of Alcoholics Anonymous – Area 93

606 Alamo Pintado #140

Solvang, CA 93463

CCAA Chairman Vicki B. called the meeting to order at 1:00 P.M. and led us with the Serenity Prayer. The 12 Concepts were read in English by Theresa D., District 22. The 12 Concepts were read in Spanish by Alberto, District 34.

Secretary’s Report – Bertie.: The eligibility rules were read and the roll call taken:

GSRs/Alternates 63

DCMs/Alternates 23 DCMCs/Alternates 3

Committee Chairs/Alts 8

Central Office Mgrs./Liaisons 2

SCAA Past Delegates 3

SCAA Officers 6

Total 108

Districts without representation were 12, 21, 31, 50, 59, 61. We hope you can join us at our next Assembly in Morro Bay

Also in attendance were several members from our neighboring Areas as well as our Pacific Regional Trustee Jim C. and Susan U.  from the General Service Office in New York for a total of 27 guests. We want to thank everyone in attendance for making this weekend such a wonderful success.

The minutes from the January Area Assembly were submitted for approval. A motion was made accept the minutes as written. The motion was seconded and passed.

Treasurer’s Report – Debbie B.: I want to acknowledge the support of Vicki B. our Area Chair and Victoria H. our Finance Committee Chair. They have helped set up and monitor the financial software and have given me ongoing support and training. They have spent many hours at my house making sure that the new computer system, the new software and the new Treasurer are serving the Area to the best of our ability. In reviewing the financial reports I have picked out a couple of items that I think we need to be aware of. To date we have received two Newsletter contributions. Since all of us in Area 93 receive the Newsletter, it would be nice to start seeing the suggested $10.00 contributions coming in. You can give checks to me – made out the CCAA and cash can be given to Victoria H. ,the Finance Chair or you can see Peggy D. the Literature Chair. We heard a lot about Grapevine and La Vina while we were at PRAASA. So far we have had two Grapevine contributions in this area. You can talk to our Grapevine Chair Robbin S. about getting a subscription. He will let you know about making contributions for the things we have. Right now those two areas need a little more help – a little more work from us. I heard two great ideas at PRAASA. regarding the Grapevine. One is to give a subscription to your Sponsees – even if they go out they will still get a meeting in print every month. Of course if they stay, they can continue the practice and give it to their Sponsees. Another idea was that if you are an English-speaking member of this fellowship, you can order La Vina and help them be self-supporting. You can leave it at your Doctor’s office, at a meeting, or a recovery house.

We are currently working at a loss – Don’t panic yet – we are in the red which means that as of the end of February we are operating at a loss of $760.27. Our bank balance is $9,493.62. What operating loss means is we took in this much money and we spent more than that. That’s the financial report right there.

At the last Assembly I asked the new GSRs to poll their Groups and see if they are contributing to the Area. Many Groups, in reaching an informed Group conscience, are going to look to their GSRs for specific information about AA finances. Debbie asked for the hands of those GSRs who knew their Groups were contributing to the Area at this time. Many were.

I also want to bring up a couple of things that came to my attention as I was studying for this Pre-Conference. I want to bring to your attention a quote from a 1967 Grapevine article where Bill W. answered a question that we hear all the time. Why should we provide worldwide area and local AA services with money? What he said to us then and still applies to us today -- "Though not costly, these service agencies are absolutely essential to our continued expansion and to our survival as a fellowship. Their costs are a collective obligation that rests squarely upon all of us. Our support of services actually amounts to a recognition that AA must everywhere function in full strength and that under our Tradition of self-support, we are all going to foot the bill". As everyone here in this room is aware, AA in action calls for sacrifice of much time and a little money. So when you report back to your Groups, remind them that this Area coordinates vital AA activities over a broad geographic range. Remind them, especially you new GSRs that you are learning that AA is not just your meeting, it’s not just your backyard, but that we work together at the Area level to make sure the alcoholic who still suffers will have an easy time finding out about AA. Whether it’s in a book at the local library, a video at a local Wherehouse Video Outlet, a sign in the Laundromat with little tear-off strips with the phone number of the local Central Office, a letter that goes with a pamphlet to professionals. These are the things that we do to help the alcoholic who is still suffering at the Area level. Remind your Groups that they have entrusted you to keep them informed about the Area projects as well as the financial need of keeping those projects going. I believe that the longer you stay involved in General Service you begin to learn that service is not about politics as people often think. It is about being trusted servants and always working towards insuring that AA will be here and all over the world for the alcoholic who still suffers. Stress this to your Groups. Let them know that we work here to make sure that AA is available now and visible for the alcoholic who is still suffering today and tomorrow. If it weren’t for this work, a lot of people wouldn’t discover the miracle of AA. So I’m passionate about self-support.

Now for some general information – see I don’t have a quarterly report so I can just give you my opinion up here right now. The food kitty for Saturday and Sunday was $808.79. We might still be counting some change so you can still throw a couple of bucks in there. We always strive to be self-supporting and we have been so far. A little housekeeping, when your Groups send in contributions to the Area, please ask them to provide their Group number on their check. The GSR can leave with that information today because Stephanie has it handy. Also Stephanie’s phone number is on every piece of literature and she gets really, really lonely if you don’t call her and ask you her Group number. Or you can call me but then I have to call her. If anyone has any questions about any of this or you want access to more financial information, my phone number, my address, my email are on all the literature. You’ll be getting copies of Group contributions soon. We figured out this great format that I think you are going to love. Thank you

