Mar 3 – 5, 2006 – WSBT Regular Quarterly Meeting Minutes

CA WORLD SERVICE BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGULAR QUARTERLY MEETING MINUTES

 March 3-5, 2006, Los Angeles, California

Final Approved Minutes    

(Approved by WSBT for distribution on May 22, 2006)

Since this report is a confidential CA document, for members only, it contains members’ full names. This usage to facilitate communication within the fellowship was approved by the 1990 WS Conference. Such confidential use does not, of course, violate in any way our Tradition on anonymity in public communications media (press, radio, TV, etc.).

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The regular quarterly meeting of the CA World Service Board of Trustees, at the Four Points LAX, Los Angeles, California, was called to order at 1:47 p.m. on March 3, 2006.

1.  Moment of silence and Serenity Prayer
2. Roll call

Cynthia Cronkhite | Pacific North Regional Trustee| Chair
Jackie Schickler | Atlantic North Regional Trustee| Vice Chair
Tony Drake | Midwest Regional Trustee
Carl Warlick | Pacific South Regional Trustee
Earl Henderson | World Service Office Trustee
Hayward Hunt | World Service Trustee
Bobbie Harmon| Trustee at Large | Acting Atlantic| South Regional Trustee | Secretary
Jay Finesilver| Southwest Regional Trustee (by phone)

3. Personal sharing – Completed
4. Reading of the 12 Traditions – Hayward
5. Read & discuss Tradition Three (limit discussion): The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using cocaine and all other mind-altering substances.

Discussion by Board Members:

There is a part in the beginning that says it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been gone, the minute you say that you are a member, you are a member. That stuck out for me because I was sober, but not an active member for about 9 ½ years, just hanging around the fringes of the fellowship. The minute I decided that I needed to try this program and was willing to jump in with both feet and shout from the mountain tops that I am a member of Cocaine Anonymous, nobody frowned. Nobody said, “You can’t be a member because we haven’t seen you around.” Their whole attitude was, she says she’s a member and she can be a part of whatever she wants to. Everywhere that I went and said I wanted to participate and do some service work, their arms were open. That sticks out for me where Tradition Three is concerned, because it reminds me that, although I was trying to practice being normal and elitist at that time, and I was better than, it keeps me in the position to remember that I can’t do anybody like that, because it was not done to me. So, Tradition Three sticks out for me in that way.

I love this Tradition, and I think it makes it real clear…no dues, no fees, no conflict. I think there is a difference, what is required to be a member of the fellowship of CA and what is required to stay sober with the Twelve Steps of CA. To be a member of the fellowship, which is a lot different than our twelve step process, all you have to do is say “I am here and I have a desire.” I also had, interestingly enough in the last quarter, some meetings in Southern Illinois that were confused, and they got a little tied up with the singleness of purpose of AA and they wanted to believe that you had to be a cocaine addict to be a member of CA. So this Tradition came up and

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we talked about this and the first step and a few other things, but specifically this Tradition with the “all mind altering substances.” I’ve had sponsees and members of my local fellowship who identify as alcoholics or they’ve done different things, like all these designer drugs nowadays, and it seems like a lot of new people are dealing with things like meth, etc., and it is really interesting that we are talking about this because it came up so recently. I always make that distinction in my head, that there is a big difference between what is required for membership in the fellowship, and what is required to stay sober.

We don’t have a singleness of substance, but we do have a singleness of purpose…to stay clean. I love the Third Tradition in our fellowship because we open our arms, and it doesn’t matter what the substance is. It is about recovery. A desire to stop. This sets us apart from the other Twelve Step fellowships. We are an inclusive fellowship, not an exclusive fellowship. That is one of the things that I found so attractive when I was new. I knew I had a problem with cocaine, but I wasn’t sure about all that other stuff. It kind of took my back-door, escape hatch away when they put the “and all mind altering substances” clause in there. I had a lot of other substances that I was using when I wasn’t using cocaine. It’s like that saying, “I’m addicted to more, and will you front me some?” That is what really sets us apart.

It says the only requirement for membership is the desire to stop using cocaine and all other mind-altering substances, which just rings out in my ear. We don’t have the singleness of substance like everyone else, but we do have the same singleness of purpose. Our membership goes back to the twelve and twelve, where those old guys let this one guy in and then one guy asked, “What would the master think?” That always gets me. I see people coming from everywhere into our fellowship, and every time they get here, they all have a unique problem. A guy just the other night was sharing about being a drug dealer and a gangster…very unique problem. I’m glad our meeting is a cross-talk meeting and some of us shared our stories with him about being drug dealers and gangsters. We let him know that drug dealers and gangsters usually don’t make it to Cocaine Anonymous, and that we welcome him anyway, and maybe he will find out what the truth is with who you really are. This Tradition is one of my favorites, because it really sums up the whole fellowship. We don’t require that you be anything. When you come in here, you can be anything you want to be and then once you find out the truth, you realize that you are one of us and that we welcome you.

This Tradition is one of my favorites, the whole, all encompassing umbrella. I hear from new people all the time that they like CA because, no matter what they did, they are welcome. A member who has six or seven years sober recently shared that he was going to start coming to CA exclusively. He said that he is a firm believer in the singleness of purpose when he goes other places, but when he goes to CA, that is all part of our purpose. We get to be who we are, and share what we really did. The wording, desire, is also important. Though I’m not sure I met that when I first started coming, but I was going to open meetings so I didn’t actually have to be a member. I think it is interesting that it is not the ability or the willingness, but just that fleeting desire, which is very cool.

6. Read & Discuss Concept IX (limit discussion): Good service leaders, together with sound and appropriate methods of choosing them are at all levels indispensable for our future functioning and safety.

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Discussion by Board Members:

It is opportune that it is the Ninth Concept that has come up at this particular quarterly. At many different levels, really with great sadness about Jon’s resignation, knowing that we’ve got a new Region, knowing that there is a slate coming up for Trustee vacancies, the whole question of who our leadership is, how we prepare people, and how we educate, passes all the way through the service structure.   It has been very prominent in my mind, particularly in the past few months. I have done workshops on group service structure and service positions, and if you plan to stand for a position, exactly how the reversed triangle works. Letting them think about who they are going to elect to be their GSRs, how Districts work, how Areas work, has had a strange effect. In the end, when we were discussing the slate to go to the Region, they had me send this Concept out and actually say, we want this person, we don’t want this person because it wasn’t about rubber stamping nominations, it was about choosing with great care, who the service leaders were, which is great. It also made me think about the requirements we have in the Region and whether those need to be looked at differently. The Concept does talk about it being a continual problem and a continual requirement for us to think about how we elect people. With the WSOB, with Jon’s resignation, I was struck with how fortunate we were to have that level of volunteer and how lucky we’ve been to have him be of service to us for so many years, and maybe the thought was also, how do we prepare for that rotation…if we can prepare for that rotation. Is there any hand-over period that we can look towards getting other volunteers ready to step up into some of those positions. How we think of leadership is very much questioned to make sure we have the right people at every level of service.

Appropriate Concept for the time, since we are interviewing for the chair position at the office. Due diligence was done to put together an appropriate series of questions. We have gone out and asked for the resumes and have tried to field as many candidates as we could get. Now it is up to us to decide who the best possible candidate would be. Keeping in mind that we really want to do what is best for the fellowship. It is difficult to replace someone like Jon, and we have been blessed to have him. We do need to hunt out and do our best to find a new service leader. Not just, as I’ve seen too often at the local level, the person who gets the job is the only person who didn’t say no. It is not just about finding a warm body. When we do that, we suffer. It is up to the members with some time, to network and keep the lines of communication open so we can find some of these candidates.

Yes, this is very timely, and I remember going through this Concept a lot when we were going through the discussion with Calgary. Thinking about leadership and what you do about angry people. A leader must realize that very prideful and very angry people may sometimes be dead right, and sometimes the calm and more humble are mistaken. I have to realize that if somebody is saying something that is not necessarily attractive to me, I may still have to give it weight and value. It also talks about getting things done. A frustration is that, once we make a decision at the Board level or conference level, then the people who have been delegated authority to carry that out, are not getting it done. I would really like to see some improvement on that. It also talks about the vision for the future of the fellowship. I think being a Trustee, I used to wonder why there had to be a long-term planning committee, why is it up to them, and now I think a lot of it is the unique perspective we have, being at the bottom of the pyramid, seeing what isn’t working, and perhaps saving some people the wasted effort of continuing to try things that

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haven’t worked in the past, to leave behind the benefit of our experience and draw from the experience of Trustees before us to try and guide things. I know we are all spread very thin, being one member short and we have a number of changes coming this fall, and I would like to see us devote more time to our long-term planning, because we really are developing our foundation and sharing something of a vision. I would like to commit right here and now in helping with that, once I am no longer on the Board. It is important to note that one does not need to wear a specific hat to be part of the leadership in this fellowship.

7. Review of the agenda

Add under new business. CAWS 2007 Apollo Night.

Break – 2:50 p.m. to conduct WSOB Chair interview

Return – 4:15 p.m.

8. Chair’s opening remarks – Cynthia

It is great that, with this Board, it is not necessary to remind everyone to be respectful of each other and not to cross-talk or criticize. Want to apologize for saying during the interview that the TEC voting process would be used for the Office Board Chair election, because that had not been formally decided. That can be decided later and we will just say “we are voting” to the candidates tonight. Not going to be a stickler for Roberts Rules and will just make sure that the process works for us. We will be challenged because of the choppiness of the day, so timeliness is very important.

9. Approval of minutes:
   • Minutes of November 2006 WSBT quarterly meeting
   • Minutes of November 2006 WSBT/WSOB meeting
   • Minutes of December 11, 2005 conference call
   • Minutes of January 8, 2006 conference call

Tony Drake – Motion to approve the minutes from the November 2006 quarterly meeting, the minutes from the November 2006 Board-to-Board meeting, the minutes from the December 11, 2005 conference call, and the minutes from the January 8, 2006 conference call. Second   Motion passes unanimously. 

10. Approval of Record of Online Business Between November 2005 and March 2006 Quarterly Meetings.

Tony Drake – Motion to approve record of online business between November 2005 and March 2006 quarterly meeting. Second. Motion passes unanimously.  

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WSBT OFFICER REPORTS

11. WSBT officer reports (discussion on reports previously submitted for review):

• Chair (Cynthia)

Addendum to report regarding portion of job description that says to keep in touch with Conference Chair and Parliamentarian about Conference. Have spoken with Steve Edwards regarding playing a bit more of a role in the orientation. Not necessary for the Trustees to do the ice cream skit, but rather do something more hands-on and more effective, like a Delegate orientation, or taking the page out of the manual and expanding on each of the bullet points. This will continue to be discussed.

• Vice-Chair (Jackie)
• Secretary (Bobbie)

Tony Drake – Motion to approve all three WSBT Officer Reports. Second. Motion passes unanimously.

TRUSTEE REPORTS

• Trustee reports (discussion on reports previously submitted for review):
  • Atlantic North Regional Trustee (Jackie)
  • Atlantic South Regional Trustee (Bobbie)
  • Midwest Regional Trustee (Tony)
  • Pacific North Regional Trustee (Cynthia)
  • Pacific South Regional Trustee (Carl)
  • Southwest Regional Trustee (Jay)
  • Trustee At Large (Bobbie)
  • World Service Office Trustee Report (Earl)
  • World Service Trustee Report (Hayward)

Tony Drake – Motion to accept the Trustee Reports. Second.  

Question regarding Atlantic South Regional Report – Noted that the Delegates are not submitting reports. Do we know why?

This is not new. There has been an additional verbal update from Louisiana. Billy H. resigned and it is unknown who the replacement Delegate will be. There is not a lot of communication coming from that Region. It is hit or miss on whether a response is received.

Is this more the inherent nature in that Region and the way they do business or may there really be a problem in that Region?

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In Teri’s past report, this is inherent. It is not new. Hopefully whoever gets the Trustee job, they will have to be visible in that Region. They will have to work up a new relationship with the people so they will be willing to work with them to get them back onboard.

Correction, Billy H. did not resign. His term was completed and he rotated out in North Carolina.

