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The Pigeonwww.area36.org Newsletter of the Southern Minnesota Area 36 Assembly March 2020

The Pigeon is a confidential A.A. publication meant only for A.A. members. It contains members’ full names and addresses, just as A.A. directories do. This usage does not in any way violate our tradition of anonymity to the public communications media. Names, phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses may not be used for any solicitation purposes.

www.area36.org Newsletter of the Southern Minnesota Area 36 Assembly March 2020

Policy/AdmissionsF. Consider a proposed process for equitable distribution of Conference committees’ workload.

G. Review the Floor Action process.

Public InformationD. Review the 2019 trustees’ Public Information Committee prog-ress report on the use of Google AdWords/Grants to carry the A.A. Message.

J. Consider a request to develop a plan to create an A.A. Podcast.

Report and CharterC. Consider restoring the two paragraphs and the accompanying footnote in the Concept Eleven essay of The Twelve Concepts for World Service that were removed by an advisory action of the 66th General Service Conference.

E. The A.A. Service Manual, 2020-2022 Edition.

• Review the draft and the agenda items that were forwarded to Publishing during the period of the redesign project.

TrusteesE. Consider the revised “Procedures for a Partial or Complete Reorganization of the General Service Board, the A.A.W.S. or AA Grapevine Boards.”

International Conventions/Regional ForumsA. Discuss methods of closing the Big Meetings at the International Convention.Delegate Report

AREA 36 DELEGATE’S WORKSHOP & AREA ASSEMBLY

WHEN Saturday, March 28, 2020 9:00am - 1:00pm

WHERE Visit area36.org for online attendance details.COME SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE, STRENGTH, AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS!

WWW.AREA36.ORG

ALL ARE ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND!

GSC Agenda Items will be discussed. Impact items on front page.

Group Conscience process outlined in Alt Delegate's report, page 5

Revised Calendar Proposal. Details on page 18. This proposal postponed to June Assembly.

appendix in the next printing.

• Revise the first 164 pages.

M. Consider proposals related to possible Fifth Edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous:

• Develop a Fifth Edition.

• Develop a Fifth Edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous with updated stories and revisions to Appendices III and V.

• Add a proposed addendum to a Fifth Edition foreword of the book Alcoholics Anonymous at the time it is published.

P. Consider requests to revise the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions:

• To remove the phrase “opposite sex” from paragraph two on page 117 in the chapter “Step Twelve.”

• To reconsider use of the phrase “lustful enough to rape” in para-graph one on page 66 in the chapter “Step Six.”

T. Consider revising the pamphlet “Questions & Answers on Sponsorship”:

• Change the suggestion that sponsor and newcomer be of the same sex.

• Expand the section on “Service Sponsorship” and retitle the pam-phlet to include service sponsorship.

7 0 t h G e n e r a l S e r v i c e C o n f e r e n c e Committees Agenda Items

***Delegate Impact Items***

Cooperation with the Professional CommunityB. Consider a request to create a pamphlet for mental health professionals.

FinanceA. Review the pamphlet “Self-Support: Where Money and Spirituality Mix.”

GrapevineD. Consider revising the A.A. Preamble to use gender neutral pro-nouns. For example, “Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength and hope with each other...”

E. Consider a request to change the language of the first sentence of the A.A. Preamble as follows: “Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellow-ship of people who share...”

H. Consider a request for AA Grapevine, Inc. to establish an Instagram account in line with the Twelve Traditions.

LiteratureJ. A.A.W.S. Policy:

• Review “A.A.W.S. Policy on Publication of Literature: Updating Pamphlets and Other A.A. Materials” approved in January 2020.

• Review proposed “A.A.W.S. Policy on Conversion of Written Conference- approved Literature and Service Material into Video Format.”

K. Consider if proposed agenda items for plain language, simpli-fied language, accessible translations and large print versions of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, as well as workbooks to help study the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, can be addressed with a common solution.

L. Consider requests to revise the book Alcoholics Anonymous:

• Add pages 3 through 41 of the pamphlet “The A.A. Group” as an

www.area36.org The Pigeon March 2020 Page 2Table of Contents

Delegate Report ��Page 4Contact Information �� 2District Meeting Locations, Past Delegates’ Info �� 3Delegate’s Workshop/Area Assembly Agenda��5Officer Reports & Financials ��4-9Area Committee Reports ��11-17Calendar Change Proposal��18-21DCM Reports �� 22-25From Our Community........................................................26WCR Trustee Article �� 27ACM Minutes �� 28-33Maps & Inclement Weather Policy �� 34Metro Area ASL Interpreted Meetings��342020 Calendar �� 35Pigeon Submission Info.................................................3, 35

Area DelegateMelissa [email protected]

Alternate DelegateStacy [email protected]

Area ChairpersonRoy [email protected]

Alternate ChairpersonNancy [email protected]

Area SecretaryKelli [email protected]

Area TreasurerTeresa [email protected]

Area Officers

Area Standing CommitteesAccessibilitiesVal [email protected]

Archives Malcolm [email protected]

Cooperation with the Professional CommunityDennis [email protected]

CorrectionsChristina [email protected]

FinanceAlternate [email protected]

Grapevine La VinaPaul [email protected]

Group RecordsWilliam [email protected]

LiteratureVince [email protected]

NewsletterRiki [email protected]

Public InformationRon [email protected]

StructureAlternate [email protected]

TechnologyJason [email protected]

Treatment FacilitiesRob [email protected]

To email all Area 36 chairs at once, you can [email protected]

ArchivistCJ [email protected]

Corrections Temporary Contact Program CoordinatorLaura [email protected]

Pink Can CoordinatorSam [email protected]

Treatment Temporary Contact CoordinatorPatrick [email protected]

Web MasterJay [email protected]

Recent changes in contact info are in bold italic.

Other Trusted Servants (non-voting)

District Committee Members (DCMs)District 1Renee B

District 2Annie L

District 3Richard J

District 4Open

District 5Mort M

District 6Open

District 7Karin S

District 8Sue M

District 9Mark C

Districts 10 & 11Open

District 12Lakyn S

District 13Brian H

District 14Alan S.

District 15Jennifer G

District 16Tabithia W

District 17Jeff M

District 18Eric M

District 19Marnie T

District 20Bill L.

District 21Patrick S

District 22Will K

District 23 Tom C

District 24Wade M

District 25Ed M., Alt DCM

District 26Open

District 27Cesar N

Note: All districts have e-mail addresses on the Area 36 website. They are in the format of: dist#@area36.org, where “#” indicates a district number.Example [email protected] email all DCMs at once, you can use [email protected]

www.area36.org The Pigeon March 2020 Page 3

District 13rd Wednesday, 6:30 P.M.Various locationsCheck aadistrict1.orgDistrict 23rd Thursday, 7:00 P.M.First Lutheran Church101 S Mill St.Rushford, MN 55971District 31st or 2nd Saturday, 9:00 A.M.Contact DCMWest Hills605 Florence Ave.Owatonna, MN 55060

District 4Contact Area Chair

District 5Contact DCM

District 6Contact Area Chair

District 72nd Monday 6:30 P.M.St. Andrew Lutheran Church13600 Technology DriveEden Prairie, MN 55344District 83rd Wednesday 7:30 P.M.Fairview Community Center1910 Cty Rd B WestRoseville, MN 55113District 92nd Tuesday 7:00 P.M.1430 5th AvenueMankato, MN 56001District 10Contact Area ChairDistrict 11Contact Area ChairDistrict 123rd Monday, 7:00 P.M.Senior Citizens Center21 E 1st St.Sherburn, MN 56171

District 131st Tuesday 7:00 P.M.United Methodist Church10506 Hanson Blvd. NWCoon Rapids, MN 55433District 141st Monday 7:30 P.M.United Methodist Church609 8th Street NWBuffalo, MN 55313District 154th Monday 7:00 P.M.Christ Lutheran Church11194 36th StreetLake Elmo, MN 55042District 163rd Thursday 7:00 P.M.Faribault Alano217 Central Avenue N.Faribault, MN 55021District 172nd Tuesday 7:30 P.M.Lighthouse Assembly of God10478 Bell Ave.(Hwy. 212 W.)Plato, MN 55370

District 182nd Thursday 6:30 P.M.Plymouth Congregational Church1900 Nicollet AvenueMinneapolis, MN 55403District 192nd Wednesday 7:00 P.M.Rosemount Community Center13885 S Robert TrailRosemount, MN 55068District 204th Tuesday, 7:00 P.M.Twin Lakes Alano Society4938 Brooklyn BoulevardBrooklyn Center, MN 55429District 212nd Tuesday 7:30 P.M.Pilgrim Methodist Church4325 Zachary LanePlymouth, MN 55442

District 222nd Wednesday 7:00 P.M.Mizpah United Church of Christ412 5th Ave North, Hopkins, MN 55343District 233rd Thursday, 7:00 P.M.River Valley Church100 N. Washington St.New Ulm, MN 56073District 241st Monday 7:00 P.M.St. John’s Lutheran Church119 8th Avenue WestShakopee, MN 55379District 252nd Wednesday 7:30 P.M.Woodlake Lutheran Church2120 W 76th StRichfield, MN 55423

District 26Contact Area ChairDistrict 27Contact DCM

District Meeting Location Information

Past Delegates of the Southern MN Area 36 to the General Service Conference of A.A.Panel 1: 1950 – 1951Pat CdeceasedGSB trusteePanel 3: 1953 – 1954Robert TdeceasedPanel 5: 1955Ferris WdeceasedPanel 5: 1956Murray LdeceasedPanel 7: 1957 – 1958Alf SdeceasedPanel 9: 1959 – 1960Harold SdeceasedPanel 11: 1961 – 1962Vince SdeceasedPanel 13: 1963 – 1964G.J. (Joe) WdeceasedPanel 15: 1965 – 1966Robert DdeceasedPanel 17: 1967 – 1968Jim Fdeceased

Panel 19: 1969Marvin JdeceasedPanel 19: 1970George ZdeceasedPanel 21: 1971 – 1972Warren MdeceasedPanel 23: 1973 – 1974Earl LdeceasedPanel 25: 1975 – 1976Marvin SdeceasedPanel 27: 1977 – 1978Donald Hdeceased

Panel 29: 1979 – 1980Bob Bno email

Panel 31: 1981 – 1982Stan MdeceasedPanel 33: 1983 – 1984WCR Trustee: 1989 – 1992Don Bdeceased

Panel 35: 1985 – 1986Richard KdeceasedPanel 37: 1987 – 1988Jack CdeceasedPanel 39: 1989 – 1990Chuck Rdeceased

Panel 41: 1991 – 1992Dennis [email protected]

Panel 43: 1993 – 1994Esther Hdeceased

Panel 45: 1995 – 1996Doug [email protected]

Panel 47: 1997 – 1999Karin [email protected]

Panel 49: 1999 – 2000Bonnie M

Panel 51: 2001 – 2002Christine [email protected]

Panel 53: 2003 – 2004Brenda [email protected]

Panel 55: 2005 – 2006Mark [email protected]

Panel 57: 2007 – 8/2007Samira [email protected]

Panel 57-59: 8/2007 – 2010Scott [email protected]

Panel 61: 2011 – 2012Angie [email protected]

Panel 63: 2013 – 2014Terry [email protected]

Panel 65: 2015 – 2016Lisa Dawn [email protected]

Panel 67: 2017 – 2018Curt [email protected]

Submissions to The PigeonGeneral submissions to The Pigeon are due the Saturday of Area Committee Meetings. Area Officers’ and Area Standing Committee Chairs’ submissions are due the Wednesday following Area Committee Meetings, to allow them to incorporate items of relevance into their reports from the Area Committee Meeting.Submissions are preferred electronically using a Word document to the Area’s newsletter email address: [email protected]. Submissions should not be heavily formatted: indicating sentence and paragraph structure is all that is required. Please do not submit as a “read only” document it may need to be edited for space or content.Letters to the Editor/Opinion should have a title and the city where the author is from included in the submission.PC and Mac users can also type their submissions directly into an e-mail message. Mac users, please save your file as type “.doc” or “.txt” before sending as an attachment if you do not type your submission directly into an e-mail message.If you have any questions regarding submitting an item for The Pigeon, from preparation, formatting, to deadlines, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you!Riki - The Pigeon Editor and Area 36 Newsletter Chair

What is The PigeonThe Pigeon is a General Service Newsletter published four times a year by the Southern Minnesota Area Assembly of Alcoholics Anonymous. There is no subscription fee; contributions from A.A. members, groups and districts are welcome. The Pigeon presents the experience and opinions of A.A. members and others interested in the A.A. program. Opinions expressed herein are not to be attributed to Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole, nor does publication of any article imply endorsement by either A.A. or the Southern Minnesota Area Assembly. Articles and letters are invited, although no payment can be made, nor can contributed material be returned.All submissions should be sent to The Pigeon, in care of the Southern Minnesota Area Assembly address :Southern Minnesota Area AssemblyP.O. Box 2812 Minneapolis MN 55402O r you m ay e m a i l t he m t o t he Newsle t t e r C h a i r a t [email protected]


Delegate ReportHello, my name is Missy R. and I am an Alcoholic. I currently serve as your Area 36 Delegate Panel 69. I apologize for not being able to attend the Recovery, Unity and Service Conference in January. I had a work commitment that weekend. I also had a family commitment for the TSLT and was unable to attend it.

