I have, once again, only included groups on the contribution report that have made a contribution. If you know that your group has sent a contribution and it is not on the report, please see me after my report and we can research the situation. After expenses for the April Area Meeting were paid, we had a balance of $15,687.90, as per our financial guidelines, I sent a check to GSO for $687.90 leaving the bank balance on May 1, $15,000.00. You can see that the total contributions for the 2nd quarter were $8,753.30. The total expenses for 2nd quarter were $6,016.90, giving us an ending balance of $17,736.40. The bank balance as of June 30 was $16,803.02, this with the checks that have not yet cleared ($935.00) giving us an ending bank balance of $17,738.02. I show $1.62 more than the bank shows, I am sure this is a simple mathematical error on my part, however, as of last night, I have not been able to find it. I would like to remind everyone to please include your group name and group number and your district with all contributions. Please tell your treasurers this is very important. You can see at the bottom of the contribution report that there are a few contributions that I do not know where they belong. If you can help me with that please see me after my report, Also, you may want to remind them that there is a new mailing address: Area 26 Treasurer - P.O. Box 517 - Simpsonville, KY 40067. I do have envelopes and contribution forms available for you to take back to your groups. If anyone has any questions, suggestions or concerns, please feel free to contact me anytime: phone (502) 386-1895 or email delegate@area26.net.
We have had a great weekend. The facilities are different, but very nice. The hard work that honestly went to putting this together is appreciated. You have always done a great job here.I have not been nearly as busy as some of these other folks this quarter. Aside from getting the Agenda together and fielding a few phone calls, I have been pretty inactive - Chairperson - wise. My energies have been concentrated at home and at work. I regret that I was not able to attend the International Convention. I have only experienced it through osmosis in some peoples reports. Maybe in 2015, I'll find a way to get to Atlanta without losing my job! At the DCM meeting that was held yesterday, 25 or so DCMs attended the meeting. There was a good discussion on some issues that a District or two are having. It was a good sharing session.
It has been a busy quarter. Thank you to Lee and District 17 for inviting me to participate in the Unity portion of your Three Legacies Workshop, Delegate's Report and pig roast. You did a great job of putting on the event and it was really well attended. Extra thanks to the guys that babysat the pig all night - that barbeque was a real treat. It was a day filled with good fellowship, good food and good AA - it doesn't get much better than that. And thank you to my travel companions, Joy and Cathy. Just like everything else in AA, these service opportunities are always better when shared with good friends. Next, a big thank you to the Louisville Host Committee for involving me and so many of your Area Committee Chairs and Officers in the Falls City Convention. I appreciated the opportunity to conduct a welcome to service workshop at the convention. All of the workshops were fairly well attended, with great audience participation. I think it's clear that fun and service, really do mix. I am grateful to have been a part of Louisville's 5th Annual Delegate's Report and Unity Picnic. We'd moved the date from August to June this year, hoping that it would be slightly cooler so more people could participate in the picnic part of the day. No such luck - it was blisteringly hot. But the heat didn't cut down on attendance or participation. Thank you Joy, for sharing your Conference experience with us. Your presentation was not only informative but served as a powerful attraction to anyone thinking about service. The quarter ended with the amazing experience of attending A.A.'s 75th birthday party in San Antonio. The trip down and back on the grunge puppy was interesting, to say the least, and hopefully not an experience I will find necessary to repeat anytime soon. But the trials of the trip were all worth it for the experience of the Convention. Those four days were filled with laughter, smiles, love and fellowship. I never heard an argument or even a cross word from anyone. The flag ceremony Friday evening was heartwarming - to have 90 countries represented showed me how far the hand of AA is reaching and to have representatives from Afghanistan and Iraq there was truly amazing. But the highlight for me was working the Southeast Region's hospitality room for those two hours on Saturday morning. Having the opportunity to meet face-to-face hundreds of people from all over the U.S. and some foreign countries was quite a gift. Will those that were there greeting with me, please stand and be recognized. You guys were awesome. Kentucky showed the world what southern hospitality is all about. No one left that room not smiling. The Convention was staffed with over 4,000 volunteers - and some of those volunteers were from Kentucky. I'd like you those of you that served as Convention volunteers to also stand and be recognized. The Convention could not have been a success without you. The next
International Convention will be held in Atlanta in 2015. Since that's in our Region, I'm hoping Area 26 will be involved in the process and I really hope to see a lot of you there. I'm looking forward to participating in District 1's workshop coming up in early August and to attending the Southeast Regional Conference in Miami, later that month. Thank you all so much for the opportunity to be of service. If you, your Districts or your Groups need anything, please don't hesitate to ask.
