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Delegate's Bulletin Board

Delegate’s Sharing Session

13 September 2020 Virtual Area Service Assembly

Following are my delegate-related activities since our last Area Service Committee meeting of August 9th when our Pacific Region Trustee, Kathi F joined us.

 

MSCA 09 Rocks!

I continue to attend District business meetings, including District 18 on 8/11 and 9/9; #1 on 9/10; and #4 on 9/2. Most of these meetings have special guests to talk about topics like Traditions and Concepts. Check out District tab on website for meeting times, and in some cases, Zoom information (see District 1).

• Websites for following Districts posted under this tab are particularly good at announcing events: 1, 4, 9, 17, and 18.

• District 9 is particularly active in workshop presentations. Yesterday (9/12), Mitchell, Ryan, and I participated on a workshop on General Service and Intergroup; and on 9/26, Hiro and I will be doing a Q&A on the Concepts. District 18 is scheduled to present a “Committee Workshop” on October 3rd, from 10 am to 2 pm.

The last two District report-backs included District 7 on 8/10 and #4 on 9/2. As such, I’ve reported to 20 of 24 Districts, and am still available (if you invite me) to remaining Districts and Groups.

On 8/23, prior to our scheduled Board meeting, the Area 09 officers met with District 1 and 3 representatives to talk about options to help District 3, which has experienced low attendance for the past few years. Districts 1 and 3 continued to discuss this issue in a series of motions discussed at their combined business meeting on 9/10 to determine dissolution or retention of District 3.

 

Activities within the Pacific Region

Two one-day U.S./Canada (“US/CAN”) Forums – Eastern US/CAN and Western US/CAN to make up for the cancelled Pacific Regional Forum is scheduled for December 19.

• Although I have not heard any confirmation from New York, all 15 Pacific Region delegate’s agreed that we’d still like to have the next Pacific Regional Forum in Nevada, to be hosted by Area 42, which would have hosted us in 2020 before the cancellation.

• While at my mother-in-law’s memorial service on Aug 15, I invite Hiro to attend a delegate’s-only trustee’s report with Kathi and the other 14 delegates on Aug 17, so thanks for that! Also attended Area 58’s report-back by Jim F for Oregon on Aug 15. I’m scheduled for a Pacific Region delegate’s Zoom session tomorrow night, on Sept 14.

• On that same trip, on Aug 14, I dropped the PRAASA sound equipment off with Pablo H, alternate delegate for Area 93, and as far as I know, PRAASA is still being planned for Burbank the first weekend in March 2021.

• Last weekend, I attended the South Bay Roundup, Arizona State Convention, and Unity & Service Conference where I shamelessly promoted Grapevine. Having helped out, I’ve now been added to the committee for this event, and begin actively participating for the 2021 event on September 19.

I’ve been asked to participate in a Grapevine writer’s workshop out of San Diego on Oct 10, from 9 am until noon. I asked that the flyer be posted on the website. Meeting ID: 924 4505 9356, Passcode: write4gv.

 

All Things Conference-Related

On 7/30/2020, I received electronic versions of the 2020 Final Conference Report, which I immediately sent to Ryan for an eblast and to Rainer for posting under the Confidential Resources link (Password: area09Panel70, case-sensitive).

• On 8/15/2020, a day before my wife and I headed out for two weeks of backpacking and hiking, I receive 750 hard copies of English and 350 copies of Spanish of the 2020 Final Conference Reports.

On 8/30/2020 the day after I returned, I attended the Hispanic Intergroup meeting in Tustin where I took all the Spanish copies of the Final Conference Report for distribution to DCMCs and DCMs in our six linguistic Districts. At that time, half of the reports were given to Mitchell and Ryan for dispersal and the other half were deposited at our Riverside office to facilitate distribution.

• At this time, I’d like to take a virtual tour of the Final Conference Report.

On 8/15/2020, I participated in the “Follow up Finance Presentation for the 70th General Service Conference” from Leslie Backus (Class A Trustee and General Service Board treasurer), which covered 2019 and 2020 financial statuses. For 2.5 hours (one hour presentation and 1.5 hours questions and answers), this was the first time since May 19 that the full Conference reconvened (there were about 130 participants, minus some delegates, plus some observers and support staff). Both the English and Spanish versions of the 69-slide Power Point and PDF of this audited financial report have been posted under the Confidential Resources link and eblasted.

