.m. Coffee break

• MY SERVICE SPONSOR TEXTED ME DURING THE BREAK WISHING ME WELL. IT MEANS SO MUCH THAT HE AND THE PAST DELEGATE, HIS WIFE, REMEMBER ME WHILE I’M HERE.

  • Motion to reconsider is seconded. Motion 78 -40 passes.

  • About 850 copies of “A force of nature” were distributed.

  • 9: 38 p.m. Motion to end debate. Passes 127 ballots 122-5.

  • Vote on the third recommendation under item C. Motion will not get substantial unanimity, i.e. 2/3 of the votes. Vote totals: 127 votes 61-66 motion failed.

  • The committee RECOMMENDED that the script for the Combination Radio PSAs on CD (R-10) be revised and updated and brought back to the 2009 Conference Committee on Public Information.

    • Combined means that 2 cassettes were combined on one CD.

    • Did the committee listen to all scripts in English, French and Spanish?

      • Trish answered: Yes, we listened in all three languages. Our committee contained native speakers of all these languages.

      • No further questions or comments: Motion voted on. Passes! 128 in favor none against.

  • Recommendation that the Membership survey pamphlet and one-way Membership Survey Display be updated to reflect the findings from the 2007 Membership Survey.

    • Is this survey really accurate the way we conduct it?

      • About 750 groups were randomly selected

      • Over 8000 surveys had valid information and were returned in a timely manner. Don’t know how many groups.

      • Many were disqualified…several hundred were not counted. The 8000 is more than enough to make it a valid survey (Irene was told this by a statistician)

      • Do we have a report from a statistician?

        • No. The number of surveys is great enough to be reliable without any official statistical report.

  • 10:00 p.m. WE break for the evening.

• Friday, May 2, 2008 Morning session

  • AA Around the World

    • Dorothy W.

      • Attended first meeting of GSC in Mongolia, Sept. 2007

        • Rode a camel, stayed in a yurt.

        • They voted using the 3^rd legacy procedure and decided each group needed to contribute $425 dollars to support the GSC. Subsequently, they decided to send in VOLUNTARY contributions.

      • Also spoke of Poland.

        • Assisted in translation of AA literature.

        • Dorothy and Greg M. went to Poland and participated in a 12 Concepts workshop.

      • Went to Brazil for a meeting of the Americas in Oct. 2007

        • Some people take 5 days to get to an assembly so the Internet is very important for communication.

    • Julio E.

      • International desk deals with over 180 countries around the world.

      • Zonal meetings particularly poignant

        • Like a home group

        • Asia/Oceania July 2007 in Japan

        • West Central Africa meeting held in France December 2007.

          • In Cameroon in 1990 a prison warden started the first meeting. Now has a developing service structure.

          • Person in Mali hear a radio broadcast on French radio and AA started there in 2006

          • San Jose Costa Rica March of 2008

            • Emphasis on encouragement of female alcoholics to attend AA.

        • AA continues to reach out to people in different places and with different languages.

• 9:25 a.m. Committee Reports continue.

  • We continue with Page 2, item E. on adopting and publishing the results of the 2007 Membership Survey.

    • What is the one-way display?

      • It’s the display of the survey pamphlet info that is used at many AA gatherings.

    • Vince – the way the survey is conducted is more reliable than the number of responses. Sheds further doubt on reliability of this survey’s methods.

    • Tom J. – This method was vetted by one of the most prominent statisticians in the world. Valerie and I went to Columbia University Math department and talked to the best person in that department and Irene did this more recently. That person said that our methods are valid.

    • Only an alcoholic could continue to question the validity of a survey when evidence has been presented that the top statistical minds at Columbia University have vouched for it. BUT THEY DO.

    • What is the cost of this survey? What is the practical application of this survey?

      • Irene: minimal cost. Only the cost of mailing. It is a PI tool. It is used to the extent that PI committees use it.

