Money Property and Authority – AA Service Workshop – 2025 – Part 22 of 27 – Billy N.

am an alcoholic welcome happy monday quick reminder if you use a phone to take notes or access literature or whatever else just please keep it below the screen so that people know their anonymity is being protected um also this is recorded so i usually stay try to stay away the best i can unless i slip up uh from using last names um a reminder about questions later on especially this week because this week a lot of delegates are flying to new york to go to the general service conference and that will start sunday maybe saturday night for delegates only meeting but just a quick reminder that um during the question and answer period we strive to stay away from conference agenda items or anything that could look like lobbying or anything uh close to that um out of total respect for the conference process a reminder to anyone that's out there listening or listens to this recording that But if you got something on your mind, you could always email your DCM or your delegate and say, hey, this has been on my mind about an agenda topic. Now, I'm not promising they have time to read this week as they get in their life in order to go away for a week. But that is the chain of command, for lack of a better phrase, that should be followed. so no questions about agenda items please i will probably use some past agenda items and non-agenda items things that never went to the conference that maybe the trustees dealt with or one of the boards dealt with as examples of concept six but i will stay away from anything uh that is this year um i will read the long form of concept six to start and the long forum of concept 6 is very long you probably already know that but i will read it problems of money property and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim we think for that any considerable property of genuine use to aaa should be separately incorporated and managed thus dividing the material from the spiritual an aaa group as such should never go into business secondary aids to aa such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration ought to be incorporated and so set apart that if necessary they can be freely discarded by the groups and such facilities ought not to use the aaa name their management should be the sole responsibility of people who financially support them For clubs, AA managers are usually preferred, but hospitals as well as other places of recuperation ought to be well outside AA and medically supervised. While an AA group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. An AA group can bind itself to no one. Before I start talking about Concept 6, I do want to talk about actual or applied affiliation. This is always a big debate everywhere you go, but it is important to understand what it takes to affiliate. It takes more than one party to both agree that they are affiliated with each other. There are lots of people who claim they are associated with Alcoholics Anonymous. that is not a violation of any tradition because it doesn't mean who cares what they say it's only if an aa service entity were to agree that they were in fact affiliated with some outside entity but i mean i've uh let's face it can't watch a movie or tv show these days without having at least one character who's a member of some 12-step fellowship who would have thought that it would be so in to be so damaged but apparently uh being damaged is is really in vogue uh in the modern world um so it doesn't matter what all these people say it's only if aa or somebody speaking on behalf of aa were to enter in some kind of verbal or written agreement that would make it look that way um so i just wanted to point that out i do love the 12 traditions illustrated on this because it does really bring up a point that is very difficult in today's world before i go line by line through this long form of the sixth tradition there is one section inside the traditions illustrated um i want to read the middle paragraph on the first page of the sixth tradition where it says though that ambitious center failed some individual members have since founded successful club houses rest farms athlete houses etc the enterprises are run by these aas and patronized by other members or prospective members but money and property are involved therefore it is proved wise to keep operation of the facility completely separate from that of any a group and here is the killer line at the end of this paragraph and to keep aa or terms like 12 step out of the name now i bring that up because poor dr silkworth uh he was an md and didn't die a rich man and he's one of the most you know legendary doctors in the history of alcoholism uh but born in the wrong decade or the wrong century um if he would have come back alive today and see this multi-billion dollar alcoholism recovery type business i mean back when this tradition was written still people like you and i were throwaways we were society's castaways sometimes we spend so much time in meetings and i you know i love all meetings good bad everything in between all different types um but sometimes we get really really into becoming perfect people we could have like a four-week workshop just on the bedevilment paragraph we could really dig down into making ourselves as defect free as possible and i'm not saying that is not a great way to live but sometimes we forget about the physical illness that we suffer from, that when Bill and Dr. Bob and Sister Ignatia were walking around Skid Row and St. Thomas Hospital and places like that, they were not going into people's rooms and asking them if they were having trouble making a living or if they Were having trouble in their relationships, and I could go on and on and on they were dealing with people in late stage alcoholism which is ugly ugly ugly some with wet brain some on their way to wet brain and you know we don't um i think one of the reasons we don'T see it today or we DON'T talk about it is because most of those facilities were owned by states where people like you and I wound up being put. And in the 80s, they were all closed down. So for the most part, people who used to be in a wet brain ward now live on the street or an assisted living facility. They're not all together in one. I only have been to one wet brain award. It was on