I had the privilege of attending the January Board Meeting at the General Service Office in New York because I am the Delegate Committee Chair for the Finance Committee for the 70th General Service Conference in April. I was allowed to sit at the table with the Trustees Committee on Finance and some of the members of the Board from the Grapevine while they looked at last year’s bud-get vs actual. They also reviewed and passed the 2020 budgets for AAWS and the Grapevine boards. They were over budget last year significantly at AAWS for a number of reasons such as: The ERP System didn’t get up and running as planned. They ended up having to hire a new consulting group to help them through the implementa-tion process. They also needed to acquire more space in the building that they are currently located in. They rented the 8th floor as well as the 11th. In doing that, there was asbestos found on that floor which had to be abated. That abatement falls onto the renter (GSO) to take care of in accordance with the rental agreement. There was also a large backlog of contracts involving licensing agreements that had to be taken care of, so our legal fees were much higher than anticipated. The great news is that the Employee Pension Fund and Insurance funds are almost 100% fulfilled. So the money that they had been putting into those funds will not be coming out of this next year’s budget. And they wanted to make sure that we mentioned that Group Contributions are up by 6%. They are truly grateful for the Groups who are stepping up to help fund those projects. I was also allowed to sit in on other Committee Meetings as an observer there and have a new appreciation of what our Trustees truly do on their own time for Alcoholics Anonymous.

The Agenda Items are on the website as well as the Impact Items. I had the privilege of attending District 16’s February meeting to pres-ent the Agenda Items to them. I will be attending the West Central Regional AA Service Conference. I look forward to seeing you all there. Thanks for allowing me to be of service to you.

Missy R.

Area 36 Delegate Panel 69

Area Chair Report

Hi all -

As I sit here on this beautiful forty-five degree day, it’s hard to imag-ine that we are still in February. That means that surely old man winter has not taken a pass for the remainder of the year. But one of the things that I have been fortunate to learn in this fellowship is that we get to live in the present and be grateful for everything that today brings us. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not guaranteed.

Since our last report I have attended all the area events, except the Trusted Servant Leadership which I was unable to attend due to a family illness. I want to make sure and recognize the wonderful job that Craig H. and the TSLT committee did on the planning and presentation for this event.

I had the opportunity to host our RUSC weekend guest, Francis G., Northeast Regional Trustee. I want to thank the area for this oppor-tunity as I had the pleasure of spending a weekend with a wonderful person and made a new lifelong friend. If you were at the 2020 RUSC and took the opportunity to chat with Francis, I’m sure you left feel-ing that with individuals like Francis as AA trustees, our fellowship is under great leadership as we move into the future. From the shar-ing of his story on Saturday evening, to his discussion on the future of AA, we were treated to a wonderful and exciting ride.

As a final note on the 2020 RUSC, many thanks to Nancy T., RUSC Chair and all of the RUSC committee on a wonderful and exciting conference. It was also great to see attendance at the highest level in more than 5 years. Great job to everyone - looking forward to 2021.

I had the opportunity to visit four districts and one group to answer questions and discuss the Ad Hoc Committee on the Area Calendar proposal that was first presented at the December 2019 Area Committee Meeting.

I am looking forward to the West Central Regional Service Conference where we always get good dialogue and discussion regarding the General Service Conference agenda items. This allows us to be able to bring more information back to our groups and better inform them on the agenda to get a more informed group conscience to help guide our delegate at the conference.

With that in mind I hope everyone gets the opportunity to attend the Delegate’s Workshop/Area Assembly on March 28th in New Ulm, as we prepare our delegate Missy for the GSC and we discuss our future calendar.

Finally I would like to welcome Dennis T., who recently took on the position of Area 36 CPC Committee Chair and Rob Y., who takes over as Area 36 Treatment Facilities Committee Chair. Please welcome them and reach out to help their committees in any way you can.

As always, thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve.

Yours, in service -

Roy E.

Area Chair

Alternate Chair ReportHow quickly this rotation proceeds! Since the start of this year, I have attended the Trusted Servant Leadership Training (where I was reminded, to my chagrin, that Bill W. Is buried in East Dorset, VT), chaired the 2020 Recovery, Unity and Service Conference, and participated in the telephonic Area Officer meetings and the February Area Committee Meeting in Shakopee. I am looking forward to attending the West Central Regional Service Conference in Billings, MT at the end of February.

RUSC 2020 ReportWhile the 2020 RUSC Committee (myself, Chair; Lisa Dawn G. and Dennis B., Past Delegates; Laura S., Corrections Temporary Contact Program Coordinator, Karin S., DCM District 7 and Tom W., GSR for Northfield Third Tradition Group) has yet to wrap up our final analysis of this year’s conference, I can report that RUSC 2020 was a terrific success. Our Guest Speaker, Francis G., Northeast Regional Trustee from Chelmsford, MA, shared his personal story on Saturday evening and gave us all much to think about on Sunday morning when he spoke about the future of AA and how we get there. The conference venue, Holiday Inn and Suites, Lake Elmo, engendered many positive comments from participants for its accommodations, especially the windowed ballroom and great restaurant; the one negative—a parking lot that had not been plowed. The Saturday breakout sessions, which were new this year, were very popular, as was the social hour, although attendees noted on the evaluations that that event ran too long, and could possibly have been cut short to allow for more breakouts. Total paid registrations as of 1:00 p.m. Saturday, when registration closed, were 191, up from 133 attendees last year, and represented a good mix of metro and outstate members, including more than a dozen visitors from western Wisconsin. While all invoices have not yet been received, and we certainly did not make money on the conference, I can say that our overall financial result showed less red ink than in the recent past. And, of course, RUSC has always been viewed by our Area leadership as a spiritual offering for the fellowship, and not a money-making endeavor.

Planning for the 2021 RUSC will begin in early summer, after the 2021 General Service Conference theme is selected, and we will be looking for venues outside the Twin Cities metro area.

Thankful for service,

Nancy T.

Area Alternate Chair

Area Officer Reports


Area Officer Reports

Financial Report continues on page 6

Secretary ReportNo report.

Treasurer ReportHighlights since my report at the December ACM:

I attended the Trusted Servant Leadership Training, where I was invited to talk about budgeting. I was also able to attend the RUSC weekend, and I’ll be at the WCRAASC next weekend, in Billings. I look forward to the discussion of the GSC agenda items; it’s always interesting to see which items generate sparks, and to hear the longer-range history of AA “business” from past delegates and trustees who attend.

Earlier this month, I participated in a conference call with the rest of the officers.

I’m keeping up with the regular bookkeeping activities.

It’s time to start organizing the 2021 budget process, so look forward to that. I have blank budget worksheets with me today, if you want hard copies. By mid-March, I’ll email updated Excel worksheets to each of you. They will include your committee’s 2019 actuals and your 2020 budget amounts. Our goal is to have the first draft of the 2021 budget ready for the May 9th Area Committee Meeting, in order to kick off the area-wide budget discussion at Assembly on June 20th.

There are 2 batches of financial reports today: 2019 year-end, and 2020 year-to-date. The YTD reports show activity through February 19, 2020. I deviated from the usual month-end format because we had a lot of activity in early February. The cover sheet is a narrative of the highlights; page two is the list of line items that vary significantly from the budgeted amounts.

Any questions? If you have any questions between now and our May meeting, feel free to contact me anytime. With gratitude for this opportunity to serve.

Teresa K.

Area Treasurer

Alternate Delegate ReportOne of the responsibilities of the Alternate Delegate is to coordinate the Delegate’s workshop each year. The Alternate Delegate helps select the location, plan the agenda, distribute conference agenda items and background materials, and becomes thoroughly familiar with those agenda items and their background. I will be reading the agenda items and background materials. In addition, I will be attending the West Central Regional Service Conference this weekend where we will discuss agenda items with trusted servants from the other areas in our region. I thought it might be helpful to share a little about the Delegate’s Workshop since it is such an important part of our structure here in Southern Minnesota and is a way that anyone in our area can participate in shaping the future of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Delegate’s Workshop LogisticsThe 2020 Delegate’s Workshop will take place on March 28 in New Ulm. We will meet at the Best Western Plus located at 2101 S. Broadway Street in New Ulm. The event is from 9:00am to 5:00pm. We are arranging for lunch to be available onsite at a cost of about $10 - $12 per person. We are in the process of finalizing the menu with the hotel as this goes to print.

What you can expect if you attend: The purpose of the Delegate’s Workshop is to inform the Area 36 Delegate on our experience and viewpoints on matters that will come before the General Service Conference in April. GSRs, group members, and other trusted servants will connect in small groups to discuss the items of a

particular committee or committees. Committees with fewer agenda items will be grouped together to balance them against committees that have more agenda items. In Area 36, we cover all of the agenda items. Not every item requires the same amount of time because we do not have as much to say about all of them. After everyone has met in committees to discuss the items, we meet together and devote time to reporting the results of the discussions to our current Delegate, Missy.

What you can do to prepare: Conference Agenda items are available on our area website – area36.org. They are password protected because the background information typically includes last names of AA members. (Editor: ask the delegate or your DCM for password.) You can print them or save them to your tablet, computer, or other electronic device. If you are a GSR go to your group and ask for time in the coming weeks to discuss agenda items as a group. Our Delegate designates several agenda items as Impact Items. This is helpful because many groups do not necessarily have the time to discuss every agenda item. If your group does, that is wonderful! Either way, you might want to enlist the help of group members in reading through the background information. My home group holds a special meeting to discuss only the Impact Items. Our GSR asks group members to prepare brief pro/con presentations about three or four of the impact items. The rest of the group members provide feedback so that our GSR is prepared to carry our group’s experience and viewpoints back to the Delegate at the workshop. If you are not a GSR you are also encouraged to participate. I suggest you read the list of agenda items first. If there is something that interests you, read the background information. Then come to the Delegate’s Workshop and participate in the process.

See you at the Delegate’s Workshop!

Stacy M.

Area Alternate Delegate

Go to area36.org for information on how to attend the Delegate’s Workshop online.


Financial ReportsSouthern Minnesota Area Assembly (SMAA)

Financial Performance Highlights

as of February 19, 2020

Note: on the attached financial reports, negative numbers are shown in parentheses ( ).

BALANCE SHEET: a snapshot of account balances on February 19, 2020.

ASSETS:

• 1000 TCF Checking (our main checking account) is down signifi-cantly from the same time last year: $16,926, compared to $28,671 on February 19, 2019. (-$11,745)

• 1020 TCF Pink Can Checking is up from the same time last year: $28,624 compared to $24,726. (+$3,898)

• 1050 TCF Reserve Fund is $2,099 greater than last year, reflecting 1/6th of our 2020 budget.

• 1300 & 1400 the inventory accounts were adjusted at 2019 year-end, because we use the sales (4510 & 4520) and program expense (5310 & 5320) accounts to track literature and Grapevine activity. The Literature account (1300) is the petty cash amount held by the Literature Chair.

INCOME & EXPENSE PREVIOUS YEAR COMPARISON

• 4000 Group Contributions are down compared to last year: at $7,509 so far this year, compared to $10,982 on February 19, 2020. (-$3,474)

• Our Total Income is also down compared to where we were at February 19, 2019: $12,819, this year, compared to $16,640, last year. (-$3,821)

• Net Operating Income is +$902 as of February 19, 2020 (expenses were lower than income).

BUDGET vs. ACTUALS INCOME & EXPENSE (yellow page)

• 4000 Group Contributions, as of February 19, 2020, are lower than budgeted: $7,393 compared to the budgeted amount of $12,321. (-$4,928, which is 40% below budget)

• Total Income (page 1) of $12,819 (at February 19, 2020) is also lower than the budgeted amount of $19,309. (-$6,490, which is 44% below budget.)

• Total Expenses (page 2) as of February 19, 2020 are significantly below budget: $11,916, compared to the budgeted amount of $37,753. (-$25,837, or 68% below budget)

• 6000 Pink Can Contributions as of February 19, 2020 are $5,464, which is less than the budgeted amount of $7,582. (-$2,118)

• 7000 Pink Can literature expenses as of February 19, 2020 are also less than budgeted: $3,778, compared to budgeted amount of $7,582. (-$3,805).

EXPLANATION of SOME (variances from budgeted) LINE ITEMS

Income:

• 4010 Group Contributions: budgeting for the timing of group con-tributions isn’t an exact science, and it’s early in the budget year.

• 4190 Other Contributions: this monthly budgeted amount is based on an annual total spread equally across twelve months.

• 4210 Registration: this is all RUSC, $562 higher than budgeted.

• 4220 Coffee/food: RUSC budget included an ice cream social, but there wasn’t one this year.

Expenses:

• 5010 Rent: we prepaid rent for the 2020 Area Committee Meetings (there are 4).

• 5020 Events/Coffee & Food: there was no ice cream social at RUSC.

• 5070 ASL Interpreter: we haven’t received the invoice for the ASL interpreters at RUSC.

• 5110 & 5120 Mileage & Lodging: RUSC was held in the metro.

• 5190 Misc Travel: this is airfare for the WCRAASC in Billings, MT. Reimbursement requests for that expense haven’t been submit-ted yet.

• 5310 Literature Expense: restocking inventory following the RUSC weekend.

• 5340 Finance Letter: late invoice for December 2019 quarterly finance letter.

Southern Minnesota Area Assembly

2019 Contributions from EventsJanuary - December 2019

Total

Founders Day 600.00

Gopher State Roundup 2,800.00

Minnesota Spanish Speaking Convention 60.00

76.00

TOTAL $2,936.00

Tuesday, Dec 31, 2019 09:14:53 AM GMT-8 - Accrual Basis

Minnetonka Big Book Serenity Breakfast

From the April 2003 magazine.