Registrar’s Report – Stephanie S.: I was privileged and honored to monitor the Round Table discussions at PRAASA. My experience was certainly wonderful and very enlightening. The one constant during those Round Tables was that each Registrar had different duties with the possible exception of the Registrar from Area 5 and myself. Our duties started out about the same and are still quite similar. One Area uses brightly colored index cards for voting, the cards are passed out to those eligible to vote, and according to the Registrar, the brightly colored cards are easier to count than raised hands. There were some other ideas that might be of use for us here at Area 93. I’m hoping. I still have the last of the meeting lists from the General Service Office for the GSO Western Directory. The listing I received from GSO was in duplicate form and I have asked the DCMs to return the copies to me if there are any changes. I want to keep an up-to-date Area 93 database. The GSO deadline for the Western Directory is the last day in April. The General Service Office would really appreciate it if information could be sent to them earlier than that date. As the newest Area, let’s strut our stuff for these folks in New York and send our information as we get it so they won’t be swamped on April 30. Remember, send me the copies if you have additional changes. Let’s also be the most up-to-date Area. If your District does not already have an active Registrar, I encourage you to get one. An active District Registrar is a wonderful thing to have, at least from my standpoint. It makes the Registrar’s job so much easier because information sent to me is usually more accurate. If you don’t have a Registrar, and you think I can help toward that goal, please let me know. I’ll be glad to come to your District meeting and make my plea. Please come over to the Registration table and sign in if you haven’t already done so. I have a place for everyone! If any of you have any questions that you think I can answer, please feel free to contact me. Thank you for letting me be of service.

Chairperson’s Report – Vicki B.l: Just a few things – I was lucky enough to attend PRAASA. for you too. I spent my time with the other Area Chairs learning how their Assemblies are, how they are running them, what they are doing different so we can make this all fun and exciting for you. I’ve been listening to a lot of people say that they really want to see this interesting and fun and have a good time. It brought me back to thinking of when I first got involved in AA, the changes that have happened in my life; I am having the best time of my entire life. The funny thing is that nothing in my life has really changed. It’s just my attitude and the way I look at everything. When I can see everybody in here sitting around, laughing and just having a good time, it’s basically our attitudes. I sit back and I smile and I laugh and I listen and I learn. You guys are just wonderful and this is the best thing for me. If you are thinking that this is boring, you’re not getting anything out of it. Start smiling a little bit more, start laughing, listen and you will have fun.

I have to bring up two items here. During our February Committee Meeting, we had asked for bids for May and October Assemblies. The May Assembly was bid by San Luis Obispo County, District 22, thank you very much. But we still need to take bids for our October Assembly. Even though we are not approved budget-wise for that Assembly, we are looking really good and we will probably be able to fund this Assembly with no problem. However, it will be brought up at the Committee. So I am looking for bids for the October Assembly…do we have anyone willing to bid for this.

John from District 60, Kern County - Service in Kern County is just about dead so we have been asking questions of different people about how we could go about getting our Districts going. Vicki asked me if our District would be interested in hosting the October Assembly and I told her yes. Maybe that’s what we need. We would be happy to host it. Seeing no other bids it was unanimously accepted to hold our October Area Assembly in Kern County – District 60.

Vicki asked for sense of the Assembly. We have it set that the yearly budget is to be presented at the May Assembly for everyone to vote on in October. This being a new Area, we do not have enough historical financial data to put together a budget that would be realistic for the next year. What I am asking is that we hold our budget meeting in July after the Area Committee Meeting. That would give us six (6) months worth of data so we can look at how the money is coming in, and how it is being spent. We can then present the budget along with the Area Committee Minutes; which will be mailed to the DCMs and then distributed to the GSRs no later than August 1. We will then vote on the budget at the October Area Assembly. So I am asking for a sense of the Assembly if this would be acceptable. It was agreed to handle the budget in this manner.

Alternate Delegate – Jeanine R.: The most exciting job that an Alternate Delegate has is to give the new GSR orientation. I was going to ask the new GSRs stand but they have already done that. We did have 17 new GSRs and 2 alternates at the orientation and I believe 4 of them were Spanish-speaking. If any of them looks confused, please give them a hand and answer any of the questions they might have. I want to thank everybody again for the wonderful participation during the workshops, especially the presenters, timers, and Host Committee. I feel that we have done a great job in making sure that Steve has a good idea of the thoughts and feelings of Area 93. I feel a special debt of gratitude to Steve for his help and his patience with me in getting this together. At this time I would like to present Steve with the cassette tapes from our workshops. I’m sure he will have hours of enjoyable listening. Lastly, I want to remind everyone that one of my jobs as Alternate Delegate is as Liaison to the Southern California H&I InterGroup. The InterGroup is busy preparing for the 20^th Annual H&I Conference which will be held April 27 through the 29^th in Orange. There are some fliers on the table if anyone is interested. I want to thank everybody for allowing me to be of service.

Moving to the Regional scene. We are going to be selecting a host for the 2004 Pacific Region AA Service Assembly (PRAASA.) during the General Service Conference next month. If we as an Area want to put in a bid to host this event, I need to let them know during this General Service Conference. So we need to decide today if you guys would like to do this. So I am going to ask for a sense of the Assembly. I do however, want you to know that this is no small amount of work. If you are looking to compare it to something, compare it to putting on an Assembly and multiply that by about 10 and that will be the total amount of effort to putting this on. So if you would like to do this, I would like to make some room on the Agenda to have full discussion on this. We need to really discuss before we are certain that we want to do this. So would you like to discuss putting a bid in for the 2004 PRAASA.? There are more in favor than opposed, so we will squeeze that in toward the end.

On the National scene – the site for the 2010 International Convention will be narrowed down to three sites during the General Service Conference next month. The Conventions and Forums Committee is going to be reviewing bids from Atlanta, Detroit, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and San Antonio. Like I said, they will take those six and then narrow it down to three. Also, just to let you know that the General Service Office has put out a notice that there is an opening for a Non-Trustee appointed Committee Member for the Literature Committee. The qualities that they are looking for, and this is how they phrase it "some of the qualities that are most desirable for this Non-Trustee opening are, expertise in publications and/or AA literature, available time to attend the meetings of the Trustee’s Committee, at least five years of continuous sobriety, the ability to work within the community structure, and activity in AA service". Again this is for a Non-Trustee appointed Committee Member for the Literature Committee. If you are interested in this, please see me before the end of the day so I can give you an application for it.

