8.57am Duane M; Can we have everyone come in and sit down please.
Duane M; Take your seats please
Good morning, everyone. Please take your seats and come to order.
Jaqueline R; Leads us in the Serenity Prayer in Spanish.
Booker B; Leads us in the Serenity Prayer
Duane M; I was so grateful when I heard this reading
Yasmine R; Reads Reaching Out.
Duane M; Thank you we will now start roll call. Please do not approach the Dais. If you need to approach, please do so at the le and wait to be acknowledged. Let’s eliminate the chatter in roll call
Duane M; Thank you for your contributions.
Thank you very much
178 vote 119 Quorum.
Okay you did well first order of business we will be hearing Mj B. for a 5th concept
MJ B; To the Members of the World Service Conference,
I am writing this with a level of sadness and upset that is genuinely difficult to put into words. A couple of days ago, both the Online Recovery Area and the GB Online Area came before this Conference seeking ratification and the opportunity to take our place within the service structure of the Fellowship that has saved our lives. Today, I am left feeling that both Areas and, more importantly, the addicts represented by them were disregarded because there is still a fundamental lack of knowledge and understanding surrounding what online C.A. actually is, what our groups actually do, and why an online presence within this Fellowship is not simply convenient. For many addicts, it is necessary. I understand group conscience. I understand that I will not always get the outcome I want. My programme has taught me acceptance, and I am capable of accepting a decision that does not go my way. What I am struggling to accept is the possibility that a decision affecting hundreds of members may have been influenced by lack of understanding, assumptions and fear of something unfamiliar rather than a complete understanding of the Fellowship we actually represent.
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Until a couple of days ago, I was incredibly proud to say that I am a member of Cocaine Anonymous. Today, for the first time, I find myself questioning what equality and belonging within this Fellowship really mean. And that breaks my heart because for me, this is not theoretical. I am living proof of why online recovery matters. I came into Cocaine Anonymous on 2 January 2023 through the doors of a physical meeting. I was broken. I was dying from addiction. And in those rooms I was welcomed, loved and surrounded by people who wanted nothing from me except to help me.
I will forever be grateful for that. But this next part is really important. Fifteen months into my sobriety, I was still dying in the rooms of Cocaine Anonymous because I did not have the solution. I was attending meetings. I was sober. I was surrounded by recovering addicts. But I had not heard the message in a way that reached me. Then my circumstances changed and I moved somewhere that did not have face-to-face C.A. meetings. That was when I found online recovery. And suddenly, my world opened up. I could sit in my home and hear recovered addicts from America, across the UK and around the world carrying exactly the same message in different voices and through different experiences. And somewhere amongst all of those voices, I finally heard it. I found sponsorship. I found the Big Book. I found the Steps, the Traditions & the Concepts. I found God and most importantly I found people who showed me not simply how to attend Cocaine Anonymous, but how to live Cocaine Anonymous and I genuinely believe that saved my life
Today I am almost four years sober. I sponsor women, including women who cannot always access physical meetings. I started an online group. I serve my Area. I regularly travel the length of my country attending Unity Days, conventions and C.A. events. I have the privilege of standing in physical rooms as a speaker carrying this life- changing message. I serve this Fellowship because I love it. And I am a member of Cocaine Anonymous because I say I am. There is no second class of membership called an “online member.” There is simply a member of Cocaine Anonymous.
Our Traditions tell me this…Tradition Three tells us that the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using cocaine and all other mind-altering substances. It does not add a geographical
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condition. It does not say an addict becomes more legitimate because they sit inside four physical walls. And Tradition Five tells us that every group has one primary purpose: to carry its message to the addict who still suffers. That is what our online groups are doing every single day. The screen is not the message. Zoom is not the message. A church hall is not the message. The message is the 12 steps of Cocaine Anonymous. And the World Service Manual already gives space for exactly what we are asking for. It states: “The Conference may also recognize Areas whose boundaries do not fit a geographic description.” It also specifically refers to a “Group or Online Group” when describing alignment with a District or Area.
So we are not asking this Conference to invent something new because technology has changed. The Manual already recognises Online Groups. The Manual already allows non-geographic Areas. The structure ALREADY exists. We are simply asking to be allowed to participate within it.
And that leaves me with a very simple question. If our Traditions recognise the member, our primary purpose recognises the work, and our World Service Manual recognises both Online Groups and non-geographical Areas, what spiritual or service principle says that the addicts we represent should have less access to representation? I also need to address what happened around concerns about an individual group. If a group within our Area is believed to be doing something contrary to a Tradition, a World Service policy, copyright, anonymity guidance or any Conference-approved provision, then please tell us what it is.
Show us. Talk to us. Give us the opportunity to take inventory and correct it where correction is needed. That is accountability. But one group is not an Area. One group’s practice does not define every other group. And one concern should not silence hundreds of addicts who had absolutely nothing to do with it. Because the people I represent are not little boxes on a Zoom screen. They are real people.