Victor E.From Grapevine April 2003


Financial ReportsSouthern Minnesota Area Assembly

January 1 - February 19, 2020

TOTAL

Actual Budget over Budget % of Budget

Income

4000 GROUP CONTRIBUTIONS 0 0 0

4010 Group Contribution 7,393 12,321 (4,928) 60.00%

4030 Group Contribution - Birthday 116 132 (16) 87.88%

Total 4000 GROUP CONTRIBUTIONS $7,509 $12,453 $(4,944) 60.30%

4100 SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS 0 0 0

4120 Individual 112 52 60 215.38%

4130 Birthday Plan 136 92 44 147.83%

4180 In-Kind Contributions 34 0 34

4190 Other Contributions 0 1,032 (1,032) 0.00%

Total 4100 SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS $282 $1,176 $(894) 23.98%

4200 EVENTS 0 0 0

4210 Registration 3,562 3,000 562 118.74%

4220 Coffee/Food 335 1,550 (1,215) 21.61%

4230 7th Tradition 211 200 11 105.50%

4240 Event In-Kind 267 500 (233) 53.33%

Total 4200 EVENTS $4,375 $5,250 $(875) 83.33%

4500 LITERATURE & GRAPEVINE SALES 0 0 0

4510 Literature Sales 653 250 403 261.20%

4520 Grapevine Sales 0 180 (180) 0.00%

Total 4500 LITERATURE & GRAPEVINE SALES $653 $430 $223 151.86%

Total Income $12,819 $19,309 $(6,490) 66.39%

Gross Income $12,819 $19,309 $(6,490) 66.39%

Expenses

5000 FACILITIES & MEETINGS 0 0 0

5010 Rent 2,460 4,670 (2,210) 52.68%

5020 Coffee & Food 817 1,550 (733) 52.69%

5030 Event Recording 0 100 (100) 0.00%

5040 Speaker Expense 327 600 (273) 54.56%

5050 Exhibitor Fees 0 0 0

5070 ASL Interpreter 0 2,900 (2,900) 0.00%

5090 Misc Meeting Expense 124 500 (376) 24.74%

Total 5000 FACILITIES & MEETINGS $3,728 $10,320 $(6,592) 36.12%

5100 TRAVEL 0 0 0

5110 Mileage 1,538 4,232 (2,694) 36.34%

5120 Lodging 2,382 3,900 (1,518) 61.07%

5140 Planning Committee Expense 0 1,050 (1,050) 0.00%

0 1,800 (1,800) 0.00%

0 0 0

5190 Misc Travel 428 9,000 (8,572) 4.75%

Total 5100 TRAVEL $4,347 $19,982 $(15,635) 21.75%

TOTAL

Actual Budget over Budget % of Budget

Budget vs. Actuals: 2020 Budget

5150 General Service Conf Contrib

5170 Int'l Convention

5200 EQUIPMENT & IT 0 0 0

5205 Web-Site 17 50 (33) 33.90%

5210 Web Hosting 87 212 (125) 41.03%

5240 Equipment Purchases 0 600 (600) 0.00%

Total 5200 EQUIPMENT & IT $104 $862 $(758) 12.06%

5300 PROGRAM EXPENSES 0 0 0

5310 Literature Expense 804 545 259 147.61%

5320 Grapevine Expense 30 130 (100) 23.08%

5340 Finance Letter 426 0 426

5350 Area Newsletter 1,091 2,450 (1,359) 44.52%

Total 5300 PROGRAM EXPENSES $2,351 $3,125 $(774) 75.24%

5400 OPERATING EXPENSES 0 0 0

5410 Printing & Copying 1,047 1,890 (843) 55.41%

5420 Postage 110 135 (25) 81.48%

5430 Office Supplies 128 845 (717) 15.14%

5490 Misc Expense 0 580 (580) 0.00%

Total 5400 OPERATING EXPENSES $1,285 $3,450 $(2,165) 37.25%

5900 OTHER EXPENSES 0 0 0

5910 Bank & Online Fees 56 14 42 402.14%

5920 Insurance 0 0 0

5940 Government & Legal Fees 0 0 0

5950 Accounting & Tax Prep 45 0 45

Total 5900 OTHER EXPENSES $101 $14 $87 723.57%

Total Expenses $11,916 $37,753 $(25,837) 31.56%

Net Operating Income $902 $(18,444) $19,346 -4.89%

Other Income

6000 PINK CAN CONTRIBUTIONS 5,464 7,582 (2,118) 72.06%

Total Other Income $5,464 $7,582 $(2,118) 72.06%

Other Expenses

7000 PINK CAN EXPENSES 0 0 0

7010 Pink Can Literature 3,778 7,492 (3,715) 50.42%

7050 Pink Can - Non Literature 0 90 (90) 0.00%

Total 7000 PINK CAN EXPENSES $3,778 $7,582 $(3,805) 49.82%

Total Other Expenses $3,778 $7,582 $(3,805) 49.82%

Net Other Income $1,686 $- $1,686

Net Income $2,589 $(18,444) $21,033 -14.03%

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2020 10:33:39 AM GMT-8 - Cash Basis


January 1 - February 19, 2020

Total

Change % Change

Income

4000 GROUP CONTRIBUTIONS 7,509 10,982 (3,474) -31.63%

4100 SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS 282 698 (416) -59.61%

4200 EVENTS 4,375 4,801 (427) -8.89%

4500 LITERATURE & GRAPEVINE SALES 653 158 495 313.79%

Total Income $12,819 $16,640 $(3,821) -22.96%

Gross Income $12,819 $16,640 $(3,821) -22.96%

Expenses

5000 FACILITIES & MEETINGS 3,728 6,308 (2,580) -40.91%

5100 TRAVEL 4,347 5,306 (959) -18.07%

5200 EQUIPMENT & IT 104 107 (3) -3.14%

5300 PROGRAM EXPENSES 2,351 726 1,625 223.95%

5400 OPERATING EXPENSES 1,285 770 515 66.94%

5900 OTHER EXPENSES 101 101 1 0.70%

Total Expenses $11,916 $13,317 $(1,401) -10.52%

Net Operating Income $902 $3,323 $(2,420) -72.85%

Other Income

6000 PINK CAN CONTRIBUTIONS 5,464 4,853 611 12.58%

Total Other Income $5,464 $4,853 $611 12.58%

Other Expenses

7000 PINK CAN EXPENSES 3,778 1,038 2,739 263.83%

Total Other Expenses $3,778 $1,038 $2,739 263.83%

Net Other Income $1,686 $3,815 $(2,129) -55.80%

Net Income $2,589 $7,138 $(4,549) -63.73%


Income & Expense Prev Year Comparison

Jan 1 - Feb 19, 2020

Jan 1 - Feb 19, 2019 (PY)


As of February 19, 2020

Total

Change

ASSETS

Current Assets

Bank Accounts

1000 TCF CHECKING 16,926 28,671 (11,745)

1020 TCF PINK CAN CHECKING 28,624 24,726 3,898

1050 TCF RESERVE FUND 16,300 14,200 2,099

1090 TCF DELEGATE'S FUND 2,603 2,602 0

Total Bank Accounts $64,452 $70,199 $(5,747)

Other Current Assets

1300 Inventory - Literature 118 1,962 (1,844)

1400 Inventory - Grapevine 0 340 (340)

Total Other Current Assets $118 $2,302 $(2,184)

Total Current Assets $64,570 $72,501 $(7,931)

TOTAL ASSETS $64,570 $72,501 $(7,931)

LIABILITIES AND EQUITY

Liabilities

Total Liabilities $-

Equity

3500 Net Assets 61,982 65,364 (3,382)

Net Income 2,589 7,138 (4,549)

Total Equity $64,570 $72,501 $(7,931)

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY $64,570 $72,501 $(7,931)


Balance Sheet Prev Year Comparison

As of Feb 19, 2020

As of Feb 19, 2019 (PY)


