Agenda

Monthly Teleconference

May 14, 2016

2:00 p.m. EST (1800 CET)

Access number:  712.432.0075, Pin 427266#   Press *6 to mute or un-mute.  Please notify the secretary with changes, additions, or motions for this meeting.

 

 

A.  Call to Order:  Please be sure that any background noises in your area are eliminated since the sounds make it difficult for participants to hear.  When speaking, please say your name first.  This will help us record your name with your input.  Thank you.

 

  1. Open with the Serenity Prayer

  2. Tradition Five:  Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the adult child who still suffers.

 

B.  Roll Call of Board Members:  Larry A., Chair, and Literature Committee Chairperson; Mary Jo L., Treasurer, Finance Committee Chair; Majbrit M., European Committee Chair and Vice Chair, Ines Z, Secretary, Spanish Liaison and Spanish Translations Committee Chair; Bill D. Chair of MPS member of the DC Oversight Committee and Jeffrey F., member of the European and Finance Committees. 

 

C.  Establish Quorum

 

D.  Guests Introductions: Guests, while this has never been an issue with this Board, as an example to anyone who manages or attends ACA phone bridge meetings, we wish to make you aware that this conference line is used to manage and record our WSO teleconferences.  A caller's phone number and name appears on a dashboard visible only to the WSO Webmaster and the WSO Board.  If you do not wish to disclose your information, feel free to use your phone settings to block your caller ID, or you can also attend this teleconference using your computer.  Instructions for this are on our website Repository under "Teleconference Agendas."

 

At this point we would like to invite all of our guests to introduce themselves by first name only and perhaps telling us where you are calling from and the number of times you have attended our monthly teleconference meetings.  Guests, please introduce yourselves:

 

After the introductions: Non-Board members are welcome to listen to the Teleconference but are requested to remain silent unless called upon to participate.  We respectfully ask that guests hold their comments until the end of our meeting.  We ask everyone to press *6 if you are not speaking.  If someone needs to talk further, they may do so at the close of the meeting.

 

E. Minutes:

 Motion to approve the minutes of the April 9th, 2016 Teleconference Minutes (Ines Z.)

 

F. Committee Reports: I will ask the Committee Chairperson to give their reports. (Generally we provide 5 minutes for each report.)

 

  1. ACA WSO Treasurer’s Report and Finance Committee, Treasurer, Mary Jo L.

  2. ACA WSO Literature Committee, Larry A. 

    1. Spanish Translations Update, Ines Z. 

    2. ComLine, Phyllis 

  3. ACA WSO DC Oversight Committee and Distribution Office, Mary Jo L.

  4. ACA (MPS) Members and Public Service Committee,Denise/Bill D.

  5. Hospitals & Institutions Committee, Bill D.

  6. Intergroup Liaison Committee, Bonnie M.

  7. ACA Website/Database Committee, LarryA.

  8. European Committee, Majbrit M.

  9. OPPM Review Committee, Mary Jo L. and Ines Z.

  10. 2016 ABC Committee, LarryA.

  11. ABC/AWC Committee, Bill D.

  12. Executive Committee, Majbrit M.

 

  • Approval to purchase of 7,000 BRBs. This is not more than any previous order and should last us about 5 months.

  • Agreement to accept discount on soft cover BRBs because the printer cut them slightly smaller.

 

G.  Old Business: None

 

H.  New Business:

 

Motions for May 2016 TC

 

  1. Motion: This motion was put forward at the 2016 Annual Business Conference. All individuals who attended the 2016 ABC should be added to the distribution list to receive the ABC Request for Proposals notification. (2016 ABC)

    Background: The participants at the ABC noted that individuals listed as “Points of Contact” for individual meetings or intergroups may leave ACA or may not responsibly share information with their meeting members. Adding all individuals who attended the ABC would present more opportunities for information provided by the WSO to get to individual meetings or intergroups.

