MINUTES
UNDEREARNERS’ ANONYMOUS GSB MEETING
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
VIA TELEPHONE (712) 775-7100
The meeting opened at 5:07 PM Pacific Time (8:07 PM Eastern Time) with the Serenity Prayer. Janis B. read the Traditions.
Chair’s Opening Statement
Tamyah C. has resigned. Matt B., the vice-chair, has assumed her responsibilities, including the moderation of GSB meetings, until a new chair can be elected at the World Service Conference.
As previously announced, this meeting, the one immediately before the World Service Conference, would be a special meeting in which each general service representative (GSR) would be asked to answer the following three questions:
- What is going well with their meeting?
- What is not going so well with their meeting?
- How can the GSB help?
Accordingly, after the secretary’s reading of the minutes, the treasurer’s report, and the report on the special committee to deal with the irregularities in the treasury, the meeting was devoted to answering the above questions.
Roll Call
Officers:
- Matt, Vice Chair
- Ed W., Secretary
- Janis B., Traditions Keeper
Committee Chairs:
- Mike M., finance committee (acting)
- Sonia, public information committee
- Janis, service structure committee
- Danny, literature committee (acting)
General Service Representatives:
- Jean Camille, Live from LA, Sunday night
- Dorrie C., 8:30 Main Line Phone meeting
- Julie B., Bronx
- Frannie M., Prosperous Travel Visions, 12:15 Saturday (main phone line)
- Ed W., Wednesday afternoon meeting in lower Manhattan
- Mike M., Saturday 11:30 AM meeting at the LGBT Center in New York City
- Susan H., Sunday LA Farmer’s Market
- Karen B., Sherman Oaks, Wednesday night
- Linda H., 9:45 Step and Tools phone meeting
- Susan C., Sunday 12:30 UA How Arts meeting in New York
- Danny, Arts in Prosperity meeting, Tuesday, Hollywood
- Peggy Q., International Line Heartfelt Prosperity, 8:30 AM EST
- Aviva, 6 PM Visions meeting, Wednesday, Upper West Side of Manhattan
- John V., 6:30 PM Sony Plaza in Manhattan, Wednesday, 6:30
- Mindy, Altadena
- Mary Joan, Goals Pages, Friday, 9:45 AM EST
- John, Basic Recovery, 8:30 AM, Sat., California
- Kelly, God Sized Wallet, San Francisco
- Toni, Saturday, San Francisco, Saturday Night, 9:15 PST
- Patricia, Woodstock, NY, Saturday at 9
- Chris, 7:15 AM Underearning and Solvency Meeting, Baltimore
Secretary’s Minutes: The minutes of the last meeting were approved as read.
Treasurer’s Report: Andrew D., the treasurer, was not present at the meeting. However, he sent an email to Ed W., the secretary, stating that there is $3201.29 in the GSB Checking Account and $7016.65 in the WSC Account, for a total of $10,217.94.
Report of Special Committee to discuss irregularity in our finances:
Ed W., who served as committee chair reported that the committee made the following recommendations:
1. That Andrew remain as treasurer thru the World Service Conference. Afterwards, two people will share the treasury office and they will jointly report on the treasury to the fellowship. Meanwhile, the finance committee will submit motions to appoint an assistant treasurer and to create a process for expenditure criteria.
2. That a recommendation of our committee is that service requirements for treasurer substantially along the lines of the requirements proposed in earlier GSB meetings be instituted.
Two comments:
The wording in the first recommendation is somewhat unclear. The intent is that the finance committee is going to prepare the actual motion to add that second person to the treasury office.
The requirements referenced above were posted in the agenda for the June 20 GSB meeting. These requirements read as follows:
Done all 12 Steps in UA with a UA sponsor. Doing the steps in a step study group doesn’t count.
- Participated in the program for at least two years
- Done some kind of UA service previously (e.g. chaired a meeting, kept time, etc.)
- Maintained at least one year of solvency, defined as
o Not bouncing checks
o Not using credit cards
o Not taking underearning work, i.e. work that does not meet their basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter
o Avoiding unsecured debt
o Paying bills on time
o Not taking services without paying for them
GSR reports:
Jean Camille (LA Live):
- Meeting going well
- Some people have reported problems with their sponsors
- GSB can help by providing
o Need literature on sponsorship, in particular what should be the expectations of the sponsor and sponsee
o Defining the structure of the Fellowship
Dorrie (8:30 AM, main phone line):
- Meeting going well
- Concern about WSC venue
o Should not be on a holiday weekend, when costs of attendance are higher
o Location should be rotated so that it would be cheaper to attend from East Coast
- It would be helpful if the GSB could provide clarity about announcements concerning both other UA groups and 12 Step Fellowships other than UA
Danny (Arts in Prosperity, Hollywood):
- GSB can provide
o Definition of abstinence from Underearning
o Guidelines surrounding choice of action partner (He recommends that they have completed 3rd Step)
o Guidelines for action meetings
o Help on understanding the role of a “B” job
Peggy Q. (International Line Heartfelt Prosperity, 8:30 AM EST):
- Meeting format works well
- More effort needs to be made to ensure that members get good sponsorship
- Could use more organization in the form of
o Explicit statement of “best practice” by phone committee
o Special group conscience to enhance awareness
o Formal policy of 3 month rotation of service for moderators
Peggy Q. (International Line Heartfelt Prosperity, 8:30 AM EST):
- Meeting format works well
- More effort needs to be made to ensure that members get good sponsorship
- Could use more organization in the form of
o Explicit statement of “best practice” by phone committee
o Special group conscience to enhance awareness
o Formal policy of 3 month rotation of service for moderators
Aviva (6 PM Visions meeting, Wednesday, Upper West Side of Manhattan):
- Tripled attendance recently
- Need literature on just how devastating underearning can be
- Could use more organization in the form of
o Explicit statement of “best practice” by phone committee
o Special group conscience to enhance awareness
o Formal policy of 3 month rotation of service for moderators
Karen B. (Sherman Oaks)
- Meeting has good attendance; service positions easily filled
- Strength of meeting is the use of speakers who phone in to qualify.