Next, I also need to clear my conscience. During yesterday’s Pre-Conference Assembly, it turned out that we had five Delegates from California here all at one time. Although we had been discussing this before, we decided to make a decision on this yesterday, and I actually need to get your approval for it. We are thinking that we would like to apply for a Special Forum, this is similar to a Regional Forum, but it’s something that usually has a special subject and it is delivered to a special audience; for the Spanish-speakers in California. We would be asking for the year 2003. So two years from now, sometime that would work out for the people who put out the Forums. Special Forums are something that is put on by the General Service Office. It takes a little bit of coordination on our behalf, I was the coordinator for the Forum last year in Burbank. It’s not an impossible job. But I would like to get a sense if you would support our putting in a bid for a special Spanish-speaking Forum, perhaps in the Bakersfield Area in 2003. Those in favor of supporting this – it was unanimously supported.

Now for a couple of Conference Agenda items that we haven’t discussed today, there was a bunch of stuff on there, some of it came out after Jeanine and I put the Agenda together. But just let me go over a couple of these things. The Grapevine Committee is considering publishing one or more of the following Grapevine related items, a soft-cover book on the twelve steps taken from articles from past Grapevines; a soft-covered collection of Grapevine cartoons and jokes; a stand-alone issue devoted to beginner’s meetings; a soft-covered anthology of selected letters to the Grapevine, it would be entitled something like "Dear Grapevine"; a soft-covered collection of articles on the spiritual side of the program entitled "Along Spiritual Lines"; and another soft-covered anthology of articles on emotional sobriety entitled something like "Emotional Sobriety, the Last Frontier." So if you are interested in seeing any of those things come to print, let me know, and I will pass it along to the Grapevine Committee. Also, the Public Information Committee is going to be discussing an interesting topic about anonymity as it relates to our Founders, Bill and Dr. Bob. Since there is already a sizable amount of full-faced photographs and full name publications that are available to the public, the questions is should we as Alcoholics Anonymous continue creating literature with Bill and Dr. Bob’s full names and photographs and make it available to the public? What should our GSO Public Information Desk say to outside inquiries about them or any other deceased AA members? If you are interested in more information about this topic, please see Dawn L., our PI Chair. You can actually contact Al P., cause Al happens to be on the Public Information Committee or you can let me know your opinion on that.

You know, during this whole process, actually since the time I was elected; I knew that a lot of Delegates came back from this experience, whether it’s after their first General Service Conference or perhaps after their full two year term, saying that this is the type of thing that has changed their life. However, my personal experience has been that as soon as I was elected, I put myself in motion. I’ve been reading, I’ve been talking, I’ve been going to as many places as I can and I have been doing all the things that I was told a Delegate was suppose to do. I have answered every piece of mail I’m suppose to answer and I have shown up where I am suppose to show up. But I had been wondering when the time was going to happen when I started to be filled up with this feeling of being a Delegate. I have to tell you that you folks here have done that for me today. You know just sitting here and listening to the presentations yesterday and knowing the energy and the heart that went into them, then listening to the comments from the microphone, start to show me what this being Delegate is all about. I mean a lot of this is getting the consensus for the betterment of AA within the community, but you know the personal part, the life-changing part of this thing, is becoming a part of you guys in terms of listening to the things you have to say and putting that together with what other people have to say. So I thank you very much for this.

Pacific Region Trustee – Jim C.: I just returned from the AAWS Board Meeting which was on Thursday and I just came out here on Friday with Susan, so I haven’t gotten my report written yet but I will try to get it out in the next few days and get it to Steve. Whenever I attend a meeting back in New York, either a Board Meeting or a AAWS Meeting, I write out a report and send it to all the Delegates from the Pacific Region. I really believe that the most important job that I have, well we all have one basic job, and that’s to carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffers; but under that heading, I guess the most important task that I have is communication. I believe that my communicating with you and listening to what you have to say is the most important thing I do. So I really have to get out what's happening there.

As I have grown up in service, particularly early on, I hear a lot of grousing about them and New York and what they do. Over the years, what I have come to believe, is that it comes from the people who really don’t have the information about what really is happening. You know we have meetings back in New York at GSO for AAWS and we have our quarterly Board Meetings and we work on Committees and we just do the work of AA or what we feel AA needs at the time. We don’t have any special interests and we are not trying to do anything outside of what you want us to do. What we are actually trying to do is to carry out the will of the fellowship of AA. But that doesn’t always come through that way and sometimes people get the wrong idea. Actually, we are coming toward the end of a very exciting year. This time of the year is always exciting because we’re heading towards the Conference and it is the culmination of all the things that have been brought up during the year. All the suggestions that have been sent into GSO and passed on through the Staff people at GSO to the Trustee’s Committees and passed on from the Trustee’s Committees to the upcoming Conference Committees. This is an important time of the year. And that’s not really true. It is true in one way that it’s the end, but it’s not really true because what we do happens all year long. We have our positions when we are elected on a Panel, this Panel for this Area, and you will have a position that will last for two years. And it’s two full years. It’s not just to the Conference and then skip over it till next year to the Conference and then it will be over. The ideas that come forward at the Conference and appear as Agenda items on the Conference are ideas that start throughout the year. Steve was talking abut an idea that came up yesterday, and I think in part it had to do with the topic of discussing Special Forums and Regional Forums on the Agenda. Al Perez was here and he said he felt really strongly about having some kind of a Special Spanish Forum. And we talked about it and it sounded like a really good idea. The Delegates felt that it was a good idea to have some kind of a Special Forum for Spanish-speaking. In California we have an enormous amount of Spanish-speaking people and it certainly does warrant a Special Forum. But in order for that to happen, we have to put the idea together and put it in for it. It doesn’t happen this year or tomorrow, it happens in the future when there is a slot for it. And if the Trustee’s Committee feels that there is a need, then they will put us into the next slot that is available. We feel there is a need, but it is up to them to decide whether that happens. But that happened this year just before Conference It reminded me that what we all need to be aware of what is happening throughout the year. The ideas that will be at next year’s Conference. This year’s Conference is already set, but at next year’s Conference, those are the ideas we come up with now until then. Always be thinking, be thinking ahead. When something happens in your Group or in your District or even in this Area that you think would warrant a change being made, then tell us about it. We will start the flow going. The way the flow normally works, and it can come from a Group or an individual. It usually comes from a Group and it will go maybe to the District, they will talk about it and then the District will bring it to the Area. Whether it be for a new piece of literature or something one of your Committees may come up with an idea about some new item they would like in the CPC Committee or in the Literature Committee or some other Committee. That would come up to the Area and the Area would say "wow that is a really good idea" and you would all vote on it and instruct Steve to send a letter outlining your idea or proposal to the appropriate desk at GSO. They would get that letter and they would transfer it on to the appropriate Trustee’s Committee and we would talk about it on a Trustee's Committee and then set it aside and say "that sounds like a good idea" and we will set that aside for the next year’s Conference and give it to the corresponding and appropriate Committee of the Conference. For a long time, I thought the way it worked out there was that somebody out there had a good idea, they must have been really bright and it was from somewhere else and then something happened. And then one time I was involved with an idea that came to the Conference floor and I thought "wow, it really does start at home." When you have a good idea, it starts at home. So be thinking. Don’t be caught up too much with this year’s Conference, be thinking that if something happens at your Group now, it’s not too late. Write it down and bring it to the Area. That’s what the Area is here for. Actually the main purpose of the Area is to elect a Delegate to carry the Area’s Group conscience to the Conference. So that’s what we are here for. Enough lectures, I guess. I just want you to be aware of that. Because it seems like what happens is that we get down to the end of the year and all the Agenda items have to be selected and submitted before the 15^th of January. We get down to the end of the year and that’s when everybody says "we’ve got to get busy because we’ve got some ideas and it’s too late or we’ve got to get them going and get them going right away" but it’s a year-round process.