    • There continue to be many questions about the cost of this survey and the methods and validity. I interpret this as being evidential of an underlying agenda. I allege that the underlying agenda is that alkies don’t like to answer questions about themselves. I believe that many survey participants are AA attendees but participate minimally in any aspects of AA responsibility or service. Many of them are folks who have not really “committed” to sobriety and AA. They use anonymity as a protection against looking at their own lives honestly.

    • This survey tells us what we are and others, i.e. Medical students, what we are.

    • Motion to close debate: 120 – 6

    • Vote on main motion: Passes. 132 in favor zero opposed.

  • Item F: The committee recommended that the following section on posthumous anonymity be included in the pamphlet “Understanding Anonymity” on Page 9, before the Anonymity at the media level section: (a series of questions and answers is included but will not be reproduced here)

    • Amendment proposed to delete the question and answer regarding the anonymity of our co-founders.

      • To take this out is to admit that we should not post Bill’s pictures all over.

      • I spoke in opposition to this amendment. My anonymity is my business. Bill’s and Bob’s were their business. There is too much confusion among particularly new members about whose business anonymity is. Removing the reference to the posthumous anonymity of our co-founders is hypocritical.

      • Vote on amendment 102 yes – 22 no

      • Motion to reconsider was made. It will fail. 38 yes 71 no.

    • Back to the recommendation as amended.

      • After considerable discussion, a motion was made to close debate.

        • Motion passed 115 yes, 10 no

      • Vote on the motion on the floor: It will pass: 93 yes, 35 no. 2/3 is 86. Recommendation adopted.

        • Minority opinion

          • The 1971 Conf. Advisory action that “AA members generally think….”….but the final decision rests with the family. Is

          • Vote to reconsider 79 favor 40 opposed.

    • I’m still troubled that in this pamphlet we tell people in the same sentence “AA members generally think it unwise to break anonymity of a member even after his death, but in each situation the final decision rest with the family”. It is a very mixed message. Others share this opinion even though this 1971 Conference Advisor Action is already published in the “Understanding Anonymity” pamphlet.

    • Move to close debate: 119 yes, 5 no

    • Vote on the recommendation as amended: going to fail big time. 7-121 Motion fails. Recommendation fails permanently.

      • No minority opinion allowed since an item can only be reconsidered once.

• Floor Action introduced regarding this issue. It will be noted later if it ever sees the light of day.

  • Recommendation G: That a wall poster for young people with information about Alcoholics Anonymous be developed and brought back to the 2009 Conference Committee on Public Information.

    • Kids just don’t take stuff out of our literature racks. A poster would be a great idea.

    • Maine thinks it’s a great idea. Many people echo this sentiment right up to lunch time

    • Motion to close debate @ 11:58 a.m. Motion carried. 110 favor 14 oppose

    • Vote on the main recommendation: Motion carried. 111 yes, 20 opposed. Recommendation ADOPTED.

• 12:45 p.m. Afternoon session resumed after 45 minute lunch

  • Minority opinions:

    • We are promoting AA, Much material directed to young people is insulting, we are launching into a new area because we currently not publishing ANY posters,

    • Motion to reconsider has been made. 80-56. Passed. OOPs that’s too many. There are only 135 members. It’s really 66-56

  • Discussion continues on the main recommendation

    • Anonymous but not invisible, Our PSAs are as much promotion as a poster, First Nation people do not have TV, iPods, Internet or sometimes even phones. This is a resource that they might take advantage of, this proposal came out of a meeting in a large city in Central Florida with educators, this poster can be a PSA in another format, might save the life of a teacher as well as a student, it is incumbent on us to use every tool we can, what if somebody objects to our poster and takes it to the school board and they say, “no AA in the school”, then what happens to our ability to put pamphlets in the school

    • 1:40 p.m. move to close debate. Passed

    • Vote on the main motion, 103 for 29 against, Motion carried.

