Dec. 17, 2023 – WSOB Minutes

WSOB MINUTES DECEMBER 17, 2023

OPEN MEETING @ 8.00 AM PST

SERENITY PRAYER – Earl invites the room to open with the serenity prayer.

TRADITION – Robert reads the 12th Tradition.

CONCEPT – Earl reads the 12th Concept.

ROLL CALL & QUORUM DETERMINATION

Present:

• Earl H., Chair
• Jonathan H., Treasurer
• Yves W., Secretary, NewsGram editior, LCF Liaison
• David C., DAL, WSBT LTP and IS&D Liaison
• Jo P., DAL, P{I and Unity Liaison, late
• Robert B., WSOT
• Joni E., WST
• Joost B., CAWS 2024 Chair
• Jay P., CAWS 2025 Chair
• Justin C., CAWS 2026 Chair

Guests:

• Anne M.
• Ginger L.
• Greg B.
• Jay F.
• Jonathan M.
• Randy G.
• Quin B.

CHAIR ANNOUNCEMENTS

• December 16, 2023, minutes were approved, with changes.

SEVENTH TRADITION –

Observed in the office, online members are directed towards ca.org.

CAWS CONVENTION REPORTS

CAWS 2024 (Amsterdam) Joost van K.

Highlights:

• Program – speaker and workshop slate is completed, we will finalize to send it next month
• Fundraising is going very well. We already hit the targets, so everything that we are bringing in now will be above what we have budgeted, which is already great news. We will keep pushing a lot of

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events taking place. We have 12 Steps online meeting with a speaker from around the world this month being the Seventh Step.

• Working hard with H&I, contacting all kinds of clinics, halfway houses, to bring as much as possible newcomers into the event.
• One challenge will be the banquet attendees, with discussion with the hotel, we can go up to 650.
• January 1st will be the next price increase for registrations.

CAWS 2025 (Arizona) Jay P.

Highlights:

• Met with the Hotel and re confirmed the promises made during the sales process. The meet went very well and there was no misunderstanding. The venue will be cozy.
• General Committee meet on the first Sunday of each month. We met in person and had good attendance. All positions are filled.
  • Marathon meeting approved.
  • Entertainment slate was presented and discussed with take aways.

• Motion: Robert B. proposed that we approved the CAWS2025 convention theme and logos “Awakening”, seconded,

CAWS 2026 (Florida)

Highlights:

• On December 6th we received a draft contract. A review of this draft resulted in a total of 29 “comments” addressing various points, most of them minor, making sure that the contract is in alignment with already made concessions and commitments agreed upon by the hotel and most importantly ensuring that the final document makes sense for the Fellowship on all fronts.
  • We are awaiting a response to this first revision request.
  • We have a signing date for January 26th. We can ask an extension if needed.
• The CAWS 2026 Spending Committee was ratified. We are working on our budget looking to submit it to WSOB in January 2024.

DIRECTORS REPORTS

Chair – Earl H.

Highlights:

• The training of our new Office Manager, Tai B., continues and is progressing on schedule. The restructuring plan for the WSO continues with the hiring of a new Customer Support Services Representative. Her name is Dawn S.
• Our year end WSO inventory will take place Jan 2nd through Jan4th. Order taking and processing is paused during this time.
• We are looking how to streamline our process with our metal token vendor. It is highly labor intensive and brings little revenue into the WSO.
• WSO sent an electronic mailing out to the fellowship the beginning of October with a “Help Wanted Ad” to bring attention to our efforts to recruit and replace directors on the WSOB.

Treasurer – Jonathan H.

Highlights:

• CAWS2025 Convention
  • Still need to contact BofA to see if my access as a signer will be able to add Treasurer as a signer or if all signers will need to execute paperwork.
  • Plan to add Treasurer by beginning of January if not earlier.

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• • Need to transfer any funds from existing local Arizona account to CAWSO account for accurate recordkeeping and visibility.
• Debit cards
  • Will be cancelling all debit cards except Trustee and few emergency ones as per motion at previous meeting.
• Taxes
  • Have re-requested the consolidated financials but have yet to receive.
• Freedom Fund
  • Account 400419 – Give Butter Contributions has been created and the transactions have been reclassified.
• Financials Included:
  • CAWSO
    • Income Statement
      • YTD through 11/30/23
      • YTD through 12/15/23
    • Balance Sheet
      • YTD through 11/30/23
      • YTD through 12/15/23
    • Statement of Cash Flows
      • YTD through 11/30/23
      • YTD through 12/15/23
    • Budget vs Actuals
      • YTD through 12/15/23

Secretary – Yves W.

Highlights:

• Archives Committee
  • Backup of CA Digital Archive Files
    • 2023-11-27 – ca.org backup
    • 2023-11-28 – docs.ca.org backup | 1614 records
    • 2023-11-28 – museum.ca.org backup | 1696 images | 1206 records
    • 2023-08-08 – audio.ca.org back up | 579 audio files 
    • 2023-11-28 – Thumb drive backup
    • 2023-11-27 – External 120GB Hard Drive (1)
    • 2023-11-27 – External 120GB Hard Drive (2)
    • Today – Cloud account – up to date (synced with CF personal computer)
  • WSO Move
    • Take an inventory of all items on display in the office (4 display cases/shelves). All items to be boxed and inventoried.