Randall's Island in New York City. There was a psychiatric center over there that had a wet brain unit. And I had a friend who had a family member there and I only needed to see it once. Um, so the recovery business is very big today and I don't want anything I say to be, I'm not picking on the recovery бизнес. i sit on the board of one recovery-based sober living organization i also sit and chair the board of another large organization that deals with people who suffer the homeless condition and many of them obviously uh qualify um so i am not anti any of these organizations i just want to say how tougher it is in today's world to you know not blur the line so um when it says problems of money property and authority may easily divert us from our spiritual aim we think for any death considerable property of genuine use to aa should be separately incorporated and managed thus dividing the material from the spiritual a lot of people don't know this that Stepping Stones is a little, you know, I am of gladly support, even though I know they're not AA, all three of the founders or the three founders' houses, Bill's house in Vermont, Stepping Stone's in New York and Dr. Bob's house in Akron, Ohio. um the difference between stepping stones and the other two is that there was never a break in the chain if you go to vermont or if you Go to Akron it was a certain time when those places were owned by other people and things would change then everything else and then they were refurbished to look like the original stepping stones the first time i went there one of lois's cats was still alive first time i went there um and i didn't even know where i was going and i didn't even understand probably the significance of it but i was told to get in the car so i went there um but a lot of people don't know this that you know the stepping stones foundation and lois's plan lois first offered to give that property after she passed away to the general service board of alcoholics anonymous the general services board of alcoholic synonymous declined they did not want to own any property in westchester new york book Lois then offered it to Al-Anon and the general service board of Al-anon turned it down for the same reason and that's when Lois formed the Stepping Stones Foundation um The Stepping Stone Foundation it's very funny because you know people love to pick on Bill and Bob and whoever else look people in AA love to Pick on anybody so um but Bill gets accused of lot of money on the big book i i would let you know that while bill had a royalty agreement with aa world services uh he died in 1971. um if you're really concerned with who made all the money on The Big Book that would be Lois W she made all the money between 71 and when she died and as you know the first treatment center boom came in the early 80s um lois was a benefactor but all that money went to the stepping stones foundation and up until i want to say maybe 2009 or 10 the royalty agreement still had some money from the big book going to the steppenstones foundation as the heirs to the wilson estate um but those three organizations are not AA? Do they benefit AA? Of course. Of course, the spiritual and historic significance is amazing. But just like your local clubhouse, you know, it goes on here to say an AA group as such should never go into business. Secondary aid, such as clubs or hospitals which require property administration ought to be separately incorporated. And such facilities should not use the aa name their management should be the sole responsibility of the people who financially support them now here's a line that is historically correct but in today's world you have to remember when the traditions were written there was only one 12-step fellowship hard to even imagine a time like that in todays world when there are over 180 12-stepped groups 180 12-step organizations not even groups um but there was only one at that time so it says aa managers are usually preferred you cannot be you know i'm not a big fan of in the literature i believe what the literature says but i'm also i also believe that these traditions are spiritual and more of a living document than any kind of document that's stayed in history. At a clubhouse today, how could you support singleness of purpose but not want other fellowships to meet at that clubhouse? Isn't that kind of counterintuitive? So clubhouses today let Al-Anon meet there, let NACA, ACOA, sometimes even Gamblers Anonymous, i see meeting at clubhouses so it doesn't it has to be it doesn t have to be an a member today to be the manager of the clubhouse but the club house is separate my current home group and soon to be my new home group meet at a clubhouse effective monday i would say effective immediately i have a new homegroup but it's not meeting yet so when it starts meeting next monday i'll call it my home group but we have started the 7 a.m group in palm beach gardens it is going to be seven days a week seven meetings one group so not seven new group numbers just one group with seven meetings um we will meet at the oasis club which is in palm beach gardens um but you know we've carefully crafted all our documents that we are an aa group that meets at the oasis club now the problem is language and slang in aa language becomes important and it's what newcomers hear so people hear the 7 a.m at oasis what's your home group the 7 am i mean you can't get all upset about it you can just try to help people understand even heard somebody talking about a another clubhouse somewhere else in my area and someone i won't say the name of the clubhouse but someone called it's in a different district than where i live but someone call the dcm the club house dcm because that dcm is responsible for all the groups that meet at their clubhouse, but that's just a bad use of language. Their official position is not the clubhouse dcm there's no such thing clubhouses aren't in the structure there is a dcm for all the groups that meet at the club house so it's important you know when we talk to people to kind of use our own language but you know one of the places we get crazy with you know actual or implied an endorsement is near and dear to every alcoholic's heart, the good old announcement portion of a group or meeting. Nothing can tread harder on the sixth tradition than the announcement portion of a