I. Finance

A. Discuss request that a Finance Kit be developed to assist group, Intergroup/central offices, district and area service workers in carrying the message of our shared responsibility for the Seventh Tradition.
The Area that submitted this item has a Finance Committee that is responsible for carrying AA’s 7^th Tradition of self-support to groups in the Area by educating GSRs, DCMs and all A.A. members. New committee chairs have wondered where to start. They hope that a consolidated kit with all of the finance literature and service material similar to the kits for other committees would lessen the confusion. My favorite line in their request is: “Talking about finances with AAs is hard enough – let’s make it more accessible with shared experience in a one-stop-shopping package.” What do we think? This could be a voting item next year depending on the outcome of the discussion. This year it is just a discussion item.

B. Consider the request to “Discuss the benefits and liabilities, both spiritual and practical, of funding the General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous solely by the voluntary contributions of A.A. members and A.A. groups, that profits from literature sales will no longer be used to fund our General Service Office. Further, consider a procedure for gathering input from the Fellowship as a whole and prepare a report on these discussions for the 2009 Conference.”
This item was submitted by an individual who is a past delegate. In the background he mentions that on page 48 of the 2007 final conference report under Self-Support of the World Services of Alcoholics Anonymous, the subcommittee states “We hope that the day will come when AA groups and members, through their contributions, will be able to fund fully the services provided by the General Service Office. If that is achieved, revenues from literature sales will only be needed in amounts necessary to cover the actual costs associated with literature production and to maintain a prudent reserve fund.” He said he had heard many AA members express this sentiment – now it was in the final report – and he suggested it’s time for us as a fellowship to discuss this, come to a decision and take appropriate action. He points out that Bill W. wasn’t clear in his writings about the issue. In a June 1955 Grapevine article (page 159 of Language of the Heart) he seems to complain that we had to rely on literature profits for ten of the last fifteen years at that time. Then in Concept XII, Warranty Two, he says these book profits aren’t really profits, instead they are “the sum of a great many contributions which the book buyers make.”
So, the vote on this agenda item is do we want to discuss this as a fellowship and prepare a report based on the input for next year’s conference. At the least, I think this will lead to some interesting discussion!
C. Discuss self-support.
Ongoing discussion …

I.      Corrections No voting items
A.     Review contents of Kit and Workbook.
Again – this is just an annual review
B.   Review service piece “Corrections A.A. Group Handbook”
I’m sure this one is interesting. Unfortunately, the Handbook, as well as the history of it, were only sent to Corrections Committee members.

I. Cooperation With the Professional Community No voting items

A.     Consider the draft Video Segments Directed to Professionals.
We won’t be able to see this at the Area – it only went out to the Delegates on the CPC Committee. We should see it at the Conference.
B.     Review contents of Kit and Workbook.
Reviewed annually to see if anything needs to be added, taken out, changed, etc.
C.    Discuss ways in which A.A. can continue to be a resource to the legal/criminal justice system
While this one is discussion only with nothing to vote on, I think it will be a good item for the CPC committee to discuss, and I think it would also be a good workshop or sharing topic! The background material consisted of a couple of Box 4-5-9 articles and a page from a 2004 About AA Newsletter focusing a lot on informing judges of what A.A. is and is not. I know sometimes we can get frustrated when the court orders people enter our rooms, and they are going to make better decisions in that arena if they know more about us. I particularly liked where in one article the PI/CPC committee address a monthly judges’ meeting on the subject of Alcoholics Anonymous and the presiding judge recommend that the judges make a point of attending an open A.A. meeting to see for themselves what goes on.

I will post the final agenda items and commentary about same one category at a time i.e. “Agenda”, “Corrections”, etc. When all of the categories are completed, I will also post one file with the entire agenda and commentary. I will also indicate which items are for information, discussion, or vote. If you have any questions at all, please let me know. Thank you for your patience … I’ve been having some technical difficulties (aka blonde moments wreaking havoc!!)

My name is Julie S. and I am a very grateful alcoholic. My sobriety date is February 7, 1995, my home group is the Hurricane Firehouse Group, I have a recovery sponsor and a service sponsor and I stay sober one day at a time by working the 12 Steps, going to regular meetings regularly, and being of service to Alcoholics Anonymous. I currently have the great honor and privilege to be of service to you as your Panel 57, Area 69 Delegate.

