2014 NERAASA Reports to Area 47

Alternate Delegate’s March 2014 Report:

I attended the 2014 Northeast Regional Alcoholics Anonymous Service Assembly in Warwick Rhode Island, February 21-23. Over 800 A.A. members attended the assembly.

At the assembly, I was privileged to represent the area on a panel devoted to the Grapevine magazine. NERAASA assigns you a topic and asks that you provide a written copy in advance of your presentation along with the source material cited. The presentation is at the end of this report.

In addition, I participated in the two roundtables held for the panel 63 and panel 64 Delegates and Alternate Delegates. The primary focus of the roundtables was on the upcoming general service conference – what to expect and your responsibilities at the conference. The Northeast Regional Trustee hosted a luncheon for current and past delegates and current alternate delegates. Also, I attended other service panels and the Saturday night banquet and speaker meeting. This was the 8th NERAASA that I have attended. As always at events like this there is much to be informally learned in conversations with trusted servants from the region. It was nice to see so many familiar faces and to reconnect with some friends.

At the assembly I participated in the Report and Charter, and the Literature roundtable discussions. I will be attending with the Delegate pre-conference meetings with A.A. members in Ithaca and Rochester. Providing the delegate with an informed area conscience is all of our responsibility, one of which I take very seriously.

In service – Joe S, CNY Area 47, Panel 63 Alternate Delegate

Grapevine Magazine: Self Supporting or Outreach to the Community? Is it all about the money or are we providing a service? Link to full report.

Archives Report from NERAASA 2014

The North East Regional Alcoholics Anonymous Service Assembly took place February 21st – 23rd in Warwick, Pennsylvania. The topic of the assembly was ‘Communicating Our Legacies – Vital in a Changing World.’ While I did attend many helpful and informative panels, my main reason for being there was to attend the Archives Roundtable. In addition, our traveling archives display was set up in a prominent location and was seen and studied by many.

The roundtable took place on both Friday and Saturday nights. Moderated by Bobbie, a former Delegate and current archivist for Area 31 (Western Mass.), 15 people attended on Friday and 20 joined on Saturday. Archivists and Archives Committee Chairs from many of the Areas were present, as well as the NERAASA Archivist. All attendees were given a packet of GSO materials pertaining to archives.

On Friday, the attendees shared what archive work was currently being worked on in their area. Neal shared that Area 47 emphasizes policies for the acceptance and receipt of materials and that we are in the process of sorting and organizing several donated boxes of documents. Several Areas have Archives Committees that meet once a month outside of Area Assembly to work on the collection. By trusting members with sorting and scanning material, committees are able to accomplish more and keep up on the inevitable backlog.

Digitization of archival documents, as well as audio and video material, is being accomplished in some areas, but others are prohibited by the cost of the equipment. Digitizing records is the best method available for backing up collections, as well as protecting them against natural disasters. Area 47 (HMB) lost nearly their entire archives collection a few years ago due to flooding, some of which is irreplaceable. With digitization, while materials may be lost, the information is saved. The night ended with all attendees being urged to attend the Ntl. AA Archives Workshop taking place in Philadelphia in October to learn more about this and other aspects of archival preservation.

On Saturday we discussed means of displaying some archives in order to drive interest. A narrative/timeline was suggested as a means of connecting members with archives and AA history. Area 47 has already accomplished these with our traveling display and the small red book ‘A Short History of AA in Central New York’.

Digitization was again discussed and this is the direction that Area 47 needs to move into next. The GSO document Digitizing Archival Material Guidelines provides a roadmap for accomplishing this task. It was suggested that scanning starts with today and moves forward, filling in the past as you can. The evening ended with a spirited discussion of anonymity versus accessibility of material. Cleaning up documents to protect anonymity is a time consuming process and presents the largest hurdle for making material available on the Web. We were all reminded that anonymity continues to apply even after a member has passed away.

Being new to archival work, this experience provided the knowledge needed to move our Archives Committee forward, showing where our priorities need to lie and how to our collection for future members of AA.

