AGENDA
UNDEREARNERS’ ANONYMOUS GSB MEETING
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2013
VIA TELEPHONE (712) 775-7100
The meeting opened at 5:02 PM Pacific Time (8:02 PM Eastern Time) with the Serenity Prayer. Darryl volunteered to be timekeeper. All of the officers with the exception of Misa and John N. were present (and these two joined us later).
Secretary’s Minutes: The (rather lengthy) minutes of the last meeting, consisting largely of the motions passed at the 2013 WSC, were posted on the Google Group. As a result, they were not read in full.
Treasurer’s Report: The Treasurer’s report was also posted on the Google Group, and can be summarized as follows:
Prior balance: $4,219.00
Expenses: Fed Ex shipping $132.00
Website update $ 20.00
Income: $ 877.65
UA GSB Current balance: $4.944.65
WSC Balance: $1.256.94
Committee Reports:
Finance Committee:
Although the committee posted UA financials on the Google Group, as per the motion passed at the WSC, they elected to review them before presenting them formally to the GSB.
Phone and Technology:
The registration of phone meetings is now in progress. Members of the committee are participating in these meetings and spreading the word about the need to register. The campaign to register was started this week, and, already, there is 30% to 40% compliance. The deadline is October 31.
The question was raised of what a meeting should do if it does not have regular service people. The answer is that anyone can register the meeting, as there are no formal requirements to do so.
Public Information:
The committee met and arranged with the webmaster of the U.A. website to establish the email address media@nullUnderearnersAnonymous.org
Service Structure:
The committee met and discussed the structure for GSB meetings.
Literature:
The committee met and created a “wish list” of documents to be written.
World Service Conference Committee (WSCC):
The committee is expecting a contract by the end of the month for the Mary & Joseph Retreat Center (the location of the 2013 conference, which will also be the location of the 2014 conference). A marketing video was posted on the Google Group, and it will soon appear on the main U.A. site. There will be a Virtual Town Hall to publicize the event on the first Sunday in November (November 3).
Old Business
That we continue to use the same rules of order as we approved at the WSC; namely,
- The “Simplified Robert’s Rules of Order at AA Business Meetings”
- The flowchart “ Our Voting Procedure”, and
- The paragraph on minority opinion voting
After two members spoke in favor of the motion and two against, this motion passed with 22 “yea” votes, 2 “nay” votes, and 3 abstentions. However, the minority exercised their Right of Appeal, and one of the “yea” voters agreed to change their mind. After further discussion, the motion to table the above motion (which requires only a simple majority) was passed 13 to 9. It is anticipated that the membership would familiarize itself further with the rules of order proposed above.
Because the above motion was not approved, our existing rules of order would apply, pending additional information to be produced from the archive of existing meeting minutes on the Google Group. Janis volunteered her committee, the Service Structure Committee, to do this.
New Business
Note: Each of these New Business items (in italics below) was given “same meeting” status because the Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary all agreed on both the importance and the pressing need for immediate consideration.
Because it is a violation of Traditions 5, 6, and 10 for an outside organization to be UA-Anon meetings to be posted on our website, UA-Anon will be given 30 days to find an alternative web presence.
This motion was withdrawn.
That the Phone and Technology Committee, which is chaired by the Information Officer, Misa, offer John N. the position of vice-chair. As such, he will receive the password to the email address info@nullUnderearnersAnonymous.org , and answer email himself, rather than having to work through Misa.
Misa explained that, immediately after the conference, she was swamped. Things have calmed down a bit, but she still needs help. John has supplied that help, especially technically. Earlier, John had created an informal UA website of his own, as well as a newsletter. However, he has shut these down, in anticipation of assuming his official duties.
John outlined these duties as follows:
- Adding new meetings to the website
- Correcting details on the website, especially concerning existing meetings
- Assist and answer questions for
o Meeting leaders
o Other committees
o Newcomers, most notably asking via email “How do I get started?”
It is anticipated that the floor will be opened for additional nominations at our November (i.e. next) meeting.
Verification of tax-exempt non-profit status of UA and legal status
o Ed W. was concerned that he did not find a listing that began with “Underearners’ Anon…” in the on-line database of New York Corporations, http://www.dos.ny.gov/corps/bus_entity_search.html However, Andrew said that the actual filing was done under the name “UA GSB, INC”. Ed W. confirmed that a non-profit corporation under that name is active in New York State (However, the Internal Revenue Service is a federal, and not a state agency, so the same website cannot confirm tax exempt charitable status.). Because we are an active New York Corporation, bylaws acceptable to New York State were filed during the incorporation process, presumably the 2005 version of the Debtors’ Anonymous bylaws that Andrew mentioned.
