9/8/24 Business Meeting Agenda
BM Chair: Mary Mc
BM Co-Chair: Mark M.
Secretary: Noelle
SC Members: Mark M., Mary Mc, John E., Jason W., Ian, Suzie M, Elle, Christian, Jayna
- Treasurer’s Report – Elle
$5,618.40 June beginning balance
+1,773.43 total deposits
-1,058.58 total expenses
-25.12 Pending ORC expense
+ 1,028.01 7th Tradition donations
$7,336.14 ending cash balance
Elle – Generous donations this month, highest I’ve ever seen.
Susan – I’m one of the PayPal donors and would be happy to switch over if you can show me how.
Motion to approve Treasurer’s Report – Seconded and passed (17 Yes/0 Dissent)
- ORC Report – Jason W. & Suzie
Jason – We gave out 10 medallions and 5 books last month. We’re operating well within the budget. The blurb is working – the amount of books requested is decreasing and requests for medallions is increasing.
Motion to approve ORC Report – Seconded and passed (19 Yes/0 Dissent)
- Committee Reports
- Host Feedback Workshop – Kristen
Kristen – Need to work with trainers to consolidate info and add some items
- Intergroup Representative – POSITION VACANT
- GSR report – Dennis
Dennis – I attended the District Mtg last month and registered as GSR. Part of my job is to relay things that happen in NY to the group. There is new literature (Plain Language Big Book) coming out in Nov and may be controversial. It does not replace the Big Book and is written at a 5th grade level. Readers are encouraged to also read the original Big Book. New pamphlet – Black in AA. New large print format books. The 2025 AA Int’l Convention will be in Vancouver July 3-6th – registration ($160) and ability to reserve lodging opens Tuesday (9/10) online. Registration fees will increase as the date of the convention gets closer. It might be a good idea to offer scholarships for GUTS members who’d like to attend but can’t afford it. 2030 Int’l Convention will be in St. Louis, MO.
Elle – Should I send our 7th Tradition Contribution to District or Area 12?
Dennis – We could send a little to both.
Elle – Looks like we can send it to the District and they’ll forward a portion to the Area. Wanted to make sure they know that we’re officially joining their District. I get GSR email in the Treasurer’s email acct right now so GUTS tech team could create a GSR email to keep all GSR correspondence in one, separate place.
Dennis – Easier to have it sent to my personal email but in the long run might be better to have a GSR email.
Glenn – Makes sense for future GSR’s to have access to old emails. Would like to make a motion to create a new email address for the GUTS webmaster for the same reason. There’s currently a Tech Help WhatsApp thread but there are only a few people on it.
Motion to approve Committee Reports – Seconded and passed (22 Yes/0 Dissent)
- Website Report – Glenn
Glenn – I’ve been working long hours and have been offline a lot. Jovan’s been covering everything in my absence. Considering a new $40/mo module that will allow Ian to easily manage the email and phone lists…will present at next Business Mtg. In the meantime send all requests to me. Going to set up “office hours” that I’ll share weekly.
Ian – New module will make a better interface. Don left service so it’s just Jovan & Glenn on the Tech Team. Should we wait until next BM to add someone? Website seems to be working well, just an occasional bug.
Gabrielle – Is Glenn’s role the lead role on the Tech Team…is “Webmaster” just for the website or for all things related to tech?
Glenn – Just for website. Supposed to have an Email Coordinator and a WhatsApp Coordinator too. Ian is Email Coordinator.
Gabrielle – Maybe the email should be “Admin” instead of “Webmaster” if it’s for more than just the website?
Kim – Website is really slow. Anything being done to speed it up?
Glenn – We could spend some money to speed it up but GC is to leave it as is for now. We’ve been down that road before but the website’s stable now (not crashing) and GC doesn’t want to invest more money into it.
Motion to approve Website Report – Seconded and passed (22 Yes/0 Dissent)
- POLLS/VOTING – Lauren
1 Secretary POSITION UNFILLED
1 Email Coordinator
Marco – Nominated, Accepted (VOTE: 22 Yes, 0 Dissent)
1 Scheduler
Pickle – Volunteered (VOTE: 22 Yes, 0 Dissent)
1 Intergroup Representative POSITION UNFILLED
Dennis – Nominated, Declined
1 LGTBIA+ and Allies Contact List Coordinator
Larry – Nominated, Accepted (VOTE: 17 Yes, 0 Dissent)
Mary Mc – Sister Meeting Hosts remains a perpetual need. Co-Hosts can be fast-tracked.
- Topic for BM Agenda – Suzie
Presently, AA GUTS does not have a requirement that one must go through cohosting to be considered for another service position. Practically speaking, we have elected 3 members to positions available to the group. Do we want to make this official?
Lauren – We actually do have a lot of positions that have no service prerequisites.
Suzie – But when Kelly & Noelle were looking to get into service without having been a co-host or host we had to have a special vote…
Kim – I think it’s important to have service positions outside of hosting and co-hosting.
