Membership and the Program of Action – 2025 AA Service Workshop – Part 1 of 27 – Billy N.

good evening everyone i'm billy i'm an alcoholic welcome we'll open with the serenity prayer god grant me the serendipity to accept things i cannot change the courage to change things i can and the wisdom to know the difference so obviously i can't change that i have a bandage on my face um so uh uh hopefully the tape won't bother me reading um but I got some messages from people thank you I think I'm okay uh I had some skin cancer that appeared which is they told me not a big deal but what it was just basically almost on my eyelids so the surgery was a pain so all's well um there will be posted in the facebook page group the monday night service workshop just for anyone who knew george d the former general manager um on january 11th in new york city will be a memorial service celebration of life for him and this saturday night the 22nd on zoom at five o'clock eastern is a gathering of friends of george d so i will post both of them in the uh uh facebook page for monday night service workshop so we are on the exhibits we are still in the legacy of service um we were ending up with jack alexander and the traditions we're going to start on page 101 where it says medicine takes an interest and go on from there it says by this time a had still found more favor in the world of medicine two of the great medical associations of america did an unprecedented thing in the year 1944 the medical society of new york invited me to read a paper at its annual meeting following the reading three of the many physicians present stood up and gave a their highest endorsement these were dr harry tebow advocate of aa dr foster kennedy world-renowned neurologist the medical society itself then went still further they permitted us to print my paper and the recommendation of these three doctors in pamphlet form in 1949 the american psychiatric association did exactly the same thing i read a paper at its annual meeting in montreal the paper was carried in the american journal of psychiatry and we were permitted to reprint it so uh it goes on to talk about during the 1940s two hospitals met all these region uh needs talks about st thomas hospital in akron with sister ignatia where dr bob 12 stepped a lot of people i think the one thing that i would want to point out about this section of the legacy of service and this is my experience it could sound like my opinion but it's my experience i want to be very clear to separate membership from the program of action because sometimes i think we get down a subject talking about subjects and the two get confused That membership in AA is totally separate and has nothing to do with should you choose to take the program of action. We have no musts, we don't compel anybody to do anything, but we can't deny either one, membership or the program of action membership if you're an alcoholic you have a right to be here i don't care who you are what you are we don't and sometimes when we talk about the atheist and agnostic topic inside a circles we start to confuse membership with program of action there is absolutely nothing that denies anybody who is a human being the right to be a member in alcoholics anonymous if they're an alcoholic it does not matter on the other hand it's hard to deny based on reading the big book what our program of action is which is finding a higher power and creating a relationship with that higher power however you see dress picture whatever you think that higher power is whether it is regular institutionalized religion whether it's some kind of way out belief that you have that works for you all of it and then the middle works the reason i bring up those subjects is because you have to think about the timing of the 1930s and 1940s and 1950s at that time nobody could find a cure for alcoholism alcoholics were dying and hopeless and eventually reached a stage in their life where they had to be institutionalized even if they weren't locked up in jail or prison their brains or their livers or their kidneys or other body functions just gave out chronic end-stage alcoholism. So at that time, for these doctors, like in the doctor's opinion and these other doctors, for something to come about that worked even though they didn't have it, they just celebrated it and applauded it. now that's the time when no one ever thought that treating alcoholics would be you know more valuable than gold back then they just threw alcoholics in state hospitals did lobotomies on them sterilized women before they could be released like barbaric nightmare stuff for people like us So at that time, the smartest people, scientists, doctors, psychiatrists, were not, it did not bother them to say that a higher power, should you choose to call it God, could be the answer. That's something they didn't have the answer for. In today's world, treating alcoholics is worth more than gold. no one could have ever imagined that we would have a multi-billion dollar economy recovery economy and so I think that's because today it might not be in fashion to embrace something that doesn't cost a lot of money or is basically free or self-supporting and does not require any kind of degree or certification just one alcoholic working with another and so times have changed for sure the next section is on anonymity breaks it says about this time a serious threat to our long-term welfare made its appearance usually meaning well and i want you to remember those three words before the comma usually meaning well i don't think that has to apply to just any tradition that applies to anonymity i think any tradition if somebody is just willfully ignoring it one of the things you always hear from the person is we're meaning well we're going to