Page 1 – WSBT August 2007 Quarterly, Los Angeles, California
CA WORLD SERVICE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
REGULAR QUARTERLY
MEETING MINUTES
August 26-29, 2007
Final Approved Minutes
(Approved by WSBT for distribution on November 20, 2007 )
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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Sunday August 26th, 2007 7:15pm
Opened meeting with a moment of silence and the Serenity Prayer
Introductions:
In Attendance:
| Tony Drake | ||||
| Jay Finesilver | SWRT /Vice Chair | Trevor Scheible | PNRT | |
| Bobbie Harmon | TAL | Earl Henderson | WSOT | |
| Nicholas Lynn | ERT | Bruce Watson | ANRT | |
| Hayward Hunt | WST/ Secretary | Carl Warlick | PSRT |
Read the 12 Traditions-Done by Carl Warlick
Tradition Eight – “Cocaine Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers”
Jay Finesilver: I was blessed to be on the floor when the one special worker we had was given a vote on the floor. It did not always used to be this way. This one person was the only paid worker at the time came and asked the floor for a vote and this was granted unanimously. Not without discussion though. I believe a couple of the areas have special workers. Now having two Paid Directors where we had one. As our fellowship matures needing more special workers with help with the conventions.
Concept Two- “The C. A. groups delegate to the WSC a complete authority for the active maintenance of our World Services and thereby make the Conference, except for any change in the 12 Traditions, the actual voice and the effective conscience of our whole fellowship”
Bobbie Harmon: This was where my area chose their delegates to go to the Conference to represent. They have given me the authority to speak for them. To know that a bunch of people trusted me to do the right thing was big. There was a time that I was not the most trustworthy person. They gave me the honor to get here and learn.
Nicholas Lynn: The practical value of 100 people getting into one room would not work; some one had to trust someone. He explained how it worked. Could I effect what happened at the Conference? I was allowed to take on a vote. We trust that when you say you are sober, you are sober. In all the service positions it breaks down to trust. From here business gets done and I have never had someone come back and complain about the decisions that were made.
Lawrence Matlock: This is what this whole week is about, the Conference. When they first wanted me to be a delegate, I felt I could not do that. I came here not knowing anything, but felt a part of keeping Cocaine Anonymous going. This Second Concept gives us all of that. We are here to take care of the business of Cocaine Anonymous
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Earl Henderson: In the Second Concept there is a thread that runs through the Second Tradition that runs through the Second Step and that is that God Conscience. It talks about the ultimate authority being expressed in the group conscience. We get into the Concept it talks about the actual voice and the conscience of the fellowship. I love the fact that God has a hand in all this.
Review of Agenda:
Tony Drake: New Business item 2007. 08. 22 CAWS 2007 Hotel Bill-Hayward. Earl do you still want to take an item out of order?
Earl Henderson: Yes
Carl Warlick: Can you remove item number 2007. 08. 13-I think we discussed that at dinner and you can remove it.
Tony Drake: Any objections?
We are going to add New business item 2007. 08. 23 WSOB Motion to transfer-we are going to take that one out of order here.
Opening Remarks: We have our Board to Board meeting tomorrow night at 7pm; we certainly have time after that to meet. We really need to be wrapped up by tomorrow night.
Earl Henderson: A while back we came to you with an emergency motion and I apologize for not being at the last WSOB meeting. We need to get you folks to approve the purchase of 5,000 copies of HFC 2 for $8,000. What was not communicated to me was alone with that motion we needed to move the funds from the Money Market account into the Operating account, because we had a bunch of other bills coming into Conference. I make a Motion to transfer from the Money Market to the Operating account $8,000.
Carl Warlick: Second
Hayward: I do not remember them saying anything about that, so I apologize for not bringing it to you right.
Tony Drake: Motion passes unanimously.
Items requiring discussion before the Board to Board meeting:
Jay Finesilver: There was a report by the Vice Chair that concerned me. There were some problems in there about her not getting reimbursed.
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Tony Drake: We will add letter H-address Vice Chair concerns to the Board to Board agenda.
Hayward: Is there anything about how WSOB pays? We make motions there all the time about paying bills or buying things. If they make motions on money do they require approval by the WSBT?
Tony Drake: I am adding an item letter G-Spending guidelines, what requires WSBT approval.
Carl Warlick: Item number 2007. 8. 22 that will cause quite a few concerns and questions-the Hotel bill. Once we discuss that can we go back to the WSOB agenda?
Tony Drake: I had made a list of four agenda items that might cause some discussion in the Board to Board that we may want to take out of order. 2006. 10. 05- Status of HFC 2-that sounds to me that this may just be an update so we may just want to scratch that one off. 2007. 05. 09- revising the 12 Point publishing Process, 2007. 08. 07-regarding NADCP, you added that one Bobbie. 2007. 08. 22-regarding the hotel bill
Bobbie: it is not for the Board to Board. Remember the pass it on? I wanted it on here so that that could be incorporated into the preparation. On both, I do not need to do it ahead of time.
Tony Drake: Anything on the 12 Point Process you want to discuss ahead of time?
Bobbie Harmon: You got my name on there, I think you mean Bruce. Letter E.
Tony: So we will put Bruce there and Jay.
Bruce: I want to talk about that issue now.
Tony: Ok we will take that one out of order. HFC 2, we may get to it before the Board to Board. Ok we will talk about it ahead of time. Before we get into approval of our minutes and all that we are going to take three items out of order. They are agenda item numbers: 2006. 10. 05 Status of HFC 2-Bruce.
