CENTRAL CALIFORNIA AREA
93
OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
606 Alamo Pintado #140 Solvang, CA 93463
Veteran’s Memorial Hall
Bakersfield, California
CCAA Chairman Vicki B. called the meeting to order at 12:30 P.M. and led us with the Serenity Prayer. The 12 Concepts were read by Sandy in English. Jesus A. read them in Spanish.
Vicki made some corrections and additions to the agenda. Concept 1 will be presented by Al H. as Mary Ellen is not feeling well and could not make it today. Immediately following the standing committee reports, Eddie D., who is the Chairman of the ad hoc committee for PRAASA transportation. She also added item #8 under Assembly Business which will be a motion by the Literature Committee about the Concepts being placed in further editions of the Spanish and French Big Books. A motion was made to accept the Agenda as changed. The motion was seconded and passed.
Secretary’s Report – Bertie D.: Bertie read the eligibility rules for voting at an Area Assembly and explained how roll call is taken.
Roll Call: GSRs/Alternates 65
DCMs/Alternates 28
DCMCs/Alternates 4
Committee Chairs/Alts 18
SCAA Past Delegates 3
SCAA Officers 6
Total 124
We also had 2 Liaisons from the Central Offices our 2 interpreters as well as 16 guests, including Mark the Area Chair from Area 8 - San Diego Imperial; Suzanne the Alternate Chair from Area 8 – San Diego Imperial; Joel the San Diego Intergroup Chairman; and Jose G. the San Fernando Valley Spanish Intergroup Chairman.
Districts without representation were 12, 50, & 53. We hope you can join us at our next Assembly in Santa Paula.
AA Birthdays for June, July, August, September and October were recognized.
The minutes for the May Assembly were submitted for approval. Bertie noted that the CCA calendar attached to those minutes had an error in the date of the next Area Committee Meeting, which should be November 18, 2001and not the 17th. It was moved and seconded to accept the minutes as written with the correction to the attachment. The motion was seconded and passed.
Alternate Delegate’s Report – Jeanine R.: Good afternoon, my name is Jeanine R. and I’m an alcoholic. My home group is the Freedom Group in Lompoc. It was wonderful to have 30 new GSRs present today. I would like to invite them to come to one of our microphones on the floor and introduce themselves. Please state your name, District number and the group you represent. Thank you. How about a round of applause for the most important people present here today? I’d like to ask all who are sitting by a new GSR to be ready to answer any questions they may have.
I was appointed the liaison to the First Hispanic Forum that took place last Sunday, October 14th. The Foro was a great success with about 180 people present from 3 different areas. I would like to thank the Area for allowing me to serve as the liaison and invite all who were unable to attend this year to please do yourselves a favor and make this event one of the ones you calendar for yourself in 2002. You’ll be grateful you did.
I also am honored to serve as the liaison to the Southern California H&I Intergroup Committee. Requests continue to come into the Area for outside support for meetings inside of prisons and hospitals or for contact upon release. We pass those on to the H&I Committees that serve the institution the request is going to so that the message continues to be carried on. There are also 67 men and 2 women in institutions throughout the US and Canada who are requesting correspondence from recovering members of Alcoholics Anonymous. If anyone is interested in serving in this manner or knows anyone who might be interested please see me at break or call or e-mail me. My numbers are on the agenda. Thanks again for allowing me to be of service.
Treasurer’s Report – Debbie B.: There are many reports available today. Please pull out the proposed budget for 2002. I have discussed with the Finance Committee that I will only be distributing the Expenses and Contributions year-to-date report at the Area Assembly. The monthly contributions report is mailed to the DCMs for them to copy and distribute at the District meetings. This will help cut down on Area expenses. When we vote on the proposed budget and the calendar changes, please keep in mind that each Assembly includes rent, food, mileage, fliers and interpreters. For the 2001 budget, the average cost was $<deleted>. Currently in our proposed budget, we have budgeted approximately $<deleted> per Assembly based on the previous calendar of 4 Assemblies a year. Also, take out your budgets or get one at the back table and add to it the following…on page 6, the upper and lower cash levels as suggested today in the Finance Committee meeting. The upper cash limit, which refers to money in the bank, is $<deleted>. The lower cash limit is $<deleted>. When we go to vote on this you will have a clue. Our bank balance as of October 20 is $<deleted>. I would also like to make a suggestion or clarify a point. We are trusted servants with the Area contributions. However, we must also realize that we are not trying to build up a large savings account. The purpose of the funds contributed to the Area is to fund projects to help the alcoholic who still suffers. I am excited to see what projects the Committees will come up with in our second year of Area 93. An additional purpose of the funds is to reimburse trusted servants who perform service in the Area structure. One thing I hope never to hear again is someone saying they would stand for office but they cannot afford to do so. Money or the lack of it must never be the basis for making a decision to serve the Area. I also want to thank everyone for remembering the food kitty today. The total collected so far is $<deleted>. We are self-supporting. You can still contribute if you have forgotten to do so…that figure has just been amended to $<deleted> I am being told. I want to thank you for your attention. Now I want everyone to pull out the Expense and Contribution year-to-date report. This is the report we will be asking you to approve today.
Vicki asked for any questions on the quarterly financial report and seeing none entertained a motion to accept.
A motion was made to accept the report as submitted. The motion was seconded and the report was approved.