Motion passes unanimously.

TRUSTEE COMMITTEE REPORTS

• WSBT Subcommittee reports – lead member listed first (discussion on reports previously submitted for review):
  • Conference (Hayward, Jay)
  • Convention (Ad Hoc) (Jay, Jackie, Cynthia, Bobbie, Hayward)
  • Finance (Earl, Jay, Hayward, Cynthia)
  • International Structure & Development (Jackie, Cynthia, Jay, Bobbie)
  • Legal (Jay, Jackie, Carl, Hayward)
  • Long Term Planning (Bobbie, Cynthia, Jackie, Carl, Earl, Jay)
  • Negotiating (Hayward, Cynthia, Tony, Carl, Jay, Bobbie)
  • NewsGram (Cynthia, Jackie, Bobbie, Jay)
  • Orientation (Jackie, Jay, Cynthia, Hayward)
  • Outreach (Cynthia, Bobbie, Carl, Jackie, Jay, Tony)
  • Trustee Election Committee (Jay, Cynthia, Tony, Earl, Carl, Jackie, Hayward & Bobbie)

Tony Drake – Motion to approve the WSBT Subcommittee report. Second. Motion passes unanimously.

TRUSTEE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REPORTS

• Trustee Conference Committee reports (discussion on reports previously submitted for review):
  • Archives (Carl)
  • Conference (Jay and Hayward)
  • Convention (Tony)
• CAWS 2006 (Jay)
• CAWS 2007 (Tony)
• CAWS 2008 (Cynthia)
• CAWS 2009 (Jay)
  • Finance (Earl)
  • Hospitals & Institutions (Hayward)
  • IT (Tony)
  • Literature, Chips & Format (Cynthia)
  • Public Information (Jackie)

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• Structure & Bylaws (Bobbie)
• Unity (Carl)

Tony Drake – Motion to accept the Conference Committee Reports. Second.

Regarding Archives, Patrick is working quite hard on the work area where the archives will be set up. Will meet with Patrick in person and go through everything, but will really need bodies. This will be the most important part at this point. There may be additional stuff coming in that Johnny S. had, such as reports from the first Conference, etc. Ray G. and quite a few others have a number of artifacts from the early days. We are going to have a huge archives and Patrick is really on this. It will be a privilege working with him. One other thing discussed is that, rather than working at the hotel during the Conference, that they will work at the office, actually doing hands-on work.

There was a question regarding why the Office Board was electing the Archives Chair, we may be talking about two different things. The Office Board has an archives person, which in the past was Jay and now is Patrick. As far as the Conference Committee established last year, that person has yet to be elected, correct?

Correct.

Motion passes unanimously.

OLD BUSINESS

OLD BUSINESS – Online Agenda numbers (OA #) included for ease of reference

Outstanding Correspondence:

1. (OA #4g) Question from Teri K. regarding NADCP (1^st posted 12/29/05) (Bobbie, Jay)

Changes to the emailed response after meeting with Patty – we do plan to participate in Seattle, so we need to remove the sentence that says we do not. For the national we want to be there. For the local, perhaps we can get the local service workers to work it into their schedule, to work a booth and/or do what the office did for the Michigan drug court. They sent in $250 and our logo was placed on the bag which we placed literature in. That way we have some kind of presence. This would be the long-term answer: this is how we deal with it when national, and this is how we deal with it when local. Therefore, the letter just needs to change a little bit and then we can vote on it.

Motion to table until first order of business tomorrow morning. No objections.

2. (OA #4h) Question from Dean in New Orleans (1^st posted 1/30/06) (Bobbie)

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Can we answer him before we find out all the information? We’ve asked where in Alabama and Arkansas did he see this, but he has not responded.

• We should thank him for expressing his concern and let him know we are following up. The specific response will worked on by Bobbie and Jackie and posted online.

3. (OA #4i) Question from Patricia J. in Texas (1^st posted 2/17/06) (Jay)

Jackie Schickler – Motion to accept Jay’s response. Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

To be Completed by or Updated at March Quarterly:

4. (OA #5) Legal committee recommendations regarding vendor licenses (Jay, Jackie, Earl, Carl, Hayward)

• On agenda since May 2002
• Update by March quarterly

Jay Finesilver – Motion to table, and be the first order of business after meeting with Patty, whenever that is. Second

Motion passes unanimously.  

5. (OA #9) What we can/should share in CAWS outreach/Tradition Six and listing on convention registration forms (Jay, Carl, Cynthia, Tony)

• On agenda since May 2005
• Follow up by March quarterly
• To be completed online.

6. (OA #10) Modification of E-Mail Guidelines to shorten discussion and/or voting period in certain instances (Jay, Cynthia)

• On agenda since September 2005
• Follow up by January conference call; Jay to take lead
• One modification approved on 1/8/06 conference call
• Additional modifications to be presented at March quarterly

Has been worked on and are happy with week-long discussion and voting period. The guidelines are ambiguous whether the discussion period begins to run when the motion is seconded or when it is restated by the secretary.

The assumption has been when it is seconded.

• This should be completed online this next quarter.

7. (OA #12) WSBT “statements/positions” in one place in hard copy and on the web (Jay, Jackie, Hayward, Bobbie)

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• On agenda since August 2005
• This would be accessible by the fellowship, not just the WSBT
• Follow up by March quarterly

This is still in the works.

Question – we were looking to get feedback from Board about whether it was appropriate to start assembling these with the idea that they would go as a separate tab in the Delegate notebooks and possibly in a separate place on the website. So, philosophically, we have to make sure we want to do that and then we can set it up computer wise. Don’t want to put the cart before the horse.

Some research has been done on other fellowships’ websites and have found old articles, etc. This would be something along those lines on our website. If a pertinent issue comes up regarding Co-Anon or putting stuff in registration flyers, and we would put our position there. Perhaps put keywords like Tradition 6 or Co-Anon and it would bring up all the articles that we’ve written for the NewsGram, or letters that we responded to, or referrals, or whatever we feel we want to include.

The webservant would be the one to set it up, but the assembly of the materials to be posted would be done by the Trustees.

Should a member of the fellowship want to know where we stand on an item like prosecution or Co-Anon, they would be able to find any referrals that were responded to with that subject matter, any statements that have come out, and any articles, so we are not constantly re-creating the wheel. It would also be a tool for future boards to be able to look back and see what has happened historically. We should start to move in that direction and perhaps start to get a database together with the important materials. Then we should start thinking of a naming system of how they could be cross-referenced. That may be the first part of what we should do, before we think about how to present the information.

The Office Board and the webservant, as opposed to the Internet Committee, should be the ones to try to figure out the technical side of how to get a certain page on the website. We need to come up with the material, perhaps just ten articles to start with, and then just ask them to try to make it happen and report back to us.

• This will be on the online agenda, to be completed by the May quarterly.

Hayward will get in touch with Jon, and ask him to set up a page so that anyone can do a search by putting in a key word so they can pull up a list of articles.

We could have him set up a tab right at the top of the homepage that states “responses to questions from the fellowship” or something similar.

This would be a FAQ page (frequently asked questions) so the fellowship can access answers.

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Regarding the size, perhaps we can rotate the questions and the things sitting there every thirty or sixty days.

Jon will be asked about storage space and see what he thinks. We should ask his professional opinion about what an appropriate number of search terms and number of documents would be. What really works within the parameters of ca.org, and then we can adjust our materials accordingly.

8. (OA #13) Possible referral(s) with regard to trustee approval of Area newsletters (Cynthia, Jay, Hayward)

• On agenda since October 2005
• Follow up by March quarterly
• This has been discussed online, and it will continue to be worked on online, with an update in May.

9. (OA #14) Regional Conventions – Possible referral to S&B as there is no mention of these in the WSM (Jackie, Tony)

• On agenda since November 2005
• Follow up by March quarterly

Tony Drake – Motion to make a referral – On page 2.14, in a new section, just before Regional Service Assembly, will read:  

REGIONAL CONVENTIONS  

Many Regions throughout our fellowship hold a Regional Convention on a rotating basis once a year. In some instances, the Regional Service Assembly (see below) is held in conjunction with these conventions, but not always. The Region itself establishes the rotation of hosting these conventions and also how the net proceeds are retained or distributed.

Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

10. (OA #16) Trusted servants: when trust is lost (Jay, Jackie, Carl)

• On agenda since January 2004
• Update at March quarterly

Several discussions have taken place over the last few weeks. There are some inconsistencies with the draft of “When trust is lost” and with the letter that went out by the WSBT to the CALA Area regarding prosecution. In order to move forward with the corrections, we wanted to check this Board’s position as to whether we want to uphold the position of the prior WSBT that we do not prosecute. If that is the case, then we need to make some adjustments to the “When trust is lost” document.

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We also need to look at other things as well, such as the behavior. This is about repeated offenders and they always seem to end up in service positions, and they are bullying or intimidating people. For example, someone who is a District Services Representative is doing this behavior, and they never remove him, even though they’ve had several meetings to remove him. We need to talk about those types of incidents.

Another part is a proposed name change – “When trust is lost and keeping what we have.” This is so it doesn’t just focus on the negative.

I would be nice to see the new position being proposed to compare the two.

Propose that a redlined document sent out to show the corrections, alterations between the pieces. Will also distribute the prosecution policy and some suggested changes, so there would be three documents that Jay, Carl, and Jackie would continue to work on.

• This will be done and will continue to be worked on online.

11. (OA #17) Storage on Yahoo group (Tony)

• On agenda since May 2004
• Leave on agenda for ongoing quarterly updates

Removed from Agenda.

12. (OA #18) Worldwide trademark protection of the CA logo in other languages (Jackie, Jay)

• On agenda since February 2005
• Motion passed in May and amended in August that we provide the Finance Committee with a proposal and request that they budget to protect our English trademark CA logo worldwide – did this get included in budget at Conference?
• Earl will follow up and report online

Regarding the question whether this was included in the budget at Conference, no. Some of this was covered in our motion to transfer a large sum of money to cover this, but it was not budgeted for. This was good for ten years and now that we have re-upped and it is good for another ten years. It will be amortized year over the next ten years, so the $2,000 will be spread out as $200 per year. We still have some issues under long-term planning regarding where we can go with multi-lingual trademarks, such as what countries. This could get really involved. We did have a list of the countries in the last piece, so we know where we are covered in terms of the trademark.

We have the trademark, but not the logo protected in the European union. There is a difference between the trademark and the logo, and there is a lot of concern that we are not doing our fiduciary duty as Trustees to make sure that our logo is protected in the European union, which is the fastest growing Area of our fellowship. We have new meetings, we have a new Region, we’ve talked about this being our responsibility to make sure that we have that protected, this Board motioned for that to happen and for the Finance Committee at the Conference to apply for

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that, and it feels like it has slipped through the cracks and will continue to slip through the cracks unless we actually say that we need this to happen. We need to make sure that it happens. It is not good enough to find out that they forgot.

In order to get this to move forward, the European Regional Trustee that comes on board or the temporary servant of the Region should provide the countries that we need to look at and the languages that we need to look at. Once we have the list, we can turn to our legal people and say, this is what we want to do, how much is it going to cost us to do it? Then we go to the next step in the budgetary process for allowing funds. This is where we want to go, this is how much it is going to cost for us to get there. Then we can address it and move the process forward.

Currently, our logo is protected in the United States and in Canada only. It is not protected in the United Kingdom, which includes Scotland. It is not protected in the other European Union countries, i.e., Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France. With the other European countries, we have them as a block. We don’t have CA there yet. The reports say exactly where there are CA meetings. So, we are looking at the EUS Block. Plus we also have meetings in South Africa, and we have meetings in Hong Kong.

Jackie will give a list to Hayward of all the Areas and he will make sure it is given to the law firm.

What we need is for the Finance Committee to allow for the cost.

This is something that we need to budget for, with the long-term planning. This is not just a couple of t-shirts, this is something really important. Part of the plan should be, with Jackie’s list and the amount of money it is going to cost, that we need to say that this is going to happen. Once all the ducks are in a row, and probably before the new European person comes in because they won’t be as informed as Jackie currently is, we need to get this done. We need to take this very seriously.