Announcements
On Line contributions now possible on www.aa.org (It's easy!) . Seeking personal stories on SELF SUPPORT from the fellowship . (Have you been personally affected by the services provided by GSO? For example in a foreign country, or here at home? What about literature? Are you a professional who has been impacted by GSO service? Looking for personal stories which show how "spirituality and money mix" with our principle of self support) . Job opening: A.A. Grapevine: Seeking a new Publisher (See attached) . AA Grapevine & La Vina survey: Fill it out and return it to me or DCM ASAP (can email it back to me, joyflynn1@netscape.net or use mailing address on the survey) . Grapevine Workshop, Alano Club in Lexington August 21, 2:00 PM . SE Regional Conference in Miami (August-Doral Gold Resort) . SE Regional Forum in Myrtle Beach (December: Spring Maid Resort
Good to see so many of you today for this Area meeting. Thanks to all the volunteers from District 27 that put this together this weekend. It's been great. If you're new to service, let me especially welcome you and invite to come back! Busy in A.A… Since I last saw you I have been very busy! I attended the General Service Conference in April. I'll give you a full report this weekend. Thank you again for allowing me to serve as your Delegate. I'm so honored and I appreciate your support and belief in me to do the job. Traveling…
Since the conference, I've done some traveling around Area 26 …and beyond. Thanks for inviting me to your districts! It's great to get to know you better and to attend a meeting in your area. I've had some great food at the various picnics and even went to a pig roast! I really appreciate the folks that stuck around for the workshops and reports. In this summer's heat, there's been a lot more than just pigs roasting, I've been .on fire. for service. This quarter, besides giving conference reports in Owensboro, Hopkinsville, Louisville and Lexington, I also attended the Falls City Convention to introduce a service workshop panel. I had a lot of fun and enjoyed spending time with the fellowship. The panel did a great job and the workshop was a success. Lynda R. also did an excellent Welcome to Service Workshop. Unfortunatly, it was in competition with some very rowdy Allateens, so it wasn't as well attended as we'd like. Nevertheless it was interesting and we enjoyed it. A.A.'s 75th Birthday/ International Convention I also attended the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous in San Antonio, TX! This was a very special occasion as we celebrated A.A's 75th anniversary with the theme, .A Vision For You.. It was another experience that I .wouldn't want to miss.. I had the opportunity at the convention to speak to a very large group on the subject of .Gratitude in your Attitude.. Wow! That's an easy topic for me, but I gotta tell you it was a little scary with such a large audience. Fortunately, I talked to a newcomer right before the meeting, said a prayer and got my head on straight, so it felt pretty good. I couldn't believe the number of folks that attended from all over the world. Rumors were flying as to how many folks attended, but it was well over 50,000! The loving spirit of the Fellowship was everywhere as we took over San Antonio. At the Sobriety count-UP, there were almost 600 people with over 40 years of sobriety. The oldest in sobriety was 63 years!! It was so great to see some of you from the Area and to visit with my new friends from the GSC. Just to show you how this thing works, I had an interesting thing happen at one of the .big. meetings, when a fellow excused himself down the row of seats and sat next to me. I wasn't paying a lot of attention at first, but at some point I turned to look at him and we both realized that we knew each other. It was Charlie, our past Treatment chair from Area 26! Out of all those people, he ended up sitting right next to me. That was special. You may remember that the Southeast Region hosted a hospitality suite as well. All kinds of people came through and signed our banner. Thanks to the Area 26 folks who .took our turn. in the room. We had a lot of fun. By the way, the hotel never came down on the price of coffee, so the host committee ended up having an ice cream social on Friday and Saturday night with the funds that were sent in. A couple of days before the actual convention, I also attended a Delegate's Reunion in San Antonio. This is not an .official event, but it has become an annual get together for current and Past Delegate's from US and Canada to see each other. They had a couple of great speakers. One of the speakers was a poster child for the CPC committee. She was a judge from a small town in Indiana who got involved with AA through a local AA group and CPC committee. Apparently she wasn't very knowledgeable about Alcoholism when she started her tenure as Judge, but began to notice repeat .offenders. in her courtroom. Because of the local AA community and CPC