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CA WORLD SERVICE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
REGULAR QUARTERLY MEETING MINUTES
August 23- 26, 2008
Final Approved Minutes
(Approved by WSBT for distribution on)
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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WSBT May 2008 Quarterly
Los Angeles, California
August 23, 2008 9:09am
Opened meeting with a moment of silence and the Serenity Prayer
Introductions:
In Attendance:
Kim Sherwan MWRT
Lawrence Matlock ASRT
Trevor Scheible PNRT/Secretary of WSBT
Carl Warlick PSRT/Chair
Bobbie Harmon TAL/ Acting SWRT /Vice Chair
Earl Henderson WSOT
Bruce Watson ANRT
Nicholas Lynn ERT
Hayward Hunt WST
Off the record for personal sharing
Back on record at 10:29 A.M.
Reading of the 12 traditions: Read by Earl H.
Discussion on tradition 5:
Earl: Boy is it easy to forget the primary purpose. It is easy for us to get distracted. That primary purpose is to carry the message to the addict. All the other activities we take part in should in some way help us carry that message. If we get off tract is it serving that primary purpose?
Hayward: At every level of service that primary purpose is the same. It is not about making money, but it seems the way it is going is that we need to make some money. Everything that we do is to increase our numbers and to help others get that same freedom that we have.
Carl: I know in the Pacific South, the LA area we have groups putting on numerous amounts of events, marathons. We have a marathon every week. The groups are organizing to do these things. It takes away from the service committee. It takes away from our primary purpose when the groups are the committee, are taking on the function of another service entity, like special events. The groups are forgetting what their own primary purpose is supposed to be. Sometimes you can’t get through the door of a meeting without being sold something. We forget what our primary purpose is, to carry
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our message. It is the same message that people have been caring since 1939. How can I improve on the methods to carry this message? Not how can I change it.
Kim: I want to focus on this part of the tradition, “to the addict who still suffers”. People think this is just to the newcomer. Well I suffered from a lack of knowledge a year ago. If it wasn’t for all of you I wouldn’t know just a little bit more now, how to move through this. It is not just H&I and the newcomer. Sometimes it is not even someone in these rooms. I run across many who may not even say that they are an addict.
Nicholas: I don’t like dancing, but they carry a message with a dance. If you don’t do PI your going to die. I have heard someone said if you’re not doing H&I you are killing people and you should be ashamed. There are many ways, take someone out for tea. There is thousands of ways to carry the message. Not my message or your message, there is only one message. In sixteen years I still don’t know what is going on. The message can be carried both ways.
Lawrence: They always say keep coming back. I keep coming back cause I am still suffering too. Get the people talking about our singleness of purpose? This is our singleness of purpose.
Grab bag-everyone pick their own concept, there can be no repeats.
Bobbie: Concept 3 just recently we had a discussion at home. There the focus is “I am a delegate from the Texas area and when I get to the Conference I should be making sure that the Texas Area benefits”. My understanding of Concept 3 is that when you come to the Conference you have the opinion of what your Area wants, but when you are sitting in that room with some 200 folks and your open minded and you listen someone might say something that makes you say “hey, that makes more sense and it is not just about my Area”. You have the opportunity to practice your right of decision. Once you get there it is about CA as a whole.
Nick: I want to do 7. They rely on us and we rely on them for direction. I am supposed to know about this stuff, I have to look at it a lot. There are three cases where they really do give it to us. The Conference allows us and challenges and gives us that responsibility to do what they do for the rest of the year. There are occasions where we have to do stuff on our own. Where we have to reduce the budget and put stuff back to save Cocaine Anonymous because we are the guardians. I completely forgot about this bit, it says “if by unforeseen conditions any particular project should come impractical or unworkable during the fiscal year. Conference plans but they rely on us to make the best decision on their behalf. For me it is very linked in to step three, can you let us work for you.
Bruce: Concept 1- This is been a guiding principle of mine. I feel real strongly that we do not govern and we cannot tell people what to do. Decisions should be made by group conscious and the groups can decide how they want to run their meetings, I think that is very important. In the end there is going to be a group conscious in whatever level of service you are talking about. It is a good thing; it is why we are united together. The
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group conscious of the whole fellowship determines the direction of the fellowship. It is democracy in action. It ensures that once everyone is heard there is a final decision. We are teachers, we can educate.
Kim: Concept 9- Being sober and being in service work I have come to so appreciate this and embrace this. Maybe it should be flip-flopped. Here is good sound appropriate method, our manual, here it is and here is how you can do a group conscious, and do the right of decision, you can pick appropriate and good service leaders. It is not about picking someone because they are our best friend or they are cool or whatever. It is about knowing the steps, knowing the traditions and being able to collectively being able to know what the group conscious is. Hopefully these good service leaders are embracing the program of CA and doing what is best for it.
Lawrence: Concept 5- I remember on the Conference floor something was being discussed, motions made and it was voted on. Then the minority opinion came and it changed everything. A motion to reconsider came on the floor and the motion changed. We all need to make an informed decision. I think that is very important.
