AA GUTS Steering Committee Meeting Minutes April 26th, 2026
SC Chair: Christian
BM Co-Chair: Bently
Secretary: Lauren
SC Members Present: Mark M, Justin F, Dennis, Elle, Shawna, Amanda, Glenn
I. Return to Service
Kathy W and Jason A are requesting to return to service.
A. SC Discussion
Mark M: Kathy W sounds really good based on what she’s been sharing lately. I would have no problem getting her back in service.
Mark M: I can give you the lowdown on Jason A. He has some specialness and suffers from seizures. I will let you draw your own conclusions. Sometimes he becomes too involved with service. He would need to serve earlier hours that are not after midnight. He and I had a lot of discussions about his health and seizures. Sometimes he overdoes it. He won’t mind his own business, I will put it that way. Personally, I would monitor and look out for anything in terms of butting heads with people. He has an issue with boundaries.
B. Motions
1. Motion: Send Kathy W’s request to the Business Meeting.
Seconded and Passed (6 Yes Votes / No Dissent).
2. Motion: Send Jason A’s request to the Business Meeting.
Seconded and Passed (5 Yes Votes / No Dissent).
II. Adding Emojis on Zoom
A. Request
Add the following Zoom reactions:
- 💯
- 🙏🏻
B. SC Discussion
Shawna: I remember that I was in the chat room. If you pull up your reactions, it only gives us six choices. Other settings have the dots so people can choose whatever they want. There can also be negative emojis available too. Replace some of these or open it up so they can use whichever they want. I don’t think we can limit what is open.
Gabi: We can’t swap the preset emojis. Zoom picks them for us. Basically, we can have all or nothing.
C. Motion
1. Motion: Send this topic to the Business Meeting.
Seconded and Passed (5 Yes Votes / No Dissent).
III. Complaint Against David J
A. Summary
Reported incidents of harassment on March 27th, including continued contact after a boundary had already been set.
B. SC Discussion
Gabi: There was an incident that happened in another meeting. David got to the point where he was threatening Justin physically. He was calling some of us names. I provided the Ethics Committee with information. He came into the thread and called us fake and bullies. I asked him to stop. He kept going. I removed him from the threads.
He also made comments in the schedule thread, so I removed him from all GUTS threads. He continued posting that he had taken a screen recording of an admin thread from another group. He posted it everywhere. The intent was to show that one of the admins always got their way, but it included sensitive information. That was one of the biggest problems.
I convinced him to call me. I tried to reason with him. He said he didn’t care and that people needed to know. Bently and I removed information from the threads and then removed him quickly.
Christian: Is he in the group?
Gabi: He reached out to several people to add him back to the threads. He hosted the sibling meeting. Posting the SC feedback did not prompt anyone to talk with him. He didn’t know he had been removed from service. He assumed correctly that he was still hosting the Wednesday meeting.
Kristen: He wanted to be added back to the threads. People were uncomfortable. I told him the group needed to discuss some things. There was zero accountability. He said he was in a bad mental space. There’s a lot to discuss. He’s still reaching out to several people to recruit them to another meeting. He was making negative comments and putting people in awkward positions. The groups need to talk about this before anything can happen. I can report back to him. We still have a civil rapport.
Dennis: David was given a chance to defend himself and submitted a written response. He did not sound apologetic.
- There were obvious threats. He referred to them as “veiled” threats, but they were not veiled.
- He’s been posting information from other meetings, which breaks anonymity.
- The Ethics Committee believes a ban may be appropriate and that this should be considered by the Business Meeting.
Mark M: He reached out to me as well to get back into the threads. I know he has access to do service in the Big Book Meeting. If he’s attending the meeting, then we need something in place so he cannot host. There doesn’t seem to be any real accountability. I have some sympathy for his situation, but there’s no reason for him to be doing what he’s doing.
Justin F: I’ve known David for about a year. We were fellow admins. It started out great. There are a lot of good things about David, and I like him as a person. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s pretty crazy. He snapped.
I knew there was a growing resentment against me. I tried many times to talk to him. We had different perspectives. He ended up having an eruption and wanted to fight me. Eventually, he calmed down and said he needed to get things off his chest. I thought there might be a way to slow things down and make mutual amends, but it didn’t turn out that way.
Gabi was worried she might be violating GC by removing David from the threads. However, there is precedent for doing so when the safety of the group is at risk.
I think this needs to go to the Business Meeting. Not a permanent ban, but a short-term ban. There’s a lot going on in his behavior, but that could change. I am praying for David and hope he finds some responsibility for his actions.
Bently: My part in this involved David posting vaguely threatening messages in the threads. I just didn’t want their conflict brought into GUTS.
C. Motion
1. Motion: Send this complaint to the Business Meeting.
Seconded and Passed (7 Yes Votes / No Dissent).
IV. Complaint Against Kelly S
A. Summary
Complaint regarding conduct in a private chat and comments made during a meeting on March 27th.
B. Discussion
Justin F: On March 27th, I was using host discretion. I try to encourage newcomers to participate and read. Kelly offered to read, and I jokingly told her, “You aren’t in your first 60 days.”
She took it the wrong way. I apologized and tried to explain the situation, but she continued being rude. Eventually, I told her she needed to stop. I explained that GC allows me to exercise host discretion.
I repeatedly established boundaries, but she would not stop. I tried to let her cool off.
The second issue happened during sharing when she said, “I better share now because I am uncomfortable with the next host.” She was directing that comment at me. She was redirected twice, but continued speaking about me despite a clear boundary.
I would like some accountability and for the group to establish a boundary. I simply want her to calm down and not create problems for others.
SC Discussion
Shawna: I received a text that night after I had already logged off and was trying to sleep. I explained how people are removed by accident and outlined the process available if someone feels they have been treated unfairly.
I would like the Ethics Committee to explain that hosts can run their meetings as they see fit within reason. When we have resentments, perhaps some recovery solutions are in order.
Mark M: She was coming up regularly at the 7:00 meeting. I think a woman with some time should reach out to her and let her know about the Ethics Committee. It sounds like she focused on Justin and disagreed with what he was saying. To keep holding onto it is where it becomes petty and ridiculous. I agree this should go to the Ethics Committee.
Christian: Motion to remand this to the Ethics Committee first. It can be brought to the Business Meeting later if they feel that is appropriate.
C. Motion
1. Motion: Remand this matter to the Ethics Committee first.
Seconded and Passed (6 Yes Votes / No Dissent).
V. Broad Issue of Conflict Management
A. Discussion
Christian: We have had quite a few issues involving unity and thread arguments. Do we want to address this at the Business Meeting?
Justin F: My question is, “How do we deal with these things?” It would be great to have GC guidance on gray-area issues, such as thread admins removing someone for harassment and threats.
Christian: There is already GC stating that thread admins can remove threatening or disparaging comments. Admins do have the ability to remove people. We could add that language more specifically to GC.
Mark M: I can’t speak for anyone else, but knowing people the way I do, there are usually two approaches—ignore it or go in wholeheartedly. Ultimately, it’s the host’s discretion.
Christian: We will leave it here.
The meeting closed with the Serenity Prayer and a motion to adjourn.