Nov 2, 2007 – WSBT – WSOB – Board to Board Meeting Minutes

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November 2007 Board to Board1
Los Angeles, CA

Board to Board meeting for WSBT and WSOB
November 2, 2007

Four Points Sheraton, Los Angeles, CA

Opened with a moment of silence and the Serenity Prayer 1:39pm

In Attendance:

Kim Sherwan MWRT
Lawrence Matlock ASRT
Trevor Scheilbe PNRT WSBT Secretary
John Bodkin WSOB Chair
Bobbie Harmon TAL Acting SWRT Vice chair
Nicholas Lynn ERT
Patty Flannigan Paid Director of Resource and project planning
Bruce Watson ANRT
Carl Warlick PSRT Chair
Tom Phalan WSOB Treasurer
Earl Henderson WSOT
Hayward Hunt WST Secretary

Chairs opening remarks

John: Good afternoon it is good to be here and to be of service.

Carl: Did you guys get a chance to look at the agenda?

John: No sir, not on paper.

Carl: We added an H and an I. H: we would like you all to create a form for all literary submissions.

I is the status of items within the archives and inventory, things that were lost or broken. Is there anything we need to add?

Kim: Timeline for reimbursements.

Carl: Ok that is going to be J.

Kim: Time line or process regarding starter-kits.

Carl: Ok then that is K-process regarding starter-kits.

Patty: Budget and trustee participation.

Carl: Budget-Trustee participation will be L. M will be for translations.

F was LCF publication process update for the WSBT. Well H is the answer for G.

Supplemental reports and questions from the WSBT

-None-

Items for discussion:

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CAWSO 2008

Patty: I did just visit and they are in the same stature as I would say is Portland is. They are a small committee, the same people who are going to run the information. The important part of that is that the leaders have been participation in the conference for long enough to understand how the interaction between the office and committee works. They way terry has it is if they want to do anything they have to ask us. Which is kind of hard to say, no you don’t while I was there, but no you don’t. You only have to if it has to do with money. For an example the marathon guy, while I was there, said well we want to have special marathon meetings can we do it? Well the input I can give you is does the hotel say you can use candles. We do not approve those things. That is up to the group conscious. I don’t think I affected Terry’s leaders hip in anyway; he seemed to be ok with it. The way he wants it is he wants them to bring everything to us. The way we want it is, only if it has to do with money. Or anything in the guidelines, we are not running the convention, only managing it. We are going to have their auction for their suite; online for them that is their request. We are bringing it to our WSOB to be able to say yes or no and how it that going to work. I believe because we are collecting the money on site for the winner that it will not be the problem. We are actually finalizing it in Utah with the member that is in Utah we will be ok. We are going to use software that is readily available to us in our area because we had a similar one in our convention where we auctioned a suite. They new how many were in the contract, they knew which one they were going to give away, I felt confident in my sense of them. The model that they are using currently, they have spent more then their pre-convention funds. They have their line item move, for their jewelry sales; recognizing that they have already profited $14,000. I think it is interesting for us to think about long term and how do we interact with a committee like that. They have possibilities outside of what our little model is. They were able to do this while they were working closely with us. These people were experienced enough to say, “Ok how about this”. We don’t open them up for any co-creating. They are already 1/3 of the way to their number and they have $90,000 to spend to risk. Are we risking too much to get a profit like this? This is one of those things that is part of the new directors title. I will be showing you how the risk is. They took a risk and the WSOB allowed and it was worth it.

Earl: Do they seem to be on schedule, in terms of preparation of workshops.

Patty: the master time line we sent out is a dream that I have, that we will be able to do it. They are on the normal plan, which is acceptable. Between Trevor visiting now and my visit is scheduled for February 22^nd. I think that they’ll be ready, they are experienced. Half of their committee worked on 99.

Carl: Since the conference decided we can sell items outside of own region, is this change allowing this committee to make a large amount of that 14,000? Is that a big portion of it?

Patty: I have no data on that at all. They do have a lot of travelers so they have been able to sell. But it is the profit margin. It’s the actual markup. Our markup on registration is only 100%, on this it was 250%!

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John: This year you guys have some pretty substantial TEC interviews to conduct. Do we need to let them know about some extra space? That would be something that we would want to communicate them.

Patty: it will just be the trustee room.

John: I just didn’t know if there was going to be need for extra. Like if you were going to drop that room, for the event after the quarterly. I just want to make sure that you have that space allocated.

Patty: They have five rooms and one big ball room that cuts into 100 pieces. The hotel liaison has not finalized their space and we will talk about that when I go there.

Hayward: have you seen the room where we are going to have the quarterly meeting?

Patty: I have seen a room where you may have the quarterly. The room they wanted to assign you does not lock.

2009

Patty: They have no treasurer now.

Bobbie: They do, it is Jim, and he is the co-treasurer now.

Patty: I didn’t get that email. Whoever sits on the convention committee needs to let me know. As soon as it is the convention committee, then I am in that loop. They also asked us to do something that we are going to bring to the board this week. They want more public outreach. So we are going to put something on our website, saying do you want to be an outreach for convention? It’s a overall great change for all conventions.

John: I have also been in touch with Beth R pretty regularly and she has been pretty good about chair communications. The third Monday of each month we can expect a report by the chair, all the way up to the convention. I know we have had some problems getting minutes around and stuff like that.

2010

Patty: I did meet with Kim about how we might facilitate their possible new model for their convention. Remembering that they asked that we not have any net gain or profit on the brunch. I was prepping Kim to say that we are open to these possibilities but you have to give it to us by the spring meeting so that we can be ready for the conference together. Quinn has come to the conference floor previously to make a motion, when he had the convention last time. When the boards decided that the office should do the registration. He went to the floor and made a motion to not do that and it failed because the conference wanted us to. But he may end-run us so that we need to be working with him very closely.