Bruce Watson: I participated this year on LCF and having learned about what the Committee is doing I have some awareness here. I am really dismayed about how HFC 2 has been delivered and is now ready to be printed. A lot of time was spent in a tug-of-war between the Committee and the Office. I hope that we can find a way to fix this process, because we are going to look to apply this process to the Meditation Book. It seemed to me that rather than helping the fellowship, there was a certain amount of tension and a loss of effectiveness of time because of the back and forth nature of this. Based on recent emails, I am not sure the book is actually done. Some members of the Committee, after this printing, will probably be asking for some further corrections. So as a practical matter, HFC 2 is delivered, but there will be more energy spent on it. It is
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like it is done, but it is not done! Without our involvement in this, the dynamics of the Committee struggling with the Office and the Office kind of holding the Committee off. I am not taking sides here; I do not think it is important to use the word blame. Instead I want to make sure we do not spend more time unproductively. I think the only way this is going to happen is if we as a Board of Trustees get more involved in trying to improve or repair the process. I do not think the Office or the Committee by themselves is going to be able to.
Tony Drake: Thank you Bruce, next up I have Earl. I have a request, Earl if you could know the status of exactly where we are at. Are they being printed?
Earl Henderson: Thank you Bruce, and I agree with a lot of what you said. The process is broken. No other organization on the planet prints books in this manner. I thought that we would have a book a year ago. We are on our 19th revision and we have still not got it right! We know that there was a minor flaw that only the most anal book examiner would find, so we decided that we should print the book here for you on Tuesday. Maybe three or four people would know, and that we will fix before the second printing. We decided to print what we had. It’s progress not perfection. You can always fix it on the second printing. There is 12 Points, but 100 puncture wounds.
Bobbie Harmon: What is askew? Is it big? My statement is I work in a Library and am an avid reader and I run across books from very famous people that write and they have errors in their books all the time. But is it that bad and what is the cost in the second printing to fix it.
Hayward: The problem was creating the subCommittee and the LCF in it; they should have turned the book over to the Office and then stepped back. This back and forth stuff. Oh we found this, then we send it back, then there was a file used that should not have been used. I would like to see a process that once you sign off that’s it. Send it to them and leave it alone, they are not included in anything else. It is turned over to the Office and it is published from there.
Carl Warlick: Thank you everyone for your discussion. Earl and Hayward, if you knew about these errors why was not this body informed before the book was printed? If you look at agenda item 2007. 05. 09 we are in the process of looking into how to correct this process.
Earl: If we contacted this Board every time there was a problem between the LCF and the Office you would have been inundated with communication on a daily basis. It really was not something that the Board of Trustees should be involved in. What we do at the Office, the manual states that the WSO is responsible for publishing. The Committee signs off on a product and then needs to hand it off to the Office. The Office needs to have it published and give it back to the Committee and say this is what you asked for, this is what we are delivering. This is not what has happened over the last five years. It has been very frustrating. I know the Committee has been involved in the project with a great deal of passion and pride over the last few years. What the Office was trying to do
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was respect that Committee. So we involved them in the publishing phase. What happens is, when you send it to the Committee after the typesetting phase, they mix it all up and send it back and then we send it to the typesetter, then we send it back. It got to be a very convoluted situation. I think it is broken. The process really needs to be looked at for publishing books. I do not believe any other organization prints books this way.
Trevor: We were talking about last quarter about S&B and the manual, they feel like it is their manual and it is really the fellowship’s manual. Well the LCF feels the same way, but that doesn’t mean that it is right. What I would like to see us do, is write a new book process and let us submit it. I would love to see a Meditation Book in the next two to three years and I think it is doable, if the process is fixed. If it takes this long to come up with a personal story book, how long is it going to take for a Meditation Book? God forbid we ever come up with a basic text book, sorry for bringing it up. Let’s do what we have to do to fix it.
Tony: I just want to say that we all agree that it is broken. We can go over the mistakes we think people made. Here is my reality, this agenda item has been on here for at least a quarter and you know what we have done on it? Nothing, nobody on here has done anything. To me this is a lot of great idle talk that means a whole lot of nothing to me. We all know it is a problem; we have not done our work yet. I would like to see us come up with a rough draft, pass it off to the Office Board and get their suggestions. Then come back to this body and then we can make a referral to the Conference. Earl you are right, no organization does it this way. AA and NA do it very differently I think you would be surprised to see how they do it. The most logical sense is to work on the draft here and then let the Office look it over and bring it back here to finish.
Carl: Earl thank you for your answer. I do have a slight problem with something that you said, that the WSOB did not want to bring every issue back to us. As principle planners, the guys that are responsible for how we spend our money. Now we are going to have to correct what is wrong and spend more money. When we could have corrected it the first time and not spent more money to put out the second edition. So I think in the future if there is something wrong of this magnitude, because it is going to cost us money to fix it, that this body should be notified. We may not delay the planning of the book, we may not delay anything, but we should be notified to keep us from spending these additional funds.
Earl: I would like to respond.
Tony: hold on I have Nick up next.
Nicholas: I’ll pass
Earl: That is a valid concern if there was a significant expense in the second printing, but there is not. They do not have lithograph plates anymore, it is all digital. We can make revisions on the second printing and the cost is insignificant. That is the good news. On the Office Board, Patty took ill just before the last Conference last summer. She wanted
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to bring the issue regarding the problem of publishing the book at the last Conference. She wanted the publication process looked at because it has been so many years and so many problems. She has a laundry list of items she would like considered in our revision process. She has already been at work documenting what has worked and what has not. If there was a major expense issue with the printing, the Board of Trustees would have been notified. Going forward we can make minor revisions with out major costs.
Tony: It sounds like the book is here, so I am going to remove this agenda item. I do not think we need any more status update on volume 2. We do have another agenda item, review of the 12 Point Literature Process and I am on that Committee as well and maybe if we have time tomorrow we can start to address that. We will jump forward to 2007. 08. 22 about the CAWS 2007 hotel bill.
Hayward: I talked to Jahi; I had some concerns about things that were on the master accounts. I asked Jahi forward a copy of the hotel bill to me when he got his master copy. I got it and I forwarded it to everyone. Some people had some concerns about how did this or that name got on there? So I was thinking maybe Earl could forward a copy of the bill that I have to John and Patty and let them review. We can bring our concerns to them during the Board to Board.
Earl: it is a little last minute for them to be able to respond by tomorrow evening. I have no problem. We would have gotten a final bill at the Office. Yeah there were speakers.
