Mar 4, 2006 – WSBT – WSOB Board-to-Board Meeting Minutes – Documents Archive for Cocaine Anonymous

MINUTES WSBT/WSOB Board-to-Board Meeting

1:50 p.m. on March 4, 2006

Open/Serenity Prayer

Roll Call:

Opening remarks by WSBT Chair & WSOB Chair (Outgoing and Incoming)

Cynthia Cronkhite – Thanks to everyone from the office board for joining the meeting. Thanks to Bob for all his service. When Bob came along things were really at a point of distress and he brought a calming and smoothing influence. Got us back on solid ground financially and spiritually in terms of communication between boards. We all want to thank you for that and wish you the best in your future endeavors. Would like to welcome John to the board. We all look forward to working with you and believe it will be a very positive experience. Thanks so much for being willing to take this on.

Bob Campbell (Outgoing chair) – Thanks for the kind words. To give a historical perspective about how I originally came to be in this position, I was approached by some angry members of the fellowship. There was a lot of anarchy at that time, and things were so far off the edge there was no staying quiet about it. Things were possibly the worst things had ever been. There was some pretty serious stuff going on. I was lucky enough to be taught and mentored by some pretty incredible people, and with their example, I came in here and passed on what I was taught. Once the voice level was down, we really just thought about our primary purpose. That really seems to settle all arguments and it is found to be a very tranquilizing place to go. People who don’t respond to that are suspect and really need to go. If the primary purpose doesn’t calm someone down, along with the good of the fellowship and the addict who still suffers, if they are still beating on their drum, then that is truly a warning. This is what keeps us unified. It has been an honor serving the fellowship in this manner.

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John Bodkin (Incoming Chair) – It is an honor and pleasure to sit at this table again and I look forward to many more meetings. The philosophy that Bob shared is exactly the same philosophy that I share regarding how to move forward. Thanks to Bob for the calming and peaceful result of his being here. He was out in the trenches week one trying to settle people down. Bob’s expertise and experience will continue to be utilized. Thanks for letting me be here.

Supplementary reports, if any, from WSOB and questions from WSBT:
1. WSOB Chair;

Bob Campbell – There are no fires out there. Nothing much has changed. The prudent reserve is doing quite well, although we need to continue to build it. There is some confusion regarding our prudent reserve. We have to be careful not to give a level of false comfort. We are in good shape, but it could change at any given moment and it doesn’t take long to get from good to mediocre and not long after that to get to bad. We have to be very watchful about this. (This is discussed more in his report.)

Regarding oversight at conventions. Yes, the WSO does oversee conventions. The committees are important, but we still oversee them and we will take appropriate action if it is felt that what is being done is not in the best interest of the fellowship financially. We want to leave them alone as much as possible, but they really are not professionals with putting on a convention and the WSO is.

Regarding the storybook – It is out to the editor and should be ready for sale at the World Service Conference.

Regarding doing reports, there really is no uniformity. It may be good to have a template for the reports. It would be beneficial.

b. WSOB Treasurer;

Tom Phelan – The report was sent out. Has met with Patty and Leandra and has looked at things historically. The financial activity and reporting is quality. Comfortable with the information and found that everything that has been done is also very reliable. There may be some obligations that need to be looked at in the future, but everything really has been covered quite well.

There really has been a seamless transition of treasurers. We do our accounting the second week of the month, after the statement comes in. So, we know where we are, down to the dime, at the end of the preceding month. The board then reads over the report and always asks questions. We have very few 90-day receivables. We are right on top of things. We have an excellent reporting system and the oversight by the board itself. The treasurer’s report is done at the beginning of the agenda so that it is always covered.

c. WSOB Paid Director.