help somebody by doing this so it says usually meaningwell members begin breaking their anonymity all over the place sometimes they wanted to use a name to advertise and help other causes others just wanted their names and pictures in the paper being photographed with the governor would really help AA they thought I'd earlier been guilty of this too says Bill but at last we saw the appalling risk to AA if all our power drivers got loose on the public level already scores of them were doing it so our general service office got to work we wrote remonstrances kind ones of course to every breaker we even sent letters to nearly all press and radio outlets explaining why aas shouldn't break their anonymity before the public nor we added did a solicit money we paid our own bills in a few years the public anonymity breakers were squeezed down to a handful thus another valuable gso service had gone into action i can't even imagine whoever wrote this bill and whoever else was involved their heads would be spinning off their body today if they had any idea what the landscape would look like someday with social media and 24-hour tv news and tmz and god knows what other gossip shows that people love to watch like they would spin their heads right off their body um and as i like to say the most fundamental reason for not breaking your anonymity is not because of any so-called tradition or rule call it what you want the most fundamental reason is that real alcoholics who require an act of providence to get sober are not capable of being famous for being sober it does not run in our dna we can't handle that our natural wanting of fame and glory and everything else and a pat on the back it's just contrary to it's it's not contrary to us it fits perfectly in most of our dna's we just can't handle it and so um it's still half of our name alcoholics anonymous um and i don't think we have to you know listen we don't need to go back to a baseball player a long time ago we all know that there's an actor who wrote a book in the last couple of years who disclosed their membership who then suffered tragic consequences the next section is gso services expand to maintain all these ever-lenting service lifelines the office had to go on expanding gso moved to 44th street our present array of services may look like big business to some but we when we think of the size and reach of aa today that isn't true at all. In 1945, for example, we had one paid worker to every 98 groups. In 1955, one paid work to every 230 groups. It therefore seems sure that we shall never be burdened with a bureaucratic and expensive service setup. No description of our world services would be complete without full acknowledgement of all that has been contributed by our non-alcoholic trustees. Over the years, they've been given an incredible amount of time and effort theirs has been a true labor of love some of them and now we go right back to jack alexander not only was he going to expose aa as a fraud not only is that his goal in writing that article not only did he write a great article but he later became a class a non-alcoholic trustee it says some of the like jack alexandra fulton ulcer leonard harrison and bernard smith gave much in their fields of literature social service finance and law their example is being followed by more recent non-alcoholic trustees as i pointed out earlier in the 1940s our headquarters was consistent it was constantly overhung by one great threat to its future existence dr bob and i dr bob anion our board of trustees had the entire responsibility for the conduct of aa services in the years leading up to 50 and 51 we began to debate the desirability of some sort of advisory board of aas or maybe we needed a conference of larger numbers elected by aa itself people who would inspect the headquarters yearly a body to whom the trustees could become responsible a guiding conscience of our old world fellowship but the objections to this were persistent and nothing happened for several years such a venture it was said would be expensive we're still at my plunge a into disruptive political activity when conference delegates were elected then bob fell ill mortally ill finally in 1950 spurred on by the relentless logic of the situation his trustees authorized dr bob and me to devise the plan which which the booklet details it was a plan for a general service conference of aa a plan by which our society could assume full and permanent responsibility for the conduct of its most vital affairs so i just want to stress that there obviously as someone who served as a trustee the trustees and their work is super important can't take anything away in the amount of time that's involved but i can't deny what it says here who would inspect headquarters yearly sometimes i think if you use that language today people would accuse you of micromanaging the trustees it says a body to whom the trustees could become responsible so the general service conference is not a rubber stamping body never meant was never meant to be it goes on to birth of the conference it was one thing to say that we ought to have a general service conference but it was quite another to devise a plan which would bring into its successful existence the cost of holding one was easily dismissed upon how on earth were we going to cut down destructive politics with all of its usual struggles for prestige and vain glory how many delegates would be required and from where should they come arrived at new york how could they be related to the board of trustees what would be their actual powers and duties with these several weighty considerations in mind and with some misgivings i commenced work on a draft plan much assisted by helen b an aa member herself though the conference might later