A few days after Fall Assembly, I met Ranae at the Utah Jail Commanders meeting. I’m sure Ranae will report on that later, but I do want to mention one thing. When Ranae started her presentation, she was somewhat nervous. Shortly after she began, one of the people in charge asked her to stop. For just a second, I had a terrible lump in my stomach, then he told Ranae that she was among friends. He asked how many of the commanders had 12 Step meetings in their facility, and those who raised their hands were in the majority. There was a comment by one that the people he had let in to bring meetings, he had later arrested for alcohol offenses; but Ranae said she hoped he would give us another chance, and that was the only negative comment made.

Two weeks ago, I attended the 2^nd annual Hispanic Convention. I’m not really sure what to say about it, but it was a learning experience. Each of the Officers and Standing Chairs that were able to attend were asked to give a report about their position and general service. We were a little concerned we would be preaching to the choir, as often happens at service functions. However, District 12 is still working on developing a choir! When it was time to start, there was just us and the translator. A few minutes later, we did decide to go ahead and give our reports … the translator said she wanted to hear them, and we were all interested as well. A couple of members of District 12 did come in and out of the meeting, but at least we knew we were doing what we had been asked to do to the best of our ability, and as you will see from the Newsletter, there were some great reports given. Later that day I was asked to speak for about a half hour on a panel. I was told to have my presentation in writing to help with translation. The translator didn’t use that copy, but rather I would read a sentence or so and she would then translate it. I had made my report shorter than would normally take a half hour, but not nearly short enough. In retrospect, I should have skipped the written copy, but it was stuck in my head at the time. Before I gave up and quit, the chairperson had passed the translator two notes … one wanted us to hurry up. The second wanted us to hurry up and finish. I was the most nervous I had been when speaking in a very long time, and was grateful beyond words to have Monte, Charlie, Thom and Nadine all in the room for moral support. Well, it was a beginning and I hope we all learned and things might go better next time we’re invited!!

When I was at the General Service Conference this spring, I was approached by staff asking if I could get them something talking about how the Correctional PowerPoint presentation (now on DVD) was put together. Ranae and LeAnn have each given me a kind of brief, written history of the presentation, which is going to the Corrections Desk at GSO, along with a copy of the presentation. I just have to say one more time what a great job Ranae, LeAnn, and all those who participated in getting this put together did. Way to go!!!

I have with me this weekend the registration forms for PRAASA 2008 in both English and Spanish. They are also available on the utahaa.org website and will soon be on the PRAASA.org website. I have to say I think it’s kind of funny that we have them on our website before the official PRAASA website has them. Registrations will also be mailed shortly to those who have attended a PRAASA in the past few years. Rick H., Panel 56 Delegate from Alaska has high hopes for attendance at this PRAASA, dreaming of 1000 plus members and all of their spiritual energy being brought to his Area. Greg M. will be the speaker on Saturday night. If you are able to spend more time there, you might be interested in knowing that the Iditarod starts on Saturday, March 1 practically outside the doors of the hotels on the flyers. Rick already has a couple of delegates lined up to arrive on Friday, February 29^th to help see off one of his home group members in the race, then rent cars to go to Talkeetna for the race restart and his home group meeting on Sunday. He says there are lots of great places to stay in Talkeetna where they are also planning on doing some dog sledding and maybe some flight seeing!! If you are interested in any of the above, let me know, and I’ll hook you up with Rick!

Now, off to Board Weekend. First, you should know that Board Weekend is really a misnomer, especially if you live out west or somewhere equally far from New York, since it takes most of a day just for travel. Madeleine has to leave Idaho on Wednesday, starting meetings on Thursday, and not arriving home until Monday night. Some weekend!!

A.A. Grapevine: For the nine months ended September 30, 2007, the A.A. Grapevine realized a profit of $11,095 in comparison to a budgeted loss of $119,302. That means we are ahead of budget by $130,397. That is phenomenal news! Circulation of the print magazine was 106,034, which is 3,034 higher than budget and 2,423 higher than in 2006. Also phenomenal news! LaVina grew to 11,029, which is 9.34% higher than last year. 69,363 books were distributed as were 10,454 CDs. This represents a 56% increase, mostly attributed to the great success of Emotional Sobriety, In Our Own Words and the new LaVina anthology. LaVina had a net loss through the third quarter of 2007 of $47,465, compared to a budgeted loss of $58,415. Subscriptions to the Digital Archive, however, are down 9%. This is such a great resource that I suggest you all take advantage of subscribing. Due to the continuing reliance of the Grapevine on special item, book, audio and related items for income, the board agreed to retract the goal of having profits from the magazine cover 70% – 80% of the corporation’s overhead costs.