Group Contributions Jan-Dec 201911th Step Meditation Group 22.91

12 Steppers - Audubon Park 100.00

103.63

7 Hi AA Group 128.00

8 to 80 Group 77.00

A Baffled Lot 77.00

A Levelers 37.00

238.00

A New Freedom - Sunday 8am 198.92

A New Freedom Big Book - Plymouth 45.00

A New Freedom Group - St. Michael 75.00

A New Light 32.05

314.00

50.00

29.30

A Way Out 20.00

AA Bright Spot 160.00

250.00

AA Sisters in Sobriety 117.30

400.00

125.00

25.00

100.00

28.00

Amazing Grace AA 50.00

Amigo Group - Goodrich Ave 434.00

Amigos II 25.00

Amigos III 35.00

140.00

25.00

100.00

75.00

70.00

50.00

Artists & Musicians Tuesday AA 40.00

As Bill Sees It - Delano 206.72

As Bill Sees It - Saturday Treats 40.00

145.32

Back To Basics - Coon Rapids - Tuesday AM 444.60

100.00

Back To Basics - Women's Group 95.24

250.00

Baffled Lot Group 443.00

Bar None - Thursday 1230 477.25

Bar None Tuesday Noon 221.60

Basic Principles Group 46.50

Basic Text Group - St Paul 316.22

Basic Twelve & Twelve 67.00

4th Dimension - Stillwater

A New Day - Lakeville

A Vision 4u - Faribault

A Vision For You - Lakeville

A Vision for You - Owatonna

AA of Fairview River Side

Alano Society of Albert Lea

Alano Society of Minneapolis - Squad 12




Andover Alano Society - Squad 10





Annandale Lakers

Austin Alano Groups

Back to Basics - Mpls Friday

Backseaters A.A. Group

Basic Twelve Group 230.53

200.00

Better Than Gold Group 347.51

Beyond Jitters 148.90

117.00

Big Book's Greatest Hits - Squad 7G 25.00

Big Sisters - Squad 10 300.00

6.05

125.00

50.00

75.00

Boiler Room Group 60.00

Break It Down Big Book Group 118.33

Bridges AA Group 93.68

Brothers of A.A. Group 80.00

Bryant Lake AA 395.00

15.00

Buffalo Saturday Morning 12 X 12 163.55

Buffalo Sunday Night 36.80

Buffalo Thursday Night Big Book 75.00

180.00

Byron AA 37.50

100.00

108.00

Came To Believe Group 88.50

Cannon Falls AA 150.00

Carver MN Sunday AM Group 25.00

Cavalier Saturday Night - Open 10.00

Cavalier West Thursday Night Men's Group 268.50

Cedar Lake Women's Step Squad 33.00

Celebrate Freedom Group - Blue Earth 100.00

Center Group 68.00

Central Pacific Group 1,009.42

40.97

12.00

Clay City AA 25.00

35.00

120.00

50.00

Club 84 Group 40.00

Common Solution 29.11

Como Park Big Book Study 267.30

Complete Defeat 80.11

Continuous Action Group 357.11

Coon Rapids Friday Night 25.00

Cottage Grove AA 200.00

CRC Friends of Bill W 85.00

Crushed Grapes 899.56

Belle Plaine AA Group

Big Book Study Group - Fairmont

Blaine Alano - Squad 99

Blaine Alano - Squad 3

Blaine Central Alano - Squad 7

Bloomington Steppers

Buena Vista Group

By The Book - Glencoe

Calshire AA Group

Came To Believe - Faribault

Chaska River Valley Group

Chaska Tuesday Candlelight Group

Clearwater Groups

Clearwater Monday Night

Cliffhangers - Burnsville

Daily Reflections 16.00

Daily Reprieve 100.00

27.00

142.00

48.50

55.00

25.25

Dawson AA Group 200.00

50.00

60.00

586.34

Delano Saturday Morning Group 117.00

Design for Living - Minneapolis 145.00

Design For Living Big Book Study 150.00

10.00

Desire Open Speaker Meeting 67.00

District 1 AA 1,968.00

District 15 49.95

Dunn Sober AA 178.72

Dynamic Women's Group 208.84

30.00

Early Risers Step & Tradition Group 111.00

50.00

150.00

53.00

80.00

Elements Group 80.00

Eternal Vigilance Group 17.00

50.00

Fevered Brains 120.00

60.00

Fireside Women's Big Book Meeting 36.00

Firing Line 200.00

First Class 86.15

For Today AA 31.19

Foreword XIX 224.39

Foundation Stone Group 193.33

34.98

143.00

1,065.86

Fresh Air Group 14.00

50.00

72.25

Friday Night 12x12 By The Book 108.75

75.00

Friday Night Oasis Group 200.00

Friday Night Shift 183.50

141.50

Dakota Alano - Thursday 1145 AM

Dakota Alano As Bill Sees It - Sat 9am

Dakota Alano Saturday 11am

Dakota Alano Sunday 8 PM Meeting

Dakota Alano- Sat 11 am

Day by Day - Anoka Tues Night

Day by Day Womens Group

Day by Dei Women's Group

Design for Living Group - Winona

Eagan Tuesday Niters

East Bloomington AA

Edina Open Speaker Meeting

Edina Thursday Men's Group #1

Edina Women's Group

Farmington Monday Night

Fillin' Station Sat 11 am Group

Fourth Dimension Stillwater

Fourth Dimension - Chanhassen

Foxhall, Chapter 7

Friday Mornin' Old Timers

Friday Morning Candlelight Faribault

Friday Night AA - Waconia

Friday Nite 12 X 12 By the Book

120.00

25.00

50.00

50.00

100.00

25.00

25.00

88.20

50.00

Good Samaritan - Rochester 300.00

43.00

Grapevine Comm - Area 36 258.00

Gratitude in Action 275.00

Great Blessings 69.10

51.80

20.00

Halfway There 132.00

70.00

Hanover Monday Night AA 220.00

Happy Destiny 212.20

288.94

186.45

112.48

Hastings A.A. Group 500.00

Hayden Lake Group 50.00

150.00

Hector Group 250.00

Henderson Area AA 20.00

Highland AA Group 240.00

Hit Squad - Plymouth II 161.50

100.00

704.50

200.00

Hope's on Penn 100.00

Hopkins Monday Friends Group 45.00

HOW II Group 94.35

50.00

Hugo AA Club 140.00

Hutchinson Daily Reprieve 80.00

I'll Quit Monday 110.10

Island Lake Group 91.50

It Might Have Been Worse 184.30

January 6th Club 88.35

Jaywalkers AA 150.00

Joe & Charlie Big Book Meeting 40.00

Joy of Living 39.00

Jump Start Mixed 12 X 12 20.00

200.00

Fridley Alano - Squad 19





Gaylord Fellowship

Glencoe Group

Gloria Dei AA

Good Samaritan - Edina

Gopher AA Group - Mpls

Grovers Thursday Night

Grupo Una Luz en el Camino

Hampden Park Group

Happy Joyous & Free - Mahtomedi

Happy Joyous & Free - Squad 18 Mpls

Happy Joyous & Free Group - Shakopee

Hayfield Club

Hokah Fellowship Group

Hole in the Donut Group

Home Boyz

Howard Lake - Waverly AA

Kasson Big Book Saturday Morning

Keep Coming Back AA 50.00

50.00

Keep It Simple Big Book - Rochester 36.00

70.00

Ladies Lutes - Tuesday Night 75.00

Ladies Night Happy Hour 197.76

Lake City - Thursday PM & Saturday AM 250.00

258.00

87.82

25.00

40.00

395.00

15.00

333.00

100.00

Lester Prairie AA 25.00

25.00

Life is Good Group 185.00

200.00

Live & Let Live AA St. Paul 81.04

60.00

154.00

Lourdes Group 30.00

Lunacy Commission 30.00

15.00

Lutes Sunday Night 7pm 40.00

120.00

23.91

M & W AA Group 100.00

Mabel AA Group 50.00

62.00

50.00

Madison Group 300.00

Main Idea Group 240.00

50.00

1,100.00

67.26

301.14

Marshall Street Group 53.33

Medina 'As Bill Sees It' 40.90

Medina Group 28.00

Meeting of the Waters Group 25.00

Men at Peace 75.00

240.00

Men's 12 Step Noon Meeting 37.78

Men's Problem - Solution Group 150.00

120.00

20.00

Keep It Simple - Litchfield

La Nueva Esperanza

Lakers AA Friday 630

Lakers AA Grow Group

Lakers Alano Sunday AM

Lakers Saturday Morning AA

Lakers Thursday Night AA

Lakeview AA aka Hazelwood AA

Lakeville Saturday Big Book

Lanesboro Group

LeSueur Group

Lindstrom AA Group

Living Sober - Chanhassen

Living Sober AA Group - Bloomington

Lunch Bunch Squad 10 - Monticello Alano

Lutez Monday Group

Lynnhurst Group

Macalester AA Group

Madelia AA

Mainstreeters - Cavalier Club

Mainstreeters - Plymouth II Alano

Mankato Alano Society - Squad 15 (12x12)

Maplewood Group

Men At Work - Plymouth II Alano

Mendota 1030 AA Group

Minnehaha AA Wed. Night Group

588.24

160.00

Mon. Night Step Group - Plymouth II 20.00

125.00

20.00

Monday Morning Women's Big Book - Cavalier 68.00

Monday Morning Women's Group 186.18

25.00

Monday Night Temple Meeting 105.65

75.00

20.00

Monticello Discovering AA Group 30.00

Monticello Squad 4 - 10am Wed 20.00

50.00

Moving Forward Group 70.00

Mulligan's 47.10

NE Sunrise Group 35.00

New Brighton Big Book 354.80

63.00

15.00

119.00

41.10

25.00

No Bull Big Book Squad 164 60.00

No Time Like the Present 97.35

150.00

25.00

25.00

677.98

Northern MN Area Assembly 700.00

NYA AA Group 35.00

Oasis Group - 682683 105.20

420.00

On Awakening 44.00

One More Was Added to the Fellowship 36.00

Open Door Group 25.00

100.00

165.00

Outright Mental Defectives (OMD) 7.21

Over the Influence 22.00

Pages of Wisdom Big Book Study 113.30

71.50

30.00

Peace Group 150.00

Pearls of Wisdom 34.69

200.00

Pioneer AA Group 624.27

10.00

Minnetonka Big Book Study

Minnetonka Senior AA Group

Monday Meeting AA - Oakdale

Monday Morning Big Book Study - Litchfield

Monday Night - Waseca

Monday Nite AA

Monticello Alano - Squad 8

Morristown AA Big Book Study Group

New Hope - Alano Squad 6

New Hope Alano Squad 11

New Hope Alano Squad 20

New Hope Alano, Squad 5

Nicollet Chapter AA

Normandale Group

North Hamline Group

North Suburban Alano, Squad 86

North Suburban Alano - Squad 7

Old Towners Group

Ortonville AA

Out of Towners

Parkview Group

Pass It On Group - Waseca

Pine Island Alano Society

Plymouth Alano Squad 2 - Mon Night


Group Contributions Jan-Dec 2019Plymouth Big Book 60.00

73.00

Pocketing Our Pride - St Paul 26.81

60.15

200.00

Principles before Personalities 25.00

Promises at Knox 295.08

Prospect Park Group 7.88

Ramsey AA 180.00

10.52

70.00

50.00

30.00

Ridge Runners II 300.00

Ridge Runners III 100.00

30.00

Ringmasters 82.50

River Rats 100.00

River Valley Group- Mon 7.30 40.00

200.00

200.00

44.00

Rockford Friday Night 20.00

15.00

85.10

120.00

36.00

210.00

Rule 62 Cavalier 53.08

Rule 62 Step & Tradition 269.61

Safe Harbor (Tradition 3) - Rochester 292.63

Safe Haven for Women 77.10

Sahara Club 9.00

Sahara Club Open Arms - Women's Fri Night 14.64

Sahara Club Sunday 830am 120.00

Sahara Saturday AM Men's Meeting 11.00

Sahara Tues 8 PM Men's 57.00

Sat AM 3rd Tradition Group 66.00

Saturday Morning AA Fellowship 40.00

Saturday Morning Breakfast Club 186.77

Saturday Morning Fever 349.15

Saturday Morning Men's Group 24.00

Saturday Morning PS Meeting 49.92

Saturday Morning Serenity Group 155.00

Saturday Morning White Bear Women's Group 100.00

Saturday Morning Women's Group 120.00

Saturday Night Live Speaker Meeting 111.00

Saturday Sisters 53.06

Pocket Our Pride - Mpls

Primary Purpose AA - Woodbury

Primary Purpose Group - Burnsville

Richfield Bloomington Alano - Squad 6C

Richfield Bloomington Alano - Squad 6g

Richfield-Bloomington Alano Squad 5A

Richfield-Bloomington Alano, Squad 4E

Ridgewood Serenity Seekers & 12 Step

Riverlyn Group

Rivertown Big Book - Hastings

Rivertown Big Book Group-Stillwater

Rockford Riverview AA

Rojo Recovery Group

Rosemount A.A. Group

Roseville Wednesday Group

Route 66 - Fridley Alano

Savage Unity Group 32.40

25.00

Seeing Is Believing 50.00

Senior Happy Hour 100.00

200.00

81.20

Serenity Sisters - Squad 11 70.00

219.30

50.00

25.70

SIGMA Group 33.00

Silver Lake Group 175.00

Simple Reliance 55.00

Sisters of Serenity - WBL 81.20

Sisters Shoulder to Shoulder Group 85.00

SLPSNAAG 595.82

Solid Ground Group 43.62

90.00

SOS - Sober on Saturday 90.00

75.00

Southwest Women's Group 30.00

Squad #11, Serenity Sisters 50.00

Squad 26 - Coon Rapids 49.42

Squad 62 - Bethany Lutheran Church 25.00

St Joe's Monday Night 280.00

St. Charles A.A. 200.00

St. John's Little Canada AA 25.00

25.00

St. Luke's Saturday AA 355.82

St. Luke's Saturday Morning Men's Group 115.00

St. Patrick's Group 100.00

St. Peter's 9AM AA Group 40.00

St. Therese Thursday Night 10.00

Step Action Series - Hutchinson 100.00

Step Sisters BB Study 60.80

120.00

Steps Forward @ St. Georges 40.00

Steps to Freedom 381.00

Steps to Serenity Group 30.00

221.25

Stewart Group AA 150.00

25.00

200.00

20.00

Summit Hill Group 375.43

Sunday Night AA Group - Sacred Heart 100.00

Sunday Night Grace 124.74

Sunday Night Step and Tradition Meeting 615.96

Scandia Big Book

Serenity Group - Faribault

Serenity Seekers - Chanhassen

Serenus Group

Shoreview 12x12

Shoreview Children of Chaos Plus

SOS - Sharing Our Sobriety - Afton

Southwest Alano Club

St. Luke's Monday Nite Group

Step Study Group - Mankato Wed 8pm

Stepsisters of Northfield AA

Stewartville AA

Stillwater Morning Group

Stillwater Sunday Night

Sunday Serenity Group 380.72

Sunday Valley View Group 20.00

Sunlight of the Spirit AA 30.80

Temple - Wednesday Night 80.00

TGIF Women's Group 43.25

125.00

64.00

18.30

100.00

The Way Out Big Book 69.00

15.99

There Is a Solution - Byron 63.03

There's a Better Way 74.10

Third Edition AA Group 63.00

132.90

This Simple Program 100.00

Three Legacies Meeting 102.41

Thunderbird Noon Groups 150.00

100.00

Thursday Night Bloom Ave 14.50

Thursday Night Grace Group 17.70

Thursday Night Orientation at Fellowship Club 40.00

Thursday Night Women's Group 150.00

Thursday Women's Serenity Group 20.00

Tradition Five Group 444.54

Tradition One A.A. 52.65

Tradition Three - Plymouth 50.00

280.00

Tuesday Morning Step Group 50.00

Tuesday Night Grace A.A. 18.50

20.00

Tuesday Open AA Group 100.00

Turning Point 356.95

50.00

Upon Awakening Men's Big Book Group 48.50

Uptown 12 & 12 Group 23.94

Uptown Group 1,103.14

Valley Creek Group - Monday AA 100.00

Valley Creek Thursday Night 75.00

Valley Step AA 25.00

Valley West Thursday Morning 46.11

150.00

30.00

30.00

35.00

72.00

130.00

40.00

The Hand of AA - Mpls

The Hand of AA - Roseville

The Way Out - Kasson

The Way Out - Mankato

The Way Out Group - Mpls

Third Tradition Group - Northfield

Thursday Night Big Book - Northfield

Tradition Three - Waconia

Tuesday Night Women at Elim

Twin Lake Alano - Squad M

Waconia AA Group

Waseca Monday Night Group

Waterville AA

Wayzata Step Sisters

Wayzata Women's Group

Wayzata Women's Group - Mon. 10am

Wayzata Women's Thursday Group

We Think Not - Mon Night 7pm 482.00

Wednesday Knight Ave Group 75.00

26.00

30.00

West Moore Lake Group 65.00

White Bear Lake Redeemer AA 120.00

White Bear Lake Wed. Morning Group 49.00

50.00

5.00

25.00

25.00

Women of Hope 16.00

Women of Wisdom 100.00

Women on the Wagon (WOW) 40.00

Women's 12 & 12 Study Group 13.00

Women's Basic Text 121.46

Women's Daily Reflections 25.00

Women's Third Tradition 130.00

16.00

250.00

10.00

17.00

Worthy Women's Big Book Study Group 40.53

You Are Not Alone 90.00

TOTAL $58,480.45

Tuesday, Dec 31, 2019 09:14:53 AM GMT-8 - Accrual Basis

Wednesday Night Big Book - Mpls

Weekend Jumpstart II

Windom AA Group

Winona Big Book

Winona Wed. Nite Step

Winsted AA Group

Womens 12 & 12 Group

Woodbury Serenity Sisters

Woodbury Wednesday Noon AA Group

Wooddale Ave AA

From Grapevine August 1958


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Friday, April 17th

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AccessibilitiesThis is Val P., Area 36 Accessibilities Committee Chair. Accessibilities Committees assist A.A. members who have any barrier to accessing the A.A. message. We look for ways to help breach the barriers.During the recent Area Committee Meeting, we talked about the usage of Text to Voice software for our blind members and Translation Software for our Spanish speaking members. Remember when creat-ing PDFS for your district or group to make the text recognizable. Don’t use scans or images in the PDF. This prevents both software packages from being able to read the document.We are starting a new program of “Senior Connection”. We are look-ing to help match AA groups with Senior Living Facilities so that we can extend the hand of AA to Seniors living in these facilities. The Groups will help Seniors attend the meeting or bring a meeting to the facility. Look out for a flyer coming soon to your group.We will be hosting a table again this year at the Deaf Awareness Days. Two of our deaf members will be hosting the tableThank you for the opportunity to be of service.Yours In Service, Val P., Accessibilities Committee Chair

ArchivesArea 36, hello!

Our committee was blessed to have members attend the February 2020 Area Committee Meeting from the following districts: 27, 24,18 and 13. As archives chair, I plan to host a workshop in late summer. A theme has yet to be revealed, so we invite any suggestions for top-ics. I plan to visit districts to share what archives is about and how we can help preserve literature (meeting minutes, financials, event flyers) safely in the repository.

