CA WORLD SERVICE World Service Board of Trustees and World Service Office Board MEETING MINUTES
February 27, 2010
APPROVED
Since this report is a confidential CA document, for members only, it may contain 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 anyway our Tradition on anonymity in public communications media (press, radio, TV, etc).
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WSBT/WSOT
Limited Board to Board
Quarterly Meeting
Trevor: We are on record at 1:11 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. We’re going to open the limited Board to Board meeting with the Serenity Prayer please. Welcome everyone to the limited Board to Board meeting. We will go around the room and do roll call.
Trevor Scheilbe: PNRT/WSBT Chair
Nicholas Lynn: ERT
Richard Schafer: Trustee @ Large/Currently fulfilling World Service Trustee
Tom Phalen: WSOB Chair
Yvette Love: WSO Director of Operations
Randy Groen: SWRT
Willie Bailey: WSOT
Barry Jacobs: WSOB Treasurer
Lawrence Matlock: ASRT
Robert Lyle: ANRT
Joy Hutcheson: PSRT
Kim Sherwan: MWRT/WSBT Secretary
Trevor: Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the opening remarks by me and Tom. I’m glad you’re all here, I’m glad I’m here. We are here to do the business of CA, let’s get it done because we have a big agenda. We’re going to get through this; we’re going to do what we’re going to do.
Tom: Grateful that you guys invited us up to help do the work that you asked us to do and help us see where we are falling short and how we can do better. We are here with open minds and open hearts.
Trevor: The next item is the supplemental reports, if any, from the WSOB and questions from the WSBT regarding, I guess we’ll do them in order, anything for Tom. Does anybody have any questions for Tom? WSOB Treasurer, Barry.
Barry: I submitted my report and I’m just here to welcome and try to help.
Trevor: How many people have questions for Barry? Richard.
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Richard: Is petty cash accounted for in your report? I haven’t seen the itemization on petty cash.
Barry: No.
Richard: What is the current petty cash flow monthly?
Barry: I’m going to have to look for that. I will.
Richard: I would like to see with cash itemized.
Barry: Ok.
Joy: Whose petty cash?
Barry: The Office petty cash, I assuming that. I will definitely get something with Yvette and we will sit down and look at that. We’ve had a lot—I do know that with the move and with a lot of the situations of some temporary employees, service workers that have been coming in, there has probably been some additional petty cash out. We will definitely look into it.
Richard: Go as far back as you can go to start itemizing so we can see where the flow is, where we are, and what’s been…
Tom: Can I add something to this?
Trevor: Sure.
Tom: Petty cash is accounted for in the statements. All we have is a simple balance, so when we write a check to reimburse it the detail of what that check is reimbursing is where the expenses go. We don’t keep a petty cash ledger, it’s included in the total financial statements.
Richard: Then I am missing it in the Financial Statements because I have not seen any itemization of any usage of the petty cash.
Joy: We can always get the register, because Quick Books lets you have that since it has its own account number. We can have them print one for us. Which I think is great to add to the reports.
Barry: You want to see an added register. You would like to see back at least through the year.
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Richard: I would to be as accountable as we can to the fellowship.
Barry: I totally agree.
Joy: I noticed that there were some transfers from the CAWS 2010 Trust account that went to the CAWSO Operating account. I understand what happened is that was Seventh Tradition money that got deposited in there, so here’s my question and suggestion. Since all the accounts are under the name Cocaine Anonymous World Service Office Inc. you can go to the bank and rename these accounts—they will show up on the bank statements and the deposit slips—they actually have names. When I print up bank statements, then I print the detailed reconciliation statements, I have to sit and attach them. If you rename all of the accounts to what they should be we don’t have to write…
Barry: Correct.
Joy: Cocaine Anonymous World Prudent Reserve account—we know that is the savings account that all the money goes into.
Tom: The Money Market account.
Joy: Yes. Then you go Operating account.
Barry: Then even year/odd year.
Joy: Even year/odd year Trust. When you input the petty cash account for the Convention all it says is CAWS 2010, there’s no vendor name, there’s no who the checks going to, or how much of the funds are being co-mingled. I don’t see any checks and balances; all I see is CAWS 2010.
Tom: I’m going to respond to that. That is an issue because that is actually outside of our control. Hopefully the Convention committees—and we stress to them that they be transparent so that we had that information available for future Convention committees. It is an item that what we get from the Convention committees is the entry that is made when the Convention is closed out. Joy: That’s why 2004 I used Quick Books and when we took money out from the petty cash account I typed in there who I wrote the check to.
Tom: 2010 is using Quick Books and 2011 is using Quick Books.
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Joy: When we get the 2010 accounting from their Treasurer I don’t see their Quick Books file. I am not able to look and say why are we writing a check for this? What is really for? So when I get questions that flow through I have answers. Sometimes it’s hard to answer questions when I don’t have the information to answer the question. Does that make sense?
Tom: I do not understand why you don’t get that file.
Joy: I get the file that Sharon sends to the Yahoo group because I am on the Yahoo group.
Tom: Right.
Joy: The reason that I am on the Yahoo group is because Kim asked me to be so that I can watch the flow, which is very helpful for me. When it’s time for Arizona to be quizzed Randy’s go to go well we will just add you to the group. It’s hard because she’s not posting—she’s using her excel spreadsheet that is just growing and growing. It’s her—what does she call it?
Kim: Fake check book.
Joy: Fake check book.
Tom: See posted it and she does use Quick Books for the balance sheet. I think they’re doing a pretty good job compared to the previous Treasurers that we have dealt with.
Joy: Yeah. I just want to know why we are not putting the name of the vendors that we are writing check on the petty cash accounts instead of saying CAWS 2010? Maybe we can get Oliver or whoever is inputting information into the Quick Books check register—it looks like it is being inputted but it’s not being inputted.
Tom: Petty cash can be just incidental amounts correct? We’ll have to look into this.
Barry: Joy, the fake check register that she is using, you would like input…
Joy: She uses it for everything.
Barry: But there’s a section of it that she’s pulling out—that she’s accounting—so you want a separate one for the petty, a separate one for the—and input it into the Quick Books?
Trevor: We want to see the details of—petty cash was spent $200, what did you spend it on? Not just the Convention.
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Barry: My note is account for the input of monies from Convention account to the account—all monies.
Joy: When you look at the reconciliation it says CAWS 2010 bill payment check. What was the $105 spent on?
Tom: Are you looking at our books or the banks?
Joy: I’m looking at the reconciliation detail. All it says is CAWS 2010 $105. That’s all it says.
Barry: I’m pretty sure if we go to the extended account in Quick Books with the check register it should have more information.
Joy: It says CAWS 2010 on it. There’s not detail at all in this.
Kim: Again, My concern was the checks aren’t being written to the vendors but rather to the individual members.
Barry: Gotcha.
Tom: Which is usually what happens, they’re reimbursing the individual members. Most of the checks that are being paid are reimbursements to the individual members.
Joy: So there are more co-mingling of funds happening then there should be?
Tom: Probably.
Joy: Don’t you see that as a problem, especially when the guidelines say no co-mingling of funds?
Tom: I see it as a practical solution to concerns. We just got a check request from, let me give you an example, the three check requests that we are doing right now are all to reimburse people. We have a personal reimbursements form in the Convention guidelines. It’s not like it’s not suppose to happen. We got a reimbursement from Tony Drake’s speaker Chair for the purchase of airline tickets for his speakers and workshops. That’s one of them, another is we need to reimburse David Costa for the deposit that he made for an event in the UK for their first fundraising event because he put the deposit down. The third is…
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Barry: Joy we do get a check request…
Joy: I have a question regarding the Tony Drake one. Why wasn’t the credit card for CAWSO, Inc. used to purchase the airline tickets for the speakers?
Tom: It could, that’s one way to do it.
Joy: Wouldn’t that be more practical?
Tom: Not necessarily.
Richard: I believe that it was a pricing issue. He had gotten, my recollection was from one of our Board meetings, was he got some good pricing thing and snatched it. Is that not accurate?
Yvette: Yeah that is.
Tom: The practical answer is that…
Joy: It would be helpful if…
Willie: Even when a member or Committee Chair gets a good pricing then that should be sent in to—we get into a lot of—it happened in 09 where we were reimbursing members…
Tom: For the postage.
Willie: No not only for postage but we reimbursed Jay.
Tom: Right.
Joy: How many accounts do we actually have? Do we have eight or seven?
Tom: Five.
Joy: We are down to five?
Barry: We are down to five as of right this second. Thank you for all your help on that Willie.
Joy: Ok. On the operating account what is cashed checked?
Tom: Which account?
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Joy: Operating.
Tom: And which date?
Joy: 12/18 cashed check.
Tom: We are going to look into that, good question.
Yvette: What is the amount?
Joy: $250, $134.46, it shows up a lot on the bank statements, I’ve been noticing it.
Yvette: $134.46.
Joy: It shows up on the bank statement as cashed check.
Barry: Hold on. Shows…
Tom: Is that on the operating account Joy?
Joy: Yeah.
Yvette: In December?
Joy: Yes.
Barry: Is it through January?
Joy: No I have December 31st stuff.
Barry: Ok.
Tom: That’s a good question Joy, thank you.
Barry: Yeah.
Joy: I’m trying to figure out why the bank is just putting it as just a cashed check instead of check. They are putting it as cashed check.
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Barry: I’m wondering if it was an employee that actually went to the bank.
Joy: It’s not a payroll check. Payroll checks are three digits and actual checks are five digits. I know the difference. That’s what the banks doing.
Tom: Can we do this specifically?
Joy: Of course.
Tom: Those are good questions. I don’t think this is a Board thing and we need to do this at the office.
Joy: Are you looking at the bank statements?