REGISTRATRAR – Stephanie S.: Stephanie apologized for not bringing the Area 93 pins that Steve had given her to pass out and will make sure to bring them next time. She welcomed all the new District Registrars and reminded them of their duties, which include being of service to their DCM and their District by keeping track of the Groups in the District. The other being that they need to bring any changes to her. She spoke at length about Group Registration numbers and how GSO works with those numbers. Currently, work is being done with the Active-Unknown Group Information for the GSO deadline. All changes can be emailed (do not send data bases as she is not equipped to accept them.) you can also snail mail them. There is a new roster for this Assembly which was emailed to anyone who has an email address. If you don’t have an email address, be sure to check your folder for a copy of the roster and let Stephanie know if there are any corrections.
CHAIRPERSON – Vicki B.: I would like to welcome everyone here. At our March 2-day Assembly, District 60 asked how are they going to increase participation in their District and I suggested they host an Assembly. In the past couple of months that I have been visiting the District I have noticed the participation growing and today we have someone from District 59. We haven’t seen them in quite a few years. We also have someone from District 21. So if you want to see something moving and started in your Districts, think about hosting. We will come right to you and get the interest going. Vicki thanked the people that were helping with serving today. One of them with 10 days…the other one with 7 days and the other one with 4 days and Ken has 5 days. They have been having so much fun today and I would like everyone to give them a hand for being here today. I talked to them earlier and they told me what an enjoyable experience this was. The only other thing I have is that today we have an awful lot of business to be discussed. So when we are in the middle of discussing business please make sure that we are quiet. Give the person at the microphone their chance to speak. If you have been to the microphone once, please do not come to the microphone again until everyone else has had a chance to speak. If you hear your same thought mentioned at the microphone, you do not need to share it again and we will be able to get through this business a whole lot quicker and get the voting done and we can go home.
DELEGATE – Steve H.: Good Afternoon. My name is Steve H. and I am an alcoholic – proud to serve Area 93 and Alcoholics Anonymous as the Panel 51 Delegate.
This has been a somewhat quiet period for general AA news – but I will pass on some of the things that have happened in the U.S. and Canada over the summer.
· First on the list is news from our Regional Trustee, Jim C., that the trustee’s Committee on Conventions and Forums has agreed to the Special Hispanic Forum in Bakersfield, probably in 2003. Once we have a date set, we’ll form a committee of representatives from the six California Areas.
· This week I will receive 50 copies of the October/November issue of Box 4-5-9, which features articles on the soon-to be-published Fourth Edition of the Big Book. I brought Xerox copies of the publication to the last Area Committee Meeting (some of them may be back on the handout table) but please let me know if you are interested in having an original copy of this issue and I’ll save you one.
· If you hadn’t already heard, the General Service Office will be sending a complimentary copy of the Fourth Edition of the Big Book to each GSR or Group Contact listed with GSO as a thank you for the groups’ direct and indirect help in bringing this book to publication.
· Recently translated AA literature includes: “AA Tradition – How It developed” and “Understanding Anonymity” in Turkish, “a Newcomer Asks” and “This is AA” in Burmese, and “Is AA For You?” and “A Newcomer Asks” in Hebrew.
· The General Service Office has updated their service piece titled “Fellowships Similar to AA.” This includes the names and contact information of 20 “established” organizations that use the 12 Steps as a basis for their programs and a list of clearinghouses for contact information for these and other self-help organizations. I brought a few copies of this article so see me after the Assembly if you would like one.
· I also have a few copies of GSO’s “List of Newsletters in the Fellowship” which includes area and district newsletters in the U.S and Canada.
· Eva S. reported on her trip to the Peoples republic of China last August with Greg Muth, our General Service Office Manager, and Dr. George Vallant, one of our Class A trustees. They were invited by a number of Chinese physicians to explain the AA program. They accomplished that and were able to demonstrate how the program works by holding impromptu meetings with inpatients at two city hospitals. Eva said that the AA message of hope and recovery from alcoholism is quickly spreading there.
· Julio E., GSO’s Correctional Facilities Coordinator reported that there are currently 67 men and 2 women waiting to be linked with outside AA members through the Corrections Correspondence Service. If you are interested in helping one of these men or women grow in their AA program, see me after the Assembly.
· A subcommittee of the trustees’ Literature Committee is reviewing references to spirituality and religion, which occur in 16 of our recovery pamphlets. They are cooperating with subcommittees from the CPC and PI committees, which are making similar reviews of their literature.
· As of September 1st, approximately 6,000 valid surveys from 300 active groups had been received for the 2001 Membership Survey. Eight of these were from Area 93.
· The General Service Office passed on their thanks to everyone who has expressed their concerns and thoughts for the office in response to last month’s tragic events in New York City.
I had hoped to pass on some specific preliminary information on next year’s Conference agenda but nothing new has appeared since my last report. So I would again ask you to review the Additional Considerations in last year’s Conference report for a preview of possible items.
Speaking of next year’s Conference, Jeanine (our Alternate Delegate) is already at work on Area 93’s 2002 Pre-Conference Assembly Workshop. She and I are asking other Areas in our Region for descriptions of their pre-Conference assemblies to get some new ideas for our Assembly / Workshop format.
Like I said, things have been quiet so this report was short. I would like to close with some thoughts I’ve had about how the General service Conference process works. I wrote them down for the 93 NEWS Fall Edition but would like to repeat them here. As you may have noticed during my first few Conference reports starting last May, I was very intent on passing on the process and the outcome of the event. And when I stay intent on something, I’m INTENSE. It really wasn’t until the 3rd or 4th report that I was comfortable enough to speak without looking at my notes so I could keep eye contact with the audience as I talked. And it was then that I really began to relive the experience as I described it to others.
