WORLD SERVICE OFFICE BOARD MINUTES
February 10, 2018
OPEN MEETING @ 9:10AM
SERENITY PRAYER– Lead by Tim A.
TRADITION -2– Read by Yvette H.
CONCEPT -2– Read by Kevin M.
BIRTHDAYS – Pierre K. 6 years.
ROLL CALL & QUORUM DETERMINATION
Present were Tim A. (Chair), Linda F., (DOO), Randy M. (Secretary), Allison M. (Treasurer), Kevin M.
(WSOT) and Yvette H. (WST).
Quorum is met.
Guests: Pierre K.
CHAIR ANNOUNCEMENT(s)-
- We have 3 Director at Large positions open we need to fill ASAP
APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING(s) – 1/18/2018
MOTION to approve the minutes of the January 10, 2018 WSOB made by Randy M.; seconded by Linda
- Motion passes unanimously.
SEVENTH TRADITION
OFFICE DIRECTOR REPORTS
Director of Operations- Linda – Written report submitted
Comments:
- Continue to work with Cameron to stay on top of things with the website.
- German HFC has arrived. Some water damage to 4 – 6 books. She would like to put 2 in archives, and save 10 back to use as auction items, and the rest goes into inventory. Tim – These were printed by the German area, right. Linda – yes. Yvette, – usually when we ship we have insurance, can the post office reimburse for the damaged books? Linda. – doesn’t know if the shipment was insured. Kevin M. – Due to it being a German language book, maybe we shouldn’t hold back 10? Linda discusses what is usually done with the 10 books. MOTION to hold back 10 of the HFC German edition and turn the rest into inventory. made by Linda F..; seconded by Kevin. Motion passes unanimously.
- Linda discusses the editable logo so that it can be used for several languages. See report. Do they need a referral? Probably not – it’s a housekeeping issue. Kevin M.– regarding what this is, he discusses the actual program and how it works. Requires access to Photoshop, which is rather expensive. Randy states he has a version of Photoshop. Linda will look into Tech Soup for the cost of the latest version. Kevin M. has concerns about the logo and trademark. Kevin M. states that was part of the discussion with Suzanne, Kevin and Kerry-Jane. Kevin M. will take it back
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to the WSBT. Linda – can we handle it the same way as revisions made to the guidelines? Yvette
– she doesn’t think so. She thinks each trademark for each foreign language has to be protected. Kevin M. – looking at the logos on the quilt (hanging in the office) are all not trademarks. 3 -4 years to get a trademark in South Africa. Pierre K. discusses the difficulties of keeping the logo off of social media. Kevin M. discusses the differences in the logos. The important thing is for us to create the logo for each language and hold the trademark for it. Linda clarifies that the European trademark of it includes several languages, not just one. It is not necessarily that we have to register each individual language as most of them are already registered. Pierre K.– there are 11 official languages in South Africa, but at this time everyone is happy with using English.
- Final touches on 2017 books.
- Staff notified of inventory dates.
- Working on the manuals.
- 69 registrations for the Montreal Convention.
- Steering committee for 2021 New York City convention has been approved by the committee.
Questions:
- Kevin M. – wondering what is the status of the 2018 WSM.
- Tim discusses the office hours of the WSOB.
- Looking for the payroll book.
DIRECTOR REPORTS
Chair – Tim A – written report submitted
Comments: None.
Questions: None.
Vice Chair- Alesia F – Not present.
Comments: None.
Treasurer – Allison M- Written reports submitted
Comments:
Met with Frank and Linda. Made sure all the financial items were included in the flash drive oing to Mark for his use in preparing the taxes.
Questions: None.
Secretary – Randy M – written report submitted
Comments: None.
Questions:
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None.
Director at Large – Open
Director at Large – Open
Director at Large – Open
TRUSTEE REPORTS
WSO Trustee – Kevin M – written report submitted.
Comments:
- Small nag about the approved minutes. Randy M., please keep up with these.
- Quarterly is the beginning of next month, so quarterly reports are due to Kevin by Friday, February 23, 2018.
- Working with Kerry on how to deal with 11th Tradition referral. The referral will require a poll of the fellowship (to modify a tradition) and they are working on a process to poll the fellowship.
- Has to sign off on the WSM 2018.
- Expecting final CAWSO handbook for sign off.
Questions: None.
WS Trustee – Yvette H – Written Report Submitted
Comments:
- Quarterly is coming up. March 2nd through the 4th aAt the Gateway Sheraton.
- One thing about the trademark – they received a bill in the mail that was fraudulent. We received a bill which was fraudulent. We were able to stop payment on the fraudulent bill. Thanks to Allison and Yvette.
- She saw Brenda Mobin (area chair of CALA) and her term is up in June and wants to get on the WSOB as a DAL. Could be as early as March to get started.
