OF
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS – AREA 93
CCAA
Chairman
Scott
read the 12 Concepts in English; Simon read the 12 Concepts in Spanish.
Eligibility rules for voting were read by the Secretary and the roll call taken:
DCMs/Alternates 21
DCMCs/Alternates 3
Committee Chairs/Alts
13
CCAA
Officers 6
Past
Delegates 1
Total 44
We also had our Sound Dude Robert and his alternate Alan and 11 guests; Jeanine and Bertie were our translators today.
Districts without representation were 11, 12, 20, 21, 27, 50, 51, 53,
and 59. We hope to see you at our next
Area Committee Meeting in
The minutes for the July 15, 2001 Area Committee Meeting
were submitted for approval with the following corrections…That the correct
attendance totals should be 42 instead of 38 and on page 7, 3rd
paragraph stating “a motion was made by Vicki B that the election of our
Pacific Region Trustee be placed on the Area Assembly agenda for October”
should read “Vicki requested a sense of the Area Committee to place the
election of our Pacific Region Trustee on the October Area Assembly
Agenda.” A motion was made to
accept the minutes as corrected. The
motion was seconded and passed.
Registrar –
Treasurer –
Contributions
from January through
On Saturday, I went to
One
of many ideas I picked up at San Diego/Imperial county assembly was the
involvement of their finance committee in distributing the proposed budget,
they voted on theirs at the assembly.
Once the budget was put together, the finance committee members divided
duties and went out to district meetings and distributed the budget and
explained a bit of you so that when they took the vote at the assembly, they
would have an informed vote. Let’s think
about that!
Don’t
forget the food kitty today either so that we can maintain our tradition of
being fully self-supporting. If you have
any questions, see me at the break, after the meeting, e mail me or call me!
Chairperson –
Our
Guidelines and Policies Chair wants you all to know that he is available to
help anyone wanting to bring motions to the floor. He can go over these things with you and
check to see if there is any guidelines & policies conflict. Or he can help with any wording of the motion.
Over
the past month or so, Vicki has had several conversations with our web
master. With his help, she has sent in
the application for Area 93 to purchase our domain name aaarea93.org from John
M who is the current owner at this time.
Since he has to exchange the valuable name for something else of value,
in order to make the sale legally binding, he has graciously agreed to sell it
for 1cent, and the finance committee has assured her that we do have the funds
available. John has advised that he needs an alternate web
master. John will inform the Committee
what the duties are of an alternate web master would be. Please go back to your Districts and to your
Groups and find that alternate web master.
The
San Fernando Valley Central Office has offered us a free listing for Area 93
with address, web site address and contact info in their new publications and
meeting directories. The sense of the
Committee was taken and was agreed that this would be okay to do.
Vicki
also asked for a sense of the Committee to allow our translation equipment to
be used at the PRAASA 2002. It was
agreed that this would be okay and that either the Translation Committee Chair
or the Area Chair would have the responsibility of tracking and transporting
the equipment.
Vicki
has spoken to the administration office of St. Francis Hospital and advised her
that donations should be made out to St. Francis Hospital Foundation and sent
to the address she was given. She wanted
to advise everyone that we are paying rent for use of this room.
Alternate Delegate -
Dear Friends in Area 93: The Organizing Committee for the 1st
Hispanic Foro hopes that this letter will find you all in good health and
enjoying many 24 hours of blessed sobriety.
We would like to take this opportunity to participate in our Foro that
will take place at the
So
please mark this on your calendar and join us.
It is a wonderful opportunity to be on the other side of the translation
equipment because everything will be translated to English. Please help yourself to maps from the back
and invite your GSRs to come along.
Jeanine also attends the monthly meeting of the
Delegate – Steve H.: Good morning. My
name’s Steve H. and I am an alcoholic – proud to serve AA and Area 93 as the
Panel 51 delegate to the General Service Conference.
Before
I get started with the official stuff, I would like for those of you who did
not get an Area 93 pin from this year’s General Service Conference to see Jeanine
or me during the break. I plan to leave the remainder on the registration table
at the October Area Assembly for the first GSRs who sign in.
