CA WORLD SERVICE BOARD OF TRUSTEES SUMMARY MINUTES OF MEETING CONFERENCE CALL MEETING
NOVEMBER 1st , 2015
Since this report is a confidential C.A. 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 any way out Tradition on anonymity in public communications media (press, radio, TV, etc.).
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WSBT Conference Call Sunday, November 1st, 2015, 9:00 AM PST. Minutes
Moment of silence and Serenity Prayer – Frank
Roll call
Ira Land – WST
Frank Pappano – WSOT
Suzanne Veltman – ERT
Jeannette Johnson – MWRT
Rob Wellhauser – TAL
Deborah Giles – PNRT
Yves White – ANRT
Anne Bouley Meyer – ASRT / WSBT Secretary
Jay Parker – SWRT / WSBT Vice-Chair
Duane Miller – PSRT / WSBT Chair
Chair’s opening remarks: Remembering the conference call protocols. Thanks everybody for being here. Please be up to date on expenses. Everyone will get a copy of their expenses to date after call.
CAWS Convention updates
CAWS 2016 (Jeannette)
Did attend 2 conference calls. Committee is working hard to stay on task. They’re trying to finalize the speaker slate, and working to finalize the website. They are looking to host an event on Friday July 1st. If the region or conference committee wants to meet, please let Jeannette know. When/if the Boards will meet at the convention, please inform Jeannette by December. They are using the timeline. There are contracts that are pending that need to get sent to the Office. Frank and Bernie are working on Archive presentation.
The Unity event is being worked out in conjunction with the Unity committee in Chicago and WSC Unity committee.
CAWS 2017 (Deborah)
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Attended the steering committee. Did a walk-through of hotel. Filled some positions. They have been having fundraisers. They are on track. Remember artwork needs to go to WSO Board first for approval.
CAWS 2018 (Yves)
We visited the last hotel this week and will meet next week to make a decision and hope to have a contract by the end of November. We have completed the steering committee, we are ready to go further to build up the rest of the committee.
CAWS 2019 (Suzanne)
Nothing to report. Have reached out to Sweden to find out who the contact person is. There is not yet a chair voted in.
PLACE MARKER – BUSINESS ITEMS
MARKER 2006.02.20 Copyright and trademark protection (Ira) – To remain on agenda for quarterly review Next Review – Principle register – September 4, 2020 Review of On-Line Copyright Issues
| Service Marks | Where Protected | ||
| We’re here and we’re free | USA and EU | ||
| Need to be renewed for 2016 | |||
| Cocaine Anonymous name | USA and EU | ||
| C.A. | USA and EU | ||
| C.A. logo | USA and EU | ||
The following marks have been registered in Canada:
- Trademark: WE’RE HERE AND WE’RE FREE Renewal Date: 9-30-2027
- Trademark: CA HOPE FAITH COURAGE & Design Renewal Date: 8-9-2021
- Trademark: COCAINE ANONYMOUS Renewal Date: 12-13-2021
- Trademark: C.A. Renewal Date: 6-12- 2022
Will receive renewal dates from Ira in December
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MARKER 2006.08.13 Signature of annual corporate documents (All)
To be completed at Fall quarterly
MARKER 2009.05.09 Status of WSO (Frank/Ira) – Will be meeting in 2 weeks. All is going well at the office. Looking at new rentals. The lease is coming up on copier and office. Considering four locations for WSO in Long Beach area. Consider providing a list of things to accomplish to WSOB chair. Taking the Archives into consideration. The office employees are doing a good job. HFC I was discussed.
MARKER NADCP – (Rob) – Will be June 1 – 4, 2016 in Anaheim, California.
The PSR will be there to support.
MARKER TEC – (Rob, Jeannette – second) – Remember to forward names and numbers of the Candidates and the TEC delegates.
OLD BUSINESS
2011.03.01 – European fulfillment facility – (Rob/Frank/Ira/Suzanne) – A new Gmail group has been set up. Not much is happening.
2013.10.02 – Legal Update (Anne) – No report.
2013.11.07 – Newsgram and future financial disclosure (Deborah/Rob/Jay) – Will discuss at next quarterly time permitting. Jay will work as second with Deborah.