• In a similar electronic document, on 9/11 I provided copies of the “70th General Service Conference Final Finance Report” in English and Spanish to be posted and eblasted. This is a 14-page document on detailed income and expenditures in 2019 compared to 2018.

• On 8/15/2020, while backpacking with my wife in the Sierras, it was special to invite Hiro to attend Kathi’s Trustee’s Report with the other 14 Pacific Region delegates. It was at that time that Hiro offered, assuming he is elected as Panel 72 delegate, for me to be his guest back to New York in 2022.

 

News from New York:

As per Kathi’s report to us at the Area Service Committee on 8/9/2020, it is likely that the 71st Conference will also be virtual, currently scheduled between April 18 and 24, 2021. Although it’s a bummer that I’m one of 45-or-so delegates who never went to New York for a Conference, I am jazzed to see that it will be for seven days, not four like in 2020, which was too little to get most of the work done (i.e., only 15 of 98+/- Agenda Items were passed on as Advisory Actions).

• Much of the following information is from “AAWS Highlights.” As a cost savings, till the end of the year, the newsletters regularly published by the General Service Office, such as Box 4-5-9, About A.A., the General Service Board Quarterly Report, the Loner’s Internationalist Meeting  (LIM) bulletin and Sharing From Behind the Walls will be available only on aa.org or will have limited print runs, saving on production and mailing costs.

• Our General Service Office Prudent Reserve (referred to as the “Reserve Fund”), which is usually between 16 and 17 million dollars, as of June 30, 2020 was $13,681,493.

• Amazingly, the fellowship has really stepped up in our 7th Tradition contributions since June. In July – we received over $1.1 million in contributions. In June Individual and Group Contributions were $898,444. In the past, we would expect to receive a about 750K per month. Thank you! Due to the fellowships’ response we received $355,954 more contributions for the first 6 months than 2019 (Total - $4,358,338).

As of September 9, (it is like giving candy to a baby) you can contribute to the General Service Office by using “contribution.aa.org.” I contribute directly to GSO for 1st time ever!

• Even though we’ve approached self-support in the past few months, Total Revenue (gross profit from literature plus contributions) for 2020 was $7,376,228 which is $1,559,485 less than 2019. In July, I heard Bob W, General Service Office chief financial officer report that about 40% of our literature sales are from Central Offices, so please buy as much Conference-approved literature as you can either from them or AA World Services, directly. Both expenditures go to the same place, namely, AA World Services Publishing department.

• As of July 30, there were 82,000 unique visits to the virtual 2020 International Convention website, which given this resounding success was extended through to the end of August. All of the presentations will be archived, and some put into use with Cooperation with Professional Communities and Public Information committees. Seeing images of each Convention at five-year intervals brought out the softie (and tears) in me.

• There will be a major change in 2021 with a total of eight Trustees rotating out of their positions, including Michele Grinberg, the current General Service Board Chair. These include the Southeast and East Central regional trustees, the U.S. trustee-at-large, two General Service trustees, and 3 Class A trustees (including Michele).

• A General Service Board Strategic Plan was distributed in November 2019. I am scheduled to be in one of four Conference panels for a two-hour session on 9/23 to discuss the plan and provide input. This strategic plan is posted on the website under “GSO Announcements,” and you are encouraged to provide input.

• When I ordered literature from AAWS (Our Great Responsibility) several weeks ago, I was jazzed to see for the first time the words, “Net Suite, Inc.,” which means the (rather expensive) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is starting to function.

• I learned last weekend that My Portal, which will enable new groups to register with the General Service Office, is scheduled to go online on December 14. Emily has recently received Area 09 registration information from GSO, but it is not clear how updated it is or if newer versions will populate My Portal.

 

My Latest Lies (for which I apologize)

• In all 19 of my report-backs, I told you that two new pamphlets, “Twelve Steps Illustrated” and “Twelve Concepts Illustrated” were being created, when in fact, they are being updated, although I have still not seen draft copies of these documents.

 

Delegate’s Bulletin Board

My Area Service Committee delegate’s report of 8/9/2020 was posted to the Delegate’s Bulletin Board. I posted a story entitled “Noble Grace” on August 22nd about Hiro’s invitation to attend the 2022 Conference (should the stars align) and “Step 7 Serenity Prayer” about the hidden formula for working Step 7 with the Serenity Prayer was posted on September 6th. Today’s Delegate’s Sharing Session will also be posted.

 





Thanks for letting me be of service!

Ed L., MSCA 09 Panel 70 delegate

Cell: (760) 964-0012

Email: msca09delegate70@yahoo.com