MINUTES
UNDEREARNERS’ ANONYMOUS GSB MEETING
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013
VIA TELEPHONE (712) 775-7100
The meeting opened at 5:00 PM Pacific Time (8:00 PM Eastern Time) with the Serenity Prayer. Toni volunteered to be timekeeper. Sandy read the traditions.
Roll Call
Committee Chairs:
- Andrew D., finance committee
- Janis B., service and structure committee
- Linda, phone and technology committee
- Bella, world service committee
- Sonia W., public information committee
General Service Representatives:
- Peggy Q., Morning Tools Meeting on the international line
- Mike M., Sunday morning meeting in Manhattan
- Linda, 6 AM Selling with Serenity Meeting
- Jordan, LA 7 PM Sunday meeting
- Toni, Saturday 8 PM meeting in San Francisco
- Linda, 9:45 AM Step and Tools Meeting
- David, 8:30 AM main line morning phone meeting
- Crystal, 8:30 P.M., Monday, Berkeley
- Steve, LA 7 PM Wednesday meeting
- Mary Joan, 9:45 AM Friday goals meeting
- Susan, 2:45 PM LA goals meeting
- Maggie, 12:15 PM Saturday, Travel Visions Meeting, Seattle
- Chris, 7:15 AM Underearning and Solvency Meeting, Baltimore
- Sonia, 8:30 AM morning phone meeting on second line
Secretary’s Minutes: The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved with the following corrections:
- Misa, the Information Officer, is not Chair of the Phone and Technology Committee, so if John N. became the Vice-Information Officer, he would not be Co-Chair of the Phone and Technology Committee
- Bella submitted the proposal regarding recordings of speakers at upcoming WSCC’s.
Treasurer’s Report: The Treasurer’s report was also posted on the Google Group, and can be summarized as follows:
Prior balance (not including the WSC account): $4.944.65
There were no expenses this month
Income: $1,324.00
New balance: $6,268.65
WSC prior balance: $1,256.94
Expenses:
Transcription of Virtual Town Hall $92.00
Marketing (cartoons and music) $20.00
Software $29.95
Transcription $30.00
Misc. $4.50
Total expenses $176.95
WSC new balance: $1,079.99
TOTAL, BOTH ACCOUNTS $7,348.64
Committee Reports:
Service Structure Committee:
They posted suggestions for an agenda and a format for the meetings, namely, that meetings consist of
- Opening (serenity prayer, appointment of a time keeper, and roll call)
- Committee reports
- Old business
- New Business
They suggested that meetings last for two hours long, with 5 to 10 minutes per committee report, except for the World Service Committee, which probably requires more time.
They expressed concern that we do a better job of keeping track of old business, including “calendared proposals” that have yet to be considered.
Tamyah remarked that this format is essentially our current practice.
Ed W. noted that a fundamental governance issue is the setting of the agenda for these meetings. This is currently done by the GSB Chair, the GSB Vice-Chair, and the GSB Secretary. However, the membership may not be comfortable with this arrangement, because this gives these three people the opportunity to indefinitely delay topics they don’t want to consider.
Public Information Committee:
They will now be answering email directed to the fellowship, and they will be trained by Misa in the next three to four months.
They are continuing to look into a Facebook page for UA, as they view this as necessary to reach younger people. They would like to set up a page that does not allow “Likes” and does not allow posts.
Their meetings are on the 2nd Monday of the month, at 9:30 PM Pacific Time.
Phone and Technology (presented by Mary Joan):
The registration of phone meetings has now exceeded 90%. 57 meetings have registered; 3 meetings have not. Nor have 3 UA-Anon meetings.
They have collected statistics on service positions for the registered meetings. They have also noted that some 36% of the meetings do not have a moderator. They are thinking about how to denote such meetings, which they call “pop-up meetings”, on the website (They are concerned that members, especially newcomers, might not feel as safe at such meetings.).
They are “zeroing in” on holding meetings on Saturday afternoons.
Sonia wanted thoughts about how individual meetings, including phone meetings, can do outreach.
Literature:
Phyllis gave the report, instead of Peter S., who could not attend the meeting. She said that the committee is preparing a pamphlet about underearning issues unique to freelancers, especially artists, most notably income unpredictability.
Finance Committee:
Mike M. gave the report. He said that the committee has posted financial statement, including a spending plan, on the Google Group, but they are still reviewing them. He noted that financial statements usually include the so-called balance sheet, an itemization of assets and liabilities, and an income statement. In our case, our only assets are our checking account and a savings account that we have repurposed as the WSC account.
A review of expenses showed about $1000 in fees year-to-date to PayPal. These high fees are a result of transfers of many small amounts to us.
Meetings are the third Monday of the month.
World Service Conference Committee (WSCC):
The Town Hall publicizing the event took place on November 3, as scheduled.
The committee has a contract with the Mary & Joseph Retreat Center (the location of the 2013 conference, which will also be the location of the 2014 conference). We need to pay them $3000 by the end of November to secure the dates we want (the week before Labor Day, 2014). We will need to pay them an additional $8,400 before the event.
Last year, we had to pay them $5,000 around this time of the year and an additional $5,000 by June. Because we paid them in the spring, they were willing to give us something of a break this year.
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
The above motion was approved unanimously.
That the Information Officer, Misa, offer John N. the position of vice-Information Officer. 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.
John N. is no longer interested in assuming this responsibility.
Verification of tax-exempt non-profit status of UA and legal status
Point of information added by Secretary: Although we have verified that “UA GSB, Inc.” exists as a New York corporation, it remains to verify that we are known to the Internal Revenue Service as a registered charity. Contributions to UA are tax deductable only if we are, in fact, registered with the IRS.
Proposal for a New Phone System
The proposal was approved unanimously.
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.
Appropriation of $3000 to Mary and Joseph Retreat Center for a deposit for the 2014 WSCC.
Approved unanimously.
Meeting was extended 10 minutes to consider the issue below.
Matt B. received complaints of harassing and abusive texts from an individual member. Their sponsor seems to be unable to change this person’s behavior. The question of what to do about this was discussed, with no resolution.
Respectfully submitted,
Ed W.
Secretary, General Service Board of UA