This year we are going to have a very interesting occurrence at the General Service Conference, and that is that we are going to elect a Trustee at Large for the United States. All the Areas, including this Area, this is the newest Area, has the opportunity to put forth a candidate for Trustee at Large in the United States. I think I have probably told you this and many of you know it, but I don’t think it hurts to repeat it. I can tell you a little bit about that process. The Areas in the Pacific Region all have the ability to select one candidate for Trustee at Large. Those candidates are given to the Delegate and the Delegate submits it with a resume and at our Pacific Regional Meeting at the Conference on Wednesday, within the Delegates of the Pacific Region, we will conduct a Third Legacy Procedure to select one of our candidates as the Regional candidate for Trustee at Large for the U.S. There are six Regions in the U.S. and two in Canada but they are not involved this year. So the six Regions in the U.S. will each have a candidate and then on Wednesday afternoon, the Conference will vote, all the U.S. Delegate members will vote for a candidate out of those six people. So this year we will have a new Trustee who will take over after the Conference is over. There are six regions so obviously we don’t have a 50/.50 chance or anything like that, but we have a 15 or 16 percent chance of having our candidate be Trustee. Although that really is not what we are trying to see what Region gets to have the Trustee at Large. What we are trying to do is select the best candidate for Trustee at Large for the whole U.S. Next year it is going to be a really exciting time, and I am looking forward to wondering in my mind as to who is going to be the next Pacific Region Trustee. I was very fortunate to be selected from the hat as the Pacific Region Trustee and it always makes me wonder, maybe I have had enough of this job, I’m getting towards the end of it, I’ve got one more year, but I’m getting excited to see who’s going to be the next Pacific Region Trustee. You will also have an opportunity next fall, every Area of the Pacific Region will have an opportunity, to select by Third Legacy Procedure, a candidate for Pacific Region Trustee. We won’t vote at our meetings to select one like we do this year, but at the floor of the Conference next year, that afternoon, we will take 15 Delegates from the Pacific Region and then 15 others. The others will be selected from the Trustees and the Conference Committees that have to do with Trustees, an equal number, so there will be that many people, 30 people that will vote for the Pacific Region Trustee in a Third Legacy Procedure. That will be my last conference, and in July, the first Board Meeting, the new Pacific Region Trustee will take over. As I say, I love this job, I think it’s a fantastic job, but I am looking forward to see who will be the new person who will have the opportunity to do that. It has been an absolute joy to serve you as Pacific Region Trustee. It has been for me the dream of a lifetime. Parts of it that I like the best are not the parts I thought were really going to be wonderful. You know when I started out, I had dreams that one day I would be General Service Trustee, like Jackie, because that seemed like it would be more along my line. I could be a Director for three or four years and then maybe a General Service Trustee, because I didn’t think I was a people person and all that other stuff. Regional is not what I wanted to do. And then I let my name stand for Regional and I was elected. The biggest joy I have had with this position was being able to meet all you people and being able to talk to you and communicate with your and it has just been wonderful. I thank you so much for all you have given me and allowing me to grow in this position. It’s good to be here. Thank you.

ARCHIVES: Shirlee B. - There were 13 people in attendance. We discussed our current inventory, which is growing by leaps and bounds, and we thank you for your donations. We also discussed the fliers we have prepared for the GSRs. Please take these back to your Districts, make copies for all the GSRs and create a binder to give to the Archives. We’d like to have something in the Archives for each District. We also set up a Guidelines and Policies Committee to draft the Archives Guidelines. We distributed copies of the GSO handbook and our people are going to look them over and get back to the Delegate with their comments. We also began the setup of a personal display. We can bring the Archives to you, just ask us – you can ask me. Thank you very much for letting me be of service.

GRAPEVINE/LaVINA: Robbin S. - The Grapevine Committee sent out copies of letters out to all DCMs and Area 93 Chairpersons concerning the Grapevine’s half-price subscription offer for Hospital & Institutions service work. We want to remind everyone that April 13, 2001 is the deadline for subscriptions and they must be made through the Area Grapevine Chairperson. The Grapevine Committee will try to verify existing GVR names registered at the Grapevine. We can tell from the latest printout that Area 93 Grapevine and LaVina Reps are not accurate. We will try to update and correct GVR lists by contacting the Grapevine in New York, Districts within Area 93, and individual GVRs and LaVina Reps. As part of the commitment to reach more AA members individually, upgrade GVR lists and promote the service side of the Grapevine, our Committee will assemble GVR kits for each DCM to take back to their Groups and distribute to the GSRs in each Group. We need volunteers at the May 20^th Area Assembly. The packets will contain a cover letter, subscription forms, a Grapevine or LaVina and a GVR or LaVina Rep handbook. These packets will be assembled during the Committee meeting for distribution that afternoon. Extra hands will be helpful as we will be building 300 packets. If you have extra Grapevines or LaVina available to donate, please contact me ASAP and I will arrange to get them from you if you can’t bring them to the next assembly. I also need a person to translate the cover letter into Spanish. We had seven attendees at this Committee meeting. Others interested in working on the Grapevine Committee can contact me or simply show up at the next Assembly and help with the packet construction.