Lauren – There shouldn’t have been an issue for Kelly coming in as coordinator because there’s no service prerequisite for that. You can always ask me if you have questions about position prereqs.
NO ACTION REQUIRED
- Topic for BM Agenda (Tabled at July BM) – Leona
Presently, the Business Meeting (BM) notes are found behind closed doors on the website for service people only to see. Yet non-service people are encouraged to have voices, vote, and participate in the Business Meetings. Shouldn’t those people have the right to see the BM notes? Shouldn’t the notes be made available for all to see?
SC Meeting Notes: A motion was put forth and seconded to send this to the BM as written for approval. Motion Passed 9 to 0.
Dennis – I agree with Leona. If we’re encouraging folks to attend BMs, they should be able to view the notes.
Kimberley – If a person says they’re a member, they’re a member so anyone should be able to see the notes.
Pickle – For people in the meeting, notes should be accessible (they could request through the host/co-host) but otherwise they should be kept private.
Suzie – I think it’s important to have transparency. Everyone’s invited and I’ve never heard the term “membership” applied to this. People come and go and info is important for people to see at any time – GC, decisions made, etc. We want everyone to be informed and I don’t think anyone who’s not invested in GUTS would care.
Lauren – I agree with Suzie. Everything should be transparent – it creates a more informed GC and encourages folks to be of service. I also wouldn’t be opposed to having them just be available upon request.
Kimberley – Another good reason for transparency is, if people have an issue with the notes, they’ll need to attend the BM.
Glenn – It’s very easy to implement both publicly available or upon-request versions on the website.
Christian – We could easily take the security away so they’d no longer be password-restricted on the website.
Leona – I’d like to be able to download multiple BM notes at once. Currently you have to open and download each of them individually.
Motion to make BM Notes public – Seconded and passed (23 Yes/0 Dissent)
- Topic for BM Agenda
The Steering Committee agreed that empowering the Thread Admins to police negative comments would be a good addition to GC. A motion was put forth and seconded to send this to the BM as written for approval. Motion Passed 9 to 0.
Suzie – I don’t think Thread Admins would govern. The need for this would be very infrequent. Sometimes the thread gets heated and it’s probably best those comments don’t remain there indefinitely.
Kristin – When you remove someone from a thread, people ask the person who removed them why. I don’t like seeming like I’m governing. If we open it up to GC though it’ll become drama. It would be nice to have some clarity surrounding this.
Susan – I may have been a person that who made comments that were “negative” in the thread. I was just sharing offensive comments someone else said and that I didn’t agree with.
Christian – Susan, please send me the details of that directly in WhatsApp. I don’t think this issue however is addressing any specific incident though.
Gabrielle – Are Thread Admins official service positions? How many positions are there?
Mary Mc – Yes, 3 official Thread Admins
Motion to empower Thread Admins to remove negative comments – Seconded and passed (20 Yes/0 Dissent)
- Topic for BM Agenda (Tabled at July BM) – Mary Mc
I would like to suggest that we add to the opening announcements the importance of sponsorship and let people know that there are potential sponsors in the room. Perhaps we could encourage people who are willing to sponsor to raise their virtual hand or use the green check mark to allow newcomers the opportunity to see potential sponsors. Ron (Rad Biz) does a wonderful job of talking about the importance of sponsorship. I think as hosts we have an opportunity to link people together. I have sponsees in Belgium and New Zealand just by reaching out and connecting with them. This was identified in the Group Inventory as a weakness of the group, and I would like to see it addressed.
SC Meeting Notes: There are details that will need to be worked out in the business meeting. Does this require a change to the Host script? Should it be posted to chat only? Where in the meeting should this be announced? It was mentioned that changes to the host script have always been a big deal and it may be best to use this as a reason to have a larger overhaul of the host script. All SC members agreed that this is a wonderful idea and needed for some time. A motion was put forth and seconded to send this to the BM as written for further discussion. Motion Passed 9 to 0.
Dennis – I like the idea. I’d add a blurb to the announcements right before or after the service announcements
Kristin – A lot of hosts adlib but there are a lot of people who’re concerned with how long our announcements are. The announcements are critical though! The first 15mins of every AA mtg are taken up by announcements and readings. I like the announcement re. asterisks by people’s names who are available to sponsor. Yes everyone wants to get to the shares, but giving information is important, especially for the newcomer. I’m all in favor of adding something like this.
Kimberley – I’m also in favor of this and encouraging folks willing to sponsor to add themselves to the sponsor lists.
Thomas – I find it difficult to read or sit through the present announcements. Would there be a way to rewrite them or consolidate the 7th with the announcements so we don’t have to interrupt the meeting with the 7th Tradition? Some of the announcements are kind of superfluous . That said, newcomers are the most important people so we don’t want them to slip through the cracks.
Joanna – Prior to coming to GUTS, I had no idea how sponsorship worked…like females sponsor females, etc. I like the idea of informing newcomers about sponsorship.