2014.01.01 – New www.ca.org site update (Yves/Frank) – Almost complete. Just adding things to the stores. Last thing to do is connect to the credit card system. Will go with BofA and add their information to the donation button and store. Planning to be ready by the end of the year.
2014.05.03 – Financial year (Jay/Frank) – Shows the last six month budget of this year so it’s difficult to gauge. January 1 starts new financial year. It’s moving along well. And Scott helping Laurie is a big help. The prudent reserve will be presented to us for our review.
2014.06.02 – Long term financial comparison (Jay) – Done.
- Fiscal Year Start update – (Frank) – Everything is moving well, no hiccups.
- Facebook, our trademarks, copyright and Traditions impacts (Yves) – No change from the IT committee during conference. Remove from Agenda.
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- Validate the backup process in place for all of WSO IT infrastructure (Yves) – Need to take some time to go through the process. I don’t think it should be under one person. It seems everything is backed up, but the office could end up being in a position where they can’t access data. The process needs to be well-documented. Will provide a plan of action upon completion of discussions with Scott.
- New Region (Rob) – Discussion has started. Please move to December quarterly.
- WSO selling AA material (Rob) – Sent a referral to the office. Remove it from the agenda.
NEW BUSINESS
-Newsgram Articles
The following is a response to a NewsGram Article 3rd Quarter this year page 10. Please read the Article then this response. I believe it is worthy of discussion in December
Hi family –
As a former trustee, I have embraced new roles of service in my recovery and support the new representatives of our fellowship at all the levels of our service structure. As an elder statesman, I have watched and reserve my opinion in most cases to allow the spirit of our world service manual, concepts and traditions to guide the service related decisions of our fellowship. But there are some exceptions to this silence when I believe the information we give our fellowship to make informed decisions is questionable.
In the third quarter Newsgram, there is an article entitled “Does Group Autonomy Trump the Traditions?” The title itself grabbed my attention as the group’s autonomy IS the 4th tradition. Upon reading the article with some confusion as to the content, I reminded myself of the beauty of each member’s opinion regarding questions such as these. And I don’t want anyone confused as to my understanding that the rest of this article is only my opinion as well.
The crux of the issue in my opinion is what is and what isn’t CA Conference approved literature? What is and what isn’t CA approved literature? And does CA take a position regarding the utilization of literature that is not CA Conference approved for our members and in our meetings? Looking to the experience of AA on this subject provided me with some clarity.
What is and what isn’t CA Conference-Approved? From Service Material from the General Service Office of AA –
“Conference-approved” – What It Means to You
The term “Conference-approved” describes written or audiovisual material approved by the Conference for publication by GSO. This process assures that everything in such literature is in accord with AA principles. Conference-approved
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material always deals with the recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous or with information about the AA fellowship.
The term has no relation to material not published by GSO. It does NOT imply Conference disapproval of other material about AA. A great deal of literature helpful to alcoholics is published by others, and AA does not try to tell any individual member what he or she may or may not read.
This definition directly from AA seems very clear that “conference-approved” is the stamp given to literature that is being published by AA and has no bearing on any other literature. The fact that AA took great care to define this term “conference-approved” as having no relation to material (literature) not published by GSO is very important. I don’t know of any reason that CA wouldn’t hold the same position this subject.
What is and what isn’t CA approved? From GSO Box 4-5-9 (Volume 23, No 4) –
Any literature that pertains to the principles of AA or is approved by a GROUP CONSCIENCE – is perfectly acceptable to be read by any AA member or in an AA meeting.
I found no information regarding any such label as “AA approved” and found a lot of information and writings going to great length to make sure that there was never an “AA-disapproved” or “AA banned” list of literature either. Bill W took it even one step further with the following:
“If you were to ask me what is the greatest danger facing AA today, I would have to answer: the growing rigidity – – – – the increasing demand for absolute answers to the nit-picking questions: pressure for GSO to ‘enforce’ our Traditions: screening alcoholics at closed meetings: prohibiting non-Conference-approved literature, ie ‘banning books’: laying more and more rules on groups and members.”