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2011

Tom: nothing to report

NADCP conference preparation for next year

Bobbie: Nothing is in place yet, NADCP is currently looking at the Renaissance Grand Hotel, and you are not able to make a reservation for that yet. In the meantime Patty has looked at four or five other hotels in the center. She brought in information on the Holiday Inn Select. We are looking at 136 times 2 rooms. We are on top of hotel and costs, I pulled this thing up again and it is going to be February when we are going to need to be on top of this. We were talking about who will be going; Kim will not be able to go. We are in the middle of that decision. Is our DofR&PD going to be attending or are you going to get a replacement to go? Patty and I will work on this, once we know that we are registered then we will get these letters out saying that we coming back. It suggests that we have contacts for all the trustees, so if people are in your area they have a contact.

Earl: Logistically speaking, we have a world service convention in SLC Memorial Day weekend and then we have a drug Conference in St. Louis on the Wednesday after the Monday that the convention ends. Do we see this as being a strain on office staff and resources? Any thoughts on how we might want to cover those obligations?

Patty: We have been really clear that it is the week after for a couple years. I am planning to go currently and have cleared my calendar to go directly from SLC to St. Louis. The office part is ok; generally I am off work that week any way. I don’t need to be back in the office until all the shipment is back in the office and that takes about six days.

John: The suggestion by Bobbie, which Patty in her new capacity is the one who attends makes perfect sense. Operationally we will be ok; we are used to that period of time not having a manager on site. If in fact that this is what we decide to do, this will not be a strain on management.

Patty: they do not have the trade show registration up yet. Ours will be about 1000-1200 and that includes two registrations and space for the booth. This does not include any electricity or tables or anything additional we may have.

John: I don’t think it is to early to start talking about what type of materials we want to take or what types of upgrade to those materials. I am assuming that our registration will go smoothly, we want a lot of lead time incase we need it for shipping. Any technology needs that we want to take in advanced, like power point presentations we will need.

Bobbie: For the next quarterly we will have a running list.

Carl: I will leave this on a place marker and we will update this at next quarterly at both board meetings.

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Hayward: the booth that we usually use at the conventions, will it be forwarded on to the site for the NADCP event?

Patty: we have not made a decision on that. We did not buy that booth; we have not bought anything yet.

F. LCF Publications’ process

Bruce: I am sorry I cannot be there in person; I have bronchitis and have been advised not to travel at this time. I have been asked to sign off on the pieces that were changed at the conference. I told her I was reluctant to sign this until I see a copy of the transcripts of the conference which I understand should be available 10 days from now. My notes and my memory are fallible. I don’t want it to be wrong and have them put it into the book and then have them fix more mistakes. So after discussion with Cynthia and patty, that is where we stand at this point. Once I receive the transcripts I can sign off on them and then move forward. One of the points in the 12 point lit requires that the sign off occur within 30 days after the conference and obviously that is not enough time to get the transcripts. This is something that needs to be addressed sooner than later. My personal opinion is that it should be changed so that whatever trustee is on the LCF the opportunity to look at transcripts before saying yes or no. I know some members of the WSBT went to visit NA last week and we have talked about looking at their literature approval process to see if there are anything that we may consider adopting from them that may streamline things. The next major piece is likely to be the meditation piece and I hope that does not go through with the same experiences that the HFC 2 went through.

Patty: We have previously had the information from NA and so did many of the trustees here. One of the things that they incorporated when the office creates a piece, which is how it occurs over there, they invite workgroups. They actually pay workgroups to come there. Which I think is a fine model and I suggested this to the committee. It is our team that is to finish it, not their team that finishes it. So they need to participate on our team. I have five pages of this book that we are not changing until we change how this system works. Example would be: We have a meeting format which duplicates the 12 steps and 12 traditions right behind each other. On page 237 is the meeting format, on page 240 is the 12 traditions and in between that is the 12 traditions and the 12 steps yet again! But we don’t separate reaching out, or the other readings, or alcohol. So if someone went to look for our book for those they would have to know where they are. These are just logistical things that as us being publishers that we can suggest, but we don’t have an aspect for that. With the NA model we would have that. We are charged with this from the conference and then we ask for help from the members who are qualified to help with that. I did send out to Bruce about some of the timelines. I don’t know if we have to make a motion or if we have to say that we are not going to do it on that timeline? Technically she could come to the conference and say that we did not follow the timeline and we would have to express why.

Bruce: I emailed Cynthia about this and I know that she was not really happy about the delay. I assured her that I would get this done as soon as I could get the transcripts and

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that I shared her desire to see the second printing happen before the end of the year. I believe that this is do-able.

Bobbie: On the part where you, Bruce, talk about the sign off. We just recently approved something about when we sign off on something, because we kind of already know that we cannot sign off on anything after the conference before we receive any transcripts. I am concerned about you being pressured to sign off. Did we just approve this at the conference that you had to do this in 30 days, because the LCF publication process got presented again? That means this thing that we approved at the conference that we thought was another fix to the problem just made the problem worse, unless that was already there and did not get changed. We really need to get on top of fixing this process. Have you reminded her, the LCF chair and former trustee that you should not be signing off on anything?

Bruce: I did do that and told her quite honestly that the last thing I wanted to do was sign off based on my memory or a note I jotted down, only to contribute to a mistake to a published piece to our fellowship. That then has to be fixed down the line. This is almost exactly what I said to her.