• Questions now entertained about additional considerations

  • Committee was done after 8:45 being in front of the Conference!!

Literature committee - Vernon G. – Hawaii

• 1:55 p.m.

• Recommendation: The committee recommended that the pamphlet “44 Questions” be re-titled “Questions and Answers about the AA Program of Recovery from Alcoholism”

  • The current title does not imply anything about Alcohol or alcoholism and thus is a most powerful tool for PI, FAQ does not translate well into other languages, this pamphlet is not for self-diagnosis,

  • Discussion dies. Vote taken: 40 for 83 against.

    • Minority opinion: Why do we want the title of this pamphlet to remain obscure as to its contents? The existing title, “44 Questions” appears to be a self-diagnosis device; there are not actually 44 questions. No motion came forth for reconsideration.

• Questions on Additional Considerations

  • Should remove reference to Archives regarding “Letter to a Woman Alcoholic” because it is not really available, Lots of statements being made but not many questions, has the committee ever considered a separate printing of the pamphlet for Canadian “First Nations” members in addition to a different one for Native North Americans?, committee agreed to remove the portion of the report about the Archive availability of the “Letter to a Woman Alcoholic”,

Report and Charter Committee – Leo S., chair

• 2:30 p.m. Recommended that a new section and an illustration of the District Information Change Form (F-43) to be added to Chapter Three of The AA Service manual after the section on redistricting: (I’m not going to reproduce the paragraph here)

  • Why no Alternate DCMC?

    • Chair never heard of alternate DCMC

  • Amendment proposed to include “Alternate DCMC”

    • Fellowship New Vision does not recognize alternate DCM much less alternate DCMC,

  • Amendment withdrawn since Alternate DCMC not on the group change form.

  • Was it beyond the scope of the committee to review the content of F-43?

    • We did not review it formally.

  • Is the DCM Change form on the Website?

    • No it is not.

  • Discussion dies. Vote on the motion: 113 in favor, 4 opposed

    • Minority opinion, why does F-43 have DCM alternate on the form but this info is not included in FNV

      • Answer: This form goes to other entities that do use that info.

• The committee recommended that the Online Intergroup of AA (OIAA) be listed in a new section titled “Online Intergroups” under the section “International Correspondence Meetings” in the AA directories above where “Online Meetings” appear, the listing will include the online intergroup web site and email addresses.

  • No discussion, Vote passes 119-2

• The committee recommended that the statement “This Directory is not to be used as a mailing list or for any form of solicitation or commercial venture” that appears on the cover of AA Directories be made significantly more prominent, e.g. Use borders, larger typeface, etc.

  • Could the directory be used as a mailing list for a forum? Ans: NO, this should have been an additional consideration because it’s only cosmetic, not policy. Discussion ends, Vote taken: 109 for, 16 against.

    • Minority opinion: Sets a bad precedent regarding dictating font size and such,

• The committee recommended that an anonymity-protected version of the Final Report of the Annual Meeting of the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous be posted on the GSO website to begin with the 2008 Final Report. This version will not include names and also will not include the final three sections; Conference Committees, Trustees Committees, and Conference members.

  • Can this be done? Yes, it can. It is not confidential just because of the anonymity. It needs more thought; will having our financial statements out there be a problem? Ans: there are lots of people who are already publishing this stuff on the web. No problems known yet. This issue is on the AAWS board agenda for June. We need to talk more about this. The more we take away from our face-to-face meeting, the more scary things get. i.e. Email discussions outside the conference, etc. WE teach this report as delegates. It can be misconstrued taken out of context. Discussion dies, Vote taken: 3 in favor, 122 against, Motion failed, “Sense of the meeting” taken regarding whether we want AAWS board to go ahead with this idea. Sense overwhelmingly in favor.

• Questions on additional considerations but first a 10-minute break at 3:27 p.m.

