CENTRAL
CALIFORNIA AREA ASSEMBLY
OF
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS – AREA 93
www.aaarea93.org
CCAA
Chairman Vicki B. called the meeting to order at 9:00 A.M. led with the
Serenity Prayer.
Robbin
read the 12 Concepts in English; Tomas read the 12 Concepts in Spanish.
Eligibility rules for voting were read by the Secretary and the roll call taken:
ROLL CALL: DCMs/Alternates 23
DCMCs/Alternates 3
Central
Office Liaisons 0
CCAA
Officers 6
Past
Delegates 2
Total 50
We
also had our translator, Sound Dude, Alternate Sound Dude as well as 8 guests.
Districts without representation were 3, 5, 6, 12, 13, 20, 21, 50, 53, & 59. We hope to see you at our next Area Committee Meeting in Santa Barbara on February 16, 2003 at 9:00 A.M.
The October 20, 2002 Area Committee Meeting minutes was
submitted for approval. A motion was made to accept the
minutes. The motion was seconded and
passed.
Secretary - Lisa J. : Lisa shared her thanks at the opportunity to serve as Area 93 Secretary. It has been amazing adventure and huge learning experience.
Registrar – Stephanie
S.: Any new DCMs for the
districts have already been put into the roster. Please submit any other new information for
DCMs and they will also be put into the roster, which will then be ready for
the year 2003. This also includes
meeting information. Thank you for
letting me be of service.
Treasurer – Debbie B.: Debbie provided November group contribution reports. These are to be shared with the Districts. She informed the incoming DCMs that part of their job each month would be to make copies of the monthly contributions report and distribute them at you District meetings. She brought the reimbursement forms for mileage and general reimbursement. She asked for anyone needing to submit forms for reimbursement for the election assembly to please submit them today. The bank balance as of December 14, 2002 is $22,035.16. We are spending some more of the funds we received to purchase equipment when we split from old Area 5. You will get an update on that at the first assembly. I believe that after the new area committee is formed, we will probably utilize the balance of those funds. It has really been an honor and an education serving as the Treasurer for the first panel of officers for Area 93. I am looking forward to beginning my new adventure as Area Chairperson. Thank you all so much for allowing me to remain of service.
Chairperson – Vicki
B.: This will be my last meeting
to run and it has been such a pleasure.
This first panel has shown a lot of participation , which has been
increasing steadily. We need to make
sure we continue this participation for the next panel. Please share with your GSRs the importance of
showing up for the Area Assemblies and the amazing phenomenon of general service work. I want to thank the current committee chairs
for the wonderful job you have done. I
would like to ask you to attend our first Area Assembly in January and help the
new committee chairs with their first meeting.
We
had discussed last month the possibility of the Area sponsoring 3rd Legacy meetings in
Area 93. This will be discussed in the
new panel. Area 93 is hosting a 3rd
Legacy meeting in Arcadia on Dec 21st. Flyers are available. This is a good opportunity to attend and find
out what these meetings are about. Also
flyers are available for the Lancaster assembly in January. Please distribute to your GSRs. District 22 also has flyers available for the
March pre conference assembly. It will
be in Cambria. St Francis hospital has
been sold and the new owners take over in March. I have booked this room through the end of
next year but that is not a guarantee.
We are assured of this room for February. The new chairperson will have to contact them
in March and re negotiate the use of this room.
If there is a chance that we will need to change rooms, I need a
volunteer to start checking around for an alternative site and bring the
information back to the February committee meeting. Our financial commitment for this meeting is
a donation, which has been $250 per year.
John R volunteered. Our coffee
commitment also needs a volunteer for the next 2 years. Alberto volunteered for this position. Annie will assist with providing
bagels. Thank you for the opportunity
for allowing me to be your chairman.
Alternate Delegate - Jeanine
R.: Good morning. My name is Jeanine R. and I
am an alcoholic. My home group is the Freedom Group in Lompoc and it is my
honor to serve Area 93 as your Alternate Delegate.
The
Second Annual Hispanic Foro had their last meeting on December 1st to give
their final reports. There was more money collected than there were costs, so
the Committee will be returning the excess to the 5 linguistic districts and
the Area. There was also several supplies left over that was to be passed on to
the next Foro Committee. The supplies were being housed at District Three’s
office. District 3 had their anniversary on 11/03 and made use of some of the
Foro’s supplies for their anniversary. There was a long discussion at the Foro
Committee meeting about this. The Committee decided to write a letter to the
District requesting that they reimburse the Foro for the supplies for the
amount of $200.
