GSC Delegate's Report Delegate's Report Archive

Delegates Report - June 2008

Fellow WSEA 92 Members,

Before I begin this Delegates report on the 58th General Service Conference I would like to thank all of our Area’s members who participated in the fulfillment of the reality that is our General Service Conference Structure. Because of you AA will remain healthy and provide a safe harbor for those who will hopefully find their way into our Fellowship. With all the earnestness at my command I want you to know that your sacrifices are appreciated.

On Friday February 15th, the deadline to receive the final Conference Committee Agendas along with their corresponding background information was made available for the first time on AA’s website for download. This years Agenda items and background totaled over six hundred pages, while not as much as last years eight hundred pages it still was quite a bit to review before the Conference Agenda Review meeting on Saturday the 16th. After a sleepless night I met with a group of our Area’s past Delegates (Gene D. Panel (P)52, Mike Mc. P54, Dave Mc. P56) and our current Alternate Delegate Mauro P. at the Conference Agenda selection meeting in Ritzville, WA. After eight hours of deliberation we selected nine Agenda items that we felt were most germane to our Area. On Sunday the 17th Mauro and I were on the phone all day as we went over the background material of Conference Agenda items that were selected in order to make sure that if the background needed any clarifying information it would be added for the upcoming Conference Agenda review meeting set for the following weekend in Spokane.

The review meeting was held on Saturday the 23rd at the Alano Club and was attended by most all of the WSEA 92 committee. Their task for the day was to thoroughly review the background material of the germane agenda items from the selection meeting and create synopses of those items for use in the upcoming Conference Agenda Workshops and Pre-Conference Assembly. This was accomplished by dividing into three groups with three agenda items per group. After several hours we all came back together to hear the results from each groups deliberations and to critique each agenda item synopsis for clarity. Only one agenda item was removed from the nine that were reviewed, the rest were submitted for use by the Conference Agenda Workshops with minor or no altering. These synopses used in conjunction with the full background provided the best possible information for review by the workshops and ultimately the best informed group conscience at the Pre-Conference Assembly.

There were five Conference Agenda Workshops held prior to the WSEA 92 Pre-Conference Assembly. Spokane, Yakima, Waitsburg, Cashmere and Grandview were hosts to these workshops and represented the four geographic and two linguistic regions of our Area. These Conference Agenda Workshops having the purpose of educating and informing the participants about the agenda items were well attended and the discussions about each agenda item were lively. I would like to stop here and recognize Mauro P. our WSEA 92 Alternate Delegate for his continual help and support in the Agenda Workshops. His participation and leadership were indispensible in making these workshops successful.

By the time of the WSEA 92 Pre-Conference Assembly I was confident that our Area would definitely provide the best informed group conscience for me to use at the upcoming General Service Conference (GSC) and after the Assembly was over there was no doubt in my mind. I could have not been prouder or felt more humbled by the quality of participation that I experienced during the Assembly. I remain honored to have been able to take that conscience to the Conference and as I’ve described in each of my Delegates report’s, each one who attended that Assembly was truly with me there in New York.

Jill and I arrived in New York on Friday the 25th of April and were able to spend a beautiful spring day visiting her brother and his family in Brooklyn before I needed to turn my full attention to the business of the Conference. Saturday morning Pacific Region members got to enjoy a bus tour of historic AA sites guided by Amy F., Archivist and George D. rotated General Manager. The tour was enjoyable and after we got back to the hotel I was able to have a few hours to double check my notes and by that evening it was time to get started. The Delegates only meeting was opened by this years Delegate Chair France J. Panel (P) 57 Delegate from Area (A) 89 NE QC, she was wonderfully humorous. An overview of the Conference week was presented by several P57 Delegates.