  • The language “voices strong displeasure concerning the discourteous manner” sends a negative message to the fellowship about the “politics” involved in General Service. Did the committee explore other avenues of expressing concern? (It sounds to me like they are upset because an agenda item which HAPPENED TO BE SUBMITTED BY ONE OF THE AREAS REPRESENTED ON THE COMMITTEE did not make it from being sent in to GSO to the Conference Committee. A committee member proposed that they caucus and reconsider this language. They are given 10 minutes to do this.

• Floor action proposed regarding the typeface issue about the directory.

  • Committee reports after the caucus: The statement would not have been part of the final report anyway

  • The committee voices strong displeasure regarding the manner in which it was bypassed, etc., they took the word “discourteous” out.

International Conventions /Regional Forums – Maurice B.

• The committee recommended that the under noted four cities be considered as possible sites for the International Convention in 2020: Detroit, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Vancouver.

  • Questions: The request was for three cities and why did you submit four. Answer: They were so close we could not decide. What were the key factors you evaluated in making the decision? Answer: There is a numeric system used to rate cities. The ones with top points are chosen. Do you look at it regionally and considering past Convention locations when making a choice? Yes. These factors are considered. Are you concerned about setting a precedent in selecting four cities rather than three? No. Did you consider the border crossing issue when selecting these? Yes we did. It did not hurt Toronto. We feel by 2020 this will no longer be an issue. We’ll probably all have to carry passports. There was a previous site selection once of four cities so this does not set a precedent. Discussion dies, we vote: 130 in favor and 1 opposed.

• The committee recommended that up to 21 non-AA speakers be invited to attend the 2010 International Convention at AA’s expense.

  • Is this an unusual number and why are they not AA speakers? This is the average number. Not AA speakers because a cross section of professionals is beneficial and we also get to look at them as possible trustee candidates. WERE any Spanish speakers included in this number of non-AA speakers? This will be a much more bi-lingual convention. Yes, we are looking at Spanish speaking non-alcoholic professionals. You members may suggest speakers to us. Discussion dies, we vote: nobody opposed.

AA Grapevine – Fred H.

• Committee made no recommendations

  • Questions regarding additional considerations

    • Where can I find the Grapevine Charter? The charter is the articles of incorporation. Robin will be glad to send it out. Why did you not put the “grey pages” on the floor for the fellowship to discuss? Committee felt the fellowship needs more time to evaluate this issue. What were your discussions about relative to the background information and singleness of purpose, etc. Regarding the “grey pages”. We spent a lot of time on this issue. The grapevine has not received a lot of correspondence regarding this issue, only 12. “So the committee made its decision based on 12 letters instead of looking at the principles involved.” Do they sell both the Grapevine and LaVina in 50-packs? Answer is yes. Regarding the “gray pages” do you need more feedback from this body or from the entire fellowship? The fellowship. What criteria do you use regarding selecting articles for the gray pages? They have a full meeting of the editorial advisory board. They choose alcoholism not alcohol, they choose reputable sources, and they don’t make comments on the studies. Do we ask people specific things for these pages? WE look at press releases and search research journals, etc. WE don’t go looking for specific stuff. I don’t like them so I don’t read them. What was the first issue when the gray pages occurred? October 2007.

Treatment facilities – Pat B.

• The committee recommended that the revised video Hope: Alcoholics Anonymous be completed with minor changes and brought back to the 2009 Conference Committee on Treatment Facilities for review.

  • Why is this a recommendation and not an added consideration? Reason is that we needed to give permission for it to be COMPLETED with the minor changes involved. Because the video is slightly different than what was recommended last year, the committee thought it should go to the conference for approval. Discussion ended on its own and we VOTED: 113 -7, motion carries.

    • Minority opinion: Um, I didn’t note it. I didn’t grasp its significance. Anyway, it’s 5:34 p.m. Give me a break. Motion made to reconsider. Motion failed. 35 for 86 against.

