Rotating Leadership – AA Service Workshop – 2025 – Part 20 of 27 – Billy N.

good evening everyone i'm billy i'm an alcoholic welcome monday night i'll open with the serenity prayer uh somebody has a hand up send me a chat message if you have a question um god grant me the serenite to accept the things i cannot change courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference uh just a quick announcement we will not meet next week so a new flyer will be created we'll push the dates back of everything will just get pushed back one week but we will now meet one week and we'll make that announcement at the end too tonight we are on concept nine and tradition nine um i'm gonna start with reading um the long form of tradition nine because it's like really one of the long long forms uh so it's definitely so each aa group needs the least possible organization rotating leadership is the best the small group may elect its secretary the large group its rotating committee and the groups of the large metropolitan area their central or intergroup committee which often employs a full-time secretary the trustees of the general service board are in effect our aa general service committee they're the custodians of our a tradition and the receivers of voluntary a contributions by which we maintain our a general service office at new york they are authorized by the groups to handle our overall public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper the a grapevine all such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service for true leaders and aaa but trusted and experienced service uh servants of the whole they derive no real authority from their titles they do not govern universal respect is the key to their un usefulness um so i'm going to start out by each aa group needs the least possible organization that does not mean no organization and obviously not every aa group is the same and we're obviously referring to groups districts areas the general service board aws a grapevine intergroup steering committees intergroups and then inside groups we have all kinds of groups we have three person groups uh we have a couple hundred person groups we have some groups that are close to a thousand people at one of their meetings a week um obviously you need the least organization for your size group um um the general service office and the general service board have many committees so it doesn't sound least or the least possible organization i mean my last year as a trustee i was the chair of aws services i was on the aws publishing committee the awos communications committee the trustees retirement committee the trustee's pension committee the trustees uh compensation committee the trustee's nominating committee um so you get my drift like we have to have some organization it's just we don't need more than we need and that's for each group to figure out now it says after that it says rotating leadership is the best So, the best for who? It just says the best, meaning the best for AA. Now, it's possible that you could be the best person that ever handled a particular position. It's possible. Or it's impossible that you know someone who is the best who's ever had that job at your group, but you're in a group at your area district. At your group. You might know somebody who is best treasurer or the best chairperson or the best cookie person or the best greeter or god knows what it's just we know that the alcoholic ego is very dangerous and when we make some people or some person feel indispensable like they're the only one that can do something we're doing a disservice to them we're putting them in a position that they will always fail um and it's not fair for alcoholics to put another alcoholic in that position um so rotation is best now a little note about rotation because i get questions all the time about our group only has seven people and if your group only have seven people then you have to take turns in the least possible jobs that you have for your group. Maybe instead of being GSR three times in a row, you're the GSR, then you're The Group Treasurer, then you're chair, then your back to GSR. I don't know. But for the most part, we're not talking about groups like that. Whenever I run into a situation where so and so has been the coffee maker for eight years, or so and So has been The GSR he's the only one or she's the only one that wants to do it we have to go back to an old spiritual rule or principle which is you can't fill a filled position if there are adequate number of people to take the job listen alcoholics some of us tend to like when other people do the work for us we like when we can do as little as possible to get by so if you're in a group of 40 people and you think you need to be the gsr twice in a row i would just say you need to step aside so that the group doesn't have a gsR it's like the coffee person or the person who opens the meeting i assure you if you let it go a week or two they're going to find a new person to open the meeting and a new person to make coffee. If the position is open, if you keep handling it, then it's not. Now I also want to talk about real rotation. A real rotation means that you don't just give up the job in name only. It means that you give upthe job and you move on. You don't feel like that you have some special status because you're the past anniversary cake chairperson so you are some expert on anniversary cake um no we just move on and my experience has been that it is best to move on and wait for somebody to ask you a question rather than butt in now obviously if you see a real disaster coming down the path you could mention it but if it's not some big disaster wait for the person to ask for your help or your experience and if they don't they don t and if fall on their face they do um but I've found for me the