Barry: Yes, I’m looking at them.
Joy: Do you notice when there’s a transfer from an even year account into an operating account?
Barry: When there’s a transfer I’ve been looking at it.
Tom: We initiated that.
Barry: Correct.
Tom: We had the deposit it; it went into the wrong account.
Barry: So when there’s a reconciliation we look through it.
Joy: Those are just some basic things that I see that are part of internal controls as we all know.
Tom: I would love it that when you do that you would send me list or something.
Joy: To tell you the truth because I have been swamped at work—some of the stuff I just started to notice.
Barry: Please send me…
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Joy: I don’t see it in any of the Treasurer reports or anything.
Tom: What happens is, I sit down with Yvette and we go through the statement and we make all the corrections that we can. So I don’t post those as things that we’ve done. I just consider it as part of our normal job.
Joy: On A/R are we trying diligently trying to get those?
Tom: A/R is an important schedule for us.
Joy: I’m finally getting them.
Tom: I’m grateful our balance is not too big.
Joy: Right, I noticed it was the smallest I’ve seen in a very long time.
Tom: Part of it was that we were requiring people to pay us before we shipped.
Joy: Right.
Trevor: Moving along, the Paid Director/Director of Operation is there anything else to report?
Yvette: The office is almost completely entirely moved. We ran into a snag with AT&T with our wireless connection. They didn’t run a pole connection up the pole. We don’t have a connection that gives us a U-drive and the power. We have power to get to everything but our main workforce and that’s going to be resolved Monday morning. When I went down to have it connected earlier in the week the AT&T guy was on the phone with Earl, he told Earl it’s all up and running when Earl and I got there yesterday that was not the case. We barreled in early, 6:00 in the morning and to resolve until Monday. All of the boxes are packed, the cleaners will come in on Monday, and the furniture will be moved out tomorrow. We saved on the deposits for what I had initially reported for electricity, I called them back and said we are non-profit and I would just like to verify what are the deposit is for Edison. We have been paying our bills for 20 years and I understand we are in a new county with a new company and you guys are not affiliated, so they shot that down an additional $500. Our power is on, our phone number stays the same, our DSL number changes and that’s nothing that—our 800 number—Earl has all of that. We have people that are going to donate some nice office furniture for the Board meetings and Board tables. Tom had amazing volunteers that came in. Yesterday we scrambled up a few more that
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are old time membership. Carlos and Richard, they came and they took over. Shannon is gone, very sad. She was very helpful. She did say that we can call her anytime that she would be willing to help by the phone for anything that we need. Denise is well adjusted; she assured me that she is ready to take over. We are lacking a person now. We are lacking a full body person that handled that extra stuff. Other than that we are ready to move and operate at the full functions. Mike put announcements on fellowship we crave on the web site, on the store of our change of address; I made all of the updated changes with our vendors for the changes of address, and UPS post office. That’s everybody that I can think of, I may have missed somebody but I can’t think of anybody that I am missing. Drug Court—I looked at the calendar and from what I understand and based on what I remember Patty doing, there was a space in between from when the Convention ended and Drug Court began. Right now there is just one day. The Convention ends on Monday and Drug Court begins Tuesday and my role as Director where do I stay, to the end of the Convention and be there for Drug Court the next day? When do I fly? This is where I’m finding difficulty in the time allotted for me to complete operations part of the Convention and get to Drug Court because it actually starts—the exhibits are set up on Tuesday.
Tom: I would be happy to address this. You’re going to be flying Monday in the afternoon from Milwaukee to Boston. I’ve got to book that flight.
Yvette: Ok.
Tom: So we are going to ship the set up stuff from the office to—we’re hoping we can find somewhere to ship our supplies and if we can’t we are going to ship it to Milwaukee and take it and ship it from Milwaukee to Boston. You’re going to fly there Monday instead of Tuesday. It’s over on Friday.
Yvette: So who’s going to be there to assist me on that day?
Tom: Which day?
Yvette: On the day that it actually begins to set up?
Richard: The set up, I won’t be there until—I come the day that the people start walking through.
So Wednesday morning is when I fly in.
Barry: Most hotels, Convention facilities will receive your merchandise well in advance and hold on to it and deliver it to their booth when it’s ready, so you can ship it out actually the week before and it can sit there, unless you want to have it at Milwaukee because it’s that beautiful back drop that we have.
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Yvette: That’s not my question.
Barry: Possibly we can make arrangement with a local member to give you a hand in set up.
Willie: Robert is the local Trustee and so your communication with him will actually get some of the local folk there to assist you.
Robert: But I need to know what you need. I can get you the folks.
Tom: She only needs one person.
Barry: Can it be coordinated some time closer to the event?
Tom: Yeah.
Richard: Willie had brought this up last night, based on previous years my statement and comment was the office gets there first, does the set up, TAL flies in the day people start walking through, but the realization is and my mind set is, Willie was correct as far as on that day it actually would cost the fellowship more money if I fly home to Colorado for the one day and take off the next morning then it would if I were to fly. It’s a pain in the butt for me but it’s probably the most sensible. You could have said that last night but sometimes it takes me a day make sense. For that it probably makes the most sense. Am I missing anything on what I should be doing? I think that probably makes the most sense rather than the airfare going.
Randy: So whether you fly out Monday night or Tuesday morning that extra two nights in a hotel is cheaper than the backs and fourths and the backs and fourths.
Richard: We will still need to communicate, the three of us, on who’s showing up. She’s going to need help breaking down on Friday. I’m gone on Thursday night. What is the last day of the walk-thru? I’m not a face to face, she can choose to go to the actual Conferences that are presented, and the ones that are included in the package is what Patty would do. The ones that are included with our package with our attendance. She can attend the Conferences also; pick up what they are discussing. I don’t do that, I fly back home. I do the meet and greet, shake hands, and get out of Dodge.
Trevor: So basically it will be up to Yvette to coordinate with Richard and Robert. I don’t see anything wrong if you got one or two folks to be there to assist. That’s part of what our goal is,
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to get some local folks involved. Anything else? Moving along, next item number four-items for discussion—number one Conventions CAWS 2010.
Kim: To the best of my knowledge everything is moving along. They recently had a fundraiser. They didn’t get quite the support they thought they would but it was great, we had a good meal, and interesting entertainment.
Randy: What was the entertainment?
Kim: It was sort of a game show, comedy, very adult comedy. Prior to that they had a stage thing where women dress like men and—I saw a video of that. The one question that came up was the parking passes and I think we’ve collectively I spoke with the Board. We are going to put in for three passes, Joy, Robert, and myself and whatever the WSOB would need. I will report that back to the Steering committee. I know that a spending request went out recently from Memorabilia committee. I guess you guys didn’t meet Thursday night or…
Tom: We didn’t have a quorum.
Kim: So I don’t know what the status of that spending request is.
Tom: We are going to put it online.
Kim: Ok.
Tom: It was very well done, very thorough.
Kim: Right. So if that get approved could you please copy me of that so I’m aware of that.
Tom: I notified the Chair.
Kim: Their last February meeting which I was in attendance, Tom and Yvette was there as well, and I think everything is moving along as should be. They will get it done. There’s always continues to be the slightest opposition from a handful of members. With a lot of love and tolerance and acceptance we will just move through it. I think that’s it.
Tom: How did they do on signing up registrations at that event?
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Kim: Actually they did at this Filet dinner that they had, it was $13 for the event and if you registered onsite they refunded your $13. I think, and it doesn’t include the credit card ones, I think they had around 100 registrants, but then they couldn’t compute for me the credit card ones.
Tom: That’s fantastic.
Kim: Yeah.
Tom: I thought they would do 100.
Kim: I could be wrong. I talked to Jill afterwards and she was very happy with the numbers that came in. That doesn’t necessary compute to a lot of dollars because people could just be registering. I know they are working on the program. I have not seen even a markup on that, I don’t know if you guys have. I requested to see it because I wanted to make sure, based on the meetings we need to do and we’re looking to do some interviews on site.
Tom: I did that with Karmen. We went through the program based on the hotel needs and your guy’s needs. I think we got it covered.
Kim: Ok.
Tom: You mean the TEC interviews?
Kim: Yeah.
Tom: There is a TEC room there.
Kim: Right, we will use the Board room. They secured that for the whole week? Originally we thought we might not have.
Tom: There’s another office too that is separate.
Yvette: Yeah.
Kim: If for some reason you all get it before I do could you forward that to me. Last year we had a conflict with Long Term Planning and Trustee quorum. Just so you know we combined “Meet the Trustees” and World Service Forum and something else, we combined all of those into an
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hour a half meeting as opposed to having three separate meetings. So it will be the Trustees, the Conference Officers, and World Service Office Chair.
Trevor: Thanks Kim, is there any questions?
Richard: 2010 Trustee registration, I brought this up at the Office Board meeting also.
Kim: In the past registration for the Trustees should be done through the office. Since more of a paper transfer opposed to actual funds being transferred. I would suggest that you fill out a paper registration and mail it to the office, or however you want to do it, for the things you want to sign up for. Keep in mind that we only get reimbursed as Trustees for registration and the banquet, anything else you do that’s fine. Those two things end up being like paper transfers.
Lawrence: I’ve registered online already.
Kim: You did? Ok.
Tom: If you do Reg. online you will have to pay and then we will have to reimburse you. Reg. online won’t take a registration without payment.
Joy: It does if you say checks.
Kim: They took it off.
Randy: When we send that paper registration in, send that along with any cash that’s above and beyond the registration and the banquet?
Kim: Yes. When you do your reimbursement form, post Convention, you may put on there that you—there’s a way to put it on there that you actually been—you can manipulate the expense form. It shows you were reimbursed for it.
Randy: In a general question on registrations do we have experience now? Do we know how many are going online verses hard paper? Are you getting 80% online, 50% online?