Tony: I think Hayward and I, me being the Trustee from the region and him being a World Service Trustee, we were constantly looking at this master list. There are a lot of names on there that are not approved people to get free rooms. We on several occasions asked Patty about it and we got a circle dance, we never got a straight answer. Being busy at the convention we never got a chance to address it. There are a lot of other names on there; it could be a simple clerical problem. We felt really uncomfortable with her inability to answer us as to why this is on there. I still do not know why they are on there. When we tried to go through the channels we did not get any answers.
Bruce: I talked to Larry who is the Mass Area chair and he rented a suite and the hotel billed him for one day and he assumed the hotel would correct it and bill him for the rest so he took no action. It appears that the remaining days were on this bill, but it is nothing he did. It sounds like it was a mistake at the hotel.
Earl: I know that he may be getting a bill from CAWSO. I have a bill from CAWSO because Dan Chase, who is really Deann Chase. Dan Chase was on the master account and I got a bill from CAWSO as a bill back. If that washes it that is great, but I guess we won’t know until you present it.
Tony: We did not say somehow these got on. We were never given an answer, I scanned through it and saw a bunch of names and I thought why are these on here? I got what I felt to be a defensive response. I am going to take this off of our agenda and we can talk about it there.
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Earl: Do you need me to forward that bill?
Hayward: I will forward it to her and John.
Bobbie: The WSOB, the Directors, do we do them like we do?
Tony: No they are not paid for.
Bobbie: Cause two of the Directors’ names was not on there, but someone else’s name was.
Tony: That is one of the reasons I have always wondered. Traditionally at the convention we do a full Board to Board, which puts us in a position to have to pay for all the Office Directors to come. As the Chair this is one of the reasons I changed it.
Approval of the minutes:
Bobbie: motion to approve all three sets of the minutes, May 2007 quarterly, May 2007 Board to Board, July 2007 Conference Call.
Jay: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
Approval of Online Business
Bobbie: Motion to approve all Online Business from May and August 2007.
Carl: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
Approval of Officer Reports
Bobbie: Motion to approve the Officer Reports
Jay; Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
Trustee Reports
Bobbie: Motion to approve all 10 Trustee Reports
Carl: Second
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Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
WSBT SubCommittee Reports
Bobbie: Motion to approve the WSBT SubCommittee Reports, excluding International Structure and Development
Carl: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
International Structure and Development SubCommittee Report
Bobbie: I make motion to approve International Structure and Development Report
Carl: Second
Bobbie: In this one, the Committee worked the division of the country ofMexico. Everyone on the committee saw it; however, there was just one person we did not get an okay from, so I did not want to approve it with the rest of the reports without knowing everyone is ok with it. Once the report is approved the map is approved, and at the next Conference it goes to the Conference to be approved for Mexico to divided amongst the three regions. So I wanted to make sure and the Committee itself is ok with it.
Jay: For next year when it comes to the Conference floor I have a letter that I will pass off to the new Trustee signed off on by all the areas that were involved. It goes back to the areas first; there was a map that was presented. The areas approved them as a region, the four areas in Texas plus how the lines are going to be decided.
Bobbie: For Mexico?
Jay: No never mind I am sorry.
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
Conference Committee Report
Bobbie: motion to accept the Conference Committee reports, excluding, CAWS 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010.
Jay: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
CAWS 2007
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Bobbie: Motion to approve CAWS 2007
Carl: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
CAWS 2008
Bobbie: Motion to approve CAWS 2008
Carl: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
CAWS 2009
Bobbie: Motion to approve CAWS 2009
Trevor: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
CAWS 2010
Bobbie: Motion to approve CAWS 2010
Trevor: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
OLD BUSINESS-Outstanding Correspondence:
2007. 07. 03 Issues with CALA and Monique
Carl: Ok we sent out a draft and Bobbie responded to it with changes and this is something that we can work on here sometime tomorrow, and we should have something to present tomorrow afternoon
2007. 04. 08 TEC interview status for August 2007
Earl: I have over here eight envelopes with 17 ballots in each envelope in case you do not get it right the first time. These are the interview questions for the Regional Trustees, so you are going to have 6 people interview and 17 people around the table. You got copies for all of those. We have copies of the 2007 interview process printed on both sides. I
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have all of the resumes for the candidates in folders here. The documents need to stay in this room.
Jay: Can you run through what the schedule is again?
Earl: We are going to meet at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday in this room and we are going to be joined by our 7 Regional TEC delegates. If they approach you between now and then we are going to have a form for them to fill out that will take care of half their room and meals while they are here. So we will have to get that to Patty. We are going to do two interviews, Brian and Barry. I was challenged with contacting Patrice during the summer to confirm her being here for her interview scheduled for Tuesday. When I spoke to her she said she was hoping we could change the interview time to first thing Wednesday morning.
Tony: We either need to do it Wednesday afternoon or evening.
Carl: Are you going to discuss the confidentiality issue with the TEC? I do not want to have another one of those things where the delegates are running around and the people are pressuring them right after the interviews.
Earl: What I thought, the TEC interview process in the bottom is in bold. So everyone will be cognizant.
Trevor: Can we do it Wednesday at 5 p.m.?
Tony: I have a chairs dinner from 5-6:30 p.m..
Trevor: The TEC delegate from my region is the alternate delegate. He is also the acting chair for the S&B Committee.
Tony: What about 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Earl: 6:30 p. .m on Wednesday we will reconvene in here to interview Patrice.
Tony: I will remove this agenda item.
2007. 04. 09 Orientation Process update for WSBT
Jay: We have drafted one new document that was posted in May. I asked for comments and I have not gotten any. I move to have this adopted for our internal use.
Bobbie: Second
Hayward: What draft was that?
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Jay: Draft document2 as of May 20th, 2007. Titled “WSBT Orientation Committee, “What’s Not in the Orientation Materials, Which New Trustees need to Know”.
Tony: Motion passes unanimously. 2006. 08. 13 that is done in November but we leave it on here for you guys.
