Hello Area 56! The following is what I reported at our Assembly on Saturday, September 17, 2022. Thank you for allowing me to be your Panel 72 Delegate!
The 2023 40th Annual Mini-Conference will be held March 17-19 at the Miami Valley Centre Mall in Piqua, Ohio. The Comfort Inn is connected to the mall. The rates are very reasonable at both the hotel and the conference center in the mall. (It was held there when I came to my first Mini-Conference) Jeff W., GSO Staff member will be our guest. Jeff is also the secretary to my conference committee. The theme of the Mini-Conference is in line with next year’s General Service Conference; “A.A.’s Three Legacies – Our Common Solution.”
Area 56…that’s us, will be hosting next year’s Ohio State Convention which will take place August 4-6th at the Radisson in downtown Dayton. Our committee has met once, and we have chosen the theme: A.A. – The School of Life: We Never Graduate. So far, our speakers will be Linda Chezum, Class A Trustee, GSB Chair and Cynthia B., past Delegate SE Michigan. We’re still waiting to hear from our East Central Regional Trustee, Cathi C. John D. agreed to be my Co-Chair and George N. will be our floor manager. I am so excited about the participation of our committee which has some younger, newer members to Area service. I’m sure this will be a great launching point for many of them.
I am the elected chair of my conference committee: Policy and Admissions. Our committee met on Zoom August 15 for a vote to allow 3 observers at the 73rd general service conference. They are representatives from their General Service Structures in Poland, Mexico, and Peru. We voted unanimously to allow them to attend the conference. This gives them time to make travel plans and secure visas and such.
The final report for the 72nd General Service Conference is available in anonymity protected digital form. The hard copy version should be out in October. Supply chain issues and staff changes has been the cause of the delays.
At last! The AA Membership Survey is starting right now. The last survey was done in 2014 so this has been long overdue! A few weeks ago, I was contacted by GSO with eight randomly selected groups in Area 56 for me to contact. My first task was to call the group contacts to be sure the groups are still meeting. I also needed to ask if those groups preferred to take part in a paper survey or electronic. Oh my gosh…that was easier said than done! Some of the groups had no working phone numbers or email addresses. Other groups’ contacts answered but informed me their groups are no longer active. I was given a week to accomplish this, and I began to panic with only three groups having responded. I contacted GSO and, thank goodness, they randomly chose more groups for me to contact. In addition, they gave all 93 Areas another week to accomplish this task. After trying to contact a few more, and failing, I was given the final three randomly selected groups. In less than an hour these three got back to me and were willing to take the survey! Now starts the work! I will need to attend each of these groups at their regular meeting times. Whoever is at the meeting will fill out the anonymity protected survey; they do not have to be home group members. The deadline for submitting the surveys is October 15th, so I will be on the road quite a bit in the coming month. After GSO receives the surveys, they will review all submissions to ensure they are filled out correctly. They will then send them to a vendor to code the results and should be complete near the end of November. These results will go through the publishing department and the Trustee’s PI committee who will then send the results to the 2023 General Service Conference. The big thing I learned was that our difficulty in connecting to the groups is shown to be partly based on the groups not updating their status or contact information.
The Participation of Online Groups in the U.S. and Canada General Service Structure ad hoc committee proposed the following changes to their Composition, Scope, and Procedure. That the Scope be changed to read:
SCOPE
1. This General Service Board ad hoc committee will explore future possibilities for the participation of online groups in the U.S./Canada General Service structure.
2. This committee will review aspects of service to online/virtual A.A. groups and will make recommendations for changes and improvements when thorough careful deliberation it is deemed necessary.
3. The committee recognizes this entire scope will need to draw upon and be enhanced by the shared experience of individuals and online/virtual groups.
THE COMMITTEE WILL MEET QUARTERLY
In addition, I received a copy of the PAI Submission Form in which it is requested that an Additional Delegate Area be approved for Online Groups. This will likely come to my Committee: Policy and Admissions at the General Service Conference.
I also received a list of PAIs (proposed agenda items) requesting the 73rd General Service Conference rescind several actions taken by the 71st General Service Conference.
A communication from the General Manager of GSO, Bob W., included the following: “The office is now moving ahead at full steam, implementing the group conscience expressed at our General Service Conference…Providing the background for the 73rd General Service Conference simultaneously in all three of our languages (English, French and Spanish): Plans are in motion to add additional translators and to utilize a focused, coordinated workflow to fulfill this very important service to the Fellowship.” This was an advisory action which came out of my committee at the conference.
Bob W. also informed us that, “This year’s budget is expected to yield a loss of approximately $1,400,000. Fortunately, last year we had a surplus of $1,119,000 which will largely fund this year’s deficit; the balance will be covered by cash from previous years.”
David R., Publishing Director of A.A. World Services, Inc. has a communication regarding ongoing supply chain issues which can be read in full at aa.org. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “What’s New” to access it. In his letter he included, “As always, we encourage ordering the Big Book and all of our items of literature from local groups, Intergroups and Central Offices, as they play a vital role in funding local Twelfth Step activities.”
Please also look at the “What’s New” section of aa.org to learn about how you can submit your story for our upcoming 5th Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2022.
You may also contribute to the 4th Edition of Alcoholicos Anonimos, our Spanish version of the Big Book. That deadline is December 15, 2022.
There is also a call for stories from all African American, Canadian, Caribbean A.A. members from the English, French and Spanish-speaking Black communities for possible inclusion in the upcoming, updated pamphlet: “A.A. For the Black and African-American Alcoholic.” That deadline for submissions is October 31, 2022.
In love and service,
Andrea H., Area 56 Delegate Panel 72