First
on my list of national news is a reminder that our Regional Trustee, Jim
C., is presently looking for Group opinion on:
1.
Group contributions to GSO.
See my August 21st letter to DCMs with a questionnaire on the back.
Extra copies (pink) are on the handout table.
Jim needs your response on this
by October 15th.
2.
Growth of the Conference.
Jim’s heading an ad hoc committee on this subject and is looking for new ideas
on how we can manage our growth in the future. Again, Jim needs your response on this by October 15th. I have
a file on this topic if you’re interested in doing some research and developing
an opinion of your own to pass on.
In
addition, the Conference secretary is looking for ideas for the theme of the 53rd
General Service Conference (in 2003.) I mailed the idea forms out last month
but brought some extra copies (yellow.)
My
other handouts are:
a. The 51st General
Service Conference reports,
b. The list of new GSO staff assignments,
c. The 2002 PRAASA Registration forms. If you’re
planning to attend, please register early – it helps the hosting Area
(California Northern Coastal) plan their events,
d. And order forms for the Fourth Edition of the Big
Book. Along with the order forms, I brought some copies of a very interesting
history of the Big Book published in the latest edition of Box 459. This
article is something you’ll probably want to copy and distribute among your
GSRs.
On
the subject of PRAASA, we may be asked to loan the host committee our
translating equipment so I’d like Vicki to bring the question up sometime today
to get a sense of your opinion.
Also
on the subject of PRAASA, we should decide now or at the October Assembly, at
the latest, if we want to submit a bid for PRAASA in 2004. As you recall, it
will be in Reno in 2003 and Costa Mesa in 2004. We might also consider bidding
for the 2004 Regional Forum (2002’s in Phoenix). In either case, we’ll need a
subcommittee to find appropriate sites and have the information together for
voting during the March Assembly.
As
you may know, the California Areas traditionally invite officers and Area
Committee members from other Areas to assist with their elections. This year, I
have received invitations from all three Panel 50 areas who will be holding
their elections as follows:
1.
Mid-Southern, October 14th
at Laguna Beach Canyon Country Club, 20456 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach.
Registration begins at 8:30; elections begin at 10:00am. Contact Al Perez, Area
9 Delegate, at (909) 920-3969 if you have any questions.
2.
California Northern
Interior, November 16th – 18th at Elks Lodge, 1705B
Manzanita Place, Chico. Contact Gordon S., Area 7 Chair, at(916) 487-1362
or Linda Sherwood, assembly host, at (530) 877-3023 if you have any questions.
3.
San Diego / Imperial,
November 3rd at Brengle Terrace .
Contact Mark J., Area 8 Chair, at (619) 582-6010
if you have any questions.
The
second to last thing I’d like to bring up is the subject of next year’s General
Service Conference agenda. Although we still have a few months before the
Conference Coordinator sends us the preliminary agenda, we can make an educated
guess that many of last year’s Additional Considerations will be on that
agenda. So please review your Conference Report (beginning on page 62) to see
if there’s anything there of particular interest to you. I will put together my
best guess of agenda topics for distribution at the October Assembly.
The
last thing is that I have plenty of open days on my calendar for the next year
and a third so please let me know if you would like me to visit your district
meeting, a district event, or a group meeting. I have the time and it has
already been set aside for you and your groups.
Thanks,
as always, for the privilege of being your delegate. I learn more and more
about AA and my own sobriety each day I serve.
Nelson R., DCMC –
Spanish Speaking Districts: The Districts have been meeting and working together. We share information about how the Districts
are working and if there are any problems we can discuss them. We have been sharing the Conference Structure
with some of the Groups as well as had some Group Inventories. We had one of those last week, which was very
interesting. The Group is from Delano
and we were happy to be with them. They
really lacked information and we were able to share a lot and learn a lot as
well. We look forward to seeing everyone
at the 1st Annual Foro.