Trevor: Concept 10- One of the things I run into is that I go somewhere and someone will have an issue with something in their area. That I am going to come in and wave the mighty trustee sword and fix everything. It lets me remind them that I am not fixing anything. I can give some guidance, but I cannot compel anyone to do anything. To me it is nice to remind everyone that no matter what your service commitment is important. It is all about being a good service leader.
Earl: Concept 11- I picked this because this may be very applicable at this quarterly meeting. We have two paid directors now and they have been evaluated by their supervisors. You will be hearing about their job performance and may be considering the financial compensation of these special workers. We should be mindful and we should exercise this serious concern.
Hayward: Concept 6- Bill said who is going to run and how are we going to turn over the responsibility. In prayer he said let us let the fellowship run itself. This Concept is the establishment of the board of trustees. The Conference is an event that happens every year and everyone gets together and talks about policy making and money. The trustees have a lot of responsibility.
Carl: It is real interesting to hear the different perspectives. I think I will take Concept 2- the effective conscious of the whole fellowship. I look at this in the frame that Bill looked at it and he thought of it as a business. I take it from the bottom, we all the way down here and the share holders are all the way up here. What the shareholders did was they allowed the delegates to have the authority; they passed this on to the delegates, to do what they need to do. They have the authority to come there and vote how they want to vote and they have the authority to care for CA. We are not in charge, if the people ever read the concepts they would realize that we are not in charge, they are! We work for them. It goes back to the second tradition. The second tradition and concept run together.
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Review of Agenda/Add new business items:
Carl: We have one change already, if you go down to the approve record of online business. It should be May to August.
Bobbie: Under the approval of minutes, what minutes do we actually have? Did we approve the conference call at the quarterly?
Carl: February. We do not have April, it is just on there, but we do not have them to approve.
Bobbie: I think April 2008 was probably approved at the quarterly.
Carl: We are going to add something under new business item number 2008.08.20.
Trevor: Yes April minutes were approved at the quarterly.
Carl: Do we want to add that thing that we talked about?
Trevor: No.
Carl: New business item number 2008.08.20 is the “Confirmation of referral number 5555”. Also Kim forwarded an email from Steve Edwards about us doing the Concepts at the orientation. Last year we did not do it. We are all going to be in there anyway together.
Bruce: The tasks that the board members were asked to do at the orientation. I sent an email saying I would like to do this or that. It seems that several people are doing two and I am doing none.
Carl: When we get to item number 2008.08.09 Conference prep then we will talk about that then.
Review of WSOB Agenda
Hayward: Did that agenda change any?
Carl: Yes we added a G; I sent that out as well. Did anyone need to add anything else? Having reviewed the agenda items, we are going to remove the April Conference call from the minutes.
Approval of the minutes.
Bobbie: Motion to approve the minutes of February 2008 WSBT’s and the minutes of the July 2008 Conference call.
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Hayward: Second
Carl: Motion Passed.
Bobbie; Motion to table the approval of the WSBT May quarterly minutes.
Bruce: Second
Carl: Motion is tabled.
Bobbie: Motion to approve the record of online business between May and August 2008 quarterly meetings.
Bruce: Second
Earl: Due to the high volume of business that was conducted during this period of time, I think it behooves us to review what occurred prior to us voting.
Bobbie: Since it was so much it might take a long time.
Carl: Two motions to transfer funds. Motion passed.
Bobbie: Motion to approve the WSBT office reports, chair, vice-chair, and secretary.
Hayward: Second
Carl: Motion passed.
Bobbie: Motion to approve the trustee reports.
Kim: Second
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Carl: Motion passed.
Bobbie: Motion to approve the WSBT sub-committee reports.
Kim: Second
Carl: Motion passed.
Bobbie: Motion to approve the trustee conference committee reports, excluding CAWSO 2009, 2010, and 2011.
Kim: Second
Carl: Motion passed.
Bobbie: Motion to approve CAWSO 2009
Kim: Second
Carl: Motion passed.
Bobbie: Motion to approve CAWSO 2010
Kim: Second
Carl: Motion passed.
Bobbie: Motion to approve CAWSO 2011.
Kim: Second
Carl: Motion passed.
OLD BUSINESS
NONE
OUTSTANDING COORESPONDANCE
Carl: Response to Kemo about webpage.
Bruce: Can someone explain what the issue is.
Earl: This individual has a personal webpage. He posted on his personal webpage pictures of members of the fellowship. He posted a Public Information card that we hand out in our area. There were obvious tradition violations with this webpage.
Bruce: Has he been asked to stop?
Earl: Yes he was spoken to by his sponsor and he did pull the contact information card off it. But he is still posting pictures of people.
Carl: He stated his name and his position in PI in Cocaine Anonymous. He went on and had all the contact numbers for all the areas for the Pacific South. The card was
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authorized by the area to pass out but not to post. I will send you the email response I received from the area chair. She spoke to the members in the area.