work, she became acquainted with AA. She had such good things to say about the work they were doing and became a true believer in the program. A couple of members in the community spent a lot of time educating her on the program and fortunately she was open and willing enough to listen. She started off her talk by saying, .I knew nothing about this alcohol thing. I grew up on a dairy farm and thought everyone should drink milk.. I wanted to mention this because we never know who will hear our message when we take the time to tell it. She's a good example of how we are .friendly with our friends.. One funny thing at the convention at the hotel where I was staying before the convention, one young man was standing at the front desk for a while before finally getting waited on, and then asked them for a .glass of milk.. He said it helped him go to sleep. I wondered if he might be there for our convention….What a change this behavior was from the old days. 2015 in Atlanta-Start saving now! The next International is in 2015 in Atlanta! We should be able to have even more participation from Area 26 since we can drive there. I hope more folks have the opportunity to experience this. I was completely in awe of the number of folks who filled the Alamo dome. Not only were there a lot of us, but the feeling of gratitude was contagious! At the beginning of the conference you could sense a certain anxiety by the police and hotel workers but by the end of the conference their faces showed a much different reaction. They saw recovery and sobriety in full force and we all came away knowing the Program works. .It really does.. New Groups I continue to get new group forms from GSO . I sent a letter and pamphlet to the new GSRs along with a flyer about this area meeting. I got a few of them back, but I hope that it encourages more GSRs to get involved in the Service Structure. Just as a reminder, if you are starting a new group, it's really a good idea to go through your DCM and ultimately the Area Registrar. It might help eliminate some of the waiting period that new groups face since the DCMs won't have to make sure it's a viable group and you will be listed in our database quicker. Linguistic District Also, I would like for you all to think about how we can reach out to our new linguistic district better. Should we add something on our web site? Should we try to and do translations of our Area material? Southeast Region While at the GSC, the Southeast Region had a lunch meeting and talked about some of the business of the region. I believe this is where we stand on these issues:
SERAASA-still on hold as some other areas have had some second thoughts about it. So it's still a .no go. for now. . Business Guidelines for the SE Region-Plan to bring them to the next SE conference to finalize but basically they should be ratified. . Puerto Rico was added to the rotation for conferences and forums. . West Virginia will host the next .additional forum. as there seems to be a great need there to get folks involved. Proposals were put forth from Puerto Rico and Georgia, but the vote was for West Virginia. I hope that we can offer our help since they are our neighbors. I know that the Delegate for WV actually does a lot of Corrections work in the Ashland, KY area too.
I want to thank my friend David D. and past Archives chair Clint T. for filling in at the last Area 26 meeting in LaGrange while I was out of the country. It is good to have people willing to step up to help. I have been to the Repository every 3rd Sunday of the month, except this one for obvious reasons, and have had no visitors from our fellowship. I have had one visitor from western Kentucky looking for any information on early AA for his area. We search the files and found a couple of items of interest to him. I made copies for him of the things we had found to add to the west Kentucky Archive they are setting up. Yesterday we had 6 people attend the Archives Committee meeting. All were new to Archives. Discussed the role of Archives in keeping Area 26 records. The need for group histories & interviewing old-timers was discussed and the use of digital recorders for interviewing old-timers. This was a small but very enthusiastic group. We talked a great deal about the importance of group histories and I shared my experience with gathering the information to do this. We also discussed how to handle archival material and just what qualifies as archival, for groups, districts and the area. We also discussed the number of visitors we have had and I asked their opinion on changing the hours the Repository is open on the 3rd of each month from 10-3 to 12-4. One of the main reason for this change is my personal family situation, and the travel time from Frankfort to Lexington, and back. No one saw a problem with this so, after conferring with Barbara, I am making this an announcement here today: the Area 26 Repository will be open the 3rd Sunday of every month from 12-4pm, and by appointment.