Yvette: We’ve only received hard paper like three in the office, so it’s like 90% online.
Randy: Ok. The reason that I’m asking is that you’re in the process of determining what to bring to Milwaukee Convention and the feeling was that we wanted to go with just more of a post card,
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kind of flyer, and like a magnet that people can take and post on—verses handing our registrations, is that…
Kim: I’ll tell you one of my pet peeves was a post card that went out, in my opinion, way too early to the fellowship regarding Wisconsin. I thought it was a waste of money and was a throw away. The truth be said you can saturate the area and regions and whatnot with as many registrations that you want and I’ll tell where 50% of them end up, in a blue recycle can. People pick them up and they don’t fill them out. In my opinion any of these post cards or something you’re going to spend money on, if you want to do something for Milwaukee that’s fine. People do look for the registration forms. It might be a good idea to bring a 1000. All this other stuff like the post card was the biggest waste of money we did.
Tom: They did them because they didn’t have a registration form.
Kim: I still think it was a huge waste of money.
Randy: I see the magnets because when we hand out magnets they do end up of peoples frig.
Kim: That’s true. You’re talking about 30 days before that first cutoff date, which I think is March 17 or something, 30 to 60 days prior to that maybe saturate with some reminders. Anything before that there will be a dozen people going where are the registration forms? Do they registration forms? No but here’s a magnet. Don’t forget to register. Bye.
Randy: We actually get these little magnets for as cheap as we can print a registration. It was just a really good deal on them. We’ll just do that.
Richard: On that topic real quick, meaning I have something else to talk about, but you want to have your registration form and art work already submitted to the web servant so as soon as registration closes at Milwaukee he changes the web site, because the next day you’re handing out your stuff and people can start going to the web site and seeing the new Convention.
Kim: The problem with that is it didn’t happen for Milwaukee.
Richard: They didn’t supply it.
Kim: That was not my understanding. I believe nothing went out.
Richard: I was in Denver and asked.
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Kim: They had the registration forms.
Tom: That’s a practical matter. We don’t get any registrations until December or January, and those are just so they can start the Board members and Trustee members after our first quarterly meeting who we’ll get five or ten to sign up then.
Richard: Now onto my real topic. I brought this up at the Office Board also. I believe it is bad business for us not to have money in, money out, and do the paper trail. I believe we should be registering and reimbursing one another. That’s just my feeling. I think it’s just bad business to do the paper thing. We’re a business organization and I think that we need to register and be reimbursed, checks and balances, money in, money out. We know who’s paid and who hasn’t, we know if someone went over what they were reimbursed for and what they weren’t—my opinion. The same thing I brought up at our quarterly.
Kim: I don’t have a problem with that. I’m just going by past history and basically what we were told by the WSO was they didn’t want to do all that paperwork.
Trevor: I seem to remember always paying for that and then doing the reimbursement. The only time that changed, I remember our first year when Tony as the Chair, he told Patty for a lack of a better term were not paying $5.00 to register with the Conference. You can give us back $5.00.
Kim: I remember it a little bit differently with Carl. When he had announced it, I had already registered for the World. I had already sent in my registration. I registered online actually. I wrote a note to Susan saying I’m paying for this, I will send you a check. I’m fine with that. I don’t have a problem filling out a hard or registering online.
Richard: We pay a buck or two but the books are right, who’s registered is right, the reports are correct, I just it’s better business.
Joy: You’re right.
Trevor: Can I ask the Treasurers, present and past, what they think.
Barry: I was going to say the DOO has to—what would be easier for you to coordinate?
Yvette: What I was going to say for registration and banquet, Jill and I have set up on Reg. online where we’re administrators so the people that are being comped we have a separate part,
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where like the speakers that are getting registration and banquet, we have a separate accounting on Reg. online. The fee is $3.00 for each person that goes on, but there’s no money tied to it because there’s no money involved. It’s being paid for anyway but there’s an accounting so that when we do our reports our reports will show everybody that’s comped including the Trustees and the Office Board, and the speakers that are set up. If that will be an alternative, but whatever way that would be best to show the accountability on a business aspect, in and out. I’m just open for whatever way you say it should be done. I just want you to know that option is there for the administrators that are on Reg. online.
Tom: What’s necessary is that we need to know how many banquets tickets there are two days before the banquet, so that we can tell the kitchen there so they can prepare the right number. We’re able to do that though that—Reg. online provides us so everyone registering needs to go Reg. online. What’s she’s talking about is all those other people, there still registering, we’re paying $3.00 per person. I think for the Trustees issues—we can do it either way, we’ll have track of it. We can account for it. If you would rather do that and get reimbursed, that’s fine.
Randy: That’s just what I was thinking. I will go with your experience.
Barry: My suggestion is please put it in, pay for it, ask for the reimbursement. Let’s keep things cleaner. I think it’s a cleaner way of doing things. It shows you’ve paid for it, we paid you back, we have an accounting, please attach your receipts. Please send it in together with whatever else you’re asking for. You’ll sign off on it. It will be a clean way of doing things and hopefully in the future we’ll roll with it that way. I like the idea that we have an account of it. We don’t just have a slip of paper saying it. That’s just another slip of paper that we don’t need. We have a system.
Trevor: That’s the policy, pay for it, submit it to me, and I’ll forward it.
Barry: If you are ordering more make sure it’s noticeable. Everything should be what is included, what you are being reimbursed for.
Kim: You’re expense form should show that you are being reimbursed for registration and the banquet only.
Barry: Exactly.
Richard: There’s a place for that on the reimbursement form.
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Kim: Yeah. That’s fine. Just keeping in mind, based on what Carl told me and Trevor has shared, don’t register for a bunch of stuff that you might not be able to go to. We don’t have the schedule yet.
Trevor: Going back to my list, I have Randy next.
Randy: This is a minor thing but it was made to be somewhat important to some folks, in Denver and actually at the Conference as well, the badge. I was thinking of any one real reason why the office should just handle our registrations. It’s your name and some people had Saturday Night Live Phoenix Arizona. They are like no you need to say Southwest Trustee, and it needs to do this. The badge became this title and my badge became an issue and I literally had three of them before the Convention was over. That’s one of the general reasons why having the office register us we all look consistent. I don’t know even if when you register—I haven’t registered yet so I don’t know if it asks you what you want on your badge.
Trevor: 90% of them do. Part of the orientation for us was full name and title. We’ve got to be visible—First name, last name.
Randy: You are just using abbreviations?
Trevor: It’s too long for Pacific North Region Trustee. The Office Board should do the same.
Kim: Just so you know I’m in here right now and it already has me loaded. It says Kim Sherwan Regional Trustee. If you’ve registered online before it probably has everything in there. One of the concerns that recently came up at the last meeting that I attended was the marathon meetings as to whether or not they are open meetings or closed meetings. I’m telling you this has become a huge thing. You’ve seen it on the Yahoo group. They’ve even done a poll regarding it. I don’t know if anybody has any thoughts that they might want to share with me so that Tom can send an email.
Tom: It’s a valid concern. I don’t think we should treat it too lightly. The concern as I understand it is to do is asking newcomers to identify. If it’s an open meeting then they may be identifying in a place they don’t want identify. I never really considered from that prospective and it was enlightening to me that they may be jeopardizing their own anonymity by introducing in front of people that are not members of the fellowship. If they know it’s a closed meeting—otherwise they need to change the format that says newcomers please stand and identify yourself.
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Joy: I have a separate issue than the marathon meetings. I know last year the Board voted to send the entire Board to the Convention. My question is with short fall and a small budget are you sending the entire Board again or are you just sending the Chair, the Treasurer, and a responsible World Service Office staff member? That’s what it says in the guidelines.
Tom: Read the again. The Chair, the Treasurer.
Joy: A responsible WSO staff member. That’s my question.
Tom: Thanks for pointing that out, that’s the intention.
Randy: I want to talk about the marathon meetings. I’m pulling up the web site now. Does Wisconsin area even have closed meetings?
Kim: Yes.
Randy: They have closed meetings in Cocaine Anonymous?
Kim: Yes. I guess the other concern they had basically the badges too.
Randy: I guess what I’m looking at I’m looking at their schedule of meetings and none of these are closed.
Tom: We asked that question and they said they did.
Randy: They assume that they’re all closed unless they say open?
Tom: We asked the question, they said they had closed meetings.
Trevor: We have to respect that.
Kim: Their gig was that they assumed that the marathon meetings were closed.
Randy: Ok. The recognition of a newcomer at an open meeting, if that person does not give their last name is still an anonymous position.
Kim: My understanding if it’s an open meeting you don’t ask anybody to recognize themselves with anything. Meanwhile, the banquet on Sunday night we have a sobriety count down. It’s one
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thing if you choose to get up to the mike and say who you are but to have—are there any other addicts present? And everybody raises their hands, that question in an open meeting should not exist.
Randy: Why?
Kim: Because you are asking people to identify themselves. I understand people have a choice but it shouldn’t, like you said why are we asking if it’s an open meeting.
Barry: Since the Convention is considered a special event, I’m not sure about the guidelines but do you need to have a badge at our Convention to attend marathon meetings?
Randy: No.
Barry: I wasn’t sure.
Randy: Speaker meetings and workshops.
Barry: Some AA functions work differently that’s why I asked. If they choose to be there they can choose to identify or not identify. If it’s any open meetings, it’s an open meeting. A student can come and listen in and gain insight into our situations because it’s an open meeting it’s their choice.
Willie: Going back to the marathon meetings, did we approve the marathon meetings and stuff at the Office Board?
Tom: This is an open item, we haven’t even brought it. We talked about it.
Randy: We approved them? What would you be approving?