Earl: There was a request that came to the World Service Office by Kemo to speak with a trustee other than Carl. He had been down that road. The office called me and told me. I called him and left him a voice mail. Is the correspondence that we are talking about in this agenda item the correspondence that Kemo had with me?
Carl: yes.
Earl: Are we going to have a copy of the correspondence?
Carl: Yes it is posted.
Earl: So it is more than just a web page, it is a litany. I have never actually spoken to him.
Carl: There is no logo there now, there are just pictures he has up there. There are no references to Cocaine Anonymous now. He is fine with that. Prior to this is where he had the CA logo on there and everything.
Earl: He has a complaint about this website being able to post pictures, then other websites can.
Carl: The CA paparazzi is this guy in LA. If he is just taking pictures and there may be badges there then that is not a problem. The problem is if there is a big banner or CA logo in there.
Bruce: What else does he need to do? He removed the card and I am not sure what more he needs to do.
Earl: I am not sure he understands why we came down on the logo. He used it without permission.
Bobbie: We are going to respond by thanking him for removal of the items and giving him the answers to his tradition questions.
Hayward: The secretary is going to send the letter out.
Carl: We already did that. The time now is 12:10pm; let’s return from lunch at 2pm.
Return from lunch at 2:41pm
To be completed or updated by the August Quarterly.
2006.02.20 Copyright and trademark protection
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Hayward: As you all know we have four service marks. We protect that in Canada, US, and the European region. Everything is protected in EU except for the letters C.A., we recently got correspondence from an outside legal firm that they just finished protecting the CA logo there.
Bruce: Have the law firm done any protections in Australia or New Zealand? I know South Africa turned out to be quite expensive.
Hayward: Yes, the global locations where there are only one or two meetings cost quite a bit. It is not a part of the European Union, but it is part of the ER. They are going to charge us to research that.
2006.08.13 Signatures of annual cooperate
Carl: That is there for a place marker, you will take care of that in November.
2007.10.14 TEC interview status
Earl: I sent out an email a short while ago with a working copy of the spreadsheet. I believe I sent out to everyone a tentative interview schedule for Monday and Tuesday. I submitted a report from the TEC. Thank you Kim for your outstanding support and help! I heard that Europe was bringing a slate anyway. I think we are ready to go; I have a box of manila envelopes with everyone’s questionnaire. I made 17 copies of every resume for all the candidates. It should go smoothly.
Hayward: Schedule for people that miss interviews?
Earl: On the interview schedule that I sent out I did specify some times on Monday, there will be a little open time there to listen to missed interviews. There will be a great deal of time on Tuesday for our TEC delegates to listen to tapes of interviews that they missed in SLC. As needed we will make the interview recordings available before we start the interview process.
Carl: What about us?
Earl: You can listen tonight; I have it all with me tonight. You guys have only got one or two.
2007.10.15 Status of the fulfillment center
Nicholas: We urged the UK to get an office. They are a little behind on that process. They only meet every two months; they are forming an ad hoc committee. They are going in that direction.
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Carl: I thought we were going to get an office and not a limited company. You don’t need to get a company.
Nicholas: It is just a technical thing.
Carl: So you are not going to do a fulfillment center. If is just going to be an Area office then that is Area’s business and we can take this off of here.
Bobbie: If we are switching this to an Area office then we don’t need it for the trustees.
Nick: Miss Patty is going to explain the office to the people there. And the office here can find some space to rent in the office there and then it is kind of like a fulfillment center. I think that is her vision.
Carl: You have a vision different than we have. An Area office is a simple thing. You get an office and then you have a place where you can centralize your business. It doesn’t have to be this size or the size of the WSO. I don’t think it part of the discussion here.
Nick: they are making it a big thing and I am hoping that Miss Patty can share her experience and help them make it a simple thing. We have run as far as we can on the fulfillment thing they are just going to make it an office.
Carl: We are going to remove 2007.10.15.
Bobbie: In the mean time be careful of your encouragement.
2008.04.14 Help Desk
Hayward: During the last office board meeting there was a motion to approve that and they are going to move forward with that. There was a motion to approve $600 to make that happen.
Earl: In support, there was a conference call between John, the Webservant, and Taffy ironing out the logistics on setting up this help desk. They all came to an understanding and now there is a plan of action. It was a little tough getting to that point. She came back at this last board meeting and they had this conference call meeting and they had addressed the domain and ownership. Last I heard was it should be brought on by September.
Earl: Let’s update in October Conference call.
Bruce: So anyone at all would be able to use the help line or is it limited to people who register? Is it limited in the materials that it includes?
Hayward: Anyone can view it, who wants to ask a question to the trustee. There will be a section FAQ, where our archives are. We want to put up a search option, so if you wanted
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to search about tradition 3, you would be able to use that as search criteria. There is no fee right now. Who would provide the input is the secretary of this board. Once we approve a response that response will be forwarded to the office and they will post that to the site.
Bruce: How far back will you all attempt to go for adding materials?
Hayward: Everything that is in there present. I would say at least two years. There are probably more responses in our archive files.
Carl: Can you go into the group and just go back into the calendar months? What we are trying to get is something like this. I have this here, but you can just go on here and pull up any information that you want as far as the archives go.