• We have some groundwork to do to make sure this gets done at the Conference, so it will be updated in May.

13. (OA #19) Referral 006 (Tony)

• On agenda since before August 2002
• Response to referral completed at August 2004 quarterly; Tony to get complete presentation to WSO for archives
• Follow up at March quarterly

Removed from Agenda.

14. (OA #20) Copyright and trademark protection (Jackie, Jay, Hayward)

• To remain on agenda for quarterly review
•  Previously addressed and will remain on Agenda for quarterly review.

15. (OA #21) Orlando drug court meeting

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• On agenda since August 2005
• Bobbie to follow up online re budgeting for TAL to attend similar functions in the future (TAL guidelines specify “Represent CA at Drug related conferences to promote our fellowship with the professional community”).
• Projected cost to be submitted to Conference Finance Committee for inclusion in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 budgets
• Earl to follow up and report online
• Do we need to write a referral?

We should change the heading to say “National” instead of Orlando because it is in a different city each year. This came up in August 2005, so that is why it did not make it into the budget. We have looked at getting it into the next budget and figuring out the dollar figure so we can get a line item. There are some timelines that we need to look at so we know whether or not we have the money to participate as the money goes throughout the year. We may have to cut certain items in the budget, so we are thinking about a 90-day final confirmation period where we find out whether we have the money to do it. If so, we would take the TAL, the Regional Trustee, and the representative from the office and go participate.

Is Seattle the next one? Who is making that decision? Whose budget is that coming out of? Who decides who is going, how much they are spending, and how that decision is determined? Also, regarding the 90-day decision, who is making that decision? The WSBT, the Paid Director, the office? If this is something that the Board of Trustees has determined that is included in the TAL duties, then we should participate in that decision.

This was not brought to the Board as far as the TAL, the Regional or the Paid Director going to the event in Seattle. It originally came up when brought to the Board’s attention that it is one of the TAL’s duties. That was when the question of whether it is in the TAL’s budget came up. The number that was tossed out today is too big for just the TAL. It is inclusive of the Regional Trustee and the Paid Director attending. Per diem, airline, and hotel. That is $6,000. If we are going to participate, then it does need to be decided if this board wants the TAL to go and then, the Office Board would decide if they are going to budget for the Paid Director to attend. We would also discuss whether the Regional Trustee, who lives in Seattle, would be attending. We are looking, at this time, because it is in Seattle, to cut down on costs, the TAL airfare would be paid for, but she would stay with the Regional Trustee. Registration for the conference would be paid for because CA would benefit from the attendance.

There is no question that it is in the TAL’s duties, the question is just whether it was budgeted for. It is still unclear whether that was included in the budget for 2006 and 2007.

The other question is whether we need three people to attend. Who made the decision for this?

It is a good thing for two people to be there, so one person can man the booth and the other to participate in workshops, etc. and then alternate. The budget for this year’s conference is about $300 for airfare, $40 per diem, hotel around $180 for two nights. Works out even better if a Regional Trustee is in the vicinity so we can cut down on that cost. The number thrown out initially covers three people, but for three people to go on one person’s budget is really insane.

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Another issue is that there are people in the fellowship that donate money specifically to these certain causes, which brings us to the earmarked funds concerns. We need to make sure the new Chair is aware of our concerns regarding this.

It does help to have three people there, because you can get hit with over one hundred people at the same time, and, the way it works, you get information from everyone as they come by so a database is created. You really can’t do it with just two people. Everyone paid their own way last year because it wasn’t budgeted for. Believe an airline ticket may have also been donated for Patty to go, but could be wrong. Actually, they may have donated the registration fee or something along those lines.

These are essentially trade shows with a specific topic. For less than the cost of airfare, you can scan someone’s badge. There is no writing anything down, or anything like that. If our money is as tight as we are always being told, then maybe we should just rent a little scanner, which is cheaper than sending a third person.

On another note, the booth/back drop is quite worn. Perhaps we can do something about fixing it or getting a new one?

This is actually being worked on and we may be able to buy a new one with some of the money saved if we don’t send three people.

Keep in mind that the $6,000 number is really a lot lower for this particular event. One less flight, two less hotels.

Where is the $6,000 really appearing from?

We will talk more specifically about this at the Board-to-Board, but this amount would have to be listed even if it isn’t used this year. That way it is listed correctly going forward.

• This will be tabled until after the meeting with Patty.

16. (OA #22) A WSBT review process for the WSOB officers and Paid Director (Tony, Jay, Earl, Carl)

• On agenda since August 2005
• Update at March quarterly; Carl to take lead

This came up when asking if there is a way to give feedback to the WSOB servants along the way. The only process we have is the once-a-year ratification and the informal contact between our Chair and their Chair. There really should be a way to talk about things that go right and things that don’t go right along the way.

This may be something that we would implement for next year. This is more the concept of a review than anything. We have a Board that is supposed to be working with us. There are times when there are challenges and times when everything is great. Does it make sense to get some feedback from them on what we need or not, and things like that.

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So this is taking some time to discuss whether we are happy with somebody, so that when it comes time to ratify, we will know where we stand?

Not necessarily that we are going to talk about you and judge so much. It would be, these are the concerns we have. Is there something you can do to correct them perhaps.

A problem with this review is that we would be looking at a performance evaluation. The question is, how are we going to evaluate a volunteer vs. a Paid Director?

This does say “officers,” so that means Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary. I think you can evaluate whether they are performing their job description.

That would mean that we would have to sit down with them, and the only person we have direct contact with would be the Chair, and they would have to evaluate the rest of the workers. This would include the Paid Director, unless it is Earl or Hayward because they have more contact with them.

It is not our job to evaluate the Paid Director. It is the Office Board Chair’s job. Not clear how we would talk about and review when our ratification process doesn’t allow for any discussion about a person. So, we’re either going to discuss them or we’re not. A review feels like discussion before ratification. The ratification process that we currently have does not allow for any discussion, we just vote.

Is there no discussion in the ratification process because there is backstage political activity going on prior to the Board meeting? If not, how does one come to a consensus or decision to ratify or not to ratify other than by individual perception? If we start setting up a review process, it could get really complicated. There is a review process in place for Patty, and the rest of the WSOB directors participate in that review as well. I’m confused in terms of the ratification process. If someone is not doing their job, you don’t ratify them. Well, how do you find out they are not doing their job if there is no discussion?

I have to be careful of how judgmental I can become. Is it my job as a member of the Board to do this? I don’t think this is something we should be doing.

What do we do if a member of the WSOB does things that are out of line, and then won’t own-up to it through the Chair? In that process, which may be an isolated case, we talk about our Chair expressing it to the WSOB Chair, who then talks to the member of that Board, and that is the process. If that is the case, I am fine with that.

Yes, that is the process.

Removed from Agenda.

Break – 6:00 p.m. – dinner and WSOB Chair interviews

Return – 8:48 p.m.

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ITEM OF BUSINESS OUT OF ORDER:

Tony Drake – Motion to follow the TEC Guidelines for approval of the WSOB Chair. Second.  

My interpretation of the process would be to get a 2/3rds majority, and this is 2/3rds of the votes cast. If there are abstentions, we would not count them. We will not discuss unless we need to do a second ballot. We have not always done the 2/3rds of votes cast, but this is the interpretation of Robert’s Rules at this point. That is also something that we need to clarify this year for the TEC.

I disagree. We are getting into another issue, but in this process, there should be a way to say, I am not for a candidate. The only way right now to do that is to abstain.

Page 387 of Roberts’ Rules, it states that “when the term majority vote is used without qualification–as in the case of the basic requirement–it means more than half of the votes cast by persons legally entitled to vote, excluding blanks or abstentions….” On the next page it talks about “A two-thirds vote–when the term is unqualified–means at least two thirds of the votes cast by persons legally entitled to vote, excluding blanks or abstentions, at a regular or properly called meeting at which a quorum is present….”

As a participant of the TEC, it has always been done a different way, and there is something to be said for tradition. Right now, in this process, that is the only way to say I am not for any of these candidates and I don’t think these are good choices. If we change the way we are doing it, we’re taking away that voice, someone’s ability to say I am not for any of these.

As the Chair, this is the way we will be doing that.

We can challenge that.

Speaks against the motion. We have election procedures in the Manual that talk about how we elect Conference Chairs that seem to work very well, and we can use it for the situation here. The last one was Bob and when he was selected, we did it by 2/3rds. Would prefer to follow the other procedure that we used at the Conference floor for a long time.

Where would that procedure be found?

On page 6.11 of the WSM. If one candidate does not receive the majority of the votes, the two receiving the most votes shall stand for a run-off. It doesn’t talk about abstentions, it just talks about votes.

In the summary of Roberts’ Rules, it states that a simple majority is defined as 50% plus one of the votes case, excluding abstentions.

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We can do a simple majority vote and whoever has the majority is the winner. Do you want to withdraw your motion to use the TEC process and use that instead?

No, I would like to see 2/3rds. It is an important position.

Motion carries with substantial unanimity.

The new Office Board Chair is John Bodkin.

OLD BUSINESS CONTINUED:

17. (OA #23) Signature of annual corporate documents

• On agenda since August 2005
• Carl to scan and upload for archive; will hold originals as our corporate Secretary

Completed. Removed from Agenda.

18. (OA #24) WSBT statement regarding Co-Anon (Jay, Tony, Jackie, Carl, Bobbie)

• On agenda since November 2004
• Motion passed at November quarterly; need referral to add to Convention Committee guidelines (Jay, Tony)
• Overall cooperation issue to be dealt with by March quarterly
• Additional questions from Co-Anon posted 1/13/06

This has been on the agenda for a while, but we are not fully prepared, and it needs to be dealt with properly. We could have a conference call and a plan of action later this month and have an answer by some point in March.

There may be time at this quarterly to work on this. Does it make sense to work on this as a group? We do need to respond with something, but it is going to take some time.

Jackie Schickler – Motion to table to first order of business on Sunday morning. Second. Motion passes unanimously.

19. (OA #25) What is the approval process for media? (Jackie, Cynthia)

• On agenda since July 2005
• What is definition of media – it is not clear yet to all what exactly we are talking about here. Might need separate processes for P.I. and H&I which define how materials move through each committee in conjunction with the Conference, WSBT and WSOB.
• Might also involve Convention & IT Committees
• Follow up at March quarterly

Jackie Schickler – Motion to please create a media approval process which defines how such material would be approved by your committee in conjunction with the Conference, WSBT, and the WSOB. Second.

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To clarify, this is a referral going to both PI and H&I.

The subject of an approval process for media within the PI and H&I committees has been an ongoing question. We have one for literature and we have one for books. What we are really asking in this referral is for both of those Conference Committees is to think about what they think would be a workable process for their committees to produce media.

This is a process that CA and the Conference is going to have to follow and that would typically go to Structure and Bylaws and have it be something that goes in the Manual. I don’t know when H&I have PI have historically created a process to follow. This feels more like an S&B referral.

The thought was that the literature process is not in the Manual, but it covers any material submitted to that committee or coming through that Committee for approval.

What if these Committees come up with different answers? S&B would just be better to handle that.

Friendly amendment – Direct this referral to Structure and Bylaws. Accepted.

Motion now reads: Motion approval a referral to go to S&B stating “please create a media approval process which defines how such material would be approved by your Committee in conjunction with the Conference, WSBT, and the WSOB.”

Friendly amendment – change your Committee to a Committee. Accepted. 

Motion now reads: Motion approval a referral to go to S&B stating “please create a media approval process which defines how such material would be approved by a Committee in conjunction with the Conference, WSBT, and the WSOB.”  

Friendly amendment add WSC in front of Committee. Accepted.

Motion now reads: Motion approval a referral to go to S&B stating “please create a media approval process which defines how such material would be approved by a World Service Conference Committee in conjunction with the Conference, WSBT, and the WSOB.”  

Motion passes unanimously.

20. (OA #26) WS Trustee service as CAWS Conference Committee Trustee (Hayward, Jay)

• On agenda since November 2004
• Updated WS Trustee guidelines to be presented at March quarterly
• On the Agenda for an update or completion by May.