I gave my last report at the Ventura County AA Convention at the end of August. As I was driving home from that event, I was thinking about the big difference in my experience of the first and last report and wondering why. Well, I figured it out. Have you ever noticed that when you share a really neat event in your life with someone who cares - the event takes on a deeper, more lasting meaning than if there’s no one around to share it with? I have. And that’s what began happening during my reports, as I became more comfortable in giving them. I noticed that the people in those rooms really did care about what I had to say. And so the experience and the meaning of what happened at the Conference really began to sink in. It wasn’t that we debated and passed Advisory Actions that will forever make AA a better recovery program. It was rather that we shared the informed consciences of groups and individual members across the US and Canada in a way that allowed God, as we each understood him, to be a participant. The result was a truly spiritual consensus of AA members. Absolutely amazing! So, I would like to thank those of you who were there to listen – and to care – about how this very necessary part of our AA program works.
Al H. gave us a presentation on Concept 1. World Service…we are in China, we are carrying the message to people over there, But you know what, this is also world service. What is happening in your Group, in your home meeting. That’s world service. I get to talk about Concept 1 and I get to get to talk about the Concept “generally”. Vicki knows my thing about microphones. She said anything up to two hours was fine! (laughter). Oh I’m sorry…just a few minutes. One of our Past Delegates told me I have to mention my Home Group, which happens to be the Oildale AA Group which just happens to be a few blocks away from here. My home meeting is the Wednesday Candlelight meeting. First off, I want to see the hands of all those who own a personal copy of a Service Manual. Okay…that’s the easy one. Next part… the second half of this thing is the 12 Concepts. I don’t want you to just tell me if you’ve read the 12 Concepts, short form or long form. I want to know if you have read the whole second half of this book? I have … I have more than once. Every time I read it there is something new for me. Think about the concept of Concepts and let’s back up a little bit. The 12 Steps of recovery were written in about half an hour by Bill W.. They were given to him by a power greater than us. Than a few years later, our 12 Traditions were written. First published in 1946. They were based on AA experience. The 12 Concepts were first published in 1962…way way down the road in terms of AA experience. But they are called Concepts…not rules. Not regulations, not a how-to, not you must do it this way…but Concepts. I was thinking this morning of what is a concept. Well if I am a developer…I’m a builder of things…and I am standing here in the middle of Bakersfield by this great big open field and I say…you know, the supermarket’s going to be over there and I will have a little strip mall there. The main entrance to the facility will be here. We are going to have 4 cross streets… each block will be of a certain size…that’s my concept. That’s the overall picture of things. When you put it down on paper, it comes out a little bit different. Than we start putting it all together and it becomes even more different. These Concepts are kind of that way. They are kind of an overall picture of who we are, how we got here, and what we are doing. Bill wrote them based on a lot of experience. He says it quite well here. I am going to read some of this…In the introduction to the Concepts he talks about “principals, which have already become traditional to our services, which have never been clearly articulated and reduced to writing.” You know we kind of went by the seat of our pants for a long time here. We got together, one drunk talking to another. They put together a structure…they put together the Alcoholic Foundation in 1938 and it just worked. Not real well, but it worked. He got to looking at this and said again quoting from this “traditions, customs, relationships and legal arrangements.” So Bill sat down to write the Concepts for World Service. Some of us tend to think…yeah, World Service…that’s China…that’s Nairobi…that’s Kenya…that’s India. No. That’s us. It’s our world, which we serve and we participate in it. One of the things he mentions too is the “best personal relations”. I found out something interesting a week ago. A friend of mine…a friend of ours…went back to New York for an interview and among other things, he was informed that for someone to be hired as a staff person, such as Eva. They are interviewed by every other staff person. It’s a one or two-day process because the relationship among them is so vitally important that everyone has to get a feel for them. And they have to go through this process and interviewing. We come down to Concept 1 which says…and you heard it…everyone heard it, right…who listened to it? If you are like me you probably didn’t. You heard it but you didn’t listen to it. That’s the way I am. Very often with the 12-Steps, 12-Traditions, 12-Concepts…it says “The final responsibility and the ultimate authority for AA World Services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole fellowship.” Well that’s pretty simple. Wait a minute. Should not must…not has to…should…well how do we govern this group of 2-million ex drunks by using words like “should” and “it’s a good idea.” No we ought to have something hard a fast…no…no we can’t. We have to stick with “should” and “it’s a good idea” and “our experience has taught us that.” These are not rules. This is an overall concept. The Concepts have been changed a lot over the years because we have changed a lot. We make changes whenever necessary. But it says, final responsibility and ultimate authority belongs to you and me. WE RUN THIS THING. We Send people to China…Yeah. Well how do we do that. Well we elect people like Steve…we elect people like Jim C.. We…those of us who participate in this thing go through the process of selecting people who will do for us what we cannot do. I can’t go to China. I can’t serve as a Trustee…not all of us can. I can’t serve as a Delegate now. One of us can. We have to have people we trust doing the things individuals and Groups can’t do. So we, by our participation at this level, exercise our ultimate responsibility. We are the ones who said that Eva, Greg and whoever else go to China. One of the ways we said that is the money we put in the basket. We often think. Oh that goes for coffee, literature and the rent. Well no it goes to China too. It goes to … oh, I don’t know how many countries we visited in the past year or two… Steve has told us about that. But that’s because of us, because we are exercising our responsibility for world service. We do that. In the early days of AA we had one person who ran the thing…Bill W.. We had our Trustees and they handled the money but Bill Wilson handled the rest of it. When AA policy questions came up…It went to Bill and sometimes Bob. Bill recognized that he would die and when they got the word that Bob had this fatal condition…they had to do something. So they went through the process…and it was a difficult process…of turning this whole fellowship over to us. It was experimental in 1950, in 1955 they decided it would work. We had our Conference structure and all that it entails. Experience…you know that’s what has worked for us so far and that’s what will continue to work. Even if we have to change things, at least we have a kind of road map. This book tells us kind of where we came from, how we got here, how we have done things that work. If we want to change them…okay. But let’s be sure that we are doing it for very good reasons. Because, once again, we are ultimately responsible for all of this. There some stuff in here that I just have to share a little bit. It talks about “a democratic nation that are enlightened enough, moral enough, responsible enough to manage their own affairs”. Are we? Is this Country? Are lots of us? Any of us? But it says “in many self-governing Countries, we are now seeing the inroads of ignorance, apathy, and power seeking. “ The only thing that will lead us to …it says … is dictatorship. Bill says that won’t happen to us. I hope it doesn’t. Because it says here “extensive disobedience to these principals is death for the individual and dissolution for the Group.” If we ignore our Concepts for World Service, it could mean the death of Alcoholics Anonymous and the death of how many millions of people. We have to hope, again quoting from this book “enough enlightenment, enough responsibility, enough love of man and of God, to ensure that our democracy of World Service will work under all conditions.”