Missy R., our area delegate, brought our committee’s attention to one of two GSC Agenda Items: Consider a request for a book of A.A. history from 1955 to the present. Already, we’ve received an unpub-lished Manuscript of A.A. World History (1957 – 1985) from an area member. We look forward to discussing this and any other efforts and ideas about A. A’s past goings-on. The sorting process of miscel-laneous in multiple boxes and accumulated in the past continues. The goal is to organize flyers, articles, finance letters, General Service Office (GSO) postings, plus other area 36 materials and to preserve them and store them safely. Once sorted, we can digitalize them, as we have been doing with the Southern Minnesota Area quarterly Newsletter called The Pigeon. Current issues of The Pigeon (and those of the past) are available at area36.com.

The archives repository is now furnished with a collection of books that are inventoried and organized on shelves under the supervision of C. J. M., our Area 36 Archivist. She has a goal that by the end of 2020, the repository will have three distinct areas of display: 1) Grape Vine & La Viña, 2) GSO, and 3) Financials. We make every effort to make hard copy material in our possession accessible. We fol-low protocol for keeping track of hard copy and encourage people who check them out to be accountable and responsible through a simple forms process.

Dennis B. continues an inventory of cassette tape recordings of his-torical speakers with the goal of converting them to a digital format, thus preserving them and making them easily accessible to the fellowship.

C.J. M. has perfected our portable archives display, large and small, to be staffed at Gopher State Roundup and Founders Day, plus any other A. A. events we are invited to. Recently we hosted a table at RUSC, and upcoming, we’ll be at the Delegate’s Workshop / Area Assembly and Gratitude Night. We welcome all who are curious or interested to join us at the next Area 36 Standing Committee meet-ing on Saturday May 9, 2020 at 9:30am. We also welcome anyone who is looking for service opportunities to contact us at [email protected] (Malcolm F.) or [email protected] (C. J. M.). Area 36 Archives Repository: 1700 Livingston Avenue. West St. Paul, MN.

Sincerely, Malcolm F., Archives Committee Chair

Cooperation with the Professional Community

My name is Dennis and I am an Alcoholic. Recently, I was asked to assume the position of Chairperson of the Area 36 CPC Committee. Since that time, I have been trying to learn all I can about CPC top-ics. I followed a couple of valuable AA suggestions I was given years back; Talk to People and Ask for Help. I reached out and am grateful to people who previously worked in CPC, including Larry F., Stephen C. and especially my predecessor, Tony M. The encouragement, patience and knowledge freely given by Tony and Area Chairperson, Roy E., are most appreciated.

Since beginning this role, I attended the Trusted Servant Leadership Training event, RUSC and the Area Committee Meeting in Shakopee on February 22. I am packing for the upcoming weekend in Billings, Montana for the West Central Regional Conference.

The morning session at the ACM was the first CPC meeting I attended. Also in attendance were CPC chairs from District 7, Charmaine S. and District 22, Tim C. plus an interested member from District 17 (who, by the end of the day was the new District 17 CPC chair), Aaron L.

We reviewed the CPC-related items on the General Service Conference agenda. At the Delegate’s request, we will prepare a ques-tion on the subject of the identified CPC impact item for her use at the General Service Conference in late April.

We identified and discussed two major outreach events at which CPC will have a display table and outreach to professionals, an Integrated Behavioral Health Conference in April and an Addiction and Faith Conference in September expected to draw 300-400 Clergy. We will identify two additional significant events at which to set up our dis-play and have a presence.

Districts 7 and 22 are jointly focusing a CPC outreach event in October toward Health Care and Emergency Medical Service personnel.

Another action objective the Committee will pursue is to put together a presentation on CPC 101; covering the basics of what CPC is about and its role in AA, including ways it might assist and enhance service opportunities in Groups.

I am grateful for the challenges and opportunities that work on the CPC Committee is already providing. I look forward to working with the District CPC Chairs I met at ACM and those I have yet to meet. The meeting on the 22nd generated several great ideas, enthusiasm and a wonderful spirit of service.

Your Grateful Servant,

Dennis T., CPC Committee Chair

CorrectionsIf you are a District Corrections Chair, the Area Corrections Committee has tools available to help you. Just go to the Corrections Committee webpage on the Area 36 website. We plan to expand the resources available on the webpage throughout 2020, but currently there is a very useful directory listing the correctional facilities within each district, the AA meetings held in those facilities, and the primary contact for the facility. The password to access the directory has been sent out to the DCMs or District Correction Chairs can contact me for the password at [email protected].

After accessing the directory, please reach out to the AA contacts listed for the correctional facilities within your Districts to verify the information is current. If you find out-of-date information, please send the updated information to the corrections email address and I will make the change.

Also available on the Corrections webpage is the Corrections Temporary Contact Program (CTCP) Pamphlet for AA Members to sign up as a volunteer to be a temporary contact to an AA member inside a correctional facility. The CTCP program always needs vol-unteers. Having these pamphlets available at your District meetings is a great way to help attract volunteers.

Area Committee Reports


Area Committee ReportsAA members who would like to volunteer for the CTCP program, but prefer to correspond without using their home address, are able to use Minneapolis Intergroup to receive and forward CTCP correspondence from an AA member inside a correctional facility. To use this service, just follow these steps:

1. Call Minneapolis Intergroup. Let them know you are a volunteer for the CTCP program and would like to use their address to cor-respond with an AA Member in a correctional facility.

2. Provide your contact information and the contact information of the person you are corresponding with.

3. Send 2-3 self-addressed stamped envelopes to Minneapolis Intergroup so they can forward the correspondence on to you. Alternatively, you can have Minneapolis Intergroup hold the cor-respondence for you to come and pick up directly.

4. Provide the Minneapolis Intergroup mailing address - in care of your name - to the CTCP AA member you are corresponding with. For example:

Minneapolis IntergroupC/O [Your Name]

7204 West 27th StreetSt. Louis Park, MN 55426

There is a new “Inside Sponsorship” program at the Lino Lakes cor-rectional facility which allows AA members within the facility to be sponsored by AA members on the outside. Please contact Laura S., the CTCP coordinator, for more information.

Lastly, thank you to Patrick S., DCM for District 21, for inviting me to speak at the monthly District 21 meeting this past January. The Area 36 Corrections Committee is always willing to speak at District meetings to provide information about what the Corrections Committee does and corrections-related service opportunities. If you would like to have information about the Area Corrections Committee presented at your District meeting, please feel free to contact me.

Yours in Service,

Christina G., Corrections Committee Chair

Corrections Temporary Contact Coordinator

Greetings,

Since our last Area Committee Meeting, December 7, 2019, I attended all the Area Calendar events: Trusted Servant Leadership Training, January 11; Recovery, Unity, and Service Conference, January 24-26; and Area Committee Meeting, February 22. I attended the District 8 meeting December 18 to share information on the Corrections Temporary Contact Program and presented at the February 17 SOTP class at MCF-Lino Lakes. I will be attending the West Central Regional Service Conference, February 28-March 1.

I am currently seeking temporary contacts for 33 inside alcoholics whose requests have not been bridged. I have received 24 requests since the first of the year. When the transition fair “season’ begins in April, we will receive a significantly higher number of requests than we have been receiving since the end of the fair season last year in October. Since the first of the year, I forwarded 14 requests to Area 35, eight requests to other areas outside Minnesota and five requests to GSO for CCS correspondents. I have begun sending every inside alcoholic being released in Minnesota a letter asking them to contact CTCP or submit another form if they have not heard from a mem-ber of Alcoholics Anonymous within four to six weeks (depending on their release date). As a result, I am receiving many second and third requests for temporary contacts, causing me to be concerned about the numbers of requests that are actually being bridged.

Another cause for concern is that I am encountering significant dif-ficulties connecting inside alcoholics with temporary contacts, in part because people do not answer their phones. We have not felt comfort-able leaving messages. At this past Standing Corrections Committee meeting, we discussed options and the consensus was that a generic message that did not mention Alcoholics Anonymous or Area 36 could

be used. In addition, I have not had many responses to the emails I have sent. I especially need temporary contacts in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, with the greatest need in the north metro area. I’m asking for your help. Serving as a temporary contact is one-on-one Twelfth Step service work. If you are available to correspond with an inside alcoholic while they are in the facility and join them for enough meetings soon after their release to help them choose a home group and sponsor or temporary sponsor, please let me know.

MCF-Lino Lakes approached me about outside members of Alcoholics Anonymous willing to serve as sponsors for inside alcoholics. This is a new opportunity and is different from the temporary contact pro-gram. Not only is the relationship between the inside alcoholic (who is often a member of Alcoholics Anonymous) a longer-term commit-ment, the inside alcoholic may not be in prerelease. Sponsors complete a MCF Volunteer Application (background check form) so they can be on the inside alcoholic’s visitors list which enables them to meet one-on-one in the facility. The hope is that the relationship might con-tinue after release. If you are interested in learning more about this exciting opportunity to serve, please contact me. I have four inside alcoholics waiting for a sponsor from outside Alcoholics Anonymous. Throughout the US and Canada, facilities are becoming interested in outside sponsors and there are many Areas currently providing this service.

Recently, I have received requests for contacts and sponsors from inside alcoholics in federal facilities, mostly located in the eastern US. Apparently, there are federal resource workbooks handed out in some facilities that list us as a resource that connects inside alcohol-ics with outside members. They are not looking for members located in Minnesota, rather they are looking for help in other states. I for-ward these requests to their location of release. If there is no pending release date, I send the inside alcoholic information and forms for GSO’s Corrections Correspondence Service.

Over the last year, I have learned the value of belonging to a com-munity of corrections trusted servants across the US and Canada. So often, those of us serving on committees can become isolated in our individual Areas without realizing there are 93 Areas with the same committees. Meeting by teleconferences and Zoom video conferences, we learn from shared experience. Serving as secretary of the National Corrections Call, Member-at-Large on the National Corrections Conference Advisory Board and Alternate Coordinator of Bridging the Gap Workshop Weekend has enriched my spiritual experience and has helped focus my attention on the importance of looking beyond my own limited horizon to a reliance on the larger corrections com-munity. In this way we all are better able to be of maximum service to those of us behind the walls. The national call takes place every Sunday and is open to anyone interested in corrections service. If you would like to join us or just listen in for a week, let me know and I will send you the information you need to access the call.

Finally, the 30th Annual Bridging the Gap Workshop Weekend takes place in Rock Island, Illinois September 11-13 and the Fourth Annual National Corrections Conference is in Schaumburg, Illinois, November 13-15. I am happy to send you flyers and the BTGWW Newsletter.

Laura S., CTCP Coordinator

FinanceAt the February Area Committee Meeting the Area Treasurer, Teresa K., and I met with a small, but engaged group of Finance represen-tatives from Districts 7 and 18, including two first-time attendees. We began with a discussion of District finance issues, including the pros and cons of debit cards, status as and procedures for filing as a 501(c)(3), checking accounts, and use of electronic contributions in AA groups. While the Districts present that morning may be considered fairly sophisticated in their embrace of current technology, a lot of interesting and valuable information and experience was exchanged.

We also reviewed the General Service Conference Finance Committee agenda items for the 2020 GSC, as our Area Finance Committee is not scheduled to meet again until after the GSC has convened. Several of the agenda items concern language directed at AA groups


From the June 1997 magazine.

Victor E. in Charleston, South Carolina From Grapevine June 1997

From the July 1999 magazine.

The Adventures of Clara T.


Area Committee Reportsin the pamphlet Self-Support: Where Money and Spirituality Mix, particularly suggestions/instructions as to percentages of group con-tributions to be given to the various service entities. Our Finance Committee was favorably impressed by the reasoning of the requesting Area which suggested that pie charts/graphs and actual percentages should be eliminated in favor of more generic language recommending that groups should determine what services are actu-ally being provided by each entity, and contribute accordingly.

DCMs, please please please, remind your District Treasurers and/or Finance Chairs that they are an integral part of our Area Finance Committee, and we welcome their ideas, questions, suggestions and participation. AA faces major changes and innovation in the way finance matters are handled at the individual, group, District and Area levels, and these are issues where our Area has a great oppor-tunity for an informed exchange of views.

Thankful for service,

Nancy T., Finance Committee Chair

Grapevine/La ViñaAs the Grapevine Committee Chair, I attended all of the events this year. The following is my report.

The GV Display and GV Book Shop was at the Trusted Servant Leadership Training on January 11 at the Hutchinson Community Center in Hutchinson, Minnesota. We did a trial set up of a digi-tal display for GV material. The Grapevine is expanding their internet presence and I wanted to be able to display these options. The aagrapevine.org website has published several PSAs on their YouTube channel that are close captioned for the deaf AA community. I used a laptop to run a few of the videos and noted the impact on the attendees. We premiered the digital display concept with an older monitor with a rigid mount. I will be experimenting with Grapevine’s other digital products in the future.

The Recovery, Unity & Service Conference was held at the Lake Elmo Holiday Inn on January 24-26. The GV Display and GV Book Shop was set up for the conference with a better display system. We are reviewing options to display additional GV content. If anyone has suggestions on material that would make a attractive display, please contact me.