best experience is wait for someone to pick up the phone or the keyboard or run into you at a meeting and ask for assistance rather than thinking that you need to always offer it so we then go on it says the small group male electric secretary the large group its rotating committee and the groups of the lodge area their central or inner group committee which often employs a full-time secretary sometimes they call them a full time manager there's all different words that are used but it then goes on to say the trustees of the general service board are in effect our general service committee they are the custodians of aa tradition so those 21 trustees 22 trustees now because we have a class b chair we have 22 trustees um and we might not because two trustees rotated early um they have two three-year terms as classes but two classes left after their last it's actually two three year terms of one of one year terms um and two class a trustees decided to rotate out this year early um but anyway um in the bylaws of the general service board they not only spiritually agree to uphold our traditions because it says here they are the custodians of our aa tradition they're also legally bound to uphold our traditions the the by-laws of the general services board which is a legal document says that one of the things the trustees will do is is uphold the traditions and it then goes on to say the receivers of the voluntary aa contributions by which we maintain our naa general service office so a little you know not trick but way you can see this like with your eyes if you wanted to is our office only takes in two types of money basically contributions and literature and then we have the grapevine side which takes in money for grapevine subscriptions and grapevine books but on the general service board side if you make a contribution you are giving it to the general services board to the trustees and they in turn it says uh maintain the general service office so we don't really give money to gso we say it all the time but we're not really giving money to gso because gso isn't an entity it's just a place where people work and we're NOT giving the money to aa world services either we make the contributions to the trustees that goes into their bank account and then a few times a year the trustees move their money over into the aa world service's bank account to comply with this tradition to maintain the office in new york city that's why it gets moved over if you buy literature conference approved literature not grapevine literature you are buying it from aa world services inc you're not giving that money to the trustees if you wanted and you were bored one night you could go on the a.org website and you could make an electronic contribution with a debit or a credit card or a bank account. You will get a receipt almost instantaneously to your email. That receipt will be from the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc. That's who sends out the receipt. If you then, after you made your contribution, went into the AA.org literature catalog the publishing page, and ordered literature and used your debit card, your bank account, or your credit card. You would then get a receipt from AA World Services, Inc. That's where you can really see like the difference of how the money works. And if you were to buy a grapevine subscription or literature from the grapevine or corporation, you would get a receipts from AA Grapevine, Inc., it then goes on to say they are authorized by the groups to handle our overall public relations so that's one of the trustees jobs and they carry that out through the public information desk the gso staff member that sits on the pi desk on the public confirmation desk they handle all the requests that people call for us and they call all the time and we have the same answer all the time we have no comment we don't comment on outside issues ever never and sometimes the same reporters call like a couple months in a row and they think like we've changed our mind well in 90 years we have not changed our mine we don'T give an opinion if someone says that aa doesn't work we DON'T give any opinion if someone says that AA is the best thing out there, we don't give an opinion. If someone says some rock star just got caught with a gun and God knows what else and was DWI, we do not give an opinion. It is the trustees who are responsible for our public relations. And then it says here They guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the AA Grapevine. Sometimes I hear that people say that Grapefine has editorial freedom, which they do. The publisher and editor and the senior editor and a managing editor and the editor of Lavinia all have great editorial freedom. And the Grapevine board oversees that editorial freedom and they have the trustees do not micromanage them but it is wrong to say the trustees have no responsibility for the grapevine because you can see here in the long form of tradition 9 it says um they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper the grape vine and how do the trustees guarantee that well kind of like in concept 8 that we talked about last week they elect the directors on the AA Grapevine board and at least four of the directors on the AAA Grapevine board have to be trustees so that's how they maintain that integrity but if you had a big problem and you thought the AA grapevine board was not dealing with it and you felt like there was an integrity issue with the grapevine then you would be okay to write a letter to your regional trustee or to the board of trustees um but it has to be it's a really high bar uh then it goes on to say all such representatives ought to be guided in the spiritual spirit of service for true leaders in aa are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole they derive no real