REGISTRATION: Stephanie S. - The Registration Committee met and discussed various problems that we are having as Registrars. We did have a visitor, the Area 06 Registrar. She shared with us how her Area handles registration. The Registration Committee has adopted a project. Our goal is to use a standardized format and program for the Area and all the Districts. Several Districts already use Access and we hope to help the Area and the remaining Districts to obtain Access and then use standardized forms. It was also suggested that these forms be put on our web site. Thank you for letting me be of service.

FINANCE: Victoria H. – We opened our meeting with the Serenity Prayer with seven members, a Treasurer and one Committee Chair in attendance. Norm read a paragraph from Self Support – Where Money and Spirituality Mix. We went over finance reports to verify numbers and make sure they were correct. The Alternate Finance Chair, Jim went to the GSR Orientation and then Jean read from the last meeting minutes. Rhonna made a motion to accept and they were accepted. We brought up questions about reimbursing the Alternate Delegate and Chair up to the amount allotted to the Delegate for PRAASA. We recommended to table until more information was furnished. We brought up budget setting for 2002 and strongly recommended the Finance Committee to attend that committee. We brought up that each Committee bring to the May Assembly, the budget recommendations to the Finance Committee so we have information to go over at the budget setting in July. We went over reports and discussed what information they would like to have or not have on the finances. Debbie B. informed the Finance Committee that they are free to view information on the computer. We welcomed six new members at our meeting. Thank you for letting me be of service.

GUIDELINES & POLICY: Bill R.– We had four Committee members present, we got one new GSR to join the Committee. Today we reviewed the Appendix W of the Guidelines and Policies regarding the web site and came up with a recommendation to make to the Area Committee on possible changes to the Appendix. We explained to our new GSR what our Committee did. Thank you for letting me be of service.

PI/WEB SITE/SPECIAL NEEDS: Dawn L. – We had 16 in attendance. We discussed what Public Information is and what it is not. I informed the Committee that I did order five PI kits and ten workbooks. We now have a web site which is up and running for Area 93. Our web site address is www.aaarea93.org. We also appointed a web master today. My personal opinion about our web site is that I was very excited about it. I was able to read the 93 News on our web site on Friday. I was able to contact other Standing Committee Chair people and our Officers by touch of a button. I’m not very good with email so this made it very easy for me. I thought it was great. So that you know that the format is simple for people like me who have a limited understanding of web sites, to get around and have a great time with it. I was there for a couple of hours. We considered the guideline revision presented to us by the Guideline & Policy Committee involving links at the web site. Seven Committee members were in favor of it. I was strongly opposed to it. We discussed meeting the needs of our Spanish Community regarding the web site. We agreed we would like to see a bilingual web site. A member voiced their opinion regarding letting the Spanish-speaking Districts discuss the idea of a bilingual web site before implementing it. The particular member agreed to carry the word to the Spanish-speaking groups regarding the bilingual web site and then bring back their voice to our Committee. We made a decision to table the motion concerning a bilingual web site until we hear what the Spanish-speaking groups would like to do. We also discussed special needs.

CPC/TREATMENT FACILITIES: Victor O. – We had 13 in attendance and 4 new GSRs who showed up for our meeting. The CPC Chair reported that her District was sending pamphlets to professionals. As a Treatment Facility Committee member, I will be going into local facilities to deliver presentations on the Bridging the Gap service we offer. I have the names and telephone numbers of AA members willing to be temporary contacts to facility residents upon release. These facility residents call Central Office who in turn transmit those names and phone numbers to our Committee and then we transmit those names and phone numbers to our voluntary temporary contacts. District 1 is working with a special school for women with children with drug/alcohol/pregnancy problems. They are also working with the Chamber of Commerce. District 34 is delivering a CPC presentation June 10 at the Holiday Inn for Counselors and Social Workers. More information will be forthcoming. This will be a Spanish-speaking presentation. Maria Sanchez will have fliers at the next Area Committee Meeting. As for discussing ways Treatment Facility Committee can help when it comes to individuals who focus on problems other than alcohol at AA meetings. Some suggestions were to discuss what AA is and what AA isn’t through the facility Administrators and give them AA literature to back up the information like our "Statement of Purpose" etc. It was suggested that a pamphlet be written to explain AA etiquette for newcomers to be given along with other pamphlets for those leaving treatment facilities. In conclusion , we were asked to think about ways we could spark an interest into Administrators that resist our help for the next Assembly meeting. Thank you for your support.

Vicki thanked the Committees and noted that we currently do not have a Translation Committee. We ask that anyone who would like to head up that Committee please see her and we will do everything possible to get that set up.

We do not have an appointed liaison to the Central Office but we did have a Central Office meeting and Phil graciously accepted giving us a brief report.

CENTRAL OFFICES: Phil B. – Our Central Office meeting had seven in attendance. We had San Fernando Valley, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County represented. We discussed excess prudent reserves. We discussed ways to improve communication between the Central Office and the Groups they serve. One of the ideas was to have a liaison from the District attend the Central Office/InterGroup meetings. We encourage the InterGroup Reps and the GSRs to attend each other’s meetings, both local and in the Area. We encourage the H&I Liaison to attend Central Office/InterGroup meetings. We came to the conclusion that the more we know about what each service entity does, the better level of service we will be able to offer.