What an honor to participate in such a great organization that has brought peace, purpose and a sense of direction for so many suffering alcoholics. The people in this room have demonstrated to me the power of this program that continues to renew my faith that I can remain sober one day at a time through service work. A lot has been happening since the last area meeting. I have conducted two workshops, one in Burkesville and one in Hopkinsville. The workshops center around how you get started doing CPC work on the local level. I was able to direct those interested to the AA website and download the part of the workbook which helps us get started. In Burkesville I was able to conduct a workshop which included members of the public service sector which included a judge, a prosecuting attorney, and several candidates for local offices. Here I was able to use pamphlets to deliver the message of what AA is and what AA is not. This was interesting; the Burkesville Group of Alcoholics Anonymous invited those running for office to attend the workshop. This gave them a chance to meet with their constituents and us a chance to educate them on what we do and what we don't do. Through these workshops I have gained the knowledge of the challenges we face in working with professionals as well as our personal struggles with the difference between attraction and not promotion. Just how do you approach a professional with the good news of recover without becoming overzealous with your wishes and desires that all who suffers with this disease should have this way of life? There was discussion about how we could take food into a doctor's office along with the message in order to get their attention. Then it was discussed that maybe we should leave it up to God for those who hear the message. We had an interesting discussion on working with EPA (Employee Assistance Program) and how they too were requesting a follow up report on the clients that they were referring to AA with contact information of the AA person to verify that the client did indeed attend a meeting. We were able to refer to the service piece of Alcoholics Anonymous as a Resource for Drug & Alcohol Professionals as a guide to inform the EPA personnel of what we can and can not do. Another challenge that was discussed is the fact that the budget cuts going on through the state that the drug court people are more concerned with maintaining status quo than they are with trying to learn something new concerning AA. We also discussed a news article that was published in the Frankfort State Journal that appeared to be breaking some of our Traditions. It was discussed maybe the newspaper that printed the articled needs to be contacted about our Traditions. The other suggestion was to have a workshop to better understand anonymity. It was also reported that the Harrison County drug court contact the local Frankfort CPC Chair for more information. A lot of work has been done and there remains a lot more work to be done.
During the last quarter, I spoke at workshops in Owensboro and Hopkinsville. Thanks to Districts 17 and 26 for gracious hosts and treating us to Western KY barbecue. A request from the Corrections desk at GSO asked for a meeting at the Boyd County Detention Center. An officer at that facility who is also an AA member requested the meeting. However, I knew that there was already an active meeting there. I contacted Kathy O., delegate for WVA. Since her home group is on the KY/WVA border, they support that meeting. I was able to inform the officer that there was already a meeting in place and put him in touch with the appropriate person. I responded to one request from an inmate who is incarcerated in Beckley, WVA. Since he will be living in Lexington, KY upon release, he was looking for an outside sponsor. Three men from my home group have written letters to this inmate. I attended the San Antonio International AA Convention at my own expense. I met the GSO Corrections staff in person. I tried to attend the two Corrections workshops, but there was a schedule conflict with one of them. The other workshop meeting room was full, and per Fire Marshal rules, I was not allowed to enter the room. I have ordered the CD's for these workshops, and I hope these CD's can be used for information for Area 26 Corrections volunteers. At our meeting on Saturday, we did a round table discussion regarding the various problems corrections volunteers are experiencing. We worked on solutions to issues including: fund raising and the traditions, mixing AA and religion, use of non-conference approved literature, and cooperating with the professional community. We came up with good solutions, and networking between corrections volunteers from around the state was helpful. Will all those who attended the corrections committee meeting please stand. Thank you for your service to our jails and prisons.