be enlarged to include the whole world we felt that the first delegates should come from the united states and canada only each state and conference might be allowed one delegate those containing heavy aaa populations could have additional delegates to give the conference continuity delegates would be divided into panels an odd numbered paddle panel one elected for two years would be invited in 1951 the first year An even number panel, panel two, elected for two years would be seated in 1952. Therefore, one panel would be elected and one would be retired yearly. This would cause the conference to rotate while maintaining some continuity. So a couple of things about that. That means the first conference only had half the areas if we divided them into two. but it's important to remember that the first four conferences were test conferences they weren't real conferences also to remember this tape is driving my eye crazy um oh another thing there's nothing special if your area is an odd area and went to panel one it does not make you like special i sometimes hear people say we were a panel one area no actually it was an alphabetical list at first by state um the only thing that doesn't apply is Ohio. There was a big pushback from Cleveland and Akron about letting all the other areas participate in AA's group conscience because up until that time, it was New York and Ohio and Cleveland, Akron that made all the decisions basically. So you'll notice that Ohio has many more delegates than based on its population. Some affectionately call that the Dr. Bob compromise That was the way to get the Ohioans to sign on, that they would take part in this, that Ohio would have a bit of influence. But how could we pull the inevitable election pressure down? To accomplish this, it was provided that a delegate must receive two-thirds of vote for election. If a delegate got a majority of the size, nobody could kick much. but if he or she didn't and the election was close what then well perhaps the names of the two highest in the running or the three offices of the committee or even the whole committee could be put in the hat one name would be drawn the winner of this painless lottery would become the delegate but when these delegates meet in conference what would they do we thought they would want to have real authority so when the charter drawn for the conference itself it was provided that the delegates could issue flat directions to the trustees on a two-third vote and even a simple majority would constitute a mighty strong suggestion so i just want to repeat that you know two-thirds of the delegates could issue flat directions to the trustees now we will go over more of this when we read the conference charter and then concept six and seven in particular and then i love this because sometimes i think in aa today if you are the kind of person who shows up in an assembly and you're a question asker it's easy to get branded a troublemaker which is unfair now if you don't know how to behave when you ask questions don't go don't become a gsr plenty other jobs in aa but if all you're doing is asking questions in a diplomatic way there's actually a section of the legacy of service i've actually said this to people and they've been like wow i've never read that it's called delegates encouraged to question that's the title of the section of the legacy of service says the first conference was set for eight for april 1951 in came the delegates they looked over our offices celery garrett got acquainted with the whole staff shook hands with the trustees that evening we gave them a brief session under the name what's on your mind we answered scores of questions of all kinds the delegates became to feel at home and reassured they inspected our finances with a microscope i want to repeat that they inspected or finances with the microscope after they listened to reports from the board of trustees and from all the services there was a warm but cordial debate on many a question of policy trustees submitted several of their own serious problems for the opinion of the conference and just think about what that's saying the trustees had some serious things and they wanted to get the opinion on the conference and i love what it says here we answered scores of questions the delegates begin to feel at home and reassured that's what happens when you answer questions when you're defensive or judgmental of the people asking questions or upset just because they ask a question then you will not get them to feel out home and re-assured this is a great service lesson on every level district area in a group the way to get people to trust you is by being fully transparent and more than being fully transparent not being bothered by the question to begin with it says so when session after session morning afternoon and evening the delegates handled several several tough puzzles which we at gso were in doubt sometimes giving advice contrary to our own conclusions in nearly every instance we saw that they were right these are like the original trustees these are the icons of a service who held the whole thing together until there was a conference and they're saying right there sometimes giving advice contrary to our own conclusions and then they say in nearly every instance we saw that they were right then and there they proved as never before that a's tradition two was correct the group conscience could safely act as the sole authority and sure guide for alcoholics anonymous nobody present will ever forget that final session of the first conference We knew that the impossible had happened, that AA could never break down in the middle, that Alcoholics Anonymous was at last safe from any storm the future might bring. And as delegates returned home, they carried this