- Also, the Trustees are going to send one more trustee to the European Regional convention. Kevin M. discusses the trustee reasoning. Yvette H. discusses where the money for this is coming from.
- Waiting on contract from NY for convention hotel. Linda says they visited several hotels already. Now the committee has to discuss the various locations and decide. John Rosa is the hotel liaison.
- Tim A. will not be here during the quarterly.
Questions: None.
MOTION to go with 2018 CAWS Convention out of the agenda order made by Randy M.
Seconded by Linda F.. Motion passes with substantial unanimity.
COMMITTEE REPORTS –
Finance – Allison M.
Comments:
- Two subcommittees formed – European Financial Guidelines headed by Dawn and 2019 Budget project headed by Maya.
- A draft of the European Financial Guidelines has been submitted to the Finance Committee.
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Questions: None.
Structure & Bylaws – Kevin / Randy
Comments: Written report submitted
Questions: None.
Convention– Tim
Comments: No report.
Questions: None.
Conference –Linda and Alesia Comments:
- Conference call looking ahead at building a schedule – would like to have a WSOB office visit during the conference. Kick Off dinner, unity breakfast and new Serenity Dinner Saturday evening during the conference dinner break. Yvette H. – how does that affect the contract? Does it come out the F&B budget? Yvette H. wants to be sure the new Serenity Dinner is coming out of the Food and Beverage budget. Wants Linda F. to be sure. Kevin M. – how many copiers to we have at the conference? One large one plus a smaller one that Linda brings. How much use the large copier get? Linda F. states we have cut back from 3 copiers to one, and will continue to look at the usage. Kevin M. – can we get by with a smaller and cheaper copier? Linda F. says yes they’re looking into it. Kevin M. – many people bring laptops, and don’t need all the computer stations. Linda – Correct and we have cut down on the computers we rent and bring. This is evaluated every year by the committee.
Questions: None.
Unity– Kevin M.
Comments: No report. Had a conflict with another meeting.
Questions: None.
Literature, Chips & Formats – open
Comments: None.
Questions: None.
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Hospitals & Institutions – Tim A– no report
Comments: Still needs his notifications about upcoming meetings.
Questions: None.
Public Information– Allison M.
Comments:
Should be a conference call tomorrow.
Questions: None.
IT – Randy M
Comments:
- Written report submitted.
- Discussed mobile app.
- Discussed the sobriety calculator.
Questions: None.
Archives – Yvette H.
Comments: Gives some bullet items.
Committee is to clean up the archive room so that the office will not get fined.
Questions: None.
WSBT ISD Committee – Randy
Comments: Written report submitted with Secretary Report.
Questions: None.
CAWS CONVENTION REPORTS:
- CAWS 2018 -Montreal – Robert F. – Meeting Monthly – Skyping on.
Robert reports that they’re working hard organizing the speakers, who are being selected and advised and will get the budget for the speakers travel. Valentine’s day fundraiser dance tonight. But there is a lot of snow. But, he says it will be sunny during convention! They have had several fundraisers. The next general meeting is Feb. 28th. Very large push to the fellowship to register and book the hotel rooms. By 3/23 a lot of registrations and bookings will come in after the
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auction. Very enthusiastic; have a great Steering Committee and he’s sure it’s going to be a great event. He is facilitating everyone’s activities on the committee.
Tim A. – he has a list of speakers that they are notifying. The list will come to the office at the next steering committee, along with the travel budgets. 6 English speakers and 2 French speakers. Tim says the office was supposed to approve the list prior to notification of the speakers. Linda F – can your group finalize some of the open questions for the office? Like which airport is closest? Like what are the Friday and Saturday night events? The entertainment committee will provide all of this by the next committee meeting. Pierre Elliot Trudeau airport. One other question by Linda F. – Laranda Park which is an amusement park – is the ticket good for the whole day? Yes. They have only a few people signed up for Laranda. Allison reports they had their meeting and the committee treasurer was involved. How is petty cash working out? Do they have a separate checking account for petty cash? He believes so. Allison M. – they did not open an account but they are keeping the money separate. Tim A. – At the last B2B we talked about the petty cash being in a bank account. They need to be aware that they need WSOB approval prior to spending any petty cash funds. We need to approve items for auction.
B. CAWS 2019 – Sweden –Johan T.
C. CAWS 2020 – Austin – Susan L.
D. CAWS 2021 – New York – Alan S.
GUEST REPORTS:
- Pierre K – so we have two meetings under your belt. And want to be part of this board. We will schedule an interview for the next meeting.
ONLINE BUSINESS: – motions? There were no online motions since the last WSOB Meeting.
UNFINISHED BUSINES
A. Look over guidelines –House Keeping of position names – Alesia.
B. Process and procedures updated in the book – Linda (April) Deadline Still on target? Linda has information from the employees and she is fine-tuning.