Jay: And that form was posted on the Yahoo Group so it is posted on there somewhere.
Tony: 2007. 05. 09 Coming back to and hopefully working on here
2007. 02 2007, 2008, 2009 Budget
Earl: I have nothing to report. I have not gotten any input from anybody. This Board did very well last year on staying within budget. We need to walk into Finance this week and say here is our budget for 2008/2009 and we want to anticipate any savings we might have for the fellowship. Or any additional expenses. Say for example we gave up the March quarterly meeting, are you aware of how much money that would save us? What if we were to take that money and spend it somewhere else, like more drug courts. If we are being productive in our November meeting and being productive on our Conference calls and online, then do we really need that March meeting? Just because it is documented does not mean this Board has to spend the money. I think it is absolutely critical that we meet for the first time in November with all the new Trustees. I would never propose you stop that meeting. But that spring meeting, if you wanted to save the fellowship money, that would be the one to do without. This year was a rollercoaster ride with the budget. We were constantly spending more money than we were making. It was not until Kansas City that we were actually even. That our revenue had actually caught up with our expenses. I would love any ideas or input from this Board. I need to carry a budget for you guys when I go into finance. I need it to be realistic. I do not want us to be short changed.
Tony: On the budget, just logistically, I remember about a year and half, asking Patty-“I’m going to have a lot more travel to KC, how do we handle that? ” “Oh do not worry we pull that out of the budget somewhere else”. That is not what happened. It is all recorded under the Trustee budget, that why my numbers are way out of whack. If it is going to be part of the Trustee budget, I think it should be budgeted for, which it is not. If it is not going to be part of the Trustee budget, I think it should be properly recorded and pulled from somewhere else. Something to look at for the Finance Committee. I think we should have a little more in the pot for that Regional Trustee. That either needs to happen or it should properly come from somewhere else. You will have to look at it on a year to year basis and again ours was the first quarterly that we pulled that was a mistake in hindsight. It was not a decision that we were part of, I again think unless it is absolutely necessary I just think there is something different. Although we do work productively it is something different when we come together and work on things. Hopefully you do not have to do that.
Hayward: Is the Drug court under our budget or is that separate?
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Earl: I believe it is beyond the Trustee budget and it falls somewhere else.
Bobbie: When we are talking about this budget, does it fall under this proposed budget?
Earl: That is the one in the delegate mailing? You know what, I am not really happy with that document.
Bobbie: I am not happy with it either, but I have a different set of issues.
Earl: Do you see the revenues; basically it is an expense budget.
Bobbie: No I talked about it in various ways. I saw duplicate line items. When you bring up drug court, I remember drug court being approved for $7,000 after the first year. The actual number was lower than this. This first part is what? What is this? Under the 500,000 what is this. The reason I ask is because under the 600,000 it says administrative expenses. Under the 500,000 you have rent at 26,000, and then you go under administrative for 14,000. Rent for what? Why is it two different numbers? Lease/Purchase is in two place and two has different numbers. Same for salaries. I am not sure we are paying that much. What is the actual? If not speak now, what is the big cushion for? What are we leasing and purchases? I remember when we approved making it a community report. What is this one, two, three, four recorder? What recorder? Is that for transcribing? What is this $600 for every meeting? Before we got Tom we had Brian. He said everyone had to cut their budget. When the Trustees are able to travel in their regions, 7th Traditions go up. If you do not see your Trustees, 7th Tradition goes down. I am always leery when we get to this. If we are cutting then we are cutting this.
Earl: A lot of the questions you raised are good. You are seeing two entries for possibly the same things. I would address your questions. You are talking about the overall budget. Your questions would be best answered by Tom and Patty. I was not really happy with the document because of the way it is printed and presented makes it look like it is duplicate entries.
Tony: I think we can bring that up tomorrow night.
Earl: I got a report that was a 40 page data report.
Bobbie: Let’s go back to the Trustees meetings. The $600, if you can’t answer it I will throw it out there tomorrow. What is it for?
Earl: I think that cost that you see is not for the piece of equipment. That cost is for the transcribing.
Tony: I can tell you that the transcriber is getting paid only $250 a quarter.
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Earl: It says $600 per quarter. Is she giving us a special deal? Is Patty saying this is what it could cost?
Tony: I think we always paid $250
Earl: It could be that that is market rate.
Jay: But then why put that in?
Earl: I do not like this report, where is the total? Is this for the year?
Nicholas: Does the body take into account inflation?
Earl: Finance Committee does.
Nicholas: I have noticed that in my region, even though the UK used to that is the life. They are sorting their translations out. Other areas of the region are starting to make their first donations ever, like Sweden donated some. I have some money from Spain. The donations are going up. I just wanted to confer with someone who said if you go there, 7th Tradition will go up. My experience is as a Trustee, if you go and talk to someone and explain as a Trustee why you are doing it. Instead of the area treasurer screaming at them, you can explain what happens. Does it automatically go up 2 ½ percent every year? Nothing ever gets cheaper.
Earl: The answer is yes they take that into account.
Bruce: How much would we save if the February or March Trustee’s meeting is canceled?
Earl: About $7,000
Tony: That is a little high, I would say $5,000
Earl: Well I said about, when you look at meeting two you have the hotel: $2,000, prepaid mail is $1300, recorder is $600 (Which we think is too high), and transportation at $3,000. That may sound a little high right now, but with rising fuel costs, that might be right on point.
Bruce: I think every time I send a quarterly report back to the area’s delegates it gives them a chance to see who is giving money and how much is being given. I was disappointed to see that there was a mistake in the 7 th Tradition that I was given. I hope that future reports are accurate.
Earl: It was brought to my attention that there were some errors in that report and I brought that to the Office. They were auditing the report just as my email came through. I asked them the status while I was in Palm Springs and I am awaiting that response.
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2007. 07. 07 Dinner with New Trustees
Tony: Date and time for Trustees, need to have complete information for new WSBT members and needs to be complete and attached with WSBT phone and email lists.