New “Calendared Proposals”(to be considered at subsequent meetings)
Proposal for a New Phone System
Issues
- Although it is free, the current conference phone service falls short of meeting our needs, causing vagueness and chaos, and severely limiting our productivity:
o No way to selectively filter out noisy lines
o Roll call is slow and tedious
o Voting is slow and tedious
o It’s impossible to tell who is speaking, unless you really know their voice
o It’s difficult to get the chair’s attention when multiple people speak up at once
o It’s impossible for the chair to keep order if people don’t follow the meeting guidelines (waiting to be recognized, etc.)
o No good way to share documents with the group during the call
Proposal
- Set up a small working group around the phone lines, tasked to:
o Determine the Principles, Scope, and Requirements based on the suggestions below, brainstorming and getting feedback from the GSRs at large via email and straw polls
o Research available conference services—features relative to the requirements, pricing, etc.; the current service should be included in the analysis, for comparison
o Return in one month to present their findings to the GSB, with a recommendation for a preferred system
o The GSB to make the final selection based on the working group’s findings
Principles
- Take advantage of modern technology
- Make it easy for GSRs to participate in GSB meetings and phone-based committee meetings
- Make it easy to chair phone-based committee meetings, and to take minutes
- Service-related conference calls: GSB meetings, GSB and WSC committee meetings, Intergroup meetings, broadcasting service-related UA events
- Regular phone meetings (it is possible they will wish to leverage the findings of the working group, but it is up to the meetings themselves to determine their technology requirements and usage)
- The expectation for committee meetings is that people will be dialed in on their phones and logged in on their computers; however, it should also be possible for people to access the call using just a computer (with Internet access), or just a phone.
- It should be possible to hold a call without anyone activating the moderator code.
- Ability to see who is speaking (subject to note below about anonymity)
- Ability for designated moderator to mute/unmute all lines, to selectively mute/unmute specific lines, and to disconnect specific lines (latter for when people drop off the call but their lines don’t disconnect, leaving annoying tones or service announcements playing)
- A way for meeting participants to “raise their hands” electronically when the lines are muted (so they may be recognized by the moderator and unmuted)
- Anonymized presence (though we’ll probably want to provide and enforce some guidelines, for example, “Bill W, MA” format)
- Online voting/polling
- Online presentations (i.e., live sharing of slide shows and documents)
- Sidebar conversations between meeting participants (“chat”)
- Ability to retrieve recordings of meetings, for posterity and as an aid for people taking the minutes
- Online training in using the system—e.g., quick-help guides and video instruction
- Ability to accommodate up to ?one hundred? people on a call (this number will likely vary quite a bit, from single digits and low teens for most committee meetings, to GSB calls (30-40?) and broadcast events (maybe more than a hundred) – so the ability to leg into larger numbers on occasion might be useful)
- A way to reserve the line for specific calls, to avoid double-booking
- It may be possible that no single service/technology can accommodate all the requirements, in which case we may need to put several different ones together. (For example, scheduling calls using the Service section of the UA Google calendar.)
Scope
Out-of-scope
Requirements
Other Considerations
Use of 9thTradition.org as an official repository for GSB documents
- That Ed W. work with Peter S. to enhance his 9thTradition.org website to support GSB recordkeeping, as follows
- Provide public links to minutes of previous monthly meetings
- Provide public links to the proposed agenda of the upcoming monthly meeting and the list of proposals to be considered during future meetings
- Provide a search capability to determine what, if any previous motions have been passed regarding a given topic
- Provide an email address, such as proposals@null9thTradition.org, to which proposals – and ONLY proposals – can be sent.
- Appropriate links be added to the main UA website directing people to 9thTradition.org
- Peter S. will, at the present time, continue to maintain the site, with the understanding that there will be some kind of transfer of responsibility for maintaining the site in the near future.
Audio Recordings of Speakers at Upcoming WSCC’s
1. That a link to audio recordings of all speakers at the conference (i.e. non-business) portion of WSCC’s, starting with 2014, be included in the UA website. Using this link, anyone can either stream these audio files or download them at no charge.
2. That, as a stated condition of being allowed to speak at the conference, all such speakers agree that their speeches will be made available on the above basis for the above purpose.
3. That the funds to make the above possible be included in the budget for the WSCC, to be supplemented by the main UA treasury, as required.
4. That the WSC assume responsibility for making the recordings, editing
them, and otherwise preparing them for the above purpose.
Respectfully submitted,
Ed W.
Secretary, General Service Board of UA