same conviction with them. Realizing our need for funds and better literature circulation, some did place a little too much emphasis on this necessity. Others were a little discouraged, wondering why fellow members in their areas did not take fire as they had. they forgot that they themselves had been eyewitnesses to the conference and that their brother alcoholics had not but both here and at home they made an impression much greater than they knew in the midst of this exciting turn of affairs the conference agreed that the alcoholics found the alcoholic foundation ought to be renamed the general service board of alcoholics anonymous and this was done the word foundation stood for charity paternalism and maybe big money aaa would have none of these from here out we could assume full responsibility and pay our expenses ourselves as i watched all this grow i became entirely sure that alcoholics anonymous was at last safe even from me that's a pretty big statement from bill that aa was safe from him so i think what i'll do before we go on are there any questions about what we read so far tonight or what we talked about because some of the appendixes are going to be quick to go through and just point out why they're important some will be to you like wow i always knew that was in writing somewhere i just didn't know where it was um but are there any questions about what we read so far the last of the legacy of service i'll give a minute okay i don't see any questions i'm going to go on to exhibit b which is page 105 in the new service manual the 12 traditions short form and long form I'm not going to read through every one of them we are not going do a traditions workshop tonight I just hate the term long form because it's the original there wasn't a long form until they created the short form but that's important to realize the other thing to realize is that you can't understand the concepts or really do your job voting as a gsr without having an experience with the traditions and going through them i'll give a shameless plug primary purpose group meets at 7 a.m in palm beach gardens and oasis club every tuesday morning 7 a.m traditions meeting every week we have a weekly traditions meeting 7 a。m every week tomorrow morning um but i'll give a shameless plug here for aa comes of age to really give it a read to see where all these mistakes happen see where they all came from um calling the traditions an appendix just hits me the wrong way super important i'm glad they're in the book um but without them we wouldn't have it and basically we say 36 spiritual principles but basically what we have is 24 and then we expanded two of the traditions primarily traditions 2 and tradition 9 and created the concepts so any questions about the traditions before we move forward appendix C is the good old upside-down triangle chart showing the a groups at the top the groups the GSR as the districts the area assembly is the General Service Conference, then the General Service Board, AWS and the AA Grafine. Pretty self-explanatory. But you know, this is a great page. Oh, great question. It's probably one of my favorite. So I didn't even see who asked the question and I already closed it so whoever asked it don't feel judged um what are the principles behind the traditions so one of my favorite pet peeves in aa which you'll see on the wall at my home group so obviously i don't win every vote right is this so-called principles behind the steps and the traditions and the concepts uh the principle is the actual step or the actual tradition or the actually concept now we have a lot of creative people in alcoholics anonymous as you know and some of those creative people have designed calendars and books and posters and god knows postcards and the principle behind the step the principle behind the tradition well the principle is the step or the tradition um if you have a word listen it's kind of like what i said last week about the steps the traditions and the concepts if you would send me an invitation and say billy your topic tonight is showing the relationship between step one concept one and tradition one i'll say okay as long as i get to say this is my opinion this is not based on aa history that the traditions the steps and the concepts were written vertically not horizontally there is absolutely no connection in any aa history at all where someone said, oh, let's apply tradition one to have to do it. Step one to have to deal with concept one. Nope. Now, do some of the concepts come especially from traditions two and nine? Absolutely. But there is no so called word. If you want to say this is your opinion. I often laugh at them. I can't helped this a long time ago it had to be in the 90s i want to say um it's i know because it's where my dad went to high school bishop malloy high school um in queens and uh father martin was speaking there and a whole bunch of us went everybody's famous you know you hear his chalk talk whatever i mean i'm talking years ago aa sometimes you can catch a recording of him somewhere but i remember one thing because he had been bothered by this principal thing too and maybe he's the one that put it in my head but he said everywhere he goes he sees the principle for step nine being justice and he's like thank god that's not the principle for most of us because if we got justice you've never found a group of people who would have been in worse shape like maybe mercy but not justice um so if you turn over the first page of exhibit c to page 108 it's kind of a chart of the relation of the conference committees to the trustees committees with the aa groups in the middle and the general service board in the bottom of the middle it's just a good diagram and what i would suggest to people is if you get a