21. (OA #27) Further changes to pp 6.6 – 6.7 of the WSM (WSBT ratification) (Tony, Jay, Jackie, Cynthia)

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• On agenda since August 2004
• Need to address 5^th Concept rights
• Follow up by March quarterly

To confirm, some of these issues have been to address the Fifth Concept as to what the issues were, right of appeal for whoever is not ratified; the possible timing of the ratification vote and how it might be addressed differently if it is some time of the year other than August, where someone cannot respond in a timely manner; also the question of whether you can reach someone.

• To be worked on and followed-up on in May.

22. (OA #28) WSO wish list – is that earmarked funds? (Tony)

• On agenda since May 2005
• Earl to convey our discussions to the WSOB and report back at March quarterly

Discussions have taken place regarding wish lists and there is various sentiment, such that it cannot always be construed as earmarking of funds. Our fellowship likes to donate to get specific things done, other than just making a blanket donation. Members like being involved in a cause, so they make their donations that way. It is not so much a wish list as it is letting the fellowship know that there are certain needs that come up that have not been budgeted for, or that unforeseen needs come up, and it is a way of getting it out to the fellowship. Patty has been asked to address some of these in the Board-to-Board. It is our policy not to earmark funds.

On page 4 of the new Conference-approved Financial Guidelines, the last paragraph refers to special donations. What that does is allow for earmarking funds. We have had various conversations that earmarked funds are not what we do, and it goes against the spirit of the letter that was sent out. There is a direct contradiction between what we’ve said and what the Conference is saying, and we need to take that into account now.

It seems that different arms of service are sending out different messages. We came up with what we thought was within the Traditions with the UK issue. We are not like other places, we are bound by the Traditions. We should respect the spirit of the Traditions, not just the letter. What we are doing is just trying to go in the backdoor. We need to go to the Conference and say this is what happened, now you decide what want us to do. This is what we thought was right, this contradicts something that it says here, tell us to either follow what you said so we will have a more informed group conscience. It is not good to have contradicting messages or to try to work around the spirit of the Traditions.

There was a referral that we had to answer last year and this information was going to be used, and it was brought back that we couldn’t use what is in the guidelines. We had to be careful, because it seems like it is okay for a Group, District, or Area to help each other. We were very careful not to say they could send money to World for specific reasons. The portion sends a really bad message. We don’t forget anything. If we let this slide, there are some addicts across the pond that will remember the money that we didn’t take. We have to send the same message

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across the board. Should we go to the Finance Committee to look at this? This is going against what we’ve said, and either we do or we don’t earmark. If we are going to earmark then perhaps we can add our own things to a wish list, such as an audit for World Services.

The Financial Guidelines were approved at the 2004 Conference and the letter we sent to the UK was in May 2004. Maybe we should submit a referral to the Finance Committee saying, in light of this letter we sent to CAUK, will you reconsider the language on page 4 of the Guidelines.

In reading the Seventh Tradition and the 12×12, when we earmark funds, it is like tying a string. When you allow the earmarking of funds, you are allowing for special interest. I understand the intent behind the Tradition and respect it. Do we want to take a position as this Board that earmarking in any way is a violation of the Tradition and that we want to send this back in the form of a referral to Finance to possibly re-word or delete it?

What happens if everything comes in earmarked, and then we are unable to fund different budgets? It is fine and dandy when it comes in for the projects you want it to come in for, but when does it start and stop?

It is not so easy. We have things like H&I, where it is okay for H&I money to go to H&I. Where do you draw the line? It did work for H&I though. I would hate to see us stop taking H&I cans or taking H&I money, so it is not so easy to look at this earmarking. It would be great to see meetings in different countries get literature in their own language. That would be a great cause to get behind. There may be a place for special projects to have in CA, if it is Conference approved. Truthfully, the people in the UK do not have a resentment about the money. That is history, that’s years ago and they respected that money coming back at that time. That is no reason for us not to deliberate and look at this issue as it stands today. Maybe we should do something so the Conference approves certain budgets.

Another example is the donation made by South Central specifically for South Africa of $5,000. That was also returned stating that the funds cannot be earmarked and requesting that they send the money back to CA to help the entire fellowship. There was a lot of emotion and sentiment with helping South Africa. There was something that motivated them to make the donation like that, but it would have set a real bad precedent if we would have accepted it. They did donate the same amount to the WSO. The group conscience takes care of a lot of these issues, but sometimes it doesn’t.

We need to take a stand and specifically say don’t earmark at all. By not saying anything, we are basically giving the right to keep doing things that are not appropriate. We are the ones that end up picking up the tab from the fellowship. If you want to donate money, that is great, you just can’t tell us what to do with it. We may have made a mistake with the H&I video, because that really was earmarking funds. We need to make sure that we do not continue this. The Paid Director needs to stop making decisions against what the WSBT has said.

Another concern with this is, if we do start posting our past opinions and correspondence on the web, and we have one link to the Trustee page that says, no you cannot earmark donations, and another to the Finance Committee saying, yes you can, which governs? That is why we need to have a fully informed group conscience of the Conference, so they are fully aware of the WSBT’s decision at the time the guidelines were voted on. There are also many things that just get by.

Yes, we can try to dress it up and get the good things that we want and say no to the things that may for whatever reason not be a good idea. We have to be consistent and responsible. We cannot play favoritism, say it is okay when we like it and not okay when we don’t like it. People are asking questions about the guidelines. We need to correct it and make a referral to the Finance Committee, give them the information and why we don’t earmark and ask them to consider an amendment to the guidelines. It is very disappointing what happened to South Africa, and now I understand what happened. They were told at the Conference that they were going to get literature and books to start some meetings from South Central, and then have it taken away to be used elsewhere.

Adding issue of earmarked funds South Central to South Africa added to Board-to-Board agenda.

Jackie Schickler – Motion to make a referral to the Finance Committee to revisit the subject of special donations in light of the letter by the WSBT to the UK Area, which we attach. Second. Motion passes unanimously.

23. (OA #29) Regional NewsGram coordinator guidelines (Jay)

• On agenda since March 2005
• NewsGram Subcommittee to address; Cynthia to circulate latest draft
• Follow up at May Quarterly.

24. (OA #30) World Services mission & vision statements (Jay)

• On agenda since February 2005
• Jay will address with Trustee Outreach Subcommittee online between now and March quarterly

Removed from Agenda.

25. (OA #31) Refining LCF/WSO process (Cynthia, Jay, Bobbie, Earl)

• On agenda since October 2005
• Follow up by March quarterly
• Follow up at May Quarterly.

26. (OA #32) Documenting historic/traditional ways the WSOB addresses matters such as staff pay increases (Cynthia, Earl, Hayward, Jay, Tony, Carl)

• On agenda since November 2005
• Follow up by March quarterly

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• Work on during quarter and follow-up at May Quarterly.

27. (OA #33) Process of compiling our Board letters/actions into one readily accessible place/location (Jay, Cynthia, Jackie)

• On agenda since November 2005
• Information would be accessible by the WSBT only
• Follow up by March quarterly

Why would we not make all of this available to the fellowship? When it comes to things that state our prior position, that information would be helpful to the fellowship as well.

There should be just one database with all the WSBT’s positions.

Once the Board takes action, they are for the fellowship to know about and they should be accessible to the fellowship. We should definitely combine these with the ones that we’re talking about putting on the web.

For ease of use, if it is in a file we control, we can get to it quicker than if it is in a PDF file that may have some lag time to be posted.

• This will be combined with No 7 with a new title.

28. (OA #34) Interview questions for WSO Paid Director (Jay, Hayward, Tony, Carl, Earl, Bobbie)

• On agenda since November 2005
• Earl will supply qualifications which have been determined by WSOB
• WSBT Legal Subcommittee to put employment laws on their agenda
• Follow up by March quarterly
• Some information has been gathered and it continues to be worked on. This should be going good by May.

29. (OA #35) TNC guidelines (Hayward, Jay, Tony, Bobbie, Cynthia, Carl)

• On agenda since January 2006
• Need to address details re timing of contract review

Hayward Hunt – Motion to approve draft of TNC Guidelines related to contract reviews. Second.

Friendly amendment – WST is the chair of the TNC. Accepted. 

Revised Motion – The WST is the chair of the TNC. Motion to approve draft of TNC Guidelines related to contract reviews.

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Friendly amendment – Motion to approve draft TNC Guidelines with the added language in the first paragraph, including the WST as the chair of the TNC. Accepted.

Motion passes unanimously.

30. (OA #36) Links from speaker tape vendor to ca.org (Carl)

• On agenda since January 2006
• Do we contact vendor and request clarification/disclaimer?

Other people are going to link to us more and more. We should have a standard disclaimer letter that we send to these people, whether they comply to it or not.

Carl Warlick – Motion to create a standard disclaimer letter to be forwarded to web-based entities linking to the CA website.   Second.

Speaks against – There is nothing the Manual or Internet manual that prevents anyone from linking to, we just can’t link to anybody. We don’t have anything blocking anybody from linking to us. This one in particular does have the link and says that it is taking you to the official site of CA, which it does. They haven’t violated any of our rules in any of our manuals.

Speaks against – Though we could have some sort of letter that the WSO sends out to entities that claim to be affiliated or part of Cocaine Anonymous, but that would be something different. Supports the sentiment, but not the specific motion here. It may be more appropriate for the World Service Office to take action to send out a letter to websites that set themselves out as being official, to send them a letter asking them to correct that. We like other websites to link to us. We get a lot of hits from that.

The statement of policy in the WSM, the first box, no other individual or entity may use the name Cocaine Anonymous, with the block letters CA, the official logo…without the written permission of the Cocaine Anonymous World Service Board of Trustees. Does putting Cocaine Anonymous on their website, just those words, constitute using it?

Just the words, Cocaine Anonymous, are not trademarked and do not constitute “using it.” It would only be the mark, the logo, and the slogan.

We may have a manual, but that manual is the rules and regulation, for lack of a better word for our fellowship. We have no legal right to tell them not to use the words Cocaine Anonymous.

A Group has to get permission from their Area to use the CA logo, but an outside company has no obligation to get permission? The disclaimer would be a basic – we aren’t affiliated with you thing?

Correct.

Who would create this letter or would we just ask the WSO to do it? It is not clear in the motion.

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Friendly amendment – to ask the WSO to create it.

Speaks against the friendly amendment. We should be the ones to create it.

They have a role and we have a role. It should be their role to implement the day-to-day workings. It is about trust. We have assigned those right to the WSO to manage for us.

The office needs to know the substance and then it can execute on the Board’s behalf.

We are being reactionary. No one has done anything wrong or violated our Manual in any way. The words Cocaine Anonymous are not trademarked, so we have no right to tell anyone to do anything. And then, what links do we cut off? Who makes that decision? There are thousands of sites that link to us. If Yahoo links us, are we going to send them a disclaimer? The particular site just want to give out some information so you can download free speaker tapes from the various fellowships, and ours is just one of them. If someone it trying to make profit and use our name in the process, that is one thing, but this is a circumstance where they are just providing a free service to help people find twelve step fellowships so that people can get sober.

If it is the WSO’s responsibility, why are we even talking about it? We are doing someone else’s job.

The motion is withdrawn – no objections.

Removed from Agenda.

Adjourn for evening – 10:20 p.m.

Reconvene – 9:03 a.m.

All of the WSOB Chair candidates have been notified, but we did not make John a director first. There is also the ratification process that we need to look at. Perhaps we should amend the prior motion so as to make him a director first.

Do we have the authority to make him a director?

Jay Finesilver – Motion to elect John as a director of the WSOB contemporaneously with his election as WSOB chair. Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

1. Old Business Item No. 1(OA #4g) Question from Teri K. regarding NADCP (1^st posted 12/29/05) (Bobbie, Jay) – Continued.

Bobbie Harmon – Motion to approve the following response to Teri K.:

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Dear Teri:

Thank you for corresponding with us regarding the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. Your inquiry asks several questions which will be addressed below:

What are we doing with that information and how are we moving forward to insure that CA has representation along with other 12 Step fellowships in the minds of these professionals?