authority from their titles they do not govern universal respect is key to their usefulness so aaa we're kind of different than other organizations in that our titles are really job descriptions they're not vested authority no authority comes with the title no individual trustee or individual steering committee member or aa acts as a group and individuals get the right of decision in between the group meeting but at the end of the day um if you're a delegate that's really a job description what's the job description of the delegate if you chair of the aa world services board it's really a job um we don't you know um we have anybody who is infallible we don't have any you know you could probably describe the chair of the general service board as a first among equals not the boss of the General Service Board the chair of the AA Grapevine Board and the AA World Services Board the same they are the first of equals they are not in charge um so that is really uh tradition nine i am going to go on the concept nine it says good service leaders together with sound and appropriate methods of choosing them are at all levels indispensable for the future functioning and safety for our future functioning and safety the primary world service leadership once exercised by the founders of aa must necessarily be assumed by the trustees of the general service board of alcoholics anonymous and the first paragraph is a great one it says no matter how carefully we design our service structure of principles and relationships no matter how well we apportion authority and responsibility the operating results of our structure can be no better than the personal performance of those who must man it and make it work good leadership cannot function well in a poorly designed structure but weak leadership can hardly function at all even in the best of structures but once we have created basically a sound structure that job is finished except for occasional refinement so when i read that what it means to me is whatever kind of group we're talking about, group, district, area, inner group, the three boards. If the structure hasn't been working for a couple of years, it doesn't work. If this structure you're working in is the same exact structure you used 30 years ago, well, maybe it's not meant for 2025. We have to have good structure but it says weak leadership can hardly function at all even in the best structure and then you know it says with leadership we shall have a continuous problem good leadership can be here today and gone tomorrow furnishing our structure with able and willing workers has to be a continuous activity it is therefore a problem that it's in very nature cannot be permanently solved we must continuously find the right people for our many service tasks since our future effectiveness thus must depend upon the ever new generation of leaders it seems desirable that we now proceed to define what a good service leader should be that we carefully indicate in each level of service especially in our board of trustees what special skills will be required and that we review our present methods of finding and choosing that leadership. And it goes on to talk about a lot of things like don't pick people worse than you to follow you because you're scared somebody's going to do a better job. Find people better than you. Then you're honoring concept nine it goes on in the bottom paragraphs on page 27 to talk about GSR and I say this all the time if a group wants to up its game in honoring concept 9 then don't elect the GSR last even the newest person in an AA business meeting knows that when you go through your elections obviously the most important ones are the first ones you elect if GSR is at the bottom of the pile, what kind of message are you sending about how important the GSR role is? And don't make jokes about electing somebody who went to the bathroom to be the GSAR because we want someone who wants to bethe GSR. And, you know, we just had the General Service Conference. We complain all the time about what happens the conference the only way to have better integrity at the conference is for groups to send the best people possible and remember it's it's not really rocket science the gsrs of today are the dcms of the future the dcm's of today or the area officers of the future the area officers of today are the delegates of the future and the delegates have today are all the trustees and directors of the future don't keep passing along somebody because you like them or they're your friend or in the same sponsorship lineage if they're not doing a good job now they're not going to do a good in the future and we don't have lifetime achievement awards and alcoholics anonymous we are not the oscars we don't say oh so-and-so has been doing this for 18 years it's their turn to be delegate it's no one's turn to ever be delegate we should elect the best person possible at that time now the board needs the best people and you know when we go on in the concepts 10 and 11 best is a word that is used like best means best and special skills and not every trustee needs the same skills but our general service trustees need to be good business people with some specialty in business whether it's law or accounting or finance or publishing or i.t we need those people we're a 40 million dollar corporation we need the best people um it's not an aa popularity contest um if you have read concept nine bill's article that's also was in language of the heart on leadership in a ever vital need is found on page 29 is i think some of his best writing he says real leadership of course has to function in between these entirely imaginary poles of hope for a for excellence in aa certainly no leader is faceless and neither is any leader perfect fortunately our society is blessed with any amount of real leadership the active