I
received a letter from the PRAASA Committee asking that we send them a list of
PRAASA attendees who would be interested in serving as presenters, panel
moderators, roundtable moderators, readers, and timekeepers. I’m putting
together the list for them so please see me at break if you are interested in
being of service in this manner. You can also call or e-mail me with the names,
addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of those in your group,
districts, or committees that show interest. I have until January 20th to
forward the list. The PRAASA Committee suggests that it is best if those
signing up be registered already for PRAASA.
Speaking
of PRAASA, I’d like to get a sense of the body on whether we want to bid for
PRAASA 2005 or the Pacific Regional Forum in 2006. If we decide to bid, We’d
need volunteers to talk to the hotels in our area and to find out what kind of
package they can give us. I know that the Warner Center in Woodland Hills is
very willing to host one of our events. Both bids for the 2005 PRAASA or the
2006 Pacific Regional Forum need to be made at next year’s Conference. (The
sense of the body was unanimous to bid for both events. Then David W., Beady P., Amanda B. and Theresa D. volunteered to talk to the hotels).
Having
served with you all these past 2 years has been awesome! Thanks so much for the
opportunity. Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Delegate – Steve H.:
Good Morning! My
name’s Steve H. and I am an alcoholic – honored to serve Area 93 and
Alcoholics Anonymous as your delegate to the General Service Conference.
Judging
from the increase in mailings, it looks like the General Service Office is back
to operating at full speed – finishing up projects requested by last year’s
Conference and getting ready for next year’s Conference. However, as the GSO mail flow begins to reach
its peak just after the first of next year, the post office will be diverting
the flow from my address to Jeanine’s – so my postal carrier will have to turn
in the little truck he’s been using for the past two years and return to the
bag-on-wheels system.
One
recent news item from GSO involves the results of the Public Service
Announcement (PSA) program and tracking system authorized at the 52nd
Conference.
This
was the series of television spots that ended with the statement “We’re
Alcoholics Anonymous. If drinking is affecting your life, look us up. We’re in
your phone book and on the Web. When you’re ready for a change. reach out to
us. We’re here to help.” It was sent out to about 800 major American and
Canadian / English and Spanish language television and cable networks in
July. The results for the first
approximately 4 months show the PSA was aired about 7,100 times, about 6,200
times in English and 900 times in Spanish. According to the breakdown by
station, three Los Angeles stations (the only ones reaching Area 93) played the
message a total of 226 times. What’s
interesting is that all three stations are Spanish language. Looks like we and
Area 5 have some work to do in getting our other television and cable stations
to participate.
Meanwhile,
the Grapevine has come up with some gift-giving ideas for the holiday season.
They’re suggesting Dr. Bob and the Good
Oldtimers for $7.50, Pass It On
for $8.00, subscriptions to the Grapevine and La Vina magazines, and a new
item: a hardcover gift edition of The
Best of Bill. This is a collection of Bill W’s essays on faith, fear,
honesty, humility, and love plus his classic essay on anonymity for $6.95.
Next,
in response to a Conference request, GSO has published another of the “yellow
pages” documents A.A. Guidelines on Literature Committees – a compilation of
the experience of local literature committees throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Copies are available from GSO.
The
Literature desk has also reported that “Experience, Strength, and Hope” – an
anthology of stories from the First, Second, and Third editions of the Big
Book, along with the French and Spanish language translations of the Fourth
Edition Big Book will be available in Spring of next year.
And, last on my list of interesting things to
report - but dearest to my sense of AA’s accomplishment – is a summary of our
translations for 2001. We translated and published 3 pamphlets in Burmese, the
12&12 and 2 pamphlets in Croatian, 3 pamphlets in Hebrew, the Big Book in
Indonesian, the 12&12 in Mongolian, 3 pamphlets in Shan, the Big Book and 3
pamphlets in simplified Chinese, the Big Book in Slovene, and 2 pamphlets in
Turkish. GSO also developed 3 new pamphlets in English and, of course,
published the English Fourth Edition Big Book
Steve then passed on to Jeanine his bag of paperwork and a pin stating “Incoming past delegate”.
Jack L., DCM – District 1:. It is with mixed feelings
that I give my last report here at the
Area Committee meeting. District one is
now in the very capable hands of David W. as the new DCM. He will be providing service with energy and
plans for the coming year.