Hayward: There are no personal names, it will just be questions. Everything will be approved by this board. We will not have to admin the site. The office will own the site. Once Mike the web servant creates the draft then we will approve that.
Bruce: It is my understanding that there was some discussion about making the web servant a paid position at the office. Because our existing web servant being relatively busy and not been able to donate as much time to our fellowship.
Hayward: We are defiantly going to pay Mike for his services on this project. That is future talk at the office as far as making him paid.
Bobbie: Some of our responses are duplicates; we have gone and changed who we were sending to. We are not going to waste unnecessary time of our secretary or unnecessary space on the help desk. We have enough stuff in there where two or three documents can cover the same topics or tradition.
Hayward: Where we already have something posted we will not post something new.
Carl: I will put this update on the conference call.
New Business
2008.08.01 Date and Time of the next WSBT quarterly meeting
Kim: Motion that we have our next quarterly meeting November 7th through 9th to begin at 7:00pm with dinner at 5pm.
Bobbie: Second
Carl: Motion passed.
2008.08.02 Date and time of the next WSBT conference call
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Hayward: Motion to have the October conference call on October 5th at 10:00 pacific standard time.
Kim: Second
Carl: Motion passed
2008.08.03 NADCP
Bobbie: There were no problems this time. There were books there when we got there and we did run out of books the first day. However, Patty was able to get more books there the next day. Russell was there with us. We were on top of our game and I hope that it flows that way for the new TAL. In Saint Louis the locals really stepped up. I am sure that Patty will have the information at the board to board.
Carl: What about the follow ups?
Bobbie: We will have to talk to Patty about that because now with it being her responsibility, I did not leave with any information. Patty took all the information. We did a pretty good job of tracking it. I know that there were at least 200 people that we were talking to.
Kim: I got an email from Jeanette and she said there is a Midwest Regional Drug Conference in September. She was around right?
Bobbie: yes we met the lady and got all her information and gave it to Jeanette. We are hoping that you may be able to work it out and go. They can always call me and they can always talk to Patty. I can email the timeline we use on a national level.
Kim: That would be great can you copy me on that please.
Carl: We are going to go follow up with Patty at the WSOB.
Nicholas: Are you going to do it unofficially or do a Pass It On?
Bobbie: I will give the new TAL what Cynthia gave to me and I will put on there talk to Patty.
2008.08.04 Trustees Rotation
Carl: Bobbie and I and Trevor and I talked about this. The concern is that you guys are rolling in a large number of individuals here and then at the same time those people will be rolling out and there will be a new large group of people rolling in. So at some time you are going to have to correct that and the only way that you can do that is to extend someone’s time by a year or decrease someone’s term to three years to fix that rotation.
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When you guys came in you guys came in four at a time. At some time you will have to fix that and you can decide when and where you can fix that.
Bobbie: Keep in mind, that when someone rolls in to cover Bruce’s term they will complete a four year term. You can decrease someone’s time but you can add to someone’s term. You might want to let them know that they might have to do five years.
Lawrence: Can we just do that or do we need to get the approval of the conference?
Carl: We probably need to research that and go to the minutes from 2004 or 2003.
Bobbie: Walter J. was the Chair and Spencer was on there.
Carl: Terri stayed five years so maybe we can ask here.
Hayward: What years should we look at? We have archives for 2002 and 2003.
Bobbie: I would say you need to go back to 2000 or 1999. They started the staggering with Meredith.
Carl: So we have to figure out how they did that.
Bobbie: We have to consider, I believe that the five people we are leaving are good leaders, examples, and teachers. So the people that are coming in should be good leaders, examples, and teachers.
Earl: I think it wont be to drastic.
Carl: We are going to remove it from the agenda.
2008.08.05 Kick off dinner
Carl: Make sure that you get registered and that you do attend. The Saturday dinner in here are you going to take care of that Earl?
Earl: I am open to that. I don’t need to run it but I will help.
Trevor: I love it and think we should do it.
Hayward: I will get all the menus and make sure it is going to happen.
Carl: So we are going to do it and we will do it here. We need to try to order by 5 or 530pm and we will have dinner break by 6pm. Make sure that we are talking to them and try to make them feel a part of.
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Bruce: Having heard some stories about turmoil about boards in the past. I found my last two years to be a wonderful experience.
Carl: Our first year we had a little of the turmoil holding on after. After that our board became more cohesive. The laughing and the talking started when we got here.
