Last Updated on January 30, 2019 by Area 53 Web Team
July 25, 2013
The A.A. World Services Board met on Thursday July 25, 2013, at the General Service Office in New York, NY. Chair of the AAWS Board, J. Gary L. opened the meeting and welcomed visitors David Morris, Class A Trustee and General Service Board Treasurer and Bill F., West Central Region Trustee.
Manager’s Report
General manager Phyllis H. reported that Staff rotation has been completed and expressed gratitude for everyone’s patience as Staff transitions into their new assignments while helping their colleagues who rotated into their previous assignment get up to speed.
Eva S. and Julio E. coordinated the AA meetings held at the 2013 Al-Anon International Convention which took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, July 5-7, 2013. The theme was “Celebrating Worldwide Unity.” Of the approximate 4000 attendees, 400 or so were AA members. Eva and Julio had a wonderful showing of 90 AA volunteers to help them out.
GSO 2015 International Convention coordinator and alternate, were joined by the other members of the 2025 International Convention Site Selection team in Vancouver which – along with St. Louis and Montreal – was one of the three cities the Conference selected as finalists to be considered for the site of the 2025 International Convention. It was reported that visits to all three cities went very well and that a selection will be made in the near future.
This is the year of AA Zonal Meetings, and Greg T. and Mary Clare L. journeyed to Irkutsk, Russia in Siberia to attend the 2013 Asia Oceania Service Meeting (AOSM) which was held July 19-21, 2013.
Along with Bill N. (AAWS Trustee- Director), Rick W. traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, July 11-14, 2013, where they both participated in the annual International Convention of Young People in AA (ICYPAA) Convention. Close to 4300 members attended.
Staff
As mentioned above, most of the GSO staff rotated into their new assignments on July 15, 2013. The assignments of recently hired staff members Clay R. and Steve S., as well as moves made by Mary D. and Adrienne B. to accommodate our new arrivals, remained the same.
Services
The Board approved the Services Committee’s recommendation that GSO’s AA website’s Quarterly Report (April – June 2013) be forwarded to the trustees’ Committee on Public Information with one minor editorial correction.
Publishing
Total gross sales for the first six months, through June 2013 are $6,484,189 which is $45,331 over estimate for the period and behind last year’s gross sales for this same period by $9,300.
The Board priced the 75th Anniversary Commemorative Edition of the first edition, first printing of Alcoholics Anonymous (to be published April 2014) at $12.00.
At the request of multiple French-speaking area delegates for AAWS to produce an anniversary sticker to be added to the jacket cover of the French translation of the Big Book, the Board approved the production of the requested sticker to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Les Alcooliques Anonymes.
As a result of continual and increasing requests from inmates for a large print format of the abridged Big Book, the Board approved developing the concept of a large print version of the existing soft cover abridged edition Alcoholics Anonymous.
Finance
For the first six months of 2013, contributions from AA groups and members of $3,200,000 were $28,579 over budget. Gross profit on literature sales of $4,023,055 was $165,501 over budget. Total expenses of $7,636,443 were $35,078 over budget. Net loss totaled $412,817 compared with a six month
budgeted loss of $571,718.
Other
The Board discussed and approved the final implementation process for sharing group contact Email information with AA Grapevine. Prior to initiating, email notification memos will be sent out to area delegates, DCMs, GSRs and group contacts.
An overview of a report on the 2020 International Convention from Gregg T., International Conventions consultant, was shared at the AAWS Board meeting. In this report from the April, 2013 joint meeting of the trustees’ and Conference Committees on International Conventions/Regional Forums, Gregg assured the committees – based on an earlier site visit to Detroit – that a vital re-growth is taking place within the inner city, and that financial and safety concerns were not a factor in the areas the International Convention will be using. More recent information confirmed the findings of this report.
Several outside organizations have proposed to the U.S. Post Office that a commemorative stamp featuring a full face photo of Bill W. be issued. It was also suggested that this stamp would be introduced at the 2015 International Convention of which there is no truth. Letters have been written and sent to the US Post Office and all Conference members that this proposal does not come from or have the support of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Once removed from YouTube at the request of the AAWS Board, an original version of a video about the 2010 International Convention has been reposted on YouTube. This production has the General Service Office erroneously named in the credits. We have once again asked that this version of the video be taken down from the YouTube site.