My Panel 58 Committee assignment is with the Policy and Admissions Committee and we went right to work early Sunday morning by allowing the admission of an Alternate Delegate to be seated for an absent Delegate. We also admitted four quest observers, two from General Service Office (GSO) Mexicana and two from GSO Great Britain to the 58th GSC before the official opening of the GSC. After lunch the 58th GSC was officially called to order by Leonard Blumenthal Class A Trustee Chairman of the General Service Board (GSB). France J. gave the greeting and brought us all to tears as she greeted us in English, French and Spanish. The keynote address given by Chuck B. rotating Class B Trustee West Central Region was inspirational to me as he mentioned a phase that up to that point I had only heard from my first sponsor. When it comes to giving back to the Fellowship “Why not me? Why not now?.” After the opening session all of the Committees broke out into their separate meeting rooms for deliberations until dinner at which time I was able to escort the most beautiful woman in the room, my wife Jill.

As I mentioned earlier I have the good fortune to have been selected to the Policy and Admissions (P/A) Committee for the Panel 58 rotation and am honored to have been chosen to serve as the Alternate Chairman for the Committee during next years 59th GSC session. For the scope the P/A Committee please see the 2007-2008 AA Service Manual pages S16, S41 and S59.

The P/A Committee for the 58th GSC had some typical agenda to discuss such as the selection of dates for the 2011 GSC which will be May 1 -7 but the rest of our Committee’s deliberations were concerned with matters of policy. The most time critical of which was the agenda item concerning delegating the responsibility of the GSC site selection to the GSO management. If you attended a Conference Agenda Workshop or the Pre-Conference Assembly then you are familiar with this particular item. The discussions on this agenda item in the P/A Committee and on the Conference floor were just as we had discussed here in our Area. It held true that the fact that this delegation of responsibility which would allow the management greater flexibility in their negotiations with the hotels thus providing the opportunity to save a considerable amount of money was the secondary issue. The primary issue which created the majority of the debate concerning this agenda item came with the consideration of the transfer of delegated authority. After much thoughtful deliberation on this item the P/A Committee forwarded the following recommendation to the Conference; “The responsibility for the General Service Conference site selection be delegated to the General Service Office management” which generated considerable concern with its open language. Thankfully earlier in the Conference a Committee that had a similar reaction to one of their recommendations asked for a short recess to caucus their committee and came back with change language that the Conference accepted with little additional debate. Gus H. Panel 57 Area 67 (SE TX) the P/A Chairman for the 58th GSC sensing that our committee’s recommendation needed amending if it were to be accepted asked that our committee be allowed to reconvene that evening for an additional unscheduled meeting, the request was granted. The result of the additional meeting yielded the following recommendation by the P/A committee to the GSC; “The responsibility for the General Service Conference site selection be delegated to the General Service Office management, subject to approval of the General Service Board; and that a report be forwarded to the 2009 General Service Conference.” Even with the new language the recommendation met resistance until several of the P/A Committee members came forward from the floor and addressed the Conference with additional background after which the recommendation was accepted.

Additional business conducted by the P/A Committee was the review of the current policy on international guest observers at the GSC and the consideration of the proposal that the current secondary Conference Archives Committee be established as a standing Conference committee. Addressing the current policy in regard to international guest observers at the GSC the P/A Committee forwarded a recommendation to increase the number of countries that can send two quest observers each to the GSC from two to three. This recommendation was accepted by the Conference. Deliberation on the proposal to establish the secondary Archives Committee as a standing Conference committee involved much thoughtful debate. Amy F., GSO Archivist was invited to attend one of the P/A Committee meetings in order to answer questions from committee members, she was extremely helpful in providing information for our discussions on this agenda item. The P/A Committee after carful consideration decided to take no action in regard to this issue.

In other business concerning Conference Agenda items that were germane to our Area the following actions were taken: (for a full list of 2008 GSC actions see Action Summary GSC 08)

Finance Committee Agenda item B
Consider the request to "Discuss the benefits and liabilities, both spiritual and practical, of funding the General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous solely by the voluntary contributions of AA. members and AA. groups, that profit from literature sales will no longer be used to fund our General Service Office. Further, consider a procedure for gathering input from the Fellowship as a whole and prepare a report on these discussions for the 2009 Conference.

Advisory Action
The trustees’ Finance and Budgetary Committee gather input from the Fellowship on the benefits and liabilities, both spiritual and practical of fully funding G.S.O. services to the Fellowship (G.S.O. functional expenses) by the voluntary contributions of A.A. members and groups and that this information be forwarded to the 2009 Conference Committee on Finance.