  • Questions on additional considerations: Why did you take no action on Bullet #1? We discussed this at length and gathered more background. This request was from an area that is relatively unique. We didn’t see an express need for this to happen. Did you look at Bridging the Gap as a corrections tool? Yes, we did. Did the committee consider putting the video Hope in the Treatment kit? Yes, it will be in there when it is completed. Did you consider that having BTG in both Treatment and Corrections would be an opportunity for BTG to be included in Corrections? Yes we did. The corrections staff themselves said the language was confusing to their institutions. Was there discussion about whether our materials fit the new treatment modalities? Yes we did. Are you saying that Bridging the gap is only for Treatment and not corrections? Yes we are.

Archives committee – Francis G.

• Committee has no recommendations

• Questions on Additional Considerations

  • Was the committee consulted about being a primary committee? We did not discuss it at all because it was an agenda item of another committee. Did the committee visit the archives facility to evaluate the appropriateness as far as space, humidity, and temperature? No we did not. But there is an issue of Markings that speaks to your question. It is a management issue and we have very strictly controlled offsite storage. Did you have any thought of referring to the Grapevine digital archive in the GSO AA Website on the Archives section? Amy F.: Yes. We just put that link up.

Return to the Policy/Admissions committee – Gus H.

• Report had previously been tabled.

• Modified recommendation that: The responsibility for the General Service Conference site selection be delegated to the General Service Office management, subject to the approval of the General Service Board and that a report be forwarded to the 2009 General Service Conference.

  • It’s very important to give the GSO a free hand in dealing with these hotels. Did you consider changing the word site selection to facility selection? No we did not. It would cost us over 100 thousand dollars more for 2009 GSC if we stay at the Crowne Plaza under the new ownership. Sleeping rooms would go up 30% for 2009 and 2010 under the new ownership. Total cost is about 600 thousand right now. Motion to close debate passes. We vote: 6:30 p.m. 120 for and 4 against.

    • Minority opinion: We’ve had a past policy that it be in the city of New York and if the conference does not provide more specific criteria maybe …..he wants more specifics added like how far away as a maximum the conference can be. Concern about accountability down the road. This motion only speaks to reporting to the Conference next year (2009).

Floor Actions

• 6:35 p.m. We took a break until 7:15 for dinner on our own. We went to Ray’s Pizza.

• Report and Charter committee wants to revise an action. The body refused to allow them to modify their passed recommendation to make it an additional consideration.

• FA#1 refers to the little 6” flags in front of the podium at the GSC. They want the Puerto Rican flag along with the US, Canadian, British, Bahamian, and Dutch Flags. I moved to close debate. It passed. Vote on the motion: it failed. 20-98

  • We were lectured by a Trustee about not thinking about the late hour and to give everything a fair hearing. The chair did nothing to deter him though he was not speaking to the minority opinion on the issue.

• FA#2: That the Trustees Conference Committee develop policies and process for the selection of Conference Agenda Items, the selection of background material for these items and present these to the 2009 Conference for review.

  • Lots of comments about communication and trust. It’s now 8:06 p.m. This floor action is an attempt to find out how items are selected for the General Service Conference. Trustees do have the right of decision. It’s a subjective process. Each committee has to have its own way in deciding on a proposal. There is no easy formula for determining whether an issue should go to the conference. We would like to know why an item is not passed along to a conference committee. It is 8:30 p.m. Question called at 8:39. Debate is closed. Vote on the motion: Failed 13-104

    • Minority opinion, Incredibly! Delegate expresses gratitude for the opportunity to have had this discussion. I’m glad we had this debate.

• FA#3: Request that the trustees Committee on Nominating and the Conference Trustees Committee replace the word “good” with “geographical preceding Cross Section in Nominating Procedure #9.

  • Move not to consider. Passed.

• FA#4: Background material for the Conference Agenda Committee shall include a list of proposed agenda items that were tabled or upon which no action was taken and an explanation of why each proposal was tabled or no action taken.