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I know their stories. I know the newcomer who arrives terrified. I know the person who cannot get to a physical meeting. I know the parent who cannot leave their children. I know the addict living somewhere C.A. barely exists physically. I know the people who come back week after week, get sponsors, take Steps, find God and begin giving away what was freely given to them. Our groups hold business meetings. They elect trusted servants. They sponsor. They practice the Traditions. They contribute. They do service. And they carry the message. Those are not virtual addicts having virtual recovery. They are real addicts recovering from a deadly disease. And now I have to go home. I came here as a trusted servant. I did not come here simply carrying MJ’s opinion. I came carrying the voices of groups who trusted me to sit in this room and represent them. And I have to go back to them and explain what happened. I can explain that we did not get enough votes. I can explain group conscience. I can explain acceptance. What I am finding much harder to explain is this: How do I tell the newcomer that their recovery is real enough to be called Cocaine Anonymous, but the Area trying to represent their meeting is not recognised? How do I tell trusted servants who freely give hours of their lives to this Fellowship that they do not have the same route to representation? And most importantly: What do I tell the addict who still suffers? Because surely that is who this is all supposed to be about. Not me. Not delegates. Not procedure. Not Zoom. Not technology. Not AI. The addict who still suffers. So I am asking you to hear us again. Not because I believe I am entitled to get my own way. Not because yesterday hurt. And not because I think every person who voted against us was wrong. I am asking because I genuinely do not believe we were fully understood.
Come and see what we do. Speak to our groups. Meet the people we represent. Ask the questions. Challenge us where we need challenging. And if something needs correcting, tell us specifically what it is and allow us to correct it. But please do not close the door on hundreds of recovering addicts because their doorway into Cocaine Anonymous looks different from yours.
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We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking to serve. We are asking to take responsibility. We are asking for representation. We are asking for a voice. And I am asking you to remember something that I know from my own lived experience: I walked through the physical door first. I sat in those rooms. And I was still dying because I had not found the solution. Then another door opened. A screen. A meeting thousands of miles away. A recovered addict I would never have met geographically. And somewhere in that worldwide Fellowship, I heard the message that changed my life.
Today I am almost four years sober because somebody carried that message and technology allowed me to hear it. Whether one addict reaches another across a table or across the world through a screen does not change the value of the life on the other end. One addict helping another addict. That is what happened for me. That is what saved my life. That is what our groups do EVERY SINGLE DAY. And I pray that this Fellowship never becomes so concerned with how the message reaches the suffering addict that we lose sight of why we carry it in the first place.
With love, sadness, gratitude and service,
MJ Baker
World Service Delegate
Duane M; Thank you.
Patrice F; Motion 73: Motion to reconsider the Online GB motion.
Duane M; Which side did you vote on
Patrice F; I voted on prevailing side
Sydney P, I second the motion and I voted on the prevailing side
Duane M; Motion is out of order.
Patrice F Motion 74: I make a motion to rescind.
Seconded.
Duane M; We have a motion to rescind. This is Out of order as the previous motion did not
Passes it failed
Russell S; A bit of latitude. I heard a 5th concept statement from an area that a bid did not
We dealt with 2 petitions with similar we tabled one and did not accept the other.
Duane M; I would accept a motion regarding the 5th concept. She was speaking for one and a
motion was made regarding the other.
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Dave B; Point of Order
Scroll back as both were mentioned
Duane M; she was speaking for the area she represented.
Peter Mcg; was the online are GB tabled?
Motion 75: Motion to remove from the table the petition to approve the online GB Area.
Seconded.
Duane M; motion not debatable. Prepare to vote
Motion passes.
Motion 2: To ratify C.A. Online GB Area
Seconded
Patrice F; Now it has been removed from the table. Where does it go now?
Duane M; We will debate now
Do you want to speak to your motion?
Peter Mcg; Speaking in favour of the motion
Patrice F; Speaking in favour of the motion
Nadz L; Point of Order
Duane M; We are debating a petition. The motion has been removed from the table.
Patrice F; Speaking in favour of the motion
Bryan S; Question – Is there not already an online area?
Duane M; Yes
Stuart J; Question – We have a significant piece of business with finance. What will happen if our budget is not approved this year.
Duane M; Great question. It’s not new business.
Parthi T; Speaking against the motion
Russel S; I would prefer the chair move this down the agenda – I would like to motion to limit debate.
Denise: speaking against this motion
Randy G; Point of Order – we have already agreed to limit debate but I see the chair recognising all the hands going up
Duane M; we will stop debate at 10.15
Randy M; speaking for the motion
Axel; request for information – from what I understand there is already a district under and
area, why can’t they stay a district? ….. speaking against the motion
Maarten de H; Speaking against the motion
Holley K; Speaking against the motion
Kalob T; Speaking against the motion
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Jonothan Ha; Speaking against the motion
Nadz L; Speaking in favour of the motion
Sophie H; Speaking in favour of the motion
Laurie G; Speaking in favour of the motion
Duane M; Thank you very much, we have had debate – prepare to vote, the motion is, To ratify C.A. Online GB Area
Motion fails
Thank you very much, at this me, we are going to bring up the finance commi ee
Duane M; Finance Committee ready