That information is now available in spreadsheet form and as the next meeting approaches, it is contemplated that a follow up letter/email be sent to those on the list with some additional information about CA and inviting them to stop by our booth if we in fact decide to attend. If the decision is made to not attend, it is contemplated that sometime in the fall, a follow up mailing/emailing be sent to touch base and perhaps (depending on funding) forward certain contacts a copy of the new Storybook.

Did the following up letter ever go out?

Yes either by mail or email, depending what contact information we had.

Are there plans to participate in 2006?

The NADCP Conference is in Seattle this year in June. Arrangements are being finalized for CA to be represented.

What is the plan of action from Long Term Planning going forward?

This has been moved out of Long Term Planning and is now an active project.

Yours truly,

The WSBT

date

Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

Referrals We Need to Respond to at 2006 Conference:

• On agenda since October 2005

#2966

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In times of budget constraints, the WSBT should meet by teleconference via the internet at least twice a year during their quarterly meetings. This would save a considerable amount of the WSBT budget. (Earl, Jay)

Earl Henderson – Motion to approve response to Referral 2966:

We appreciate the spirit and intent of this referral from a financial savings standpoint. We too are mindful of the budget constraints across our fellowship at every level. Our Board is taking steps to save fellowship funds wherever we are able including some of the ways we teleconference and relying more on line business than ever before. Some members of our Board were seated during leaner times and remember not having quarterly meetings and how hard it was to come together as a cohesive body as a result. We are of the view that meeting a minimum of four times is necessary in each year, for the best interests of the entire fellowship to be served. There is too much interaction while we are together to not all be in the same room for the quarterly meetings. To us, while teleconferencing seems to be a great idea, it would be nearly impossible to be on a conference session for the length of time we meet on any one day; and the tradeoffs of not being face to face do not outweigh the benefits of funds saved. 

Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

#3565

Why are the Trustee’s not encouraging the 11 states/areas, as shown on page 2.13 of the WSM, to seek recognition with the WSC? Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, & New Hampshire are listed in the CA Infoline pamphlet—yet they aren’t recognized areas by the WSC. (Jackie, Tony, Bobbie)

Jackie Schickler – Motion to accept response to Referral 3565:

The purpose of the WSBT is to ensure the continuation and growth of C.A. and to that end one of the functions of the WSBT is to actively seek and encourage ways of carrying the message and to support the service structure.  We would like nothing better than to see the 11 states listed on page 2.13 petitioning the conference for recognition.   It should be noted that some of these Areas/States that are listed on 2.13 which have not sought recognition may have joined a nearby Area, as is the case with Maryland and Virginia.  They are now a part of the DC/Maryland/Virginia Area.   Also some of the Areas listed do not in fact have any meetings.

The Trustees do everything within their means to encourage growth of CA throughout the World.  One of the limitations the trustees face is a financial factor, which means that choices are made where to travel.  Regional trustees do not have the opportunity to visit and support all of the Areas in their Region and we wish this was not the reality and we do everything that we can within the

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limits of our budgets.   Even with the maximum input from the Regional Trustees CA remains small in some places and thrives in others

Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

#3980

A ways and means to recruit more newcomers who are failing to get the CA message because of our title. We seem to be losing members to other 12 step fellowships such as CMA. Is our new literature “and all other mind altering drugs” going to be enough? Do we have plans for more affirmative action? What can I/we do as a fellowship to create more awareness of CA in areas where cocaine is no longer the primary drug of choice. (Cynthia, Jay)

Jay Finesilver – Motion to approve response to Referral 3980:

Thank you for bringing this Referral to us.  You pose some interesting questions, the answers to which are most complicated and compelling.  In addition to the updated version of the “…And All Other Mind Altering Substances” pamphlet, the 2005 World Service Conference approved an additional reading entitled “Alcohol” which was taken directly from the original version of that pamphlet.  The Literature, Chips & Format Committee has also been working on a new pamphlet on crank/methamphetamines, as well as Hope, Faith & Courage, Volume II, which contains stories from members who used a wide variety of mind-altering substances.  We welcome additional suggestions from you or any member of the fellowship for supplemental materials.  We will also bring this matter to the Long Term Planning Committee of our Board and will make sure that the matter is added to the agenda at our meeting in Houston during CAWS 2006.  One course of action that is being investigated is CA’s participation in drug court conventions at state and national levels as well as some other conventions related to employee assistance, probation officers, prisons and general substance abuse.  We will be updating the fellowship in this regard periodically as well. 

Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

#4213

In order to support a European Region, what I suggest is for European Region to host a European Regional Convention 1 time a year. This would help with European Regional Trustee Fund, also the translation of CA Literature (Fund), etc. (Jackie, Earl, Jay, Carl)

Jackie Schickler – Motion to approve response to Referral 4213:

We appreciate the intent and spirit of this Referral. Unfortunately it is not the WSBT’s place nor CA’s place to require any region to meet and host a convention

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yearly. Many regions do meet and have a rotating convention annually, but such meetings and conventions are planned at the regional level by the respective group consciences of the regions themselves.

Also, on a slightly different matter, the notion of earmarking funds from regional conventions for a specific trustee or translation fund is contrary to the fact the we do not earmark funds in CA for these types of needs. Funds raised at all levels of CA are placed in the general fund and then spent per the Conference – approved budget.

Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

#4234

Our delegate and another member lent our CA name and logo to a softball team. I believe this violates traditions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, & 12. Since we don’t “lend the CA name to any related facility or outside enterprise,” I also believe it’s a trademark violation thus illegal. After bringing this to their attention, they contacted our trustee, and said he ok’d and agreed with their decision. Enclosed (attached) is my written correspondence with the trustee and his response. I still believe this is a blatant disregard of the traditions and it hasn’t been resolved to my satisfaction. I’m eager to hear what the rest of the conference thinks about this issue. (Jay, Carl, Tony)

Since the referral specifically talked about what one of the WSBT members did, that should be addressed to make sure there isn’t misunderstanding in the fellowship. So, it should include the inappropriate use of the logo and what one of our members did.

According to the Manual, permission had to have been given.

They did go to the Area and get Area permission.

•  To be worked on online with the addition of Cynthia.

#4480 (referred from LCF to WSBT)

I would like to have the little red books accepted as approved literature. The red books are dramatically cheaper and would keep more money in our groups. Note from Anne Bouley: I believe the intent of this referral is for H&I to give little red books out at Hospitals & Institutions as brought in by our CA groups. (Carl, Hayward, Cynthia)

Tony Drake – Motion to accept response to Referral 4480: 

A couple of years ago this issue came before our Board and it was examined in some detail. We are not in favor of seeking approval from the Conference for The Little Red Book to be available at CA meetings because 1) it is not AA Conference approved, 2) it is a book published by a private for profit entity (the

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Hazelden Foundation) and our approval of it could imply affiliation; and 3) the book contains advertisements for for-profit entities.

We are aware that some local groups and H&I committees are using The Little Red Book, with or without removing some of the ads or portions of one of the appendices. While we understand that cost is an important factor, we would encourage members to be mindful of the following language in the World Service Manual:

Cocaine Anonymous groups, meetings and service committees should only use, display, distribute or sell the following literature and materials: the WSC Approved Literature set forth in the Appendix, the books “ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS,” “TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS,” and “The A.A. Service Manual, combined with the 12 Concepts For World Service,” and Cocaine Anonymous World Service, Region, Area, District and group/ meeting approved flyers, meeting directories and other materials displaying the CA logo as described above.

Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

#4501

1. Define what breaking anonymity entails on any CA website, including the WS website-what impact, if any, does this have on traditions 11 & 12? Does CA have any tangible guidelines or concrete suggestions regarding anonymity on websites? (See pg. 8 of the WSC Internet Committee Workbook). 2. Explain and define the WS trustee position on CA member anonymity on websites that are not technically with CA but share unique relations, business related or otherwise, specifically, the website for coast to coast audio productions (http://www.recaudio.com/). Are their guidelines, websites such as these, must (supposed) to adhere to in regard to anonymity? What impact if any, does this have on traditions 11 &12? Does CA have any tangible guidelines or concrete suggestions regarding anonymity on websites such as these? (Jay, Tony, Carl)

Tony Drake – Motion to accept response to Referral 4501:

The WSBT appreciates you bringing these questions to our attention related to the propriety of CA websites posting the names and sobriety dates of area or meeting members.

Your inquiry referenced Traditions 11 and 12 as well as the Statement of Anonymity contained in the CA World Service Manual (page 1.6). We have broadened the inquiry to include the entire set of traditions and concepts as well as the writings in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.   We have also referenced certain of Bill W.’s early writings on the subject of anonymity.

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To begin with, the issue becomes whether posting one’s first name and sobriety date on the internet nears the prohibition of breaking anonymity at the “public level.” We do not think it does. There is no last name used, no one person by voluntarily having their name placed on such a list is seeking “personal recognition, power, prestige or profit,” as the WSM Statement so aptly warns against; and there is no “public recognition” being sought by any person whose name might be on the list. Further, having no full last name on such a list ensures that personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, television and films is maintained as Tradition 11 proscribes.

So, to respond to your first questions, a break of anonymity on a website of CA World or any local area or district would involve using last names, clearly identifying a member as a member by first and last name or with such reference that any person would know who was being referenced; or where some member of the fellowship somehow self-identified or was identified at the level of press, radio television and films on a website.

On page 185 of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions is the following quote:

Squarely before us was the question: “How anonymous should an A.A. member be? Out growth made it plain that we couldn’t be a secret society, but it was equally plain that we couldn’t be a vaudeville circuit, either. The charting of a safe path between these extremes took a long time.”

In fact, we, in CA, are continuing to chart that path as new challenges are presented related to the internet and other methods of media and information dissemination are developed which could not have been contemplated when the Traditions were crafted. Further in that same passage (on page 186) is a discussion about the average newcomer wanting to be able to share with his family, friends and others close to him or her what he or she was attempting. That list of “quiet disclosures” was even expanded where appropriate to the employer and business associates of such newcomer. The text continues by explaining: though not in the strict letter of anonymity, such communications were well within its spirit.”

Two early Grapevine articles are also most insightful. The first, an unsigned editorial from November 1951 provides the following explanation:

AA tradition enters the picture only when the ‘anonymity’ break goes beyond the personal level….The difference, of course, is in the circumstances, and the intent…The answer is to be found in the very wording of Tradition Twelve…It says the spiritual foundation (of all of our Traditions). For it is the spirit of anonymity that is all important.

In this instance, permitting a voluntary listing of a member’s first name and

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sobriety date is still within this spirit of anonymity. We note also, that our own publication The NewsGram, copies of which are available on the ca.org website, and at our meetings, contain the first names and last initials of members of both the WSBT and the WSOB.

The article continues to further explore anonymity issues and acknowledges the wide variety of anonymity practices even solely within our own rooms. It adds that no matter what, “whenever a speaker appears at an outside function…, the (full) name is jealously withheld even though everybody in the room may know him personally.” The article then notes that it is not the purpose of …AA at anytime to define what constitutes or what does not constitute practical anonymity. That is purely a matter of group conscience. Individual opinion may argue as to where to draw the line. Actually, there will probably never be any line.”

In a later Grapevine article from January, 1955 entitled “Why AA is Anonymous,” Bill W. traces in detail the development of early anonymous experiences/lessons. We found one passage particularly applicable to the question here re websites with first names:

This is why we see anonymity at the general public level as our chief protection against ourselves, the guardian of all our Traditions and the greatest symbol of self-sacrifice that we know. Of course no AA need be anonymous to family, friends, or neighbors. Disclosure there is usually right and good. Nor is there any special danger when we speak at group or semi-public AA meetings, provided press reports reveal first names only. But before the general public–press, radio, films, television and the like–the revelation of full names and pictures is the point of peril. This is the main escape hatch, for the fearful destructive forces that still lie latent in us all. Here the lid can and must stay down.

Now to the second part of your question: Explain and define the WS trustee position on CA member anonymity on websites that are not technically with CA but share unique relations, business related or otherwise, specifically, the website for coast to coast audio productions (http://www.recaudio.com/). To respond, CA has no control over these websites or their content, nor does CA have an opinion on this outside issue. To even have an opinion would perhaps imply affiliation which CA cannot be a part of at any level.