Those present were given a Grapevine Survey and was encouraged to fill them out and/or take them back to their District. The survey is to be given to Joy F. by November 1st. It was also shared that the Grapevine survey can also be completed online. LaVina is now bi-monthly due to financial reasons. This will be revisited 2013 to see if it will go to a monthly publication. Reminder to those present that the Grapevine is our meeting in print and we can submit an article. The month's Grapevine theme is .The Family Afterward.. The Grapevine Rep. Handbook was discussed and information shared about how to get a copy. Total Grapevine subscription in Area 26 Region is 708. Follow up from last Grapevine committee meeting; What have we been doing to make others aware of the Grapevine? Some of the things that we are doing are as follows: Subscriptions to the Grapevine have been given to Doctor's offices, Lawyers, and Dentist offices, (with their permission). Some groups ordered back issues of the Grapevine. These are used in a variety of ways. One group puts a Grapevine on each chair. The preamble, Twelve Steps, and Twelve Traditions are read from the Grapevines. Other groups subscribe and group members purchase the copies and/or share them with each other. One person's home group gives those celebrating one year of sobriety a subscription to the Grapevine (.Lending Library. of back issues of the Grapevine). Information cards on the Grapevine were ordered and handed out to GSRs. Grapevine workshop upcoming in Lexington on August 21, 2010 at 2:00 pm. Online subscription to the Grapevine Archives is available.
We had record attendance at our committee meeting yesterday with 12 in attendance. Our first item of business was reviewing the newsletter for any mistakes and I would just like to direct your attention to the cover for the correct email address of yahoo and not yehah.com. All I can promise you at this point is we will continue to proofread to the best of our ability, say our prayers and hope to one day have an error free issue. Our next newsletter comes out in October. Our topic for October is .Pass It On. and the deadline for submissions is September 1st. As you may remember this will be our service issue and everyone who attended the meeting yesterday has agreed to write on article on their experience with service work. Our January issue will be titled .Pain is the Touchstone of all Spiritual Progress.. Deadline for submission is December 1st. We will continue the articles on the concepts. In our next issue will be Concepts 7-9 and in our January issue Jim S. will share his experience with Concepts 10 - 12. Please be sure and read Rita B.'s concept article in our current issue. Our Committee Chair interview in the October issue will be with Special Needs Chair Debbie C. We are still working on getting an accurate quote on the price of the newsletter in actual newsprint and hope to be able to discuss this more thoroughly at our next meeting. We also got the opportunity to look at several examples of newsletters from around the country to see what other districts, areas, Intergroups and regions do with their newsletters. After seeking a quote from a recommended printer the current issue has been printed by Hurt Printing in Louisville. We ran 550 newsletters with staples and 50 without staples for corrections. The total for printing was $410.75 a difference of $239.00 less than the last newsletter. I have already heard a comment that the current issue is a much better quality printing. We distributed newsletters to those DCM's in attendance yesterday but several districts were not here. If anyone here lives close to any of the following districts and would be willing to distribute the newsletters will you please see me today. Those districts are 7, 8, 18, 29, 30 and 36. As always please remember this is your newsletter. We need your ideas, suggestions and submissions. Please contact us we would love to hear from you.
We had over 19 people in attendance. Interest in Literature at Area 26 is quite alive and growing. Guidelines, Conference recommendation and considerations, information on Conference approved Literature and other AA Literature and Service Material were handed out. We started our discussion with Guidelines on the Literature Committees and the responsibilities. We discussed Conference approved Literature, how it is developed and how it safeguards AA Unity. We next reviewed Conference Advisory Actions for the 60th General Service Conference. This really became quite lively when we discussed the conference action to move forward on development of a draft and/or progress report on developing a pamphlet on .Spirituality including stories from Atheists and Agnostics successfully sober in AA. This action was opposed on Area 26 Literature committee during the April discussion of Conference Agenda items. An impassioned discussion developed with sharing of personal opinion and belief, AA Tradition., the effectiveness of AA Literature's open mindedness and accessibility on this issue and background material supporting this Agenda item. Also the idea that that we might consider that we already have an unnecessary amount of special purpose literature that may actually divert us from our message., our principals and our primary purpose. A point was also made that during these times of concern for self support, lower group contributions and lower than expected literature sales, it might be well to consider a 5 year moratorium on all literature development and shift our focus toward looking at existing literature making certain that the message is consistent from one piece to another and possibly assessing the need for each item. From this discussion, a motion was made to discuss the need for this pamphlet, the background material supporting it in the hope of getting a sense of the Area 26 Literature whether or not we would propose a Conference agenda item to rescind this advisory action. We have invited our Delegate to sit in on our committee. Our committee also expressed an interest in agenda time concerning Editorial responsibilities if the Publication Department, looking forward to the Final Conference Report that hopefully give details of Conference committee discussion, since .no action was taken on this matter' was recommended. Finally, the committee reviewed and discussed the pamphlet .Problems Other than Alcohol. which details AA's stated position on Singleness of Purpose, membership and its role in the unity of survival of our Fellowship. Discussion was engaging and informative. Sharing included experience on how issues of Singleness of Purpose is addressed in the conference process on developing literature and methods employed at the group level.