people of today and the potential leaders of tomorrow as the new generation of able members swarm in. We have an abundance of men and women whose dedication, stability, vision, and special skills make them capable of dealing with every possible service assignment. We have only to seek these folks out and trust them to serve. So when we're holding an election, we should make sure as many people as possible know about it. Whether it's your group or your district or your area or you're in a group. Whether it's when we're looking for non-trustee directors to go on AAWS in the grapevine. You don't have to be a past delegate to be a director. I happen to be, but you don't have to be. We have many great past non-trustee directors and past general service trustees who never served as delegates who did other AA service but brought real skill to the table. Brought real special business skill to the table which we needed and then i love this description a leader in aa service is therefore a man or a woman who can personally put principles plans and policies into such dedicated and effective action that the rest of us want to back him up and help him with his job when a leader power drives us badly we rebel but when he too meekly becomes an order taker and exercises no judgment of his own? Well, he isn't a leader at all. Now, that's a hard task in AA. To get everyone to back you, to not power drive, but yet to have people be behind you, it's tough. But it says good leadership originates plans, policies, and ideas for improvement or fellowship in its services. But in new and important matters, it will nevertheless consult widely before taking decisions and actions good leadership will also remember that a fine plan or idea can come from anywhere and i want to stress that a fine planner idea can comes from anywhere and that's an ego proposition for a leader that i didn't think up that idea don't raise your virtual hand but i'm just curious raise your regular hand how many people have ever gone to aa.org and saw the daily reflection there because you didn't have a daily reflection in front of you a book yeah of course how many of you have seen the aa thought for the other aa grapevine thought for today of course i just want to let you know that idea did not come from a trustee a staff member, a director, or anybody. In fact, that was back in the good old early days of like WordPress websites. And there was a gentleman and he had a mailing list of like 10,000 email addresses. And every day he sent out the daily reflection. and you know what happened to him a couple of times a year he got a cease and desist letter from aa world services saying that's copyrighted material please don't do this and what'd he do he just pushed send to 10 000 people every morning and sent out the daily reflection but you know it finally happened at an aws meeting i was at it the board finally came to the conclusion like you know what the fellowship wants this and we put the daily reflection on our website so that it's there for everybody to see to just go to aa.org and see it there are lots of good ideas and sometimes if you're so embedded in the structure if youre a service lifer you've been in service forever the closer you are to something sometimes the harder it is to see a new pair of glasses a second set of eyes every professional wants that one of the best TED talks ever I think is about the doctor a female at a time when let's just say female doctors were not a lot of and probably weren't asked to like give their opinion a lot but she just she noticed that there was a all of a sudden a really big like alarmingly shockingly large increase in babies with cancer and one of the things she put two and two together about was it was not too long before that happened that the x-ray was invented and pregnant women were being x-rays without any protection. Now, she had this theory and one of the things she did because she knew that the modern medical establishment was going to be after her, she hired somebody to like take the other side of her argument. And you know, I love that story because today we would not think twice of telling a dentist who put a lead barrier across our chest and our lap to not do it we know that we need it but a second set of eyes and especially somebody who's disconnected is a powerful tool anywhere in the world at school at work at home if you're embedded in the emotions of it you usually can't see it and if you are responsible for the current way you do something it's really hard to think that someone else might have come up with a better way and so sometimes you know we get people really smart people who come to assemblies in district meetings and we're a strange group we tell people we need people to do service and then what do we do they show up and god forbid they have a new idea and we're like whoa we needed you to come do it exactly the way that we've been doing it forever we did not need you to bring any new ideas here today we send such a mixed message about that and you know what sometimes the person who is newest might be able to see it clearest because they have they're not attached to it they have no attachment to it so i would just say please be open to that now i wish our board our three boards a healthy new year and i know that this last conference i've heard some things that there was some trying times Um, and I know the last couple of years we've had past trustees writing letters and petitions and we have to give our leaders room to operate. But yet we need our leaders to not be afraid of tough questions. Now, I read Bill's essay as a warning. and it doesn't say, welcome to AA service. It's going to be the greatest time of your life. Nope, that's not what it says. It says leadership is often called upon to face heavy and sometimes long continued criticism. Who