Update For Policy-and-admissions – Aug 2025

Policy & Admissions Committee (PAC) Report August 2025

What We Do:
The Policy & Admissions Committee (PAC) assists new groups in registering and listing their A.A. meetings on the OIAA meeting directory. Our responsibilities include:

Reviewing new meeting submission forms for completeness and compliance with meeting directory listing guidelines.
Ensuring that new meetings/groups retain a Traditions statement.
Assisting new member groups in listing their Intergroup representatives at the time of registration.
Helping meetings/groups regain their status for relisting in the OIAA meeting directory or as Intergroup representatives if they have lapsed.
Addressing complaints and answering questions regarding meetings/groups listed in the OIAA meeting directory.
Providing policy and guideline advisories to any interested parties.

What we did: Committee actions from August 1 to August 31, 2025:

New meeting submission forms reviewed: 71
New meeting submission forms processed to listed completion: 27
Meetings listed with an IGR: 7 (26% of August completed listings)
Outstanding – waiting for reply: 16
Declined listings: 4
Sent to Steppers: 1
Sent to PIC: 0
Requested removal: 0
Decided Not to List: 0
Duplicates/Not a Listing/An Update/Hold/Spam/Already Listed: 17
Complaints/Concerns: 0
OIAA policy/guideline advisory: 0

On August 12, 2025, Jan BB, OIAA PAC Chair, attempted to log in to the PAC emails and discovered that her access had been removed. When she contacted Mark M, OIAA Tech Chair, he explained that he had been directed by the OIAA Board to withdraw her access. Mark expressed surprise that Jan had not been informed of this change in advance. The lack of notice prevented her from continuing communication with the groups she was actively assisting. Another challenge resulted because Jan was unable to manage the Google Workspace for PAC, which was one of her responsibilities.

At the time, PAC was in the process of electing a new Chair. During the OIAA/Chair meeting on July 19, 2025, it was noted that Jan had served more than two consecutive two-year terms as PAC Chair. Beth D, Alt Chair, sought to explain the unusual circumstances facing the committee, but she was not able to fully present this information during the Board meeting.

The timing of the access change had unintended consequences. For example, a PAC Training session scheduled by Jan to train three new volunteers had to be cancelled, since she could access the PAC emails. This was particularly unfortunate because the committee has been working diligently to recruit and prepare volunteers for the essential work of adding new A.A. groups and meetings to the OIAA Meeting Directory. Supporting online groups in this way is a core mission of OIAA, and the disruption made that effort significantly more difficult.

The abrupt removal of access, without prior notification or a transition plan, created challenges for the PAC Committee. In keeping with the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous—which emphasize fairness, cooperation, and non-punitive approaches—it would have been more constructive for the PAC Committee to receive written notice and a reasonable transition period (e.g., 30 days) to complete the election process for a new Chair. At the present time Beth D., newly elected Pac Chair still has not been provided with access to the pac@aa-intergroup.org or pac.chair@aa-intergroup.org emails.

Although the PAC Committee was discouraged by these events, we remain committed to our mission of helping online A.A. groups add their meetings to the OIAA Meeting Directory. We are also very grateful to the members of the Tech Committee—particularly Jeff Br, DarylAnn F, and Keri R—for their consistent and timely support in adding meetings to the directory.

The PAC Committee follows the Meeting Directory Guidelines which specifies that an A.A. group may be listed in the Directory provided that it subscribes to the Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. We continue to adhere to these guidelines. We were recently informed that the OIAA Board passed a motion on August 10, 2025, specifying which groups may be listed in our Directory. The motion is not in keeping with the Meeting Directory Guidelines or the 12 Traditions and is therefore out of order. Our committee will continue to add all meetings, as long as these groups indicate that they are following A.A.’s 12 Traditions.

Our committee welcomed 2 new members during the month of August. One person is already trained and actively participating in corresponding with groups which submit their requests to be added to the OIAA Meeting Directory. The other person is in the process of being trained. Mostly, however, we are incredibly grateful to past PAC Chair, Jan BB, who has been unbelievably helpful with our transition, particularly because the new chair has only been serving on the PAC Committee for less than 6 months. We welcome new members. Anyone wishing to serve on our committee may contact us at pac.chair@aa-intergroup.org.

Respectfully submitted,

Beth D. OIAA PAC Chair