meeting. Now I'm going to say just from the beginning that I am not saying that a group should not have non-aa announcements i understand why groups do that because they feel like people don't get confused and if they only have a related announcements people make non-a related announcements so whatever your group does is fine but a clubhouse announcement is not an aa announcement it's a it's clubhouse announcement it's non-aa announcement there might be a great sober living facility down the street that has a fishing tournament and that fishing tournament might be an amazing opportunity for fellowship but it is not an aa related announcement now let me just get one of my pet peeves about the sixth tradition out of the way and that is regarding the grapevine and grapevine literature. It really drives me crazy when I would say somebody who is in their zealot phase wants to say that the grapevine is not AA related or wants to go further and say that grapevine the literature does not belong on the AA literature table. Now, let's just go to the facts in the literature. The grapevine is as AA as it gets, okay? That's just the way it goes. Grapevine literature might not be conference approved, but it is AA literature. And one step further there is a conference action which says that the grapevine is the official journal and magazine of alcoholics anonymous okay i say that because again language and impression is important all it takes for a newcomer to hear is that the great fine is not aa and that's what they believe for the rest of their life um so we have to be very careful um with what we say names of groups is very important when it comes to the sixth tradition we don't name groups after where we meet even though in the local aa slang it's the saint joseph's meeting or it's this meeting like that's why when you send in your new group name if it has any kind of religious overtone or any name of an organization or a building they will write you back and say that's really probably not a good idea because it implies affiliation. Another place we see this happen, and this is just to put in a post-it note in the back of your brain, is group anniversaries. Most groups have anniversary meetings once a month, but a lot of groups have a once-a-year celebration of the actual group's anniversary, which is awesome it's worth celebrating whether it's 80 years or two years it's it's worth celebrating some as you know they used to call it the underground program because a lot of meetings took place under churches i mean the underground program right took place in churches some meetings take place in temples some take place at a Buddhist facility. I've seen them everywhere, but it seems that when a group anniversary happens at a group that meets at a church, a lot of times out of being a kind and good neighbor and doing some public information work, the group will invite the pastor or the rabbi or the minister or the priest or whoever. And sometimes they will even say, hey, we'd like you to say something to the crowd for a minute or two that is all great i just give you one suggestive it's almost like when you don't remind the speaker to stick to aa because you just think well they know that nope everything they know they forgot the minute they said my name's billy i'm an alcoholic then they're just speaking they need like fresh in their mind same with the neighborhood minister or priest or rabbi because i have been at group anniversaries where the priest or who whoever sees like a hundred people there and they can't help themselves they're like and hey congratulations on the group we love that aa meets here and if you'd ever love to come to our wednesday night small group bible study you're more than welcome never meant to do anything harmful but if you don't remind somebody who's not an aaa that's speaking at an aa meeting for a minute or two about our traditions and to just stick to our cooperation not about who happens to go to church at that church or they would be welcome to come to the mass on sunday morning at 11 a.m but there's all kinds of things that happen regarding affiliation also what you identify yourself with when you introduce yourself in an aa meeting some might say it's a third tradition or fifth tradition issue i would probably say it is a sixth tradition issue because it implies affiliation and worse what the a group pamphlet is clear on um that we don't hint or suggest that's the pamphlets words not mine that we can cure other problems including drug addiction that's The Pamphlet's Words now there are plenty of gambling addicts and sex addicts and codependents and food addicts and drug addicts who are also alcoholic who as a result of working the 12 steps of the spiritual program of Alcoholics Anonymous those other problems have gone away the big book says that some of our other problems go away but for someone that's not an alcoholic if they don't identify a lot of times they don t go away or I've had a sponsee myself who told me that he had just forged his wife's name on a second mortgage application to pay back a bookie who wanted his money obviously AA was not working for his gambling problem so we are a single purpose program so it's not because we're the crazy police that we want people to only introduce themselves as alcoholics we want People only introduced themselves as Alcoholics because we don't want to imply that we could help anything else we just want to focus on our single purpose of alcoholism When someone introduces themselves as an alcoholic and anything else, it's just not okay. I will also say, and we will cover this in the 10th tradition, but since, you know, we have to be careful with any affiliation. The 10th Tradition warns us about controversial outside issues as a separate standalone tradition. But we have to be careful that we don't affiliate, that AA is separate. And, you know, treatment centers, recovery centers, it's very important, especially if a meeting is held in that facility. And I am not here to say that an AA group or meeting cannot rent space from a treatment center. Of course they can. or a hospital but it can't be the saint thomas hospital meeting it has to be the primary purpose group that meets at st thomas hospital same with implied affiliation around zoom and go to meeting and webex and those those are just addresses where