Teleconference Minutes
November 10, 2012

Opening:

The regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of ACA WSO was called to order at 11:02 a.m. by Scott R, Interim Chair, and opened with The Serenity Prayer.

Tradition 11 was read.

ROLL CALL:

Board Members Present:
         Scott R, Vice-Chair; Phyllis R, Treasurer; Joan, Secretary; Anja H, Denmark; Larry A, NY; Karen, TN; Mary Jo, IL; Leanne, FL.
Quorum was established.

Committee Chairs Present:
         Scott R – Website/Database; Phyllis R – Outreach and Treasurer; Larry – Literature; Joan B – H&I; Anja – European Activity; DiAnne A. - Office/Warehouse;

Guests:  Guests identified themselves and stemmed from Florida, Montana, Canada, Illinois, Oklahoma, New York, and Kansas. 

A.     Approval of Minutes

Joan submitted the minutes and Phyllis seconded the motion to approve the minutes of the October 2012h teleconference.  They were unanimously approved with the note made of Central Daylight Time listed as the closing time instead of Pacific Time.

B.     Reports

1.  Treasurer’s, Phyllis:  The recent discussion of the workman’s comp issue results in the recent increase in payroll.  There are no problems with workers, just an increase in the workload in the past couple of months.  There is $39,000 in the checking account at this time.  Further details can be found I her report on the website.

2.  Literature, Larry:  Approximately 500 e-books have been sold so far. Mary Jo is lead on the Mediation book.  Twenty-five percent of the needed meditations for the book have been received.  They are looking for more authors so that all Meditations can be written by the end of February, we'll then prepare everything for presentation and approval at the ABC.  After that we will begin working towards actual publication.  The Danish Big Red Book is being laid out at this time and is close to being done.  A more detailed report is on the website.

3.  Office/Warehouse, DiAnne:  DiAnne was unable to be on the call today so Scott summarized her report, noting that the commemorative workbooks were being prepared for shipment at this time to the warehouse.  She is working on developing another volunteer pool to draw from when additional labor is required.  Her full report may be found on the website.

4.  Outreach, Phyllis:  She reported Vonnie and Karen have been answering requests for meetings, etc., that come in.  Today Phyllis saw a request from New Zealand, which indicates the world-wide need for meetings and literature.  Phyllis reported there were 234 requests for information this month that came into the outreach line.

5.  Website/Database, Scott:  There are 1,150 registered meetings, which is up.  61 new ones registered in October along.  The website has been very busy – activity is up 8% with 1,229 unique visitors per day on average.  Scott is continues to work on moving information from the Forum to the Repository.  He reported a problem experienced in October where several customer accounts were double charged, some were cancelled, etc.  That issue is being worked on in the Merchant Account, and GoDaddy is working on their portion of the problem.  The problem does not stem from any activity of ACA/WSO order fulfillers
            Scott has the ABC 2013 webpage set up.  The snail mail is ready to go out to registered meetings without email addresses.  Kelso continues to work on updating the software for the meetings.  Scott and Phyllis are going to the office in late November.  Scott wants feedback on the literature trifolds from the board determining the best way to handle the folding of the trifolds, as this is a labor intensive job.  Scott’s full report may be found on the website.

6.  Hospitals & Institutions (H&I), Joan:  Verbal report:  two requests for the fellowship texts were sent out to inmates.  Two other requests for information were received and contact was made with one.  No response from the second one who had been left a message and sent an email to try to establish contact.
            Joan also reported development of plans to send a letter about H&I involvement by Intergroups to Intergroups.  Scott indicated he can send out the message (via email) as he has a master list due to being webmaster for the site.

7.  European Activity, Anja:  She reported working with Martin (U.K.) to send out letters to groups across Europe to make contact.  Scot volunteered his ability here also to send out the letters via email.

8.  Executive Report:  None

9.  2013 ABC, Jesper:  Anja reported Jesper has resigned his position as chair of the 2013 ABC.  He would continue on in the roll if he had a co-chair.  She will get further information and present it when it is available.

C.     Old Business

            The one item listed will be addressed in a motion coming up.

                                                           

 

D.     New Business

Motion #1:  That the Board approve a discount of 10% for foreign language reorders. (Larry)
                        Through discussion a friendly amendment was made to the above motion by Scott.  The new motion reads:  That the Board approve a discount of 10% for foreign language re-orders to registered meetings or Intergroups for 2+ pallets ordered in one order, with the WSO covering shipping costs and the Intergroup or meeting covering any special treatment requested and insurance for the order.

            Karen seconded the original motion, Scott made a friendly amendment to it, and the subsequent vote on the amended motion was unanimously approved.

Motion #2:   That the Board approve the maximum contribution by an individual must be less than $7,500. (Larry) 
            Phyllis seconded this motion.  Scott explained the basis for the current limit of $2,000, which related to reporting to Homeland Security.  Concern for this issue is no longer valid.  The motion was approved unanimously.  (Scott will change the OPPM in the Repository to reflect this change).

 

Motion #3:   To transfer some or all of the $2000 that we have saved to date for auditing,  into our checking account to cover the expense of an additional workman’s comp insurance payment?  (Phyllis)
            Karen seconded this motion.  Discussion indicated no problem paying the bills currently, so no transfer of the money should be done.  Unanimously voted down.

 

Motion # 4 :   Nominate Mary Jo L., of Illinois as a new board member.  She has been on the monthly teleconference calls for a year, has been a member for 25 years, has worked the Steps with a fellow traveler, is familiar with the Traditions and Concepts.  She has held every position at the group level and was an Intergroup Rep in the late 80's and 90's in Chicago.  She is the current Chair of the West Great Lakes ACA Intergroup, is currently acting as the Meditation Book Trusted Servant, and has demonstrated excellent project management skills.  (Larry)
            Unanimous approval was given to this motion.  Mary Jo accepted and expressed her appreciation of the vote of confidence on her behalf.

Guest Comments:

          Gail asked why the board does not use the ACA Serenity prayer when it opens its meetings.  Response was that they never have, and Larry explained that at these meetings we are dealing with ‘things’ not ‘people’.

          Alice of New York reported she and a group of others have solved the issues their phone bridge meetings were having and now they are a safe place to meet.  They have established the ‘homegroup’ concept for the phone bridge.  The group she is working with have more plans in the making that will help others involved in the phone bridge meetings to work on their programs.  She spoke of doing workshops and wanting to do more of them in the future.  Scott commended her on the work being done there and that a written report could be placed on the website if she submitted one to him.   Phyllis reminded her that if there are events they have planned to let the webmaster know so they can be placed on the website Events listing for others to see.

            Allen, OK.,  in regard to the workman’s compensation issue that occurred where more had to be paid in due to increased payroll recently, he reminded all of us that the money issue is actually a short term problem. 

            Marty, new to the meeting, asked about the ABC and it was explained that the ABC is where the board is told what priorities the fellowship has and what they want the board to work. .  He also expressed interest in obtaining the ebook.

            Dodie had a question on motions.

            Vonnie, mentioned non-traditional meetings where no ACA literature is used and other books are the focus, and the Bible is in use.  Scott said that if the group is not following the ACA Traditions, it is not an ACA group and that using a Bible is okay, but again it is not an ACA meeting. 

 

(Again numerous guests were on the call, which is great and appreciated by all the board members.  Not all guests listening chose to speak, but the board appreciates all on the line taking the time to participate.)

 

Adjournment:

Meeting was adjourned at 12:50 PST by Scott.  The next teleconference meeting will be at 11:00 PST on December 8, 2012.

Minutes submitted by:             Joan Bloom, Secretary