John: I think your position is appropriate and is appreciated by me. Although she is concerned about the time frame issue, that logistically it’s less her concern, with all due respects, than it is that of our business. Of which you are primarily concerned as trustees and we are as board members. I believe we have a better take on what we are able to handle. I am not hearing anything that is wrong about your thinking at this time, please communicate with me if I can help with this in any way.

Patty: In case the transcripts reflect exactly what we expect they will, HFC 2 has been typeset and should arrive as about the same date as those transcripts.

G-Article submission authority form, eliminate of the notary requirement.

Carl: What we have done is looked at the model of what NA has done and apparently we already have something on our website. We made a motion that we would eliminate the notarization. We thought this would speed up the process. So if we don’t have a form already created we would like you, John and Patty, to create a form for all literary submissions. One form for everything, all it will need is a signature. If you can create that and let us see that and you already have our blessing.

Patty: how does that work with, because their guidelines say it has to be notarized?

Bobbie: We probably have to do a referral for the conference for them to remove that part.

Patty: I don’t know that NA gave you the details, when they lost their book; there was an author in their book who decided that he never signed off. He did in fact sign off, but he

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decided that because he was the actual author that he could re-print the book. The drama from that was that the fellowship polices that and they said we will not by your book we will only buy from World Services.

I-Status of items in the inventory

Patty: two of the vases from the convention were broken; we believe that we will get pictures of those. I asked her to put that in her report because I felt it was an asset. Digital copy of everything is our goal. We will start putting things in our portrait, the picture box.

John: Whenever we lose something that is potentially irreplaceable then we always let you know.

J-Time line for reimbursements

Kim Sherwan: can you clarify the timeline for the trustees.

Patty: You have a pre-approval process, part of that is to make sure we have cash for something. We may have to do a transfer, so we say yes we have cash or no we don’t have cash. If we say no, then we need to attach a transfer request for approval with that so we can get the cash for the specific travel. It is 14-30 if we have the cash.

Kim Sherwan: what about for non-delegate conference chairs?

Patty: The decision is made in March, which is when we make estimation on weather or not the convention will make the money. This doesn’t mean that we won’t write a letter in July to say that we cannot pay for you, but we will reimbursed for any cost spent till then.

Also for WSOB travel, the phone calls for LCF, any of them we contact them and let them know that we may not be able to.

Kim Sherwan: So in the event either a non-delegate chair or a trustee where to submit their expense report and it was approved by Carl then your saying that it will be reimbursed in 30 days to the said trustees or chair. How soon after I know I am funded and I provide expenses with receipts.

Patty: Two board meetings. Email us if you have any questions. I know we lost something from one of the trustees.

John: That is the procedural answer. Was there a difficulty for someone recently?

Kim: Yes, my expense report was sent by snail mail and it was received. Then when I questioned the reimbursement I was told it was lost. I happened to have copies, but then I was told within 24 hours it was found and the board meets this week and will get a check

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out. That has not happened and yet I was reimbursed for my regional convention that was last week.

Patty: Our priority is all volunteers, they are all the same.

John: that is what I needed to hear out loud.

Kim: I scan everything now and email it to Carl and I keep the originals. He also copies me on everything he sends to the office, so I have a paper trail. My problem is, in the event that there are additional non-delegate chairs, what is their process. Who do they go to?

Patty: The director of operations, I think?

John: Certainly the Director of operation and or the board treasurer during a regularly scheduled meeting would be able to answer the question, “do we have the funds to make this possible?”. At some level, some body of the c onference will have to make a spending decision about that amount of money. Available or not, if it is available do we authorize it and who is the “we” that authorizes it ? We can certainly answer funding questions, do we have the money and do we need a transfer in order to make that happen? As principal financial planners you guys would have a substantial say in whether or not. The conferences policy on non-delegate chairs remains ambiguous.

Carl: the bottom line, Can we get this taken care of at your next board meeting?

Kim: I just want to know, the new conference chair is a Non-delegate chair. I want to be able to provide him with as much information.

John: The answer to the immediate problem, yes we can solve that at the next meeting.

Tom: Some inform the finance committee and it is included in the budget, some don’t. The finance committee has no way of knowing.

Trevor: That sounds like something to me to go to S&B to get created in the manual for non-delegate chairs and the process. Outline the process in the manual.

Patty: There is something, a guideline that is not specific. It is something that we want to make sure we choose the higher, best leader but it does not say you may not get your money.

John: A good example of this is when a chair is unable to perform his duties and another member in the committee may be elected to that spot. We can answer the budgetary and spending request. But we cannot answer who is the decision maker on this. We can let you know what is happening in the budget. There is no policy or direct line of approval for that in place.

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Patty: I disagree, the conference says there is an expense that they are willing to consider and then the WSOB spending committee is specifically tasked with making sure that the order is carried out. So it is the WSOB and it has been the WSOB. The contact for the non-delegate has been the director of operations.

Carl: What we are going to look at putting together a referral for S&B on creating a process for the non-delegate chairs?

Trevor: I have that down to write a referral on it.

Process for starter kits

Kim: Ok, so someone calls the office and wants a starter-kit, what is the process?

Patty: the conference says that we the office are allowed to give non-supported areas a starter kit. That is the policy that it said. I interpreted that to be, that they need to call their area and if they do not support you in having a starter kit then we will give you one. We try to give them at least four numbers to get in contact with people so they can get the information correctly. For example, LA does not give starter kits in meetings. So we know that the area is going to tell them that but we send them there anyway. Then we send one and we track it in a two year period so we don’t send one again. Then we tell the delegate and trustee in that area. We send out in a first call, if you’re not really sure, then we send you just one piece of each literature pieces. Once we determine that you really are going to start a meeting, and then we send out the whole starter kit and a activity packet.

