AWSC (Area World Service Committee) MINUTES 6-11-2016 OPEN: Chairperson opened the meeting with the Serenity Prayer. There were 23 voting members in attendance. MINUTES of AWSC were read by Secretary and accepted. TREASURER S REPORT: Treasurer s report for March 1, 2016 May 31, 2016 was read and accepted with corrections. The Treasurer stated a request; if you are making a district or personal contribution, please include the district number on the check. OLD BUSINESS There was no old business brought forward. At this time, our Delegate explained a hand out she distributed on Friday Night during her World Service Conference report, and again during our AWSC business meeting. This handout, from WSO, is to go to each group for the members to discuss, complete, and return to our Delegate by July 1. 48 services are listed that WSO performs for our members, groups and areas world wide. The group members are asked to list the 10 services that are felt to be most needed; with number one being the most needed. Also the members are to list the 10 services that are felt to be the least needed, again with number one being the service least needed. We were reminded by our Delegate that each service listed was a job being performed by a person, and in deleting a service, we were deleting someone s paid position. NEW BUSINESS The Convention Coordinator brought forth a motion. To amend the Convention Guidelines on page 6 of Area Guidelines to read: Convention fundraising at Area Assembly will be limited to October Area Assembly and chaired by the upcoming Convention host. After discussion and questions, the motion was seconded and passed. 22 yes, 0 no, 1 abstaining. The Alternate Delegate presented two motions regarding Alateen activities time changes which were necessary to align with our current agenda. Motion one: Move Alateen sharing meeting from 7:30 P.M. Saturday to 8:30 A.M. Saturday on the new Area Assembly Agenda. Motion was seconded and passed unanimously. Motion two: Move Dinner/Alateen activity from 5:30 P.M. Saturday to 6 P.M. Friday on the new Area Assembly Agenda. Motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
Our Delegate presented the Area with the Meet the Board invitation and explained what the Meet the Board event entailed. Our Area has submitted a request to be considered twice before, so the work involved is very minimal. The World Service Office has changed the date of the Meet the Board event from the month of July to October. The date is Saturday October 21, 2017. This is not an Area event, it is a WSO event, and our area would be the hosting area. Our Area s only responsibility would be to broadly publicize the event. World Service Office will do the remaining planning. After detailed discussion and questions, a motion was brought forth. Motion: Area 64 will submit our bid for 2017 Meet the Board event. Motion was seconded and passed. 18 yes, 2 no, 3 abstaining. A motion was presented by district 15. Motion: District 15 would like to host the 2018 Area Assembly Convention at the Ramada Inn Beach Resort on Okaloosa Island on February 2-4, 2018. Motion was seconded and passed unanimously with no discussion. A motion was brought forth regarding raising our Area Convention registration fees. Motion: To change Convention registration fees to $25.00 advance and $30.00 at the door. Alateen registration continue to be free. This to begin at the next convention. After much discussion the motion was seconded and voted on. 1 yes, 21 no, 2 abstaining. Motion did not pass. At this point in our meeting the voting numbers changed from 23 to 24 with a new member coming in late. There being no other motions, our Delegate presented a question for our Assembly to discuss. Would Area 64 be interested in submitting a bid to host the 2023 Al-Anon International Convention? The Delegate went into great detail as to what this undertaking would entail. After lengthy discussion, a consensus vote was taken as to whether our Area would want to look into hosting this event, possibly with the Tennessee Area. The consensus vote was yes, our Area would be interested. Three members volunteered to do some research, contact the Tennessee Area, and bring back details at our October Assembly, as the deadline to submit our bid for our Area to host is December 1, 2016. The Al-Anon International Convention is always on the July 4 weekend. The next Al-Anon International Convention will be held in Baltimore, MD., in 2018. Dallas, Texas has submitted a bid for the 2023 Al-Anon International Convention. We are asked to take this question back to our groups and discuss it. At our October Assembly we will have to make a decision if we wish to submit a bid to host. There being no more new business from the floor, the AWSC Meeting closed with the Lord s Prayer. Respectfully submitted, Area Secretary
ALABAMA/NORTHWEST FLORIDA AREA ASSEMBLY BUSINESS MEETING MINUTES JUNE 11, 2016 OPEN: Chairperson opened the meeting with the Serenity Prayer. 39 voting members were in attendance. MINUTES of MARCH 12, 2016 AREA ASSEMBLY MEETING were read by Secretary and accepted. TREASURER S REPORT MARCH 1, 2016 thru MAY 31, 2016 was accepted as read by Treasurer with corrections. PAST DELEGATES: Past Delegates were acknowledged with those from years 1995, 1998, 2010 in attendance. ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Chairperson made a few housekeeping announcements. She gave out her hotel room number in case anyone needed to reach her throughout the weekend. Also, the Literature Coordinator will have a book drawing later this afternoon. The book is for our groups libraries. Don t forget to sign up; the container is on the side bar. OLD BUSINESS: Our Area Delegate gave an update on four items of business discussed at the WSC she attended in April. The descriptive changes in the way Concept Eleven is written passed. The changes that were made will primarily concern Al- Anon in other countries and does not pose concerns for the U.S. Memorial Contributions received by WSO from family members, who are not members of Al- Anon, will be accepted with a cap of $500.00 and no ear marking. It will be up to the person making the donation as to whether he/she is a family member or not. The discussion regarding descriptive changes concerning how conventions and other Al- Anon events are announced in Al- Anon and Alateen meetings was sent back to the policy committee for more work to be done on the wording. The WSO has asked the groups to answer a question regarding the Just for Today bookmark and pamphlet Prayer for Today. The question they want answered by the group members is: How can we honor both our Legacies and Traditions and still be open and inclusive to a world wide fellowship? Our Delegate needs our groups feedback before our October Assembly. We will be discussing this question at our October Assembly.