Patty Flanagan – Thanks to Tom for joining us and for the quality and level of sophistication that he brings. The artwork for the Michigan Drug Court bag was

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presented. There were materials sent and the artwork that was put on the bag. It includes the entire name and contact information. The Having Fun in Recovery piece is ready and will be included on the order form shortly. A resume for the editor possibly doing the first run of the storybook was presented. The shortfall on sales was only relating to the budget. We have actually increased sales from last year. There is a previous year comparison and we are actually doing better and believe that we will cover the budget as anticipated. Seventh Tradition is up from last year. The donor program has now succeeded and reached goal. Illinois Area and UK Area are the two big, standout donations we’ve received. We need to continue doing the work that has been done and confirm that prudent reserves are where they should be. Scotland Area has made the first and only timely payment of royalties ever received. Regarding the decision on Calgary, some the accounting assumptions made were based on the information received from AA about their convention. They believed they would receive 15% less because it was in Canada, but, in fact, received 30% less. If we had gone to Calgary and mirrored the percentages we thought, we would have been down 50%. The World Service Office staff would like to start a campaign to have everyone fill out forms for the World Service Directory to register their meetings. Someone has volunteered to create a document with all the meetings that are currently listed online and then the Areas can be approached, saying, “here are the meetings, can you get us the contacts.” Timetable for HFC Vol. II says the book will be printed and completed by August 20 assuming that the typesetting can be done by Jon Fish. WSBT would have it by March 17, LCF would have 30-days to accept or decline and would give it back by April 21. WSOB would not get a typeset or edited version until the April 27 meeting. The WSOB has a policy of considering things for three meetings, therefore the final approval would be June 23 with final copy being delivered July 1 for August 20 delivery.

Questions:

Bob Campbell – Regarding the income being off the budget, but better than last year. Things like extraordinary 7^th Tradition, or sale events, or a convention that is off the charts, should we enter these separately so things aren’t skewed? The information would still come under income, but as a separate category, this way there isn’t the illusion that we have money that we do not.

Patty Flanagan – There really are some mechanisms to deal with that.

Tony Drake – Regarding the World Service Directory, why is the internet not sufficient?

Patty Flanagan – There are Areas that don’t have websites and others that don’t have all their meetings listed. We just want to make it better…to have them in one place, document, database.

Tony Drake – It looks like two of the Trustee budgets are substantially over. Do you know why?

Patty Flanagan – We don’t know when money is going to be spent, so we spread it out over the year and the timing is just off. They are not over the overall budget.

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John Bodkin – Regarding the amortization, and moving it into the present budget, can we do that at any time?

Tom Phelan – Yes, we can work a number of things out.

John Bodkin – Regarding the directory issue, what would be the benefit of registering your meeting? The inclusion at the World Service level, so we can print it on the fly? Once this is set up, it would not be particularly time consuming to keep up?

Bob Campbell – With the directory, this really is needed, but we should not print too many volumes. It does ebb and flow constantly. We may want to print it once a year at the Conference to send home with the Delegates. We should use the Delegates to register their meetings. We have an immediate need to hire an additional worker. It is important to look at things long-term. We’ve had a really good year, and we need to make sure we don’t rely on this being the norm.

Carl Warlick – If we did not receive the two additional Seventh Tradition amounts, where would we be?

Patty Flanagan – Exactly where we thought we would be – 10% under the budgeted amount.

Jackie Schickler – The two UK donations, are these amounts perhaps due to the growing fellowship?

Patty Flanagan – This is actually too difficult to tell with the limited history we have.

Earl Henderson – In ten years, when the amortized expense has been paid, when will we be budgeting for this again?

Patty Flanagan – Every expense is listed in the “reminder binder” and there is notification as things come due. This is for everything.

Cynthia Cronkhite – Concerned about registration project. Why can we not build the world database from the meeting directories gathered every year at the Conference?

Patty Flanagan – The amount of people who turned in meeting schedules was low, although this has improved with the meeting credentialing when the Delegates go to the Conference. It is still not quite in sync. Last year, when it wasn’t turned in, the WSO printed it off the websites. We just need to talk about this more.

Items for Discussion:

a. The process going forward for weekly contact between the WSBT Chair and WSOB Chair

This will occur the same way it has in the past and it will work its way out.

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b. Update on status of Hope, Faith & Courage, Volume II and timetable for remaining phases of publication

Discussed above.

John Bodkin – Does the ISBN have any reference to dollar amounts or retail value?

Patty Flanagan – This has not been worked on yet. It is just the story section we are working on. The entire book for WSO approval will be determined by the June 23 deadline.

John Bodkin – There should be some consideration for European dollar values in case it is relevant to future distribution.

Cynthia Cronkhite – If Jon Fish is not available to do the typesetting, are you going to bid that out?