First, thanks to those who attended yesterday's meeting. We had a total of nine (9) people in attendance. Would those who were there, please stand? We'd also like to thank District 27 for hosting the Area 26 meeting this weekend. 1. Our discussion in the Public Information Committee was centered mostly on how to get literature from GSO, and how best to distribute it. We talked about how to order a Public Information Kit, what it contains, and the letter to media which is sent out by GSO every year. We also had a lively discussion on what is the difference between attraction and promotion in the area of Public Information; and AA in general. In addition, we talked about the differences between maintaining anonymity at a personal level and a public level. Thanks to the awesome audiovisual setup in the classroom, we were able to watch two of the new Young Peoples' videos on a large wall screen. 2. At the end of the last quarter, there was an anonymity break concerning an advertisement for a serenity retreat at Mount Saint Francis Center for Spirituality. I wrote an email to Mount Saint Francis regarding AA's traditions 6, 11, and 12. I requested that AA's name not be mentioned in their ads in the future as someone might have gotten the impression that AA was affiliated with their organization as AA was mentioned six (6) times in their advertisement. I received a prompt reply from one of the friars explaining that a new person had put together the advertisement in error. The friar assured me that he would talk to the new person to insure that AA would not be mentioned in their ads in the future. 3. On April 14, I participated in a District 24 Service workshop along with Area 26 Committee Chairs: Brian S. - Treatment Facilities, and Joe O. - Grapevine. 4. On April 29, I represented AA at a health fair in Somerset in Pulaski County. I received the request to attend via email through the Area 26 website. 5. At the Falls City Convention, I set up a Public Information display on June 6-7 which included showing the Young Peoples' video. 6. Lastly, I set up the PI display at the Unity Picnic on June 19th.
I too would like to thank District 27 for hosting this mid-summer Area 26 meeting. Please find the following information available from the GSO data base concerning Area 26. We have a total of 1,222 groups registered with the GSO. Of that total 694 groups (56.7%) are termed as being active. Leaving a total of 528 groups (43.3%) classified as inactive. We have no groups listed as incomplete. (That is information missing.) We have no groups listed as new. We have no groups listed as pending inactive. We have no groups listed as unknown. We have 3 groups listed as pending active. If there is anyone here who can provide me with any some additional information on any of the following groups listed as pending active please contact me during this meeting. Those groups with a pending active status are: Living Sober Group: Spanish speaking group from District 36 located in Owensboro.T.G.I.F. Group located in Lexington New Found Freedom Group located in Danville. There are also three groups currently listed as active by the GSO that I need some additional information about so we can update the Area records. Those groups are: Early Birds Group Corydon Indiana. Friday Night Friends Group Louisville. Oldies But Goodies Group Covington. Anyone who has a discussable and working knowledge of these three groups please contact me sometime during this weekend.
Our committee met yesterday morning with 2 committee members attending, and 1 DCM sitting in to gain information about Special Needs for her district. We had a show & tell session at our meeting. I brought in all my examples of literature for the sight impaired, hearing impaired, videos and audios, large print and easy to read literature and also discussed items that GSO has available, but that I do not currently have on hand. I plan to purchase some of the audio tapes and other literature for our committee's use. The Special Needs Chairs from Districts 13 & 14 have been very active helping to carry the message of recovery to alcoholics in their district who are homebound or need help in getting out to meetings and I commend them on their work and dedication. The Louisville Intergroup has started a Meetings on Wheels that runs out of the Intergroup office and I was given information on that meeting. This is a great idea. After the April assembly, one of the members from my district who attended, spoke to me about my vote to dispense with the reading of the minutes. He said that as Special Needs Chair, it is my responsibility to stand up for those who, for one reason or another, are unable to read the minutes and that I should have voted against dispensing of the reading of the minutes. Now, my first reaction, was that he was wrong, because in reference to him, I always place personality before principals. However, in the intervening months, I have tossed this idea back and forth, one day agreeing with him, one day not. This morning, I spoke with Joy, Barbara and Linda about it and got their opinions. and today I brought this to my committee for their opinion, but even then we could not come up with a consensus. Today, I will likely vote against dispensing of the reading of the minutes. As Special Needs Chair, I have been totally inactive for the past quarter. but just this weekend, I have been approached by Gary F, DCM of District 35 to participate in a workshop in his district on September 18 and also by Amy B., Newsletter Chair, to be the next interviewee for the newsletter. Looks like I will be getting busier. Now, if I just had more people attending these meetings. I feel sure that many more of the districts have someone on their committees to cover Special Needs, they just aren't making the Area Meetings. I do hope that they will be able to in the future.