meetings are held they are not a type of meeting we don't imply we don'T have zoom meetings we DON'T have we we simply have open and close meetings and different kinds of meetings and some happen to me now some people take affiliation too far and listen I DON'T know what to do about that all you can do is try to be reasonable i have been to um 14 general service conferences and as a voting member four additional ones as an appointed committee member the non-voting member uh 12 of the 14 that i went to were at the crown plaza hotel in times square the crown plaza hotel company is a coca-cola company in other words the products that they serve are coke and not pepsi that's their business not mine but just because coca cola is served and i can grab myself a diet coke does not mean that diet coke is the official soft drink of alcoholics anonymous at some point we have to be able to function in the real world um same with signs and hotels especially with digital signs now like if we're having a conference or an event at a hotel it's just there to help people just because it says the name of the convention does not mean we're affiliated with the hotel if they wouldn't put the name of any organization who rents their space up there so that the people attending know where to go so there is such thing as taking it too far um the other thing about the sixth tradition um and we'll talk about it more in the seventh tradition is when it says problems of money property and authority may easily divert us from a primary spiritual aim what it's really saying is uh aa is managed is is made up of a lot of damaged emotionally immature sometimes overbearing control freaks and they love more than anything else money property and authority okay i mean that's really what it saying is we have a lot of people that fall into the category where money property and authority are very attractive like a magnet and what we're trying to do is keep those things away from alcoholics anonymous that you know we don't when you look at stepping stones and you look at Dr. Bob's house, AA, the General Service Board or AA World Services or the AA Grapevine Inc. does not need to own properties that cost a couple of million bucks or that are worth a couple of billion bucks. We fight over much less money than that. Could you imagine if we had all that property i mean the things it does to alcoholic minds like these are really kind of speed bumps or guardrails to keep us away um now i think again i'll just talk historically this was written in 1946 in 1946 there were much different rules both state and federal about non-profit organizations there was a much different tax code things have matured and progressed over years we're now you know 90 years old um 95 years old um we 90 years old we when it says right here um an a group as such should never go into business well i can tell you that there are aa groups not clubhouses that have decided to become a partnership or an llc and they've done that because they don't want to be a clubhouse they're an aa group that rents space and in order to protect themselves in today's world they have to be business so it's it's kind of a difficult little line in here you know um most aa groups are not incorporated um conventions have become incorporated clubhouses are incorporated a lot of districts are incorporated now almost every area is incorporated and that's because we know that in the united states we live in a very litigious society if like you know jane doe is the area chair so jane dough have to sign a hotel contract for your assemblies and be personally responsible if anything happens? Of course not. We can't do that to our leaders or our trusted servants. We have to find a way to isolate the exposure and make sure that the organization would be responsible, never an individual leader. So there are things around that that we have to be very careful of that, you know, it's just the world we live in, especially today because again i know how old i'm getting which is disappointing on a daily basis um but the other alternative is not good so i'm sticking with getting old right but i was in aa a long time before 9-11 now why does that mean something it means that i was in nine i was în aa before there was ever a thing called the patriot act and before there was ever this big concern about where money comes from before it goes into a bank. We didn't have those concerns. In 1985, you could walk down to your bank. You could tell them your social security number. You can tell them put on the name of the check, the Friday afternoon happy hour group of AA and they would do that. They would give you an account called the Friday Afternoon Happy Hour group of aaa and somebody would just get a tax notice about the minimal interest at the end of the year but the patriot act and all these anti-money laundering and you know things about terrorist money have even impacted us where banks are not so quick to just give you an account without a federal tax id number um so i just say that because we have to be practical do we not want to be a business now when it says should never go into business we should divide the miracle material from the spiritual that's a perfect segue into concept six because don't let anyone confuse you about all three corporations they are businesses that's what concept 6 says and that's what i will read but same with intergroups and same with uh other aa type facilities um non-profit does not mean lose money i just want to get that out there if you were to go to the problem with us is that if you would google like best practices for non-profit organizations you would see that all their suggestions go against our traditions which is a horrible place to be you go to a non-profit consultant's page it's about fundraising and branding and god knows what else things we don't do um but here's what concept six says on behalf of a as a whole our General Service Conference has the principal responsibility of the maintenance of our world services, and it traditionally has the final decision respecting large matters of general policy and finance. But the conference also recognizes that the chief initiative and active responsibility in most of these matters should be exercised primarily by the trustee members of the conference when they act among themselves as the General Service Board