Willie: No, no, no, just whether they are open or closed meetings. This is not a Milwaukee Convention this is a World Service Convention.
Tom: That’s why they’re bringing it up. It’s still an issue.
Kim: Not to mention Denver’s program, they actually read from their program at the meeting.
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Tom: The Traditions don’t address meetings. The Traditions talk about groups. Meetings are something sometimes that happens among the groups. An open and closed—I know it’s around the Anonymity Traditions—they bring up a good point. What they’re really talking about is the format that they are using and what we have in the format.
Randy: Meeting group types open attended by CA members, their families, friends, and other interested people. Closed meetings attendance is limited to CA members only. That’s the only definition that we have. This has been a problem somewhere in the past?
Tom: It came up as a question.
Randy: Has it ever been an issue?
Kim: I guess it becomes an issue in regards to registration.
Randy: To a registration for what?
Tom: I think it’s in the format that they use for the marathon meetings.
Kim: That too.
Randy: What about the speaker meetings?
Kim: Speaker meeting is an open meeting.
Randy: Why do they want them closed?
Tom: Because if it’s an open—the marathon meetings are open meetings—in our format says please stand and identify yourself, then we’ve ask somebody to compromise their anonymity in an open setting. That’s what the formats doing.
Barry: If we do choose to do that can we change the meeting format to say it’s an open meeting if you choose to identify yourself. Word it in a vernacular that would be acceptable.
Kim: They are probably going to take a group conscious as to what they’re going to do, they will make a decision.
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Trevor: I think you are already asking the speaker to do it, and everybody that’s going to get up and read. I’ve read at World Conventions before, I’m Trevor and I’m an addict. That’s what we do.
Tom: I don’t think that’s the issue. The issue is at the marathon meetings, if they are open where we ask newcomers to stand up and identify themselves. We’re not asking everybody to identify, we are asking newcomers that don’t know any better who might have a real concern about anonymity to stand and identify themselves.
Randy: I don’t understand the newcomer’s separation of the issue at all.
Tom: They are asked to identify themselves.
Yvette: My question is how often do they ask in the marathon meetings for the newcomers to stand and identify themselves?
Tom: Every hour. They read the format every hour.
Trevor: My personal feeling is that if it’s going to be an issue, it should probably be a Conference issue for the Convention committee to bring to the floor.
Kim: They understand that this is something that needs to be addressed with a referral.
Tom: Right.
Trevor: We can toss it around and make some suggestions here but—the problem is, is that they are asking for guidance for an event that’s going to take place the Memorial Day long weekend in May and the Conference isn’t until Labor Day weekend in September. If they are really in need of guidance I’m sorry. We can discuss it enthusiastically for a while but we’re going to have to give them some suggestions to go by.
Joy: It tells you in the Convention guidelines.
Kim: I was going to say it’s actually going right to the guidelines.
Barry: Can you read that please.
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Joy: When questions arise that are not addressed in these guidelines, the Host City Committee Chair, the WSOB Chair, WSCCC Chair, the Trustee of the region containing the host city, and the WSOB Treasurer have a group conscious to resolve the issue.
Trevor: There you go.
Joy: That’s to resolve any issues that the manual doesn’t resolve. That’s part of my response to Quin.
Trevor: That’s pretty much a dead issue. We know who’s responsible, Tom, Kim, Barry…
Joy: And whoever’s the Conference Convention Chair.
Trevor: So Rob would be one of those people?
Joy: That’s who resolves any issues.
Barry: Since there’s already a poll given and since it is a World Service Convention, our Board should possibly, on our next meeting, discuss this and give input.
Kim: This actually came out of the fact that they’re H&I person is inviting and proposer invitation to facilitators who are not necessarily one of us. Here’s the original. Per the Convention committee guidelines states marathon meetings are considered open, Ca meetings as such will follow the Seventh Tradition. All other meetings and activities throughout the Convention are for registered attendees only. Each marathon will utilize the World Service Conference approved speaker participation meeting format. If then you go to the approved speaker participation formatted states welcome to (my names is) are there any other addicts present? Not to embarrass you but to get to know you better. Is there anyone in their first 30 days of sobriety? It says a concerns is if open the format is asking newcomers to stand and state their name and disease, I think it’s important we don’t ask people to identify themselves in an open meeting, not sure how to rectify guidelines that say they utilize without a referral to the Conference. We’re thinking the reference anonymity we’re not following our own Traditions and should not consider following the guidelines in this instance and change the format to reflect an open meeting.
Randy: Again, anonymity at the level of press, radio, television, and films.
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Kim: Lastly I don’t have a problem leaving them open if that’s how they’ve always been but then I think we need to say that in the program. The past years the program states marathon speaker meetings are open to all however registration is required to enter all workshops and events. That is to be interrupted as free verses pay meeting and event. Maybe it should read marathon and speaker meetings are open CA meetings and everyone is welcome however registration is required to enter all workshops and events.
Randy: It sounded the same to me.
Trevor: In light of what Joy has read as well on page 16 of the guidelines and how they don’t cover what number eight says these Convention guidelines recognize the responsibility of World Service Board of Trustees as more fully described in the by-laws of Cocaine Anonymous World Service Office, Inc. The Twelve Concepts and Conference Charter oversee all activities of Cocaine Anonymous World Service, Inc. including the Convention with respect to Finances, Traditions, and all matters which effect CA as a whole. Technically the Board of Trustees could make a ruling on this and—so we can add it to our agenda for later. They’ve come to us asking a legitimate question regarding…
Tom: Who has?
Trevor: The host city of the Convention.
Tom: That’s what Kim read.
Kim: I just saying that this is an issue that they’re addressing and I’m putting it to this Board so that I can give them so direction.
Richard: If they sent it to her and she brings it to us, then it’s us.
Joy: Are you bringing it to us?
Kim: Yeah. I’m just trying to respect this committee. Not to say that there have been trails and tribulation and challenges with the host city but I believe that they have legitimate questions. When it was put to me directly by the Chair I said gosh I got to say I just never—it never occurred to me that they were anything but open, and I said that openly. Now all of a sudden everybody’s like I don’t know if I want to be there. I’m thinking who else is going to go those marathon meetings but a bunch of drug addicts.
Tom: But if there is one that has a concern and he’s the dying addict…
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Kim: That’s exactly…
Trevor: Is there anymore questions regarding the CAWS 2010 World Service Convention? Seeing we’ve been here for an hour and 20 minutes approximately I’m going to call a bio break.
Trevor: Ok we are back on. Did you still want to make your comment?
Randy: No.
Trevor: Prefect. We are on to CAWS 2011-Arizona.
Randy: We’re doing good. We did our first pass at room space and requirements. We did a tour of the facility. We actually had our General Convention committee meeting at the Biltmore last weekend. We had 30 of us that walked the facility and got a feel for what we had available to us use. Fundraising efforts right now we’re getting real close to 50% of the financial profit goal already with just the three events that we’ve had. The last event was a Love Fest Picnic. We had four bands, tie-dye your own T-shirts, it went off brilliantly. The Convention newsletter, possible distribution paths, the question came as to where that Convention newsletter and I guess now with a news letter out in the general CA population from the UK, the question has what avenues are traditionally used to get the Convention newsletters out and when should they come out? That’s a question for the Board and the Board.
Tom: That newsletter has typically been used by the local committees to inform their local areas about what’s going on with their efforts. We haven’t, as the WSO, been distributing Convention newsletters. We haven’t been approving them.
Randy: Is it just for the current year?
Richard: Yes. We’ve never done advance years on the…
Randy: So our newsletter, as far as Delegate mailings, the news gram—because I know Cynthia was going to get copied on the newsletter—the news gram, the Delegate mailings, anything that we do that goes out beyond Arizona needs to wait until after Milwaukee, is that what I’m hearing?
Kim: That goes for the next Convention too.
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Randy: We just want to be clear on that. The Worldly Indeed shirts are out, thank you all very much. The issue now with the Worldly Indeed shirts is that when we start selling them there will be some brought to Milwaukee to be done on the Monday morning like traditionally memorabilia for next Convention will be had, at that point and time up until then we are going to try and work with either the European Trustee, Nicholas, or someone from the European region to determine whether it might be financially advantageous to have those shirts actually printed and sold there. We do believe that the shirts going to have a lot of potential interest in that European region and the quantity of shirts that we may end up having to be required and the profit margin that we actually carry on right now it might be in our best interest to set up an arrangement to actually have them produced and sold with some help with some friends there. We will be looking into that between now and May; we have time to figure that out. Summer Camp out in Payson is the next event similar to the “We Treat” but it will be more of a camp out, bring the tent type stuff. A question came up that I need to bring to both Boards. The coffee sales locally are doing well. We were concerned at one point in time and I don’t know if anybody’s has done anything as far as doing any interest dates stuff but they wanted to know whether they can bring coffee to Milwaukee or sell coffee outside of Arizona? They want feedback from both Boards as to that question.
Tom: Our guidelines approve the sale that just had to do with how we split the revenues. The revenues go to—I believe 25% go to the existing…
Randy: There won’t be any coffee sold outside of Arizona until after Milwaukee.
Tom: Ok, now problem.
Kim: I thought you just said you wanted to bring it to Milwaukee to sell.
Randy: Yeah, I meant Monday morning.
Kim: That’s still the Convention.
Randy: No, that Monday morning we have that…
Kim: So 25% of the revenues go to Wisconsin?
Tom: No, a 100% still goes to the WSO.
Randy: After the Milwaukee Convention this coffee can be sold to anymore, anywhere?
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Tom: Exactly.
Richard: I’m not a legal person; can distributing these food products affect our non-profit status or any legalities?
Tom: It is part of our program services. It’s what we do.
Richard: Ok, I just wanted to ask.
Joy: We aren’t selling it, we are asking for a donation.