Madeline wanted to highlight for us the much overlooked uniqueness of the A.A. Grapevine. It has only one revenue stream – the sale of its products. It cannot take contributions from the fellowship. It does have a “Carry the Message” fund where people can pay for subscriptions for those who cannot buy subscriptions for themselves but identifying these folks is sometimes difficult. The products are wonderful, especially because the books and CDs are such great compilations of past Grapevine and LaVina stories, but the magazine remains the flagship. Subscriptions are up in the Pacific Region for both magazines, but she is sure we can do better. She suggested taking laptops to our assemblies, like Washington Area 72 did, and sign people up while they are there. Have contests, encourage people to write articles, buy subscriptions for inpatient treatment programs, school libraries, etc. Be creative.

One piece of news I am very sorry to report to you is that the A.A. Grapevine has decided to let Hernan M., Senior Editor of LaVina, go as his employment situation had not resolved. I don’t know if many of you knew that Hernan is actually contracted through an employment agency. I know I wasn’t aware of any aspect of his situation. Five years ago, post 9-11, Hernan could not get appropriate visa status to stay in the United States and work for the A.A. Grapevine. The Board at that time decided to wait one year and review the progress. That was four years ago. The Board has been hopeful the situation would resolve and he would be able to obtain a visa to work and live here but he has not. It has become too difficult to have him living in Argentina and coming only to Board meetings and planning sessions and try to publish the magazine. The A.A. Grapevine Board is grateful for his tremendous contribution to the success of LaVina and wishes him the best. The A.A. Grapevine Executive Editor has plans in place to maintain the publishing of the magazine while the search for a new Senior Editor is underway.

The Grapevine is searching for a new art director and they are forming an editorial advisory board for La Vina. The Grapevine board also has decided to work short one director for the coming year following the rotation of Herb Goodman (Class A trustee) from their board.

A.A.W.S: The biggest news from AAWS is the good financial results. Gross sales are up 8% over budget for the year and slightly ahead of last year’s figures (2007-$939,989 and 2006-938,104). Net sales are up 6.8% over budget; gross profit is approximately 8% over budget and contributions are up 4% over budget and 6% ahead of 2006. That is a huge increase since it follows an approximate increase of 12% last year. With revenue up across the board, it should not come as any surprise to you that instead of a $145,000 loss that was budgeted for this time of the year, we are showing a $444,800 profit.

The A.A. Service Manual and Twelve Concepts for World Service in Spanish published in large print was approved by the Board. Also, the revised A.A. in Prison: Inmate to Inmate is scheduled for reprint in April 2008 in the easier to read format requested by the Trustees Committee on Corrections.

Internationally, your G.S.O. has been busy as usual. Dorothy W. and Julio E. visited Moscow for the 20^th Anniversary celebration of A.A. in Russia. They stopped and visited the service structures in Finland on their way to Russia. Dorothy W. and Jo-Anne L., our two trustees-at-large, visited Mongolia for the First General Service Conference of the Mongolian A.A. service structure. They also attended the Fifteenth Meeting of the Americas (REDELA) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. That meeting has delegates from the North and South Americas in attendance, sharing their experience, strength and hope. Julio E. attended the 14^th ESM Zonal Meeting in Frankfurt, Germany.

Rick W. attended the N.A. World Convention in San Antonio, Texas. Leonard B., Rogelio F., Paul C. and Madeleine attended the 49^th ICYPAA in Los Angeles and had a blast. Mary Clare L. attended the 19^th National/International Native North American A.A. Convention in Billings, Montana. So, as you can see, we really have been all over the map, working with other countries and carrying the A.A. message!

Archives: The Trustees Committee on Archives has approved and forwarded the plan to install a video surveillance system in the Archives department at G.S.O. There have been several priceless manuscripts stolen from the Archives over the years and the hope is that the knowledge that video surveillance is taking place will act as a deterrent to anyone contemplating the act. The budgets have not been approved yet, but the committee remains hopeful this will pass.

Also, the question of whether to fund the G.S.O. Archivist to the A.A. National Archives Workshop was discussed by the committee. The Trustees Committee on Archives is in agreement the Archivist should be funded if the area host committee cannot pay any or all of her expenses. They felt her presence was necessary and useful and want to have a budget allowing her to attend, regardless of reimbursement from the area host committee.