MaryAnn, DCMC - Gold Coast
Districts 12, 29, 31, & 32: The Gold Coast Districts has DCMs in three of the
four Districts it encompasses. Last year
we only had 1 DCM. District 12 in
Camarillo is the only one without representation and Ken S and I have been
trying to recruit GSRs. The Gold Coast
sponsored a booth at the Ventura County AA Convention, which was attended by
Steve H or Delegate and also gave the post-delegate report that Friday. 30 people attended that event. We plan on continuing this event as it
attracts those attending the convention as well as General Service
members. Shirley B brought the Area
Archives and David G, our own archivist, displayed some of the Grapevine back
issues, which were donated to AA. Gold
Coast District will be holding an afternoon at the movies. We will have some
fliers at the hand out table as well.
This will be on Saturday, October 13 from 1 to 5:00 p.m. at the Buckaroo
Meeting Hall. The PI, CPC, and
Literature Committees have been very busy carrying the message. We have placed ads in two newspapers and one
of the free newspaper supplements. The
Ventura County Central Office has received over 1000 calls and there were 31
12-step calls within the last three months.
Jay R., DCM – District
16: We have
had one primary project this year, which is the donation of Big Books to the
local libraries within the District. We
have donated 8 Big Books to date. Maps
are being distributed to the GSRs in the District courtesy of AAA. Our goal is to attend every registered Group
in the District that does not have a Group contact.
Rhonna W., DCM –
District 23:
The District has been pretty quiet. We had
a service day in conjunction with H&I and IGR. Attendance was fairly low but it created a
wonderful bond between all of us and the education we received really
strengthened us. We have currently set
aside $300.00 to put Big Books in all the schools and colleges in Santa
Barbara. Attendance has really
grown. We have had 5 new GSRs in the
past two months and look forward to continue growing.
Shawn M., DCM – District
24: We have a lot of good stuff happening at
District 24. We have a very active group. First off, we have a new Registrar, Della
Martin. Steve came to our meeting this
past week with a very inspiring talk about General Service and sharing of his
experience, strength and hope helped us all to identify. CPC/PI replaced the literature rack at the
library that had been stolen with the literature. We also got a Braille Big Book. We have our District lunch coming up on
Sunday, October 14 at noon at Burlwood Park.
It will be on the Home Group with speakers who will talk about the
importance of the Home Group and the different offices held and how they help
us to carry the message and stay within the Traditions.
Mary J., DCM – District
28: The PI Chair attended the Community Action
Network at the local high school. There
was so much interest that they are now taking panels in to share with the
freshman class. She also attended the
Recovery Day at the Government Center.
She actually had the chance to 12-step a person at the event. PI is also compiling a letter to professional
with a mail-back portion, which can be returned with requests for
information. GSRs were given Group
Inventory forms to take back to their Groups as well as suggested Group
guidelines for the new Secretaries.
Contact person lists are being updated for each of the meetings.
Art G., DCM – District 31: As a new DCM, I have cataloged our meeting sites which means I found them. I found that 4 of the 5 sites are valid and I have been to several meeting, meeting their secretaries and helpers. I have started fishing for GSRs. Got a few nibbles but no bites. Information on AA was distributed to the counselors at our newest high school in Oxnard. I found the counselor their to be very helpful. I have arranged CPC participation in two health fairs at St. John’s Regional Hospital in October and CPC participation in a health fair/expo at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Camarillo. There was also AA literature passed out at a networking meeting with about 15 different social, medical, and welfare agencies. That happens once a month at St. John’s Hospital.
Terry G., DCM – District 32: I attended some new meetings at the beginning of September. I took the new 2001 membership survey, which was sent from New York and the Group members fill them out. On September 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. I participated at the Ventura County Recovery Day, which was held at the Government Center. We displayed the literature and books and distributed a lot of literature to many of the processionals attending the event. It was wonderful and I got to do a lot of networking for AA. I have a whole lot of materials to read since I became DCM but I have been going to a lot of new meetings and try to find out what’s going on and recruiting new GSRs. I made a mistake when I told MaryAnn that we received 31 calls in our Central Office over a 3-month period. That was actually in a one-month period. Calls are up around 35 to 40%.