Our Delegate Steve conducted the Third Legacy election of our Pacific Regional Trustee candidate, explaining what the position entails. We had one candidate available – Joe V. – our Panel 49 Past Delegate. Joe gave the Assembly a brief summary of his service background. Joe’s Home Group is the Magic Mountain Discussion Group of Santa Clarita and his sobriety date is March 22, 1986. He has served as a GSR, Alternate DCM for District 48, Grapevine Chairman, Area Chairman, Alternate Delegate, Delegate and was elected Chairperson of the Conference Agenda Committee while serving as Delegate. Joe served as the Chairman for the ad hoc Committee for the additional Delegate Area and currently is being of service as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, as a Service Sponsor and Travel Sponsor for PRAASA (inside joke). Joe is available, very capable and has a well regarded business background. He would be honored to serve. The election was conducted and Joe was elected by over a two-thirds majority.
ARCHIVES COMMITTEE – Shirley B.: There were 13 members in attendance at the meeting. The minutes were read by Vicki McT. and Diane discussed the display of the 1st Edition, 1st printing of the Big Book. Shirley discussed Guidelines and Policies and asked members to take them back and read them. Mikey B. read the language to be included in the Area Guidelines. Shirley showed the current inventory and the budget was discussed. We are in good shape. District binders were reviewed. Group histories are being put in binders for display. Meeting was opened for discussion. Michael S. will chair location committee and Marita will make bookmarks to give members to put in materials to be donated to Archives. We look forward to being invited to bring the Archives to you.
CENTRAL OFFICE – Phil B.: There were 8 members as well as Joel from the San Diego Intergroup Chair. Discussed were ways to increase participation at the Area level. One solution would be to mail out invitations to all Intergroup and Office Managers as well as include the invitation in the Central Office Newsletter. The primary purpose of the Central Office was discussed as well as ways to save money and expand services. They discussed fund-raisers, supporting member contributions, Buck-A-Month Club in San Diego and the Friendly Fivers in Tucson Intergroup. Discussed different ways volunteers are answering phones. Ventura County currently does it 3 nights a week from 5:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. Santa Barbara currently has an after hour answering service as does San Luis with call forwarding or an answering service. San Diego has an answering service from 9:00 P.M. to 9:00 A.M. All Central Offices have a sober and friendly voice 24/7. Also discussed was pricing of the 4thEdition of the Big Book and other AA Literature.
CPC/TREATMENT FACILITIES – Lisa J.: There were 14 members in attendance. Lisa gave a report on CPC activities since May’s Area Assembly. She received 5 letters from GSO requesting CPC follow up. Phone calls were made to the 5 interested parties and 1 wanted more information. This request was from the Warner Brothers Lot in Burbank. In discussing with the director, it became apparent this was a PI request – presenting an AA info table to their employees. Dawn was unable to attend so Lisa and another member presented on September 13 in Burbank. Victor discussed his work with Treatment Facilities and the success he is having at some of the facilities. He and Lisa agreed that they are both finding it beneficial to have a combines committee, which is facilitating better communication with professionals and facilities. Maria shared on their CPC project last June. She stated that the down side was no professionals attended but they did reach some members. Clyde from H&I attended. Discussion took place on the differences between H&I and Treatment Facilities Committee. This extended to the interaction between CPC, Treatment Facilities and H&I. We discussed the fear of breaking our anonymity when doing CPC/Treatment Facility work and ways to present to the professionals and directors without breaking anonymity. Also discussed was the contact process for people leaving a facility. A pamphlet was passed around from the San Diego/Imperial Area entitled “Making Contact. Gold Coast Group has been active with projects at the Government, medical, religious, education and social service level.