Kim: It is a fundraiser.
Joy: Yes.
Kim: There is a difference between Seventh Tradition and fundraising.
Richard: Yes there is.
Randy: With the success of one of the Point to Point Internet meetings that just recently took place there will be a request that will be sent to Milwaukee regarding a Point to Point Internet showing of the banquet speaker meeting to a private meeting back in Phoenix, Arizona. They would probably tie that to a fundraising event like we would do a spaghetti dinner type thing, 200-300 people whatever number we can get and they’d be able to watch the banquet speaker meeting and they would be able to then watch the passing of the gavel, per say. The Arizona invitation that is always part of that meeting as well, at the end of that meeting there’s a chance folks from Arizona get up and say come see us, blah, blah, blah. As part of that request then would be actually be to potentially broadcast back to that Milwaukee Convention this group of people at the event. It’s really in two parts, the first part of the actual—whatever it’s going to cost to actually get that Conventions meeting broadcast back to Arizona would be Arizona’s expense. It would be difficult for us to know what the expense would be to actually set up screens and broadcast something in Milwaukee, that’s kind of a secondary condition to the request. Are there any questions or issues regarding—this request will come from Evan to Quin.
Kim: Based on what we talked about last night, I’m just wondering whether or not they can estimate the cost and Arizona included in their budget to cover both transmitting and receiving.
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Randy: If Quin can get us those cost, basically it’s the cost of the Internet services, the cost of the display, the screens, and projectors. Most hotels are pre-wired to do something like that if you just even have your laptop. You just got to plug it into their distribution and it goes on screens.
Kim: I understand there’s a cost for the Internet.
Randy: Right.
Barry: Back to the previous—would 25% of the profit from that fundraiser go to Milwaukee and Arizona?
Randy: For what?
Trevor: It’s a local event.
Barry: The feed is coming from Milwaukee.
Randy: I appreciate your concerns.
Barry: I’m sorry. I’m just trying to help Milwaukee out.
Randy: I don’t want to make this sound—our pre-Convention fundraiser is all about doing all of it worldwide from day one and the Convention committee doesn’t care whether we have to share. We believe there is only one Cocaine Anonymous. The only reason we’re trying to limit that effort to local effort is truly just not to step on toes of the Milwaukee effort, not because we’re afraid to give them money. We would love to all this stuff right now, but that’s not in the best interest of the Convention. I just didn’t want to sound like we were going grr; we won’t do it if we have to share. No that’s not it; we chose not to do it because we don’t get in the way of Milwaukee. Other than that any other questions, we’re good to go.
Trevor: Seeing no questions, moving on to CAWS 2012.
Nicholas: They’ve been indiscreet sending the newsletter to everyone on the entire planet. I did suggest it was for the European region and the UK to promote enthusiasm I was told and I approved it. It will be given out at CAUK18. Some members are taking it upon themselves to send it to everyone, which is slightly insulting to the other people, but I can’t do anything about it. They had their first full committee meeting and out of 30 people that were suppose to come only 26 turned up. There is a minor problem with some people still think it’s a UK event and the current Chair, who is an x-Trustee, still thinks we should do things the UK way, where we always pay. So I reminded her she was a Trustee and it wasn’t a UK event, it was a World event
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and we would have to speak to the office. I believe there it was talked about. I was invited on the focal. Apparently the funds are the big thing, funds are the big thing.
Tom: We talked about funding, their pre-Convention event. We didn’t talk about the General committee expenses.
Barry: However we have indicated to the people involved that yes it is a World Service event and they should try to follow our guidelines, the World guidelines as opposed to the customs. We are trying to work within…
Nicholas: Our people that were there they said how to we do Conventions if we’ve poor, how are we suppose to dah, dah, dah. They started going on because it’s always a big thing in the UK, you don’t have to afford to go somewhere, and the area will get you there. They say the area is working for the World Services, so maybe the area should pay. I tried to explain to them that the funds didn’t come from area because the area didn’t have any funds that it was World. Has that not been discussed?
Tom: They have made a motion to include a line item of 1000 pound sterling per General committee meeting to pay the expenses of their members to attend the General committee meeting. The problem with their motion is that they don’t have a budget. They don’t have anything approved by the Conference to begin with. This is an item that Rob and I are intended—we are meeting with 2012 Steering committee next Sunday. This is kind of “the” item. They’re envisioning it as an expense of the Convention, it’s not something that’s typically included it as an expense of the Convention in the past, and it’s not in the guidelines. It wasn’t included in the bid. It wasn’t a line item in the bid. If it is an actual expense of putting on a Convention there it becomes like any other expense and needs to probably be managed. Managed in the sense that well if we are having to pay the cost of the General committee members to attend the meeting and accreditation isn’t really needed there until one month before the event starts. Maybe we don’t need to ask the accreditation to be there until then. So what ends up happening, and I’m not sure, is you don’t have everybody involved. They also need to focus on the fact that the Conference thinks in terms of dollars. I think it is important for them to begin a conversion and start talking in both. Everything comes from David in pounds sterling. I understand the problem, conversion changes and that’s an issue that we’ve got. We kind of knew in the background going in when we approved the bid, it’s not insurmountable. Back to the General committee expenses, there are some practical issues. There’s 30 General committee members submitting reimbursements for $50 to $60 per meeting, it’s a logistical headache. How do we pay them, how do we track it, how are we properly stewarding the fellowships resources? Are we giving David a wad of pound sterling at the meeting and he doles them out, is that how
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we are going to do it or are we going to write checks to every single individual. I know that our staffing isn’t sufficient to be able to deal with that. We have to come up with some kind of solution to do that. That’s a pretty significant disbursement process, every quarter, or every two months, that’s what it will end up being. That’s to be talked about. Our Conference call we talked about reimbursing at least initially through a PayPal process that we required two signatures from the WSOB in order to authorize a transaction to be initiated. That seems to be a process that may be effective and cost effective.
Barry: And accounting effective at least at this conjure since we don’t have a—we are planning to opening a HSBC account here in the US—we have one right now started—it will be ours—we can create it as the Convention committee account, an even year trust account over there. We will be able to transfer funds on a basis soon. We can’t do anything until after Milwaukee. We did discuss that, we are waiting for their budget—if I remember in the guidelines it does state somewhere in the guidelines we do need to take into consideration area ways. In other words, in the UK they do reimburse for committee expenses. We have to take into consideration that and that’s why we asked Jackie to bring it up in their budget that if that is necessary we need to have a budget line item for it. Then we can discuss it as a Board to decide good, no good, more or less, whatever and go from there. Then we have to discuss how we’re going to dole it out. Again back it what we can do. Thank you very much for expressing our concerns as yes it is a World Board but yes we do have to go with the area customs.
Nicholas: I firmly put our foot on the table and said this is not normal, I see this as a one up to get all the committee together, and this is exceptional for everyone to turn up. I think seven members put in. I think it was 1000 pounds or 1000’s of dollars, is greatly exaggerated. I explained the part of my gratitude was to have the honor and to do the service not to be paid all the time. I know interim plans because they have a big event planned. It goes about $10,000 in one hit. I know that will probably be discussed on Sunday. PayPal’s the way to go, I assume at the moment it’s an interim thing. This is the first one, this is the UK, if it ever goes into the European Region per say, checks went five years ago, in three years time there will be no checks in England, that’s gone. I think we’re safe with the method of PayPal. I know they are going to talk about it on Sunday. There is a lot of enthusiasm. I assume on the next sort of meetings the whole committee will not turn up. There is no way in my experience they need that amount. I think you are just trying to push it to see what they can get. They do not need that amount of cash, and most of the people who are coming on to the committee are between five and ten years and are employed. There are two or three who struggle financially. I think that is going to be a good. The other things is there’s lots of enthusiasm, got the first event, their planning five more big events, $10,000 hits at a time. I think they are talking to Terry and the Arizona people quite a lot. I think they are planning some small events as well because not everyone wants to do big, so
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each district and do a little bit and come in. I think what’s important is when Rob and Tom come, and I’ll be there, we have this meeting on a Sunday it’s very important to set down some boundaries. Try and meet them half way when we can, do not quail their enthusiasm because we need it. I’m going to give them ???? because I think that’s insulting. Jackie and Russell and Ian, they know that, because we don’t want to take away from the Milwaukee or Arizona. The good news is because this meeting is being held in the UK on Sunday; some of the European members will come and want to be interested, which is good for their future, like Holland possibly in ten years. They’ve got 30 meetings now, Sweden and now out to Stockholm. They will want to come in on the conversation and listen on how to do things. They will be very interested. I don’t think Sweden seen checks for six years, I’m told, and they don’t even know what checks are. They’ll be interested in the PayPal and everything. When I was in Sweden recently they asked are we allowed to send money to World. The new Delegate said am I suppose to encourage. See we still have a lot of growth going on there, so I said of course and I explained, I phoned Yvette to see how they can do it. I think this will be a good opportunity to address. A lot of Europeans will be interested in helping with the UK but in the future, 10-20 years the big plan, of having a World Service Convention on the European mainland.
Barry: Just a question for you Nicholas. Is SMS money distribution popular right now in England, the phone money?
Nicholas: No, Europe yes and those magic cards you wave at things. It’s coming to the UK but not yet.
Barry: Ok. I just didn’t know how the distribution of funds. I know Sweden use it for everything from soda machines to phone booths.
Nicholas: It’s not in the UK but I’m presuming its coming.
Richard: On the topic on the expense, that was briefly discussed by the three of us, brought up at the Office Board meeting. The primary thing to return to them is they don’t have a budget yet.
Nicholas: They are very aware of that.
