Attendees:

Beth A., International Trustee

Jeff B., Secretary

Felix E., Alt. Treasurer

Mark M., Technology chair

Barry M., Trustee-At-Large

Susan R., Chair

Susan R., the Chair, called the meeting to order at 2:06 PM.  The meeting opened with the Serenity prayer.

Overview of Agenda: Minutes, Treasurer Report, Old Business: Communications committee – IGR Forum, New Business-Team Building, Accessibilities committee, Strategic plan, Officer reports.

Meeting Minutes Approval – Jeff B., Secretary

• September 8, 2024: Jeff reviewed these minutes and there were no comments or corrections
  • Motion: Mark made a motion to accept the minutes as presented and Barry seconded that motion. No one opposed. Minutes approved.

Treasurer Report – Felix E., Alt, Treasurer

• Felix reports that our income is 130% of budget. There has been a 40% increase in group contributions with individual contributions being slightly below expectations.
• He reported that our net income is higher because we have spent less money than expected after which he mentioned some of the big ticket items where spending has been lower.
• Felix stated that our checking account stands at $84,000 and our prudent reserve has $55,000.
• Felix mentioned that group contributions range from $20 to $300.

Comments/Questions on the Financial reports:

• Mark asked about the uploading of the Financial reports which seems to have been done twice, once without attachments and once with. Felix confirmed that this was indeed the case. Mark stated that he would delete the duplicates.

Old Business

Communications Committee and the IGR Forum – Susan R., Chair

• Susan mentioned that the Communications committee has volunteered to take over the planning and execution of the IGR Forum sessions going forward and we need to let them know because the next IGR Forum is in January.
• Beth suggested that if the IGR Forum falls under the responsibility of the Vice chair that we should wait until the Elections to make this decision. Susan replied that this is not necessarily a function of the Vice chair.
• Mark suggested that we do not make this a function of the Communications committee at this point but that we ask them to take care of the January IGR Forum. Mark clarified that he was not suggesting this as a trial run for the Communications committee and felt that rotating this responsibility among the Committees was his favored approach. He stated in no uncertain terms that he would oppose any suggestion to permanently place the IGR Forum with the Communication committee.
• Jeff stated that he believes that the function for conducting the IGFR Forums needs to be lodged somewhere and if that is not with the Communications committee, then it should reside with the Vice chair or with an IGR Forum planning committee. He stated that he was fine with allowing the January IGR Forum to be conducted by the Communications committee.
• Mark explained that he observed that the first 2 or 3 IGR Forums were repetitive and focused solely on the role of the IGR. He believes that this is a forum for IGRs and that it should be “of the people, by the people and for the people”. He believes that rotating the responsibility for the IGR Forum among the standing committees would provide a more robust approach.

Team Building – Jeff B., Secretary

• Jeff stated that at the last Executive Board meeting session we voted to conduct a team building session based on a personality theory called Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI.
• Jeff mentioned that he spoke with a friend of his, Dr. Toni La Motta, and developed a proposal, which he sent to the Board, for a team building workshop which would cost $400.

Comments/Questions on a Team Building workshop:

• Beth commented that she was not opposed to this but that she wanted to point out that we need to keep in mind that are alcoholics.
• Mark mentioned that Beth had a good point and that we have a program and perhaps a group activity would be more useful.
• Susan mentioned that she is uncomfortable with using basket money for a team building workshop and that we have 36 principles to utilize. She stated that the money was intended be used for BoardSource.
• The Board decided not to spend this money on a team building workshop but perhaps a Board activity should be planned instead. Mark stated that he would investigate several ideas.

New Business

Creation of an Accessibility Committee – Jeff B., Secretary

• Jeff reviewed with the Board a PowerPoint presentation that he had prepared on the creation of an Accessibility committee. His presentation discussed the purpose of this committee, the various AA members with accessibility barriers who would be served and the activities of such a committee.

