GUTS Steering Committee – 11/26/2023

Steering Committee Meeting Notes for 11/26/2023

Steering Committee Chair: Christian

Secretary: Christian

Attendance:  Barbara, Mark P, Kristin, Elle, Garrett, Mark M, Dennis, Sarah, Lauren, Donna, Amy, Kelly, Holly, Christian

Meeting opened with the AA Preamble and the reading of AA’s Twelve Traditions.

Topics Discussed:

1. Late Night Guts Share Limits:  We have been having an ongoing issue of certain members taking undue advantage of the GUTS GC on the ‘no time limit for shares’.  As we all know GUTS states at the beginning of each meeting that time will be prompted, but the prompts are only meant to represent the current time of the share.  These prompts are NOT indictors the share should end.  We need to discuss the continued practicality of this GC as it has been causing concerns, frustrations and lack of willingness to serve during the last meeting within the GUTS service team.  It has been brought up that GUTS did change GC back in April to limit LNG shares, however it is not being applied in practice by the hosts during the meetings. 

Steering Committee Comments:

1. 1. Dennis – made the point that we tried for a month to limit shares after 2:00am to five minutes.  It appeared during that month to be unnecessary due to the cutoff time working, so we discontinued the five-minute shares after 2:00am.  He stated it may be necessary to reinstitute five min shares, however since we have spoken to the individuals causing the issue it may not be necessary at this time.  If the problem resurfaces next month, we can put back the post 2:00am five-minute share limit.
   2. Mark P – Acknowledged everyone in the meeting as giving a lot of time and effort to LNG.  It’s a voluntary position and no one governs.  Mark has been attending GUTS for two years and service for a year and a half doing mostly LNG and realizes it can take a toll on the service team.  Observed that there are a few of the same people that come in at the end and try to get the ‘last word’ or final ‘benediction’ in before the meeting comes to an end.  Maybe these people don’t realize how this affects the voluntary service team, but it gets tiring and does come off as ego driven or toxic.  Mark stated times are different now than when GUTS started.  The lockdown is over and perhaps we need to revisit the ending of the meeting as a new boundary.  We set parameters or healthy boundaries to try to end at a reasonable hour, it’s said at the beginning by hosts but when the time comes no one is saying anything and as last call is counted down in the chat is when people start jumping in to get hands up.    Mark cited an example from a recent meeting where twelve hands came up right before 1:45 PST am, which caused the meeting to extend to almost 4:00 am PST.  It is tiring to have the meeting held hostage by the same people.  Based on a few individuals back in March and April there was a new parameter of hard and fast cutoff at 1:30am with five-minute shares after 2:00am.  This seemed to help end the meeting either early or on time.  When the 1:45am cutoff came in it seemed the five-minute share limit after 2:00am was thrown out and Mark feels this was a bad idea.  This is for healthy boundaries to eliminate missed shifts due to exhaustion and to avoid burn out.  Mark suggests that we go back to a hard and fast 1:30 last call which will bring the main offenders back in line to a 2:00 am end.  This is the reason we are having trouble filling LNG service slots.  People are afraid they will be stuck on the meeting until 4:00am.
   3. Kristin – Advocates now, and has previously advocated for a firm time limit boundary for LNG.  In this she has received backlash from other members citing that extending the meeting late night helps a lot of people and we don’t want to be strict like other meetings.  Kristin and others that were a part of the original LNG did come up with the current compromise in limiting raised hands at the end.  Agrees that announcing last call does seem to cause people to raise their hands at the last minute.   Kristin stated we have reached the point over the last three years where we need to have a hard cut-off of 2:00am.  Service members would be much more likely to commit if we have a hard stop.  It’s a perfectly reasonable to end the meeting at 2:00am.  Full advantage is being taken now by attendees and a boundary needs to be set.  If GUTS ends we need to realize other meetings exist, GUTS does have a fellowship room and GUTS hosts will also always take burning desires.  It is time we set a health boundary.
   4. Dennis – Suggested to be a little more flexible where we’ll let you go past 2:00 but we will end no later than 2:30.   A half hour extra is an alternative to the hard cut-off at 2:00sm.  
   5. Mark M – We have various parameters that have been instituted and have tried several things.  We will always have that surge of people waking up and wanting to share at the end, giving their words of wisdom to end the meeting.  More than a little ego in these final shares.  Let’s do what we can to end the meeting at 2:00am, allowing for a 10 min leeway to have a couple extra people sharing extra time – We need to be as accommodating to people while still trying to hold to the 1:30 last call for hands.  This should be enough to allow everyone to get in.  We had something in place that got a little lax and now we’ve spoken to the primary offenders.  Mark expressed it is difficult to redirect when confronted with an overlong share.  Let’s continue to try to end the meetings as soon as possible.   
   6. Christian – Made the point that we all know the difference between a person who is sharing on ego and is not in danger of drinking and the person who is truly in trouble.  The latter should not be re-directed or stopped until they have been brought to a better place.  This situation now is not about people in trouble, about people who will need to limit end of night shares.
   7. Dennis – Made a point of clarification.  The five-minute limit after 2:00am was instituted in April (2023) and then dropped in May (2023).  
   8. Mark P – Mark referenced Lauren’s chat comment that the 1:30 hard line last call was working and sufficient.  With these parameters in place the latest we ended was 2:20am (which is reasonable).  
   9. Lauren wrote in the chat the 5 min limit after 2:00 was not effective.  Mark and Christian agreed with this comment.  
   10. Garrett – Stated that we start on time and we end on time.  A GUTS should start at 7:00pm and end at 2:00am.  He cited the example of people not being allowed to come in early (before 7:00pm) and share, so we should not be allowing shares after 2:00am.   We can say that hands must be raised earlier and expect attendees to respect that rule.  We should set this as precedent and expect people to abide by it.  We may have to take a hardline with this rule and cannot expect this will put a newcomer in jeopardy.
   11. Elle – Stated that she has seen herself where the LNG team may need help but is fearful of volunteering because she has to get an early start in the morning and cannot get stuck until 3:00am or 4:00am.  Most people cannot do this who have to get up for work at 5:00am.  Elle agrees with the hard boundary of ending the meeting.  Proposal is to mimic in person meetings which rarely end late.  We have given our best to accommodate LNG sharing, but it’s time for a boundary.