wants that? Like I work 40 hours a week. I have to take care of my house and I come to this AA service position and now I'm long criticism. But Bill warns us that that's part of the role. It comes with us. It says this is an acid test. There are always the constructive critics, our friends indeed. We ought never fail to give them a careful hearing. we should be willing to let them modify our opinions or change them completely often too we shall have to disagree and then stand fast without losing their friendship i want to repeat that without losing their friendship over the last couple of years we've had things go on that is just not aa and then if you think that's not bad enough it says this then there are those we like to call our destructive critics they power drive they politic they make accusations maybe they are violent malicious they pitch gobs of rumors gossip and gentle gentle uh general scuttlebutt to gain their ends all for the good of aa that sounds horrible but don't say bill didn't warn you you know if you take a leadership position in aa you're not like you didn't just become leader of the heavy like the perfect mental health club okay that's not what you just took a leadership position you took a leadership position whereas if i had my big book in front of me there's an asterisk that updates how many alcoholics there are in aa like two million and then in the 12 and 12 in the section on the eighth step it says that defective relations with other human beings have almost always been the immediate cause of our woes we have two million people who don't get along with other people just like let that roll through your brain for a little while right gossip rumors none of it has any place in aa but if you decide to be an aa leader know that that is going to come along at times and it doesn't feel good it doesn' t feel good at all i can tell you from personal experience some of you may know a great past trustee named arnold r from baltimore maryland and uh arnold was a hero of mine growing up in service and uh the day i the day it became public that i was selected as a non-trustee director on aa world services arnold called me and he said billy you now go from being critic to the criticized and he couldn't have been more right he was right i don't think i've ever been more criticized in my life than when i served on a world services and the general service board but i can't say i wasn't prepared for it and i can t say that like bill didn't warn me that some people are even uglier than others because he puts this other paragraph in about gossip and slander and all kinds of things but we really got to think about without losing friends so i want to talk about the rest of concept 9 where he talks about the four traits of being an a leader like what are the four qualities that you really need And Bill talks about vision, responsibility, flexibility, and tolerance. Those four things. Vision is so important. Can you look down 10 or 20 years? What does the AA of the future need? What do we need to be ready for? back in the early 2000s late 90s do you think every anybody ever thought i mean dvr was a new concept okay did anyone ever think back then oh you're not gonna watch the favorite tv show at eight o'clock on friday nights no one thought that no one imagined that and therefore no one's watching commercials so are public service announcements who are they getting to like we need people with vision and we need flexibility and responsibility and tolerance sometimes you have to stand on a hill die on a mountain but that's very rare and you're not a sellout if you're flexible if you compromise why do some people in service think that compromise is like untreated alcoholism i treat it i read it as the opposite i read part of being a recovered alcoholic is actually gaining the ability to compromise not always have to get in your own way i always pass this on because it was passed on to me there's a little math equation to remember how those four qualities work and it goes like this vision plus response plus tolerance plus flexibility equals responsibility but intolerance inflexibility Lack of vision equals irresponsibility. But however the AA service card has been turned upside down the last couple of years, we had the pandemic, then we had to issue with the chairperson resigning. We need to be worried about the alcoholic that's not here yet. we need to take care of a today so it's here for tomorrow and we need to be prepared for the alcoholic of tomorrow and for five years from now while we stay sober a day at a time. It doesn't mean we can't have vision I've heard some people in the last year have called me of not like things said about them i'm like you really need to read bill wrote that in 1961 he knew we're dealing with alcoholics but if you can keep those four principles and here's one of my favorite exercises do with it what you want but i can tell you my hardest assignment my hardest assignment from my higher power that i choose to call god my number one prayer is to be tolerant of the intolerant and i will assure you that that is a difficult difficult task on any given day and i am talking not only in aa in every walk of life life. To be tolerant of the intolerant was not made for a guy like me. I'm just being perfectly honest. It's not how I'm wired, it's not my brain works, but I have to be. If I want peace and serenity, if I want my life to be okay, then I need to be tolerant the intolerant as well now that doesn't mean i need to tolerate bad behavior ugly behavior of course not and a good chairperson should make sure that no a business meeting group district area board general service conference i can tell you what i was taught if i'm chair in a meeting if i hear one word comes out that's like a personal attack that person is done they have lost