Richard: So that’s the primary and the secondary, when this was brought up to by Ethan, and I said ok that’s your custom to do. He had already spoken with you at the office; this was months ago on the topic. No one appeared to be in support of that and I said if that’s truly what you all do and that’s the way you all want to continue doing it, my suggestion would be you do local fundraising to support your committee meetings coming together and we cut expenses. We have
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expenses of World in Colorado, we paid rent. We paid it out of there, it wasn’t out of the money going back and forth at the office, it was out of our own. That was my suggestion to him so everyone knows. I did suggest that, if that’s their ways and that’s their custom, have a fundraiser so you can continue doing that and support your fellowship.
Barry: Area fundraiser.
Richard: Correct. An Area fundraiser rather than a World fundraiser, correct, supporting the area that’s putting on the event.
Nicholas: So that would be held in an Area bank account?
Richard: And that’s the only thing I thought about in a way they can continue supporting the people doing service in the area and staying within the guidelines of World and please give us a budget.
Nicholas: I don’t see a problem with that but the current CAUK18 Chair is up in arms. The committee asked for consideration that CAUK20 be slightly smaller because traditionally like the World Service Convention supports the office in UK live on a year from their Convention. They send the office about $10,000, but they stash $10,000 to support a very big high profile H&I, P&I, whatever, so there will be opposition with them.
Richard: To what?
Nicholas: Going to the area and asking the area to pay for World Convention that they aren’t getting any money for. That’s how people think.
Richard: That’s what they’re asking for, do they want to continue to support the people in their area.
Nicholas: There are people that don’t like. They voice that strongly at area.
Trevor: Can I just interject here for one second. At this point I need a motion to either adjourn or extend.
Tom: I make a motion to adjourn.
Barry: Second.
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Richard: Out of order, we don’t have all the business taken care of.
Trevor: Very true.
Yvette: I make a motion to extend the time to finish the agenda.
Randy: Second.
Trevor: I have a motion by Yvette to extend the time to finish the agenda, seconded by Randy. That does require 2/3’s majority vote. Is there any discussion? All in favor? All opposed. With limited opposition the motion carries with the 2/3’s majority requirement.
Randy: The conversation there, the real position that you take back with him or I would suggest take is that the area hosts this Convention and as such the members of that area that choose to participate on that Convention committee, if they can’t financially afford to get themselves to the Convention committee is the responsibility of the host area to put this committee on? If the hosts area wants it to be open to anyone regardless of their—they have to pay for the individual.
Nicholas: Tom and Robert will put that much more elegantly than I do on Sunday, so I’m going to leave that to Tom. Basically if they want to do that they have to pay for it. It’s only two or three out of 5,000 members, it’s not that bad. It’s all positive, really.
Yvette: Web-Cam, I don’t know if they can afford that either but it’s a suggestion for the people that can’t travel, or Conference call like Teresa does sometimes. I don’t know logistically where you meetings are held but if they can call in on some ones phone they could put in on speaker. It usually works for us.
Nicholas: It can work, so I will remind the Chair and the Vice-Chair of that being an option.
Tom: Kim, was Milwaukee Convention the typically Area Convention for them? Did they scale it down at all?
Kim: I wasn’t there.
Tom: It seemed to be enthusiast and well attended. They had talked about scaling down their Area Convention.
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Kim: Yeah, at a point they considered doing what Illinois did back in 2003, was to have a one day event, which actually worked out well for Illinois they actually made just as much money on a one day event because they had no overhead as opposed to a whole weekend. They did everything the same, memorabilia, literature, registration, they did everything the same. They considered that and they voted to have their Area Convention…
Tom: Curious.
Trevor: Is there anything else on the 2012 Convention? Speeding right along, World Service Office space-status of contract, we’re moving, we’ve got a contract, and we’re great. Does anybody have anything to say on that one?
Tom: We are moving some furniture tomorrow if anybody has a free moment.
Barry: Is everything else in order on the office move?
Yvette: Yes.
Trevor: Ok gift invoicing, we all do it, anything else? AA permission, we didn’t get it, anything else? For information purposes and Willie would probably tell you this, we’re still dealing with that as far as the letter that was discovered and photo copied and faxed out but we haven’t made a final determination, yet. It is on our agenda and we anticipate hopefully getting to sleep tonight at some point.
Tom: We will be addressing something from UK regarding potentially printing over there.
Trevor: We’ve got that on our agenda. So the AA permission is still an ongoing thing. We really hope to be done with that this weekend. I’m not going to guarantee that’s going to happen but I would sure like it to. Moving on to number 5-account procedures and policies.
Joy: You have them, are you using them?
Tom: Yes we are.
Kim: So you approved them?
Tom: If we encounter any difficulty with them we’ll do some cost savings.
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Yvette: Thank you.
Joy: The procedures are more for document and they are great for training, because all the passwords and everything are there. The policies are more of you oking payroll and calling it in, who signs checks, and all of that, that’s policy that the Trustees make. We would those to be followed.
Trevor: Anything else? Status of unaudited financial requests in a timely manner.
Tom: We will continue to work to fulfill that.
Trevor: My understanding is that it has gotten significantly better.
Joy: To a certain extent, yes.
Trevor: So we’re getting better and we still some points to work on, anything else?
Kim: Is that being removed from the agenda?
Joy: Yes.
Trevor: You can remove that.
Kim: Ok.
Trevor: Number 7-training requirements for WSO staff. Is there any…
Tom: I have nothing specific.
Trevor: Ok. I know we talked about some Quick Books training and things along that line.
Kim: Let’s back this up. When Yvette was hired there was approved training that we were going to provide and based on that some budgeting, where are we with that training and what is the status of it?
Willie: We actually initially said that but the end of the conversation was that that would be left up to the Chair person to determine what training was needed and when that training would be.
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Tom: I think I would like to have a quarterly review with Yvette and see what comes out of that.
Trevor: Sounds fair, anybody else? The next item of business is the status of the web servant.
Tom: The candidate that we received is being interviewed by Mike. Mike sent me some emails saying he was going to qualify him. I’ve not heard since Mike has said that. Richard: That’s three weeks ago.
Tom: Right.
Richard: That’s that last update I had too.
Tom: Mikes have been doing everything.
Yvette: The last time I talked with him was right before he posted everything to the web site about the move, he didn’t mention it. He said that he wanted to talk to me about some things with the store and the capabilities that I have so that I wouldn’t have to wait for the new web servant if he wasn’t available. He’s going to give me some training and something I can write down step by step to implement.
Joy: Did you get any new resumes?
Tom: Yup, we got one. I respond to people. I ask for some resumes, so I was surprised by that.
Richard: It comes up every month at the Office Board meeting.
Joy: I have three more people in the last ten days ask me where to send it because we brought it
back up at the Assembly that we just had on February 20th. I would check Yvette@CA.org; you might have some more resumes.
Yvette: I checked.
Tom: There weren’t any in there when we shut down.
Yvette: We shut down the system Wednesday.
Tom: The people that were referred to us, I sent them personal invitations to submit their resumes and qualifications and I only received one. That was from the gentlemen from Utah.
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Nicholas: Two people from the UK said they send. I think there was a slight disappointment when they didn’t get emails saying Thank you. They felt slighted. I know that Michelle can nearly do it but fell short. I don’t think anyone ever sent her an email going fax your application, unfortunately you need this and this; please reapply in 5 years time or something like that. I got it second hand, but the implication was like No, there wasn’t any love. Apparently there was no email sent back to her and she was a little upset.
Tom: No, I never received a resume.
Yvette: There were correspondence that transpired that we stated to her that she needed to submit her resume, she wrote back saying she wanted to know more about what the requirements were and what it entailed, I thanked her and I asked her to contact Richard and Mike, the web servant, and that was the last that I heard of it.
Richard: I did not hear from her. It came up, either from you or from you; it came up what about the people from the UK. I specifically asked Mike about that and he said she was not qualified, which means he would have got something in order look up or he spoke with her. He didn’t respond. They were a lot of people in the mix and that’s probably why she didn’t get a response.
Nicholas: Can we get a little response.
Tom: I don’t know who it is.
Yvette: I have it.
Tom: I’ll send her a little note.
Nicholas: Because maybe in 5 or 10 years she could do it, because she is very skilled from where I come. She’s been to the UK ones and European ones; she could be a potential candidate for the future. Just a little thank you about that.
Trevor: Anything else on the web servant issue? Can we follow-up with Mike sometime in the next couple weeks, I know we’re somewhat busy with the move but just a quick little reminder that we are waiting and we would like to get done.
Yvette: That was our conversation.
Joy: Can we focus again on our help desk?
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Richard: We can’t until we get a web servant.
Trevor: Ok number 9-HFC II storage/shipping fees/printing the book outside of the US.
Richard: I would like to know what the storage and shipping fees are currently.
Tom: We paid $1 for storage and we paid $800 for shipping from Illinois to here. So currently we aren’t paying anything for storage, we are going to need to pay to get it to our new facility.
Barry: From where it is right to our new facility we will then, within the next 30 days, the product will be in our possession in our warehouse.
Richard: Whose warehouse is it in?
Barry: Right now it is in the former DRPD’s warehouse.
Joy: Which is where?
Barry: Semi-Valley. We ‘e going to hire a trucking company to receive it. It’s approximately 18 pallets, so it’s a full 40 foot truck load.
Richard: I didn’t know it was still there. I knew how much that there was and that it had to be moved.
Barry: Because we were moving and didn’t make plans. We found out that it was ok to keep it there until we move.
Joy: The current shipping cost is how much?
Tom: $800 from Illinois to here.
Barry: It will probably be…
Tom: It’s a big deal. I don’t know if we are going to fit in our warehouse.
Barry: We will find a way. If we have to stack it then we stack it.
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Joy: What about the pallet that’s in…
Tom: We’re going to pick it up. I’ve had many conversations with Bill and Leeann. It’s just a matter of being to time it.