chance to speak on the service structure this is a great page to make a poster of even if there's not powerpoint available you can go good old school you can go to like the fedex office and don't make the mistake that most people make and they just have a poster made actually go old school at poster board because poster board you can put on something you can even put it on a chair and it'll sit up and people can see it but visual is good especially for people that are new to this i mean when i look at this page and i say a corresponding conference committee when you say that and read it out of the book or out of the concepts it sounds so complicated when you look at this chart and you're like wow corrections corrections literature literature cooperated professional community cooperative professional community now there isn't a corresponding committee for every conference committee but the book later on goes to explain that in the service manual that we already went through when we talked about conference committees but the chart is very helpful to new people okay question it appears that the close relationship between the delegates and trustees is much different today than earlier times could that likely be a result of our large growth numbers and if so have there been any efforts to recreate that close relationship um i don't know i think there is a close relationship um i don'T KNOW MAYBE UM I MEAN I ROTATED OUT IN 2017 BUT I'M PRETTY CONNECTED TO a lot of people in the service structure at all different levels um i think what we have today i guess i'd like to answer this in two hold on one second sorry that was the guard house at my where i live and of course it's not even my visitor so um anyway what i want to say is it's kind of like a double-edged sword in today's aa on one hand there are not more complaints i just want to make that clear i'm a pre-predominant number of members of aa using email director and delegate okay meaning when i first became a director there were more people in aa members that did not use email than used email. That is not the case today, okay? But sometimes I hear people make comments like there's more complaints. There's definitely not more complaints, in fact back in the good old days past delegates used to make their own stationery, I used to makes fun of them like their name with a big panel number you know for the rest of their life you know that they would feed through the word processor you know um it's just not as many people saw him in the past because there was no social media no fax machines no email i think now when people are upset with something more people hear about it or see it but i don't think that means the trustees or delegates are not close with each other um i think on top of that we live in a very polarized world um bill's words in concept 9 are definitely not popular in the outside world tolerance flexibility finding the middle compromise god forbid that word i mean you turn on the news in the world we live in today there's not a lot of compromise or if there are a lot people who want to compromise they don't get the attention it's each side so i think unfortunately little of that leaks into aa people form hard alliances but i would like to believe that there are still very close relationships um and i know when i was a trustee i had close relationships with delegates um so any questions on that chart at all is there still one more question in there from before will they still accept seventh tradition contributions at box 459 great question i am sure if you send a contribution to box 459 it'll eventually get to the right place but we have a different po box number for contributions today because it's a lockbox at a bank so they get processed right away um so but i'm sure if you sent it there because believe me alcoholics who write a letter in crayon on a diner menu who mail it it gets there so the next section is sample area meeting formats it's a nice one it has election assembly and then it says sample area meeting format non-election assemblies it doesn't have a sample for area committee meetings all i'm going to tell you about this is the sample is nice what you have to ask your area or your district is are you doing it the same way you did it 40 years ago and if you are how come like is it on the same day at the same time with the same order there's no way 40 years of progress so that's what i would be aware of this is just a very basic draft example that's all it is appendix e the principle of rotation the principle of rotation flows from tradition 2 for our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority a loving God as he may express himself in our group conscience our leaders are but trusted servants that do not govern in addition concepts 9 and 11 refer to the principle rotation in general service obviously for those of you who know better there is a huge mistake in that opening paragraph maybe the biggest mistake in the entire service manual the entire new service manual how is tradition nine not mentioned when the long form of tradition nine says rotating leadership is best and has a whole section on rotation which was written before the concepts but maybe that can be cleaned up in the future It then gives a little snippet from the AA group pamphlet. Traditionally, rotation ensures group tasks like nearly everything else in AA are passed around for all to share. Many groups have alternates to each trusted servant who can step into the service if needed. To step out of an AA office you love can be hard. If you've been doing a good job, if you honestly don't see anyone else around willing qualified or at the same time to do it, and if your friends agree it is especially tough but it can be a real step forward in growth the step in