  2. Motion: This motion was brought forward at the 2016 ABC. Create a subcommittee called Delegate World Service Training subcommittee under the Member and Public Service Committee. (2016 ABC)

    Background: The participants at the ABC noted that many delegates did not know or have sufficient information on their role as a delegate and that a committee could help in creating literature that would inform future delegates of their role at the ABC.

  3. Motion: That the Board pay the Duncan Conference Center invoice of $9,711.50 (Larry A.)

    Background: the entire bill is for $16,627.50. We had deposited $2,500 and $4,416 leaving a balance due of $9,711.50

  4. Motion: That the Board validate on the record their unanimous agreement, made at the Board meeting immediately following the ABC in Florida on 23 April 2016, to approve the plan and budget for the rest of 2016, that was submitted by the European Committee. (Jeffrey F.)

    Background: The WSO European Committee was formed in May 2013 with no authority or budget. This is its first plan which asks for some basic authority and budget of USD 3,000 to pursue its goals and program of activities until the end of 2016.

  5. Motion: That the Board validate on the record their unanimous agreement, made at the Board meeting immediately following the ABC in Florida on 23 April 2016, to approve the purchase agreement made with the Sydney InterGroup for ACA literature. (Jeffrey F.)

    Background: The Sydney InterGroup is growing quickly and placed to be the future distribution hub for ACA literature in Australia. This agreement supports their growth by allowing them to pay for six boxes of books (at the new InterGroup discount rate plus shipping which is $996.80 + $400 = $1,396.80) in monthly installments within six months or less.

  6. Motion: That the Board validate on the record their Specific Concurrence to purchase 1,000 - 6 consecutive meetings chips at a cost of $416 plus shipping. (Larry A.)

    Background: Our literature suggests that newcomers attend 6 consecutive meetings. This chip will incentivize newcomers to attend those 6 consecutive meetings.

  7. Motion: Motion: To hire a temporary worker to alleviate staff shortages. (Mary Jo L.)

    Background: One of our Special Workers is about to go on a one month medical leave. To ensure that we aren't left short-handed due to any absences of our remaining Special Workers, hiring a temporary worker is the appropriate solution.

  8. Motion: That the WSO upgrade its Verizon (now Frontier) DSL internet service to Frontier’s Fiber Solutions for Business. The cost will decrease from approximately $168.00 per month to approximately $145.00 per month for much higher internet speeds and will also give us unlimited long distance calling with in the U.S. (Bill D.)

    Background: The installation of the video cameras revealed that our current DSL internet service with download speeds of 7mb and upload of 1mb was insufficient for viewing the video cameras much less allowing the office to use the web based services they need to use in the DC operation. I noticed an email from Kim just today I believe with her log sheets and a comment on it that said something to the effect of “The internet was very slow!”

    Our previous provider was Verizon which has now become Frontier. They have a step up DSL service that will give us 15mb down, but still only 1mb up which is insufficient for the video to be viewed remotely. They offer a Fiber Solutions for Business plan that will give us 25mb down and 25 mb up for less than we are paying now. They will come to the office and install the new modem and connect us up and make sure everything is working before they leave.

    They can be somewhat accommodating to our scheduling needs with our part time staff by giving us a direct number to call the day before the job is scheduled to see what time the technician is expected to arrive. I think we will have to be somewhat flexible as these things are never done on time.

  9. Motion: The Board validate on the record their Specific Concurrence to hire Edipro in Finland to spot check proof read the Finnish translated edition of the Yellow Work Book. The agreed fee payable to Edipro will be EUR 140 (about USD $160) and in return the WSO will receive 4 hours of their time to review the Finnish translation. (Jeffrey F.)

    Background: Within these four hours Edipro expects to review about 16,000 words or about 20% of the book, which will be a good spot check. They have reserved this Wednesday 13 April to do this job for the WSO. The invoice for this fee will be sent after the work is completed and they have submitted their feedback.