their chance to share they want to share about the topic fine they want to attack somebody personally not okay in alcoholics anonymous not okay it's not what we do um but again it goes back to being tolerant and i believe that aa service has taught me how to be so tolerant um and like i said it doesn't mean being a doormat you can stand up for yourself but the end of the day to be a recovered alcoholic who wants to be recovered alcoholic where the very thing that saved their life and brought them that peace is making them the angriest person in the room. And we all know people like that. We all know, we run into people like that all the time. And probably me and some of you probably admit that we've had our day when we've been that person. And that doesn't attract anyone to service. And again, I'm not saying you have to be a doormat. Ask your questions, but in a respectful way. Behave yourself in the meeting. Don't roll your eyes, text your sponsees. And another thing about AA leadership, speak for yourself. If you think you go to the microphone too often, don't be texting your service sponsee to go to the microphone for you there's nothing spiritual about that like it still you're trying to fix manage and control everything but i'm not saying you don't have a right to go the microphone i'm saying you have a right to grow the microphone if you can behave and talk in a respectful way And when you leave that room, and I know we have lots of slogans and signs in AA meetings, but the most important sign is the exit sign. Can you leave under that exit sign and practice these principles in all your affairs? I'm sure you're not perfect. I'm not perfect, but that's your job. And if you're in a service meeting or a group, a business meeting where a vote just took place, especially a vote that you don't like, when you go under that exit sign, it is your job to carry out that group conscience. Not to plan how you're going to be in a Unabomber cabin for a month and write the greatest AA petition that's ever been written in minority appeal. That should not be your first thought. your first thought should be, you know, it'll be a really good spiritual exercise if I help carry out that group conscience that I wasn't in favor with. That's where the real spiritual growth comes. So that's it. I'm going to go to questions. Why was the grapevine established as a separate corporation? Well, there's a bunch of reasons. AAWS is a separate corporation as well. Number one, to have a board of 21 people try to run two businesses would probably be unruly. The trustees only get together really three times a year plus the general service conference. A small, more nimble board that gets together eight times ayear to really be in the trenches, to really get constant reporting from the office and the management of what's going on. There's also some legal reasons around our assets and our retirement. The reserve fund is owned by the trustees, by the General Service Board, Inc., not by AAWS or AA Grapevine. Yet the retirement programs are in the name of AA Grabevine and AAWS, W.S., not in the name of the General Service Board. But in the end, it's a best practice how to run an organization. So that's why. Please send in questions. let's see our group reads a joke from the current issue of the grapevine the jokes are weak do you think they would republish jokes from years ago if sent to the grapevines you know i think that's you know obviously your opinion that the jokes a week um i know this the grapevine publishes jokes is it is it even possible to publish a joke without offending someone in aa probably not i would think not um if the jokes were like really over the top like you just turned on your best stand-up comedian. Those jokes probably don't belong in the grapevine, I think we could all agree, right? So there has to be some happy in the middle. Are there rules for contributions to district or area as that is not directly to GSO? I'm sure you mean to the General Service board most intergroups follow the lead of the current contribution limits that the general service board takes which now is uh 12 500 a year for um a bequest after you die and 7 500 a year for any individual max one year a lot of intergroup's follow that districts and areas seem to follow that some don't um most districts and areas will only take money from alcoholics or a groups because that's what the seventh tradition says um and most people don't most areas and groups and the office don't limit what a group can give just what an individual can give do you think it's possible to have too much vision that's a really good question i know we're really in esoteric territory here um i think as someone who has been on the board and on other boards and currently chair a non-profit board now and have had a lot of executive responsibility where i work i think there is a healthy balance between making sure day-to-day is happening and looking at the future now most experts on board governance would tell you that managers and supervisors should really be focusing on the day-to-day executive leaders and boards should be focusing on the future making sure the day to day is going okay but really focusing on the strategic future of the organization um you don't want to be so blinded by strategy that something blows up in your face in the day to day so it is a it's it's you have to find your sweet spot what works for your organization let's see can excerpts from as bill see it be shared widely the way daily reflections is you know that wouldn't even take a conference action you should write to the aws board to their publishing committee and you should tell them what you mean by that let me get that pet peeve out of the way not everything requires a proposed agenda item a pai you only need a pai if something is if if what you want done needs