GENERAL SERVICE OFFICE: Susan U. - I am very happy to be here with all of you. I have never had as wonderful a time as I have had in the last two days as your guest. Everything’s new here…it’s kind of fun and make sure you give lots of money to your Area and if there is money left over after you take care of your own Group, and your Central Offices and GSO. You know AA is just so healthy because all these people are here today. You’re here and you make it. I had my talk here yesterday and I showed a lot of visuals because I taught school for 12 years and you always bring a lot of visuals.

I have been working at GSO for 27 years, and my sobriety date is 5 years before that. I have been working at the office for almost 3 decades. I can’t believe that. The years have flown by. I have loved serving this way and in another couple of years I will probably retire and maybe someone in this room may be applying for the staff position. There are 10 alcoholic staff members at the office. One of the requirements to work there is to be sober 6 years, know the Traditions and enjoy traveling. We continue to be blessed by strong support from all the Areas. I was at the Conference when I saw Marita propose this Area 93 and watch the debate -- and here we are today.

It’s exciting to be at your first Pre-Conference Assembly. Next Wednesday, be thinking about me as I will be giving a report of this weekend to all the people in the office. Of course it will be very positive. I have been working with 6 General Managers and this one now is from Hawaii, his name is Greg M.. He’s an alcoholic and has been sober in AA and has been a pleasure to work with and brings great energy to the office. He’s very up on the computer technology and would like the best for communicating with AA. The Corrections Desk, Adrienne, has said that she would like you to bring to your Groups the need to have some of you volunteer to write to those in correctional facilities. You will not be given an inmate in California. It will be another State. There are currently 30 men waiting to correspond with someone from the outside.

I am now the Conference Coordinator, so all year long we have been working and getting your Delegate Steve and 92 others ready to come to the Conference next month. I have been working like mad and even some weekends as we put together an Agenda based on what comes in. Each Committee, there are 13 Committees, have Agenda items. You have seen many of them this weekend. You also receive them. I went on your web site and you also received them in your Area Newsletter. We are going to have a very exciting Conference week. I must say that I am a person who is checking a list now and checking it twice and checking it three and four times. We want to make sure that all the Delegates have paid their fees to come to the Conference. The cost is $800.00 for each Area. Over half the Areas contribute something more. It costs about $3,500.00 for each Delegate for the week in New York. The Conference is budgeted in total. It’s a huge amount…when I say this, please don’t die. The total amount to have the General Service Conference, including all the reports you get, the paper, the hotel, and salaries and everything else is about $400,000.00. It’s very, very expensive. There will be a remote communities meeting before the Conference where people discuss remote communities. There is going to be a very special guest. Dr. Bob’s son will be coming to the opening dinner and he is going to read Dr. Bob’s farewell talk which is on Love and Service. I really need all your prayers because he is 82 years old and he’s coming from Texas and we have arranged to have him met and interviewed by the GSO Archivist Judith. We have some things planned for him. The Board approved that and hopefully it’s going to work out. God willing. Those are the things I am working on. Jim C. will be one of the speakers at the dinner. There will be two Delegates speaking, a Director and a Trustee and Jim will be one. The Conference will also have a presentation on Monday regarding Spanish translations that has been ongoing and Steve will let you know how that goes. The rest of the presentations you all know about. They are on Love and Service. It is a wonderful theme. I heard this weekend such terrific presentations that are all positive. I think one of the most important things I can do today is to do my job. AA has a big job to do to keep everybody in our fellowship happy like we are today.

I want to share the web site activity. In February the web site was visited 113,000 times. So I am sure these web site additions are good in Areas and Districts. Al Perez came this weekend. He is our Delegate Chairperson from California. He will chair the two Delegates meetings where they meet together without the staff, like me, and without the Trustees like Jackie and Jim. They meet by themselves and one of the topics they have on their Agenda is websites. What other Areas are doing. What are you putting up on your web site. Are you putting too little or not enough. While all the Delegates and Trustees are meeting, there are 133 voting members, the spouses…this is for you Marita…so stop talking…the spouses are going to have a great week. I would much rather go on that. They’re going to go around Staten Island, Chinatown, the theatre, and several museums, Brooklyn, fabulous dinner and walk around Manhattan. This while we are sitting around the Conference room all weekend, deciding the heavy business of Alcoholics Anonymous. Man, it’s big stuff. Because I am the Conference Coordinator, I would like it to all be perfect. So, if your Delegate says it didn’t go perfect…

All the parts fit together so we can make Alcoholics Anonymous’ work and be here for the future. I really thank you for having me as your guest. I love you all and I hope you’ll come visit us in New York someday and that I’ll meet some of you as Delegates in the future…of course in the next two years I’ll just be working there so…thank you.