Barry: So sometime in the month of March it will be in our warehouse.
Richard: So in March it is scheduled to be in our warehouse, no longer in someone else’s?
Barry: Correct. It was in discussion to be that way.
Tom: We got to put all that stuff away, especially the memorabilia and all old invoice boxes.
Richard: So we should have a plan of a schedule within March.
Barry: Correct.
Kim: So since last August we’ve been paying $1 a month.
Tom: A year.
Kim: A year?
Tom: I told her to charge us for the storage and she sent a bill for a $1.
Kim: And prior to last August there was no charge?
Tom: No.
Trevor: Anything else about printing the book outside of the US?
Nicholas: Russell, myself, and Miss Patty started on printing, storage general thing, since Miss Patty’s moved on we’ve been to get a decent quote to print the book. There’s no VAT, there’s no tax on the books in England. A typical quote here I got is email proof, perfect bound, dah, dah, dah. For approximately 100 books, price per book is 269 pounds, that’s about four bucks.
Tom: For 100 books?
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Nicholas: Yeah. If you want 500 books it goes down to 2 pounds each, which is about three bucks. The turnaround will be three days. There’s obviously a discrepancy between the printing and the sales. We would have to work out revenue, this and that, profit margin for the UK. This is just a concept. Russell just emailed me another one, he is up North, and he found someone to do it at 1 pound 50. The price is going to go down it’s just I want to put it on everyone’s hit list the discussion point. Is this the way to go, do we want to make this happen? The shipping cost, it’s like X to buy it and 2X to get it over there. There is a slight defensive barrier plus a wait. Through no one’s fault there had been no HFC II’s in Europe for three months because of the sticker. I believe they are on the way?
Yvette: They should be there by Tuesday.
Tom: They shipped.
Yvette: They shipped five cases of HFC II and three cases of HFC I.
Nicholas: That’s what I’m saying there’s thirst for the hunger. If the books there we are going to sell it, if there is no book we can’t sell it. The meetings are going by the Alcoholic Anonymous books. We are using sermons of AA, we need to get our product available to our fellowship and this might be a way forward, so there’s no delays and all those dollar revenues that we’re giving to UPS that we don’t need to do.
Barry: What needs to be done is Russell or whoever else is involved with this needs to present to us a valid plan, just like any other bid things. Three bids, send us a projected—a standard check request and we’ll bring it to our Board and we’ll discuss it and find a feasible means of accessing a different printer and then where would it be shipped to, who would hold it, and who would store it. We would have to talk to your Area Chair.
Nicholas: The concept is that there’s no storage. Just ship it in and ship it out.
Barry: Perfect. But it still needs to be coordinated.
Nicholas: Right.
Barry: And then our Board would bring it up to your—we would vote on it and figure out a way to bring it up to your Board and go forward.
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Nicholas: Can I ask where LCF, I think the office knows, where LCF are up to, to find the PDF of HFC II that’s been corrected that’s ready to go. What’s the status of that? HFC I is obviously available, that can be done like that.
Trevor: That is back with the former Chair of LCF, Cynthia Cronkite, she’s got it and proofing it to make sure it is the correct version, however it’s the real size book. She’s proofing it and as soon as that gets done it gets shipped back to the office.
Tom: How would we price something like that?
Trevor: It would have to be a royalty agreement and we have the presented of doing it with Quebec. I don’t know what that deal is; I’ll have to ask you guys.
Joy: There is a royalty agreement contact in the office in the files. We’re going to have to find it.
Trevor: I’m going back to my list because we kind of getting off here.
Richard: I think with a lot of thought and caution starting it off it’s a great idea. The concept I absolutely support, the only thing I want to be mindful of in the discussions going forward is that we have 18 pallets of books, of inventory, that we need to be able to sell first before we start investing in the printing elsewhere. That’s the only thing I want everyone to be mindful of in those discussions.
Willie: That’s already been a past motion for the HFC II without the AA literature. All we are doing is waiting for the corrections to be made and what Cynthia’s going to make, but already passed that motion in May of last year. That motion to reprint those books without AA literature has already been implemented.
Richard: I’m aware of that. I’m saying that I support the printing in the UK.
Willie: Ok.
Richard: Absolutely in UK, I support that. I support looking into it, I support saving their fellowship money so they can continue to support us over here, but to be mindful before we get carried away of saving a lot of money and helping, that we get rid of 18 pallets of the books that we have.
Kim: I have a question regarding the stickering of the books. What was the expense of that?
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Yvette: The expense we have a volunteer that has a developed a system that he is just amazing at, he stickered five cases of books in two days.
Kim: How much do the stickers cost?
Yvette: The stickers cost $146 for 300 labels, so far.
Barry: Less than a dollar allotted.
Randy: The labels are in the inside cover and then stickers over all three pages?
Yvette: Yes.
Barry: The idea of royalties shouldn’t be an issue because we, World Service Board, us are authorizing a printer and the printer can be anywhere in the World, to print the book and deliver the books as we see fit. So there is no real royalty because we’re not selling you the royalties and you printing it, we’re printing it. We’re just using a printer in England. It just in time printing, at least at first, the just in time shipping you’ll place and order with us, we’ll place an order with the printer; the printer will print the book and ship it out.
Everyone is disagreeing with Barry’s statement.
Barry: I didn’t say the Quebec way. I’m saying the way it was described to me as you’re finding printers. We’re just sending them a PDF file of our book without that—the corrected book. We can send them the funds, World Service Office, just like we would send any other vendor the funds and ask them to ship it to wherever you’re saying he will do, so that way at least at first we could do it that way and avoid royalty situations. And then we’re saving you the money to do that. Again it’s a suggestion that I am making at least at first to do it as a stepping stone.
Richard: Until we sell the 18 pallets?
Barry: Yes.
Nicholas: How much does it cost to print here?
Tom: 88cents.
Nicholas: Say a dollar.
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Tom: A dollar and we sell it for $9.95. It’s our largest markup item.
Kim: That’s not hard bound?
Tom: No, soft bound.
Nicholas: $8 that you make translates to about 5 pounds.
Richard: Just over 5 pounds.
Nicholas: If they were printed in the UK it would be cheaper. My idea was that the UK funded so there’s no financial expense by the office and they just send you the 5 pounds. So every time they print it, before they even sell it, they have to send you money.
Barry: So make a presentation.
Nicholas: They would pay for the printing and as the order went to the printer they would automatically send you a PayPal payment immediately. You get revenue straight away, before you even got sales.
Trevor: Tell them to put together the presentation.
Joy: My thing is you’re taking away from the office. We run this like we are supposed to like a business then we want the royalty agreement as opposed to purchasing more books in a different Country. You are right Richard we have 18 pallets of books that need to be sold. We need to deplete our inventory. That’s the first issue at hand. We are carrying $100,000 of inventory in books. The balances sheet says $100,000, that’s more than we’ve ever had on our balance sheet in inventory. To us its income and we are hanging on to it. It’s just sitting there we’re not making any money. We’ll start to deplete our inventory and then $7 per book royalty agreement is a fabulous idea. That’s more income for us, that’s why the Trustees are the financial overseers.
Tom: How do you spell financial planners?
Joy: That is the perfect financial plan.
Randy: I’ve got a book that somebody in England is going to buy from us right now for $18 plus shipping, this, that, whatever?
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Tom: $9.95.
Randy: $9.95 plus the shipping. Almost twice as much I heard. So that individual spent $18 to get a book, we made $7. Immediately start making books in England, that $18 that was spent for one book on a $7 royalty agreement makes us $14.
Tom: Minus the exchange.
Randy: I thought we already did that?
Tom: We didn’t.
Randy: Ok. I’m just saying I got a little dealer in me and if I got $20 that someone over there wants to spend with me and I make $7 by depleting my inventory, I understand we’ve got inventory, or I set up something over there that I put in place that makes me $12 or $14 out of that $20 instead, that’s the right thing to do and that’s the right thing to do right now.
Robert: I just want to know the status is on the French translation of HFC II.
Yvette: Siobhan and Eves have got it together. Siobhan’s PDF is out of whack so she sent everything the Eves to see if he can convert it. We are ready to roll. She revised it. It’s typed set. But her PDF is out of whack so when she sent it to him, she sent to the office first to convert it, I don’t know.
Barry: Just back to the plans. Something to look at and yes we need to deplete the book. They are going; they are starting to roll again. We are selling to both England and in the United States where we do not have to stickers them, change them, modify them. The problem also is when do ship them to England we have an additional time and expense to make them correct of outside the United States.
Trevor: Is there anything else on this business item? Ok, number 10—the policy on bid revenue of the PI’s, PSA’s.
Nicholas: I spoke to Robert. Robert is going to deal with this.
Robert: There have been some questions about how many bids were needed. It’s been taken care of. We have three bids. There was some controversy over making sure that they were all in French, Spanish, and English and not American English. That’s where it’s at.
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Trevor: The next item is number 11—2010 Convention staff. I believe the concerns there were incorporated with the next one NADCP which we’ve already discussed as far as who’s doing what, where, how we are getting people, and where they need to be, is there any other questions or concerns regarding the Convention staff or the NADCP? Combine the two unless someone objects. The room assignments in the past have always been once the date is coming up to release the room block that’s when the Trustees get booked in. The office looks after that. Just a reminder to the Board, when we’re done here this weekend, we will have our “when we’re going to be going to Milwaukee” so I will be needing your travel, when you’re getting there, and who’s coming with you or not as soon as possible so we can get that to Yvette so she can coordinate that with the hotel and get that booked. So within a week of leaving here I would like to get that to Yvette.
Tom: The committee is asking us for that information.
Trevor: Ok. Is there anything else with this item?