Patty Flanagan – Yes, and we do know the cost.

Bob Campbell – Has the additional order of book one and combination of book one and two sales been discussed?

Patty Flanagan – The number of volume one books ordered is up. They are up about 3,000 more books. It is highly likely that there will be a motion to order 7,500 additional books this month. We did not spend any book reserve out of the savings to buy the books. The office was able to take on that expense without going into the reserve. We have also discussed selling a combination Volume One and Volume Two.

Cynthia Cronkhite – When are we going to officially change the name of the first volume to Volume One?

John Bodkin – This should be worked on by the board to develop some marketing ideas. This will become a hot topic of discussion, not only with this, but with other items we are going to be marketing.

Patty Flanagan – The office would like the original manuscript from Volume Two because it would be a valuable auction item. The stories as we received them, etc. Maybe the stories after the first edit. This was done with Volume One.

6. CAWS Conventions:

Contact person between the Office, WSOB and CAWS Convention host committee – not just for 2006 but beyond;

Cynthia Cronkhite – The main question is who should be the contact person. There have been some issues with direct communication with vendors outside the approved channel of communications. Is there a solution for that? Should the contact be made through a particular member?

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Bob Campbell – The office board should not actually be in touch with vendors. Patty may perhaps be involved because she understands the dynamics. So, the person should be Patty and not a board member.

Patty Flanagan – CAWS 2006 was informed the Patty is the contact person.

John Bodkin – In the past, the World Service Trustee evaluated contracts and because they were intimately involved, they would be a main contact with vendors. This did not usurp the committee’s involvement. This was just the experience at the time and may be why there is some confusion.

When it is appropriate for someone other than the contact person to contact the host committee, someone in the local fellowship or a vendor;

Covered above.

Control, coordination and sign-off on the host city CAWS program, program handout, and website.

Jay Finesilver – This was before Patty went down to visit, but basically there was a question as to where the approval lines were regarding the program itself, content of the program, and the handout. Now, through some communication, everyone knows the deadlines, etc., but it isn’t written down anywhere. Next year, when it is in the Midwest, the same issues get transcribed again and we start all over with another committee. Two things, first we need to have communication channels with the office open, which has been done and it is great. Second, when does the Office discharge their duties, what does the Office need and by when, what happens if they haven’t done it, and so forth.

Bob Campbell – The office is an incredible resource for formatting the program in a professional manner. A related matter is the registration form that is put out at the prior year’s convention. People sign up for multiple events that may actually have time conflicts, which is a bit embarrassing. When the first program comes out, arrangements have already been made with the vendor, venue, room booked with hotel, and then we have a conflict with another major activity. The point is the WSO has got to be involved a lot earlier to help the people so that mistakes do not happen. We are not being of service if we set these events up to fail.

Patty Flanagan – The 2006 program has not been delivered in its final format.

d. Revisiting the approach of how we present the World Service Contribution Program at CAWS 2006 and at the Conference

This was discussed previously with regard to the hard-sell approach and whether we have any other options for approaches.

Bob Campbell – Totally okay with the way it worked last year and has no problem with it continuing. We shouldn’t pressure people, but we can be pro-active. Hopes that we do it again and are as successful.

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John Bodkin – When we push a bit harder, we need to be spiritually minded. There will always be a few unhappy customers and we can work that out.

Cynthia Cronkhite – Can we use the booth at the Convention?

John Bodkin – We can work something out and will have a discussion at the board meeting.

e. What is the WSO and WSOB’s authority on the spending and spending committee of World conventions?

Jay Finesilver – Some of this was learned and has become clearer regarding how it works. Without a clear point person, there were some problems. Now that conversations are occurring directly by Patty, with the treasurer, and the chair of the spending committee, a lot of this has been resolved. The point is that this is not written down and it becomes an education issue for each year’s planning committee for the host city to know what the office expects of them.

Patty Flanagan – All expenses go through the spending committee, this includes the spending committee at the office. The host city needs to have the ability to hold the cost to the budget. We have meetings as early as we can. We only have to approve invoices over $500. What we would like to see is invoices for smaller amounts getting grouped together so that the office does have oversight of them. There are many invoices that can go through under $500, but this makes it difficult for the spending committee to keep as close an eye as they would like. There also has to be checks and balances and we just need to make sure we have the whole picture.