General Service Trustee - Jackie J.: Susan just said that no one runs AA and that is such a true statement. I’ve always felt that. When I got back there on this current assignment, I really realized it’s true. The Groups do have a great deal of influence through your Delegate. We go over very carefully everything that is said and done at that Conference and try to figure out, sort of like holding up the chads in Florida, we try to figure out what was really meant…what do they really want. And sometimes we don’t come up with the right answer. But really there is a great deal of effort spent trying to figure out whether we are doing what the Conference as a whole asked us to do. I am a member of that Conference so I have one voice in there. Several people…actually more than several…there seems to be an impression that I moved to New York when I became a General Service Trustee. That’s not exactly correct. I go back there as a volunteer, none of the trustees are paid, I go back as a volunteer, about 8 or 9 times a year purely as a volunteer. Sometimes it’s like a quick trip…I went there on Wednesday and came back on Friday…it was just a real quickie. Next time I go, I’ll go on a Friday and come home the following Sunday, making it about a 10-day trip. So they vary. But basically that’s what I’m doing back there. There are 14 alcoholic Trustees back there. 6 of them are like Jim…they are Regional Trustees. Wait a minute, did I lose 2 of them…yeah…2 of them are General Service Trustees, 1 from Canada and 1 from…no wait, there are 8 Regionals, 2 General Service Trustees 1 from Canada and 1 from the U.S. Jim was speaking about the election of the U.S. General Service Trustee this year. The basic job of the General Service Trustee is to represent the United States and Canada to other countries. They are the liaison or contact with other countries. The other 4 trustees are General Service Trustees. That’s kind of where I come in. The way you get to be a General Service Trustee is you become a Non-Trustee Director on one of the Corporate Boards then the General Service Trustees are chosen from those Non-Trustee Directors. I’m like Jim, I have one more year after this one to serve. One of my primary responsibilities is to be a Corporate Director of AAWS. Those are the…if you look at that chart, you know the one with the Groups up here and it comes down to the bottom…tag end on the bottom is AAWS. We are low-man on the totem pole. We basically are the ones who go back there often enough and also have a lot of correspondence and telephone calls in between. We have oversight of the General Service Office. The General Service Office is two things really…it’s the services to the Groups and it’s publishing. We go through, sometimes in minute detail, we do the okaying of various and sundry things. Like somebody mentioned that Greg M. our current General Manager is quite knowledgeable on the computer, he brought the General Service Office from …well lets see they were operating on some 386s six months ago and they are now completely a networked system…very modern…very new. They are hooked into Columbia University which will let any non-profit hook into…that is our server. So they are going to have a completely different networking system back there. It’s really going to be up-to-date…and that just got installed in November and they are still fooling around with it and figuring out what they can do. Other things that we work on there is setting the budget for AAWS, that includes literature pricing. Again, things come up from the Groups. We don’t sit back there and dream up "ahhh, we are going to publish this in a gift edition". Everything that comes out of the Groups…comes out of the individual members. If somebody asks for something, we have it priced out and then it is given to us with a recommendation from the staff as to whether they think the thing will ever sell. Some things we’d like to do are just not feasibly prudent to do. Another one we talk about is the subject of foreign literature. We are often asked why we don’t publish this, that and the other thing. We will publish almost anything that we can get presented to us. The way foreign literature translations work…if somebody translates something…there’s three things really. Somebody will write and say "I would like to translate the steps or the big book or what have you into Croatian or Bosnia or something" and we will say something like…"okay fine, if you want to do it, send us a sample." We ask that the 5^th Chapter be translated first. If they can get the spirit and the feeling of the 5^th Chapter, we feel they can do a translation. They send that and through correspondence, etc., we will go ahead and publish. Another way would be if they just sit down and translate it. Then they send the whole translation in to us, and we will have it checked for content, spirit, etc. It’s either approved or not approved. A third way of doing it is somebody says "we need a translation." A recent one like this was the Big Book in Mongolian. Somebody had translated it over there because they desperately needed it. Mongolian is not only the language for Mongolia, but it is the language for a good piece of China and Russia. The translation, after we had it checked, was not at all satisfactory. They didn’t think they could ever correct it. Therefore they said we couldn’t do it. They then said, "what do we do now?" Finally the decision was made that we would translate it ourselves and finance it. So we have these three ways of getting a foreign language. At that point, if there is a General Service Office serving that country, then we give them permission to publish it. If there is no GSO overseas to publish it, then we will publish it ourselves. We publish it and we store them in Vienna, and they are shipped out from Vienna. And again, people ask why are we so interested in this. We are interested in it for one reason and one reason only, it is our job, and one of our primary things that we have been charged with, is to maintain the undiluted version of AA. The path to maintain a pure and undiluted message so that your children and your grandchildren receive the same opportunity to sober up that we had. I could go on forever but, basically that’s it. We just do a little bit of everything. Besides serving as a AAWS Director, I am also on the General Service Board as a Trustee. I also serve on a Trustee’s Committee, which rotates yearly. I am just here to tell you it’s really a privilege…it’s a wonderful way to go…it’s an experience that I never expected to have and I will never be able to equal…I’m certain of that.

ASK IT BASKET -- There were many, many questions in the Ask-It-Basket today. We appreciate everyone’s interesting and thought-provoking questions. One of the questions was directed to our Delegate to take back to the Conference…The question posed: "Can we take a room poll as to how many people feel there would be a benefit to adding the 12 Concepts Short Form to the back of the Big Book? The majority felt this would be beneficial… Though no actual count was taken.

Discussion was opened concerning whether or not we would want to have our Delegate place a bid for our Area to host the Pacific Region AA Service Assembly in the year 2004. Steve stated that we would have to place our bid at this year’s Conference and that it would be advisable that when we submit our bid, we should have a site (city) already chosen. He also advised it would be best to choose a city with an airport. It was narrowed down to the following sites: Burbank, Valencia, Bakersfield, and Santa Barbara. Several members of the Assembly stated they could put packages together for any of those cities.

It was agreed that hosting this event would be beneficial to our new Area and that our Delegate should submit a bid to host the 2004 PRAASA. in Santa Barbara.

John W. – GSR: I want to thank all of those who presented and showed a little leadership here today and yesterday. I did learn a lot and I’m going back with a little more enthusiasm. I know that I am going to enjoy this task that the Group has bestowed upon me and hope I can fulfill their dreams. I do have one questions though. Yesterday we talked a lot about anonymity, I think it was yesterday…yeah it was yesterday…I’m pretty sure. I want to know why there were so many people crowded around the publicity and information Committee…why does everybody want to go into the publicity thing if we’re really interested in anonymity?

Dawn L. – Public Information Chair: I never thought about the Public Information Committee being about publicity…it never occurred to me. Our Committee is about getting the word out to people who need help and letting them know there is a place where they can get help. Through my own personal experience, what got me into this program, and what got me into staying in this program, was through you guys sharing your experience, strength and hope…I was attracted to that. You had what I wanted. I wanted my life to change and I wanted to have sobriety. And I think that’s what Public Information is about. But I understand that it is a real fine line between publicity and about attracting people. We try to work the best that we can within our Traditions and our guidelines so that we are not out there using advertisement and publicity.

Peter: I have one thing that I think seems to come up sometimes with different Groups…especially with their literature order and when they make announcements. It’s sort of a controversial topic. What about putting a fixed price on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous instead of adjusting the price based on how the budget runs. I don’t know if there is a simple answer or what. But how do members who want to see that happen, make it happen.

