Ron H., Panel 57, Area 39, Western Area Missouri

First I want to thank my wife, Peggy, without her help and support the last 10 years I would not have been able to have the humbling and spiritual experience I had at the 57 th General Service Conference.

I also want to thank Area 39 for their support since becoming Delegate. While I was in New York, I had two faxes, one from a district with the district members signatures. I also had phone calls from my sponsor, a sponsee, three past delegates from Western Area 39, two past delegates from Northwest Texas Area 66 and Arkansas Area 04, a past Delegate from Oklahoma Area 57. I had the book that was signed by the people at Area Assembly and presented to me at the March Assembly. All of the above things helped me during my eight days at conference.

I will try to convey to all of you how those eight days went, hoping you realize I can only share a small part of what happened in the next few minutes.

On Saturday, April 21st, I was up at 4:00 a.m. to get ready for my 7:10 a.m. flight out of KCI airport. I had scheduled my flights so I had plenty of time just in case something went wrong. We loaded right on time and I was buckled in and ready to go at 7:10 departure. The captain came on the speaker and informed us that there would be a short delay because the maintenance crew had found a dent in the right wing about the size of a baseball. Long story short, after 30 minutes, we unloaded and waited on another plane. We finally got off the ground at 8:45, only an hour and half delay. I can also share that was the only problem of my entire travel time.

Arriving at LaGuardia Airport I found a yellow cab for my NASCAR ride to my hotel, Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan Hotel. Arriving at the hotel at 1:00 p.m., they allowed me to check in two hours ahead of regular check in time. The hotel has 46 floors and my room was on the 36th floor. I had two hours to unpack and go the hospitality room that was being run by the New York Intergroup Office. I need to tell you I had to be very careful unpacking because my wonderful wife had tagged each of my shirts, ties, and pants so I would be able to wear the appropriate colors, similar to bear to bear and lion to lion like toddlers= clothing.

Saturday night we had our first delegates only meeting chaired by the delegate chair for the conference, Darryl M, Panel 56, Area 26, Kentucky. Everyone shared, trying to help us Panel 57's with our fear and anxiety, mainly me. This meeting is not part of the conference but everyone is expected to attend.

Actual registration time is at 11:00 A.M. Sunday morning with the first of two regional luncheons. Gary K., our outgoing regional trustee, took care of the meetings. The official opening of the conference was at 1:15 p.m., with a welcome from Leonard B., chair of the General Service Board. After opening talk by Rick H., Alaska, General manager of G.S.O., Greg M. did the roll call of the conference. There were 134 voting members present. It was a very humbling experience when my name was called and I answered present. The 134 voting members break down as follows: 93 Delegates, (69.47%), 25 Trustees, AAWS Directors, and Grapevine Directors(18.7%), and 16 General Service officers and Grapevine Staff(11.9%). Everything at conference takes 2/3(66.23%) for an action to pass. At our area assembly the GSRS have about the same percentage.

There were then greetings from the Delegate Chairperson, Darryl M. from Kentucky. The keynote speaker was Alan A., non-alcoholic Class A Trustee. Alan shared the following at conference and I will borrow it AMy job is to talk to you, your job is to listen. I hope I get done before you do.@

Then Greg M. went over the mechanics of the conference. Panel 56 Delegates stated that last year the chair would not ask if the minority wanted to speak. The Chair would just stand silent and then move onto the next business. We then did our first conference voting on allowing the minority to speak and it was unanimous. It was at this time that I got my first lesson on how important the non voting staff was. They are set up in a room away from the main meeting room with several computers and office machines. In just a few minutes we had the changes that were made in our hands.

The committee I am on is the Grapevine Committee. Our first Grapevine committee meeting was with the Grapevine Board and Grapevine Trustees. We were given their report, a lot of information, with no discussion on agenda items with the board and trustees present.

Sunday night was the opening dinner and AA meeting. This is the only time the spouses and guests can attend. After dinner there were five speakers, Irene K. (GSO Staff), Tito T. (Delegate Puerto Rico), Marianne Ha. (Delegate N. Interior California), Ray M. (Trustee) and Jane T. (AAWS Director).

Monday morning started with committee meetings from 9:00 to 12:00. There were eight members on my committee, 5 Panel 56 and three new Panel 57. We had the following agenda items to look at: A. Consider suggestions for new A.A. Grapevine, Inc. Items for production in the year 2008 or later. B. Consider requests to reinstate a section on the subject of alcoholism in the A.A. Grapevine. C. Review contents of Workbook. One of the many pieces of information from the board meeting was a professional survey that had been taken by outside resources. They had a lot of meaning in our discussions.