  10. Motion: That a subcommittee be created (under the MPS committee) to research the service structures of other global fellowships in order to recommend how ACA should best organize its service structure to serve its growing fellowship nationally and globally. (Jeffrey F.)

    Background: The WSO has identified gaps in its global service structure, in terms of voting and international organization, specifically local translations, printing and fulfillment. So having insights from this research will help the Board determine and decide the best course of action.

  11. Motion: That the Board validate on the record the Board's Specific Concurrence to rent a dance floor for the AWC and have it installed by a professional and insured vendor for $662.26 or less. (Bill D.)

    BackGround: A dance floor provides a safe and comfortable surface to dance on. In addition there are several potential problems with having a dance on a carpeted floor. People have concerns about getting shoes snagged and falling as well as twisting knees and ankles because shoes don’t slide due to the carpet grabbing the soles. Some have said they would not dance rather than risk injury.

  12. Motion: To validate on the record the Board's Specific Concurrence to upgrade the Literature Committee's Dropbox to a Dropbox Pro with 1 TB of storage at a cost of $99/year. (Larry A.)

    Background: The use of Dropbox facilitates sending large files in emails and storing documents so that the Literature Committee can have easy access.

  13. Motion: To register a WSO account for setting up and utilizing the team collaboration software known as Slack.com and allow committees and subcommittees to have access. (Bill D.)

    Background: Slack is phenomenal software that allows organizations and teams to communicate with members via the internet around the world. It has the ability of video conferencing, searchable messaging with archive ability, and document/ file storage and exchange. It is completely departmental capable meaning users can be setup so they are only given access to certain “channels” or departments. Thus one account can hold several different user groups that cannot access what the other user groups are doing.

    The standard version costs US $6.67 per daily active user per month if billed annually. However I believe we will qualify for this version free because we are a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. If for some reason we do not qualify for the standard version for no charge, there is also a free version that would be useful.

  14. Motion: That the DC Oversight Committee be given a budget of $5,000 for the remainder of 2016 to cover at least one trip to the Distribution Center. (Mary Jo L.)

    Background: This Committee is charged with managing all aspects of the DC and does so from a distance. As the Board has previously agreed that at least one trip be made per year, this motion now brings such a trip into the purview of the appropriate Committee.

  15. Motion: That the Board approve the printing of 10,000 Newcomers Booklets ($4,090) and 5,000 Good Enough Booklets ($697.) (Mary Jo L.)

    Background: We are at a reorder point for both. This is the second printing of the Good Enough booklets.

  16. Motion: The Board authorizes the AWC taping vendor, Vision Audio CDs to prepare single and album sets of CDs of the AWC speakers and workshops and sell them at the same price and share percentage as was agreed upon by the Board prior, upon request by ACA members to alleviate an immediate backlog of requests. (Bill D.)

    Background: The AWC speakers and workshops were recorded and 39 albums were sold at the convention. The vendor has not sold any further copies at the request of the board since the convention. He has directed callers to the WSO website and I have been contacted by people wanting to purchase bulk albums for their friends. WSO has not made any concrete plans to get them into circulation and the members should not be asked to wait until WSO does this.

  17. Motion: That Bill D. be the Chair of the ABC/AWC Committee. (Larry A.)

    Background: This position has been a "liaison". In order to facilitate better decision making, the position has been redefined as a Chair. Bill D. served as the Chair of the host committee of the 2016 ABC and inaugural AWC, and is intimately familiar with the details of organizing both events.

 

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Guest Comments:  To allow that all of our guests have a chance to share, we will limit guest comments to 3-5 minutes.  If someone needs to talk further, they may do so after the close of the meeting. 

 

Announcements: 

 

The next ACA WSO Board Teleconference is scheduled June 11th, 2016at 2:00 p.m. EST (1800 CET)

 

Is there a motion and 2nd to adjourn the meeting?

 

Close with the Serenity Prayer