Kim: I don’t think it is being followed. Someone called the office requesting a starter kit and they were given my home phone number. The guy told me “the office said you would send me a starter kit”!

John: Thank and it is good to hear what is specifically going on. I think we may want to remember that this person may have just heard what they wanted to hear. Also the office could be more articulate in what happens next to the people on the phone. These are things we cannot improve upon unless we hear about them.

Kim: I did speak with someone at the office and there was a difference in what the gentleman told me and what the office told me occurred. One of the comments made was a little disturbing, “If I sent out a starter kit t o everyone who emailed and called me, we would be broke.” I understand but how do we pick an d choose who we send the starter kit to?

John: We do the best we can to direct them to a supported area. If that area is not in a financial position to fill that order then we fill the order.

Patty: when I came here there was no line item starter kit we just took it out of our own inventory. This is the first year we actually have the $10,000 in the budget. I am glad they

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gave them your number, because they need to get connected with people in their area. They need to find you. I wouldn’t have given them your number; I would have sent them to the area chair. We want the area chair to be educated so they can direct them to an area meeting. The new person does not know the need a GSR; we send them a service manual.

John: I noticed when you said it was disturbing, Tom, over your shoulder said ‘there is some truth to that”. There are two things happening here, operationally to say “if I sent out a starter kit” I would talk to Carl in a real w ay like that because we are friends. That is not the company line and I want to be clear on that. The whole purpose in putting them in contact with the region is the connectivity. I have a sense that the response was based more on the personal relationship.

Kim: What disturbed me was how we are discerning who gets them.

John: The only thing we can do to improve upon this process is to say “if you don’t get a response from your area in 10 days, call me”, or we pencil that we will call them to follow up.

Kim: I have a timeline as to when I sent an email asking that this person be sent a starter kit, it took nearly 2 and a half weeks to get sent out.

Patty: It will take 30 days from the date of request to be delivered. If one week we had fewer orders then it would not take the full 30 days. Like one of the days we 22 orders in one day. It is on the lowest of the priorities of items to mail out.

Kim: Well I think it should be reviewed. I think it is a concern. It may be viable for us to talk to our delegates to talk with their areas about having more in their budgets.

Patty: it is one of our new products, we have not officially put it on our order form, but it is at a discounted rate of 26. It is $40 worth of products. We will make a push to sell it as an item. UK carries it and gives it to everybody. They actually come boxed and is sent directly to the customer.

John: If we didn’t articulate that it may take more than two weeks, then the expectation needs to be lessened somehow. So how we say it and how we communicate it is important. As long as people understand they can’t be mad.

Trevor: I am sure that a lot of starter kits go out internationally and those are going to take longer. I know my personal experience is that I received something from Australia in 6 days and then it took almost 30 to get something from Chicago. It said it was held in customs. On your end if it is going internationally tell them that you have no control over how long it may take.

Patty: When we send it we send it global priority because there is a chance it will take only a month.

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Nicholas: In the UK when I was delegate, the first order of business in the area meeting was “does anyone need a starter kit”. Then it was does anyone have an email of an area that needs support. My experience is that the area can really help, because the office is under a lot of stress. If an area wants to grow then get some starter kits, it is with new meetings that the revenue grows. Ireland is now being helped from Scotland who is being helped by UK. It is like pass it on. It seems to be working.

Hayward: Is there any way to get the amounts spent on starter kits by region, so the Trustees can distribute it at their regional assemblies? Then the delegates can provide this information to their areas.

Patty: Earl, you could ask for the starter kit report and it will give you who got starter kits in your area. We send out a letter, you can get that every quarter.

Carl: I have not gotten one in so long.

Patty: maybe you have no meetings in your area who have gotten any.

Earl: I just made a note to get that starter kit report sent out quarterly.

Patty: we do keep an excel spread sheet also.

Patty budget and trustee participation:

Patty: On the floor when we came back with the budget, remember that we mentioned it before that the budget that was created on my much needed rest was $640,000 which was $50,000 more than our previous budget. First the questions came specifically and they always do, why were the trustee budgets cut? They were cut by $10,000 and the office budget was cut by $18,000. What we did not get finished was, last year you had used $40,000 and this year’s budget is $47,000 so it is more than you spent last year. The next year you asked us to go to $58,000 and we can go to $50,000. Your perfect plan is closerto $58 or $60,000, but our income is closer to 45-$50,000. Tom gave that to you in your report that 7^th tradition is not achieving all of the budgeted number, which if it does than of course spending can be associated with that.

Tom: unless sales hit such a level, but then we have a problem with overall spending, which exceeds what the conference has allowed us to do. When we earn revenues by sales, we also have an offsetting expense item. The purest way to get it is 7^th tradition, other wise we cannot spend it.

Hayward: Don’t you have an account for increased travel?

Patty: They did it went up by $7,000.

Tom: what we did is we figured out what it was going to cost for each of these meetings. Then we used $2000 for each regional trustee.

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Patty: The conference gives us our margin numbers, we can spend $612,000. They say between us all can line item change, but if we go over the spending limit then we failed in our fiduciary responsibility. We don’t have a right to go over the conference dollar amount. There is a good chance that we may have to spend more because the sales in the book have a spending dollar amount. We make the calculation, but now we have sold substantially more in the books. The spending is going to meet that.

Tom: Do we stop selling? The problem is that we are only authorized to spend a certain amount. Operationally we are good; we are way in excess of what we expected for books. Not even the trustees have the ability to increase the amount.

Hayward: If we go over the amount we fail, but the argument is we fail good!