of Alcoholics synonymous. Now, next week in Concept 7, we might get a little complicated about the actual makeup of our businesses. I'm going to talk about that first and go to what I think is more important on the concept, which is large matters of policy. But if you do have your concept book or your service manual with you on page 20 um uh the one two three fourth paragraph inside that paragraph is this sentence we should quite understand too that the conduct of our world services is primarily a matter of policy and business our objective is always a spiritual one But this aim can only be achieved by means of an effective business operation. Our trustees must function almost exactly like the directors of any large business corporation. They must have ample authority to really manage and conduct AA's business. So, an effective Business Operation means paying your bills and having enough money to cover your expenses. The definition of a nonprofit is not that you lose money. It's that any money over expenses is reinvested into the mission of that nonprofit organization. No dividends are paid out to shareholders or owners or anything like that. That's what a nonprofit ist. Now, I will tell you in AA service, it gets a little bit convoluted. But I always like to use the big book and the 12 and 12 and recovery side and sponsorship as an example is that I am sure I can't be the only one in Alcoholics Anonymous where someone you're minding your own business having a great day, maybe just even went to a great meeting, leaving to go have your great day and someone files you out into the parking lot and it says, hey, you have a couple of minutes. I got a problem I need to talk to you about, need to talked to somebody about. Many an alcoholic's life has been saved that way, by the way, in the parking. Now, I can't be the only one who has run into an alcoholic or two who says they have money problems. Um, it seems it happens. Now, my experience is this. I'm going to pretend this envelope is a napkin in a diner. 99% of the people who have money problems that I've ran into, if you had a left and a right side expenses on the left, if you asked them to list all their expenses in a given month, and then on the right side to list all their income. It seems in AA, the problem is that we spend more money than we take in in our personal lives. It's usually not that complicated. But listen, a lot of us were raised by wolves or have no foundation in life. Nobody taught us about a check register or budgeting or anything like that. We would never tell that person, you know what? Get another credit card. Use cash advances on that credit card to pay off the minimum payments on your maxed out cards. We would never say that. It's total craziness. It would be continuing to live in untreated alcoholism. We would tell the person that, you know, you might be a lot freer if you lived within your means. you would be shocked at how free you'll be sometimes in a service we think that it's okay to lose money or we budget to lose many and that does not coincide with the seventh tradition and the sixth tradition you know an effective business operation is super important super important now if you have your service manual or your concepts book and you go to the page in the beginning where the 12 concepts short form and the 12-concepts long form are across from each other i will tell you about you know a personal pet peeve that i have which is i can't stand the short form of the sixth concept. All the other concepts, it seem every major point that's made in the long form, they just kind of make in the short-form with less words except for the sixth-concept. The sixth- concept has two parts in the Long Form. The first part, the general service conference has the responsibility for the maintenance of our world services and traditionally is the final decision respecting large matters of general policy and finance that's part one of concept six the second part the conference also recognizes the chief initiative and active responsibility in most of these matters should be exercised primarily by the trustee members of the conference when they act themselves as a General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous. If you look at the short form, it only mentions part B. It does not mention the most important part, that the conference is responsible for large matters of policy and finance. Now, I will have this put next week in the chat. The General Service Office archives on many topics will prepare a document about any history they've searched regarding a topic there is one of these archives documents about the short form the first mention of the shortform comes in 1964 at the trustees literature committee and the following note is in there after some discussion tom w a great fine editor agreed to prepare a short form draft of the 12 concepts for mailing to the committee within the next month The next thing we see is in October of 1964, the next board weekend, it was reported that there was a problem in preparing a short form of the 12 concepts. A subcommittee was formed to work on it. Then that's it. We never hear any, it's not in any minutes anywhere until 1971. until the conference in 1971, which was a couple of months after Bill W. died. The short form of the 12 concepts was approved by the General Service Conference in 1971. It says 1971 General Service conference approved the short form of the twelve concepts that will be available from GSO. The agenda item was not forwarded through a conference committee. It was listed on the main conference agenda for discussing and approving the Friday afternoon session of the 1971 General Service Conference. There's not a lot of working papers available from the 1971 conference, and the conference wasn't as kind of structured as it is today. But that's the history of the short form. Now, what I would ask you about Concept 6 is it's really the alter ego of concept eight that's really what it is and again i always say concepts one through five are like the aa groups bill of rights the groups are in charge they exercise being in charge through an area delegate We have the right of decision, the right of participation, and the right of appeal. Concepts 1 through 5 The second group of concepts are 6, 7, and 8 And what they do as best they can is try to describe the