  • “Every touchie feelie item gets on the agenda” its 9:00 p.m. I’ve seen several committee reports that failed and you brought them back as Floor Actions. Even if you are told why your item didn’t make the agenda, you still won’t be happy. Motion to close debate passes. Vote on the Floor Action 41 for and 78 against.

    • Minority opinion? This is about accountability. We need to hold our trusted servants accountable. A delegate insists on using the phrase “the powers that be”. It describes “us and them”. We have spent this week with the theme Communication and Participation yet? Motion made to reconsider. 74 -50 in favor of reconsideration.

  • Back to discussion of the main motion. In the spirit of unity and transparency, please vote for this. “I stand opposed to this because I get a full set of board minutes after every board meeting.” 9:23 p.m. Greg informs us that this is the cut-off time for the Early Bird Edition of the GSC report. The body agrees to let it go ahead and be produced. “I am against it because it could be used to circumvent the process by which the Trustees decide on whether an issue should be tabled or no action taken. Folks need to know why when something is turned down. The theme of this conference has been mistrust and the desire to hold the Trustees accountable to explain very item that failed to make the Conference Agenda. Why else would there be 15 Floor Actions, most of which were proposed immediately after a committee reported that they had taken no action on something that somebody wanted to vote on. It’s 9:48 p.m. and we continue to debate this issue. Claude called the question at 9:51. Debate closed by vote. Vote on main motion: 66-59 motion fails due to lack of substantial unanimity.

Greg reports that they asked the hotel about our 10 p.m. time limit and they said “Knock yourselves out.”

• FA#5: To have the Conference revisit the 2007 General Service Conference Advisory Action to consider all eligible Class A and Class B trustees when selecting the chairperson of the General Service Board.

  • A class B sees the value of not having the distraction of possibly having to politic for Board Chair. His concern is the possibility of distraction and disunity. Motion to reassign this to committee made, seconded and passed.

• FA#6: To consider all eligible Class A trustees when selecting the chairperson of the General Service Board.

  • Motion made to recommit this back to the conference coordinator for consideration next year. Motion carried.

• FA#7: Recommitted to conference coordinator who will assign it to the appropriate Trustees committee.

• FA#8: Declined to hear

• FA#9: Declined to hear

• FA#10: Request to change title of the pamphlet ..motion maker moves to resubmit. Motion carries.

• FA#11: Decline to consider.

• FA#12: Decline to consider motion is a close vote: 61 favor and 49 against. Motion did not get substantial unanimity.

  • Motion made to recommit. Carried.

• FA#13: To consider rescinding the Advisory action of the conference committee on report and charter, item B2 which recommended that the statement: “This directory is not to be used as a mailing list or for any form of solicitation or commercial venture” that appears on the cover of AA Directories be made significantly more prominent, e.g. Use borders, larger type face.

  • We are discussing it. Some feel we made a mistake. Typeface, and styles used should not be micromanaged by the conference. 96 -25 it carries.

    • Minority? This was asked for and not done. What other option does a committee have?

• FA#14: The conference proposed that the trustees Committee on Public Information conduct an assessment of how AA could best utilize new media platforms for public information purposes and report its findings to the 2009 Conference Committee on Public Information.

  • Move to recommit. Passed.

• FA#15: That the Grapevine and the La Vina discontinue the Alcoholism at Large Pages on the medical, legal and social aspects of alcoholism.

  • 11:00 p.m. Two delegates who champion this item staked out mics to be sure nobody could move to not consider. Delegates speak to the point that this information implies affiliation. Each spoke for the full 2 minutes. Motion made to recommit. Motion FAILED. 39-78

  • Discussion continues: We have not had enough time to evaluate this. They have only been in there since October 2007. “Why do people have to be so black and white? I used to be that way until I read the grey space.” Move to close debate passes. Vote on the floor action at 11:43 pm FAILS. 24-94.

• 11:57 p.m. we have completed the work before us.

