Attendees:

Lesliee A., Communication Chair

Jeff B., Secretary

Jan BB., PAC Chair

DC Dave, Steppers Chair

Mark M., Technology Chair

Barry M., Trustee-At-Large, Convention chair

Gwen Mc., CPC Chair

Paul, Archives Alt. Communication Chair

Susan R., Chair

Susan R., Chair, called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm EDT (11 am PDT) with the “We” version of the Serenity prayer.  Barry, our new Trustee-At-Large, introduced himself. Paul, our newly appointed Archives Alt. chair on the Communications committee, introduced himself.

Approval of Board Minutes – Jeff B., Secretary

• January 20, 2024, Combined Board minutes: Jeff reviewed these minutes which were not available at the last quarterly Combined Board meeting with the attendees. There were no corrections.
  • Motion: Jan made a motion to accept the minutes as presented and Susan seconded. No one opposed. Minutes approved.
• July 20, 2024, Combined Board minutes: Jeff reviewed these minutes and mentioned that they were prepared by Anita. There were no corrections.
  • Motion: Susan made a motion to accept the minutes as presented and Jan seconded the motion. No one opposed. Minutes approved.

Treasurer’s Report – Jennifer B., Treasurer

• Jennifer reviewed the financial reports for June starting with the Budget Variance report. Jennifer reported that we had contributions of just under $7,500 in June and contributions for July seem strong as well. Year-to-date, we are ahead of our budget by $8,200. Jennifer reviewed several of the expenses on the report.
• Jennifer stated that our Balance sheet shows that we have $131,000 in the bank, which includes $5,500 allocated for the 2025 International AA Convention.
• Jennifer reported that on the Contribution report, we had 58 groups that contributed in June with some significant contributions like Serenity Circle.

Comments and Questions: None

Service Expo – Mark M., Technology Chair

• Mark reported that we will be holding a service expo next weekend.
• He stated that there will be a main room for the attendees to initially enter and from there they can visit the various committees which will each have their own breakout room, which form our Exhibit Hall, as follows:
  • Take the Step – 12 Steppers and the The Tech Steppers
  • Contact 25 – Communications and Technology committees
  • Dollars & Sense – Finance and CPC committees
  • Pic Pack grow – PIC and PAC committees
  • World Travelers – Unity and Convention committees
  • The Café – a room for socializing which will not be monitored
• Mark stated that the attendees will be free to move between the different breakout rooms as they please.
• Mark asked the Committee chairs to let him and the Tech committee know who from their committee will be attending so that they can be co-hosted.
• Mark suggested that each committee have information available for the Tech Expo attendees so that they can understand what the committee does and perhaps would want to join the committee.

Comments and Questions: Jennifer mentioned that the interpreters can only be in the main room and not in the breakout rooms.

Quarterly Committee Reports

Policy & Admissions Committee (PAC) – Jan BB, PAC Chair

• Jan reported that she is down to 1 person again.
• Jan reported on the numbers for the latest quarter.
• She mentioned that some of the complaints that they receive which includes PAC not listing 501c3 and 501c4 organizations.

Comments and Questions: None

12^th Step Committee (Steppers) – DC Dave, Steppers Chair

• Dave reported that there has been a downward trend in the number of requests this year. He stated that last year at this time there were 349 requests but so far this year there have only been 271 requests.
• Dave stated that there still usually 3 email responses per request.
• Dave reported that requests for help have been coming in from several countries, 24 in all.and in many different languages.
• He stated that he would like to see more AA entities put a Steppers Get Help Now button on their websites and perhaps this could be mentioned at the upcoming OIAA International Convention.
• He reported that there continues to be strong interest for people to join the Steppers committee with 6 in the last month alone. He mentioned that of those 6, 3 have already been trained and are responding to inquiries.
• Dave stated that there are now over 30 members of the Steppers committee but about 5 or 6 of those members are the ones responding to the requests for help.

Comments and Questions: Mark mentioned that we do have the Get Help Now available on our website but that we don’t mention it enough at our Assemblies and IGR Forums.  He stated that if we mentioned it more, groups and other AA entities would be willing to add it to their websites. Jan mentioned that this is something that we can let people know about at the 2025 International Convention.

Unity Committee – Carlos D., Unity Committee chair

No report

Cooperation with the Professional Community Committee (CPC)– Gwen Mc., CPC Chair

• Gwen reported that the committee accommodated a visitor looking for approaches to Corrections in online meetings and provided a follow-up with resources.
• Gwen stated that the committee is serving both the traditional CPC role and any other services like corrections and treatment as the committee has a broad umbrella.
• She reported that the committee responded to a request for a classroom presentation from a nurse in Connecticut. She stated that this then became a collaborative effort with the CPC committee in Connecticut and that now two presentations are scheduled.
• Gwen mentioned that the committee is working on their charter and that $200 has been obtained as a budget for interpreters for the committee.
• She mentioned that at the June committee meeting planning was done for the committee’s participation in the upcoming Service Expo.

Comments and Questions: DC Dave mentioned that he is involved with a local correction committee and he asked Gwen if she was familiar with a monthly Thursday night correction meeting.  Gwen stated that she was not but asked Dave to provide the information to her.

2025 International Convention Committee, Jan, Previous Convention chair

• Barry mentioned that he is the newly appointed Convention committee chair but that he will be attending his first meeting of the committee tomorrow and he asked Jan who has been chairing the committee to provide the report.

Comments and Questions: Lesliee asked whether the Convention committee will need any resources from the Communication committee.  Jan stated that they will need some resources for the Convention and Barry asked her to have a representative from the Communication committee work with their committee.

Communications Committee, Leslie A., Communication Committee Chair

• Lesliee reported that Randy, the Alt. Communications Video chair, has been building content for the OIAA International Convention.
• She mentioned that the Committee is also working on a series of How To videos like How to Use Your Email and How to Reply to an Email.
• Lesliee mentioned that Paul, our new archivist, is developing a form for adding an item to the OIAA Archives. She mentioned that he is looking for documents and other materials to include in the archives.
• She stated that a new member of the committee, Kim, built a QR code for the committee.
• Lesliee stated that the OIAA Convention is using social media, especially Whatsapp.

Comments and Questions: None

Finance Committee – Jennifer B,, Treasurer

• Jennifer mentioned that she has sent out the requests for the 2025 to the committees. She requested that the committee chairs try to get the worksheets back by August, if possible.  She mentioned that she is available to help with anyone’s budget.

Comments and Questions: None

Technology Committee – Mark M., Chair

• Mark asked DC Dave who would be attending the Tech Expo on behalf of the Steppers committee.
• Dave responded that there has been a lackluster response from his committee about attending the Tech Expo but mentioned that one member, Kim, will be attending.

Comments and Questions: None

Officer reports

Chair Report – Susan R., Chair

• Susan reported on the tasks that she has done in the past quarter.

Secretary Report- Jeff B., Secretary

No report.

The Board meeting adjourned at 3:40 pm EST (12:40 pm PT) and was closed with the Declaration of Unity.

Motions Summary

The following motions were voted on by the Board at this meeting:

• Meeting minutes for the Combined Board meeting of January 20, 2024 were approved.
• Meeting minutes for the Combined Board meeting of July 20, 2024 were approved.

Humbly submitted,

Jeff B.

OIAA Secretary