C. Office assignments
i. Electronic Meetings -GoTo meetings Yes, Linda gets a conversation with Johan to get the information to her so the office can schedule and keep up a calendar. Kevin M. – the WSBT is having issues with the Skype and want to go to GoToMeeting format.
D. 800 Number – any come up with anything else? Nope. Kevin – referring people to the website is the current approach.
E. Ad hoc Committee? – WSBT likes the idea. Long term planning of the WSBT is still closed, but this Ad hoc committee will be more open. Future direction of the WSOB. Kevin M. will have a list by the next meeting.
F. Conference referrals
a. WSOB 2017 1 – CAWS Office Store –Please be sure that the Office is selling items in the CA Office Store during ALL days that the Conference is in session. It makes no sense to me and others here that the store is not open today (Saturday) since every delegate is
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here all day today. We missed some bi sales today. I know it was announced that the store would not be open, still, in my opinion, the store should be open today.
b. WSOB 2017 2 – CA Logo Stickers – That the WSO produce foreign language C.A. logo stickers for all of the established Areas of our Fellowship. We are a global fellowship. It seems a great oversight to have stickers available in English only.
c. WSOB 2017 3 – (Referred from Finance 2016 1) – Add or increase a line item amount to allow for the World Service Office to carry out translations of our World Service Manual for all Areas recognized by The World Service Conference that do not have English as their first language. The amount to be adequate for said translation works to be carried out by the World Service Office without the requirement for participation of the individual Areas. The current number of required / outstanding translations to have adequate funding within the next two years and an ongoing line item to allow for newly required translations to be commenced immediately upon the recognition of a new Area.
d. WSOB 2017 4 – (Referred from LCF 2016) – That the Committee revise the Newcomer Booklet to include the reading “Who’s A CA. Member?”
1. The WSOB will be working on this referral throughout the year.
e. WSOB 2017 5 – (Referred from the WSBT) Please allow Areas to produce and distribute C.A. keyrings, medallions and Books under Royalty Agreement.
f. WSOB 2017 6 – (Referral from IT 2016-1) – Digital delivery of Speaker Audio files – as we proceed in the digital world, and as more and more conventions are transitioning toward uploading digital files from workshops and speakers, should there not be a WS standard (bit rate, frequency, format, compression and production origin) for these files? Furthermore, is it possible to create on the CAWS site a file distribution system, or at least a link to a page, so that members worldwide can access the media as it is produced and posted?
g. WSOB 2017 7 – NADCP Funding – A Motion will be brought related to this SR14 Notice which will be addressed to both the WSC Finance Committee and the WSOB to cease (not fund) participation by C.A. World Service at the annual United States National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) Drug Court Conference; and only then reinstated thereafter if and when it can be substantiated that the significant funds which are being spent on C.A.’s participation each year provide an acceptable return on C.A.’s investment in terms of measurable results, including without limitation: the number of new meetings started directly after CA Drug Conference participation, new C.A. cities / states / countries colonized where there is little, if any, C.A. now, and judges and referees sending their people specifically to C.A (how many people were sent).
h. WSOB 2017 8 – Best C.A. App – Have a contest to see who in the fellowship can make the best computer App. The creator of the winning App would get a designated prize, and all rights and ownership of the App would be turned over to the WSO. A contest of this nature would tap into the great technical skills that many of our members have as well as eventually providing much desired services to our entire fellowship. If an App was created for the meditation book, it could even help generate income for CAWS.
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i. WSOB 2017 9 – Draft Publications Guidelines – Please consider adopting the attached draft Publication Guidelines (or something similar). (These Guidelines are available for review related to this Referral. Inquire to the Conference Committee for a copy please. These Guidelines are NOT attached here to this report.)
j. WSOB 2017 10 – Publication Information Repository – If this has not already been done, please consider creating a central repository for all information related to the publication of C.A.’s books. This would include source files (from original publishing software, where applicable, as well as PDF and / or “e-book” formats), lists of fonts types and sizes for each element of the book, cover art and colors, etc. Ideally, this information would be readily accessible to members of both Boards and backed up to multiple secure locations.
k. WSOB 2017 11 – Cost of Currency Exchange – The fellowship appears to be not informed regarding the cost of managing multiple currencies and converting to USD. Request that the WSOB Finance Committee monitor, record and report on the cost to the fellowship 2017 conference to 2018 conference of managing all financial matters in multiple currencies.
G.
NEW BUSINESS
Linda – next week is the PSR caucus – Palm Springs on the 18th at noon. But the location is not determined. Who is going?
Chair resumes are being accepted – Tim A. announces changes in his life. He has discussed this with the WSBT Chair. He has been offered positions in Chicago, and may be moving in the future.
Executive Session –
NEXT MEETING(s) – March 17, 2018 at 9:00A.M.
Motion to adjourn at 11:00PM made by Randy M.; seconded by Linda. MOTION passes unanimously.
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For all attached reports and documents see pdf: 2018-02-10_WSOB_Minutes_Final.pdf