We thank you for bringing this entire issue forward.

Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

#4504

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The Akron District would like for the conference floor to vote on this issue: The Akron District would like to tape CA events in the Ohio Area only. (Tony, Carl)

Carl Warlick – Motion to approve the following response: “The Ohio Area Delegate may bring this issue to the Conference Floor under New Business.” Second.

This has been brought to the WSBT multiple times and were told no. They don’t like the answer so they want to do something else. According to Roberts’ Rules, they have a right to bring this under new business at the Conference. That is really the only process that they can bring up an issue to have it voted on. It is up to them to then do this.

Should we state in our response that we do not believe it is appropriate business for the Conference? If not, should we state that in our response and/or give additional background that we have addressed this issue as a Board?

Motion withdrawn.

• Response to be worked on online with the addition of Cynthia.

#4508

Create a travel budget for the WS trustee. This will help trustee presence in the fellowship (i.e. Pacific South Region, possible European Region). The Pacific South Region have a lot of meetings and events, and with the possible addition of the European Region, this will aid and/or help regions without a trustee or an abundance of meetings and events. (Hayward, Earl, Jay, Carl)

Hayward Hunt – Motion to accept response to Referral 4508:

 Thanks for bringing this Referral to us. This Referral has two parts, one is about the budget for the WS Trustee and the second is about some of the responsibilities of the WS Trustee. Before we can respond, we believe it to be of some help to clarify both the duties of the WS Trustee as well as the Trustee At Large. Most of this Referral centers around both of these positions and in fact, the tasks suggested in this Referral are divided among the WS Trustee and the Trustee At Large.

From the WSBT internal guidelines:

---

WORLD SERVICE TRUSTEE

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Overview

The World Service Trustee (WST) is a Trusted Servant that has been selected to serve as a member of the World Service Board of Trustees from the Pacific South

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Region’s slate of Trustee candidates.

The WST should have a working knowledge of 12 Traditions, 12 Concepts and the Cocaine Anonymous World Service Manual.

The WST is an active director of the World Service Office Board (WSOB)

Ideally, The WST shall posses a working knowledge of general business practices, contract negotiations, copyright and trademark issues, the ability to read and understand financial statements, and to be able to communicate well both written and verbally.

Duties and Responsibilities –

The WST is designated chief contract negotiator and liaison between Cocaine Anonymous World Services, Inc. and any outside vendor or entity requiring any agreements or authorization in writing. Additionally, the WST is a designated signer on CAWSO, and CAWSO Convention checking accounts.

Attendance –

The WST is to attend all WSBT conference calls, four quarterly meetings, the World Service Convention, and the World Service Conference. Additionally, as an active director of the WSOB, the WST is responsible to attend bi-weekly meetings of the WSOB and any special meetings such as board to board that may be scheduled from time to time, at the discretion of the Chairperson of the WSBT.

Reporting Responsibilities –  

Quarterly Reports

A quarterly report of all activities performed within the reporting period. These reports are passed out at the quarterly WSBT meeting in hard copy. A copy on disk is also to be provided to the WSBT recording secretary in preparation for the WSBT quarterly minutes, which will be mailed out in the quarterly Delegate mailings.

BI- Monthly Reports – WSOB

The WST provides Reports to the WSOB summarizing activities that have been preformed since the last meeting of the WSOB

Annual Report – Conference

At each World Service Conference, each Trustee provides an annual report regarding their individual activities during the year. This report is read on the Conference floor and submitted in disk to the World Service Conference Secretary. 

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Monthly Updates – World Service Board of Trustee’s

The World Service Office Trustee gives monthly updates on the Conference Calls or emails of the WSOB status. The World Service Office Trustee is always available to answer any questions or concerns from any of the Trustee members.

Trustee At Large (TAL) Responsibilities Description

The TAL job descriptions should include the following, to be split between the 2 TAL positions:

1. National Public Information, Outreach and Communication.
2. Chair the WSBT Long Term Planning subcommittee.
3. International outreach and visitation (where fiscally possible).
4. Back up for Regional Trustees as needed or in case of death, resignation or Regional Trustee’s inability to fulfill their duties.
5. Attend the Regional assembly/forum in the region in which they live.

Examples of the following:

1. National Public Information, Outreach and Communication:

1. Contact various talk show producers, etc, to keep them informed of CA’s existence.
2. Contact producers of movies and television shows that have mentioned CA and thank them for their assistance.
3. Possibly send letters to advise columnists on an intermittent basis, letting them know of our program, and getting our name out to the masses.
4. Receive questions from within and without the fellowship and respond appropriately.
5. Represent CA at Drug related conferences to promote our fellowship with the professional community.

2. Chair the WSBT Long Term Planning Subcommittee:

1. Lead effort to define and implement long term planning activities for Cocaine Anonymous.
2. Work with former Trustees to gain their experience and insight to assist in the planning and implementation of long term planning activities for CA.
3. Prepare and lead presentation of long term planning committee activities at the CAWS convention each year.
4. Prepare and lead presentation of long term planning committee activities at the CAWS conference each year.

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3. International Outreach and Visitation:

1. Maintains all communications with existing and possible international groups/areas.
2. Helps with new area formation in other countries.
3. Assists new areas in other countries with implementation of the Manual, Traditions, Concepts, etc.
4. Helps with any disputes that may come up in new-formed areas.

4. Back Up for Regional Trustees as Needed or in Case of Death, Resignation or Regional Trustee’s Inability to Fulfill Their Duties:

If any Trustee is unable to fulfill their duties (for whatever reasons), the TAL’s will be available to assist. If a Regional Trustee is ill, and needs back up for important Regional Assemblies, or if a problem exists between Regional Trustees with an area within their region, a TAL can assist at that time, with approval of the WSBT.

---

There is a clear distinction of these two types of Trustees in terms of travel and support of other trustees and regions. Also, there are funds in the respective trustee budgets to cover emergency situations when they arise and travel becomes necessary.   One final note, there are already funds in the WS Trustee budget for reimbursement to attend meetings and events in the Pacific South Region.

Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

#4516

Request each United States area submit documents yearly showing current status of: 1) state corporate charter; 2) filing of necessary state tax forms or info showing area not required to file; 3) 501(c)3 status with IRS or info showing not needed; 4) filing of necessary Federal Tax Forms or info showing Area no require to file. Suggest having this information turned in with delegate credentials each year. Equivalent information for International Areas requested as well each year. (Cynthia, Carl, Jay, Jackie)

Hayward Hunt – Motion to approve response to Referral 4516: 

Thank you for bringing this Referral to the WSBT. The two entities that comprise CA World Services, namely CA World Services, Inc. and CA World Service Office, Inc., are separate and distinct entities which operate and discharge all of the world services for our fellowship. These two corporate entities are not affiliated or aligned with any local, state or regional CA corporation, Area or District. While we do encourage all CA entities to make sure that they are

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operating in accordance with the requirements of their local and federal governments, we do not believe it is appropriate to require Areas to document this compliance for World Services, nor do we believe it is appropriate for World Services to review or possess such information.

Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

#4523 (referred from S&B to WSBT)

Adopt advisory opinion: “The book “As Bill Sees It” is a valuable tool of recovery, and as such, it is the opinion of Cocaine Anonymous that meetings should be allowed to have this book available to support members in their recovery.” We have accepted this opinion for other AA books & I believe that “As Bill Sees It” is just as valuable to members who have “recovered.” Bill W. is the most sanctified member of all 12 step programs and his writings should be available to groups as such. Thank you. (Carl, Hayward, Bobbie, Jay)

Bobbie Harmon – Motion to approve response to Referral 4523:

Thanks very much for bringing this referral forward to us. It presents some unique questions. Much of the material contained in the book “As Bill Sees It” can be found in the Big Book, the 12 x 12 and to a lesser extent in some of Bill’s writings about the 12 Concepts of Service. So in that regard those writings are readily available to the groups and our fellowship.   This book is a compilation of many of these types of writings. We decline to recommend the adoption of an advisory opinion for this book, not so much as we do not believe the book to be a valuable resource, but more out of notion of drawing a line in the books we believe should be used that CA has not written. Right now there are three, and approving this one could lead to other requests for approval of other books in subsequent years such that there would need to be another level of review of each, time spent on the Conference floor each year could be extensive and in committees discussing these books.

Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

Referrals We Plan to Submit at 2006 Conference (to remain on agenda until August quarterly):

From October conference call:

None.

From November quarterly:

Motion passed to send referral to the Conference Committee to consider adding a WSBT tab to the delegate notebook and include the current Trustee Guidelines.

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From January conference call:

Motion passed to send the following referral to the WSC Convention Committee for inclusion in the WSCCC Guidelines.

Please insert in the WSCCC Guidelines the following:

All CAWS convention memorabilia items bearing the CA logo should use the logo in its entirety, including applicable trademarks, as set forth in the WSM. It shall be the responsibility of the Steering Committee to ensure that the CA logo is used correctly on CAWS convention memorabilia items.

Motion passed to send the following referral to the WSC S&B Committee:

Please insert into the WSM the following language:

In the Statement of Policy of the WSM – page 1.9 please insert the following in a new paragraph just before the box on that page:

The service body granting the use of the CA logo shall also be responsible for ensuring that the proper CA logo, with applicable trademarks as shown below, is used on all printed materials and memorabilia.

Bobbie will prepare referrals.

NEW BUSINESS

NEW BUSINESS

1. Election of new WSOB Chair (to be addressed immediately following last interview) (All)

• Note: If electing someone not currently on the WSOB, we need to also elect them as a Director

Completed – item of business taken out of order.

2. Date/time for the next WSBT conference call (All)

Sunday, April 16, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific.

3. Date/time for next WSBT quarterly meeting (All)

Better to start on Tuesday from a cost perspective. It was a mistake to start early last year and we should not continue with this mistake.

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Tony Drake – Motion to start meeting on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 at 3:00 p.m.   Second.
Motion passes unanimously.

4. TEC interview schedule (All)

There are approximately fourteen interviews. Four for Pacific North, three for Atlantic South, Two for Europe, two for WSOT that the WSOB sends forward, three for Atlantic North. Three for sure of those selected will be at the Convention. If we do seven there and seven on Tuesday in LA, we would be done before Conference starts. If we start the May quarterly on Tuesday and finish Wednesday night, help out Thursday morning, then interviews can be done on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. For the two Regions that have not done their slates, please let Jay know as soon as possible the names so they can be coordinated.

How many members of the Board and the TEC need to be present?

This actually needs to be codified.

How many are needed to be there from our Board?

There can be a smaller number now, but you have to listen to the taped interviews before you can actually participate in the voting.

One of the candidates is going to be at the UK Convention and there will be about three members of the WSBT and two TEC delegates in the UK at that time. The candidate will not be at the World Convention or the Conference. Is there a possibility that one interview can be done in person there?

That is a great idea as long as it is recorded for everyone else. This will be discussed more in subcommittee.

It is better to be live rather than have to listen to a tape, and it may be more expensive to set it up in the UK. Also, if too many people miss it that will have to listen to a tape, that adds up to a lot of time spent during the Conference to have to listen. Specifically, if there are too many Trustees that are not available to listen live, especially since that is who has to work with them, it is not good. It gives us a better understanding of the person to participate live.

It is actually the best if you can see the person face-to-face when at all possible. It really makes no difference, if I’m not face-to-face, if I am looking at a tape or looking at a phone. If it is more convenient for others to do it while in the UK, that is fine.

• This will be followed-up with online.

5. Meeting with Co-Anon in Houston (All)

We have not heard back as to how long this meeting will be. With the TEC interviews, we may have to prioritize to make sure we get everything done.

We do have a very full agenda, but we do have to follow our process and then get them a written response to the follow-up questions.

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We met with them last year, members of our Board and members of their Board in the spirit of cooperation for the first time. There is a difference between our relationship with Co-Anon and our relationship with other fellowships. While we may not have the time this year, we should definitely not close the door too firmly that we set ourselves back from the historical momentum we set last year.