Tomas introduced himself as
the new DCM for District 5
Ken S., DCMC – Gold
Coast Districts 8, 9, 12, and 13: I would like to welcome all
the new DCMs. Gold Coast has a new
project, a joint workshop with our Central Office. We will try to assist the local group
secretaries and treasures in understanding their jobs. We are concerned that they get little
guidance, and have a high turnover rate.
We hope to have a workshop 4 times a year at different locations in
Ventura County. Our first one is planned
for late February. If you have any ideas
I would love to talk to you. I wish all
of you a joyous holiday.
Sharon G. DCM – District 7: We are focusing on hosting the next Area
Assembly. I have new maps and directions
available. We had election of officers.
Art G. DCM – District
8: I am continuing to visit meetings including
one I had not visited in 13 months. CPC
received invitations to provide AA support at 2 churches and a synagogue health
fairs. Contacts that we have yielded the
need for a youth panel at Nordoff High School in the Ojai Valley. This was presented. We
were contacted by the Student Health office of Moorpark Community
College to provide support and information during a 2 day student health fair. We joined next to Al Anon and NA.
Scott M., Alternate DCMC – District 11,16,27: District 16 elections ere
conducted on December 2. Our new DCM is
Jess A and our Alt DCM is Susan P. In
addition elections were held for the combined districts of the Eastern San Fernando
Valley. I am grateful for the
opportunity to serve as the next DCMC for districts 11,16, and 17. Mark L will be serving as the Alt DCMC. On behalf of the districts, I’d like to
invite everyone to the San Fernando Valley AA convention in Burbank at the
Burbank Hilton February 7,8, and 9. We
will be having a general service meeting on Saturday the 8th and
doing a presentation on the 12 Concepts, tentatively titled “What a Concept –
All 12 of Them” with participation from 3 districts.
Theresa D. DCM –
District 22: At our district meeting new GSRs were
introduced. CPC has been asked for
literature from a person in Cambria who is taking literature to hotels to carry
the message. Our group registrations
have been updated. Information includes the
Spanish group has now been designated as part of the Spanish district 6. We have approved to fund our DCM and Alt DCM
to PRAASA. We encouraged the GSRs to ask
their groups to fund them for PRAASA. We
will be hosting the 2 day Area Assembly in March at the Coast Union High School
in Cambria. Thank you for letting me be
of service. I loooooooooove Alcoholics
Anonymous.
Simon DCM – District 2: Please receive our warmest hello. The committees for Grapevine and H&I are
continuing their functions. We keep
visiting groups and responding to their invitations. We are awaiting to receive the new group
“Nueva Ilucion” from New York. We are
gathering information from the new group, Nueva Amanecer, in Ridgecrest. We are also going to register another group
located in Shafter. We are going to
receive a 7th tradition from
the convention, which is called the Plan of 60-30-10. Also we have fellow AAs, Debbie the Treasurer
and Jeanine the Alt Delegate who shared on the theme “What is the reason for
reimbursing the expenses of the GSR” and we want to thank you for attending and
sharing your experience. We keep
encouraging the new service committee that is coming in and we are having good
results. We say our good-byes and we
remind you to try and attend the Hispanic Forum on the 11th and 12th
of January in Bakersfield. Tomas was
introduced as the new incoming DCM.
Jay R. DCM – District
11: The BAG district elected its new DCM and I
would like to introduce her to you now.
Her name is Annie Gibson. We also
had elections for Alt DCM, Secretary, Treasurer and Registrar for the district. We also voted unanimously to pass by-laws for
the district, which call for the new offices we established. We have completed all the paperwork for
non-profit status for our district 11 bank account. It looks like our new DCM is going to be
fully funded to go to PRAASA, for the first time in years.
Alberto E. DCM – District 4: I am the new DCM for our district. One of our members received a letter from one
inmate through the district PO box. GSRs
just approved the creation of our district’s website. We have a member who will be our
webmaster. Also at the beginning of the
year we will be registering our district’s committees with GSO. The GSRs in our district did a great job
throughout the year. They were able to
get their groups to raise their contributions to the district. They participated in the general service
events and we hope our new GSRs work just as hard. I want to thank everyone in this room for all
the help and support you have provided us.
Beady DCM – District 15: Our district is still working on putting
plaques on the buses. We hope to have
them in the buses sometime in January.
We were recently asked to be the English contacts at the Spanish Forum
in January. Our new DCM is Kirk
Lauritzen. Amanda Ball will continue to be
the Alternate. I will be the treasurer
and Zenna is our secretary. Al Hendricks
has been promoted to guest.