the conference's approval there are lots of things that the board can do that are in their authority. That is a perfect example. Send a letter to AAWS and tell them about your idea. You know when I ever say that it's because I don't like a question because i know that the answer is going to get me in trouble so what are your thoughts about members writing books about their takes and our experiences with the steps with respect to the question of breaking anonymity and potentially making money off of aaa with the sale of the books looks like back to basics drop the rock blah blah blah well i'm not gonna write a book okay i'm not gonna write a book sometimes i'll be in a airport killing time and every airport bookstore is a section with the newest business books you know what's the latest trend and sometimes i think you know i should write a book about the concepts in the business world because they've really helped me but I'm not writing any book. I think it should be separate from AA. I think if it's separate from AA, if they make money, it's none of my business. I can make money outside of AA. It's noneof their business. I think you have to be careful if you write a book about that subject because while you could speak outside of AA as the author of that book. Inside of AA, we don't give titles like doctors and authors and everything else. AA members only speak as AA members inside AA. So I think if you are going to write a book like that, you should make sure that you're really in touch with the traditions and really in touched that you don't want anyone thinking that you are an expert. how do we balance the least possible organization but also wanting to provide service commitments to those who want a commitment does organization mean leadership treasurer secretary or does organization refer to the logistics of the group i think it refers to leadership and logistics i have no problem with the creating a job because you have extra people but you got to be careful with that. You don't want to create a job you don't really need because no one's going to show up to that job and then you've just created something that just in perpetuity exists and goes on forever. You spoke about not allowing personal attacks to take place when you as a leader forbid the attacker to continue. Have you had to reinforce this statement when the person making the offense refuses to comply and continues to push their criticism have you handled this in a public forum yes of course yeah you stop the meeting if you have some lunatic who wants to keep going then you just say the meeting is taking a break or a recess that's it and hopefully they'll want to stay at the microphone alone while you're getting coffee or doing what else and continuing to go on their rant but yes no personal attacks of any kind um they should not be allowed now i am not saying that if someone is the treasurer and doesn't pay our bills for three months you can't say the treasurer hasn't paid our bills that's not a personal attack that's a fact if you say the treasure is an idiot that's a personal if you start talking about things in their personal life that's a personal but we have to get aa business done but the way to stop it is to just stop the meeting in a dysfunctional district how would a dcm bring a sense of vision and change the district table do a district inventory and get a facilitator that's completely independent nobody's service sponsor not the area delegate not the área chair get a completely independent facilitator and do a district inventory. What is the difference between the reserve fund and the general fund? The general fund is where all contributions go. The reserve fund is where at the end of the year, if we have any extra money in any of the operating accounts for AWS or AA Grapevine or after an international convention, we move that money into the reserve fun. Our goal is to have nine to 12 months. We only have about six months now. We have not been able to repay the money we took out during COVID. But that is the difference. The reserve fund is for emergencies and things like construction and IT upgrades. The reserve fun is not an endowment. In other nonprofits, they would invest the reserve fund, make 7% on it and use that money to pay our current year's bills. We don't do that. It's there for an emergency or very special purchases. We believe that we should be self-supporting each year with the contributions of each year. That's why the reserve fund is invested in low interest CDs and bonds, whereas the pension fund is invested in annuities so that's the difference okay so i want to say remember for next week we are not um meeting next week a new flyer will go out in the page we'll just push everything back a week so that means the next time we get together we're talking about one of my favorite pamphlets which is problems other than alcohol um i will say a flyer will go out shortly too because i got a request from somebody and it's good one there have been some announcements from gso about appointed committee members needed or non-trustee directors and the service manual it has a section on those but it's a couple of paragraphs so we will have a special week after the last week of this series on specifically what are the what's the role of an appointed committee member how do you get selected and what do you do and how do You Get Selected as a non-trustee director and what does a non trustee director do and I will find an appointed Committee member or a non Trustee director or a past one to come and share their experience as well um so that's it I will close with the responsibility statement um after a moment of silence I am responsible when anyone anywhere reaches out for help I want the hand of AA always to be there and for that I am responsible. Have a good night, everyone. Take care.