Comments/Questions on the Creation of an Accessibility committee:

• Mark commented that he was unsure what an Accessibilities committee would do as there is already a lot of information available that groups can use. Jeff replied that the availability of a lot of information is part of the problem as groups need help in applying this information in their groups.
• Beth stated that she does not understand why we need a committee such as this. She stated that there are all sorts of alcoholics to address such blacks, bipoc, women, those that have language barriers and the list goes on. She asked where this idea came from and if it was from our ASL discussion, then for our International convention of 4,200 registrants, there were only 3 requests for ASL. She stated that the biggest challenge with groups across the world is that they don’t speak English.
• Mark stated that our biggest OIAA accessibility challenge remains language and translation. Mark’s other concern was that we do not have experience with Accessibility and do not have anyone knowledgeable to lead such a committee.
• Beth suggested that we hold off on this and take a month to review the materials. She suggested that we may gain some insights from the International Convention.
• Barry stated that we do need to pursue using the WCAG guidelines for our website and that there is now a 2.2 standard. Mark stated that the Technology committee is committed to two things: 1). Auditing the website with regards to accessibility for colors and contrast and things like that and 2). start planning for the website 2.0 and how we can improve the translations.

Strategic Plan – Jeff B., Secretary

• Jeff reported that he had nothing to share about a strategic plan. He stated that he was not sure that he wanted to take on another exercise like this that the Board would then decide is not needed.
• Susan stated that she thought that a strategic plan was a Board requirement. Jeff replied that a strategic plan was not a Board requirement and that we have been operating without one for quite a while. He stated that there is nothing in our Bylaws or Guidelines which requires a strategic plan. Jeff further stated that he believes not having a strategic plan is problematic and that it is one of the documents in the Board Book.
• Mark stated that he liked the idea of a strategic plan or at least a 5-year look ahead.
• Jeff mentioned that he has done strategic plans before and that they are simple to develop. He stated that you develop objectives for the organization and then break each objective into goals, or smart goals, followed by an implementation plan for each goal. He stated that if this is what the Board is looking for, then he could create a proposal.
• Susan stated that Jeff would have a week to come up with a plan because the next Combined Board meeting is in a week.
• Beth suggested that we wait until after the Convention to move forward with this idea.
• Susan suggested that the concept of a Strategic plan can be presented at the Combined Board meeting and then further discussed at the December Board meeting. At that meeting, we could have an abbreviated Board meeting with only minutes and a Treasurer’s report and then focus on the strategic plan. The Committee chairs would be invited to this meeting.

Officer Reports

Chair Report – Susan R.

• Susan stated that there were some PAC issues with groups that she was involved with.
• Susan reported that she has her presentation for the Unity committee and asked Beth to distribute it to the interpreters. Beth agreed to do so.
• Susan stated that she had an enjoyable experience doing the Grapevine podcast yesterday.
• She stated that she asked the Communications committee to be responsible for the January IGR Forum.
• Susan stated that she really liked the Service Fair that we had in July and asked if Mark would be willing to do another one next June.

Comments/Questions on the Chair Report

There were no comments or questions.

Secretary Report – Jeff B., Secretary

• Jeff mentioned that his alternate, Anita, has been recovering from spinal surgery and has not been able to help with any Secretarial duties temporarily. Jeff asked the Board to keep her in our prayers.
• Jeff stated that he had to assume the task assigned to her to document and upload all the accepted Committee charters to the Board Book folder.
• He mentioned that he received a notice from our registered agent, Incorp, about a new reporting requirement from the Treasury department for identifying beneficiary owners.

Treasurer Report – Felix E., Alt. Treasurer

No report

Technology Report

• Mark reported that he received a call from a Tech committee member who was a Tech Stepper, on the Zoom Event team and on the Cloud Admin team stating that he had to step down because after 8 years he had to admit that he was not really an alcoholic.
• Mark provided an update on the Membership project using the Wild Apricot software. He stated that a 2,000 member licensed was purchased for the first phase of the project which will allow a new system for quorum and voting.
• He stated that in the second phase the number of members will need to be increased so that the whole International Convention database can be imported.
• Mark mentioned that there is a Safety Workshop coming up after the Convention.

Comments/Questions on the Technology Report

• Susan asked Mark about who is updating the website because there are some inaccuracies which need to be corrected.
• Mark informed Susan that if she finds issues on the website, she should send the updates to website@aa-intergroup.org.

International Trustee report – Beth A., International Trustee

• Beth reported that we about 4,000registrations with a large influx from Iran and India.
• Beth stated that she has been receiving comments and requests due to some of the events happening outside of AA. She mentioned that she has been working with Tech 12 to ensure vigilance and safety at the Convention.

Comments/Questions on the International Trustee’s Report

There were no comments or questions.

Motions Summary

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

• Meeting minutes for the September 8^th, 2024 Board meeting were approved.
• Meeting minutes for the September 8^th, 2024 Executive session were approved.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeff B.

OIAA Secretary