Victor advised that in an effort to generate interest, invitations are now being extended at Districts 11, 16 & 27 at the General Service Rep meetings as well as the San Fernando Valley Central Office Intergroup meeting. There are sign-up sheets circulating in District 34 for Spanish-speaking AA members that can volunteer to be “temporary contacts” to treatment facility residents upon their release from the facility. These volunteers will be asked to meet the former residents at meetings in the community in which they live in so they can get through that initial “fear” we have all experience in our first few days. One of the many things we do at our meetings is discuss how Treatment Facilities Committee members keep within the Traditions when going into facilities to deliver presentations or working with residents upon their release or while clients remain in the services of certain types of facilities.
FINANCE – Victoria H.: The Committee started off by a reading a paragraph from the self-support pamphlet, “the bottom line.” The committee reviewed, discussed, and approved several reports. They also discussed what reports were needed or necessary at the Assembly. It was decided that the Expense and Contribution report and the Budget vs Actual report would be made available at the Assembly. DCMs are currently receiving the Contribution reports on a monthly basis and it is up to the DCM to make copies of that report for the GSRs. All these reports are available to Finance Committee members. The budget was discussed and approved with the awareness that this budget is for 4 Assemblies and that there may be a schedule change for next year with 5 Assemblies. The Finance Committee will review the availability of funds for the September Assembly in April. It was agreed that there is money available to reimburse the Alternate Delegate and Chairperson for the 2001 PRAASA expense and there is money available to send a representative to the Spanish Forum in Austin, Texas. It was further agreed to have a lower cash reserve in the amount of $<deleted> and an upper cash limit of $<deleted>. There was a question about the budget amounts not being used by the Committees. It was explained that this is a budgeted amount it is the responsibility of the Committee to request these funds.
GRAPEVINE/LA VINA – Tom S. for Robbin: The Grapevine/LaVina Committee consisted of 10 people. We discussed some institution policies of not allowing the magazine or any other literature with staples. We are investigating solutions to this problem. The Committee voted to endorse a proposal from Grupo Tres Legados that AA Grapevine, Inc. create more Spanish-language audio tapes. We notified the Guidelines & Policies Committee and requested that they bring the motion to the November Committee meeting for inclusion on the January Assembly Agenda.
GUIDELINES & POLICY – Bill R.: 6 members were in attendance. Some hand changes were made for the motions today. Discussed were future items to be placed on the Agenda, such as dropping the 72 hour voting requirement before an Assembly for GSRs to vote; reviewing the Officers on page 1 and page 3 as there is nothing there for the Registrar. They were also looking at the issue of the Sub-Committee Chairs not having a vote. We will have more discussion on that. They also discussed how many changes to the overall Guidelines and Policies that one simple change to the Calendar would cause.
LITERATURE/AUDIO-VISUAL/NEWSLETTER – Jay R. presented for Peggy D.: Jay advised that there were 22 people in attendance at the meeting. Lothar has made several video presentations and suggested that speaker meetings present 1 movie per year and that Big Book and 12&12 meetings present the film, Bill Speaks on the Twelve Traditions.
On the Newsletter front, John has asked that if you do not receive the newsletter that you please write down your address and email address if you have one, and give it to him today. The newsletter is $10.00 for 2 years. The purpose of the newsletter is to share news of upcoming events and to share information of what is happening in the service structure. Anyone may submit an article, but it must be AA related. The deadline for the next Newsletter is December 31, 2001. It is published every 3 months.
Peggy informed the committee that a meeting was convened with the Delegate as well as a few others from the Literature Committee to discuss whether or not to pursue the development of a new pamphlet to address Atheists and Agnostics in AA. She congratulated and applauded the diligence and hard word done by Robin and Robin then gave a report. Robin was originally approached by the Delegate who had been having dialog with a concerned AA member in our Area who is an atheist with several years of sobriety. Robin has developed a packet of information having to do with this subject that includes letters and articles from the Grapevine, letters to Steve and documents having to do with rituals in AA. When Steve was in NY he was told that the Committee would not take any action on this at this time. When Robin inquired about this directly from GSO, she was informed that the Committee was not required to explain it to her as an Area Committee Chair. Robin’s personal opinion is that a new pamphlet needs to be developed for atheist and agnostics. At the last Area Committee Meeting, the Committee did not feel that they had enough information to recommend to Steve that he requests that this topic be brought up at the Conference. Theresa noted that this topic was discussed at the last Conference and that the references can be found on pages 44 and 65 of the Final Conference Report. It shows that other pamphlets may already deal with this issue. Robin continued in her report that she was told by GSO in New York that the Literature Committee was not going to move forward at this time on this issue because there were so many other priorities that they were dealing with. Peggy mentioned that we may want to develop a pamphlet just for our Area to be distributed locally. This was mentioned at the meeting a few weeks ago with the Delegate. Robin moved that the Literature Committee recommend to the Area Committee that we discuss this issue as an Agenda item at the next Area Assembly. The motion carried. Jay moved that the Area Committee develop a pamphlet for the atheist/agnostic for Area 93 only. The motion failed.
Susan visited the Committee meeting said that H&I put forward a request to the Committee that it be brought up in New York that we need fold out literature pieces that can be used in penal institutions with no staples. The literature they are requesting is the Preamble, the 12-Steps, the 12-Traditions and contact numbers for GSO so inmates can reach AA after they get out. Susan said that they have had to make do with literature that is not Conference approved but would like to begin using Conference approved literature that they can bring into jails that do not have stapes. Robin will take the matter up with GSO in New York and report back at the next Assembly.
