Ron H. Panel 57 Area 39 Western Area Missouri

I want to thank each and every one of you for allowing me to serve as your Area 39 Delegate to the 58th General Service Conference. Before I get into my report I would like to share some facts about the conference This year there were 134 voting members, broken down as follows: 93 Delegates (69.4%), 26 Trustees, AAWS Directors, Grapevine Directors (19.4%) and 15 General Service Officers and Grapevine Staff (11.2%). The statistics on the Delegates were, average age 54, the oldest being 74 and the youngest 40. Average length of sobriety was 19 years, the longest was 41 years and 8 years the shortest. The longest term of service was 38 years with the shortest term 4 years.

I want to attempt to take you thru the conference week as I saw it. On Friday, April 25th Peggy and I got off work and drove to Kansas City and spent the night so we could catch our 7:10 a.m. flight out of KCI on Saturday morning. Everything seemed to go much smoother than last year and we landed in LaGuardia on time at 10:50 a.m. We then got in a Yellow Cab line for our interesting ride to the Crowne Plaza Times Square Hotel at 49th and Broadway. Peggy buckled in and away we went. As you know, traffic is always bad but we kept moving along.

We came to a blocked intersection with only a car or two getting thru at a time. When we finally got to the light, we found out the problem. We saw two men walking around with blood from head to toe. Two Yellow Cabs had crashed and there was blood all over the two cabs. The cameras had just quit rolling and we think they must have been filming an episode of CSI. Then on to the hotel. After taking care of the $30.00 cab ride, Peggy and I tried to check in at 1:00 p.m. but couldn=t get our room til 5:00p.m. That gave us time to mill around some and go to the hospitality room, hosted by New York Intergroup. Before going to the hospitality room, a lot of fear of not knowing anyone was starting to come back, as usual I was wrong. I got to see a lot of the Panel 57 Delegates and meet several of the Panel 58 Delegates at the hospitality room.

Our room was on the 21st floor facing Broadway, so we were able to watch the long line of Yellow Cabs on Broadway as well as 49th Street. After we unpacked and settled in, it was time for the 1st Delegates only meeting. I was able to get with France J. and her interpreter 15 minutes before the 7:00 p.m. meeting. For this meeting I was to give an AOverview of the Conference Week@.France opened the meeting (see agenda). We were using the 2 minute rule so the Panel 58 >s could get used to the conference floor 2 minute time limit. The timer was France's interpreter using her watch, a glass and a spoon. She had a great time hitting the glass with the spoon. France closed the meeting with the responsibility statement.

Sunday morning registration started at 11:00, this is where you receive your conference notebook and your committee workbooks. Then the 1st of 2 regional luncheons with our Trustee, Conley B. and the other Southwest Regional Delegates.

The opening session started with Leonard B. chairing the meeting and Greg M. , General Service Office Manager, doing the roll call of the conference. The feeling I had when my name was called was the same as last year and I can't describe the feeling of being a part of Alcoholics Anonymous. The first business of the conference was to vote to see if 4 observers could attend the conference. This passed unanimously . The 4 visitors were: Ann N., General Secretary of G.S.O. in York,England.(this position is the same as General 0ffice Manager at NY), Louis F., a non-alcoholic trustee of the GSO of Great Britain, 2 Regional Trustees,,Elgido O. And Jose R., from Mexico.

At 3:45 p.m., my committee met with the Trustees Committee on Grapevine. At this joint meeting we only received the Trustee=s report. Nothing could be addressed about our committee agenda.

We had the opening dinner at 6:30 pm followed by an AA meeting with 5 speakers. This is the only time that the spouse or guest of the conference members were allowed to be in any of the meetings. The dinner was nice and the speakers did an excellent job. After this I gave Peggy a big kiss and a hug and told her I would see her about 5:00 p.m. Friday afternoon. Monday started at 9:00 a.m. with the first of two conference committee=s meetings. Each committee has a two, 3 hour meeting to conduct their business on their agenda items.

After lunch we had the Panel 58 Delegates from our Southwest Region and the Northeast Region give their area highlights. This was a lot more enjoyable than last year when I had to sit in front of the whole conference and get done before the dreaded green-yellow-red 2 minute light went off. Next was the General Service Board Report by the chair, Leonard B., A.A.W.S. Board report by the chair, Howard L., Grapevine Board report by the chair, Ray M., and Trustees on Finance and Budgeting Committee by the chair, Vince K.. These four reports took four hours and I have the full report if any of you want to read it in detail. The rest of Monday afternoon and evening were more Panel 58 Delegate highlights from East Central, Pacific, Southeast and Western Canada Regions.

My Delegate Buddy, Dave B. from Western Canada region was the only delegate out of the 6 regions to get the red light and did not finish his area highlights. I had gotten to know Dave more the last few days and know that he owned and ran a newspaper in his small town. I also know he had a good sense of humor which I will share later in my report.

At 8:00 p.m. there were 3 presentations: 1) Our Common Welfare Should Come First; 2) Principals Before Personalities and 3)Diversity-Reaching Out To All Alcoholics. At our 1st sharing session (What’s On Your Mind) there were a lot of people at the six microphones set up in the meeting room. I saw my Delegate Buddy, Dave, at one of them. After comments and questions from the first in line the chair calls on my friend Dave. Dave very calmly said he just wanted to take this time to finish his area highlights. Monday ended at 10:00 p.m.

Tuesday morning started at 9:00 a.m. with the second meeting of the conference committees. The Grapevine Committee had 6 agenda items to discuss. We finished at 12:15 p.m., 15 minutes over our allotted time. I will share this in the committee reports.