• Greg M. was invited to share since this will be his final General Service Conference as General Service Office Manager. The session ended at 12:25 a.m. and, as far as we know, the latest that the General Service Conference has ever gone.

Saturday morning, May 3, 2008

• Closing brunch started at 8:00 a.m.

• Farewell speeches were presented by Chuck B., outgoing regional trustee, Vince K., Class A trustee and Tom K., outgoing regional trustee.

• 10:25 a.m. We boarded a bus for Stepping Stones, the final home of Bill and Lois W.

• 10:45 a.m. The Bus departed.

• 12 noon, we arrived at Stepping Stones.

• We were given a box lunch consisting of a sub sandwich, bag of chips, piece of fruit and a cookie as well as choice of beverage. We toured the main house and the cement block building at the top of a hill which Bill constructed himself called Wit’s End.

• Volunteers from the Stepping Stones Foundation, a foundation created to display and preserve Stepping Stones, explained that after being homeless for several years and sleeping on friends couches, Bill and Lois were offered the property at Stepping Stones. They at first refused it. One night they decided to at least give it a look and they entered either by breaking through or just opening a window. They were taken with its charm and finally agreed to buy it for $6500. Today, the property is estimated to be worth 16 million dollars.

• I had my picture taken at Bill’s desk in Wit’s End and also at the kitchen table in the main house. These are the only locations where you are allowed to take photographs indoors.

• At about 2 p.m., we entered the bus and were transported back to the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

• Liz and I took to the streets and availed ourselves of a souvenir shop and bought gifts for our children, their spouses and our grandson as well as a few for ourselves.

• We then went back to the hotel, hung out in the front entrance where there always seem to be a few delegates enjoying the air, smoking or just watching people. We sent a few text messages and eventually assembled a group to go to dinner. Liz decided to go see if she could get tickets to a play and ended up seeing “A Chorus Line”. I got together with Leo S. from Northern Indiana, Michaline R. from Southern Indiana, Dodie A. from Northern Wisconsin, John C. from Northern Illinois and one of Leo’s friends and we went to Ted’s Montana Grill for dinner. We enjoyed reasonable prices and great service in addition to being able to choose between beef and buffalo. The four of us guys bought fluffy hats with buffalo horns sticking out the sides and didn’t even stick out as we wore them back to the hotel.

• I retired to my room at about 8 p.m. and watched a movie on TV. Liz returned from the play at about 10 p.m. and we retired for the night.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS SUBMITTED:

SPECIAL NEEDS - JOHN W.

My name is John W. and I am an alcoholic.

 

We opened the Special Needs Committee meeting with a moment of silence and the Serenity Prayer.

 

Present was Larry the District 12 Special Needs Chair, Mark the District 27 DCM, Mike, Bill A. past Delicate. and myself John Wade Area 75 Special Needs Chair.

 

I reviewed all the projects we have been working on, (volunteers for home and Hospital meetings), (baby sitters at meetings), (rides for people that can not drive), (getting the word of recovery out the elderly where ever they maybe),and providing translation equipment for the deaf and hard of hearing or foreign languages.

 

After covering all the projects I asked if anyone had any ideas to improve what we were doing.  No one had anything to add and time had run out.

 

We closed with the Lord's Prayer.

 

Yours in recovery and service;

John S. W.

Area 75 Special Needs Chair

The meeting closed with the Responsibility Declaration:

“When anyone, anywhere reaches out, I want the hand of A.A. always to be there, and for that; I am responsible!”

Upcoming events:

Summer Service Meeting – June 22, 2008 at the Madison Senior Center

Pre-Conference Assembly – September 7, 2008 at the Madison Senior Center

Area 75 – 2008 Fall Conference – October 3 – 5, Fond du Lac, WI (Elections)

NOTE: If you would like to serve as a standing committee chair next rotation, please fill out a resume form so they can be passed on to your next area chair. Se the Area 75 Secretary for a copy or download a copy from www.area75.org