May 23rd 2007 WSBT Board to WSOB Board Meeting
Kansas City, MO
Meeting opened, with a moment of silence followed by the “WE” version of the Serenity Prayer
Roll Call:
In Attendance:
| Bruce W. | Atlantic North Regional Trustee | ||
| Lawrence M. | Atlantic South Regional Trustee | ||
| Nicholas L. | European Regional Trustee | WSBT Chair | |
| Tony D. | Midwest Regional Trustee | ||
| Trevor S. | Pacific North Regional Trustee | ||
| Carl W. | Pacific South Regional Trustee | WSBT Vice Chair | |
| Jay F. | Southwest Regional Trustee | ||
| Bobbie H. | Trustee at Large | ||
| Earl H. | World Service Office Trustee | WSBT Secretary | |
| Hayward H. | World Service Trustee | ||
| John B. | WSOB Chair | ||
| Tom P. | WSOB Treasurer | ||
| Patty F. | Paid Director, Director of Operations, Office Manager | ||
Opening remarks:
Tony D.
I hope this goes well today as we have a lot to do here.
Supplemental reports:
Jay F.
I have questions about the financial report. I went through the financials and found some areas of concerns. Can you give a quick overview of the shape we are in now?
Tom P.
We do have some adjustments coming; we still have some issues that are not in the right line items. For example, our outside labor, because we had Lisa on last year and her expenses are not quoted where they are budgeted.
Patty F.
What we are doing is moving the budget from another area to that line; we want it to fall under the right expense.
Tom P.
We are good on the reporting level. As far as operations we are below on sales for chips and literature. A concern level below budgeted and last years amounts for 7th tradition, although the
Page 1 of 22
contribution program is up from last year. We have been able to save money. We would end up at a break even year, which was our budget. A lot of it hangs on what we do this weekend. We may have some savings from the budget, but I do not know what those are yet. If we hit the revenue numbers that are budgeted, we will break even for the year.
Earl H.
I have a question in the trend of the 7th tradition, just how far behind are we?
Tom P.
Based on budget we are about 13 or 14 thousand behind for the first 9 months. Patty and I are thinking about taking it to the finance committee and modify the 07/ 08 budgets with a lower revenue expectation.
Earl H.
Based on the trend of 7 th traditions falling off, even though we will have some increased revenues from the HFC 2. We still have a trend falling for 7th traditions.
John B.
Although that will be realized in a separate line item, it has little to do with the problem we face about 7th tradition.
Earl H.
At what point do we go from concern to possible budgetary action?
Tom P.
We have some discretionary items in the budget; my prudency would be to not spend them, but when we look at these trends next year we are going to see maybe there is not enough room.
Tony D.
For this weekend what I really need help with is the Apollo night tickets, banquet and brunch.
Please get people on a personal level hyped up about these events.
Patty F.
When he said discretionary: if this event does not reach $45,000 and you had a trip planned in June we are going to ask that you not take it. Next: I would rather have you cancel a trustee meeting and go to your areas and re-allocate your funding.
Tony D.
In the past we were doing three quarterly meetings because of budgetary concerns and I think that causes problems in itself.
John B.
Page 2 of 22
You all seem more efficient now more than ever, with use of the online now. If trends continue the way they are it could really make a difference for us. Also if you have a fundraising goal in mind when you visit your areas it helps.
Patty F.
The last and most progressive idea is instead of having a quarterly meeting in Los Angeles in March and November. Have the meeting in a location and have a world service event where you speak to the people. Work Friday, Saturday; Saturday night have a world service forum, and the area has a fundraiser.
Agenda Items:
4A: Update on status of HFC vol. 2
Tony D.
I think we have a pretty good picture on this now.
4B: Literature translations
John B.
We did have a draft of translation policy/process the last time we met. The office board refined this and just passed this document. There was a formatting issue; we could not get the red line out of it.
Earl H.
The copy still states draft, also lines 5-10 still reveal the redlining.
John B.
Well we cannot get that out, but we did pass this document and would like to get it to the trustee legal committee for review. We did attempt to craft the most thoughtful and comprehensive Literature and Translation policy. There will be a lot of things about this document that will appear to throw up both financial and logistical challenges. We did not include employing outside professional services to review translation projects to make sure they were adequate records. Along with that comes the cost. Initially it looks like a process that will just grind everything to a halt; it is really not about that. I have confidence that things will get expedited if people submit their work. John W. came to out meeting and presented some legitimate ideas and concepts for helping to place foot soldiers in the world to help monitor translation projects and helping to assist in tracking these projects. There seems to be some unity when working with the office.