Jay: Last year that was coordinated by me as the TEC chair. We set a time for this room for the Trustees to come and join us for dinner. We went to a restaurant last year, you do not have to go there but it worked out good for us last year. So with that I pass it off to you Earl.
Tony: Jay who did the information for that, you have the phone list?
Jay: There was a form that Cynthia had created and that was given to the new secretary who got the new info and passed those out when the new Trustees were decided. This included when the first quarterly and Conference call were and the Yahoo Group stuff. It was coordinated by the secretary of the Board and the TEC chair.
Tony: Last year we had the dinner including spouses. We will plan on Saturday night whenever the dinner is. Ok we will remove that from the agenda.
2007. 07. 08 Ratification of the selection of the Director at large John Whitaker
Tony: The candidate at hand is John W. , it is a simple majority, and it is open for discussion. I will do a secret ballot.
Bruce: Can you explain?
Tony: Basically the Office Board has voted to have him as the new Director and we have to approve all those. We should not have written ratification, which is really for once someone is elected and we are approving that. So this is an election rather than ratification.
Tony: In our WSM on page 45, it is talking about how we elect Officers. Point one says” All Directors other than Paid Directors or Trustee Directors will be elected by the Board of Trustees. After consideration of specific qualifications of each perspective Director”
Tony: John Whitaker has not been elected as the Director.
New Business:
2007. 08. 05 Date and time for the next WSBT quarterly meeting
Carl: November 2-4th
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Hayward: I move we have the November quarterly the weekend of the 2nd through the 4th, starting at 7 p.m.
Earl: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
2007. 08. 06 Date and time for the next WSBT Conference call
Bobbie: We usually do that in October, the first weekend.
Earl: The first Sunday, like October the 7th.
Bobbie: motion for the next Conference call to be October 14th at 10 a. m. pacific.
Earl: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously
2007. 08. 07 NADCP areas of concern
Bobbie: I forwarded the pass it on. I just want us all be on the same page and that we adopt that as our process.
Carl: What about the follow up letters?
Bobbie: I need to look at that process. The TAL would make sure that the database was updated and then shipped off. So I need to make sure that the pass it on includes that for the Office. The Office took care of that and they delegated taking care of the mail merge and getting packets together, for each person to get what they wanted. John said in his report that he would make sure that two cases of books are sent out for the next NADCP event.
Nicholas: What happened?
Bobbie: That’s water under the bridge and I am holding him to his word.
Nicholas: But we voted for a lot of money and it took a year and no books. It is challenging. What is the excuse given?
Tony: I talked to John and he said it was an error on the Office and as the manager of the Office he should have the ability to discipline those who needed it. He had hoped it would not come out here and he would have to name someone. If you want that he will do that tomorrow. It was a human error and he said he will fix it. For me that is good enough.
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Earl: I wanted to respond. It was not punitive, it was not on purpose. It was not given to the shipping department. We made a mistake.
Nicholas: I brought something from the UK, which I feel might be of some use to you. It is a folder that was made by the UKPI. They give it out, it is fantastic. I am not saying take it or leave it. Just look at it. It has posters this size and postcards.
Bobbie: Would we need to get this approved by Conference? They got it approved at the Conference last year?
Nicholas: I am not angry about the books, just a bit disappointed. Can I show this thing and they went yeah, this works. It has got everything. Who cares about the stories, this is what CA does. Here is the poster and where you put your name. It is the UK’s experience that is it very effective.
Tony: I think if it is approved literature and it is just packaged it does not need approval.
We will remove this one from the agenda.
2007. 08. 09 Trustee rotation-too many are rolling out in 08.
Carl: Bobbie and I had a discussion, what is happening is we are really out of whack. Jahi stepped down a year early. Which took us where it should have been two people rolling in and out to where we were at three. At some point we may have to go back and correct that. So if you want to keep that on the back burner.
Tony: Do you want me to remove or leave it?
Carl: leave it.
Tony: Motion to adjourn for tonight
Carl: So moved
Tony: Motion passes unanimously.
Tony: Good morning we are back at 9:12am, WSBT quarterly meeting.
2007. 08. 10 European Office
Nicholas: I have been working on the subCommittee. I have come to a road block and I thought maybe the Office Board should know about this. I have come into a position where I am not sure, budgets and stuff. I have to come up with a realist plan. Also I am aware that the UK area is almost acting like a sort of Office. They are shipping in pallets from the Office and distributing to Europe. I do not know how thye will and the need of the Board is to get a UK Office. I have a feeling that they just will make one. Something has got to give. For PI, when they shipped a pallet they gave it all away. I wanted to bring it to the table.
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What is the desire of the Office or the Board is to have a European Office in our name or just let them go. Whether we think we need to control it. They seem quite organized over there. The NA model is that it was funded for 5 years by WS, and by year 7 they are funding it and also sending money back to World because they are selling so much. They are also printing on their own. Can they print the HFC 2 over in Europe? It would be practical and save thousands in shipping. That is the main reason people do not buy literature is because it is so expensive, HFC 2 will be 20$ there. They might be able to bring that down if they could print it there. There is a document; Bobbie said we are going to hold it back. I am a little bit stuck and I do not know what we need for an Office. What are the minimum requirements for an Office? The cost over there to set up an Office is more, because the cost of living is more. On my report I have noticed that there are 39 more meetings since my last report. I will assume that the UK will have over 200 meetings in the next four years. 4 new countries that have come on. I think it is a lot bigger question than I thought originally.
Bobbie: This is in International Structure and Development. Nicholas has sent. I did not include it in the report. My understanding of that is that we do not shoot out the initial process like that. It is good for everybody to know what is going on in that Committee. It took Jackie two years to get out the ER. I have had the chance to talk to some of the NA public relations people. What they did was found that is was fiscally responsible to put it in Belgium. Because this was the central part of Europe. Now getting it off that island is almost as costly. They initially started in the UK for two years. It always goes back to their World Services. It is an Office for NA. I want to make sure we have not pulled a McDonalds. You cannot buy our logo and run off and do your own thing.