PI/WEB SITE/SPECIAL NEEDS – Stormy D. presented for Dawn L.: Stormy was standing in for Dawn who could not be here. There were about 12 people in attendance. It seems that most Districts are pretty active in PI work as far as getting information into libraries, probation departments and lately getting them into hotels and motels. At least getting in a directory in the hotel room. As Special Needs Chair, Stormy received an email from Dawn concerning the need for members to correspond with some “Loners.” Only one has a telephone number the rest only have addresses. If anyone is interested in getting this information they should see Stormy. John M., our Web master introduced Bruce N. the new Alternate Web Master. The Committee would like to hear from the members in our Area as to what they would like to see on the web site. Please visit the site and become a member of the web site sub-committee. The only requirement is that you have an email address. Contact John or Bruce if you need more information.
REGISTRATION – Edgardo C.: The main topic of discussion was the duties of the Registrars of the Districts since there were several new Registrars in attendance. There was discussion concerning the importance of bringing any changes in the District to the Area and the Area Chair will forward those changes to GSO. District 34 advised that the GSRs from that District have approved a new Spanish District.
TRANSLATION COMMITTEE – Susan C.: The Committee has 2 core members who translate 90% of the written items submitted from English to Spanish. Although they seem to meet most deadlines, they are in great need of additional persons with computer skills and internet access. They would like to participate and coordinate translations at the request of the General Service as a whole, but lack coverage to do so. Their future and ongoing aim is to have adequate representation and participation of the Spanish-speaking community in each standing committee. They need more unpaid, oral volunteer translators available at each standing committee meeting during Area Assemblies. Please relay the request for written and oral translators to your Home Groups. There is no standing committee meeting at this time since Susan is the only person who attends the Area Committee and Assembly meetings.
GSR SHARING SESSION: Rita reported that the attendance for the session was 28 GSRs. They discussed service sponsors and how important and useful it is to have a service sponsor. They are not regular AA sponsors. They reviewed today’s agenda and addressed what was missing from the agenda. Like who were we voting for so Debbie provided that information. They discussed the budget and the guidelines. GSRs shared their experience, strength and hope on being GSRs. They were informed that the Big Book is coming out on 11-10-01 with a question mark because that information did not come from NY. The GSRs reported that the suggested format for a GSR Report has been working very well and expressed their gratitude for it. They discussed Group problems like the 12-Traditions and keeping within the Traditions when they were not being upheld in the meetings. The solution was to reflect back on the 12-Traditions and use them. They discussed the singleness of purpose of meetings is how the primary purpose is about alcohol. They discussed the GSR role as guardian of the Traditions and GSRs being teachers and carrying the message. The GSRs responsibility here at the Area Assembly is to listen and to exercise the right of discussion. The GSRs main role as a GSR is to express the right for discussion and carry the Group conscience. Group financial support of the District and Area was also discussed.
DCM SHARING SESSION: Jamie reported that there were approximately 25 persons in attendance. 4 topics were discussed. The first topic dealt with how to select or replace a Registrar who is either sick or incapable and that the registration is an important part of the District functions. It is a problem that is in other Districts and usually takes a long time and may require either personal contact over a long period of time or a third legacy election. Second topic was how to get GSRs committed and keep them committed to District work. Various solutions were discussed. Third topic was how to train GSRs to give good reports. It was suggested to use the forms that are supplied at this meeting also using the Delegates “Highlight” memo is a good thing to add to that form. The fourth topic was the idea of having newcomer meetings for people who are sent to AA due to propositon 36. These newcomer meetings would be very basic meetings and would be labeled as newcomer meetings. They would give basic instruction on open and closed meetings, the definitions of that as well as meeting etiquette and how to get in contact with AA in general. It was felt that this might be a subject for Area Assemblies. The meeting closed with the Responsibility Pledge and Marita H. asked me to remind all DCMs that she has maps of the Districts.
After a brief break the meeting was called back to order with a report from Eddie D. concerning renting a bus for PRAASA. The cost to rent a bus from COACH USA would be $2,205.00 round trip to Fresno plus we would have to pay for the bus drivers’ accommodations and meals for the night(s) we would have him stay there. Hotels/Motels range from $23.00 to $190.00. The bus holds 48 people with lavatory facilities and will make as many stops as needed. Like if you leave from Burbank, you can stop in Simi Valley, Santa Barbara, whatever. The bus driver can only drive for 10 hours. So be prepared and it’s only a 2-1/2 to 3 hour drive from LA to Fresno. So if you want to do this deal it will cost approximately $48.00 per person, round trip. We have to make these arrangements at least a month ahead of time and she did not tell me if there was a required deposit or not. If you want to do this for an Area Assembly, you have to fill 48 seats. So take this back to your Groups. Maybe you can get a PRAASA Kitty to go to PRAASA at your Group. It’s not that much. A train will cost you more than that. Driving your car will cost more than that. And you get to have the company of 47 other people. For 2-1/2 to 4-hours. It’s like going to one of these meetings for 5 hours. For just $2,200.00. There was a question as to how much it would cost to just go Greyhound on your own. It was explained that it depended on where you lived…anywhere from $32.00 to $90.00 round trip. Vicki asked for a show of hands of those present that would be interested in doing something like this. Only a handful raised their hands. She asked that this be taken back to the Groups and then call Eddie with your input.
Vicki advised that we have some guidelines to vote on:
Guidelines – presented by Bill R. The first thing on the agenda is the motion to revise the Archive Guidelines to read as follows:
2A. The CCAA Archive Committee’s purpose is to gather and preserve materials and historical data about AA, emphasizing Central California, for the use by interested people, display historical materials at conventions, CCAA Meetings and other appropriate functions and assist and receive reports from the Archivist.