We do not want to shut the door, but we can say, once we’ve addressed the additional questions in writing, that we’ve addressed their questions. That is our process and we’ve fulfilled our duties. At this point we can’t meet because we do have a full agenda and we’ve addressed everything. Also, there really isn’t a difference between Co-Anon and the other fellowships. We shouldn’t affiliate there either. We also do not have to keep answering the same questions, just because the responses are not liked. The answers have been thought out and discussed at length, and they are our answers based on the information. We have done our duty.

We need to answer the additional substantive questions and then make the decision whether we want to meet with them on an annual basis. We are very busy in Houston, so meeting there is not a good idea, but we may be able to give them a response online and the chairs could sit down and talk rather than have a full Board meeting.

6. NewsGram articles – do all of them need to be approved by the entire WSBT if written by a trustee (even if not for the Trustee Corner), and what are the parameters for approval? (Jay)

• Found the following in minutes from November 2004:

Do we need to formally approve the Trustee NewsGram articles? (Jay)

Status – came up due to so much going on, simply only had one person’s name on it, should it go to full WSBT.

parliamentary inquiry – how late are we going? After this issue is spoken to we will adjourn for the evening.

Isn’t sent until firm/full consensus. No. Can write an article and submit it to NewsGram. Any NewsGram article written by the trustees does not require approval from Board.

• Cynthia’s notes from same meeting say, “Like the way we’re doing it now; informal review & consensus”

There are some contradictions, so we should discuss and decide what we want to do from here. If there is an article by a Trustee, there may be an assumption that it is by the whole WSBT. Therefore, it should be reviewed and there should be a consensus.

We don’t respond to a referral without the entire Board voting on it, because it is coming from the entire Board. A lot more people read the NewsGram than the minutes, so it is even more important that we have a unified voice and unified message. We may not be able to see things ourselves. When we have more voices, we will have a more informed group conscience.

We don’t have to be too formal, but it does no harm to have a consensus that says that information is correct.

• By this discussion, it is clear that we will continue with the informal review and consensus. This will be removed from the agenda.

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7. Signoff and transition of WSC Committee manuals between outgoing trustees and re-assigned committee trustees (example Teri K. still signing off on the Unity guidelines or Spencer still being expected to sign off on the S&B guidelines) (Jay)

Manuals are still being reviewed after a trustee’s term. For example, one of the manuals is still being reviewed by Teri after her term has ended and we should figure out if someone should take over. The WSM is still being signed-off by Spencer. None of this is in writing, it is just being done this way.

Is this process formalized anywhere?

Not sure, but nothing will be uploaded by the WSO until there is a formal signed off by these parties. It may just be their internal process.

This is also true with the Financial Guidelines being approved by Elizabeth.

Perhaps we need to formalize a process, such as if the former Trustee of a committee has not signed off on the materials within a ninety-day period, the current chair of the WSBT can oversee that. We should have some sort of alternative method in place so we are not held hostage to someone who may be missing in action.

If the person rotating off approves the materials in a timely manner, that is not a bad thing. They were the trustee when everything was passed on that committee. There does have to be some kind of time limit though. This could be a formal guideline or we can just inform Patty that, if they haven’t done anything is 60-90 days, the WSBT can take care of it. This is about communication.

Someone who is not on our Board should not be the lead on this.

Someone who has been on a committee for years, out of respect of their experience and opinion, they should be given the opportunity to sign off on things. They are the ones with the knowledge. If it is after a certain amount of time, then the Chair of the WSBT can follow up and find out what the status is and then possibly sign off instead.

In the Trustee orientation under Conference Committee, it does not say the Trustee assigned at the time of the Committee, it says the Trustee assigned to that Committee. That means the current Trustee. There is nothing that formally assigned that sign-off. This may just be something that has been done by the WSO. It is common sense to consult with the Trustee more familiar with that committee’s process, but, if their sign-off is not coming in a timely manner, then the current Trustee should be able to do it. We just need to convey that to the office.

We can ask in the Board-to-Board and will follow-up after if need be.

8. Revisiting the approach of how we present the World Service Contribution Program at CAWS 2006 and at the Conference (Jay)

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There was some concern voiced at an Area Convention regarding how the Contribution Program was presented at the previous World Convention. If we are going to bring the Contribution Program to the Convention, what should our approach be and possibly present it more gently and with more of the spirit of what was behind it.

The people voicing the concern have been around for quite a while, and are not the type that will just go along without questioning what is being done with the World. They made some good points, but we did triple our enrollment, so something we did work. The way we were doing it before was not working as well. We are trying new ideas and, unless it can be shown that this is really causing harm, the approach will probably be the same in Houston. This is an opinion of certain people and it is good that we look at it and think about it. They thought the approach should be more educational “this is why we need the money at World.” They thought the approach was “why isn’t your name on the board yet, what is wrong with you?”

We need to take the same, salesman approach for Houston if we want to increase the Contribution Program. If you want to get some of the people signed up, you really have to take this approach. How important is it that we get people signed up?

They actually believed that it didn’t matter whether there was a tough approach or a soft approach. What we were doing was working. We did educate people who didn’t know anything about it. Somebody is going to like it and somebody is not going to like it. There will always be people on both sides of this argument. How do we balance it? We did what we were supposed to do. We are talking about the opinion of the entire fellowship verses five people.

It is always uncomfortable asking people for money, for both sides. We have people coming in from everywhere. If we believe we can be successful with getting people to sign up, we should do it. Perhaps we should finesse our approach and appeal by stressing program services, the cost of providing things. We can talk about how the 70/30 split is being done. Whatever our approach, we still have to ask the fellowship for the money.

Are the people on the Convention Committee signed up?

No, there are a number of people who are not signed up.

Just because they are on the World Service Committee does not mean they have to be a part of the program. Maybe they can’t afford it. To be of service and be a member, we do not have to be a part of this. We can, however, let people know about it the same way we did last year and try to get some more people on board. There is room for improvement on our approach, and we can be mindful of this, but we should still throw it out there to the fellowship.

This is the World Service Contribution Program at the World Service Convention, which is a very appropriate place for us to do this. We aren’t talking about doing it at an Area event. It is the World Service event. It is not cheap to go to a World Service event, so we have to be mindful how we speak to our members.

The board that we listed people on may not have been a good idea, because people from smaller Areas might have felt bad. It is better to demonstrate why we need this. The members we heard from may not be the only members who feel that way. We have to take this to heart, but there

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really is not one universal approach that would make everyone feel like WSO is wonderful, let me get my checkbook. Having some of the graphs and charts that are presented may help to educate. Perhaps the pie chart that shows the Seventh Tradition, the contribution program, World Service Convention, etc. We can show the ebb and flow every month. To have a comprehensive display may enable us educate people more easily. If we as a Board decide on our approach, then when people ask us about our approach, we say, we’ve discussed it and we are in agreement. If you have any suggestions on how to improve it, please let us know. This will also be discussed at the Board-to-Board. It is tough to argue with the results. Maybe the Finance Committee can also discuss this at the Conference.

We should have both approaches, the soft and the car salesman. The board also did help some people who do have that competitive edge. It is also beneficial to show people that it is better to participate in this program than to throw $100 in the basket. We really need to do this.

9. Improved system for numbering agenda items so that they track more smoothly from quarterly agendas to online agendas (Cynthia)

The current system is very complicated. The proposed system was uploaded. As we evolve the proposed system is very good. Each item is given a number whether it is at the Board-to-Board, online or on the Conference Floor. That is its number from the moment it is given to the Board until it is finished. It would be useful in our creation of the database. We should give it a try.

Tony Drake – Motion to accept the modification of agenda item section our WSBT document Guidelines as follows:

Agenda items – the chair will assign a unique number to each item as it is added to the agenda. This number will consist of a four-digit year, followed by a two digit month, followed by a two digit sequential number, i.e., the first item added in March 2006 will be numbered 2006.03.01. This unique number will be used to track the item for online business, conference calls, and Quarterly meetings. Emails and documents pertaining to agenda items should reference this number followed by a brief description. Second.

The understanding would be that the old business items from this meeting, using the online agenda items, would be grandfathered in, so they would be 2006.02 and then numbered. The new business items from this meeting would be assigned 2006.03 and then the numbers.

Would it be easier to use the Julian dates?

That sounds more complicated.

Motion passes unanimously.

Break – 11:30 until Board-to-Board meeting and WSBT/Paid Director meeting.

A group conscience was held following the Paid Director meeting. It was decided to attend the Celebrate Around the World event and resume in the morning.

Resumed at 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

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Tabled items:

Old Business Item 4:

4. (OA #5) Legal committee recommendations regarding vendor licenses (Jay, Jackie, Earl, Carl, Hayward)

Spoke with John Bodkin regarding the office side. Concerns about this kind of policy and whether we had the resources to do this type of thing. There is the issue of how much we charge and need to find a happy medium. Patty believes it is a workable thing. A form was sent to the subcommittee and to legal to make sure it was okay. Not sure if it was sent back.

A form was brought back from a meeting with NA and was re-crafted and submitted to the office, but that has not been returned yet.

It is close to being ready, and so long as the Office Board is ready to take it on, we should go forward. We should dust it off and get it moving.

• The subcommittee should work on this and have recommendations ready by May quarterly.

Old Business Item 15 – (OA #21) Orlando drug court meeting

The agenda name is changed to read: National drug court meeting.

We just need to make sure that Finance adds this as a line item.

The TAL and the Paid Director can put together a number which will be brought to the Finance Committee to be put onto the budget.

Old Business Item 7 – (OA #12) WSBT “statements/positions” in one place in hard copy and on the web (Jay, Jackie, Hayward, Bobbie)

This will be left with the subcommittee, and will possibly be discussed later.

New Business Item 7 – Signoff and transition of WSC Committee manuals between outgoing trustees and re-assigned committee trustees (example Teri K. still signing off on the Unity guidelines or Spencer still being expected to sign off on the S&B guidelines) (Jay)

Whatever we decide we need to let John know, who will let Patty know.

• This will be left on until a policy has been crafted. Hayward will work on this too.

We have a policy in place. We just need to let the office know that, if they haven’t received a sign-off from the Trustee by the time of the Delegate mailing, they need to just contact whoever the Trustee is on the committee. It is in the orientation part of the guidelines. Sure, a Trustee that has been working on a committee for a number of years should be given the opportunity to

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complete the work done a the Conference, but if it isn’t done in a reasonable amount of time, we need to get it out.

There are three parts to this. A. If there is a Trustee on a committee that is rolling off, how do we deal with that. B. If you are taking over a committee from an existing Trustee, how do you work that transition? C. If you need the transcripts to sign off, what is the timing on that? We may need to define the process further.

The guidelines need to be approved by the first delegate mailing. If no work is required, the office needs to know that as well.

Anything that is forwarded to the office as a committee manual change or literature that is going out to the fellowship, needs to be signed off on by the Trustee on that committee. If the committee does not create the work product in time for the Trustee to sign off, that may also be an issue. Following the Conference, there will four or five new Trustees and there will be temporary conference committee assignments until it is decided what the best fits are. There is going to be some disconnect while everyone is finding their place, and during that time, the previous Trustee may be the best resource and connection to that committee. To have a policy to cover that gap and then have something in place if that Trustee is not available. It is actually a bit of a complex issue.

We really just need to take a close look at this and work on a clarification of the policy.

• Clarification of Trustee to Trustee orientation document. Jackie, Cynthia, Jay to work on during following quarter will follow-up in May.

10. Purchasing of transcription ware and equipment software (Cynthia)

In order to take the minutes that have previously been recorded, it is important to have a foot pedal to use to make the process more efficient. Kevin Flaws referred us to a site where the software is free, foot pedal is $75.50 and $14.50 shipping and handling.

Have we decided that this is the route we are going? Also, is the pedal type a standard thing or are there other types. If we are going to commit to buying this stuff, we should also commit to whether or not to have a live recording secretary. How much has it disrupted our Secretary to do the motions while participating?

Yes, this is a standard pedal that is used by everyone.

It was not difficult to put down the motions, and even if there is a recording secretary, the WSBT secretary still takes down the motions.