Thanks for the opportunity to serve,
Lisa D, Archives Committee Chairperson

Link to original report (.pdf)

Archivist’s Report from NERAASA 2014

NERAASA 2014 Archives Roundtable Report

The NERAASA 2014 Archives Roundtable moderated by Bobbie of Area 31 (Western Massachusetts) had fifteen attendees Friday and 24 Saturday. Present were the NERAASA Archivist, Areas 12 (Delaware,) 29 (Maryland,) 31 (Western Massachusetts,) 44 (Northern New Jersey,) 47 (Central New York,) 48 (Hudson, Mohawk, Berkshire,) 59 (Eastern Pennsylvania,) and 61 (Rhode Island) and others interested in archives. Also present was the workshop contact, Anne Marie, for the 18TH Annual National A.A. Archives Workshop, October 9-12, 2014 in King of Prussia, PA.

Each individual present shared current archive work in progress in their particular area. Area 47 emphasized the importance of each area establishing policies for the proper accession and deaccession of archival material. Archival material preservation involves protection against natural disasters such as floods and acid leeching. Digitizing records is a cost effect way for backing up most archival materials including audio and video records. Most areas are generating digital records of minutes and motions that are electronically searchable. Area 44 is digitizing by decade and has gotten back to the nineteen forties and plan on holding a Alcoholics Anonymous Book celebration in April.

All recognize that rapid technological changes have impacted each area’s digital records and the challenges faced converting to new media requirements. A handout copy of GSO’s “Digitizing Archival Material Guidelines” was provided. One approach for many boxes of archival material was to have sorting sessions by volunteers which require trust that those volunteers will sort responsibly. The sorting needs to be done even without a clear picture of what the outcome will be but the contents of each box should be noted as eventually one or more categories will become evident. Area 59, for example, sorts and files records classed by Committee.

Area 29 emphasized the display of archival information as a way of encouraging area old-timers to contribute to the archives and of encouraging the newcomer‘s enthusiasm of our history. One area made acid-free boards with the help of the New York Historical Society to highlight their collections and added that on-line information and courses are available. Area 12 uses a 10×10 temperature-climate controlled repository, which in most cases is an expensive option for most areas, to house every edition and printing of the Big Book with the except of one printing, which mysteriously vanished. This brought up the point that archive material is entrusted to each area to be protected.

List your lists, create time lines, and prepare short narratives as ingredients for Web-page development and longer narratives. Preparation for Web pages of course involves scanning cleaned-up documents to protect anonymity. The Archive Roundtable spent much of its time discussing the observance of this important Tradition. Area 44, Northern New Jersey, is the host of next year’s NERAASA 2015.

Yours in service,
Neal, Area 47 Archivist

Link to original report (.pdf)

Chairperson’s Report

I attended the North East Regional AA Service Assembly in Warwick, RI. February 21-23, 2014. I rode up with Patty and Joe Schaller. We arrived in time for the 8pm panel “Progress of A. A. Inventory” it was shared by three panelists who spoke on (1) Does structure encourage all to be “alcoholics in action? Do we ensure diversity? (2) informing our Delegate: Delegate informing our Area and (3) Nurturing leadership qualities in trusted servants. I took notes as all panelists spoke and did the same the following day. Each evening from 9:30 pm -10:45 pm round tables we held. I was surprised to see how many people I remembered from last year. Sally the chairperson from Delaware and I have kept in contact this past year. Delaware only has one delegate – the whole state meets like we meet as an area. They are in the process of deciding how to do their inventory. I brought with me the questions we used when doing our inventory and passed them on to her. She was very grateful. Although many of the other areas in the northeast region do not meet 11 times a year for a full assembly they do meet as committees between full assemblies. They also use the process of sending their GSR to district meetings, and then their DCM’s to Area Assembly. This seems to cut down the cost for them.