Tom: we budgeted in the finance committee very conservatively with the book sales. But the overall increase in the spending of about $25,000, we put all that into the 7^th tradition. We will be behind budget in that. If we can continue to keep pressure, we had a significant increase last year and we ask that you give it the same push.

Earl: Only 78 people are participating in the contribution program and it started in 2004.

Patty: In 2003, in Chicago. We have a membership of 6,000.

Earl: If we could just get 10% contributing 10$ a month, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. We would have $1,612,000 discussion.

John: Easily there are more than that people giving more than $6 in their area. It is not appropriately being brought forward as our tradition. We don’t want to compete for those dollars, but we have to.

Nicholas: You want people to put more money in the 7^th tradition and stop buying books?

Tom: No we have authority to spend $612,000 of that cost of sales is $200,000. That is just a function of what is sold, but if we sell more than that number goes up. But our total spending authority stays the same.

Patty: We cannot stop selling books.

Tom: The first quarter projection is showing that we may sell more books than anticipated.

Nicholas: so we are shooting ourselves in the foot because we are doing so well.

Trevor: Sounds like someone will stand up and say we are sorry we are doing better than we planed to, thank you for helping us achieve that by promoting the book and selling more.

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John: The only reason we would consider this idea, that you would I am sure, is that there is substantial return on investment. It makes really good business sense to “color outside the lines’. We wouldn’t just do this for any old re ason.

Patty: If we are talking about things that are lacking in our legal discussions, that authority you all have that authority. That authority lies with the people, the principal financial planners. We should have permission; we don’t want them to start making budgets like they did last year. The answer to that is that they make a budget that has lots of space that got us into no reserve funding, deficit spending. That does not work, we have asked the finance committee to come out with a conservative budget.

John: I think at some level they do have that authority. I think it would be best that some finance policy reflect that authority more on paper. Operational expenses are usually pretty fixed, except for salaries and you know you are within percentages on those. You would only be looking at new products that have a substantial return on investments. On paper could be proven to be profitable and it would be like money managers who make decisions on where to invest.

Carl: The traditions give the trustees the power to veto, so where we would have to stand in front of the conference and let them know we made a good business decision.

Patty: the budget for the staff that was amended covers 3 full time and 3 part time. When we are discussing how long it takes to get something done you need to understand that it may be a part time person doing it. There is no extra to have a person work extra. We also do not have all the new products listed on that budget. There is no inventory space for that. We make new information or product will not be in the budgeted item, but it doesn’t matter unless we sell it. It doesn’t move f rom the balance sheet until we sell it.

Bobbie: This is something that is not already in there, it needs permission. Once you get permission to make this coin, then transfer the money so you make that chip.

Patty: we wouldn’t cause this one is a really cheap one it could cost $2000? If I make it right now it is $100, but if it sells it is $2000 by the end of the year and I already made it.

Bobbie: My concern is, is it going to hit that number where you got to let us know that you need to spend the money.

Patty: it could.

Bobbie: That is when you would come to us.

Carl: What is the projected revenue on this chip?

Patty: It is a new item, we don’t know, for a new l anguage we have never done. I anticipate that they are only going to buy 200 chips spread over the whole year. Cost to

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them is 35 cents. It is $25 for the proof and then it is how many I am going to buy. I can do this so it doesn’t affect your policy, but I don’t think I should. I am going to bug you about stuff; I will let you know even if it only costs $100, but it could potentially cost $2000.

Carl: At what point will it affect the 612,000?

Patty: Immediately, because it was not in the plan.

John: As we launch and embark on this new outreach we need to understand what it is going for. There may be something about this that may not be internationally appealing. You guys should know what is going out there in terms of fundraising.

Patty: we are doing the silver coin with the principals on the back that is on our website for sale. This we did approve before your policy was in place and this will not show up because it was in and out on one line. The miscellaneous expense line is budgeted to be $3000, but it will be a minus number at the end of the year. This is because the income and expense is on this line.

John: I hope going forward that you, patty and your office are very transparent as we explore this new position and how effective it is for us.

Nicholas: When does small become big, who defines what is small or big and who makes it disappear.

Patty: To us that line is $3000 and that decision is made in our executive session. We report it to the WSOB. The cap is about 2%.

Tom: There are all kinds of different limits. Is there a set gap accepted in general accounting principals, not really. It become more is it material to the statement as a whole.

Bobbie: When we initially started the process of creating the two director position and this particular director position we that it would call for the daily supervision of the WSOB chair and at the same time interacting with the board at all times. I don’t think any of us feels that you are bugging us, that is what you do. I think this is what we want you to do.

Translations

Patty: The book will be done as soon as the transcripts are done. We are not moving forward on translating anything until the piece is completed. We cannot send it out and edited to the same thing. We anticipate by the end of this month it will be done. We anticipate that we will be translating in French and Spanish at a cost of about $6,000 for the French and about 2000 for the Spanish. We do not want to print off HFC 1 in French until we decide what we are going to do about a match set. They are not going to run out

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they have had the same 70 books now. It would only be a backorder of about 30 days if they do run out.

Bruce: Yves said they do have inventory but I guess it is getting pretty low. How long, patty, once the English version of HFC 2 is signed off, will it take to translate it into French and print it?

Patty: we were told it takes less than 30 days to translate it and to print it is a week.

Earl: Is this upcoming French translation French Canadian?

Patty: yes.

Nicholas: will it be Spanish Castilian?

Patty: Yes, even though we will be ridiculed, it will be Castilian.

Carl: After our visit to NA and Earl was down there showing it to John, about the pamphlet so you have been over there and talked to them. Are we going to work on something like that where the locals translate something and send it back to us, instead of the other way around?