We can use this quarter as a test to see if a live body is needed in May. We can decide what to purchase after we made that decision. Regarding the foot pedal that is used by the person who transcribes the Conference, is that the property of CA or is that hers personally?

Does not think it is the property of CA, but doesn’t recall for sure.

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If we do not buy it now, the transcription will have to be done using hand controls. If we do buy it, it will make the transcription process easier for the secretary.

We tried it in Memphis and it worked out rather well with Jay doing it. Over the next couple years there will be at least a few times that we won’t have a secretary present. It is safe to go ahead and buy it.

Jackie Schickler – Motion to purchase the transcription ware and equipment as described. Second.

We are asking people to volunteer the time and if we can make things go smoother for them, we are obliged to do that.

Motion passes unanimously.

Follow up with Patty to figure out the ordering.

11. Additional issues pertaining to Recording Secretary – compensation, delivery of files, etc. (All)

Off the record.

Bobbie Harmon – Motion to compensate the recording secretary $250 for recording the minutes for this Quarter. Second.

Motion passes unanimously.

There is no adaptor so Tony will take home the micro-drive and will burn a CD as an MP3 file. Will forward to recording secretary, keep a copy on his computer until minutes are approved, and will return the drive to Kevin.

12. Questions from CAWS 2006 (Bobbie, Jay)

Can the hotel link to CA? From our prior discussions this weekend, we got the answer. The next question is regarding Co-Anon. Co-Anon is listed in the program, is that okay? It does have the disclaimer.

Not crazy about the link, and not excited about the way it is currently displayed “Cocaine registration.” Hopefully we can fix this and make it read better. Regarding Co-Anon, we have always included them, let’s not change things at this late hour. The Co-Anon information has been in the program with the disclaimer for a while and it should stay in until we revisit it all.

13. Trustee dinner in Houston (Bobbie)

Talked about possibly getting a room so we don’t have to leave. There are five or so restaurants in the hotel, including one on the roof. We can just set it up at the hotel so we aren’t giving the impression that we are doing something separate. Parking is $6 per day, in and out. There are

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courtesy vehicles, but aiming to do something in the hotel. Will gather menus from the different restaurants so as to figure out the plans.

Jay and Jackie will help as well.

An invite to former Trustees will be put together for approval sometime in April.

If a restaurant has a vegetarian and non-pork menu, and they can accommodate around 30 people, just pick one.

Break

14. TEC process (Jay)

Within the next week, will circulate the redraft of documents for voting process. Also need guidance regarding a person on an approved slate who will not put resume on proper form. How should this be handled? This is for one of the non-open slates.

Send it back to his Area and tell them about his noncompliance. There is nothing we can do.

The only requirement is that the resume just needs to be submitted to the assembly chair before the vote, not that there is a specific resume form it must be on. If the conscience was based on that resume, then that may be what we have to use.

Regarding the voting issue, what do we do to ensure there is a minimum number of votes. Conceivably, there could be enough abstentions so that there are very few members actually voting, which would not really give a conscience. Two people voting and everyone abstaining would be more than 2/3rd of votes cast, but that is not what we are really looking for. We should possibly set a minimum threshold of votes or change the ballot so that “none of them” is an option. If we make ballots that say who the people are, so you choose candidate A, candidate B, candidate C, or none of the above, it would be clear what we are voting for.

When will the TEC matrix be out?

There is another vote next weekend and it will be posted once that is done. Once the forms are done, everyone should take a look at them. This includes the questions, the forms, confidentiality things, etc.

We need to account for the time of the interviews and the time for discussion.

In the guidelines, there is no discussion of the candidate until after the first ballot. This means this Board and others have no discussion of candidates going up for the slate. The question is what to do if something is known about a candidate going on the slate that may be important information that the Board should know about. Under the current situation, there is no way to convey this information. That person may get elected on the first ballot because the information is not well known. How do we do that and still adhere to the principles of the Ninth Concept? We need to have sound practices as to how we approve our Trustees. There is a loophole here.

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We also need to talk about what the needs of the Board have been. Under the current system, we can’t even have that general a discussion. Back on the resume thing, it does say, “all resumes should be submitted on the approved service resume form,” but is doesn’t say what would happen if they are not. (Page 4.7)

If there is an issue that can affect CA as a whole, and since the person will be open to public scrutiny…in the Convention Guidelines, there is a process to discuss the candidates and bring out information like this…if there is information that can affect CA as a whole, then there is a responsibility to talk about it. The spirit behind not discussing the TEC ballot is about not campaigning for someone. A personal decision has to be made, asking whether something is being put out there because I don’t like the person or am I doing it for the greater CA, as a whole. That is the question I have to ask myself.

We need to practice principles before personalities, and have to make sure we aren’t campaigning against someone because we don’t like their spirit. It says that we are not to talk about this at all, which makes no sense. What if I know if a person is not organized enough, has done some stuff that is questionable, are we going to come up with a fix before anything happens, because right now, we can’t. Do we make a motion in TEC to be able to do this?

If something needs to be changed in the process, we would have to make a motion to suspend the rules, to take an item of business out of order and have this addressed at the beginning of the Conference. As far as the discuss or not discuss thing, there was a time when people chose their own successors. The group conscience is not evenly informed if we have information and the delegates do not. We know there is a lot of influence, being a Trustee. If we are going to talk about someone, we need to involve the Delegates so we all have the same information.

This would also allow the Delegate who has information to be able to put it out for us.

If we are considering changing this, we need to do it so it passes the Standing Rule 14 requirements.

If we do something under SR 14, to be effective immediately, and make a motion to have it heard out of order, we could wait on the voting process to see what happens with the motion.

15. CAWS 2007 Apollo Night.

The committee came up with Apollo night. Before the convention, as pre-convention fundraisers, they were having different local bands competing. They would charge people to go and then they would have finalists go to the convention with the final five or six bands. The crowd would decide who the winner was and there would be a prize, and it was creative and different. When getting into the details of how to pull it off, in order to save expense for CA on the final prize, the bands were to be charged an entrance fee and the prize money would come out of that. Question came up regarding Seventh Tradition, commingling of funds, etc. Went back to the committee and asked about other possibilities so we are not taking money from outside sources. There have been some questions regarding the technical side, getting set and the process of changing between bands so the event is timely, which may be some additional issues. A letter was just received saying that nothing is going to be changed in the process and they believe accepting a registration fee is not a violation of the Traditions. [The letter is read.] The

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letter discusses Bill’s discussion in Coming of Age, where he talks about dependence on outside contributions and large donations that would financially control the fellowship, and the registration is not a large donation that does not qualify. They are now asking the Trustees for a decision. The bands do not have to be in recovery.

Understand and appreciate what they are trying to do and there is a valid point about the car washes, as we are taking money from people whose cars are not in the fellowship. We are not advertising that it is CA doing the carwash. We are not breaking anybody’s anonymity. If we have all these people coming in and participating, we are not given a choice whether we are breaking anonymity. This includes the people who are coming to see the bands.

The event is not going to be open to outside people, just the bands are outside people. The problem is less anonymity than the Seventh Tradition regarding outside contributions. There are definitely two sides to this argument, and it really depends how liberal you are and whether you allow for a little wiggle room.

When is an outside donation not an outside donation? We can manipulate things to fit what I want them to fit. We need to be open-minded and realize that there are certain things that were not around when Bill wrote the Traditions, but when it comes to the Seventh Tradition, it is very clear. An outside donation is an outside donation. We don’t take a dollar from anyone who is not a member and we seem to be just fine.

To be clear, they want to charge the bands and entry fee and from that entry fee comes the winnings, which go to the band that wins. So we, in fact, are not taking money. I respect this argument. If we were splitting 50/50, then we have a problem, but this is only for the band.

100% of the money the bands pay is the prize money. We are handling the money…is that co-mingling of funds? The way we make money is we charge to see the run-offs and the local Area fellowship will support that. How we make money at the convention is we pay to go.

Would have a problem if taking money from our members and paying it as a prize to people outside the fellowship. If we took money and paid the band, that is one thing, but using it as a prize would be another. If we compare the car wash, the way we handle it is that the people doing the car wash are being compensated for their work and then they donate the money to CA. There may be an opportunity to do PI work if someone is wearing a CA shirt. There is a problem with the committee’s argument that it is okay as long as it isn’t over a certain amount. It seems like they are trying to set a threshold. This is not a good argument. But, if they keep outside funds completely separate and the costs that CA has to put out are made by CA members and any proceeds stay with CA, then it is okay.

Not sure that it really is 100% going back to the band. Also concerned about CA being a vehicle for an outside enterprise to win a prize. Does not think this is crystal clear, and understand that there are some time constraints because it has to get on the registration form. Maybe we can get together as a smaller group to try to answer this and come up with something in writing.

We expect former Trustees to be mindful of the Traditions and here they are trying to also help the committee to do some fundraising. It makes sense that they can work it without co-mingling these funds. This idea helps them do pre-convention fundraising as well. It is a difficult job to

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do the fundraising and we try find creative ways to do this. We have to be careful and be a bit more open-minded.

A lot of things that we used to do were illegal and we played games, saying I’m going to take this money over here (even when I knew it was dirty money) and I was going to make this money legal by just using the dirty money for a little while. Spiritually, with the principles we go by, we are not going to do this. It is borderline, and they are close to getting over the edge. Spiritually, I would say no, because it is really just trying to manipulate things. I like constructive thinking and being innovative, but they this is really coming too close to the line and we are splitting hairs.

This is a very hard decision and it is easy to go back and forth on what the right thing to do would be. They are overdue on the registration form and this is one thing that is hanging it up. We need to make a decision on this. Not sure which way to go, but we really do need to make a decision.

If any of the bands are CA bands are we losing anything by not getting something from that?

This really is not dirty money. This is an innovative and creative fundraiser. When it comes to spiritual principles, gambling is not very spiritual, but it is a big fundraiser in many Areas. This is a group that comes together and comes up with this idea that draws people to functions and CA makes money. Not sure there really is a conflict. We do need to made a decision quickly so we can hand them to a registration in Houston.

The Paid Director has told them that this is not within the Traditions.

We use CA money to pay outside people to entertain us. We charge the fellowship to see the outside people. We are not using our money to pay them. There is a part that says no, but there is a part that says to give them a chance.

Is there a part in the Convention Guidelines that says the Trustees vote to approve the local committees’ entertainment choice?

No, there is just a vote on the spending committee. If there is a Traditions issue, we should be able to come in and say it is not going to work. It is our responsibility.

Are we violating Tradition Six with this? Lending the CA name?

We are setting precedence here. If we let this go by, what is next? What is the next innovative idea?

If this is approved, we need to ensure that 100% goes to the bands and that we don’t advertise CA with in – CA battle of the bands. This is not much different than just hiring a band, it is just a slightly different format. Another problem though is whether we are being fully self-supporting when we are not paying for the bands to come in. Is it a donation from them since we are not paying them?

If we stuck to the letter, car washes are wrong, dances are wrong, all of it is wrong. We set the precedence a long time ago. Now here we are with the task of trying to decide whether things

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we have done for a long time are really wrong. If we say no, do we go home and tell them to stop doing car washes?

Another option is that we can approve it or stand behind the WSO’s decision that there are Traditions issues.

We are paying for a service in these situations, the bands here are paying themselves. We are benefiting from their labor.

Carl Warlick – Motion that the WSBT believes that the proposed Apollo night for CAWS 2007 does not fall within the Traditions and should not go forward as proposed. Second

Motion passes with substantial unanimity.

16. Referral regarding WSOB election process. (Tony, Jay, Carl, Bobbie, Cynthia)

• To be worked on.

Can we discuss the timing of the May quarterly meeting earlier, perhaps at the November meeting so we can get better prices on flights?

Anyone can add something to the Agenda to be discussed.

Regarding orientation subcommittee, the people participating are Cynthia, Hayward, Jay and Bobbie. There is a lot of work to make sure materials are all streamlined and up-to-date for new Trustees. Does anyone want to join committee and should there be a conference call?

The full WSBT will participate in this.

WSBT adjourned at 12:48 pm.

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For all attached reports and documents see: 2006-03-03-05-WSBT-Quarterly-Minutes-Final-Approved.pdf