Tony Drake – There are committee members looking at the Convention Committee Guidelines that are wondering if the office is doing things they don’t have the authority to do. In the explanation, references are made to approving things, but it doesn’t say anything about approval. What is says is that the office has a vote on the spending committee. Doesn’t say approve anything on the spending committee or approve expenses. ’07 is asking where do they have the right to do this? We probably need to work on some referrals so the Convention Guidelines state what we are actually doing now, because that is what they should state.

Patty Flanagan – In the World Service Manual, it does state that they have oversight.

Bob Campbell – There is no question that the manuals and guidelines need to be cross-referenced to clearly state the World Office’s role. Another thing is, when faced with situations such as the comedian (the cost of which was two to three times what was ever spent on a comedian), a good decision was not being made. What does the board do when faced with these types of decisions? It needs to be laid out before people make commitments, that it needs to clear other levels. The World Office believes that they have the yeah or nay on these types of decisions. If they are wrong, then it needs to be clarified.

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John Bodkin – The relationship building, from the time a convention is awarded until the start of the convention, needs to be cultivated.

Tony Drake – There is a problem between the letter of the guidelines and manual and there need to be referrals to fix this. This is also just part of a bigger, flawed system, which includes having host cities host the conventions which is something we need to get away from.

f. Delegate Mailings – issues related thereto

Cynthia Cronkhite – Some of the WSBT minutes were not included in the mailing, but we were told that there would be a supplemental mailing with just the minutes. Did that take place?

Bob Campbell – We did get direction to do it, but it didn’t get done. Other things were getting done and it fell through the cracks. We apologize.

Cynthia Cronkhite – Can a list of the mailing dates and deadlines be circulated so we can prepare and submit items in a timely manner? There was also a combined document with multiple minutes, but it wasn’t clear that there was more than one document attached.

Patty Flanagan – The intent is to put a list of the documents attached, but that wasn’t done on that particular mailing.

Cynthia Cronkhite – What things require a Trustee sign-off to get included in the mailing? Just guidelines?

Patty Flanagan – That is a process that needs to be worked on.

g. Translations – process and timeline for approval of new translations.

Jackie Schickler – Attended the first European Regional Assembly in Stockholm Sweden. There were about fifty people who attended. Things were translated into Swedish and they are getting ready to do the same in Norway. Copenhagen has meetings and has translated, Greece has meetings and are translating, Holland has translated. We need to help them with the process, in conjunction with World Services, not in isolation. They are trying to carry the message. We truly have crossed many lines and are a worldwide fellowship. Anything that has been done has been forwarded to the WSO. We need to have a process to get things approved. We should be able to say – this is what you need to do and these are the pieces of literature you should start with.

Bob Campbell – This really needs to move to the top of the list. In terms of what type of help they are looking for, this is not for the actual translating, correct? It may be best for the local fellowships to do the actual translating. It may be that it just needs to be approved, which would just be by the WSO, not the LCF Committee. The only thing the Office would really do is check the format. We would not want to be responsible for the accuracy of the translation. Are they asking for financial help?

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Jackie Schickler – They are not looking for the translation to be done in California. They would do something like form a local translation committee. There is nothing set out saying, if you want to translate our pamphlet, please form a local translation committee – This would be the order of our most popular pamphlets. Then, once they have done it, what do they do with it.

John Bodkin – The office should be able to help with things to move more quickly to have the production done. This definitely needs to get moved to the top of the list and will discuss it at the WSO board meeting to figure out a plan and to show our support. There are some concerns with the message getting morphed, but it does seem to correct itself even if that does happen.

h. Timing of WSOB reports for future quarterly meetings

Cynthia Cronkhite – Let’s continue to work together on the timing in order to get the office board reports a week in advance of the quarterly meeting so that they can be reviewed ahead of time.

i. National drug court meeting – budgeting and funding.

Covered in meeting with Patty.

j. Earmarked funds.

Jackie Schickler – South Africa was told that they were going to be given an amount of money from a District that wanted to contribute to the new fellowship, but that did not happen for some reason. There seems to be some inconsistency with the earmarking of funds. Would like to know what happened to those funds and confirm the policy of the fellowship.