• LCF Committee
  • New Companion guide:
    • Vote on the cover submitted by the WSO by LCF was unanimous.
    • We received the approved version of the New Companion Guide (Point 15 of the Book process).

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• • Early Days of CA Book
    • LCF received the Early Days of CA version from our Editor (Point 13 of the Book process).
  • Service Sponsorship Pamphlet
    • The professionally edited version is now in the hands of LCF for their review (Point 12 of the Pamphlet Approval Process).
• IT Committee
  • An account has been created with Google.
  • Working to develop a campaign for the App for Area to get on board for their meetings.
    • Get the delegates to engage the areas and to get them to be directed to ITcomittee@ca.org 
    • Put together a general message for the areas to do their onboarding.

• NewsGram
  • The theme for Q12024 edition is “Surrender and Acceptance” and the deadline for articles will be February 10, 2024.

Director at Large – David C.

Highlights:

• Translations Sub-committee
  • Tom T (IT Chair) made a presentation regarding digital translations. Unanimous agreement to update the Translations Process to include provision covering this work.
  • Sweden Logo and Quiet Peace. Portugal QP and Companion Guide. Denmark Quite peace. Additionally, Quebec, Holland and Sweden require new Copyright Agreements for the new Companion Guide.
  • Next meeting January 28, 2024, 6pm GMT
• WEB Update RFP Sub-committee
  • The 3 software we have looked are Zoho 1 CRM, HubSpot and Dynamics 365 options with pros and cons report was looked at.
    • Zoho is the frontrunner, but we need to go deeper with demos and consideration of plugins which may or may not be required for inventory management, QuickBooks etc.
  • Date of next meeting Sunday 14th January 2024. This choice of slot to be reviewed at thenext meeting.

Director at Large – Joanne P.

Highlights:

• HSBC Bank Account
  • Stuart J, European Regional Trustee was added and Sarah T. removed from the HSBC account.
  • I have also received a request for European areas to use this for transactions to the Office such and Tradition 7 and Literature costs. I have at this stage referred them to the ERT. As requested at the last meeting I have started to put together some guidelines and procedures for the use of this account. Still need to complete this action.
• WSOB Policies and Manual
  • I have developed a process for the print on demand literature – I will collate the number of meetings information from the Q4 trustee reports so this will complete the spreadsheet for the Office PI Committee

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• • Should we provide some information to the fellowship regarding the different/preferred modes of payment to encourage them to use more electronic methods and reduce the burden for the Office?

TRUSTEE REPORTS

WST Trustee – Joni E.

Highlights:

• TNC
  • The 2024 CAWS Convention Hotel contract addendum for Holland has been approved by full WSBT and signed.
• Translation
  • I have 2 very preliminary quotes for the proofreading of excerpts of the translated book as follows:
    • Translated.com – This company offers 3 tiers for proofreading.
    • Premium includes translator, specialist reviser and QC for ~$0.16 per word. Professional includes translator and QC for ~$0.12/word.
    • Economy is machine translation with light review for ~$0.04 per word.
    • Kern – We have worked with Kern in the past for proofreading translations. Proofreading/Editing estimated cost is ~$0.14 per word.
• Mobile App Registration
  • We have completed the registrations of the logo, Cocaine Anonymous, and C.A. for the Mobile App.
  • We have received refusals to our filings in Australia and New Zealand. As a next step, we are evaluating the cost to submit further filings and I will have additional information within the next few weeks.
• Licensing & Royalty Agreements
  • Sweden: Logo, Quiet Peace, Companion Guide
  • Portugal: Quiet Peace, Companion Guide
  • Denmark: Quiet Peace
  • Holland: Companion Guide
  • Quebec: Companion Guide
• Office Move Ad Hoc Committee
  • The committee is continuing to meet to work on an RFP and to review and update the project timeline.

WSOT Trustee – Robert B.

Highlights:

• WSBT
  • Approved to move forward with acquisition of the following:
    • cocaineanonymous.org
    • cocaineanonymous.com
  • Board-to-Board meeting – 13-JAN-2024 – 9:00am to 12:00pm (PST). o WSO Chair & Treasurer Quarterly Reports Due – 14-FEB-2024
  • WSO Chair & Treasurer Quarterly Reports Due – 19-JUN-2024
  • WSO Chair & Treasurer In-Person Review – 10-JUL-2024 (at CAWS 2024)
  • WSO Chair & Treasurer Quarterly Reports Due – 14-AUG-2024

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SPENDING COMMITTEE REQUEST:

NONE

MONTHLY MEETING MOTIONS

ONLINE MOTIONS

NONE

UNFINISHED BUSINESS/PROJECT UPDATES

• Royalty, Copyright, Translation, Licensing agreements-step by step process for initial and then annual renewal, review, and invoicing.
• In process (Awaiting policy/procedure guidelines) Jo P
• WSOB reimbursement policy for conventions and conference. (Awaiting policy/procedure guidelines) Jo P
  • Web site domain names, WSBT has requested these two: www.cococaineanonymous.org
  • www.cocaineanonymous.com (in process with WSBT)
• Ballot review, election process, fellowship mailing for proposed Tradition 11 change.
• Robert will connect with S@B to have the document and prepare it up to be sent to the fellowship.
• Since we also need to reach out to any loner group that are not reference in any areas, Joni will work with Gary P. that is gathering contact information for these groups.