Susan U.: I’ve listened to the AAWS meetings for many, many years and they have discussed pricing literature and having a fixed price is kind of an impossible thing. They have to take into consideration all of the costs…what it costs to produce it and it’s based on how many books they sell…and they budget…and as you can see…as Jackie reported…it doesn’t come out the way they budget. If they are interested in something like this, I think they need to write the Chairperson of AA World Services…that’s Jackie Johnston…who’s in the room right now. They might discuss something like that and be able to respond to this request.

Jay: I wanted to … you were promoting the idea of LCMs…and I brought it up at PRAASA., at my DCM sharing session, that I wanted to get some feedback about LCMs and how they work and stuff…and went over like a lead balloon. No one had heard of what an LCM is. I was wondering if you could give me some words of wisdom on how I can promote that in my District.

Steve: The Local Committee Member system actually is a way of doing General Service that is described in the Service Manual. It was my understanding that there are some Areas in the Pacific Region that are actually operating that way…or at least a portion of them. So I am actually surprised that you got absolutely no feedback. My personal attraction to that was it seemed like a good service match for the density of population that we’ve got in the San Fernando Valley. I think like anything, it all depends on how the individuals within those Districts are most comfortable in doing service work. I really don’t have an answer but I am surprised that nobody related any experience with it. So that must be something that is happening somewhere else. I’ll see if I can find an Area where that is a common thing. I thought it was within the Pacific Region, but I will find out and let you know.

Dawn L.: Being the Public Information Chair…I have a question about how you deal with people who in their obituaries, because it is at the level of newspaper…they write their obituary and they talk about how they were an AA member. Do you handle it the same way you handle any other anonymity breaks?

Susan U.: The decision really rests with the family. That is the biggest problem of all because we don’t even tell our own families and I think there are many AA members who decide ahead of time or something that it is okay to do that. Mention the membership. I mean certainly my family wouldn’t. I ask them not to. But that’s what happens. Somebody in the family writes the article and they don’t know our Traditions. It’s up to each one of our AA members to explain the anonymity. But they say though, posthumous anonymity is left to the family to make the final decision.

MaryAnn gave a sample GSR report so that the new GSRs could get an idea of how to make their presentations to their Groups. She suggested perhaps working your report into your sharing. If you went to a meeting tonight you could tell everyone about the great AA day you had. Share a little something and tell them if they want any more information they could see you after the meeting. Or you can use the format that was handed out (ha..ha..ha). Depending on the mood of the Group, think about it and be realistic about it. If the meeting is running three minutes over…they don’t want to hear it. If you sit down and they just read this, their eyes may glass over. MaryAnn read over the suggested format, filling in the blanks as necessary. Putting it in pencil is a good idea because information will change. Don’t give them too much. Give them different things at different meetings. For instance the need for support for Area 93…Some of the Conference issues that were discussed… Correspondence to inmates…those kind of things. Sometimes we need a Group conscience…I remember a few years ago when we were talking about the Big Book and we were talking about what stories we wanted to keep in and what stories you think we should get rid of. Those are the kind of things you take to a Group. Then you talk about upcoming events…"we’re going to have an Ask-It-Basket at Central Office on April 28" and you may have fliers. Then you may say…"the following actions have been taken at the Area or District Level" ….Something about maybe we are thinking about funding our DCMs for PRAASA so that’s going to involve some amount of money… If you want more information, see me after the meeting. They may not know all this alphabet soup… and you could be sure that 80% , or more do not know the alphabet soup. So this is a lot of education that needs to be done. And then you might want to add things like…"it cost $400,000.00 to have a Conference. This is where your money goes." Or …"the big book needs to be translated into Chinese. Your money is going to help someone". You know this is mind-boggling…at least my area of the woods. You know the web site had a 103,000 hits this month…make it punchy. If you show your enthusiasm about whatever is going on…it rubs off on others. I hope that covers the subject.

Marita thanked District 22 for the wonderful flier for the next Assembly. She loves the idea that there is going to be a no-host dinner for those of us who have to drive so far that we will be spending the night in a town we don’t know and that we can actually all hang out together…so thank you for hotel places and a place we can all hang out and have dinner.

John: As Editor of 93 News, he wanted to let everyone know that deadline for the next issue of 93 News would be March 31. You can submit your articles to News93@Yahoo.com.

Robyn wanted everyone to know that the Literature display is available to anyone in the Area who may wish to use it at a Group or District function.He can be reached at literature@aaarea93.org (webmaster substitution).   Fliers for the next Area Committee Meeting are available at the handout table.

Mary – DMC for District 28. Life will be in Session, Saturday, April 28 in our Area. We are having a caring and sharing session. That is our local workshop and we are going to try to get the local members in our area out early in the morning with Registration and a continental breakfast at 8:30 A.M. Discussions and Presentation and then lunch. Map and fliers on the handout table.

Rhonna – District 23: We are hosting a Pre-Conference Topic Workshop for Group members. What we are doing is on March 31 between 5 and 7:00 P.M. at Sambos on the Beach which is a restaurant in Santa Barbara, we are filling our cars with Sponsees and we are teaching them about the Conference. We would love to have everyone come down and join our little shindig. Fliers are on the handout table.

Theresa – About the Post Conference Assembly on May 20…Please call me at the telephone number on the flier or let me know before you leave if you plan on doing the dinner thing on Saturday night. We need to call AJ Spurs for reservations and we don’t want a hundred people calling there. We are also having our annual camp-out at Big Sur in September. Fliers are also on the handout table. You need to make reservations right now.

MaryAnn: The Gold Coast District which is Ventura, Oxnard and Ojai…etc. We are having an Ask-It-Basket. This is mainly directed at the new Secretaries in our area. We have a turnover every year or so and we are going to be talking to the Secretaries who don’t know how to give a Secretary’s Report…a Treasurer’s Report. What a GSR is…what an IGR is…What do you do with the 7^th Tradition money…where do you send it. That will be April 28^th from 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. at the Ventura County Central Office.

Big hand and a great big thank you to Robert our Sound Dude – He has worked hard all weekend in making sure that everything got put on tape.

Motion to adjourn. Seconded. Meeting was adjourned at 4:15 P.M. with the Responsibility Pledge.

Respectfully submitted,

Bertie D.