Grapevine Agenda item B
Review and discuss the staff report addressing the 2007 Additional Consideration to “explore less expensive formats for the production of the Workbook”

Additional Consideration
Requested that the Grapevine:

• Produce a portable GvR (Grapevine Representative) Handbook similar to the recently revised RLV (La Viña Representative) Handbook in size and format for ease of use by the GvR network and for cost containment.
• Update and revise the A.A. Grapevine History booklet.
• Continue to offer the current A.A. Grapevine Workbook as a free download at the Grapevine Web site.

Grapevine Agenda item D
Reconsider the 2007 General Service Conference Committee Advisory Action recommending that: “The Grapevine and La Vina include a section on the medical, legal and social aspects of alcoholism, with an appropriate disclaimer.”

Additional Consideration
The committee reconsidered the 2007 General Service Conference Committee Advisory Action recommending that “the Grapevine and La Viña include a section on the medical, legal and social aspects of alcoholism, with an appropriate disclaimer” and took no action.

This agenda items had a tremendous amount of emotional debate but in the end cooler heads prevailed.

Literature Agenda item D
Consider a request to reinstate the pamphlet "Letter To a Woman Alcoholic."

Additional Consideration
The committee considered a request to reinstate the pamphlet "Letter to a Woman Alcoholic" and took no action

I need to add a personal comment here as our Area felt very strongly about this agenda item. After hearing little discussion at the depth that our Area addressed this issue from the floor of Conference I felt that it would be in the best interest of the Fellowship to bring forward a floor motion in an attempt to have further debate heard on the Conference floor. It should be understood that bringing a floor motion forward addressing a Committee Consideration is taking a bit of a risk. There was no doubt in my mind that the Literature Committee had deliberated this agenda item in order to come to their conclusion to take no action so asking the floor to consider what the committee had already considered is, well, touchy, but having faith in our Area’s informed group conscience I proceeded. When I presented the floor motion (#11) it was not well received and when it was time to address the floor motion I unfortunately was not recognized at the microphone by the Chairman and a motion to not to consider was seconded and the vote was very much in favor of not considering this agenda item. So fellow members if have copies of this pamphlet please hang on to them it could be a while before we see this one again.

Public Information Agenda item D
Consider proposed text for a new section on posthumous anonymity in the pamphlet “Understanding Anonymity.”

No Advisory Action
The PI Committee recommended the addition of the proposed language to the pamphlet but after a lengthy debate, amendments, and a reconsideration the recommendation failed.

Public Information Agenda item F
Consider request that a wall poster with information abut Alcoholics Anonymous be created for placement in school guidance counselor offices.

Advisory Action
A wall poster for young people with information about Alcoholics Anonymous be developed and brought back to the 2009 Conference Committee on Public Information.

International Conventions/Regional Forums Agenda item C
Discuss ways to encourage interest in Regional and Local Forums

Additional Considerations
The committee discussed ways to encourage interest in Regional and Local Forums and suggested:

• That to increase local participation, areas where a Regional Forum is scheduled begin early in the year asking districts to consider not scheduling district functions that would conflict with the Forum dates.
• That Local Forums be held in conjunction with State Conventions, and other non-service A.A. events.
• That information about Local Forums be mailed to all delegates again this year.
• That information about Local Forums be communicated to intergroups and central offices.
• That areas consider extending one day service events into two day events with the inclusion of a Local Forum.

If you were at the Workshops or Pre-Conference Assembly or have been checking out the Area website then you are aware that our Area will be hosting this years Pacific Regional Forum Aug 29-31 in Spokane at the Doubletree Hotel Spokane City Center. If you’ve never been - go, if you’ve been – come back and remember to bring a newcomer and old-timer. My first Regional Forum enhanced my recovery maybe it can do the same for you, you’ll never know unless you attend.