Richard: I want to make sure that 10 and Drug Court that the office is considering the literature that needs to get there and things like that.
Yvette: I talked to Bobby and she gave me an updated list of everything. Robyn and I found a box from last year’s NADCP that had one piece of everything and there was a list of everything. There was a letter that Patty had written out introducing what our fellowship was and everything so there’s a whole box of everything.
Richard: And the PI is…She took, I believe, 700 last year.
Tom: Let’s not give out that many.
Richard: No. How many to a case?
Yvette: 28.
Richard: So ten cases.
Kim: 18 cases.
Richard: Why 18?
Randy: That’s what we got left.
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Kim: To get rid of inventory.
Richard: That’s why I was saying 20.
Tom: It’s only 88 cents apiece.
Richard: Can we use that as a write off?
Tom: They are already sold.
Yvette: Those are HFC II’s you’re talking about giving away.
Richard: I know, but it’s a loss.
Tom: It’s only a loss of 88 cents.
Joy: It’s not fair market value it’s cost.
Randy: Actually it’s not even—the loss has already been computed.
Tom: Right.
Richard: The question came up again did we really give out $700 last year and I say it sure seemed like it. I did not see all the pallets that came in but there was a wall of books. I cannot imagine that was not 700 worth of books. There were rows stacked high and deep.
Tom: What were there, 2000 or 2500 registrants? They were coming and asking for the book.
Richard: Yeah, it was one of the draws.
Kim: Should we give them the stickered ones?
Trevor: Does anybody have a problem with letting Richard, Robert, Yvette, and Tom coordinate that?
Richard: One of the questions that we come back to is the number we are going to send. I think both Boards should be in agreement on it, and as long as we are here. Do you want to send half of what we did last year, 350 books?
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Yvette: Sounds good to me.
Joy: What is that a half a pallet?
Richard: What’s the cost of shipping that? Do we know? Any idea?
Trevor: It will have to be figured out.
Richard: We have the floor space mapped out that was given to us?
Yvette: They haven’t sent anything back to me. They’ve been snowed in just like I’ve been telling you. They have received our registration and they said the CAWSO coordinator was going to send me the information as soon as they get it. They have a whole new staff. The people that have been running Drug Court and the registrations, they’re not there anymore. So they have all new people in scampering around trying to figure out what to do next.
Richard: My fear is that if we wait for them and not nudge them, can we nudge them again?
Yvette: Yes.
Tom: We paid and we registered.
Richard: Thank you. You booked the hotels, thank you for the emails on that. The other is Conventions; same thing with the question was the literature being prepared on that. Ok, thank you.
Everyone is discussing when they will arrive for the Milwaukee Convention.
Trevor: Is there anything else on Conventions or the NADCP? The next item is the Conference. Is there anything we need to discuss about the Conference?
Richard: Does the office know what to do for the Conference registration of the Delegates and everything like that?
Yvette: Yes.
Richard: You can try Reg. online this year.
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Yvette: No we have Access program that prints out—we can use the Access program that we already set up.
Trevor: The Reg. online costs $3 and we are charging—is it $18 this year for the Conference?
Tom: I think its $15; we will be charging $18.
Everyone is discussing what they charged last year and what to charge this year.
Joy: Is that with a binder or without a binder?
Yvette: That’s without a binder. Binders are $20.
Willie: With the binders it’s $35.
Kim: We’re waiting to approve the registration forms.
Joy: The area’s need to know.
Yvette: Just so you know Kim, before Shannon left, she said you know Yvette it’s probably—I didn’t get a report that day but I will talk to you separate—we added on the Access program because it wasn’t there before because it wasn’t decided right up until Conference that Unity was going to have a luncheon and that Conference is going to have T-shirts, so we added that option on there, whether we use it or not we put it on there and set the price at $25 for the dinner, at the Kick Off dinner we add the…
Kim: I was on the call.
Yvette: No, I didn’t say that because we didn’t add it until just this past week before we moved.
Right before we moved.
Kim: I haven’t seen a registration form.
Yvette: No, we just put it on our database for the office so that when the registration form does come out we won’t have to worry about adding it on to that program. We just updated the program to all inclusive of what we’ve been discussing rather we use it or not. It is approved with the Conference committee. We have the option there.
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Trevor: Ok if there is nothing else for the Conference, the next item is number 14—copyright renewal.
Joy: Status—CA logo renewal is due the 24th this year.
Tom: We just got a notice from Bernie Gans and they are renewing it.
Joy: Ok, can you forward that to me so I can forward that to the committee.
Randy: This is Bernie is like the lawyer dude or whatever? Can we ask him how much it would cost to move that “R” inside the circle like it’s on our chips? I just request a price.
Tom: Can you guys send something to us?
Randy: Sure.
Tom: I can already tell you how much it will cost us. It costs us $250 to respond to an email, it $750 to initiate a communication.
Joy: Send me an email. I have plethora of attorneys to talk to.
Trevor: Anything else of the copyright renewal, it’s obviously being looked after, which is great. Is there anything else before we get to my most favorite motion?
Richard: I’ve got two questions. You let know that Shannon left, how long was the new person trained for?
Yvette: About a month.
Richard: Ok. The new person was someone that was already within the office?
Yvette: No.
Richard: You hired her. How employees are there now?
Tom: Three and a half.
Richard: Who’s the half?
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Randy: The bookkeeper.
Willie: I just wanted to inform you that this Board has decided not to put it back out to the fellowship the announcement for the Directors position.
Tom: So we should develop and present more candidates.
Joy: Can we just post something to the Yahoo group?
Willie: Yeah.
Joy: The Regional Yahoo group.
Tom: Is there anything I should respond to of the candidates that submitted?
Richard: Yes. Let them know that we appreciated their submittals.
Willie: It wasn’t even voted. It was brought up the concerns; it was brought up at the Board meeting.
Trevor: They’re more than welcome to remain on it and resubmit it.
Everyone is talking over each other.
Richard: Transparency and Inclusion.
Joy: So if you post an email to the Yahoo group telling them there is a Director position open on the Board of Directors of the Office.
Randy: They got 48 hours.
Trevor: Did we not say that was a 30 day thing. We will collect resumes for 30 days, that’s what we ask.
Tom: All during our Board meetings we will be interviewing people.
Trevor: You don’t have to interview everybody.
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Tom: If they come to two meeting and submit a resume then we have to interview them. That is a 45 minute process per candidate.
Richard: Let’s hope we have that problem.
Tom: That’s a huge problem; we have a business to run.
Richard: We do but let’s hope we have that problem.
Tom: I think that’s why the manual provides that the Chair develops the candidates.
Richard: So you are against it.
Tom: I’m totally against it. Just interviewing ten of them we won’t be able to have a meeting for a month and a half.
Richard: Is there anyone else you can think to ask?
Tom: The ones that I’ve ask are not available right now.
Willie: It was previously stated that it hasn’t been much participation. I don’t see where we would interview that many people. That many candidates would come from, at least we are being inclusive. We’re including everybody and not just picking and choosing. Therefore if we put it out for a 30 day period then you’re been inclusive.
Randy: I guess if you put it out and got 200, you don’t have to interview 200. We are asking for a resume and a review of your resume didn’t put you in the top five for service or whatever.
Tom: We have been interviewing everybody that submits and comes to two meetings. That’s been the practice.
Kim: What are the hours of the office?
Tom: 9 to 5 are the official hours.
Yvette: The employees start at 8 or 8:30.
Kim: How is the phone set up in the event that someone is on the phone?
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Yvette: It goes over to the other four lines. There are four lines.
Kim: So potential you are going to answer four lines?
Yvette: There are four lines, yeah.
Kim: So there should be no reason why somebody would call at 10:15 pacific standard time and get the voice mail? I’m getting complains from my region regarding that.
Yvette: It depends, if it was a Board meeting day and Denise went to the restroom and Andrew called in sick that leaves one employee.
Kim: How often does that happen?
Yvette: Not that often, but it can happen.
Kim: I understand that. I’ve work in an office with three people.
Richard: If Tom gets 200 resumes, if Tom gets 20 resumes I cannot see how I would in his position be able to pick and choose how to interview or not. Those are members of the fellowship; I believe we would be obligated to interview them. I almost go back to his original, trying to get people to show up. I just swung the other way.
Tom: You participated in those interviews.
Richard: I did. I actually don’t have a problem when those kinds of burdens fall on us and us having to do that, I literally don’t. It took us three Board meetings to get through all of them; I just believe that is what we are supposed to do. But in the guidelines the way it reads I believe you are more on mark than we are. I don’t know if there is another way around it. I don’t know if you can still—I don’t know if you post it on the group—three days doesn’t seem like significant time to request because not everyone reads their email in three days. I’m going to leave it up to Tom. I feel it should be left up to Tom.
Kim: I disagree.
Richard: I know.
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Trevor: We would have to have a motion—we have one of that? The decision was—so if we wanted to have a motion to reconsider.
Richard: Ok, I won’t hold us up any longer.
Barry: What are the people that are sending resumes in either before they send in their resumes or before we consider going to the next step, that they still need to meet their requirements of participating in two meetings, we can then also send some guidelines out. If we do put it out there, we need to put it out there with maybe some possible guidelines or suggestions. If we’re putting it out there we should put it out there with guidelines and suggestions for that and have them participate in two meetings and etc, etc, etc, all the things that we all had to do.
Joy: I would hope that’s what you would do when you post that to the group, post qualifications.
Barry: That would also limit the number of resumes coming in, I think, and then we can look at it and let the Chair look at the resumes.
Richard: Motion to close.
Everyone: Second.
Trevor: Any discussion? Is there anybody opposed? By unanimous consent we close this meeting. It is 3:00 p.m. we are officially adjourned of the limited Board to Board meeting.
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