the humility that is for some people the spiritual essence of anonymity among other things anonymity is the in the fellowship means that we forego personal prestige for any work we do to help alcoholics and in the spirit of tradition too ever reminds us to place principles before personalities and a little reminder there not principles before other people's personalities principles before our own personality that's what it's saying many because so many times i hear well i don't like that person i don t like that person and i hear somebody say well you got to put principles in front of that personality that s not what the literature says literature says no you have work to do on yourself why is that person bothering you so much why is it getting under your skin so much what's wrong with you as many outgoing service position holders find it rewarding to take time to share their experience with the incoming person rotation helps us to bring spiritual rewards far more enduring than any fame with no a status at stake we need and compete for titles or phrase we have complete freedom to serve as we are needed then it has a section on inactive gsr dcm trusted servant sometimes a trusted servant who's been elected or appointed to serve the fellowship may find that their life circumstances change or their workload becomes unweedly that is true the more difficult situation is when those circumstances change and the person doesn't let us know that's an even further difficulty if there is an alternate for the position that person may be of the help but difficult decisions need to be made in order to ensure continuity of fellowship in the voice of our service structure each service entity has autonomy regarding what constitutes an active trusted servant whether it be a gsr dcm or other service position experience in the fellowship suggests that trusted servants be asked to resign if it appears that they are unable to carry out the responsibilities of the position the service entity involved is then free to elect the new trusted servant to that position so this whole nonsense we hear oh you're gonna make them drink it does not say that here okay we're not responsible for somebody drinking in fact if somebody doesn't have time to finish their service position it's probably better that they have more time for their personal recovery now how we do this should be tactful and at first not publicly that the chair or somebody has a conversation with the person and the person is given the ability to resign on their own. But AA has to keep going. And so sometimes a committee or a board and somebody needs to remove somebody from their position. It happens, but it's definitely not against the traditions. I want to say about rotation um i just heard today from the good old west coast that an area that a delegate is proposing that past delegates get vote for life that's the first time i've heard that in a long time because the trend has been the other way the last 50 years taking away the vote for life most past delegates still have a voice but i can tell you the worst example of rotation in alcoholics anonymous is past delegates at assemblies period i've been to over 80 of the area assemblies in the united states and canada there is no worse example in all of alpha logs anonymous and failing to rotate than past delegates and you know i would say to a past delegate the same thing i would say to somebody who's a delegate at the conference there used to be a thing at the confidence called the golden microphone award and that was actually a golden microphone and that went to the delegate that just couldn't shut up that had to be at the microphone for every single item that had important things to say about everything they I guess never heard that everything needs to be said but not everyone needs to say it now i guess around the time that first second and third at field day went out of fashion the golden microphone went out a fashion because it was considered like picking on somebody so no more golden microphone officially there still is plenty of people competing for it but i tell people at the conference all the time when i was there there's a danger in the golden microphone award the danger is that when people see you at the microphone they don't listen anymore they tune out they don t pay attention and i would tell anyone from past delegate to gsr that you pick battles a bad word but you pick your battles wisely you don't die on a mountain or a hill for every single item up for discussion at your assembly or your district or your inner group that you participate when you think something hasn't been said and when it's something you really care about. At the level of trustee, there is what I call extreme rotation. I can't just like give Bob W a call and say, Bob, I'm going to come in for the January board weekend. Just want to let you know, just sit in the back. No, not allowed there. Extreme rotation. The day I rotated, my passwords were canceled for anything to do with the GSO systems, which is how it should be. No doubt about it. Now in areas, we have this thing of past delegate tables, past delegate sections. And believe me, I want past delegates to go. I go to my assembly when I can. I just know that my time is better spent helping someone in the hallway not at a microphone and most times these days i go to a microphone when a past delegate gives bad information to be perfectly honest um or to just give institutional history and that's the other thing you have to be careful with rotation you know if you're a person that's always there people will give what you say a lot of credibility and maybe you're right maybe you wrong but um you know we shouldn't be using our influence for every single subject i think the trustees this is