Jose E., DCM –
District 34:
At our next meeting on September 25, we will discuss creation of a new
District. Should the GSRs approve it,
District 34 will be divided. I would
like to know if there is an application or requirement necessary for this
division. All the GSRs are very
motivated and ready to collaborate. We
currently have 22 active GSRs. I would
also like to inform you that we are working on the 17th anniversary
of our District. The celebration will
take place on November 10th.
Everyone is cordially invited. We
will be organizing a week of participation of the GSRs talking about the
Traditions. And past DCMs will talk
about he Concepts. We have been
motivating the Groups concerning Area contributions and little by little they
are responding economically.
Simon A,, DCM –
District 44: The District has restarted
their activities since June of 2000 until now with 8 Groups. 5 GSRs are attending 4 different meetings
each month. The 1st Thursday is the
meeting for the officers. The 2nd
Thursday is a study meeting. 3rd
Thursday is to discuss information and reports.
The 4th Thursday is to discuss business. If there is a 5th Thursday, we
have a meeting inviting the past DCMs to discuss the structure of the
Conference. We visit the Groups twice a
week. 2 GSRs are representing the
District at the 1st Annual Foro.
The H & I Committee meets the 2nd and 4th
Friday of each month. They are currently
participating at 2 institutions. The
organizing committee of the State Convention for 2002, which will be held on
May 17, 18 and 19, 2002 in Bakersfield meets every Monday and more often if
necessary.
Amanda, GSR – District 51: I have been asked to fill in. We are trying to put literature racks and
directories with the meeting schedules in probation departments, hospitals,
doctor offices. Our District has been
trying hard to carry the message. We
have placed $300.00 aside to send our DCM to PRAASA in 2002. We are also attempting to place ads on the
radio and on bus placards. We are also
trying to unify with the other Districts in our County so we can become one and
work together in reaching out.
Sergio V., DCM –
District 54:
We have 17 Group, which are visited on a regular basis (three groups per
week). We have 7 active committees. We study the service manual the first and
third Monday of each month. There is an
internal committee meeting the last Wednesday and Thursday of each month. We are very glad to be hosting the first Area
Assembly of next year and are working diligently on that. We continue to encourage contributions to GSO
and the Area. And I have a questions for
our Delegate regarding when the 12 and 12 was translated, since there is such a
difference in the translation of that book and I would like to bring
information to his District regarding that particular translation.
Dave P., Alternate DCM -
District 60: I
would like to invite any Districts close to ours to a multi-district meeting on
October 6. On October 20th,
District 60 is putting on a no-host dinner at Hodels Restaurant off of highway
99 in Bakersfield, which is the night prior to our Area Assembly. After the dinner, the Central Office is
having their anniversary party at 7:00 p.m. and then after that, the Alano club
is hosting a dance at 9:00 p.m. in honor of our guests that are coming in from
out of town. The Area Assembly will of
course follow on Sunday, with registration starting at 8:30.a.m. Maps will be sent out with the Assembly
Agenda. They are including a service
speaker at their District meetings as District 51 is having some success
Javier R., DCM –
District 61: The
District has 7 active Groups. We also
have an H&I Committee and a Foro Committee.
This District along with the Foro Committee is working together for the
1st Annual Foro. We are
currently getting the programs translated into English and motivating the
Groups regarding the importance of the Foro and attending the event. We want to invite every one of you to this
event. There will be food, round-tables,
and lots of things. The Spanish-speaking
Districts need to be sure they attend.
We are working hard at this and have brought some posters.
Vicki
advised that she needed to add one other item to new business, item number
3. Discussion on bidding for PRAASA 2005
and/or Pacific Regional Forum 2004.
A motion was made to accept the agenda as changed … motion
made and seconded… motion passed.
Discussion was opened up with regards to the issue of re-districting. Discussion ranged from the possibility of using LCMs to not doing anything at all. There was discussion about possibly renumbering the Districts to start with and perhaps even possibly setting up temporary Districts (i.e., 1A, 1b, etc) they act independently and see if they can work. If after some time it is found that it does not work, they can re-group and try something else or nothing at all. After much discussion and seeing that there was no real definite answers at this time, Vicki suggested that this continue to be discussed in the Districts.