As AA has no such thing as AA approved or AA disapproved, I don’t know of any reason that CA wouldn’t hold the same position on this subject. Our CA meetings have flourished with studies of New Pair of Glasses, AA Comes of Age, Sermon on the Mount, etc. as examples of many types of literature that, with the group conscience, have been part of our recovery meetings. The history of AA is full of these experiences as well and I would personally hope that CA supports those efforts – not discourage them. Specific to the little Red Book (containing the first 164 pages of the Big Book published by Anonymous Press) being used by some H&I groups:
I was part of the H&I subcommittee in Arizona back in the day when the decision was made to use the area’s generosity to the H&I can to distribute the first 164 pages of the Big Book to as many addicts confined to hospitals and institutions as we could.
Discussion on the subject was informed and the voices for all the angles were heard. With approximately 100 H&I meetings each week in Arizona, the expense to provide the Big Book to those individuals or the little Red Book to 7 or 8 times as many was discussed. The loyalty to AA vs purchasing literature from another organization was discussed. Possibly removing the back pages of the little Red Book to remove affiliation concerns before distribution was discussed. The “approved” or “not-approved” question addressed above was discussed. Does the choice of either avenue of purchasing the literature effect CA as a whole was discussed.
Any individual’s position or concerns were allowed to be brought forward and discussion was fair and informed. The decision was our Area would provide the Big Book of AA to our regular meetings where our members are most likely to purchase the book themselves
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and the H&I committee elected to provide the little Red Book to the confined addicts free of charge. The result of that action was, and still is, truly in the spirit of our 4th tradition and I support the areas across our fellowship to have their own discussion.
I love our 2nd tradition: For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as he may express himself through our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern.
I don’t believe it’s my role to convince anyone on which way they should vote on the issue if it was before them, so I don’t believe it’s my role as a former trustee to dictate which way would be right or wrong. But I do believe it’s our roles as members of this fellowship with some experience to educate and inform our fellowship. I believe in the Steps, Traditions and Concepts of our fellowship and can only pray that Bill’s fear for his fellowship doesn’t become a reality for ours.
In Love and Service –
Randy G
Ira- suggestion: To read AA grapevine statement of purpose/policy. Will send that in an email. Yves: 2007 2nd quarter WSBT has policy. Will send in an email.
-Discuss the Holland translation of the First Step – (Suzanne) – Being discussed at Area Holland to be more in line with Belgium. Affects other literature.
-Selling chips and literature at Hazelden and other venue. (Frank) – Sent chips and literature but have not heard back. Frank will follow up.
-Discuss meeting time for conference calls – (Deborah) – Will be discussed at next quarterly.
-2020 Convention – (Jay) – Four Areas in Region want to bid on conventions for 2020 and 2021. This was discussed.
-ca.org E-mail addresses – (Frank) – Sent out the ca.org email addresses to everyone. This was discussed. Professional appearance of ca.org email address versus yahoo or gmail. Might be value to having those. The system needs to be protected and updated.
Duane – Update trustee docs to say, upon your exit as a trustee all information regarding regional yahoo groups, emails, all get turns over the WSBT. Yves will put some information together for us to review.
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CORRESPONDENCE/ RESPONSES FROM/TO THE FELLOWSHIP:
Tradition 3 – sex, drugs and food
Email from Jim CAUK: Tradition 3 – sex, drugs and food 9/27/2015 5:52 AM
Jim CAUK
To wsbt@ca.org
Dear Trustees,
could gambling, sex or food be considered mind altering substances in the context of Tradition 3?
Many thanks,
Jim
Proposed response was discussed and will be discussed at quarterly.
IN-CONFERENCE REFFERRALS TO BE ADDRESSED:
None
POST-CONFERENCE REFERRALS TO BE ADDRESSED:
None
OPEN DISCUSSION:
Anne – WSC reports linked on SGPV website.
Deborah – Washington area. Rob will work with Deborah on response.
Hotel needs were discussed.
WSBT Quarterly – The next quarterly meeting will be held from December 4th, 2015 at 5pm to December 6th, 2015 Noon at the Sheraton Gateway LAX.
Close – Serenity Prayer
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