the one thing they have down pat that they do better than everyone else which is rotation um any questions about inactive trusted servants or rotation before we move on there's a question here what are oh here's a good question what are your thoughts about members who rotate around the dais i.e someone going from secretary alternate dcm or something similar does this limit new blood entering the service structure or does it ensure continuity so i think it's a great question i believe that for the most part we have way too many officer positions today The dais today does not look like the dais of years past We have alternate treasurers, alternate registrars, alternate secretaries I don't believe in automatic rotation That if you did this job, you're entitled to the next job Now that doesn't mean I hold it against you That you shouldn't be able to stand for the next position But I don't think anyone should feel entitled that they deserve the next position. I feel the group conscience gets to elect the best person for the job at that time. I know many great delegates who are not alternate delegates. I know a lot of alternate delegates who became delegates, who are good delegates. But I also know this. If you're a horrible coffee maker, you're going to be a bad treasurer if you don't show up to do the job. Showing up is what this is mostly about. But I also know you're definitely, if you're an alternate delegate, going to become a bad delegate. If you are an alternate secretary, you are going to became a bad secretary. So it's the entitlement, I think. And I also love general service so much that I don't like the kind of false mandate from people in power today who say the only people who get to ever be a delegate are those who want to commit to 20 years of general service. because do the math in your head let's just take not even an extreme situation gsr dcm dcmc or district chair in some places chairs of one of the area committees like corrections or whatever pi something like that then let's go to area officers registrar secretary treasurer chairperson of the area then ultimate delegate and delegate that's like a simple one based today that's not even a lot of alternates 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 you should have to have 20 or 22 years in service before you can be a delegate no way and what i hate most about this is it's used by older members of aa to talk younger members out of standing for delegate or standing for officer positions it's why i cringe when i hear somebody in their service resume talk say they're retired if we have a job in aa that requires you to be retired it should become a paid position it should not be a trusted servant position no i'm not saying i'm Not grateful to people who stay that long in the service structure that's great but it's not entitlement and shaming people because maybe they weren't the secretary but became the treasurer we shouldn't be shaming people we should just believe in concept nine that we elect the best people so that's what i believe about the deus we have a right to be wrong we do somebody wrote that but here's what i will tell you we don't have we don'T have a RIGHT to say WE HAVE A RIGHT TO BE WRONG which makes it right sometimes it's misstated that way like being wrong is right no you have a Right to be Wrong and you're still wrong you just have a right to be wrong but being wrong does not make you right it can't be sometimes we change it like that let's see anybody have any other questions okay appendix f changing boundaries redistricting new delegate area new region redistricting if it were not for adding committee members to take care of new groups as aa grows the general service conference might become unwieldy as the number of group increases and becomes too difficult for the dcm to communicate with all them several courses can be followed new districts dividing the district in two or more districts each with its own dcm And now it goes into LCM, DCM. I'm going to save you the trouble. Get your area guidebook or whatever your area calls how you do business and find out some areas don't have LCMs. Some don't have dcmcs some have sub-districts some have districts that are very large some have districts at a very small find out what you are creating new districts belongs to the area the area decides it has nothing to do with the general service conference last year i took some heat because um you know a spanish district wanted to form in an area and of course a couple of past delegates who did not want that spanish district in their area convinced the body that only the general service conference could create a district in their area when the person called me i told them i said you know what you know you should do just send a note to gso asking the question to the conference desk and when they get that letter back send it to all of them like the conference has no jurisdiction in districts and districts sometimes don't belong to the area in their geography. There are districts in Canada that belong to upstate New York areas because that's more of their local community. There are district in Maine that belongs to the Canadian area. But we stay away from all that and let districts make their own decisions. Forming a new delegate area. If the AA population seems to have grown to the point where the current delegate and other trusted servants can no longer provide adequate service and communication, there may be local interest in forming a new area. In such case, the area committee or committees involved might write GSO and request an application for an additional delegate area, so there's an application for an additional delegate area the four-page application form requests detailed information about the current area structure how