Tony D.
There is also a referral in to create a new standing committee at the conference to deal with translations specifically.
Page 3 of 22
4C: CAWS 2007
Patty F.
We have only achieved 300 pre-registered, the budget calls for 400 pre-registered. The committee did hear us when we did discuss that and there are some savings. Of course we are not going to buy as many banquets, but we are not going to sell as many. So these cost- savings do not really help. There are a few places that the committee is saving and they are now aware where there spending limits are. I think this is something we can work on for the future.
Tony D.
They are letting us add banquets up until Saturday so please help us get more. There are also some great items in the auction.
Patty F.
The Apollo night is $35, we can express to registration that they need not be registered to come to Apollo night. We have never told them that you need to be registered to come to the dance.
Tom P.
The Houston convention was very effective in maximizing every dollar of revenue for the special events. There was an aggressive table at the door and this helped.
Tony D.
Has that conversation taken place or are you planning to?
Patty F.
I am planning to.
John B.
The contribution program also got a great jumpstart when the WSBT met and were very visible in the common areas. We are going to have a world service booth with some banners to feature our logo, international 7th tradition in many languages, and then HFC II. When you can be present please do.
4D: CAWS 08
John B.
Beth called me, she is excited.
Trevor S.
The program chair and the treasurer have stepped down. I spoke with Terry last night; he does have someone who is highly experienced in the bookkeeping field that he asked to step up. She has given her resume and he cannot find others to step up. My opinion is that if she is willing and she is qualified let’s do it.
Patty F.
We might want to go to Salt Lake like now.
Page 4 of 22
Trevor S.
Their planning meeting will be the second week in July and I am flying there. Whether it is budgeted or not I am just going to go.
Patty F.
That is a great time for us.
Tony D.
Terry needs a little guidance because a lot of his vendors are not willing to commit to the price.
4E: NADCP Conference
Bobbie H.
Kathy Jo will be attending for the WSO. Carl will be the third person. Kathy Jo and I will be working the booth together.
Patty F.
(Showed some artwork to the board, describing the changes that will be made when presented) we have a booth at this convention.
Carl W.
Are we going to have the book?
Bobbie H.
We are still working that out. I want that green thing that just got approved, that looks like a little folder that PI just got approved. We will talk about how many books we will have.
Carl W.
We need to have some books that we can donate and pass out. NA was doing that. I was just thinking about bringing a couple cases, which we can just pass out. Make sure that the literature is already prepared before the conference. Not like last time where we were doing it at three in the morning.
Bobbie H.
Based on the fact that we are understaffed we may be the ones doing that. Which mean me coming in to work on Tuesday after the convention.
Jay F.
Have the two of you coordinated the follow up of what is going to happen after the event as far as who is going to send the letters out?
Patty F.
We anticipate that you will be collecting all the data and delivering. Kathy Jo will make sure of the formatting of it. The letters will go out from the office.
Page 5 of 22
Carl W.
With the follow up are we going to be willing to send out starter kits if necessary?
Patty F.
No one has mentioned anything about any other SR14 item that might be on the agenda that my job description may change in such a way that I would be creating materials. They don’t want just a starter kit; they want a poster to put in their office. So it will be a new starter kit that we have not yet developed.
Carl W.
The questions we got last year were “How do I start a meeting?” Are we going to be willing to send out starter kits if that question comes up again?
Patty F.
Yes, by any request. The bigger thing is addressing the actual audience. How do they tell someone how to start a meeting?
Tony D.
We have some information going into SR14 to add in a new director to the office board.
Hayward H.
From all of the letters sent out, has the office received anything back yet?
Patty F.
Not on my return did I find anything.
John B.
Probably a lot of this went into stacks on red-tapers desks and it really has to do with the kind of follow up work that the new position (that you are discussing) can do. Now no one can ever say “oh that CA is disorganized” or “Who are they”. Now they will hear from us and about us on a regular basis, ideally.
Jay F.
We have the banner from the last two years; it does not make any sense for you guys to send out something to them now saying come on to our booth.
Carl W.
The problem I have is we had a whole year to plan this and here it is down to the last minute and we are doing the same thing we did last year. I understand being understaffed but we had a whole year to prepare for this. We knew this was something we were going to do.
Bobbie H.
I understand what you are saying Carl. I know it can happen; I am not concerned about the last minute crunch time.
Page 6 of 22
Tony D.
I am going to remove item# H: Newsgram editor and update. The board has been delivered what you have come up with. There were no suggestions or changes.