Item A: After an hour of discussion, the committee sent back to the Grapevine Board two new pieces of literature. Old Timers Corner(working title), 40 plus years of sobriety@ and Rule 62(working title) classic cartons and jokes from AA Grapevine@.

Item B: Consider request to reinstate a section on the subject of alcoholism in the AA Grapevine(formerly known as the grey pages). All of the committee members came to conference pretty well split on this item. After two hours of discussion, we closed and continued Tuesday morning. Each committee has two 3 hour sessions to get the work done. We discussed this thoroughly and with the new information we got at conference, mainly the survey that showed 68% of the fellowship wanted something back in the Grapevine on this. The other information being a writing that Bill Wilson wrote in On the Alcoholism Front@ (March 1958) as follows: We are glad of any kind of education that accurately informs the public and changes its age-old attitude toward the drunk. More and more we regard all who labor in the total field of alcoholism as our companions on a march from darkness into light. We see that we can accomplish together what we could never in separation and in rivalry.@

We voted unanimously to have an advisory action That the AA Grapevine and La Vina include a section on the medical, legal and social aspects of alcoholism with an appropriate disclaimer. This took five hours and 15 minutes to work thru. We were 15 minutes over allotted time.

Going back to Monday afternoon, at 1:15 p.m. two regions, Northeast and our Southwest Region Panel 57's gave their area highlights. We were first to give our highlights and I had my first experience with the dreaded green, yellow and red two minute light. I made it thru in time without the red light coming on. From 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., we had presentations and questions and answer sessions on the General Service Board report, AAWS board report, Grapevine board report and Financial reports. This was followed by Western Canada and East Central Regions Highlights.

The evening session was a presentation/discussion from archives by Amy Filiatreau, GSO Archivist. During her presentation she played a four minute tape of Bill Wilson's opening at 1968 General Service Conference.

Tuesday afternoon session started with Area Highlights from Eastern Canada and West Cental Regions, followed by a two-hour trip to GSO and Grapevine office. This was my first experience with riding the subway and it was not too crowded. Then we had a six-block walk to the office. As other Past Delegates have said, your welcome at GSO is: Welcome to your General Service Office. I found that an hour is not enough time to visit GSO and Grapevine offices, but I got to meet most all the staff and get a picture with Greg M. in his office. They have a room full of archives and the most interesting thing for most people was sitting on Bill & Lois's couch for a picture. My return trip on the subway was more difficult than getting there. It was busier and more crowded, and we were packed in like sardines.

Tuesday evening we had our last Delegates only meeting. At the end each Region submitted a name for the 58th Delegate Chairperson. Our region had three people eligible who had not been voted in as chair of a committee for next year. My name was drawn as a candidate from our region for Southwest Candidate. I was nervous but I knew there were eight other regions so chances were very slim that I would get selected. The first name out would be the delegate chair and 2nd would be alternate delegate chair.

France J. from Northeast Quebec was drawn as Delegate Chair and I was drawn out for Alternate Delegate Chair. This will be quite an experience for me because France speaks very little English and has an interpreter. My first experience after the meeting was to take all the notes from the meeting and get them translated in French. My God does for me what I cannot do for myself because at our next session Hernan, the Grapevine Editor, sat down by me. I told him of my dilemna and he translated it for me right there, so I was able to give it to France. You might think that after several years of sobriety, I would not get the big head but I really like the translation from English to French and Spanish in the early bird edition of Box 459 saying I was Alternate Delegate Chair. In the French and Spanish version it says I am Asera le president adjunt=.

Wednesday morning we broke up into several rooms for workshops on Aspiritual value of our A.A. dollars@. The comments were similar to the committee we had at our Area Assembly Workshop in March. This was followed by the two final Regional Highlights from Pacific and Southeast Regions.

Then we held elections for three trustee openings, Northwest, Southwest and Trustee at Large/Canada. There is a section reserved for this because only the nominating committee and Trustees and the Area Delegates are allowed to vote. Our Southwest region was voting to replace Gary K. who is rotating out. Each of our eleven regions had a candidate and our area nominee was John Admire. I had the privilege of going to the microphone and presenting him in two minutes or less. The election was by the Third Legacy with 22 voting members. After first and second ballots no one had 2/3, so then all names with less than one-fifth of the vote should have been dropped. However, this would have dropped everyone, so just the two top candidates remained. On the third ballot, Conley B., Area 04 Arkansas was elected with 2/3 majority of the vote. He will serve a four-year term as our Southwest Regional Trustee. The Trustee at Large/Canada is Jo-Anne L. elected on the 5th ballot and Northeast Trustee is John J K., JR on the 3rd ballot..