Thomas – Can’t this be decided on by SC? The BMs are getting too bogged down with this kind of stuff.
Lauren – I can draft the verbiage to add to the announcements
Motion to allow Lauren and Suzie to add verbiage on the importance of sponsorship to the announcements – Seconded and passed (21 Yes/0 Dissent)
- Topic for BM Agenda (Tabled at June BM) – Holly
Recently there have been a higher than usual number of service members requesting one-hour shifts. This has been an evolving discussion and since the last time the topic was tabled, we have come to a clearer understanding on this question and feel it warrants speedy attention.
Schedulers are requesting that:
- The group determine exactly what the group conscience is on the standard cohost shift so there is continuity in the meeng announcement, training process and for the scheduling team. As far as we understand, up until this point the specifics of the hours have not been voted on in a business meeting. During the service announcement its now often stated that one-hour shifts are available. This is confusing as the standard expectation communicated during training is that cohost shifts are two hours, going back at least as far as 2022, likely longer. Even though the last time it was brought to SC it was tabled, we feel things have changed since then and the ambiguity does need to be cleared up.
- Additionally, since it’s not possible to maintain the schedule without the occasional exception (time zone impossibilities or health reasons) we are asking that the group conscience includes allowing us discretion when necessary. Gentle reminder that we are a team of three (odd number for consensus) and do not make decisions unilaterally.
SC Meeting Notes: Motion put forth to bring to BM to come up with definitive decision on the length of co-hosting shifts.
Pickle – I agree with giving them discretion, allowing people to have 1hr shifts.
Holly – This was submitted 3-4mos ago. It was happening a lot but it’s not so much anymore. My reservation is that it’s a grey area – we have to have trust in the Schedulers and we don’t want folks abusing the system.
Leona – The 1hr shifts make it really hard on the Schedulers. I did it for 18mos myself. But it’s a requirement of the job. Some people can only do 1hr shifts. Yes it’s more work for me but I had to put principles before my personality. Some people physically can’t do more than 1hr. One hour shifts have always been allowed.
Gabrielle – We have the same issue in another mtg I’m in so our GC decided the commitment is 2hrs but 1hr shifts were allowed if there were another person also wanting a 1hr shift in that block. It was wonky at first but people ended up syncing their 1hr shifts and it’s working well.
John – This proposal was to give us GC on 1hr vs. 2hrs. As a Scheduler, it would be very difficult to schedule 1hr shifts. It’s hard enough to staff the schedule as it is. There’s only one individual on the schedule right now requesting 1hr shifts. I don’t think this is that much of an issue right now.
Dennis – I agree 1hr shifts make it difficult on the Schedulers but they’re already being made available so we don’t really need to change anything.
Kimberly – It’s so late on the East Coast that I’d like to be able to pick up an hour only here and there.
John – We’re always open to people coming in on the fly and volunteering to help at the top of the hour for an hour of 5hrs or whatever. I think we should table this and revisit it down the road if we’re not prepared right now to make GC about it.
Jayna – We have never turned down people offering to help. That said, it is understood that the goal is a 2hr shift. What Holly is asking for is clarification on GC – can Schedulers have discretion in assigning 1hr shifts.
Suzie – Maybe the Schedulers continue to schedule 2hrs unless an accommodation is needed.
Motion to allow schedulers to have discretion in allowing 1hr shifts when needed – Seconded and passed (21 Yes/0 Dissent)
TABLED FOR NEXT BM:
- Topic for BM Agenda (Tabled at June BM) – Lauren
I am proposing a voluntary committee to work on cataloguing all group conscience and creating a GC Manual. Some work has already been done towards this, but I am hoping we can get a group of experienced members together to finish the task.
- Topic for BM Agenda (Tabled at June BM) – Lauren
Any group-approved BM topic/proposal that has not been facilitated for 3 months will be tabled until a concrete proposal is brought to the group. Investigation and background work for accomplishing those topics can still be done. Bring the completed project to the group when it is ready for group approval and implementation. My main concern is the follow-through on projects that have been left undone for months. The group has amazing ideas, but keep in mind that work must be done for these ideas to be accomplished.
- Topic for BM Agenda (Tabled at August BM) – Christian B
Requesting that we allow the BM Chair, SC Chair and the Secretaries to have the ability to upload Meeting Notes to the web site. It was brought to my attention this past month that the website had a few discrepancies with the titles of BM notes. It was sorted out and now needs to be corrected on the site. It would be more efficient if the creators of these documents were able to upload directly to the site.
SC Meeting Notes: Glenn, Jovian, Ian and Christian will work on this and see if a solution can be found where certain individuals are able to post meeting minutes to the site. Minutes are able to be posted to the site, however we do not know who has the access to do so – we will need to designate a few members to do this, as soon as we know how to grant access to these individuals, we can assign this role.
You must be logged in to post a comment.