complicated relationship between the General Service Conference and the General Service Board And it's a complicated one for sure Concept 7 talks more about the legal versus a spiritual but concept eight i'm going to read the first part of concept six again on behalf of the aa as a whole our general service conference has the principal responsibility for the maintenance of our world services and it traditionally has the final decision respecting large matters of general policy and finance if you turn to concept eight which again has two parts in bill w like the way he liked to write it says this the general service board act in two primary capacities and then it says with respect to large matters of policy and over and finance It does not say what concept six says. Concept six says the general service conference is the final decision regarding large matters of policy and finance. Concept eight says the general service board, with respect to large mattersof overall policy and finance, they're the principal planners, administrators, and they and their primary committees directly manage these affairs so they plan they administrate and they manage but they don't plan that they don'T make the final decision on large matters of policy that belongs to the general service conference now I can give you some examples in 2009 the aaws board voted to put the big book on kindle the fourth edition on kindl that was a total disaster but as i was saying the other day i was just helping a district with an inventory Sometimes people take my comments, because I was a director at that time, or right after they made that decision. But sometimes people take the comments I make about us being so far behind in technology like I'm mad at people. I'm not mad at anyone. i accept that in 2005 6 7 8 9 and 10 the average age of a director or a trustee we had people making decisions about technology that did not use technology okay so it's no fault of their own except that we need more young people on our boards um but they just didn't know out of the aaws board that voted to put the big book on kindle now remember that happened a year before i went or four months before i was on the aws board somebody already who is still on the aws board with me told me that out of the nine voting members of aws to put the big book on kindle seven did not read books electronically so think about that for a second seven so um the fellowship was kind of horrified because the big book went on kindle and people didn't realize that you can make comments on amazon about a book and the fellowship WAS HORRIFIED because every anti-aa person in the world decided to use that as a place and the fellowship wasn't prepared. And AWS's communication strategy was probably poor at best. So we took it down. A few years later, well, a couple of years later we decided to build our own e-reader. It was called the AA e-Reader app. that way we could control everything now that worked good for about two years until we realized that we were now in the software business and that the cost of having a help desk for the aa e-reader would now be more money than like to help services to alcoholics so and how would we have the money to update this app it was just a disaster so we had a plan to go back on barnes and noble nook apple ibooks and amazon kindle and the aws board discussed this and decided this is a large matter of policy the last time it happened didn't go well let's send it to the conference literature committee the conference literacy committee overwhelmingly sent a recommendation to the conference floor and the conference floor voted i want to say one or two short of unanimous out of 130 something people to have electronic books but there's a pendulum that goes back and forth between the conference and the board sometimes the conference micromanages the board so they push back hard sometimes the board makes decisions um but large matters of policy and finance belong to the conference the reserve fund is a large matter of policy and finance it is not on the agenda this year so um but in the past the reserve fund how many months money should we keep what should we do if it goes over um should the general manager uh should the chair of the general service board be able to be an alcoholic that's a large matter of policy should the General Manager be able to serve by 30 years that's a large matter of policy no the conference field has felt strongly that it should be no more than seven years no one should be the face of aa for more than seven years and even though the general manager is an alcoholic and not the public face they go to a lot of aa events and regional forums and everything else and you know we don't have you know like um our leadership is transitory we don't have permanent kings and queens and royalty but large matters of policy this is where we see all the debates between the board and the conference you show me a debate between theboard and the conference and i will show you a concept six where um have people thought about it enough is it a large matter of policy because in fairness to the trustees routine and ordinary business does not belong to the conference the conference charter and the concepts are clear that routine and ordinary business belongs to the trustees and the two affiliate boards a grapevine and aws so we don't need the conference to chime in on the tax return or we're going to buy new ergo dynamic uh furniture for our employees right or what color we're gonna paint gso those are not big um issues those are routine and ordinary business things but major policy decisions those do belong to the conference um Um, and, and I, you know, again, I want to stay away from he said, she said, I want to say away from any current debates that might be going on. Um, I can just share my experience as a voting member at 10 general service conferences, that way you see the problems is when enough thought is not put into whether this is a routine in ordinary matter or whether it is a large matter of policy and finance that's where we get caught up you know listen i definitely have the reputation as a financial conservative no doubt about it in my regular life and in my aa board life there is no doubt about it um and you know i know the numbers left right and center when i was a trustee and today but when people say to me things