Wednesday evening was the start of the actual business part of the conference, the start of thirteen committee reports and any action that may have been taken.

These following five committees took all of Wednesday evening and all day Thursday with 2 presentations in between. This put the Conference way behind on Friday, our last day to get business done was scheduled to end at 5:00 p.m.

Treatment Facilities - recommended that the video Hope: Alcoholics Anonymous be revised, retaining only the script, and that sample footage or a progress report be brought to the 2008 Conference Committee on Treatment Facilities. (10 Minutes)

Policy/Admissions - recommend that Alternate Delegate Hari Boggs Area 81, New Brunswich be seated as conference member because the Delegate was unable to attend. Also that the 60th General Service Conference be held April 18 - 24, 2010. (10 Minutes)

Grapevine - that the A.A. Grapevine and La Vina include a section on the medical, legal and social aspects of alcoholism, with an appropriate disclaimer. After two hours of discussion this passed unanimously. This was the start of the slow down in committee reports.

Cooperation with the Professional Community - no recommendations (13 minutes)

Trustees - that, in accordance with the Bylaws of the General Service Board, Inc., the board consider all eligible Class A (nonalcoholic) and Class B (alcoholic) trustees when selecting the chairperson of the General Service Board. Also a lot of discussion on making General Manager a rotating position. After a lot of confusion and personalities before principals, no action was taken, this took up part of three sessions and took six hours and five minutes.

Friday morning started with eight more committee reports. Archives - that any future proposed project involving widespread distribution of archival recordings be submitted to the Conference Archives Committee so that the Conference might provide guidance prior to production. (25 minutes)

Public Information - that the 2007 A.A. Membership Survey be conducted by area on a random basis as was done in the 2004 A.A. Membership Survey; that the public service announcement A A Force of Nature,@ developed by the trustees= Public Information Committee, be approved. ( 3 hours 15 minutes)

Corrections - that the draft informational media presentation featuring someone highly credible in the corrections field introducing A.A. to training academies and in-service training programs for correctional personnel be approved with a suggested change to be previewed and approved by the trustees= Committee on Corrections. This took 32 minutes with a floor action being submitted.

Report and Charter - that the Publications Department insert into AThe A.A. Service Manual@, where appropriate, the inverted triangle graphic that currently appears annually in the General Service Conference manual. ( 2hours 30 minutes)

International Conventions/A.A. Regional Forums - discussed the site-selection procedures for the 2020 International Convention, noting that selecting an International Convention site twelve years out prevents us from having to compete for sites and yet allows us to have enough information about the site city to make a good decision; discussed the concept and details of Local Forums and noted that the new Local Forums format specifies that some expense, such as site rental, will be the responsibility of the Local Forums organizing committee. No recommendation. (7 minutes)

Literature - that the title of the pamphlet ACan A.A. Help Me Too? Subtitled ABlack/African Americans Share Their Stories@ be changed to AA.A. for the Black and African American Alcoholic@, that the Spanish-language Third Edition Big Book, Alcoholicos Anonimos, be produced. (50 minutes)

Agenda - that the theme for the 2008 General Service Conference be: ACommunication and Participation BThe Key to Unity and Self-Support.@ (23 minutes)

Finance - that the annual limit contributed to the General Service Board from individual A.A. members be increased from $2000 to $3000 and that bequests from A.A. members should be subject to the same limit and continue to be on a one-time basis and not in perpetuity.

During the Conference there had been four floor actions submitted. Floor actions are considered after all other business. All of these floor actions started with a motion to not consider and three of them received 2/3 majority to not discuss. One did have enough merit as it was about the correctional training film. The film showed a table of AA assorted literature and there was nothing about Grapevine/LaVina on the table. Most people felt that it should have been there. One of the staff said it was an oversight but the film was in the final stages and would be very expensive to change now. They stated they know now of the mistake and will be extra careful in the future. No action was taken.

This left the goodbye comments from mainly the panel 56 Delegates and just about all had a few words to say.

The conference then officially closed at 6:00 p.m., just one hour late, with Serenity Prayer in English, Spanish and French.

Saturday morning=s closing brunch was farewell talks by Allen A., Gary K., Murray Mc., Mike P., and Arnold R., the five rotating Trustees. We closed at 11:00 a.m.

My flight back to Kansas City was for 5:10 p.m. and I went to the airport with three other delegates at 1:00 p.m.. I was able to get a flight at 3:00 p.m., saving me a four hour wait.

Just a few closing remarks, I believe that more of my experience from the conference will come out all during the year a little at a time at groups, districts, area assemblies, committees, regional forums and service assemblies.





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