Carl: What he said was they moved it to Belgium because it is a bigger shipping lane. That brought the cost down and they could ship from anywhere. I think it will be an enormous logistical nightmare if we say yes UK just go ahead and do it. I do not want to sit on an idea. If we do not do it right, if we follow them as close as possible it will work. But we need to sit with them at the table and get all the nuances. Once we have that opportunity then I would say lets go for it. Remember that when we talk with them it is a satellite Office, not a stand alone Office. They have one paid employee and one volunteer. Over time it will catch up and be self supporting.
Tony: It is a pretty simple business proposition, look at costs. We also have to view our literature as part of our literature. I am against just letting them do what they want, because that is part of our income. From a legal stand point, if we just let different areas use our logos; we are going to have a real hard time defending that later. I think part of copyrights is doing everything to protect it. When there is a pattern that you have, then it is difficult to defend in court. If there is a way that makes sense financially that works, if we can save this area money. We have to find a way to make it work. It is just going crazy over there with growth.
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Jay: I am wondering if it might make sense, to possibly have some money in the budget for the funding of this. Even if it is only a couple hundred dollars. It is kind of like taking pain medication; like if you take it after it may take a while to set in.
But if you take it before, you may be better, in terms of not so much pain. We do not have a meeting in Belgium, do we? How many meetings do we have in the UK?
Nicholas: On Sunday there will be 130.
Jay: There are still some scattered in the other countries around there.
Nicholas: Holland is part of the island.
Jay: We do not wait till you possibly put up there a little later on. Then you are still scrambling when you have a need. With the two Directors, we need to ask the Office or ask the Conference what the year might look like if they had even a one person satellite Office.
Trevor: does anyone know how it works in Quebec. It is my understanding that somewhere along the line they purchased rights to printing literature and chips in Quebec. As part of the area in Alberta, we purchased some our stuff from Quebec. How does that work?
Hayward: Bobbie, did NA finance the startup itself?
Bobbie: They have center in Canada and in the European side they have an actual satellite Office.
Hayward: If we do not have enough money to start that, are you going to hold on to some 7th Tradition funds?
Nicholas: They are realizing that they are shipping in bulk and there has to be an easier way. Russell is trying to get HFC 2 in London, they are working on it. They are not going to ask our permission or get it. I would suggest we are going to need some volunteers.
Earl: Nick and I have talked bout this on the phone, there are a lot of questions to be asked. NA has done this; we may not do this exactly as they did. They may have decided Belgium because that is the way it made sense for their fellowship, it was distributed on the continent. At this particular point in time it looks like the UK would be the best for us, but that might change. There are a couple things I want to look at. What was NA’s size when they opened that Office, what was their 7 th Tradition at the time? What percentage of money did they have to take out to support this? What were their setup costs and annual costs going forward? There is printing of the literature that goes on all over the world. There are royalty agreements that were made in CA before my time. I think the UK is printing literature, or Scotland. We are getting a certain
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amount of money for a certain amount of copies that are made. It costs a lot of money to ship a book from Ohio to London. Today with digital printing, it might make really good sense to have a vendor in London. We need to do some more homework on that. We are having trouble overseeing and managing an Office that is 50 miles away. I can’t imagine what troubles we will run into with that Office. This is very exciting, this is about the growth of CA and this is what we are here for, as Trustees, to facilitate the growth of CA.
Bruce: Just a couple things, I think it is really important that we do budget some money and start looking at this. We can see a growth pattern in the European region. We are not seeing a whole lot of growth in North America. Some investigation and practical planning are needed here. I think as long as the Office is a satellite of the LA Office things will be kept relatively in order. This is about saving money by printing locally, this all makes dollars and cents. I do not know what goes on in Montreal. Yves has said they are just about out of HFC 1 books. They are not planning to print any more. They are looking to translate the HFC 2 book first. We can look at what AA did in its earlier days. I would like to talk to people in AA and at the NY Office. I speak strongly in favor of budgeting money for this. I do not know if one or two hundred is enough.
Bobbie: Since we are looking at what we are supposed to do. Is this something that once we get it all together, like with the region. Would we have to get Conference to approve or is this just operating? Where would this fall?
Tony: If it is any change in the budget, which would have to get approved. If it is anything that changes in our structure or in the manual that would have to be approved. If we were just opening a satellite Office, as long as it is in the budget, we would not need to get that approved at the Conference. It is just operating changes. Nick, I obviously support this. I thought I remember in the past you saying that if we do not approve this that they are just going to do it. It is our jobs as Trustees to help them see the bigger picture and let them know we appreciate their enthusiasm, but if they wanted to start tomorrow that would not be what is best for our fellowship today fiscally. It is your responsibility as a Trustee to tell them this. I think justifiably they have felt that we do not have a global view. When Jackie was dealing with it, she had to think about when was the right time.
Nicholas: I have a 20 page document from AA. Their model is, if they do not speak English, they do not help them. What they do is AA; if it is an English speaking meeting they support them. If an American wants to start an English speaking meeting in Germany they help them, however if a German wants to start a German speaking meeting in Germany they are on their own. I have talked to some people in AA, and they have a different attitude. I am trying not to go down that path. The only thing that was fantastic was in there it says Translations = growth. In Sweden they are doing fantastic, most of them speak English. But there are a few that do not, so they have translated some pamphlets. I know they are working on the stories with or without the Office. It is the balance between their needs and the legalities and the finances. The idea of
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putting it somewhere and then shifting it again. That is what NA did and it worked for them. I think we should come back and speak more about it in November.
Carl: It was a financial move for NA to move that Office. So we keep saying we want to put it here, but if we put the Office in Belgium then the fellowship in Belgium will grow. Geographically the center is here, so you are either going to ship it over the water or under the water, those are the two options. Going across or under is very expensive. So if we are looking at it in London we are going to have a huge financial burden. So it would not make sense to have it there. Let’s look at what the Model already did.
Tony: Nick would you like to see this stay on the agenda?
Bobbie: Let’s leave it on there. We will be working on this in Committee.