2008.08.06 Trademark infringement
Bruce: I think this about a number of things that are going on in the Southern Ontario Area. There is more than just trademark infringement going on. For those of you who read my quarterly report you saw that there were a couple things in there that had to do with this issue. There are some meetings in Southern Ontario that are very enthusiastic about recovering and helping others to pursue recovery by following the instruction out of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Some of them call themselves muckers. This has to do with going through the book with great care and underlining and looking words up. Really being deeply involved with the instructions in the Big Book. Some of these meetings have developed their own websites. At least one had the experience of the meetings members on that website. Saying here is what we expect you to do if you want to join us. There became a debate within this area about whether some of these meetings were being a little narrow in their approach. The meeting websites are using the CA logo and name. In the winter I was CC’d on a lot of emails. I talked with the delegate and Area chair and said this is something that can be worked out in the Southern Ontario Area. I specifically referenced the instruction in Step 10. I reminded people that unity does not mean there will not be differences. Inevitably groups are going to make group conscious decisions and sometimes one group emphasizes one thing while others emphasize something else. That does not mean that the whole fellowship is one way or another way. There is still some ongoing tension and maybe a dispute. I think we have a correspondence to answer. Plus there were three separate items referenced about the Southern Ontario Area in my report. I think they relate to this issue. I would like to have some help to craft something from our board that will help.
Carl: Does anyone know of any other fellowship where groups have websites?
Hayward: Was the site linked to the CA website.
Bruce: As I understand it the websites were linked. It was linked to the Southern Ontario Area website. Then there was a big debate whether the Area could force the groups that did not comply with the request for a disclaimer. Could force them to remove the logo and other things like that. I believe strongly that unity does not imply a lack of diversity. As long as the group’s website states that they are just a group and not a representation of the whole.
Carl: We might want to send this over to IT and let them look at?
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Bruce: That is a great idea. One of the questions that came up was, was there any guidelines for group’s website. The answer is of course no, there are guidelines for Area websites but not for the group.
Trevor: If your group wants to do a website then by all means. But if you want it to be linked then it needs to meet what we already require. If it does not then you cannot be linked.
Carl: We will work on this later on this evening and craft a response for that.
2008.08.07 Housekeeping issues regarding the TEC process
Bobbie: I just emailed everyone a letter. When I got this I did a little research into what she was talking about. I emailed it to Earl. When we were at our assembly this came up and I talked about ok there are various ways this can be corrected. She went home and dug into it and what she said to me made sense. When I talked to Earl we thought it might just be a slight on our part. We have been doing this and knowing we have been doing. She was talking about how we have been counting abstentions as “No’s”. On the Conference floor abstentions are not called for or called. This board has been using the process wrong. Let’s just address it as a housekeeping issue. We can let the Conference know at the beginning so we can take care of it.
Earl: I would like everyone else to look at it and see if you come to the same conclusion.
Trevor: I understand the spirit in which this was written. I can agree where it is not technically correct to count the abstentions as a no or whatever. Sometimes being a good qualified candidate is different than being a great qualified candidate that everyone has faith and can do the job. I think it takes away from the job of the TEC that although there could be 2 or 3 or 50 really good candidates that meet it all. If we don’t feel that one of them is truly the right person for the job. It takes away from our ability to say thanks for the great candidate; we want a really great candidate.
Earl: It changes the abstention vote from being a no vote to a vote not counted. How does it change the fundamental 2/3 of the available voting members from electing the candidates? The ratio is still the same.
Trevor: It takes away our ability. Let’s say that there is Mr. X and Mrs.Y and I don’t think that either one is the right person for the job. It all of the sudden does not matter cause half the room decides that Mr. X is the right one and they vote for him and everyone else doesn’t vote. That person then gets it because they have 2/3 of the casted votes, rather than 2/3 of the whole group.
Carl: We will work on this as time permits and we will have something drafted by Monday.
2008.08.08 Delegate Orientation
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Trevor: I have the list if you can write down as I read it off.
Bobbie: Can you print it out for everyone?
Trevor: Yes. Intro and number one is Carl. Hayward is 2, Lawrence is 3, Earl is 4, Nicholas is 5 and 6, Bruce is 7 and 8, Bobbie is 9, I am 10 and 11, and Kim is 12.
Kim: Are we just reading what this is?
Carl: You can do it anyway you want to do it.
Trevor: Nicholas and I went really close to the beginning and took a lot of time. So don’t be long winded. They might have us scheduled for 15 minutes.
Earl: There will be 30 copies of the 7th tradition pamphlet and 30 contribution forms. They need to understand where the money is going to and what it is needed from for World Service. I was going to spend 4 minutes.
Carl: We decided that we are not going to do the concepts.
2008.08.09 Conference Prep.
Carl: Expanded roles and subcommittees will work on presentation, we already did that. Opening reports for the trustees, awaiting response from the Conference committee for information on the correct form. Did we receive that yet?
Trevor: I have received nothing.
Kim: Yes Susan is going to work on the jump drives tonight.
Carl: Bobbie, Myself and Trevor will work on the main report with input from all of you. The referrals will be added to that. We do not work on those here; those will be taken with you and worked on throughout the year. Floor strategy, we have already been working on that. Who is going to present motions if we have any motions? I know Lawrence has one, well that is different because that is a petition. So that will be done early on. When Earl does his we all need to be there. Lawrence your area will need to be there. Ok we are up on all that.
Earl: I have one.
2008.08.10 Ratification of the WSBT
Carl: Grab your little sheet of paper. Just go straight through and make a list. Abstentions do not count. You can say all or put everyone’s name on at once.