2B. The CCAA Archivist is separate from the Committee and is responsible for both the physical and intellectual integrity of the Archives collection. The Archivist position is an appointed, non-rotating position to be reviewed every two years. The Archives Committee Chairman shall make a recommendation to the Area Chairman who with the approval of the Area Officers will appoint the Archivist.
The motion was seconded and opened for discussion. Marita wanted to ask the maker of the motion if he would change the motion to add the additional word “Area” where it says “…data about AA, emphasizing Central California …” can you say “Central California Area”. The motion maker said yes and a second was made to the amended motion. Another question was brought up about the word “and is responsible” in 2B. His printed handout does not have “and”. Bill advised he probably had a copy that was not changed but the word “and” as read is correct.
Vicki read the amended motion to revise Archives Guidelines as follows:
2A. The CCAA Archive Committee’s purpose is to gather and preserve materials and historical data about AA, emphasizing Central California Area, for the use by interested people, display historical materials at conventions, CCAA Meetings and other appropriate functions and assist and receive reports from the Archivist.
2B. The CCAA Archivist is separate from the Committee and is responsible for both the physical and intellectual integrity of the Archives collection. The Archivist position is an appointed, non-rotating position to be reviewed every two years. The Archives Committee Chairman shall make a recommendation to the Area Chairman who with the approval of the Area Officers will appoint the Archivist.
This vote is a change in guidelines and requires a 2/3-majority vote at two consecutive Assemblies. This will be the first Assembly. All in favor please raise your hand. The motion passed with 69 in favor and none opposed.
Second motion is a guideline change regarding our 2002 Assembly Calendar. Bill advised that actually this is a motion to set the Calendar for Area 93 Assemblies in all future years until it is changed.
Bill R. stated that the current guidelines read that the Area Assemblies will be held in January, March, May and October on the 3rd Sunday of the month. The change that we would like to make would be “Area Assemblies will be held in January, March, May, September and November on the 3rd Sunday of the month. “ also on the Area Committee – this is how it reads now “The Area Committee will meet on the 3rd Sunday of the month of the following months; February, April, July, September and November.” The change would be that the Area Committee will meet on the 3rd Sunday of the following months; February, April, July, October and December. “ Basically it is just adding one Committee Meeting and one Assembly. Vicki stated it is actually only adding one Assembly as we already have 5 Committee Meetings.
So the motion is for Area 93 Assemblies to be January, March, May, September and November and Committee Meetings to be February, April, July, October and December. The motion was seconded and opened for discussion.
Steve asked for a clarification. The printed handout does say “setting the calendar for 2002” and Bill has stated that this is changing the guidelines to have 5 Assemblies, so that would not just limit us to next year, it would be until it is changed. Is that the intent? The answer from Bill was yes. Joe wanted clarification, just as a member to have the Assembly informed…would someone from the Finance Committee clarify the amount of money it takes for an Assembly and do we have enough for a 5th Assembly. I would like to be informed on that prior to making a decision. Victoria advised that the current cost of an Assembly is about $2,000.00. We discussed this during our Committee meeting this morning when this was brought up to us. We will review, in April, how our contributions and everything are standing and at that time we will bring back to the Assembly whether or not we have the funds to afford the extra Assembly. As a matter of fact, we didn’t have this Assembly budgeted and we worked it out. We don’t really see a problem with it.
Tammy, a new GSR stated she doesn’t understand why we want to have a 5th Assembly. Vicki explained that one of the big reasons that we were looking at the calendar was that we had this very large gap between May and October . We did not have any Assemblies and with no contact between Committee and the standing committees, work was being lost. Everybody thought it would be a good idea to put an extra one in the middle of that time so we could have contact and keep things running smoothly. Tammy asked how long we have had 4 Assemblies going on? Vicki advised that this is Area 93’s first year so it has only been a year. We started it out this way to see if it would work and we are finding that people are requesting the addition of another Assembly.
Kathy looked at her Calendar and noted that the 3rd weekend in November is a holiday and wondered if that would be inconvenient. There was some clarification as to when Thanksgiving is…which would be the 4th Thursday of November and there would be no conflict. Ken spoke against the motion and felt that there was no compelling urge to change the calendar and would effect planning for the next year, which is already in progress. The calendar should stay the same as it is for the next year as it was originally set up for a two-year calendar. We can look at it next year and see if there is really a compelling need to change it. Let’s do it with little more forethought so the scheduling could be done further in advance.
Georgianne expressed her concern with the Assembly being so close to Thanksgiving. She believes that as GSRs they should encourage other GSRs and alternates to attend these Assemblies and this makes it more difficult when the Assembly is held during a holiday weekend.
Sean also spoke against the motion because this is the first year we are doing this and wants to see how it goes before making any changes. He is in favor of keeping contact but doesn’t feel it is necessary to fully convene the Assembly to do it. Perhaps the committees can work out a better way to keep in contact with each other.
Steve H spoke in favor of the motion. From personal experience, since being involved with General Service for the past 10 years, he felt that as we came upon this Assembly it had been a really long time. Not only for himself, but had heard from other people that we had kind of lost our energy in this long gap between Assemblies. The month of November has to be decided…whether or not it will work out in your schedule. Obviously it is not going to fit for everybody. What he would like to do is make an amendment to the motion for the year 2002, in that the 5th Assembly, which would be specifically labeled the September Assembly, would be contingent upon the availability of sufficient funds. Then we would have to decide which Assembly we would make this decision at. In other words, if we are going to put a 5th Assembly in there and fund it on faith as we did this Assembly, is that it not be the last Assembly, which is our election Assembly. It would be the Assembly in September.