2007. 08. 11 new position on WSOB International Liaison Officer
Nicholas: Again, I had a nice chat. I was thinking of Canada and the meeting in Australia. John is a lovely man and he does a lot, but he has never been to Europe yet. I was putting it forward to create a position or maybe someone could take it on or concern themselves. All the growth seems to be happening internationally. Although we have a fantastic teacher, but it would be nice if someone who phoned into the Office could speak to someone who was knowledgeable about the International. Some of these new members do not know the rules and regulations. People say we phoned the Office and they did not know what we were talking about. They get this feeling that they are not heard. One of my reports from Sweden, I purposely left the errors in. They struggle with the words and semantics. The persons in the Office treat them as if they speak English. Could someone concern themselves with international phone calls and problems? They are going to have problems that they never encountered before. You can’t phone the next area and get a solution because they do not speak the same language. In the postage all the Americans get sent out first and then all the foreigners get sent out second, why when they are farther?
Bobbie: The WSBT has a person that has that responsibility. That is the TAL’s responsibility. Jackie was the first to really acknowledge that in me. She always included me. With the mail out, that is not a new one for us. That is one of my privies. I am not supposed to be dealing with the calls about CALA, the international ones are for me. Jackie would always include me in the emails, if they weren’t in the area she would let me know. Then I would introduce them back to her.
Tony: Adding a letter I to the Board to Board agenda: Delegate mailings to other countries.
Bruce: I thought this, from reading what you said. I thought this person would add an international perspective to the overall operations of the Office. What I am hearing is that this person would be doing more of the day to day operations. Those are different things. There is someone who can try and make sure that international outreach is
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always part of perspective of everyone at the Office. This is an oversight at the Office. Versus someone who picks up the phone or who gets messages, say from Holland. That is a more day to day operation.
Bobbie: Are we aiming for a Board member or are we aiming for two?
Earl: I think this is a customer service issue. I think we need to train our new people to be internationally sensitive. We will be getting calls from individuals for whom English is their second language and we need to be sensitive to that. If you have a question about what this person is asking you, maybe you need to say less and tell them you will get back to them so you can find help with it. I think the creation of an international liaison Officer is a little over the top.
Nicholas: I like what you said and thank you for the feedback.
2007. 08. 12 WSOB expenditure exceeding $500 for the CALA cruise
Tony: I think there is a little confusion on when we need to approve expenses and when we do not.
Earl: I have not been able to find out any specifics on the cruise.
Tony: I was not talking about the cruise specifically. When do we need to approve expenditure?
Earl: Any contract that we need enter into over $ 500 needs to go to the Board of Trustees for approval. When we purchase things that are not under contract. What we need to do is look at, I have emailed John, and we need clarification guidelines as to when Hayward and I need to come to this Board. We write checks for various bills and things, it doesn’t come here for approval. Where is the process documented that we need to do this and come to the Board of Trustees to get this approved? It has been a tradition for some reason in my mind, if we are going to have an expenditure for something that was not budgeted and was over $ 1000 needed to come to this Board. Whenever we are going to make a transfer of funds over a certain amount it needs to come to Board of Trustees for approval. But where is it written? It is something that I need clarification and the Office needs it.
Hayward: Anything over $1000. Confused about contracts and purchases and that is why we are bringing it here for discussion.
Carl: We do not want to get into micro managing either. The process has been working, but it is a little concerning that we do not know the numbers. If we find out the numbers, then that will be something that satisfies everyone’s curiosity. We may want to have someone research the guidelines or leave this on the agenda until we can find out some numbers.
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Tony: Well I think that Earl did his own research. I read through everything last week and I found it no where. Other than the $500 that it states for contract I did not see anything about it. I think it is beyond that, it is to the point where we need to make some numbers and motions about it. At this point I am going to change the name to “Creation of WSOB Guidelines for Expenditures” Item 2007. 08. 12-Creation of WSOB Guidelines for Expenditures. We are going to bypass this for now and work on this later.
2007. 08. 14 Conference prep
Tony: All expanded role during delegate orientation subcommittee will work on presentation, opening reports from all Trustees, waiting response from Conference Committee with information on correct form submittal. Main report-need to add new referrals when received, floor strategy, who is presenting what motions, what questions and/or debate should we be prepared to address?
Jay: Can we break these up one by one. Hayward passed out that one thing,
Hayward: I gave everyone for the delegate orientation, what everyone chose they wanted to present, I gave you a one sheeter with the title and bullet points for that.
Jay: The orientation is dry, so by having the Trustees do it and be present and put some life into it will make it a little more lively. It would make the new delegates know the Trustees immediately. Feel tangibly more at ease coming to talk to us along the way.
Tony: Jay and Cynthia made notes on everything just to give everyone references, you do not need to follow it or stand up there and read it.
Trevor: How long do we have for each?
Tony: It is fairly quick.
Jay: If there are things that you want to add, let the secretary know so the document evolves. We will take all the Conference reports that we did and put them all in one document. We usually wait until the Conference Committee gives us the stick. What we did last year, we took all the referral responses and put them into that document also. The main report is, as you know there is a referral process, we get those and those that we worked through all through the year. They go to the three Officers of this Board; we look at them and quickly decide what to do. The Conference Committee gives us a narrative so we can cut and paste. If we do have time, sometime we just leave until the next Board to Board. There might be a way that we can look at them and bang something out. We have no motions that we are making ourselves. One thing that happened last year under, what questions should we be prepared to debate, possibly the SR 14 referrals may be slightly more controversial. One year we had Trustees debating both sides of the issue, even though it passed unanimously on our Board. Then we had the WSOB chair coming up with his own view of things and amend what our Board had done, because it did not go their way. Maybe we need to pause and think about it first.
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There was an issue that came up and we had a meeting standing up here in the hall and I think we made the wrong decision because we were in the heat of the moment. When we have the chance we need to pause, let’s reserve the right to come back and talk about this. The floor will look at us to see which way we are going. It is an interesting god centered responsibility we have to be the service leaders, but also let the conscience do its own force.