Okay all the votes have been cast and everyone has been ratified.
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Ratification of the WSOB
Earl: At the last office board meeting, all directors were ratified by the WSOB.
Carl: All members have been ratified of the WSOB
2008.08.12 Temporary Conference committee assignments
Carl: Ok Lawrence you are going to stay in Archives. Kim is Conference and Convention is going to be open once again. Hayward is going to Convention. Lawrence will be in Finance. Nicholas you staying in PI, Trevor is IT and LCF. S and B is Trevor and Unity is Kim.
****BIO Break***
Carl: We are going to break for dinner and the time is 6:08 on Saturday afternoon.
****Break for dinner****
Opened with the Serenity Prayer
2008.08.13 Election of the WSBT officers
Carl: That is chair, vice chair and secretary
Bobbie: I nominate Hayward for the chair.
Earl: Second. I move that nomination for the chair position be closed.
Carl: All in favor of closing the nominations. Hayward is the new chair.
Bobbie: I nominate Lawrence for the vice chair.
Hayward: Second
Kim: Motion to close nominations.
Carl: All in favor of closing the nomination. Lawrence is the new Vice Chair.
Bobbie: I nominate Kim for the secretary.
In unison: second
Trevor: Motion to close nominations.
Carl: Kim is the new secretary.
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2008.08.14 Election of the CAWSO inc. officers
Bobbie: Based on the fact that two of our members cannot hold these positions, do we want to fill these positions with the three that we have left or would it be allowed to hold off on these positions and allow these positions to be filled once they have a full board?
Earl: The current officers would remain on the current corporation until the new officers were voted in. I don’t see that as being a real problem.
Bobbie: I motion to table the election of the CAWS Inc Officers until the orientation call which will be held in September pending the vice chair setting up the schedule.
Kim: Second
Carl: Motion passed.
2008.08.15 per Diem
Nicholas: I was directed to do this. 6 years ago when I arrived it was $40 per day, inflation is a minimum of 2%. When I travel through Europe breakfast costs me $40. I am not going this for my own sake. We could get a referral to finance. Every time I come to Conference that restaurant goes up in price. I realize this will affect more offices than just sitting here. We need to find the money from somewhere. I do not ask this for my own sake. I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to go up 10% from $40 to $44. It might send a signal that if you do not have sufficient funds, that you are supplementing World Services. It might be perceived that way. It might seem that you need money to be in this position. We have heard it today, why get the good when you can get the best? I do not know what it is like here, but everything in Europe has gone up. I wanted to put this on the table and talk to finance. How do we get them to bring it to the floor so it is something that comes from Finance? I have never spent my budget. I don’t think we should expect people on the board who serve Cocaine Anonymous to make that sacrifice. In total it will look like a lot, but it is $4 per day. There is always money to be found. I am sure everyone here puts their hand in their pocket and pays a little of their own way, but that is not the right principle to go on.
Bruce: I speak in favor of this, though it won’t affect me at all. One of the issues that came up in my area when we were speaking about the trustee positions was about my ability to get reimbursed. I told them honestly that I don’t get fully reimbursed. Inevitably I spend more than the food allotment. I could decline to buy some of the incidentals, but it is hard not to go over that $40 per day when you are eating in hotel restaurants. I know that people express a desire to me to not be on the slate or to run for the position because they say that they cannot afford it. I was kind of taken aback by that. One of the principles that we have is that all people should be able to serve regardless of whether or not they have money themselves. I think a 10% increase is not an unreasonable request.
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Bobbie: I speak in favor of this. You know that question in the interview and we still ask it, do you have any financial issues? When I interviewed that was correct I did not. Almost immediately after being selected as trustee the finances went down the drain. Life changed, the money that I was making I wasn’t anymore. Some of us don’t know you used to get reimbursed after the fact. Thank God someone saw this and took care of it. I can be proud and do not want to tell you I am a Trustee I am broke. It can be perceived that you need money to have this position. The cost of living in Texas has risen, but not like it has here in LA. $40 cannot get you breakfast, lunch, and dinner here, unless you are doing fast food. Then maybe some folks will say then you need to eat off of the 99 cent menu. But is that fair to do to the people who are serving in this capacity? The per diem for the folks who live in LA or California makes ours look like chump change. I think this also affects Conference Chairs and all that.
Earl: I speak in favor of increasing the per diem based on the fact of inflation has had a substantial impact on the way we live around here. There are a couple of ways to approach this, we submit a budget and we can increase our budget and instead of the meals that are based on X number of days. We re-do the math and we submit a budget to Finance and say due to inflation we expect to pay more for airfare and we expect to pay more for food and we are asking for an increase in our budget. I think the referral approach can be dangerous because of how it may be perceived. The meal allowance, the per diem is not supposed to cover 100% of the food costs. Because you have to eat and you would be paying to eat at home, granted you are not confined to limited choices at home so you still have to pay to eat. This should not be construed in our argument that we are trying to get an all expense paid vacation to Los Angeles to do the work of CA. We may want to look at our individual budgets and when we submit our budgets to the Finance committee we will reflect those changes. I would like to see it changed there and then go back and revise the Trustee expense policy that shows the amount. I don’t know how we revised it last time; I think we changed it 3 years ago. I think this change is necessary. When we decided that we were broke and we didn’t have any money. We did not have any savings or prudent reserve. The office and the Board of Trustees have been very diligent, frugal and wise in cutting our expenses and successfully raising revenue. Although it will not affect me, I am concerned about the folks it will affect.
