Summer ACM Report Back

Summer Area Committee Meeting: August 20th, 2017

Report back

Presentation on Concept III & Right of Decision by Lisa— really well done.  Contrast between direction and instruction.  We trust our trusted servants, and we trust that God is in that process.  While we have the right to make decisions, we also need to have the humility to know when to ask for guidance, take a group conscience, etc.

February’s Four-Area DCM Sharing Session will be at the Rosemead Community Center — Saturday, February 3rd, 2018

The November ACM will be at SHARE in Culver City (6666 Green Valley Circle)

Officer Reports

  • Thomas S reported as alternate delegate.  His schedule between now and the next Assembly: on August 27th he’ll be in San Diego as the liaison to the H&I Intergroup.  On September 3rd he’ll visit the District 3 business meeting and give a presentation on the history of General Service, how it’s evolved, and what we should be doing to continue General Service.  He’ll attend District 18’s pancake breakfast.  He will participate in Area 8’s panel elections, and potentially in Moro Bay for the September H&I intergroup meeting the following day.  He’s participating in Area 9’s elections on October 8th, which coincides with WCD’s Love & Service festival.  

  • Brian reported as registrar.  He visited LA Central Office.  There is an effort at LACO to physically visit each of the groups.  LACO receives at least one call per week requesting a Chinese-language meeting, but we currently have none anywhere in the area.  If you know anyone who speaks Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese), please have them contact Brian (registrar@aascaa.org) or LACO.

  • Zoraida reported as recording secretary.  She and Brian do a lot of traveling together for service visits, so there are a lot of parallels in their reports.  She will be participating in the elections for Areas 8 and 9.  She gave great juice to the WCD for the WCD website, the simplicity of making contributions on it, and the links to other AA resources (Area 5, GSO, etc).

  • Other news: Zoraida put in an application for the position of non-trustee director of the Grapevine.  She has a phone interview with the board this Thursday at 1pm.

Delegate’s Report (Thomas B reported)

  • He has been to about 25 out of the 33 Districts to give Conference Reports.

  • The 2017 Final Conference report is available at http://www.area05aa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/67th-GSC-Final-Report.pdf.

  • “The magnitude of the challenges AA faces are not yet met by our collective actions.”  

  • Challenges:

    • Our flat growth. We’re not reaching enough alcoholics to sustain our growth.

    • We don’t have a money problem.  We have a participation apathy problem.

  • 7/27: GSO is very thankful for the grassroots efforts in our Area and others.  On 7/27, GSO identified 449 online contributions from Area 5.  They are looking through all of the month of July to identify all individuals who marked their contributions as part of 7/27 (or 7/29, depending…)

  • GSO approved spending $70000 to expand the GSO archives.

  • GV circulation:

    • 76000 in 1st 3 months of 2017 (ahead of budget by ~1600, but down from last year by 1800)

    • New book from GV: “Voices of Women in AA”.  

    • GV is accepting photos for the 2018 wall calendar.

  • CPC: In response to our additional considerations, CPC has created a subcommittee to examine the potential of a LinkedIn page to make AA information more readily available to professionals who deal with alcoholics.

  • Treatment: discussion of a new pamphlet for deaf AA members.

  • Finance & budget: on AAWS side, the total revenue for 1q+2q 2017 was about $8.8, expenses about $7.8m, net profit just under $1m.  Helping were increased literature sales and increased 7th Tradition contributions.  GSO is also thankful to management for prudent operations & keeping expenses below budget.  GV side: $963,000 income, $915,000 expenses.  La Vina had a shortfall of about $67,000, which is about $21,000 less than the budget shortfall.  La Vina is supported as a service to the fellowship, and is expected to run a loss, just like CPC, Corrections, etc.

  • Literature:

    • Work continues on the LGBTQ pamphlet

    • Work continues on the women’s pamphlet

    • Advisory action to revise the pamphlet “Too young”.  They are looking for someone who has experience in general service and in carrying the message to young people, so that they can get that perspective in this work.

    • They are developing new PSAs.

    • At our next Assembly we will have a 3rd Legacy election for our Area’s nominee for Pacific Region trustee.  Joel will be rotating out at the next General Service Conference.

  • Q: “Is this the only multi-area DCM sharing session in the Conference?”

  • Roundtable discussions — topics and discussion points for the upcoming 4 Area Sharing Session

    • Declining AA population (~2.4m in 1992 vs ~1.8m today)— causes & ways to reverse

    • Outreach to the African American AA community (in large part they’re getting sober, but not participating in AA as a whole)

    • YPAA committee at Area and GSO levels

    • Modernizing the ways in which we communicate in order to reach the next generations

    • Inactive/dark meetings— how we can address them.  Organizing visitations to them.

    • How do we pitch effective participation— how do we get people excited about participating in AA?  Coming up with strategies to get people excited about service in AA.  How we help people understand that we as individuals carry the message but so do groups?  How do we help groups understand what a GSR is?

    • The Area guidelines & policies describe the responsibilities of the officers for the DCM sharing session, but not for the DCMs and DCMCs.

    • The use of social media for AA purposes

    • Inter-district collaboration

    • How to get meetings interested in GSR announcements and activities

    • Getting more contributions and reporting how they’re being used

    • Best practices in event and workshop event planning

    • GSRs who don’t understand their commitment

      • What can be done

      • Service sponsorship

      • Attendance

      • Why do some GSRs not support District activities

    • Responsibilities for DCMs/DCMCs

    • Attracting GSRs so that attendance improves

    • Motivating GSRs to enroll in Area committees & activities

    • Once we have a GSR, how do we keep him?

    • "How visible is AA in your District?”

    • How well is AA reaching out to the professionals in your community?

    • How well do we educate our GSRs to ensure that our groups follow the Traditions?

    • As a DCM, where do I need help?

    • Inviting Area officers to attend our District meeting

  • Budget proposal

    • Four corrections have been made to the proposed budget and were presented. Polite discussion ensued.

    • A $4000 line item was introduced to the budget to have the PI committee attend the LA County Fair & host a both.  This expense covers the booth itself, passes for each volunteer, and incidentals.

    • The office supplies budget shrank slightly this year because we no longer need to rent computer equipment.

    • One past delegate expressed disfavor with the idea of spending $1500 to send the alternate Delegate to the Regional Forum or any other person other than the Delegate, for concern that it sets a precedent— especially since attending the regional forum is not a listed responsibility of the alternate delegate and adds nothing to their ability to serve the Area during the panel for which they are alternate Delegate.

    • A friendly amendment was offered to change the requested line item from sending an additional person to sending the alternate delegate.  This amendment was accepted.  A vote on the amendment was taken and was approved.  Minority opinion was taken and resulted in a clear majority request for revote.  Upon re-vote, the amendment failed.

    • A further amendment was offered to strike the line item entirely and allow the committee the flexibility to decide whether or not to send someone next year as an unbudgeted expense.  Discussion followed.

 

Michelle F.