Hayward: Yes the local committee will do that work, because we don’t have a professional translator.

Carl: Which piece are we going to use?

Patty: We actually have 7 pieces.

Carl: Don’t we have a packet like that that we give to the newcomer? A booklet, If we were going to do something like their IP1, that has just about all their readings in it. Wouldn’t that be the booklet that we get transferred first, instead of translating different pieces of literature?

Patty: All of the pieces of literature are in that book. Our experience and there’s too, it overwhelms. A booklet is overwhelming to a new comer. They have one piece and we have one piece. The market research of how our company is working currently does not have sufficient data to tell us about that piece. We don’t know if it is useful to the masses. Sales on that piece are flat. These pieces, however, are still selling. Most of these pieces are in the newcomer booklet, it is the same thing. I am going to suggest, we are suggesting that we are going to say which pieces you are going to do first. The ones you should do first are amongst these pieces.

John: The WSOB has got engaged in this conversation and we have not decided what piece should be used. Your suggestion is appropriate and appreciated. There is a translation subcommittee headed up by Kathy Jo, Hayward that just this week had to

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consider that very question. They have had a meeting. It just happened two days ago and it will come back to the board level and we will have to make that decision.

Carl: What I would like to see, something really simple. When we start to print out something like this, then we are putting together a whole lot of something to translate. If we can take a little from here and there and have one pamphlet, let this be our spearhead pamphlet.

Trevor: Might it be a needed process to make a referral to LCF to write something for this purpose. I would love to say that we could do that or the office could do that, but really it is the LCF’s job to do something like that.

Earl: it would be LCF’s job to pick a paragraph from 10 different documents and put it into something we could use as our spearhead. What we might want to do first would be to look at our own existing literature and say this is what best represents CA. This should be the one that gets translated first. Have this as the test model, translate this and send it back to the office and we will follow our translation policy procedure. If it is financially reasonable we will send it to a professional translator and saying that they are honoring our copyrights in the literature translation. If they do a good job, then we will give the 6 pieces of literature and say go for it.

Bobbie: LCF does not need a referral because they have already done a pamphlet, patty talked about that. This sells here, that new booklet, nobody here buys it. Why not consider taking that one pamphlet, why not use that to translate. It may not sell over here, but what if what they have is in their language combine, maybe it will sell over there. We have to figure out how to make our money on that deal. I would hope that we consider taking that one piece.

John: Your point is well taken. To use the book, just because it does not sell there does not mean it would not be attractive overseas.

Nicholas: I go to one NA meeting a week and the IP one is unique and you can run and entire meeting with that one piece of literature. I think that is why they chose that. What is CA is probably the first question that every newcomer asks. The pamphlet I always give is, “what is CA?”. I believe it has a couple readings and it has got the steps and it has the preamble and that tells what CA is. My vote would be for this. It sounded like you said, it doesn’t work here, give it to the foreigners.

Bruce: In America we already have copies of all this literature floating around. There are no copies of these pieces in native languages in the other countries. It might very well work there.

Nicholas: This states everything and all the key words, GOD, higher power, steps, ECT.

We already have a pamphlet in place; we don’t have to follow their model exactly.

Other discussion

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Patty: I didn’t under my budget, hit royalties; we have not been receiving any royalty money. He just told us that he printed CA, we have only received $20, and usually we receive a reasonable amount. WSOB is aware that we are going to re-issue our royalty agreement. Yes, Scotland, the UK, Holland, and Canada.

Trevor: Which part of Canada?

Patty: The only people that actually tract it is Quebec.

Trevor: That is Bruce’s region.

Patty: It is not just an area, you may need to talk, the three of you how you may want to do an additional one. Currently BC just orders their’s from us, they are not printing it. That area last year fell well below its anticipated revenue. Bruce that will be something we ask you to bring to your group.

Earl: I learned something rather insightful, from NA, is that they do not play the royalty game. I don’t know weather Nick has a printing press in his basement and he is creating a quarter of a million or he printed 200? As Tony used to say “trust GOD but tie up your horse”. I am not saying anything negative, just thr owing it out as a type of hypothetical. Is royalty the road we want to go down?

John: first of all royalty revenues are only a few hundred a year. It is important revenue and it is something we agreed to do and it has gone through all the hoops. So we are going to do it for the moment. I think that if it is something we are committed to doing now, then it is best to put the roof on before it is raining. We need to make sure we refresh these agreements and we are following up on them. If they are lacking then we need to refresh them under the current standard.

Patty: Of course $1000 is not small to me. That is one percent of our 7^th tradition. I am hoping that redoing these agreements will spark the sense of urgency. I believe that in perfect world that my 7^th tradition was over 200,000 and my overall sales were breaking into the 2million dollar point I would love to drop royalties. We don’t have in there, is you do not print on this kind of paper; our quality standards are not included. The color matching is not included; our paper is not the end all. Their’s is glossy and a little longer, a little fancier.

Trevor: The color and the format is part of the standard, if you want to print it this is what you should do?

Patty: We say that you have to match our color.

Trevor: That is never happening because at my homegroup I have 3 of the same pamphlets in different colors.

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Patty: Policing has to happen from the fellowship. I am aware that he prints it on a different color paper. It is whatever they have left over; we want to try to standardize it.

Nicholas: Did Holland originate, did they come to you, and did you come to them? I have never had a conversation with anyone there about this. I am really excited about this.