about the grapevine or lavinia i'm aware of how much money they've both lost over a long time and especially the last couple years but you can't expect the board to do something radical with lavinya and the grape vine that's a large matter of policy If the delegates every year are saying, just keep going, what's the board going to do? I mean, one could applaud the grapevine board for what they did with the preamble. The preample is copyrighted by the grapevine, not AA World Services. Anywhere you see the preamble written in conference-approved literature, There is always the copyright note with approval of the AA Grapevine. The Grapefine Board owned the preamble, the copyright. One could argue the Grapefyne Board could have changed the preamble. But I have to applaud them. A couple of years ago, they all decided sitting around a table, hey, this is a large matter of policy. This preamble is said in like 90% or more of the meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. This Preamble is near and dear and known by most AA members. And the Grapevine Board, I think, did one of the smartest things they could have ever done. they sent it to the conference and said you take a look at this should we change it now when people tell me trust the process and you got to trust what a committee does i just say you have to look at the totality of history of alcoholics anonymous you always have to respect the ultimate group conscience the grapevine conference committee took no action on the preamble that's what happened but a floor action was made and it was discussed and debated and over two-thirds voting members of the general service conference of alcoholics anonymous voted to change the preamble now when you think about it and i know there are people who don't like it there are people who love it, there are people who won't let it go. I get it. But imagine they had not sent it to the conference. Imagine the grapevine board had just changed it on their own. Imagine how much worse the letter writing and the emails and God knows what else would be. I mean, I applaud them for like embracing their own humility and saying this is too big an item let's send it to the conference you know another item i would tell you uh another example i would telling you is that um as you know when the people hear me talk about you know the books that came out in the 2000s but another thing that happened in the 2000s or right around 98 and 99 let me just pull this up and find it is you might remember an old show on A&E called Biography. I don't even know if they still have that show, but it was a very popular show. Because Bill W. was selected by Time as one of the 100 heroes of the 20th century, Biography wanted to do something on Bill. And this got wrestled around inside the office at AAWS and with the board of trustees because they wanted some videotape of Bill W. that we own. And the board, very wise thinking, said, you know what? Let's send it to the conference PI committee in 1999. And the conference BI committee, I happened to be on that committee that year, read everything available about Bill W in anonymity. Even things that Lois had provided to the office before she passed away that she wanted in the confidential files at the AA archives. And, you know, Bill W. did not want personal recognition. He, when asked to be Time Man of the Year, asked if AA could be the organization of the year. Said he couldn't do it. But again, the board went to the conference on a very large issue of policy. Yeah, so that's all I have. I will go to questions please send any questions in. All right here's a question. In my city there is a treatment center advertising hosting 2 a meetings a week and the meeting guide app ironically they supposedly sponsored by the treatment committee in my city. Yeah, you know, I don't want to make because I don t know all the details of this. I am not. I'm a realist. I know that some profit-minded people have listed meetings to get people into IOP or whatever else and all I would say is you should go to your local district and the treatment committee chair and look into this as to whether it's a meeting or not. Questions about intergroup central office's appearance of affiliation when the office engages with recovery or legal or medical public info, or provides flyer display for activities such as fundraising tangent to AA. I can just give you my experience with this. If it's an AA central office or intergroup, I would not be putting out flyers except for AA events. And by the way, I know everybody wants to say conventions and roundups are not AA and you can't use the AA name. That is not what the conference actions say. We did not incorporate the name AA. There are AA roundups and AA conventions and AA conferences. But if you're a central officer in a group with a lot of newcomers coming in, I'm not sure you should have flyers for outside things there. Now, things like recovery marches or runs or other things, if all you're doing is putting up a table so that people can find out about AA, I don't see it any different than a nurse's convention or a drug court convention or anything like that um the general service office staff members actually participate in some national committees but we're not members of that committee so in other words if your county had like uh on beach county recovery task force aa should not be a member of the task force But that doesn't mean they can't go and represent AA and let people know about AA. Would you please explain what makes literature conference-approved and why the grapevine isn't conference-approved? Sure. Conference-approval literature means it went through the literature committee on the conference and they recommended it to the full conference and the full conference approved it by two-thirds or more. How could we publish a monthly magazine with articles? Would we have to have a general service conference every month? That's insanity. That's why grapevine books are not conference approved because all they are is reprints of past articles on that topic. That is what a grapevine book is. The best of this, the best of that, out in AA, non-believers, atheist, agnostic, I could go on and on. They're just grapevine articles that were sent in and already printed. So it would be totally infeasible, not possible to um approve every grapevine but