SC Action:  Motion passed to bring this to the Business Meeting with a recommendation of discussing and then creating new boundaries around LNG sharing time.  

2. Late Night Guts Resource Challenges:  It has been a long time since we have had a fully scheduled team for LNG (12:00am and 1:00am slots)

Steering Committee Comments:

1. 1. The LNG Topic for limited resources has been tabled for now.  The SC decided to see if newly agreed upon parameters on ending the meeting will alleviate the lack of service volunteers for LNG.  Once these parameters have been agreed upon during the next BM, we can then assess how effective this change is in regard to LNG coverage.  
   2. Glenn has a proposal that can be brought up in the event the new meeting end time does not garner more commitments for LNG.

SC Action:  Discussion point tabled for now.

3. Proposed change to the Title of the LGBTQIA+ meeting.  

I recently attended the LGBTQ sister meeting and several people spoke who are not members of the LGBTQ meetings. Many said they had a LGBTQ identifying relative. Most LGBTQ or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) officially AA meetings do not allow people outside of that underrepresented group to attend. For meetings that do they are called “LGBTQ and Allies.” It is not divisive to make sure a space for an underrepresented group is entirely safe for that group. I’d like to hold a vote to change the meeting title to “LGBTQ and Allies” so there is no confusion about it being an entirely queer meeting.

Steering Committee Comments:

1. 1. LGBTQIA + – It was proposed that a name clarification is necessary in order to make sure the attendees and/or potential attendees are comfortable with the parameters of the meeting.  

SC Action:  Motion to bring to the BM passed.

4. Two members have filed complaints against an individual for acting inappropriate, disruptive and unwelcoming.  

Steering Committee Comments:

1. 1. LGBTQIA +   As far as the three complaints the SC is asking the trusted servants of the newly created LGBTQIA+ meeting to facilitate a dialogue amongst attendees with the goal of coming to an agreement on what the meeting will eventually morph into.  As a newly created GUTS sister meeting this activity is the best way to move forward.  SC asks to please use love and tolerance with one another in respectful tones.  In the event there are still existing issues the SC can take this up again next month.

SC Action:  It was decided to forgo bringing this to the business meeting at this time.

Meeting closed with the Serenity Prayer