Jamie spoke against the motion and brought up the awful idea of driving in the rain and weather concerns.
Jay was in favor of having 5 Assemblies however he does not believe the issue of space between Assemblies is being addressed. His suggestion would be to have an Assembly in August and October and thereby bypass the whole Thanksgiving thing. Vicki advised that there was a lot of thought put into the months mentioned in the motion. This was a major discussion at the Area Committee meeting last month. Jay was not at that meeting.
Debbie, in favor of the motion, wanted to speak to one part of it. When we first set up Area 93 and everybody was putting that work into setting up the Area, it had been mentioned that half way through the year we would take a look at what we were doing and how it was working. This is part of that little mini-inventory. The responses we had gotten from Group members, DCMs, and from Committee Chairs, were that this was not comfortable. Adding the September Assembly is more to add continuity and to say that the first year feedback indicated that maybe that was not the best calendar.
Theresa D. was in favor of the motion and also wanted to say that the Area Committee has worked really hard and we have hashed it out at the Area Committee Meeting which is where we get a lot of stuff done. Also, I drank on Thanksgiving, I drank at Christmas time and I drank a lot of other times and a lot of Sundays. I take my responsibilities to Alcoholics Anonymous very seriously and it’s just one month…it’s just November and a whole year away. I have seen Assemblies and Area Committees change the dates…it’s not set in stone. I love Alcoholics Anonymous.
Shawn – DCM, District 24 Simi Valley – Rain, Snow, Sleet, dead of night never stopped me from getting a drink. Also we are looking at the 3rd weekend in November which is the weekend before Thanksgiving so it is not an issue. We did discuss, at length, losing continuity because of the big gap. I would go for the 5 Assemblies.
GeneW. thought it would be helpful to recognize that in the past, for years, we had 6 meetings on the odd months each year. What is important is what works best for what our needs are. Does function follow need. We set it up Orientation in January the Pre-conference in March, the report-back meeting in September, we need to look at the budget and have 2 votes on the budget…the meetings fit the function of what we need to do and I am strongly in favor of it.
John, also in favor of the 5 meetings addressed that we already had an Area Committee meeting scheduled in November and we already had a November election set up. The election Assembly will not have voting on any issues going in. By having the September Assembly you would actually be able to cover the issues that have been missed since May and will not be covered again until January. So you have that gap in between where we can deal with those issues that come up, discuss them and vote on them. I’m all for that.
Jeanine also in favor of the motion. Her concern is being the leader of the new GSR Orientation and how many new GSRs we are going to lose when they don’t come back for 5 months. How much are they going to forget. They are going to lose their enthusiasm after the wonderful Assembly and Orientation that we had for them. And they don’t come back. If they get back sooner or a little closer together, the memory is going to stay a little fresher and we will see them again. Also even though this was discussed at the Area Committee Meeting, I think that we can always entertain a motion to amend if somebody wanted to change the months.
Joe said it was good to have the Assemblies and likes to participate in them. What I heard from our Finance Chair was that there was still some doubt as to whether or not we can fund another Assembly next year. From a finance and sound budgeting principles and that’s why I would probably vote no on this thing. I know that fear is lack of faith and fear of the unknown. But I am just not positive that we can do this. I think our yes is yes and our no is no. However, I believe that Steve talks about somewhat of an amendment to verify that if we have the funding that we would have the additional Assembly and I don’t think that has been addressed. Although the Area Committee has made the motion, I think the Guidelines and Policies Chair could probably amend that if they wanted to and I think we should consider that. That we review this situation maybe in March and see if we may be able to have the September Assembly. I say the September Assembly because not too much happens from the Conference until around now. So I’m still concerned on whether we can do this financially.
Vicki asked Bill if it was possible to amend it contingent upon availability of funds? Bill stated that to amend that motion would go against an area in the guidelines. I was looking to see where that was. It gives the Finance Committee the priorities for it’s budgetary standing and the Assemblies being the second priority other than fully funding the Delegate to New York. It would kind of negate that whole area of the financial guidelines if we put the stipulation on it “if we can afford it” because then how do we know when we can afford it because that is the second in priority after funding the Delegate, which is already done.
Victoria stated that as she stated in her Finance Committee Report, is that we know that our budget is scheduled for 4 Assemblies only and that at the April Committee Meeting we would discuss whether we have the funds available to fund the September Assembly. At that time we were going to bring it to the May Assembly whether it is yes or no.
Amanda from Bakersfield stated that she doesn’t understand all the cost stuff but agrees with Jeanine. Since she got into service work this past year, she enjoys doing it and it makes her more enthusiastic each time she goes to another Assembly or that Committee thing they went to last time in Santa Barbara. On the financial thing, and she does have some financial things going on, that if she has faith, her higher power will open up any doors necessary.
Celestino stated that before we get around to voting, he would like to remind us that Tradition 2 tells us that we count on trusted servants and in this case the Committee of Area 93 is responsible for the best decisions of this Area. Consequently I feel they have a plan to work in the best way possible. So my companions please let us trust our Committee.
Marita …no, Al is trying to get me to say something and he has to call his own questions. I would just like to say that we have some visitors here from the San Diego Imperial Area. What I think is really interesting is in my travels to the different Areas and how they work, I learned how different Areas do things comple