Finally, the committee received a report on the possible benefits and drawbacks to establishing a permanent Conference Committee on Archives.

General Service Conference: The Trustees Committee on the General Service Conference recommended and it was passed that an online dashboard be made available on a two year experimental basis that would include committee agendas and background material for the Conference, in addition to the methods already available for delivery of this material. I am hoping that this will greatly assist in getting the information on agenda items to our Standing Committee Chairs in as timely a manner as possible.

Treatment/CPC: The Trustees Committee on Treatment should have a draft video “rough cut” of the Hope: Alcoholics Anonymous at its February Board Meeting. The storyboard was reviewed at the meeting and all members look forward to the development of the new video segment.

The Trustees Committee on CPC reviewed the three segments of the draft videos directed to professionals in the employment/human relations, legal/criminal justice and medical fields. The committee suggested some revisions and minor changes and should have a final draft at the February Board meeting. These would be accessed from the aa.org website after completion.

Corrections: The Corrections Correspondence Service still has more female volunteers than inmates requesting the service and more male inmates requesting the service than male volunteers. Please put the word out that we need more male volunteers willing to write to inmates and we need more female inmates to know about the service and the women waiting to write to them.

Also, Publications is working on making the service pieces, A.A. Corrections Prerelease Contact Information for A.A.s on the Inside and for A.A.s on the Outside more easily distinguishable, both with color and with identifiable markings on the titles. These changes will be made on the next available reprint.

Literature: A draft of the revised pamphlet, “A.A. for the Native North American”, should be available for the committee at the February Board meeting as well as a draft manuscript for the pamphlet, “The A.A. Member-Medications and Other Drugs”.

Nominating: The Trustees Committee on Nominating is still reviewing the language in the Nominating Procedures No. 9, regarding the General Manager. They have also sought legal counsel on this issue to the degree it is an employment issue. This committee has met several times via teleconference and has another call scheduled for November. They expect to have a final report for the Winter Quarterly meeting. By the way, did you notice the “Winter Quarterly” terminology? This meeting is bringing up some thoughts on our usual terminology, such as January board meeting. Why? This one is in February. After all, this is A.A., right?

There was a recommendation from Nominating that was voted down by the full board. What? A change in terminology on the “qualifications” for Chair where it currently says that position is open for a Class A. This was turned down because the committee recommendation left 1^st Vice Chair and 2^nd Vice Chair restricted to a Class A trustee. The board feels that all chair positions, and probably all officer positions, except maybe Treasurer, should be open to Class B trustees as well as Class A. The item was sent back to committee for additional consideration.

The committee received a follow up report from Eastern Canada that indicates that region would prefer not to elect a replacement trustee at this time, leaving that position open until the next scheduled regional trustee election date.

Public Information: The A.A. Videos for Young People project has had 130 people register on the website but no videos have been submitted as of yet. I know we have talented young people in A.A. in Utah and I hope we have some who would like to submit a video. Madeleine indicates they may extend the November 30^th deadline to encourage more participation. I have copies of the Guidelines and Releases here this weekend, and they are also posted on my blog on the utahaa.org website.

Compensation Committee of the General Service Board: The committee requested both AAWS and AAGV utilize an outside compensation consultant to conduct salary surveys of the top 5 executives of both boards. Two different consultants were utilized by the boards and they examined both nonprofit and for-profit comparable corporations to develop their studies and found compensation to be reasonable and well within the range of competitive practice and levels. In keeping with Concept XI, the committee was pleased with this information and will continue to monitor compensation practices and policies of both corporations.

In closing, I want to thank all of you for being willing to be of service to Alcoholics Anonymous and the Utah Area, and to thank you yet again for this wonderful opportunity to be of service to you!!

I received an Ask it Basket question at Post Conference and being answered in the Newsletter regarding the “do’s and don’ts” of the General Service Conference. I am posting here the actual summary of conference procedures for your information =)

Summary of Conference Procedures

Finance Committee Items

I. Finance

Corrections agenda items

Cooperation with the Professional Community Agenda Items

I. Cooperation With the Professional Community No voting items

About final agenda items

Fall Workshop 2007

A.A. Videos for Young People”>Guidelines for Submissions, A.A. Videos for Young People

How to’s of the Conference

A.A. Videos for Young People”>Guidelines for Submissions,
A.A. Videos for Young People