Roy DCM – District 17: I now realize I was supposed to attend these
committee meetings. Our district is
alive and well. We have monthly district
meetings. We hosted an Autumn Fest on
Halloween. Vickie B. was one of our
speakers. We had 200 people attend. It presented the ideas of service. Our new Alt DCM is Victor O. and our new DCM
is Miles. We had a treasury update. We
also elected new combined district officers.
Our new combined district DCMC is Scott M.
Sean DCM – District 24: We held elections in
November. Steve R. is our new DCM and
Marty M. is our new Alt DCM. We will be
holding a fellowship lunch at the end of February. Our PI/CPC committee continues to search out
new ways to pass the information to the
public.
John T DCM – District 10: Our district is now getting
ready for the next year. We discussed
some of our plans for next year at our district meeting this month. I want to say thank your for allowing me to
serve Area 93 and District 10. Our new
DCM is Lorraine M.
Marty DCM – District 23: We are hosting a Service Day
on February 9th at 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM. Vicki B. will be sharing on general service
structure and the importance of general service. We have not yet confirmed a location but will
have fliers at the next assembly. Our
Registrar is doing an awesome job getting unregistered groups registered. Elections went well, almost all open
positions were filled. We are restarting
our project of small placards in taxi cabs in our district.
Mike R. DCM – District 52: We have decided to have our
CPC committee distribute information packs on AA to physicians, counselors, and
clergy in Santa Ynez, Santa Maria and Lompoc twice a year on a rotating
basis. Our Grapevine committee is
relatively new however, we already appear to have 4 new Gars in our
district. We held elections last month
and most positions were filled. We are
still needing a secretary for the district.
As a district we are very proud of our 1st panel of Area
93.
Nelson R. DCMC - Spanish
Districts:.
I am giving my last report. The new DCMC
for the combined Spanish districts will be Celestino, Alt DCMC will be Jose E.,
and secretary will be Jose H. We enjoyed
having everyone in Sylmar last month. We
also had $141 left after we paid the bills and the districts decided to give it
to the Area. An item for the Area is a
request to purchase more translation equipment.
The transitors that are being used are not very efficient. We would like to discuss this in the
future. I gave a letter to Steve
regarding stories for the third edition Big Book. 80% want the stories to be from the USA and
Canada. I attended the first Spanish
Forum in Area 7. Thank you for your
support this last year. I had a great
experience.
Robbin S. DCM – District
28: William P. is our new DCM for District 28.
Break --
An
update of the Special Hispanic Forum was given by Joe V. It will be in Bakersfield on January 11 and
12 at the Doubletree Hotel. Everything
is in place. We just need to make sure
we have a room for the AA meeting on Friday night. Several members shared on their interests and
excitement of this upcoming event. It
will be a good opportunity for English speaking members to experience the
translation process. The translation
equipment has been arranged between the 6 Areas as well as translators. Registration is encouraged. Also there have been rooms set aside for
members attending at the Doubletree. We
will get credit towards a cost decrease if we meet the minimum number of
registered rooms.
Robin
initiated a discussion on changes to the Grapevine/La Vina Committee. He gave background information on the make up
of the committee with representation from Hispanic and English members. He shared the difference in needs of the
Grapevine vs La Vina committee and he suggests splitting these into 2
subcommittees. They would work as sub
committees for the next two years and then the Area can visit forming 2
separate standing committees at the end of the next 2 years. He read the existing guidelines and the suggested
changes to include the new process.
Discussion took place. It was
pointed at that it is the Chairperson’s authority to split committees into sub
committees. Sub committee chairs have
the same ability of voting at the Area level.
Robin stated that his focus is to make the committee and assembly aware
of the need for sub committees. It was
decided that the committee chairs can have their own guidelines for their
committees and these do not have to go to the assembly for approval.
Motion was made
to adjourn the meeting. Seconded. Meeting was adjourned.
Meeting closed with the Responsibility Declaration
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa J.
Area 93 Secretary
UPCOMING EVENTS
1. Special Hispanic Foro January 11 and 12 2003 in Bakersfield at the Doubletree Hotel.
2. Central California Area 93 Area Assembly, January 19, 2003 in Lancaster at the Lancaster High School.
3.
San Fernando Convention in Burbank, February
7-9.
4.
Central California Area Committee meeting,
February 16, in Santa Barbara at the St. Francis Hospital.
5.
Pacific Region Alcoholics Anonymous Service
Assembly March 7-9, 2003 in Reno, Nevada.