often are assemblies held whether there's an alternate delegate now that's not a valid question today because we don't have one area in the 93 without an area delegate but like i told you about the dais increasing in most areas in the beginning the area chair was the alternate delegate or the alternate delegate was the area chair this is kind of an old-fashioned question how often are districts meetings held number of active dcms and whether they assist a delegate number of active gsrs geographical and a population information about the area and its pattern of growth over the past five years broken down to yearly figures the application is designed to determine problems regarding geography and a population as well as other whether or not the current area service structure is as well developed as it might be to provide support for the delegate when such a request came up in 1961 conference a memo from co-founder bill w provided the background of the subject bill wrote in part it should be re-emphasized that the conference is not a political body party body demanding a completely rigid formula of representation what we shall need will always be enough delegates at the conference to avoid a reliable cross-section of the a of aa plus enough more to make sure of good local communications last two delegate areas created 92 and 93 washington state created for geography that was before fax machines and emails and everything else and there's a mountain range that runs through north to south in washington and so that meant that when there were storms in the winter one side couldn't get to the other side to go to assemblies they created area 92. now we have western washington and eastern washington then los angeles area 5 was split to become area 5 and area 93. that was the opposite it in area five you could go 20 miles and it would take you four hours i don't know if you've ever been on the five or the 405 or whatever the other those crazy roads are called the 10 to santa monica i mean if you're out there it's insane you can't measure distance in miles and not in southern california for sure so not only could the delegate not make it to places like they'd have to leave work at two o'clock to make a district meeting by six and they also had too many groups so that so they split um there is something here for just changing uh a region similarly an area may decide that it should be part of a different region the gsrs in that area will be informed by the area committee of the necessary facts both advantages and disadvantages a simple majority one plus one half plus one of the gsr should be present or respond to a mail poll two-thirds of the majority president responding should agree before an area petition for a change of region upon notification by the delegate of the plan to change regions the general service office will provide a form to be filled in by the delegate indicating that the conditions outlined have been fulfilled the delegate from the cresting area will write on behalf of the assembly to the secretary of the trustees nominating committee stating the request and enclosing the completed form the delegate will also send copies of the letter in form to the trustees and the two regions involved the delegate will ask gso to send a letter to all area delegates in the two regions involved requesting that they obtain group conscience of their respective areas and the proposed change of region and that they indicate approval disapproval on an enclosed card as soon as possible approval by two-thirds of the delegates from each region involved is required before the proposal is presented to the general service conference for action a change of region will become effective at the end of the conference at which it may be approved minnesota is a good example used to be part of the east central now part of west central but um you know we haven't seen a lot of this in the last 30 40 years what we have seen and i think we'll see more of is a request to re-regionalize because we've seen them a lot that there should be more regions that the pacific region northeast region have too many areas and gotten too big too much for the trustee to try to get to every area during their four-year term also in relation to votes for the u.s trustee at large that those areas have a lot of votes since each region is only allowed to have one candidate for trustee-at-large now that doesn't mean the pacific and the northeast have always won not at all but the last two have been from the pacific um california and nevada um the northeast it's not always been a northeast but if i go back in time two pacifics then the northeast then we had a southeast to southeast and before that a pacific but some people think they have too many votes that help you get to the second and third round of a third legacy vote but other than that there's been no change to re-regionalize so a couple of questions here too difficult for the northeast region to find a venue to house all who wish to attend i'm guessing that person's talking about narasa or other things that could also be a re a reason i mean i mean I would just say this to you to anybody who goes to assemblies um in other areas we complain about how many GSRs show up at an assembly yet most of the places we have assemblies couldn't even hold half of the gsrs if they showed up so we got to think about that too so any other questions about anything from tonight because next week we're going to start with third legacy procedure which is appendix g I do not see any questions so that's it we will close with the responsibility statement I am responsible when anyone anywhere reaches out for help I want the hand of AA always to be there for that I am a responsible have a good night everyone thank you for your service