- Lots of outside topics discussed
- GSB could help with
o Advice about how to handle Tradition breaches
o Backup plan when FreeConferenceCall.com phone line goes dead or no longer offers free conference calling facilities
Linda H. (9:45 Step & Tools Phone Meeting)
- 60 to 80 people on line
- Good service position coverage
- Literature should be translated into other languages
- Concerns about WSC
o Needs to be more affordable
o Should not be on Labor Day
o More transparency about how stipends are issued
o More clarity about how to organize contributions to send people to WSC
Mindy (Altadena)
- Meeting shrinking
- GSB could help with
o Advice about how to attract new members
o Clarity about tradition of “attraction rather than promotion”
Julie B. (Bronx)
- Meeting shrinking
- Group inventory concluded that people sharing about the problem and not the solution was causing lack of attendance
- GSB could help by ensuring that WSC is
o cheaper
o not on holiday weekend
John V. (Sony Plaza meeting in Manhattan)
- GSB could help by
o Providing a definition of abstinence
o Setting up structure of UA as a whole
o Providing literature with a medical opinion on negativity, similar to the “Doctor’s Opinion” in the AA Big Book
o Better organizing the treasury function
o Providing guidance on how to ensure that outside issues are avoided in shares
Mary Joan (Goals, Friday 9:45)
- Seeing lots of benefit from doing goals pages
- Wants GSB to put together a spending plan for
o WSC as a whole
o GSR’s attending the WSC
- Concern about unmoderated phone meetings
Susan C. (UA How, Sunday, NYC, 12:30)
- Well attended, but people don’t “count days”, per the tenets of UA How
- Hard to get a sponsor
Susan H. (Sunday Farmer’s Market meeting in LA)
- Getting a GSR last year really helped energize the meeting
- Numbers dwindling, but there remains a core group of committed members
- They are looking for a new location with better parking
- They have just changed the format of the meeting from weekly readings of Earn What You Deserve to alternating readings from goals pages, The Steps We Took (the Joe McQ. Book), and the final pages of Earn What You Deserve
Frannie (Prosperous Travel Visions)
- Core group, but mostly newcomers who are concerned that they can’t travel at all. They think that the only travel that “counts” is extravagant world travel, which seems impossible.
- WSC venue needs to be more accessible
Patricia (Woodstock, NY)
- Meeting growing (10 to 20 people)
- Frustration in finding sponsors
- Frustration in need to find sponsors, as many people would prefer to work the steps in a step writing group or by themselves
- Step-writing guide on website needs to be revised
- Couldn’t raise funds to attend WSC
Karen (Long Beach, CA)
- 6 to 10 people; service positions filled; good recovery
- Meeting needs visibility
- GSB should provide
o AA style 3rd legacy election procedures
o More UA specific literature, most notably a UA specific Big Book
o Written guidelines for service at the meeting and national/world level, including definitions and written job descriptions
John (Basic recovery, Saturday, 2nd line)
- New meetings, most notably a Skype line meeting, can’t get on the website
- Phone committee doesn’t seem responsive
Kelly (God Sized Wallet)
- Meeting holding steady at 10 to 15 members
- People don’t stick around long enough to take service positions
- GSB can help by
o Improving affordability of WSC
o Supplying a basic text for meetings
Chris (7:15 AM Underearning and Solvency Meeting, Baltimore)
- Meeting doubled attendance recently
- High point of meeting is a 10 minute qualification on solvency
- Big influx of newcomers, with the complaint that “all I’m hearing is the mess”
- GSB can help with
o Sponsor guidelines (help sponsor avoid being punitive parent)
o Making GSB service seem less intimidating
o Better communication of fellowship and GSB, so that other members know who GSB is
Ed W. (Wednesday afternoon meeting in lower Manhattan)
- Meeting is shrinking
- High point of meeting is long reading from the 12 & 12
- Meeting needs to find new location, as building is being demolished starting September 12
Mike M. (Sunday 11 AM meeting at GLBT Center in Greenwich Village in New York)
- Meeting very well attended
- Treasury has lots of money, so much that they need their own bank account (perhaps GSB can help with this?)
- Took group inventory, found that people in the “inner circle” got to share more often
- Mike M. wants to use treasury funds for a “fun” event
- Organize regular step study groups
Tom (6 AM Selling with Serenity phone meeting)
- 15 to 20 people, with reasonable rotation of service
- Half of meeting is timed shares; half is questions and answers
- GSB could help by
o Establishing best practices RE phone meetings
o Revitalizing the phone committee
Mike M. (New York Intergroup)
- Evolved out of a committee that planned share-a-days
- Intergroup has put on several smaller share-a-days
- Intergroup has a spending plan
The meeting was adjourned at 7:12 PM Pacific Time (10:12 PM Eastern Time)
Respectfully submitted,
Ed W.
Secretary, General Service Board of UA