Tony: As we get this stuff going, Jay, Hayward and I will work on this and direct who is going to do what.
2007. 08. 15 Ratification of the WSBT
Tony: Read description out of the WSM. Please write a simple yes or no next to the person, yes is to ratify. No is to not ratify. Please give to me and we will tally. All members are ratified.
2007. 08. 16 WSOB ratification
Tony: John B. is the chair, Kathy Jo is the vice chair, Theresa N is the secretary, Tom is the treasurer, Patty, and Willie B. All members of the WSOB have been ratified.
2007. 08. 17 Temporary Conference Committee assignment to cover gap until first Conference.
Tony: I believe the only thing open is convention.
Carl: I will cover it.
Tony: So until the next Conference call he will cover Conference and convention.
2007. 08. 18 Election of WSOB Office
Tony: First up is chair.
Jay: I nominate Carl.
Carl: I accept
Nicolas: I nominate Hayward.
Hayward: I accept
Earl: I nominate Bruce
Bruce: I accept
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Tony: Please take and ballot and write the name. Congratulations Carl you are the new chair. Next nominations for vice chair
Carl: I nominate Bobbie
Bobbie: I accept
Jay: I nominate Hayward
Hayward: I accept
Tony: It is a tie; if you are ok I will flip a coin. Bobbie is your new vice chair.
Hayward: I nominate Trevor
Trevor: I accept
Carl: I nominate Bruce
Bruce: I accept
Tony: A tie again. Call it in the air Bruce-Bruce is the secretary.
2007. 08. 19 Election of CAWS Inc. Officers
Tony: Nominations for president
Bobbie: I nominate Hayward
Hayward: I accept
Jay: Motion to approve by acclimation
Carl: Second
Tony: Ok the new president is Hayward Hunt.
Tony: Vice President
Bobbie: I nominate Earl
Jay: Motion to approve by acclimation
Carl: Second
Tony: Unanimously Earl is the new Vice President.
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Secretary
Bobbie: I nominate Trevor for Secretary
Jay: Motion to approve by acclimation
Carl: Second
Tony: Trevor is new Secretary
Treasurer
Bobbie: I nominate Lawrence for Treasurer
Jay: Motion to approve by acclimation
Carl: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously for Lawrence
2007. 08. 20 Qualities we are looking for in New WSBT members
Tony: This is not an agenda item to discuss candidates; we cannot do that before the election process. Are we in need of someone who has an internet background, or legal background?
Jay: We have had some good luck talking about this in the past. As you know the job is rigorous and it is about the qualities as we look around the room. We may want to try to fit together. As I have gone through the interviews I thought about how they would interact with the Board, how they would respond as we had to one year when someone from the floor got up and said the Trustees are all liars. Can that person take it?
Tony: You are walking into the line of fire; you are supposed to be a teacher. Over 90% of the problems I have run into are people who are trying to do what they think is the best. They may not have been taught. Someone who can be an educator and can help people grow.
Nicholas: Do I need to be right? Can you step up to the plate when they are shooting rockets at you? I have been called a liar twice to my face already. My experience meeting Howard he listened and he was informative. I am a delegate I do not know what is going on, and he sat down and was informative and helpful. They could listen to more then one point of view, someone who is balance. These two have fantastic skill sets. Someone who has an idea of what is going on. It makes all the difference between a curt response and a kind response.
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Jay: A couple personal things this year. One of the delegates in my region was giving someone advice that I did not feel was an accurate understanding of the Tradition. There are no set guidelines on what they are.
2007. 08. 12 Possible additional motions to make at the Conference.
Jay: Can you, Hayward go through the lists of the referrals we have.
Hayward: Clarification on the Regional Assembly process, chairs voting status, sobriety requirements on the Trustees and delegates, adding a 10th Director to the WSOB, WSM and Committee guidelines signoff, change to bylaws regarding Trustee ratification process.
Jay: The last one is the referral that goes into our bylaws; there is no debate on that. The one that struck me the most is the sobriety requirements, we may want to respond depending on what S&B does.
Tony: I think that we should keep our eye on the 10 th Director. I am going to take this off the agenda. What I am going to propose is; we have under old business item 2007. 07. 03 issues of CALA and Monique, 2007. 05. 09 Review of 12 Point Literature and publishing Process, 2007. 08. 12 Creation of WSOB guidelines for expenditure. Let’s meet back here at one pm.
Earl: On some of the things we discussed during the meeting, approved ratification of WSOB, and elected Officers of the WSBT. When can I go forward with that information?
Tony: You can let the WSOB know as soon as you want; we tend to keep the new Officers of the WSBT till the end. For our Officers we do not make that public until the end. You can let the members know that they got ratified and the member who did not get elected also.
****Break****
Tony: I received an email over our break and there was a little miscommunication. The Office Board members wanted to add to the Board to Board we are adding a letter J-WSOB referral and letter K-25th anniversary merchandise.
2007. 07. 03 Issues with CALA and Monique
Carl: I motion that we accept draft number 2
Hayward: Second
Tony: Motion passes unanimously
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2007. 05. 09 review of the 12 Point Literature and publishing Process.
Tony: We understand that Patty may have some ideas and we are going to wait to hear from her bout those at the Board to Board.
2007. 08. 12 Creation of WSOB guidelines for expenditure
Bobbi: Motion to approve document
Hayward: Second
Earl: I would like to make a friendly amendment that change in the last portion of that from WSOB to WSO.
Bobbie: I accept
Tony: Motion passes unanimously
Jay: We are going to also put this in the finance Committee, will you guys do that over the course of the year.
Earl: I think I should advise the WSOB immediately, since it does say immediately.
Hayward: Where is this going to live?
Earl: WSBT finance subcommittee.
***off the record for group inventory***
Jay: Motion to adjourn this quarterly
Hayward: Second
Tony: Meeting is adjourned.
For attached documents and reports see: 2007-08-26-29-WSBT-Quarterly-Minutes-Final.pdf