Eddie D made a brief presentation for the ad hoc Committee regarding the PRAASA Bus… Eddie ran down some numbers as follows: There are three ways to get there – you can drive yourself and will cost whatever it cost you. You can take a bus (Greyhound) the cost is from $68 to $94.00 round trip depending from where you leave. The train (Amtrak) cost from $28 to $42.00 round trip depending from where you leave. The airfare - $138.00 to $438.00 round trip and you have to change in San Francisco. If we hire a charter bus $1,130.00 one way – leaving from Sylmar. If you make more than one stop, it will cost more. Per person cost would be approximately $42.00 per person and the bus holds 48 people – hotels/motels run from $37.00 to $190.00 per night. The PRAASA hotel is $92.00 per night. Fresno is a very large city – you need to check that stuff out. It was requested that the Ad hoc Committee get more details about chartering the bus and brought to the Area Assembly in October. The DCMs should get information from their District as to who or how many would be going and get that information to Eddie to help in his efforts.
There have been a lot of people talking about the lack of communication due to our current calendar and the possibility of changing it. Discussion was opened concerning our current Area Calendar and after much loving discussion a sense was taken of the Committee to make a change in the current calendar. The majority of the Committee agreed to the change as follows:
There will be 5 Area Assemblies held in January, March, May, September and November and 5 Area Committee Meetings to be held in December, February, April, July and October. (The vote was 25 for 5 and 10 for 4) Guidelines & Policies will write up a motion for the October Assembly. (It was noted that in order to make the change in our guidelines, it will be necessary for the Assembly to approve the change with two consecutive votes – the first one to be held at the October Assembly in Bakersfield.)
District 22 gave us an update on the “sponsorship video”: The Committee met in September to discuss this proposal. History: Rebecca S of San Luis Obispo first made this proposal at one of our District meetings. She was looking for some material for a workshop aimed at newcomers through our audio/visual Committee. The DCM then took this up as a proposal after discussing this with Rebecca. The Ad Hoc Committee was then formed.
Research: The first place we were advised to start was with the pamphlet “Circles of Love and Service” and of course, the pamphlet, “Questions and Answers on Sponsorship.” We also contacted New York GSO Literature contact, Valerie O’N to ask if she had any information regarding any past proposal for a Video on Sponsorship. She reported that to her knowledge, none had been made to the Conference. We also researched the Summary of Advisory Actions booklet. The only piece of information on this was that the Questions and Answers on Sponsorship Pamphlet had been revised and updated through the Literature Committee.
Proposal: It is the recommendation of this Committee to propose that: 1) A video on sponsorship be proposed to the General Service Conference for the purpose of clarity and sharing of experience of one alcoholic talking to another. 2) The suggested format would be to interview a panel of AA’s who have experience both as sponsors and “sponsees”. 3) Selected questions from the current pamphlet would be posed to this panel.
Discussion: The ad hoc committee discussed in great
detail that the information in the pamphlet, while it is very useful, it is
“too general”. It was the consensus of
this committee that we create a Sponsorship Video. This video will help us reach the still
suffering “millennium”, computerized or Visual Generation of alcoholics. As a committee, we are very much aware that
once this project gets going, it will take on a life of its own within the
service structure of Alcoholics Anonymous, through Tradition #2, and within the
framework of the concepts. Points we
would like to see covered: * Emphasis on how Alcoholics want to share
what they have learned with other alcoholics.
*How sponsorship differs from Twelfth Step calls. *Must the newcomer agree with everything the
sponsor says? *Dual diagnosed alcoholics
(i.e., psychiatric disorders). *Should a
sponsor recommend hospitalization?
*Lending money? *Too casual,
firm, overprotective?
Thank you for your consideration – District 22 Ad hoc Committee for Video on Sponsorship.
A motion was made that this request be placed on the
Area Assembly Agenda for a vote from the GSRs to ask Steve H our Delegate to
take this request for a Sponsorship Video to GSO for their consideration with
the Area recommendation. Motion was
seconded and passed.