At the treatment facilities committee meeting yesterday, we had a total of 18 people in attendance. Our attendance was less than the April meeting yet we had several people returning from the last meeting. I'm very optimistic about the future of this committee. One of our regular attendees, Laura H., gave us a presentation on bridging the gap. Laura is a GSR in district 13 and also she chair the Bridging the Gap committee for the Louisville Intergroup. Bridging the Gap has been quite effective in the Louisville area routinely working in many of the area hospitals and recovery centers. She shared some of Louisville's experience and passed out presentation guidelines used in Louisville. We also watched the Hope 2009 DVD which was agreed to be a great tool in the presentation. With the remainder of the time, we had a sharing session with just about everyone participating. We identified outpatient treatment settings as an untapped area for an AA presence. I'm looking forward to October's meeting. Dick W. from district 32 and Paul F. from district 6 will be doing a presentation on AA in treatment in Northern Kentucky. I want to thank them in advance for the work they will put into our next meeting.
First, I want to thank Renee for showing me the errors in the flyer. I apologize to the body for not catching them sooner. I wish more people would look at our stuff when you find mistakes please bring them to my attention so we can correct our errors. I want you all to know everything in the flyer is on the Website and most of it was on the site before I became Webmaster. Second, for those who don't already know, GSO does recognize the Online Intergroup as an Intergroup. On the home page of their website they state clearly that online live and/or email meetings are not substitute for real face-to-face meetings. In addition, they make very clear the importance of face-to-face meetings. However, for people who are homebound and are in remote areas, they may be the only meetings they can attend. The same goes for people in wheelchairs as so many of our meetings are not wheelchair accessible. Third, I will ask Joseph from RumRadio not to use our email list to distribute his information about anything. However, just as with anonymity breaks in the press, radio and films, all we can do is ask them. Fourth, I ask for email of flyers we post on the internet because it is suggested in the Internet Guidelines. However, they are guidelines, not rules which is why they give people the choice. Now for some great news, our Northern Kentucky Host Committee has setup a website and you can register online for our State Convention. I think they are even talking about passing the site on to other Host Committees. Some areas in the US and Canada even have links on their websites that link to motels so you can register for your room for the convention as well. They have disclaimers with those links to make clear they are not endorsing or promoting those motels. At our Website Committee Meeting, we had four people show up. We talked about me getting help with email and updating our website because now I am working I can't always respond as quickly as I should. We are closer to having tech people to edit the website so the Website Committee Chair can focus on keeping the Traditions and Concepts, holding workshops and answering email. Once we have that in place anyone who can use email can be the Website Committee Chairperson. We went over the first page of three we hope will become our website policy. We cut a lot of the first page and I'm hoping we can get it down to a page or page and a half. We will devote more time to it at our next area meeting. If all goes well we may be ready to submit it to the body as early as October. As I said yesterday, the plan is after our Website Committee approves it. We will present it to the body and hopefully have it as an agenda item at our following meetings. Some groups in and near Lexington are talking about having temporary meetings during the Equestrian games because of the incredible numbers of AA who come from all over the world. Thos meetings will be on our Website.