Carl: One of things that they tell you is to ask for a little more in order to get to what you want. You probably want to ask for a little more just to get to that $4. Are we going to figure out a way to do this? Are you going to take this up with the WSOB too, they are going to be affected to.
Hayward: Increase in trustee travel.
Carl: We did that last year.
Hayward: Fuel price is up, food is up. We are talking about increasing it to $44.
Lawrence: We looking at the per diem and raising that and looking at raising the mileage. Can we put both of them in one?
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Bobbie: Putting it into one what?
Lawrence: One agenda item.
Carl: Ok I did that I put it into one.
Bobbie: Okay we will be stopping at 19, not 20?
Carl: Yes, we moved agenda item 19 to 15. That will have to change on the WSOB agenda also.
Bobbie: My understanding is that the 17 cent a mile was according to the Feds. What are they using now?
Kim: It is 48.5 cents.
Carl: When we look at 17 cents a mile that is for non-profits. Anything else, the IRS goes at 48.5.
Bobbie: The question is do we want to start reimbursing for fuel as apposed to mileage? I remember one time I drove from Houston to Austin and I was reimbursed for my mileage and this was $40 and I actually spent $100. Are we asking to consider fuel costs rather than mileage?
Carl: Yes.
Nicholas: Ok we can start at $48 for the per diem. I drove to Brighton in the UK, my fuel costs four times what your fuel costs. I am really in favor of the fuel reimbursement rather than the mileage.
Earl: You are about to embark on a different math problem. When you say I want to be reimbursed for my fuel, how do you budget for that? You are not going to be reimbursed for your fuel, in the sense of budgeting. I am going to spend $500 traveling in my region this year, based on X number of gallons of gas and number of miles. You will need to have a set amount, how much gas. It is going to require us to work hard. What is the average price of gas in my region, how much do I expect to drive. Then we revise our budget and take it to finance. That is the only way it is going to fly. You are going to have to sell it.
Carl: You want to break out the budgets and do that work tomorrow?
Earl: It needs to be done.
Carl: Tomorrow we have budgets and two correspondences.
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Bobbie: At home I just pay $3.39 per gallon and prices seem to be dropping, but at different rates. Maybe we want to look at being reimbursed ½ of what I am spending. The 17 cent amount is insane and to think that that compensates. It is a lot to ask to fill up my SUV.
Carl: Why should I be penalized for what I drive?
Bruce: I heard something about that the IRS gives a different rate to the non-profit. That is not what I found online. The 58.5 cents applies to the non-profits as well, effective July 1 2008. The mileage rate is ludicrously low and needs to be raised.
Trevor: I think we are looking at this a little backwards. A better way to go at this is: everything is more expensive, travel across the board is more expensive. Maybe we need to raise our budgets by 10%. When I shoot an email to Carl and say I want to travel to Idaho and the trip is going to cost $600. He does not shoot back to me well we are only going to pay $400 for this trip. It is I get reimbursed for that expense. If our budget is this, how I choose to use that if the money is available, is kind of more or less up to me. If I want to fly or drive, whichever makes the most sense to me? I am certainly not going to fly to Edmonton, which I can drive to in 1-2 hours. It is going to be the same price either way. I think that rather than do the fuel, mile reimbursement. If we have a policy and say if you are spending $200 in gas to get somewhere get reimbursed for the $200. But lets raise the budget overall if that is where we want to go with this. It is not so much mandating how I spend that money, but what is available to me to make the best use of.
Bobbie: The rest of the Conference will say that is insane. Sometimes it is how I ask, not what I ask for. Everyone is hurting with the gas thing. I don’t know if I would be voting for you all to get reimbursed for the gas thing. So how do I get reimbursed for something on your gas? Tom’s report talks about 7th tradition being down and thank God for the 2-5 people doing outrageous bidding at the auctions. What is going to happen when the Convention is being visited like we are used to it being and we still have to run our office? We still have staff we have to pay. CAWS says it best we are the financial planners, Earl has said it might be easier to get the per diem rate, because there are other people who will be affected by it so it wont just look like it is this room asking. For the gas, no one else will benefit from this than the people who are in the room. It all leads back to that we need to get with Earl and work on a reasonable proposal to get this for you all.
Carl: Volunteers get 17 cents a mile; we are volunteers as apposed to charitable. It is actually only 14 cent but we went up to 17 cents. The people in the office can get 58.5, anyone who is a paid worker in the charity or non-profit can get that.
Bobbie: This 58, is there someway we can figure the average mile being reimbursed? Where we can work it in the budget?