I had a committee of one at the February 22 Area Grapevine Committee meeting. Because the Literature Committee Chair did not show up, the Literature Chair from District 22 joined me. We talked about how we do our service commitments. Our Delegate visited the GV meeting and handed out the list of highlighted Agenda items for the General Service Conference. There was also a correction she pro-vided for one of the GV Agenda items. Our Proposal to reprint The Best of the Grapevine Volumes 1 thru 3 will not be discussed at the 2020 GSC. The rumor is that since the Books are going to be repub-lished by the Grapevine, the proposal does not need to be discussed at the Conference. An additional unsubstantiated story is that the Delegates at the GSC will receive a Set of the Best of the Grapevine Books as a gift. I expect to hear a more plausible explanation from our Trustee, Tom A., at the WCRAASC.

The next event is the West Central Regional AA Service Conference, February 28 - March 1, at the Big Horn Resort in Billings, Montana. I will be there without any Grapevine material other than the back-ground material. We will be discussing the 2020 Service Conference Agenda Items and Background Material in preparation for sharing what we learn with our Fellowship prior to the Delegate’s Workshop.

On March 28, the GV Display and Book Shop will be at the Area Assembly and Delegates Workshop in New Ulm. We are also invited to the Minneapolis Intergroup Gratitude Night on March 28. I am going to try to be at both events with the Grapevine Display.

The AA Grapevine New York office had contacted me about the MNYPAA - Minnesota Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous which will be held in Rochester, MN, on March 27 - 29. They wanted to check to see if I would be attending. Since I am not attending, I am reaching out to the host committee to see if they would like to display GV materials at this event.

The Grapevine has also been invited to the Sunlight of the Spirit,

April 17-19, in Fairmont, Minnesota.

The GV will be at the Gopher State Roundup May 22-24.

If anyone wants an opportunity to be of service, there are time slots available to staff the GV Display and GV Book Shop at some events. Please contact me if interested.

The Area 36 Grapevine committee has a store of Grapevine books and materials available for purchase. These items are brought to all Area 36 events and to events without an Intergroup presence.

The GV Committee attends events to educate the attendees about the Grapevine and La Viña, encourage them to read, subscribe to and utilize the Grapevine and LaViña produced materials.

Old Grapevines are needed for use at Grapevine promotions. Please bring them to me at Area events or take to your District meeting. If you do not have a Grapevine District Committee Chair, please give them to the DCM to pass on to me. The age of the Grapevines or La Viña can be as recent as this year or any year from the past 76.

Thank you for allowing me to be of service,

In gratitude,

Paul L., Grapevine/La Viña Committee Chair

Group RecordsSince access to the AA group’s database FNV was withdrawn last October 2019, Area “registrars” across the country have been adjusting to how they maintain their Area’s records of group infor-mation (“Groups”) on the one hand and trusted servant information (“Roles”) on the other. GSO’s original goal to implement the new enterprise database system, Net Suite, and have it fully available for Areas to use as the FNV replacement was originally slated for March 2020 with initial access and training in January. Currently registrars,”Group Records Chair” in Area 36, are able to read Groups and Roles information through an interface called My Portal, which we have been informed is a different one from GSO’s internal access. My Portal access is currently available only on a read-only basis and the underlying data and data management tools are currently a work-in-progress.

A major disruption took place with a change of company that was contracted to implement the new system roughly at the turn of the year and, although the January milestone was met, we have been informed that the full implementation originally set for March will get a new date, currently unknown. Effectively since October 2019 and ongoing, Area 36 has depended on and will continue to depend on two spreadsheets as the basis of keeping track of its Groups and Roles information. It might be helpful to the fellowship to understand the following processes:

Currently, GSO is in the process of transferring information into the new database from a variety of sources. As of the beginning of February, GSO was roughly two months in arrears. Bear in mind that new groups once entered into the system are required to have a one month grace period before being released as “Active” groups. Unlike the situation with FNV, GSR and new group packets are mailed out manually, so it may be some time before new groups, new GSR’s, new contact persons, or new committee chairs actually hear from GSO after forms are sent in. Also due to the considerable workload, GSO does not acknowledge receipt of forms, electronic or otherwise, and does not notify originators once changes or new information is entered into the system.

For anyone seeking to receive Group or GSR packets, or committee chair workbooks sooner than later, the option exists to purchase those directly either online or through the Intergroup offices and expensing through the appropriate entity. This is an additional expense.

The biggest concern for most AAs and Groups is ensuring that adver-tised group meeting information is as correct and current as possible. This means in practice one thing: meeting information on aaMin-nesota.org being as accurate as possible. Area 36 has control over this. Groups can also inform their local Intergroups. Intergroups are independent of the Area. It is important for Groups to inform both Intergroups and Area. The smart phone Meeting Guide app (which is hosted by AAWS) acquires all its information from the some 200


Area Committee Reports web sites across North America that use the WordPress plugin (that includes our favorite Intergroups and aaMinnesota).

If you see something that is not correct about a meeting (or for any group change), please make sure that a Group Information Change Form is COMPLETED and sent to me at [email protected]? Why? Lots of reasons. Do not send direct to GSO. Once I have pro-cessed the form, I will forward all changes in a batch to GSO. Forms sent to GSO will go in a queue, and even once they are eventually in the system we will not be informed. It will be months, probably after the end of the year before we update aaMinnesota meeting informa-tion from Net Suite data. COMPLETE completed forms (full mailing address, phone and email, please) also ensures that we get up-to-date group contact information which means we can verify meeting infor-mation with someone who is current. (>>50% of inquiries to listed group contacts are never replied to, usually because they are out of date).

To get New Group Information Forms, or Group Information Change Forms (electronically) please request from your DCM, or from me at [email protected]. Similarly for New District Committee Chair positions, please COMPLETE the standard forms and ensure they are forwarded to me for processing. I have discussed with technology the idea of making forms available on the Area web site directly. Generally, please do not use the Area “Update your meeting” web form. It is very confusing when it reaches me. Instead use the standard forms and email me.

Thank you for letting me be of service

William W., Group Records Committee Chair

Literature.

Greetings to all

Since the last Area Committee meeting in December, I have attended the Trusted Servant Training in January. It’s always exciting to meet members new to General Service. I also want to compliment the com-mittee that planned this for having the Training as early as they did before anything else. I was invited to a group in New Hope, MN to talk about the new literature. The RUS Conference was wonder-ful. Again I want to encourage every Member of A.A. to attend. I was unable to attend the last committee meetings due to work. I will be attending WCRAASC in Montana. Hope to see you there. Again if anyone wishes information and for me to attend their group or District let me know.

Yours in Love and Service

Vince F., Literature Committee Chair

NewsletterHello!

Please submit to the Pigeon! Event flyers, articles from the commu-nity, and district reports are due the days of the ACMs. Next deadline is May 9. Area reports are due 4 days later. Info on how to submit items is on page 3.

We are now bulk mailing direct from our printing plant. This will save us several hundred dollars from the newsletter budget this year. We have also established ourselves as a nonprofit with Adobe, and thus are saving a few hundred dollars there as well, while still


Area Committee Reportsmaintaining access to the Adobe software I use for the Pigeon. A big thank you to Teresa K., for her help in accomplishing these tasks.

I missed the February ACM due to a bad cold I did not wish to share. I attended RUSC, TSLT, and the WCRAASC. I had a wonderful din-ner with my counterpart in Area 35, Cindy, the new Northern Light editor. As I gained hope and tips from the last Northern Light editor when I was new, I wanted to put out my hand and pass it on

This was the second time that I spent a weekend conference with my head in this computer, working on the Pigeon. It was really hard to do this double duty last year, when I was new and unfamiliar with the software. This time around it was much easier, and I really enjoyed the conference while also being very productive..

Grateful to be of service,

Riki S., Newsletter Committee Chair

Public InformationGreetings from the Public Information Committee. So far this year I have attended the Trusted Servant Leadership Training sessions, the Recovery, Unity and Service Conference and the Area Committee meeting. I have also visited the district meetings in Districts 14 and 21. Thanks for having me give a presentation on PI work. I’ve also been invited to present at the District 13 meeting in March.

I will be heading down to District 1 to give an AA information talk at one of the local churches on March 15th. Other PI activities include bringing the Public Information display to Minneapolis Intergroup’s Gratitude Night.

I have contacted Greg C., Area 35’s new PI Chair. We are looking forward to working together on the State Fair booth. Brian M. will coordinate the booth again this year. It’s never too early for districts to contact him about volunteering!

At the Area Public Information Committee meeting, some of the district PI work being done included providing AA information to local publications, homeless youth centers and hospital emergency rooms. Some districts are investigating using digital billboards and radio stations to carry our message. We discussed two General Service Agenda impact items. The first dealt with progress on AA using Google AdWords/Grants. The second was a new proposal to develop a plan to create an AA podcast.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the Delegate’s Workshop/Area Assembly. Yours in service,

Ron S., Public Information Committee Chair

StructureThe Structure Committee report is on page 30, in Unapproved Area Committee Meeting Minutes.

TechnologySince our last Area Committee Meeting on Dec.12, I have worked closely with Adam B. to implement a test website for area36.org. Early in February we successfully cloned the Area’s Joomla site on our server and put it in a subdomain. This will allow us to make changes to the test site without disrupting the main area36.org site. I’d like to give a big thanks to Adam for all his work on this. We couldn’t have done this without him.

Our next goal is to implement the website improvements the Technology Committee has come up with on the test site. We hope to start gathering feedback from the Area in March and April. If all goes smoothly, we expect to implement the website improvements by May or June.

At the Area Committee Meeting in Shakopee on Feb. 22, the Technology Committee discussed the website project I mentioned above. We were also happy to have Eduardo S., GSR of La Nueva

Esperanza in Richfield, join the committee. He talked about District 27, the linguistic district of Spanish-language meetings, of which his meeting is a part. District 27 would like to get the word out about Spanish-language meetings in southern Minnesota. A quick Google search in both English and Spanish revealed a lack of information on Spanish-language meetings in the Area, so we came up with a plan to create a web page on area36.org that will highlight the Spanish-language meetings. I will work with Eduardo and District 27 to create the page, and it will be coming soon.

Thanks for the opportunity to serve. If you have any Area 36 tech-nology questions or ideas please reach out to me!

In service,

Jason H., Technology Committee Chair

Treatment FacilitiesThe Treatment Facilities Committee leads and coordinates the work of AA members and groups in carrying the A.A. message to alcohol-ics in treatment facilities.

Sober greetings everyone. As your new Treatment committee chair, I wanted to begin by outlining the mission of the committee as it appears on the Area website. This is my responsibility, which I am grateful and humbled to have been chosen for.

Since I accepted the position at RUSC, the Area has also held it’s first committee meeting. Due to a previous engagement I had prior to accepting the position, I was unable to attend. Patrick McVary, Area Temporary Contact Coordinator was gracious enough to chair the morning meeting for me. Thank you Patrick! There were 7 attendees besides Patrick, four who were new District treatment chairs. There was discussion about how to register as a new chair, as well as the idea of keeping it simple and focusing on getting a couple of things done instead of getting overwhelmed. There was also sharing on past and future events in each of the districts. Patrick shared that he has a plan to get some volunteers to help him clean up the contact data base at a location TBD sometime in May or June. Interested mem-bers should contact him at [email protected].

In addition I have also received all the materials that go along with the position from the previous Chair. I have been monitoring emails and responding to and/or forwarding any requests for information. There has been a couple of requests for sponsors and contacts. There is also a facility that changed locations. I have sent a group email to all the districts with an outline for my plan to catalog all of the current treatment facilities in the Area and any meetings currently being held in them. I also hope to get a better idea of my budget numbers in the next couple of months.

I will be attending the West Central Regional Service Conference in Billings Montana. I have downloaded and reviewed a list of all agenda items as well as the agenda items and background informa-tion for Treatment & Accessibilities.

Please feel free to contact me anytime and thank you for the oppor-tunity to serve.

Rob Y., Treatment Facilities Committee Chair

.

Treatment Temporary Contact Coordinator

No report.

Pink Can CoordinatorNo report.


Area Committee ReportsAd hoc Committee on Area Calendar

The Ad Hoc Committee on the Area Calendar had to cancel their January 18, 2020 committee meeting held in Hopkins, MN, due to heavy winter snows and poor driving conditions.

Dennis T, Mark M, Jim V and Carla N participated in a working lunch meeting arranged during the January Recovery, Unity and Service Conference (RUSC) in White Bear Lake, MN. These same members were on hand to answer any questions as well as receive comments from RUSC attendees at the Saturday night Ask-It-Basket session. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any concerns, ques-tions or comments from the audience. The Ad Hoc Committee did receive from the Area Chairperson, one (1) email correspondence, and we followed up with the author.

We utilized feedback from the December Area Committee meeting and correspondence received to modify a few items of the handouts given out in December 2019 at the ACM.

NOTE: there is a CHANGE to the Proposal from the Ad Hoc Committee:

Proposal now reads: That Area 36 adopt the proposed calendar schedule with the zone map; each zone will host an Area Assembly during a rotation; Election Assemblies will be held in New Ulm, Mankato, or St Peter, MN due to an Area Action to have elections centrally located. The intent is to begin this proposal January 1, 2021.

Please refer to the documents listed elsewhere in this edition of the Pigeon Newsletter, and soon to be posted on the area 36 web-site www.area36.org ; using ONLY Proposal Pages and Frequently Asked Questions marked MODIFIED 01/25/2020. The Travel Cost Comparison page has also been added, though separately, as it was originally part of the PowerPoint presentation provided to Area Committee Members on December 7, 2019. These presentation hand-outs were also used at eight district presentations.