There were 35 to 40 people in attendance at the Welcome to Service Workshop, with about 1/3 being new to service. Will all those in attendance, please stand and be recognized. I want to thank you all for your participation, both with questions and with shared experience. I love doing this workshop, because it's a great forum for us to learn from each other and to find out that most of us, our groups and our districts go through the same difficulties - things like how to get people involved or how to encourage self-support. We briefly reviewed the agenda for the weekend and talked about procedure and what to expect. The importance of communication between the GSRs and the DCMs throughout the process was discussed so that the voice of your group is heard. We talked about the importance of becoming familiar with the Service Manual, the Traditions and the Concepts, and the value of having a service sponsor. We talked about utilizing conference approved literature and service material to help us in our service commitments and how to go about obtaining the literature. We also talked about how to get in touch with the General Service Office and that they're there to help as well as some of the material that's available at AA.org. We discussed the value in having workshops to educate and discuss specific issues that groups or districts are experiencing, and that your Area Officers and Committee Chairs are available to help. We reviewed the service structure from the GSRs on down to the make up of the boards and the importance of open communication between all levels of service and the balance of responsibility and accountability that keeps our structure alive. It always seems like the hour goes by so quickly and there's never enough time to touch on everything. I hope if you have questions that were not answered that you'll please pull, me or one of your other Area Committee Members aside and ask the question this weekend. Or, invite us to do a workshop. We are here to serve you. Thanks again to all of you for making the workshop a great one.
The annual Bluegrass Intergroup picnic was held in Lexington, Kentucky on June 19, 2010. We had a wonderful turnout with great weather. A raffle was held, mindful of Tradition Seven, and a net profit of $1,139.39 was realized. This was placed into the Intergroup operating account. This account and the prudent reserve remain below budget. Appeals to groups and individuals for improved contributions continue to help make up the shortfall. Nine of ten committees have chairpersons (workshop is currently vacant), as do all three of the districts that report to the Bluegrass Intergroup. Our next focus is to provide an AA presence at the World Equestrian Games, which will be held in Central Kentucky, September 25, 2010 through October 10, 2010. This event is expected to bring 500,000 - 750,000 visitors to the area. New Meeting Directory, revised in June listing 275 meetings in our service area.
We elected a new Outside Speaker Chairperson, John A. We have started a Meeting on Wheels Committee head by Alex M. This committee will take meetings to non-ambulatory homebound or nursing home alcoholics. Our next quarterly will be held on July 24th at the Saffin Center 3938 Popular Level Road. Mike S. from Morgantown, IN will be our speaker. Hope to see you there! Our Central Office & Answering Service had 1947 calls and the Twelve Steps calls visitors to our Central Office 237 website received 6,347 emails with 73 answered.
The West Kentucky Intergroup now has its own internet website up and running, and all meetings in the Intergroup area are now accessible with dates, times, and places, as well as links to GSO literature and general information, The response to date has been excellent. Several members from out of town have utilized the site to find meetings and were most enthusiastic about the convenience. The developing site can be seen at wkintergroup.org. Twelfth step work at correctional facilities in the Area continues with A.A. meetings continuing at Marshall, Calloway, Graves, and Christian County jails. Meetings at the State run farm facility near Fredonia in Lyon County are now exclusively female, since all male inmates have been moved out and female inmates moved in. Ray B. Corrections Chairman is soliciting help from women in the Area to assist in facilitating meetings there as they presently do for women in the four county correction facilities now served., At the most recent intergroup meeting held at the Intergroup Office at 6804 U.S. 641, located between Gilbertsville and Draffenville, plans were made for the Annual Intergroup Picnic, scheduled for September 11 at the Park in Kuttawa. Sherry P. of Chicago will be the speaker. Volunteers are now staffing the Intergroup Office on Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Joe D. Office Manager continues to keep the office open during those same hours on Saturday, Sunday and Holidays for the convenience of members who would like to purchase literature and supplies. While financial support for Intergroup has not been bountiful during the past several months, due largely to the economy, attendance at meetings continues steady and upward and district groups continue to contribute time and effort to overcome our difficulties.
SERCYPAA is the South East Regional Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous. Our conference will be held July 29th through August 1st at the Kentucky Convention Center in downtown Louisville. Our committee has put a lot of work into the conference and we have over 200 people registered from over 20 different states. This experience has given us a chance to learn more about the Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts as well as the opportunity to carry the message. We invite you all to attend the conference and we stress that young means .room to grow..