the conference has approved the grapevine as our official magazine and journal so again some common sense of practicality has to be used will you post a google drive link i would ask d2 if she's here otherwise it'll be at the top of the next meeting we'll make sure it's there the google drive is for those of people who are not in the private facebook group the monday night service workshop where we post the recordings usually on tuesday the google drives you can save that drive and it just updates uh automatically i'll give like one or two more minutes for questions if anyone has one they want to send in let's see okay alan on the forum monthly magazine goes through a special shorter process to be conference approved and is therefore used at meetings for topics or the legacies well i'm totally respect respectful of al-anon but we don't do everything the same as them they also bought property we won't buy property um they to them that fits within their 12 traditions for us buying property doesn't fit within our 12 traditions um it seems like the grapevine magazine putting it through a conference process would be asking a lot um and the grapevine is pretty clear that that's the individual writer's opinion um i don't know let's see you talked a lot about concept six i haven't studied concepts can you explain this concept in a few simple sentences third the conference is in charge of all large matters of policy the conference should mind their business for usual and ordinary business that the boards can take care of the problems develop when the conference wants to start making decisions for ordinary and usual business or when the board wants to make large policy decisions. It's so clear in the concepts, that's where the problems start. And the other thing the concept says is that in order to reach our spiritual aim, we have to first be an effective business operation. The only way we can save lives and continue to save lives is by being an effective business operation If an area district or even group has no reliable past history of spending to create an accurate budget, do you have any suggestions on how to proceed and create one? Yes, I do. And it's going to sound very basic, but I will just share this. Many people, including myself, were never taught how to make a personal budget. many so just because you weren't taught are you not going to have a budget for the rest of your life are you going to stay in the insanity no so what i would suggest is that the committee that the area or district with the treasurer form a committee to come up with how you're going to start tracking expenses for this current year and for next year, and get a reliable 12 or 24 months that you can then really build a real budget on. It's why I say all the time when people tell me they don't hand in receipts as a trusted servant, it drives me crazy. Because if that's something that the committee would pay for, for someone who's not rich but has that service position? A rich person just, if you don't want to take the money from the district or the area for your service position, just simply cash the check and drop that money in a basket, okay? That's all you have to do. All you haveと do is get your mileage reimbursement, cash to check, and drop that amount in the next AA basket you go by. But what happens is when we don't submit receipts and we make the budget based on the previous 12 months of expenses, then we don t have a realistic cost of what it would be. But I would start slow and steady and simple and not overcomplicated. um and by the way i just want to get this out of the way uh and i will go to webster dictionary just so because god knows i have debated this for sure and i don't want to debate it here is the definition of budget an estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time if all you're doing is adding up expenses and then you make your revenue column equal with that that's called a fairy tale not a budget that should have a big note at the top that says once upon a time that is not an estimate of budget and expenses budgeting is one of the most freeing processes for individuals talk to any individual that's had money trouble and they'll tell you the freedom in creating a budget and the same with districts same with areas same with intergroups and the problem is when we lose money we think it's like a teenager with a money tree in the backyard like oh we'll make it up next year but what happens if you don't make it up next year. Then you're in a bigger hole. And A is a strange place. Not enough money is a big problem, and too much money is a worse problem. But we're a complicated people, you know? But budgeting is very wise. And let's see. I'm getting on an advisory council for deaf and hard of hearing based on my experience as an aa deaf access committee do you have any words of wisdom within staying in the traditions sure i'm so glad whoever wrote this the death is a pet peeve of mine anyone who knows me knows this the pandemic and the virtual platform was to the deaf community what the saturday evening post article was to the rest of us like their ability in a storytelling organization to finally be able to go to lots of meetings um so i applaud who's ever doing this service um if it's an outside agency and you're going, I would just say that your job is to let them know what AA has available to help them. What resources do you have that they could use? And you stay within the lines there. But I do want to thank you because there are so many deaf alcoholics out there. And I was in a workshop during the pandemic and a blind person was in this workshop and to hear a blind person say, and I'm just saying what he said, he said you know his whole life he thought because he was born blind that he always got the worst end of everything until he came to AA which is a storytelling organization and he realize wow i can hear and deaf people can't hear so i applaud who's ever doing that service so thanks everyone we'll close with the responsibility statement i am responsible when anyone anywhere reaches out for help i want the hand of aaa always to be there and if there are any current delegates in here or anybody who's a member of the voting General Service Conference. I want to say thank you and to have a great week, and thank you for caring for AA. Have a good night, everyone.