Other Pacific Region business concerned site selection for upcoming Pacific Region events and were addressed during the Pacific Region Delegates luncheon on Wednesday. For 2011 Area 93 (Central CA) will be hosting an Additional Regional Forum in Woodland Hills, CA. and for 2012 Area 72 (Western WA) will be hosting the Pacific Region Alcoholics Anonymous Service Assembly (PRAASA) in Bellevue. WSEA 92 bid for the 2011 Additional forum but the vote was very strongly in favor of Area 93 as they had yet to host a Pacific Region event. I would like to thank Dave McC. WSEA 92 Panel 56 Delegate for all of his work and support in preparing the bid for the 2011 Forum. His efforts on behalf of our Area are greatly appreciated.

I am not going to go into a detailed GSB report and other detailed 2008 GSC information here but if you are interested please see the Area website for a full reporting click on 2008 General Service Conference and if you don’t have web access don’t forget to keep checking your mail.

Briefly here are some numbers:

GSO 2007		Grapevine 2007		La Vina 2007
Contributions	$6,526,002	Total Income	$1,667,395	Publishing Income	$67,781
Literature Profits	$3,015,809	GV Expenses	<$1,765,221>	LV Expenses	<$134,821>
GSO Expenses	<$8,528,080>	GV Loss	<$25,047>	LV Loss	<$67,040>
GSO Profit	$1,018,577
Profit for 2007	$926,490

I would be remiss at this point if I were not to mention the rotation of two individuals that have been a tremendous asset to our Fellowship over the years; Greg M. General Manager and Vincent Keefe Class A Trustee. Greg will be retiring at the end of this year from the position that he has held for nearly a decade and much to his credit he has offered to assist in the transition of the new GM. Vince’s term as Chair of the Finance & Budgetary Committee ended at the end the 58th GSC. Vince has been a member of the GSB since 2002 and has served on several other committees as well as his position as Treasurer. Area 92 wishes them both well in their future endeavors.

The 58th GSC was indeed a deliberative body. The farewells by rotating Panel 57 Delegates and closing remarks by Leonard Blumenthal were skipped as we continued to conduct business right through the scheduled adjournment at 5:00 PM. By the time the last of the 15 floor motions (most for any GSC) had been discussed and the business of the 58th GSC was concluded we had set a new record for the longest GSC in history by going until just after midnight. It was like old home week as I reflected back on how long our Assemblies used to go when were will still one Area. That record was set in Spokane when the Assembly lasted until 4:00 AM.

After the GSC closing brunch on Saturday morning, the Delegates had the opportunity to tour Stepping Stones, Bill and Lois’s last residence. It would be a poor trip if all that was to be taken away from the Conference was memories of meetings and business, so - if you would please indulge me I would like to close with the following.

While I was slowly working my way around the main floor looking at the memorabilia from Bill and Lois’s life I came to a glass case that contained some photographs and books. After looking at the photos and reading the captions that Lois has carefully placed near most all of the AA related items in the home I began reading the handwriting on the flyleaf of the book in the case. After reading just a few lines I realized that the book was the family Bible! During a span of about 7 years beginning Christmas 1923 Bill wrote promises to Lois in the Bible when times of great burden caused from his drinking and the love for his wife would bring Bill to attempt another run at sobriety. Bill had written in the Bible a half dozen times promising to stop drinking but sadly after September 1930 there were no more promises, Bill felt that there was no hope for the wretch he had become. Oh man! I choked up and my eye’s started to tear. That feeling of being lost to the disease of alcoholism when not even the love of those most dear to us was sufficient enough to provide the strength of will not to reach for that next drink. One of the greatest treasures of my sobriety is the fact that the AA program of recovery has allowed me the opportunity to be a husband to my wife. In October 2003 when I made the decision to rotate out of service to our Area it was because of the love that I felt for my wife. AA had brought me to a point of recovery where I could say I choose devotion to family over service to our Area, a choice I will never regret. As the words of my first sponsor entered my mind I was reminded that “genuine humility is a precipitant of sacrifice, it exists in the act of giving up something of value for something else of greater value.”

As I stood there reading the words that Bill had written to his wife I truly felt a sense of tearful joy at the relief from the bondage of self that this program of ours has provided me. I felt then as I feel now, humbled by the opportunity that you have provided me to serve.

Yours in the Fellowship,
Rad