Tony Drake – The first issue is regarding the funds promised to South Africa. Was told that one of the directors of the WSOB was telling them they were going to get the money, then were told that the WSO said no, you can’t give the money to South Africa, but send us the money anyway. The second issue is the earmarking of funds and wish lists, with which we are totally inconsistent.

Earl Henderson – There was talk about a donation going to South Africa, coming from South Central.

Bob Campbell – Yes, we cannot be inconsistent. Totally against earmarking funds and it is a road we would not want to go down. Somewhat recalls this, which included some discussion about earmarking funds and that we don’t do that. The problem is that South Africa was led to believe they were going to receive funds from a particular source. This is really not the way it works and it violates the Traditions. This is a classic example of what happens. When we are not following the Traditions, problems occur. We did end up following the policy, which is that there are no earmarked funds. We need to have a written policy in the form of a referral that goes to the Conference.

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Earl Henderson – We have Conference Approved Financial Guidelines that gives an example of donating to another group. It sites examples like the H&I video. So, we are saying it is a violation of the Traditions on one hand, but on the other it is okay?

Patty Flanagan – Was involved in the conversation and we did say that anyone can buy literature for anyone else. Doesn’t matter if it is another Area or another person, and the WSO will ship it to them. A check was never received. An order form was given, but we never received an actual order requesting the WSO to do this. There is no mechanism to check who is writing a check for chips and lit, so anyone can write a check and send it somewhere else. We do have a mechanism for Seventh Tradition. Regarding earmarked funds, the WSO has not been letting anyone do this. I do, however, believe in the wish list. Donor participation in specific spending. Everyone participates in H&I because they believe in that. There are other people who believe in things and want to donate to those specific things. The computers we have are from someone who loves computers. We were not given money to go buy them, we were given the actual computers. Is that a dollar amount? Is it above their $5,000? There is a difference between this kind of donation and someone trying to control the purse strings. If we come from a place where we say – these are the funding places we need help (computer equipment, H&I, Conference). In fact the Convention was originally started to fund the Conference. What if we had a different way of funding the Conference? The difference is letting them tell us where to put the money and us making a certified policy that states these are some areas you can make your donations. There should also be a limit on donated funds for a particular area, anything over would fall into the general fund.

Jackie Schickler – Happy Howard is a member of the WSO and, just as a Trustee is always seen as a Trustee, so are members of the Office Board no longer viewed as individuals. If we aren’t able to take on that responsibility, we should never take one of these positions. Please understand that damage has been done and it has been done by a member of the WSOB.

Bobbie Harmon – When this happened, he hadn’t been ratified by the WSOB. He had not yet been told that he could not do certain things. We all have to learn, and sometimes we do it the hard way. There is more than one issue on the table though. Let’s not shade the other ones out and just take someone’s head. We are all on the same page here. There is no earmarking of funds. We fancy it up so we can get it, but that is still earmarking. This is not about the Office, it is about the fellowship. The office will not shut down if God stays in the middle of it.

Tony Drake – Because of what happened, is that why South Africa is not attending the Conference?

Jackie Schickler – It may not be the only reason, but perhaps one of them. There were many people from WSO talking with him talking about how to get this done. He went back thinking it was going to happen, but it did not get done. That is concerning.

Bob Campbell – The mistakes we are talking about happened a while back. He is an asset to the WSO and an incredible liaison to the largest, most financially successful District of CA. That District is also the most loyal to World as any, and is the strongest

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District in bringing in newcomers and helping recovery. It is truly incredible what they do. Happy is an incredible liaison to them and I am a great liaison to Happy as I’ve known him for 22 years. His heart is in the right place.

John Bodkin – No money is going to move anywhere without a group conscience. No one person can do something like that. It is not good that there were growing pains like this and sorry that it had to happen. Mending does have to happen with this.

k. What are we doing about finding a new webservant.

Tony Drake – We are all sorry to hear about Jon Fish’s resignation. There is someone who would do a great job and we need to know what the WSOB is looking for and what they need to do. Do they need to be local? Etc.

John Bodkin – Those requirements will be conveyed soon.

l. Close/Serenity Prayer

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For all attached reports and documents see: 2006-03-04-WSBT-WSOB-Meeting-Minutes

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