Carl: Patty and I talked about this; there is a way where you can be reimbursed for your fuel. We bring this up Monday when we talk to them. We still need to work up our
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budgets, last year everyone got an increase in travel for their budgets across the board. So you already got an increase for 2009.
2008.08.16 Additional motions to be at the Conference
Carl: Are there any referrals we feel strongly about to make a motion about if the committee does not act on them.
Bobbie: We have not submitted anything.
Trevor: There is the one thing to S&B to be put into the manual, regarding flyers and the disclaimer. I just have to submit that to S&B, I have it written all up. Then there is the one we are getting clarification on 5555. I still don’t know where it is going.
Carl: Ok we will do our group inventory. If we have to meet during the conference be prepared to come in here and sit down.
2008.08.17 LCF issues
Trevor: We have talked about this already, I don’t know if we need to talk about it anymore. We need to talk to Patty first.
Carl: OK we will move that to the board to board and we can discuss it on Monday.
2008.08.18 Director of P&D and Director of Operations Annual and 90 appraisals
Respectively.
Earl: I am not sure how this got here.
Carl: You sent this to me.
Earl: I think it meant to be more on the B to B agenda. It is on there already to be reported on. I do not have the results of that which took place this previous week. It can be striked from the agenda.
Carl: Why would we strike this if we are going to have to discus it anyway? Unless you want us to go into executive session with the Board to Board? I think we should have an opportunity to discuss it amongst ourselves first, if you have some results. We will leave this open.
Earl: We have done the reviews; we do not have the results of those tabulations. We are not at this time proposing a particular pay raise for anyone. We would want to report to you and say they are doing this type of a job; they were appraised at this level. We can deal with the salaries and wages within our current policy. John can do that unless he wants to go beyond what we have set, if he wants to go beyond what we have set then we
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would go into executive session with this Board and decide whether or not it is an appropriate response.
Carl: We will remove from agenda and discuss it at the board to board.
2008.08.19 Confirmation of referral #5555
Trevor: Where do you want it? “Please consider inserting under the World Service Office Trustee in the section titled Trustee selection and election process summery on page 41 number 1 as a new sentence. Candidates to be considered by the WSOB must be presently serving on the world service office board or have served as past WSOB director.” Now it is giving them more of a selection. Give it to the S&B committee or to the office?
Bobbie: Earl was supposed to bring this to the office. Did they get any input?
Earl: I brought it to the office.
Hayward: There was input. They wanted to limit it to within like five years.
Earl: If there was someone who served in 1990, you may not be qualified over 18 years later for the World service office trustee in 2009.
Bobbie: Do we want to consider that?
Earl: It was more of the fact that the people that you are considering for the Office Trustee, you would want them to have had a pulse on the business activities of the office. A current board member would have a much better grasp.
Bobbie: I do not see why we would put a stipulation on the Office and not for this Board. If we are going to put it on one then we need to consider putting it on both.
Trevor: I think with the spirit of it is to allow the WSOB a larger pool to draw from, if we give it to S&B they are going to have this discussion and they are going to bring it to the floor in whatever manner they see fit. The floor will have a chance to talk about this. It still comes down to the nominating body, by knowing some people there and them believing that you can do the job.
Earl: I like the idea of being able to expand your base. There are a lot of former Board members that would be nice to be able to draw on that pool. Like you say the slate still comes from the office, it is still going to be their decision as to who would be the best. I have no problems with this idea, I am great with it.
Carl: What are you going to do with it?
Trevor: I just want some clarification on where we are sending it.
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Bobbie: I make a motion that we send referral # 5555 to S&B.
Nick and Bruce: Second
Carl: Motion passed. Okay tomorrow we have four items of business, two responses and Tec motion and the budget. Time is 9:09pm and we are going to meet at 9:00am tomorrow morning.
****Break for the evening****
Carl: We are now back on the record. We were in breakout session from 9:00am to 3:52 pm; we worked on responses for Kemo and Michael P. and the TEC motion. We are waiting for additional information to work on the budget.
Trevor: Motion to approve the response, draft 2, to Kemo.
Hayward: Second
Carl: Motion passed.
Bruce: I motion to approve the response to Michael P. in Southern Ontario, with the correction that the CC on the bottom of the letter be removed.
Bobbie: Second.
Carl: Motion Passed.
Earl: I motion to approve the 3rd draft of the amended changes to the TEC process.
Kim: Second
Carl: Motion passed.
Bobbie: I would like to make a motion to approve the 2008 opening WSBT conference report.
Bruce: Second
Carl: Motion passed. Okay we are going to off the record at 3:55pm.
Back on the record at 10:35 PM Monday August 25, 2008
Bobbie motions that the 2009 CAWS pre-convention T-shirt not be allowed for sale ever.
Bruce Seconds
Bobbie: Logo altered, possible affiliation with DEA
Passed unanimously
Session closed at 10:38 PM
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Last item of business: Group Inventory (All)
- Close – Serenity Prayer
For all attached reports and documents see PDF: 2008-08-23-26-WSBT-Quarterly-Minutes.pdf