Rotation
of the 4-Area DCM Sharing Session was discussed. Since we will have second year DCMs next
year, we need to determine whether or not our DCMs would like to host the event
next year. Vicki noted that an email was
sent to her from Mark – the event will be held in February instead of
August. In other words, San Diego
Imperial is offering the DCMs to host the event or do we want to let San Diego
Imperial handle it. After much
discussion – A motion was made to host the next 4-Area Sharing session
in February 2002. The motion was
seconded and was defeated. No one in the minority wished to
speak. Vicki further stated that we will
need 2 DCMs to volunteer for the planning committee for the next sharing
session and asked that anyone wishing to volunteer should see her after the
meeting.
Steve
wanted to bring up the possibility of placing a bid for PRAASA 2005 and/or The
Pacific Regional Forum for 2004. He
basically gave some information of these events and what they entailed as far
as hosting was concerned. What Steve is
looking for is a committee to locate facilities for the events.
A motion was made that we ask our Area whether or not we would like to place a bid for either the PRAASA 2005 and/or the Pacific Regional Forum in 2004. The motion was seconded and passed.
Lothar
wished to speak for the minority regarding this very large task and the fact
that since this is a new Area, we should reconsider. No one wished to change the vote. Motion passes.
Vicki
advised the Committee that she would be accepting bids for the March, two-day
Assembly and in January she will be accepting bids for the next two Assemblies
that are so far scheduled as per our current calendar which could change. She also reminded everyone that all bids must
be in writing and that the January Assembly will be held in Santa Paula and
hosted by Spanish-speaking District 54.
GOOD & WELFARE
John
gave a brief description of the duties for an alternate Web Master. The person for this position should be
computer literate and available for rotation into the web master position. May or may not know how to work on the web
but is enthusiastic about service work.
Robin from the Literature Committee made a motion that
the Pamphlet for the Atheist/Agnostic, which is currently in development and if
approved by the Committee, be presented to the Assembly for a vote and
recommendation that our Delegate present this to GSO for consideration at the
Conference. The motion was seconded and
passed.
Joe V spoke for the minority stating that he did not believe there was enough information and discussion on this matter to consider a vote. He did not believe the process was there and felt we needed more time for an informed vote. After further discussion, someone from the prevailing side wished to change their vote. Seeing no further discussion a new vote was taken and the motion was defeated 7 for and 21 against.
Barbara G invited everyone to the 27th Annual SFV AA Convention on February 1, 2 and 3, 2002 at the Burbank Hilton. There will be a General Service table and she is looking for volunteers to help out. She is also trying to get a room for archives and audio/visual.
She also wanted to announce the passing of one of our long timers, Doris W., from the Pacoima Group. Doris had just recently celebrated 42 years of sobriety on July 1 and passed away on July 21. She will be missed.
Debbie spoke about assignment of committees, which was supposed to be part of our structure in new Area 93. She stated that by giving the GSRs a job and a direction, we are really going to get better participation. She will send out the sheets that should be filled out (please note they are optional) for the DCMs to review and hopefully use.
John R, Co-chair for the 93 News announced that he had translated copies for the Spanish-speakers. Please see John if you would like to help out in any way on this Committee. You can also see him about making contributions to the 93 News.
Steve had a quick question regarding the vote on the Atheist/Agnostic pamphlet. He wanted to know how many voted no because they did not feel we had spent enough time on it – and how many voted no because the Conference Committee’s decision not to pursue this any further. Any other opinions he will speak to them after the meeting. He took a quick poll for his records.
Lothar brought up some information regarding self-support and the ignorance of some Groups. Please be sure to take the fliers with the Area’s address.
Food Kitty - $45.80 Thanks everyone.
Motion was made to adjourn the meeting. Seconded.
Meeting was adjourned.
Meeting closed with the Responsibility Pledge.
Respectfully submitted,
Bertie D.
Area Secretary
Thank
You Mr. Sound Dude and
His Assistant
Robert H. & Alan D.