At this time our Delegate addressed the WSC handout she had for each district representative to distribute to the groups in their districts. This handout is for the group members to look over, discuss, complete and return to our Delegate by July 1. The group members are asked to list the top 10 services, out of 48 listed services, that they would most want to see continue to be available for members, groups, districts, areas and the WSO. Number one being the most important service and number ten being the least, but important service. Then, do the same with the 10 services felt to be the least needed, one through ten. We were reminded that as we list the services to be eliminated, we are also eliminating paid positions at WSO. Motions from morning AWSC (Area World Service Committee Meeting) were read by the Alternate Delegate. Motion: Amend convention guidelines on page 6 of Area Guidelines to read: Convention fundraising at Area Assembly will be limited to October Area Assembly and chaired by the upcoming Convention Host. Motion passed with 38 yes, 1 no, and 0 Abstaining. Motion: Area 64 will submit our bid for 2017 Meet the Board event. Our Delegate explained that the Meet the Board event is an opportunity for members to get to know the Trustees and gain an understanding of the duties they perform. There are 69 areas invited to submit bids and most all of them do. The WSO has changed the month to meet from July to October and the date in October is Saturday, October 21, 2017. Our area has submitted bids twice before. Motion passed with 38 yes, and 1 abstaining. Motion: District 15 would like to host the 2018 Area Assembly Convention at the Ramada Inn Beach Resort on Okaloosa Island, February 2 4, 2018. Motion passed unanimously The Alternate Delegate read two motions that were related to Alateen and our present agenda. Both motions concerned time changes for Alateen events to fit our time frame on the new agenda. The two motions were unanimously passed by the AWSC, as this committee is the voting body that sets Assembly Agendas. Also, the Alternate Delegate stated that a consensus vote was taken at the AWSC meeting regarding Area 64 being interested in looking into submitting a bid to host the 2023 International Convention. Three members volunteered to research this endeavor and to ask the Tennessee Area if they would be interested in joining our Area in submitting a bid. The bid must be submitted by December 1, 2016. If we are to submit
our bid, we will have to make a decision and vote at the October Assembly. Dallas, Texas has already submitted a bid for hosting this event. We are asked to take this topic back to our groups for Knowledge Based Decision Making groups conscience. The next Al- Anon International Convention is being held in Baltimore, MD on the weekend of July 4, 2018. NEW BUSINESS: The first piece of new business, from the floor, was to discuss the motion that was tabled at March Assembly concerning the closing of our Area Assembly meetings with the Lord s Prayer. The motion presented in March stated: to revise the Assembly Meeting Guideline July 1991 which states; the meetings at Area Assembly will be closed by praying the Lord s Prayer and nothing said afterward, to read: the meetings at Area Assembly will be closed with the Al- Anon Declaration and nothing said afterward. There was lengthy and very detailed Knowledge Based Decision Making discussion on this motion before the vote was taken. During the discussion period, one member left, leaving the voting members totaling 38. There were 23 no, 11 yes, and 4 abstaining. This motion did not pass. The next piece of new business was a motion concerning the convention registration fees. Motion: To increase convention registration to $20.00 in advance, and $25.00 at the door. Alateen registration continue to be free. Effective in 2017. 2 yes, 26 no, 1 abstaining. Several members had left the meeting room thus a new count was taken with 29 votes cast. The motion did not pass. There was no other new business. The chairperson closed the meeting with the Lord s Prayer. Respectfully submitted, Area Secretary
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