Page 5 Tuesday afternoon started with the last 2 Regional Panel 58 Delegates highlights from Eastern Canada and West Central Regions. This was followed with three presentations 1) Sharing the Message of Service, 2)Our Key to Keeping A.A. Strong and 3) Leadership in A.A.; Building Communications. This was followed by the second, AWhat’s on Your Mind, Sharing Session@. At 3:15 p.m. we were off to General Service Office and Grapevine Office. The subway ride was like old hat after last year. Upon arrival G.S.O., I saw a familiar face, it was my wife, Peggy, who I had hardly seen since Sunday night. On this second trip of mine to G.S.O., the one thing still amazed me was getting off the elevator and seeing the Serenity Prayer in 21 different languages. Also this year I got to hold the Lasker Award presented to A.A. in 1951.

Peggy had waited on me after her tour of G.S.O. and Grapevine with all her new buddies and we got to travel back to the hotel together. At 6:30 p.m. was the final Delegates only meeting and dinner. Again France opened the meeting with the Serenity Prayer and had Fred H. read the short form of the 12 Concepts. This was to be followed by comments from 2 Panel 57 Delegates from each of the 8 regions. Then France ask me to come up and take care of selecting the Delegates from each region. I was not prepared so I ask each region to select the delegates from their regions. After this I turned the meeting back over to France for questions or comments from the new Panel 58 Delegates. After the first questions France looked at me with that Canadian smile of confusion and again I go to the podium. By the way, France=s interpreter was the 2 minute time keeper again and with her experience on the first meeting she really got into it. After electing the new Delegate Chair and alternate for the 59th Conference, France closed the meeting with the responsibility statement. Wednesday morning started with workshops on, ALove and Tolerance: Now More Than Ever. I had received a loving invitation to help with the workshops as a reporter.

Then our last sharing session, AWhat’s On Your Mind@. At 12:00, the second and last regional luncheons with our Trustee, Conley B. and the rest of the Delegates in our Southwest Region. I had to leave 30 minutes early because of another loving invitation to help with the election for West Central and the Western Canada Regional Trustees. Following the elections there were 2 more presentations, 1) Unity and Communication and 2) Participation: The Privilege of Passing It On.

At 7:45 we started the 13 committee reports. This is when the real business of Alcoholics Anonymous starts. It would be impossible to report what happens in every committee, so I have make copies of all the advisory actions passed by the conference and additional considerations made by different committees sent back to trustee committees. This may not look too time consuming since it is all on 1 sheet, but I am going to take you thru the Public Information Committee report so you will have an idea of how much time it takes. They started their report at 3:20 p.m. on Thursday (see PI Committee report) and the report ended at 1:50 p.m. on Friday. We were now half way thru , committee reports were scheduled to end at 3:00 p.m.

During all of the 13 reports, in my opinion, if something did not get passed or if there was no action taken on a certain item , right after that report there would be a floor action made. A floor action is a written motion, signed with no discussion or comment. Also, all the business of the conference has to been done before the floor actions are heard.

The 13 reports from the conference committees were finally finished at 6:45 p.m. On our agenda the entire conference was to be over at 5:00 p.m., but we now had 15 floor actions, or as I like to call them resentments to consider.

On Saturday night at 12:30, the conference finally ended with closing remarks from Leonard B. We also did not have the farewells from the rotating Panel 57 delegates which usually takes around 1 2 hours. This conference now has the record for the longest conference. We closed the 58th General Service Conference with the Serenity Prayer in English, French and Spanish. After a short night, we began at 8:00 a.m. with breakfast and the farewell talks by Chuck B. & Tom K., the two Class B rotating trustees and Vince K., the Class A rotating trustee.

After the breakfast, we started loading the buses to head for Stepping Stones. It was about an hour and fifteen minute ride. Upon arriving we were served sandwiches and drinks. It was very nice to be reunited with Peggy for this trip. My words can never express how I felt while visiting Bill & Lois=s house, all the personal archives are in the upstairs. Then being in the little concrete block building where Bill did his writings and setting at his desk was indescribable. It was a very serene and peaceful feeling as we walked around the grounds. We returned to the hotel at about 3:00 p.m. and we walked around Times Square and had a snack at Bubba Gumps’ Café. We walked to some places that Peggy had found on her trips and ended up eating at a hamburger joint, really good food.

Sunday morning was departure day. Peggy and I got up early, bags packed and ready to go to the airport. We decided to have the $50.00 breakfast at the hotel and then head to the airport early. We got our cab and started to the airport, but as fate would have it we could not get across the street we needed to cross because of a bicycle marathon. The cab driver drove and drove and drove til we were about to the river and finally got to cross over. After 1 2 hours we were back to where we needed to be, 3 blocks from the hotel and cab fare was already $30.00. Finally we made it to the airport and caught our flight in plenty of time. Oh, our cab fare total was $65.00.

Landing in Kansas City, we started our 3 2 hour trip home. We did stop for a nice dinner, steak, baked potato and salad. It was so cheap I thought we were robbing the place. Well that is kind of like it was those 9 days at conference. In closing I am not sure what to say. 4 years ago my wonderful wife allowed me to put our life on hold so I could serve this fellowship. My employer was okay with what ever time I needed.

Four years ago in March I had my left lung removed due to lung cancer. In September of that same year you voted for me to be your Alternate Delegate . What a journey you have allowed me to be on. I hope everyone knows how grateful, humbled and honored to have represented Area 39 Western Missouri at the 58th General Service Conference. Thank you.





This site was last updated on 2/19/10