I: SR14 Process and timing, what referrals and motions will the WSOB bring forward, if any.
John B.
I think you are going to find a very low maintenance SR 14 agenda from the office. I don’t think we are going to get the translation policy/procedure included in any manual per say. We will display that work product and say that it is emerging as a template for a working policy for CAWSO.
Patty F.
The only ones that are coming are the same ones we always do about adding materials to the convention guidelines. There were probably about ten of those.
Tony D.
We understand that you have a referral going out about some changes to the 12 point literature approval process and publishing process. We also have an agenda item so as you come up with ideas we would love it if you would share them with us, so we may all be in sync.
J: Conference Preparation
Jay F.
I know the office is short staffed now, as the trustee on the conference committee last year I know that over the summer they were scrambling to get things done and was late on a couple things. I am just asking where things are and if there is anything we can do to help.
Patty F.
This time I will not be out of the office. I don’t know what could have gotten behind at the office.
K: Vendor Licensing
Tony D.
We have finally approved something, so we will be forwarding that on. Once you get the document we will certainly field any questions.
John B.
Is the document you came back with real labor intensive?
Jay F.
It is the one that Hayward presented to us.
Page 7 of 22
L: Newcomer Pamphlet
Jay F.
Bruce and I sit on the committee where this was discussed. It would help to understand where there was a meeting of the WSOB and Theresa came back and reported that it was not going to be printed. Then two weeks later it was going to be printed.
John B.
I wasn’t present at that meeting. The board does have some concerns about how this piece competes with other literature sales. While those concerns are fiscal or business oriented they do not supersede the needs of the WSC. I want the board to understand that. We are back on track with the typesetting, look, and feel that Shari was able to craft for that piece. We have funds that we have allocated for that in a separate motion.
Jay F.
Sometimes maybe the means do not satisfy the ends, but there was a report that came from Theresa saying that it wasn’t passed, but by the way this is how it is being processed. Then two weeks later it was changed and there was some delicateness in between there.
John B.
All of us have become tangled up in attempting to honor a process or a decision that we have made as a board. Sometimes the manual and the steps in there can confuse us or be taken out of context. I think here they were taken extremely out of context in a sincere effort to try and back up a decision making process. There are still business related challenges that we will attempt to overcome. We may actually have some SR 14 around that. It may just be some structural ideas.
Patty F.
Well we are bringing to finance the discussion of when LCF or any committee that it has to be integrally incorporated into our long term spending plans. Specifically how it will impact us. You saw me tried to not take on the European region for one more year that kind of thinking is not incorporated into our process currently. We step into something or the conference makes a decision that we cannot back up. We have to have a tool, a process to say: World Service has now investigated and here is what we say that we now have a new informed group conscious. Without saying no you cannot do that. One of our needs is to step up and say you do not have all the information and table the motion.
John B.
No one would ever second guess the conscious of the conference, on the other hand there were kind of legitimate reasons to take another piece. To empower the volunteers could be devastating in the World policy making and the long term costs.
M: WSBT future plan on board to board agenda
Earl H.
There has been a little confusion. This item is trying to firm up when we are going to have a full board to board, how many do we need, when would be a good time for these. How will we need
Page 8 of 22
to adjust meeting with the director alone and with a two director environment and the participation of the two directors in the Board to Board meeting.
Tony D.
I had made a decision to not have a board to board and as the chair I have the right to do that. From a cost perspective I think it is ridiculous to have a full board to board here at the convention. Most of the time we have all the office board members, but I do not think we should be obligated to pay for them or have a full board to board. I would have a full board to board at the conference and at the November quarterly. That makes financial sense to me.
Patty F.
I think the chair should think the whole year through. You know who is on our committees and set a meeting for that. There is nothing about operations on this agenda so you do not need to meet with the office manager today. I do believe we need to get together once a year.
John B.
The thought that you have had about this is pretty reasonable. If any of our directors are available or just interested, could we have them present in the room?
Tony D.
Typically I would say no, I think it is a little agenda specific. I think if it is something sensitive or about a certain director, obviously we would have issues.
N: Reprinting of HFC 1
Hayward H.
Patty and I cleared that up.
John B.
I want to thank this board of trustees for its love and support through a reasonably difficult public relations quarter.
Tony D.
We work together and we support you guys.
Motioned to close, 2nd, Motion Passed.
Page 9 of 22
For attached documents and reports see: 2007-05-23-WSBT-WSOB-Board-Meeting-Minutes.pdf