The Ad Hoc Committee would like to extend their THANK YOU to all the DCMs who took the initiative to invite either the Area Chair or an Ad Hoc member to the District meeting, though in December it was unknown if this proposal would be headed to an Assembly for a vote during 2020. Initiative is the operative word, as it allowed GSRs to begin to take the message out to their groups about a “possible” proposal that would significantly change not only the structure of how all Area 36 trusted servants gather to conduct Area business; but more importantly, a proposal that was crafted by an ad hoc com-mittee requested to form by the Area Chair, to respond to years of concerns and complaints voiced at Area Committee Meetings, Area Assemblies and Area inventories of how “Area 36 does business.” Those DCMs who requested a presentation are from Districts 3, 7, 8, 13, 16, 17, 22 and 24. Thank you!

Members of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Calendar are still avail-able to attend any district meeting between now and the March Assembly/Delegate’s Workshop on March 28, 2020. DCMs, please contact Area Chair Roy E directly [email protected] with your request.

Thank you for this opportunity to be of service.

In love and service,

Carla N., Ad Hoc Committee Chair

Gopher State Roundup XLVII

May 22-24, 2020

Doubletree Bloomington Hotel, Bloomington MN

ASL Interpreters provided for Speaker meetings

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Gopher State Roundup XLVII, which will be held over Memorial Day weekend, May 22-24,

2020, takes an incredible amount of work to make it the exciting spiritual weekend that it is. If

you would like to become a part of making it all happen, just check the committee you would

like to work on and return the form to the address listed below. You will be contacted for

your assignment as the Roundup date nears.

I would like to work on the following committee:

_____ Greeters _____ Ushers _____ Registration _____Tickets

_____ Chair Room to Grow _____ Staff Information Booth _____ Security

_____ Al-Anon

Name ____________________________________________________________

Address ___________________________________________________________

City, State, ZIP __________________________ e-mail ______________________

Phone Number with Area Code _________________________________________

Please return the completed form to:

Gopher State Roundup

P.O. Box 390533

Minneapolis, MN 55439-2026

-or-

Complete electronically at gopherstateroundup.org

From the November 1997 magazine.


From the November 1994 magazine.

Victor E.

From Grapevine November 1997

From Grapevine November 1994


New Business: Area 36 Calendar Change Proposal

Ad Hoc Committeeon

Area CalendarModified 01.25.2020

Proposal

That Area 36 adopt the proposed calendar

schedule with the zone map; each zone will

host an Area Assembly during a rotation;

Election Assemblies will be held in

New Ulm, Mankato, or St. Peter, MN

due to an Area Action to have elections

centrally located.

The intent is to begin this proposal

January 1, 2021.

Proposed vs Current Schedule Comparison Current Calendar Proposed Year 1 Proposed Year 2

Jan Recovery Unity and Service Conference Consider combining with Area 35 Consider combining with Area 35 Feb Area Committee Meeting (ACM) ACM ACM Feb Trusted Servant Leadership Training (TSLT) Recommend discontinuing. Return to

District responsibility Recommend discontinuing. Return to District responsibility

March West Central Regional Service Conference (WC WCRAASC WCRAASC April Delegate’s Workshop/Assembly 2- Day ACM/Assembly

Saturday• Morning – Standing Committees*• Afternoon – ACM• Night – Delegates Workshop

Sunday • Morning – as set by Agenda• Afternoon – as set by Agenda

2- Day ACM/AssemblySaturday

• Morning – Standing Committees*• Afternoon – ACM• Night – Delegates Workshop

Sunday • Morning – as set by Agenda• Afternoon– as set by Agenda

April General Service Conference (GSC) GSC Delegate Only GSC Delegate Only May ACM Move to April & combine with Assembly Move to April & combine with Assembly June Area Assembly Discontinue Discontinue Aug ACM ACM ACM Sept West Central Regional Forum (WCRF) West Central Regional Forum NA Sept Area Inventory (Year 2 of rotation) Move to year 1 of rotation and combine

with Oct ACM/Assembly NA

Oct Area Assembly 2- day ACM/AssySaturday

• Morning – Standing Committees• Afternoon – ACM• Night – Area Inventory

Sunday • Morning – as set by Agenda• Afternoon – as set by Agenda• Budget Approval

2- day ACM/AssySaturday

• Morning – Standing Committees• Afternoon – ACM

• Night – SpeakerSunday

• Morning – as set by Agenda• Afternoon – as set by Agenda• Budget Approval & Elections

Nov Area 35/36 Workshop Discontinue Discontinue Dec ACM Move to October & combine with Assembly Move to October & combine with Assembly Dec Rotation Meeting (Year 2) NA Rotation Meeting for Committee Chairs

Modified 1/25/2020 • Discuss GSC Agenda Items


New Business: Area 36 Calendar Change Proposal

ZONE 3

ZONE 1

ZONE 2

ZONE 4

# 2 - Albert Lea# 3 - Austin# 6 - Rochester# 11 - Winona

ZO N E 1# 4 - Marshall# 5 - Hutchinson# 8 - Willmar# 9 - Spicer

# 12 - Granite Falls# 13 - Montevideo# 14 - Morton

ZO N E 2# 1 - Mankato# 10 - Red Wing# 17 - Chaska# 18 - St. Peter

ZO N E 3# 7 - New Ulm# 15 - Fairmont# 16 - Worthington

ZO N E 4

Previously Utilized Locations

Potential Locations

Policy required electionarea

1

23

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

1516

17

18

10

11

TravelCostComparison

11,000milereduction=$3,900costsavingsoffsetsincreaseinhotel

TotalMileage

MileageCost HotelCost TotalCost 2019Budget

OfficerTravel 9230 3,231$ 1,440$ 4,671$ 4,328$CommitteeChairTravel 17589 6,156$ 2,640$ 8,796$ 9,182$TotalTravel 26819 9,387$ 4,080$ 13,467$ 13,510$

TotalMileage

MileageCost HotelCost TotalCost

OfficerTravel 5256 1,840$ 2,880$ 4,720$ CommitteeChairTravel 10223 3,578$ 5,280$ 8,858$ TotalTravel 15479 5,418$ 8,160$ 13,578$

CURRENTCALENDAR

PROPOSEDCALENDAR

9


New Business: Area 36 Calendar Change ProposalAd Hoc Committee on Area Calendar

Our committee—the Ad Hoc Committee on the Area Calendar—was formed at the request of the Area Chair in early 2019. We were tasked with reviewing not only the Area Calendar, but the flow of Area commu-nications in general. The primary function of the A. A. service structure is for the members, groups and areas to be able to effectively commu-nicate their experience to one another to ensure that there are few gaps through which the still suffering alcoholic might fall.

Therefore, we considered the following:

1. The dates of Area events

2. The locations of Area events

3. The informational & deliberative content of Area events

4. The flow of Area communications between:

• Area 36 AA groups

• Area 36 Districts

• Area 36 Committees

• Area 36 and the General Service structure

5. The costs of the above for the individual groups and Area 36

6. The personal time required for members to be involved in General Service

During our meetings we began compiling a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) that we asked ourselves about the changed Service Calendar. We offer the following to help further explain the proposed Area 36 Calendar.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON THE NEW AREA CALENDAR

Why are we trying to change the Area Calendar?For many years there have been concerns and complaints about the Area Calendar. Our Area Chair has decided that it is time to fully examine these concerns in an effort to either resolve them or make the needed changes. The new proposed calendar is an effort to do that.

Why 2-day Assemblies/Area Committee Meetings?Several of the concerns expressed over the years are related to:

• Travel time for attendees of these events.

• The number of weekends that a trusted servant must commit to in order to serve well.

• The ability to track and become informed on the issues the Area is dealing with.

• Opportunity to carpool and save costs.

• Not having a good idea or ‘feel’ for the whole “Conference Process.”

• A lack of interesting agendas to work through.

This proposal intends to address all of the types of concerns noted above. It is far more than just switching from single-day events to 2-day events.

We suggest a change in how we do business. We want to make it easier for the General Service Rep (GSR) to keep track of what is going on and be better able to make the needed informed decisions on behalf of their home group.

What is the advantage of having a 2-day assembly?It frees up 6 weekends each year, making it possible for members to engage more fully in personal or family activities.

It ensures that GSRs, Standing Committee Members, DCMs and Area servants have the opportunity to carpool, thereby providing for a more enjoyable and less costly experience.

Persons, groups and Districts that have business to bring before the

Assembly will now be able to literally ‘see’ how the issue/proposal flows through the service structure process – and how it is resolved. Providing them with full access to that process.

Due to this ability to ‘see’ the process, it will be more inviting for some-one to become invigorated by, and engaged in, general service work.

It encourages and allows for the synergy and energy to occur that has attracted so many to service in the past.

Because all the trusted servants in the Area are in one place, it becomes easier for each person to process what they are seeing and hearing because they can visit with others about it.

It creates the possibility for service mentoring or service sponsorship, which extends the ability for new servants to tap into a depth of experi-ence available in the Southern Minnesota Area.

What kind of speaker will be speaking on Saturday night of the second year? Ideally, it may be a Trustee or GSO staff member (chosen by either the Delegate or Area Chair), who can then also proctor the Area Elections the following day. The intent is to hear from a speaker who can share deep personal general service experience from a perspective few of us normally have access to and to provide knowledgeable assistance for our election process.

How would the 2-day Assembly affect the reimbursement of the Past Delegates who are currently provided reim-bursement for mileage only? Will they be reimbursed for lodging as well?The current policy is to only reimburse for travel to Area 36 events. This was approved to allow past delegates to bring their service experience to the deliberations. In the event that the Area wishes to ensure that experi-ence is available for the 2-day Assemblies—that would require a change in the policy, which would need Assembly approval.

Why are you proposing to eliminate the Trusted Servant Leadership Training event? How will District servants get trained?The work, and the method(s) by which general service work is carried out, differs from district to district. Therefore, the best approach is for the districts who operate in the same manner to join together to develop the appropriate training—or to provide their own district-specific training. This would not only keep the focus on local district issues and prac-tices—but also keep travel requirements to a minimum. There is a deep resource of past Area servants who would, in all likelihood, be available to travel to assist with any training event in whatever manner they might be needed.

This is an effort to ‘decentralize’ our activities and better align ourselves with the upside-down triangle we all so much enjoy.

Once again, this also encourages service sponsorship and invites a shar-ing of experience from past trusted servants within the District and Area.

How will the DCM’s get trained?There isn’t any real ‘training’ in the usual sense when it comes to DCMs and Area Officers. The skills generally needed for the positions come out of the practice of AA’s 12 Steps and include such things as patience, consideration, honesty, etc. However, it is vital that both the Area Chair and the Delegate engage with the DCMs to explain to them how they intend to communicate with them and how they wish that communica-tion to be reciprocated..

Why combine the RUSC with the Area 35 Service Conference?Both Area 35 & Area 36 use the same focus points for their annual conference. Essentially the only difference is some slightly different approaches in the planning. Finding the middle ground between the two approaches would be beneficial to both Areas.


New Business: Area 36 Calendar Change ProposalDue to somewhat differing perspectives on A.A. life, it is felt that bring-ing these perspectives together in a discussion and deliberative manner would assist both Areas in broadening their thinking on a wide variety of subjects, and thereby improving the service both Areas provide to Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole.

Since both Areas often experience a shortfall in revenue to support their respective conference— this will assist both in meeting their 7th Tradition responsibilities and help reduce any strain on Area budgets.

The event can be located centrally, at St. Cloud for example, or can be rotated as needed to provide for greater accessibility for smaller districts. In either case, the Areas can work through a joint committee to deter-mine location and any other pertinent elements..

If we eliminate the Joint Area 35&36 Workshop – how will committees coordinate their work between the two areas?Each Area’s Standing/Action Committees have always had the full authority and freedom to interact with the corresponding committees from another Area. Each committee could schedule those meetings it believes to be needed and carry them out without any other oversight or coordination. It is only once a committee has a proposal, that it wishes to bring before its Assembly, that it is necessary to stay within one’s own Area.

Should the above-mentioned joint service conference become a reality, the committee from the two Areas can have an initial meeting there and then arrange for their own schedule and location to meet based on their needs. It is important to note that both Areas allow their committees to set any additional meetings they feel the need for—and have allowed this for years.

How does this impact the Area Budget? It seems like there will be more lodging costs.See “Travel Cost Comparison” page listed on area website and within spring Pigeon 2020. Ad hoc committee found the costs broke even using 2019-20 rotation of Area Officers and Committee chairs for mileage at $0.35 and $120/night hotel accommodations with 1 person per car and 1 per room. Committee not asked to factor in non-voting positions.

I’m a GSR—do I need to attend the whole weekend (2 days)?We hope you will! Let us explain why: (year #1 is the ‘even’ year and Year #2 is the ‘odd’ year)

• In year #1, Spring Assembly—The Delegate’s Workshop will occur on Saturday Night – and your group’s thoughts and ideas are important.

• In Year #1 – Fall Assembly—We will be conducting the Area Inventory. Your group’s thoughts on what works and what does not is important.

• In Year #2 – Spring Assembly—We will again conduct the Delegate’s Workshop, so important to the General Service Conference where AA’s group conscience is developed.

• In Year #2 – Fall Assembly & Elections—We will hear from some-one, perhaps a Trustee or GSO staff member, who can help each of us come to a broader understanding of how AA functions worldwide and how it can impact our own home group.

While each of the meetings noted above are not ‘required’ for GSR atten-dance—they are, in fact, the meetings in which each GSR’s voice can be carried well beyond the Southern Minnesota Area and they underscore a vital principle in AA—the things we do that are not required provide us with the greatest benefit!