NEW BUSINESS

Motion: to adjourn at 13:01pm

Yves W., WSOB Secretary

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NEW REFERRALS RECEIVED:

None

SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE MOTIONS):

WSOB 2022-11 Pre-conf 2022

Ruby C. Utah Area

The WSOB create and implement a procedure for the review of the entire ca.org website at least once a year. The review of the ca.org website would include all sub -sites and web pages originating from ca.org, including the C.A. Virtual Museum and the P.I. Members Area. The review would include but not be limited to the following —

• Ensure the functionality of all hyperlinks and forms.
• Ensure the ca.org website, sub-sites, and web pages originating from ca.org are compliant with the most current version of the WSC Information Technology Guidelines
• Ensure no Tradition violations are present.

A. Motion: WSOB to create an Ad hoc committee that would be live for a month, chaired by a WSOB member that would proceed to a complete audit of the ca.org website including the following a representative for each of the following: 

• WSBT for Tradition violation audit
• LCF for our literature content audit
• IT committee for WEB Site functionalities and guidelines audit
• Archives committee for Virtual Museum audit
• PI Committee for PI member page audit
• Webmaster

From the audit, the ad-hoc committee will provide a report with the findings, an action plan and recommendations if needed. The report would be part of the WSOB Conference report. PASSED

REFERRALS THAT WERE FORWARDED TO OTHER COMMITTEES:

REFERRALS STILL IN COMMITTEE:

WSOB 2023-08 Post-Conf 2023

Nadz L. Ireland

Can a full audit of the ca.org website to streamline its content and remove so many of the hyperlinks to documents are added. There are discrepencies from one page to another with different versions of the same document.

WSOB 2023-09 Post-Conf 2023

Nadz L. Ireland

I am not sure if this should go to the WSOB or to the WSITC but here is my referral.

I would like to see the website supporting the WCAG 2.1, in support of our disabled community (e.g. learning

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difficulties, visual impairement, …).

WSOB 2023-10 Post-Conf 2023

Wade G. Utah Area

“Be it Resolved:

That the new website of CA:

1-be centered to be a resource for the general public unfamiliar with CA first.

2-information for existing members of CA, CA delegates, WSBT, etc be secondary to the meeting the needs of the general public

3-that public information be the primary aim for the website”

WSOB 2023-11 Post-Conf 2023

Renzo P. Holland Area

“To put an option to buy the Quit Peace in the app. It can be a paid add-on. But it would be amazing if get an pop-up every day. Thanks for considering it. ”

WSOB 2023-12 Post-Conf 2023

Catherine A. E. CAUK Area

“I would like the WSOB, working with the collaboration of H&I to look into the creation of a distinct “”newcomers”” H&I chip. For those newcomers who “”got the message in H&I”” this could be a metal chip or a new coloured chip to give to potential new members and to honour the special relationship for those that meet Cocaine Anonymous in hospitals, institutions, treatment centres etc. Thank you for reading my referral.”

WSOB 2023-13 Post-Conf 2023

Nadz L. Ireland

I was wondering if there could be an option to have the physical books available via Amazon (or another similar worldwide distributing company), as the Kindle versions are, so that it helps reduce the shipping and custom costs from Areas outside the US. This has been a constant struggle at least for Ireland to get easier access to the physical C.A. books

WSOB 2023-14 Post-Conf 2023

Russel S. Thailand

After discussion with key members/groups within CA Thailand I must notify you of our decision to address a continuing lack of attention by our WSO with regards donations from groups here. The commitment from WSO to provide a simple and timely confirmation of receipt of money is lacking.

While I’m sure you may have what seem like legitimate reasons and excuses as to why a donation is not acknowledged within a period of 7 days none of them are credible or respectful of the concern shared by members after many handling failings at WSO. As a small business owner with a turnover larger than CAWSO and with multiple payments received each day (using several payment transfer platforms) I am staggered that such a simple task cannot be prioritised and managed in a timely manner.

At WSC this year (2023) the floor was assured that this issue was dealt with, yet this is obviously not the case.

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*I there ask that you please clarify the SOP regarding timelines for donation receipts and present this concern, with a clear solution, at WSC 2024*.

After much consideration please also accept this as notice that no further donations will be made under CA Thailand until this issue is resolved accordingly. While we await a receipt of a donation, we will not be sending another. If the timeline exceeds 7-10 days, we may sadly cease donations to CAWSO.

CLOSED REFERRALS:

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