Saturday morning our Alt. Delegate Joe S. spoke on panel 4 “Grapevine Magazine: Self Supporting or Outreach to Community? My home group has never sold the Grapevine at our meetings nor has it donated a subscription to corrections or treatment. I was so moved by what these panelists had to say that I brought to our group conscience the idea of purchasing two subscriptions- either to sell or giveaway. Everybody was in agreement to purchase the two subscriptions to the Grapevine – we never did this before because nobody ever brought it up. Perhaps it is something your group can think about doing. On Saturday during panel 5 – Communicating Our legacies I was the timer. I got to press the button for the flashing amber light to signal to the panelist that their time was nearly up and sound the buzzer when the panelist time was over. Could you see us doing that at assembly? I have come away with so much more form NERAASA than I am expressing here. The connection I have to you and to service has deepened. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity. I am forever grateful to serve CNY as your Area Chairperson.

IN Service, Debby R.

Link to original report (.pdf)

Secretaries Report on NERAASA 2014

18 Areas were represented at NERASSA 2014; 10 areas sent their secretaries to attend.  My focus in this report is on the Roundtables even though I sat in on all the presentations, it was the Round Table sessions that held the most information of my weekend.

Secretary’s roundtable:

27 in attendance, Ten Areas had secretaries attend the round table, 8 of the ten had an alternate Secretary also attend. The ICYPAA event secretary and a few local Group secretaries also attended. We are not the only area that records the business meetings which secretaries compile their minutes from, some areas destroy the cd’s after going to paper, because of space for storage in archives.  Their minutes are the official document of AA history at the Area level.  At the Group level the group Secretary keeps minutes of Group conscience business meetings and they become the group’s history.  The districts keep same record keeping reasoning all way to Area Level.  The Conference minutes is in the final report and the Book published by AAWS containing Conference recommendations by commit from 1951 all the way to present.  The secretaries are the glue that holds committees together.  Some areas have standing Committee secretaries as well as the Chair of a standing committee. (We don’t,  generally chair does it all)

Every area uses a set of detailed guidelines; some call it a hand book, some just guidelines.  It contains a full and complete description of duties expected to be performed with each job.  An active Guideline committee keeps on top of the updates and headed up by a “recording or Alternate Secretary.  These descriptions are what is needed, not how to do it that’s left up to right of decision and perception concepts to figure that out.

Minutes: we spent 1/2 of each session discussion the content of minutes.  Two areas allow email after assembly to be sent to sect, but only if the contents were read in to record. Other Areas showed us a form template to be used for reports.  Motions were written out before hand, presented to body then sent off to the commit to fine tune them. Some areas all motions went to area committee which met off assembly times to format the upcoming assembly for business actions on motions.    All motions are considered in DRAFT until passed.  Minutes had first names, or no names, never full names.  The minutes are not a newsletter;  if you’re a 501c corporation the minutes are the legal documents.  A newsletter might contain a little bit of minutes contents just to spread information.  North Florida area prints 754 and emails to 1250.  Some areas do not mail or email, pick them up at next assembly or Committee meetings day.  Most  Areas;  the content of the minutes is spelled out in the guidelines( ours are not). A hand book committee keeps on top of all this.

Ask-it-basket:  The Trustee fielded a basket contained 21 questions one was a racial slur and was handled beautifully by the trustee, no place in AA.  Another answer, to a question of why was Concept 12 wording changed.. the answer was that the charter is the real  legal document and not the concepts whish are only Bill W’s essays.  What matters, is what part of the concepts is printed in the charter.  Had me thinking on this one.  Had to do with the “listed groups by directory” vs old wording “AA groups know worldwide”, and who made and when were these changes made? The delegate on the conference charter committee said this will be looked into.

One question asked:  how do you keep voting members straight from non-voting members.  Have a sigh in sheet registrar and hand out a Painted paint stick, green yes, red tip no, only voting member may hold up during a vote count.  The sticks are numbered and collected after assemblies or business. These two questions caught my eye because we at our area we can’t seem to keep whose voting and when as people come late and leave early the vote count changes. Most areas have a sign in sheet, we don’t.

The trustees report was nice to hear the Grapevine revenues are running equal with the expenses and the next 5 year projections look ok.  AAWS seemed that the birthday plans envelopes have made a difference and the same financial report is look good as well.

Respectfully submitted
Bill S- Area 47 Secretary

Link to original report (.pdf)

Filed in: NERAASA, Reports | Tags: Alternate Delegate, Archives, Archivist, Chair, Grapevine, NERAASA, Reports, Secretary