Patty: Ed worked in our office, their area chair, so there is a lot of communication there. It could have been an email from him, it has been KJ complaining that at the conference on my rest, we promised to do it. It was on my agenda items to get done. I got the words in Dutch, they said they cannot translate “we are h ere and we are free”. So we are going to do a new chip, English and Dutch. If you cannot translate it then you are getting it in English. That is what we own.

Nicholas: not on their behalf, but if you were to get an email or phone from Sweden, who have 8 meetings, would you entertain doing a similar thing?

Patty: ask their area to approve the words “hope fa ith and courage” and the words “days, months, years, and newcomer.

John: The answer is yes.

Patty: if someone from Holland or Sweden asks what pieces to translate, we say this one and this one. Just translate these two and send it back to us and we only have from Sweden.

Carl: one last thing that we will discuss with you in February, about a European office. Are we going to do a distribution hub or a service office or both? Earl you will pass this on at the board to board?

Earl: Yes.

Meeting closed in usual manner.

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WSOB Reports

World Service Office Board Chairperson Quarterly Report to the World Service Board of Trustees November 2007

General Remarks

I continue to be pleased with the professional direction that the WSO is headed presently. This period represents two quarters in a row in which full staffing was achieved. The team is working well together. Office manager is increasingly involved in business decisions and execution of such matters on a day to day basis and has demonstrated that she is growing well in the position.

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I would like to thank the WSBT for its attention to the Job descriptions for the division of duties at the WSO. In this meeting you will receive the first report from the new Director of Resources and Project Development. We are very pleased to share your vision for a re-structured World Service Office organization.

The WSOB shall remain focused on key issues. Among these is the reprinting, effective marketing and release of HFC II, literature translation, vendor licensing, new/existing royalty agreements, Newsgram publication (particularly the 25^th anniversary edition described by Patty in her report), Web Operations and ongoing process of WSOB director recruiting for which I am please to say we have made some progress.

Composition of the WSOB

One WSOB Director Position remains vacant, but we continue to recruit and are presently collecting resumes. At this point we are able to forward one qualified Director Resume for Richard L. Experienced and or willing candidates continue to be challenging to recruit. We have not given up hope yet, however, that we will ultimately attract increasingly high caliber of Director Candidate as new programs and international outreach and growth continues. We continue to recruit using several methods including direct, email, Pacific South Yahoo group, and announcements at the Pacific South regional events and meetings. We are continually searching and will keep you advised of our progress.

The Web servant is working well with the office. Recently the Iowa area website was approved for linking to CA.ORG.

The office manager is now regularly attending WSOB meeting and makes regular reports under the Director of operations report, the content of which shall be included in my report this quarter.

CAWSO

WSOB wishes to express its confidence and thanks to Patty Flanagan and Office Manager Robin Long, as well as all the staff, for there fine work outstanding customer service in the last quarter.

Translations

WSOB Translation Policy sub-committee continues to meet on a regular basis and is interacting with international members to revise and improve upon the policy to make it more realistic and useful to our fellowship.

Vendor Licensing

A CAWS Policy on Vendor License has been completed and approved by the WSOB and WSBT.

Office Operations Update (contributed by Office Manager Robin Long)

Office Manager Report

November Quarterly Meeting

Submitted October 26, 2007

Achievements this Quarter

• Coordinated painting of the office, thanks to volunteer donations. (thank you Arizona)
• Coordinated replacement of chip bins, in order to increase efficiency of space and reduce risk of injury in the warehouse, also thanks to volunteer donations. (thank you Los Angeles)
• Completed 90 day evaluation of order desk/customer service representative, it was an excellent review, management and staff are both pleased with her progress.
• Ongoing training of all staff in all facets of their jobs, in order to continue productivity and moral in the workplace.

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• Coordinated and supervised new 7^th Tradition reporting system to eliminate duplication and allow trustees to get information more timely.

Work In Progress

• Secured donation of carpet for entire office, as well as labor, to be installed in the next 30 days. (thank you Arizona and Los Angeles)
• Creating a new and more comprehensive job description for the staff to allow greater responsibility equal to their qualifications.
• Creating new contribution program contact letters, with the Director of Resource and Project Development, with the intention to increase current benefactor contributions in the next six months.
• Ongoing Coordination with Webservant to keep website current.

Holiday Schedule

• Closure on December 24 and December 31.
• Inventory closure I occurring on weeks in between the holidays.

————————-

Thank you for letting me be of service,

John Bodkin

World Service Office Board Chairperson

 

WSOB vice Chair Report

World Service Conference 2007

• Attended World Service Conference
• Worked with WSOB on Opening Report slide show
• Worked with WSOB to respond to WSC referrals

WSC Convention Committee

• Actively participated in WSC Convention Committee break-out sessions during the 2007 World Service Conference
• Prepared and submitted suggestion for current guideline clean-up during breakout(s)

WSOB Subcommittee work

• Facilitated sub-committee meetings to review and revise current Translation Policy
• On-going Translation work will include the drafting of Local Translation Committee guidelines to facilitate international groups wishing to produce translations to better carry the message of Cocaine Anonymous around the world.
• Meetings to continue with revisions to the Translation Policy as well as for drafting LTC Guidelines have been scheduled weekly through the end of 2007.

Miscellaneous

• Attended Board-to-Board meeting at WSC

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• Attended all scheduled WSOB meetings
• Met with Monica (Holland) and John Whitaker (Unity Committee member chairing the International Outreach Sub-Committee) to discuss Translation Policy
  • Reviewed Monica’s outline of concerns relative to Translation Policy
  • Learned how Holland translation are currently handled
• Provided feedback to Atlanta’s World Service Convention Bid Committee
  • Explained bid process in terms of hotel selection
  • Provided list of “Concessions” that would typically be added to a hotel contract
  • Provided feedback on using hotel in conjunction with convention center
    • Explained how the use of both a hotel and convention center worked in Memphis

ILAS, Kathy Jo

Teresa Neighbors
WSOB Secretary
Quarterly Report

I. WSC 2007

1. WSOB Report: Assisted with prep and presentation of slide show/presentation
2. LCF: Actively participated in breakout sessions and on Conference floor as committee member.
3. B2B: Participated in the B2B meeting
4. WSOB Activities: Met with Board and with Chair to discuss referrals; typed up reports, minutes and referrals.

II. Sub-Committee work during the quarter 

1. LCF: Actively participated in conference calls and e-mail activities as liaison to the WSO for production of various pieces, including HFCII.
2. NewsGram: Continue to solicit articles and submissions and to work with the NewsGram editor and the WSO to produce quarterly issues for release to the fellowship. Currently working on a special 25^th Anniversary edition.
3. Completed Drug Court follow-up with the help of the WSO staff. Will take lessons learned and apply to next year.

III. Secretarial duties

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1. Minutes: keep minutes at each WSOB meeting
2. Agenda: based on the Chair’s direction, submit an agenda for review before each WSOB meeting
3. Record-keeping: maintain copies of minutes and reports for each WSOB meeting, as required by laws
4. Communication with Trustees: forward all minutes and reports from WSOB meetings to WSBT as requested.

IV. Other

1. Assisted in writing of Office Director’s Review .
2. Assisted (and continuing to assist) in Review/Development of new job descriptions for 2-directors.
3. Assist in recruiting and interviewing new/perspective WSOB Directors.

CAWSOB-Treasurer report_10-25-07

Board to board meeting November, 2007

1) Rabco audit quote
Every year-$10,000
Every 5 years $12,000
Note-more quotes to follow

2) Contribution program –work in process to evaluate a nd more efficiently operate program…participation appears to be stagnant.

3) Balance sheet-

a) Cash/liquidity position is good.
b) Inventory level is good given that book sales are strong.
c) 2008 convention has deferred net income of approximately $10,000

4) Net income of ($10,475.34) is better than projected due primarily to expense savings against projected expenses of almost $17,000.

5) 7^th tradition is behind projections in both regular and donor categories, although it is comparable to previous year amounts.

6) Book sales are very good and if current sales levels hold, bottom line will be positively impacted by approximately $15,000 to $18,000. This can be enhanced by lowering our per book unit cost with higher volume purchases.

7) Overall, operations are solid with 7^th tradition again in need of monitoring. Consistent with my reports throughout last year, we need to stress 7^th tradition wherever and whenever possible, especially the Contribution program.

Thank you for this opportunity to serve the fellowship I love.

Respectfully and ILAS,

Tom Phelan, Treasurer

Cocaine Anonymous World Service Office Board

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Director of Resources and Project Development

First Report

October 26, 2007

Thank you, election to this new position gives me a sense of growing hope, that CAWSO will doing business in a new model.

With this election I have ceased being the Director of Operations, anything or any information you require to confirm the new DOO would be my pleasure to deliver. By ceasing to be the DOO I have begun to channel my insights or observations through the WSOB Chair. The Office Manager and I met with the WSOB Treasurer to go over the items that he will now be discussing with her, such as A/R A/P Inventory and deposits of funds for all accounts. (ACH problems and solutions are now in their court)

The OM and I have discussed the method of sharing staff; we see no difficulty in this area. Needs related to resource and projects will be in writing to the OM and will be approved by the OM before moving forward. Having been the DOO I understand the priorities of the office as perhaps few others can and respect the division of authority. We will be working closely to complete the delegate mailing and approvals needed for items given to WS from the various WS Conference committees. We expect the Transcripts to be delivered November 1^, 2007.

Fund raising efforts:

• WS Convention pre sales 2008, 2009
• 25^th Anniversary – materials Profit 500.00 to date
• Newsgram – special issue – WSOB motion

Fund Raising Objectives:

• New WS event – Retreat!
• Increase convention pre sales with new items

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• Document these efforts – for repeatable results
• Document how WSOB management of WS convention has and continues to increase revenues and reduce risks
• Create materials to further assist the WS Conference decision making on choosing the host city.

Outreach development – our volunteers are our greatest resource

Meetings plans established for TAL and me on NADCP

• we have discussed participants
• additional follow-up
• Investigation of other outreach possibilities

Contact WSC participants in order to stream line dissemination of information to delegates and areas of:

1. contribution program
2. HFC II
3. new literature
4. next host city

Goal to have annual report for next year conference with content and materials which will show our professional momentum.

 

WSOB Director At Large

Quarterly Report

Willie B. 10/26/2007

1. Continue to work on the translation policy sub-committee, working closely with

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the international community on sound Local Translation Committee guidelines.

2. Working with the Unity Committee on ways to bring the lunch together, one of the ways was to send out rsvp in the delegate mailings so the WSO could keep track and coordinate with the Conference Committee and the Unity Committee. The committee has to work out a plan of action and the WSO has agreed to assist them in anyway possible.
3. Continue to stay out of the Area/District mess in and around CALA in spite of the many concerns I have for my home area and district. The relationships lost, meeting participation down, new GSR, DSR, not knowing how to serve, when they are not being provided the correct information. Personalities are being placed before Principles and there is no unity. I state these examples because it is frustrating to watch.
4. Attended the Foothill District Convention, had a good time.
5. Continue to seek spiritual growth as a result of my service at this level, working with a team that has knowledge and enthusiasm to get the job done, it is a honor and a privilege to learn from this group of individuals as well as participate in the growth of CA.

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