I’m a DCM and don’t think my district will fund an over-night stay.The funding of the DCM to attend and participate in Area delib-erations is a primary responsibility of the groups in any district. This would be a local 7th Tradition issue that groups would need to address. The responsibility of the groups in this regard is equivalent to their

collective responsibility to fund sending a Delegate to the General Service Conference. On an annual basis, Area 36 contributes a portion of the full costs of our Delegate to participate at the GSC. In 2019 and 2020, Area 36 contributed $1,800 to GSO for Delegate costs.

How will we learn what is happening in the committees if you don’t have them all reporting at the Assembly?This new approach to functioning takes full advantage of some of the technology resources that we have failed to fully embrace and utilize in our Area. Specifically, we refer to the Pigeon Newsletter and the area36.org website.

• The Newsletter is published within weeks of an Area Committee Meeting (the Saturday portion of the 2-day event) and can provide valuable information on a timely and complete basis.

• The area36.org website can be updated on an ‘as needed’ basis and is well positioned to provide all information in a fast and full manner.

How does this improve communication within the Area?It allows for a more thorough discussion of all matters since all servants will be together over an extended period of time.

Part of communication is being able to understand how ideas flow from one point to another and how they become implemented—this approach will provide this insight.

Both the Delegate and the Area Chair will have a better opportunity to get a ‘sense’ of how the Area is moving on a wide variety of issues by hearing the ‘hallway’ conversations which are often more revealing than the floor discussion.

The committees will have a full and open platform from which to offer any proposal they are considering—and then receive a broader feedback on the subject.

When agendas are rushed in order to ‘get out’ on time, the interaction that often results in innovative solutions often fails to take place. With this approach we will have that ‘extra’ time to develop those innovations.

How will the agenda be distributed due to the Area Committee happening the same day?Virtually all of the business to come before the Assembly will already be on the agenda. There may be new issues that arise during the Area Committee that will come to the Assembly—but that potential has always existed. A ‘floor action’ is always possible. That is one of the strengths of the AA structure is that there are no real “gatekeepers” that can stand in the way of needed progress.

How does this affect our ability and time to do real 12th Step work?The AA service structure, and the manner in which it functions, is intended to ensure that Alcoholics Anonymous and its members are pre-pared to as great an extent; and with the best experience possible. This new approach only strengthens that intention. The time needed to hold our service meetings is spent ensuring that when we go out to do our 12th Step work—we do it as effectively as possible (per the Big Book page 84, paragraph 2).


District 1 I was fortunate enough to attend the Recovery, Unity & Service Conference in Lake Elmo in January along with 4 others from District 1 that had never attended a RUSC before. We were all impressed with how well the conference was run and how all the speakers and presenters did such great jobs. This conference is one of my personal favorites and is always super informative.

District One’s ARCH workshop will be on Saturday, March 14th from 1-5 pm. Check out our website at aadistrict1.org for more information.

Our district will be presenting on AA General Service on Friday night from 6-7pm at MNYPAA in Rochester.

I look forward to attending the next Area Assembly/Delegates Workshop in March.

Thank you for allowing me to be of service.

Renee B., DCM District 1

District 2 Greetings from District 2 (Winona, Fillmore and Houston Counties).

Since the end of October, my husband and I have been traveling throughout the country in our camper. The thing that has been most amazing about this journey, is going to AA meetings along the way. I’ve met so many new friends and heard stories of hope from people just like me. I’m grateful beyond words!

I miss my District, but know things are in good hands with Brian G., alternate DCM, the GSRs and Jim A., our web guy. On a sad note, our District treasurer, Mike G., passed away in mid February. Mike, along with my predecessor Bill H., revived our District a few years ago. Mike’s patience and hard work in getting the finances in order was incredible! He got us back on track and was diligent in keeping us fiscally responsible. Mike was a kind, gentle soul who loved AA. I will miss him and his cowboy hat!

The Annual Houston Chili Feed on February 19 was a success. George G. from the Hokah group shared his story. The open event attracted people from all over the region. Our District also has three regular open speaker meetings each month. I send a monthly email to professionals (law enforcement, judges, treatment and health per-sonnel) to invite them and encourage others to attend.

In closing, I’d like to share an email that I recently received from a friend. She told me that her neighbor committed suicide. He had been drinking for many years and left a note for his wife that he couldn’t fight the demons anymore. Very sad. Eight years ago, I was near death and wanting to die because of this insane disease. I’m one of the fortunate ones that found a new life in AA.

Our District’s goal is to reach those still suffering, before it’s too late. We bring meetings to jails, talk with professionals, distribute meeting directories and reach out to those who want the hand of AA.

I look forward to seeing you in April. Thank you letting me be of service.

Annie L., DCM District 2

District 3Hello from District 3

This is my first newsletter as District 3 DCM for 2020.

On January 4th and February 1st we held our District 3 monthly meetings at the West Hills Alano Club in Owatonna. We have con-cerns about attendance at District meetings from the group GSRs. Contributions from our groups is down. Bonnie M, our secretary, and Sylvia A, our CPC chair, sent letters to all our groups in the District letting them know of our attendance and contributions situation. We agreed to sponsor the AA Booth at the Steele County Free Fair again this coming August. Sylvia A will do the volunteer manning of the booth. She does a remarkable job. Thanks to all who volunteer.

I, along with Earl S, our Corrections chair, and Ric S, GSR of the Big Room Group of Owatonna, attended the Trusted Servant Leadership Training in Hutchinson on January 11th. The group responsible did a very nice job. I learned a lot from the breakout sessions.

I attended the Recovery, Unity and Service Conference (RUSC) in Lake Elmo on January 24-26. This was my second RUSC. I recom-mend anyone to attend next year. I have learned so much from these conferences. A lot of hard work went into all who did the presenta-tions. I really enjoyed the Saturday night speaker, Francis G, one of our trustees from Massachusetts. Breakout sessions were great. I had a wonderful weekend.

Our next District 3 Meeting is March 7th at the West Hills Alano, 605 Florence Ave, Owatonna MN 55060. We have invited Tabithia W, District 16 DCM, and Carla N, Ad Hoc chair, to discuss an upcoming joint workshop with District 16 and for Carla to present our new Area calendar.

I am not planning on attending the West Central Region AA Service Conference in Billings MT February 28-March 1st. I attended last years Conference in Moorhead.

I have registered and have hotel reservations for The International Convention to be held July 2-4 in Detroit. I have not made travel plans. Should be a great time. This will be my 5th convention.

In closing my first newsletter of 2020, I want to thank everyone, especially our District officers, for all their support. I want to encour-age AA members in our District to get involved in service work.

Richard J., DCM District 3

District 5District 5 GSRs met in January and set the GSR meeting sched-ule for 2020. The meetings will be held at the Appleton Community Center at 7:00 p.m. on the following dates: April 13, July 13 and October 12. Everyone is welcome to attend!

At the January meeting, we discussed the success of the District 5 2019 Freedom Fest and made some suggestions for the 2020 event which will again be held at the Montevideo Community Center Saturday, July 18.

The District 5 Round Robins for the 2020 year will be:

• March 28 hosted by Dawson

• April 11 hosted by Madison

• May 9 hosted by Ortonville/Big Stone

• June 13 hosted by Montevideo

• July 18 Freedom Fest hosted by District 5

• August 8 hosted by Canby

• September 5 hosted by Granite Falls

• October 10 hosted by Appleton

• November 14 hosted by Benson

District 5 cordially invites everyone to attend any of these events where we have a meal beginning at 6:00 p.m. followed by speakers at 7:00 p.m. (September at Granite Falls the meal begins at 4:00 p.m. with speakers at 5:00 p.m.) You may contact me for more details or go to https://mndist5aa.wixsite.com/mndist5aa for more information.

District 5 discussed the new information on the area calendar and zone rotation of the Area Assembly. The consensus was that we would like to invite “someone” to discuss this at one of our next GSR meetings so we can learn and understand more about what role we can play in this new exciting change.

District 5 is also working on a small Literature Committee to help the district groups have better access to books and pamphlets at a more reasonable price when bought in bulk.

As DCM, I want to thank all of the faithful servants of District 5, it’s a pleasure to be a part of sobriety with all of them!

In service, Mort M., DCM District 5

DCM Reports


DCM Reports District 7

No report.

District 8Greetings from District 8!

District 8 consists of all Ramsey county except for a small square in the southeast corner. We have 304 meetings listed and 89 active groups. We have several clubs in our district and I believe this accounts for the discrepancy. We meet at the Fairview Community Center in Roseville on the third Wednesday of the month at 7:30 pm. All are welcome to attend.

We continue to play musical chairs with our committee chairs. My open Finance chair was taken by my Group Records chair and my Grapevine Chair moved into the open Alternate DCM position.

Our January meeting was attended by Roy Edwards, our Area chair. He presented the new calendar proposal and spoke some on General Service. Our 2020 budget was also presented at this meeting.

Our joint Movie night with St Paul Intergroup was well attended and very much enjoyed by all present. Most of the feedback we received was positive and we heard lots of “let’s do it again!”

Our committee chairs are busy finding ways to help the still suffer-ing alcoholic. We typically have one or two new GSRs at our meeting. We give them a short explanation of the General Service structure and a service manual.

Our CPC chair is working on a professional get together and our new Alt DCM will be planning a workshop for spring.

On a personal note, I have attended the Trusted Servant Leadership Training, the District 18 workshop and had the opportunity to take care of the registration table at the Recovery, Unity and Service Conference which was a great learning opportunity for me. I also attended the Area Committee Meeting in our new location in Shakopee. The West Central Regional AA Service Conference is also on the horizon, I look forward to the adventure and discussing the agenda items.

I am thoroughly enjoying my role as DCM and with the warm weather coming, my plan is to continue visiting meetings.

Thank you for letting me be of service,

Sue M., DCM District 8

Districts 9, 12, 13No report.


District 14 is made up of the AA meetings in Wright County, MN which currently numbers 47 groups. Our district meets on the 1st Monday of every month at Buffalo United Methodist Church (609 8th Street NW, Buffalo, MN 55313) at 7:30 pm. We have an average of five to ten GSRs who attend our monthly district meeting in order to represent their group conscience. All AA members are encouraged and welcome to attend.

We have the following Officers and Chairs who will be serving in our district for the next two years: DCM-Alan S, Alt DCM-Bruce R, Treasurer-September Y, Secretary-Amy S, Archives-Iris S, Corrections- Andy M, CPC/PI-Lisa S, Grapevine-Rosie K, Information Technology–Travis C, Intergroup Rep-Mitch K, Literature–Judi L, Medallions–Jim O/Darrol, Pink Can Plan–Lynnette S and Treatment–Mike H.

Corrections Update: Our Corrections Chair, Andy M, has been work-ing to get our Wright County Jail contact list updated. Our district is currently bringing in from 8 to 10 AA meetings a month into Wright

County Jail. We put on women’s meetings on Sunday nights and men’s meetings on Monday nights. Our district’s administrative contact at Wright County Jail is satisfied with the number of AA meetings being brought into Wright County Jail along with the current number of approved AA volunteer contacts.

Pink Can Plan Update: Our Pink Can Plan Chair, Lynnette S, is work-ing to get our district’s pink can plan

re-booted / re-started. All contributions collected will be sent to the Pink Can Plan fund in Area 36.

Treatment Update: Our Treatment Chair, Mike H, has been working with New Beginnings in Waverly to get them two new AA literature racks and four Grapevine subscriptions. This will all be in place by the end of this month. In addition, Mike is working in conjunction with the Area 36 Treatment Chair and other district Treatment Chairs to update the inventory of all treatment centers operating in our district along with an inventory/list of AA meetings that are being brought into those treatment centers by other AA members and groups.

DCM Update: I will be making DCM visits to all the meetings/ groups in District 14 this year in order to get a good handle on what each group in our district needs from the rest of AA. To date, I have been able to visit 8 (out of 47) groups and I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of great AA members in our district and I have been received warmly by each group I have visited. I will also be attending the West Central Regional AA Service Conference in Billings, MT at the end of this month and I plan on making all information I receive about the General Service Conference Agenda Items available to our district at our next district meeting on March 2nd, 2020.

In Service,

Alan S., DCM District 14


DCM Reports

District 16No report.


My rotation as District 17 DCM began in January. A special thanks to out-going DCM Dennis T. for lending me a hand in our transition. I attended the Trusted Leadership Training on January 11. This event was successful, and it was attended by many of our District 17 Trusted Servants. The event was a home event of sorts, as it took place in Hutchinson. It was a good opportu-nity from individuals who have worked at all levels of general service.

Each month at our District 17 General Service Meeting, we have a report on one of the Traditions corresponding to that month. Monthly GSR Reports and sharing provide for the exchange of ideas for what is working for groups recovery and carrying the message. There are about 30 AA groups in District 17 which is McLeod, Sibley and western Carver Counties. All groups are encouraged to attend and participate at the monthly District Meeting.

District Committee Chairs provide monthly reports. We are currently looking for two District Committee Chairs: (CPC) Cooperation with the Professional Community and Grapevine. We continue to carry meetings into the local treatment centers as well as the VA Hospital in St. Cloud. We also have groups that bring meetings into the county jails located in and around District 17.

The January District Meeting included a presentation on the General Service Structure, by Ryan V, our Third Legacy Chair. The presentation included a simplified view of the upside down triangle and a look at how all individuals, groups and committees fit into the AA General Service Conference Structure. There were several new faces at the District Meeting,

District 15Warm Greetings from District 15!

It has been a busy start to this new year in District 15. I attended the TSLT afternoon session in Hutchinson in January. The highlight of the afternoon was the AA $10,000 Pyramid game when I was paired up with Missy R. We played against Nancy T. and Kurt K. and won by a long shot!

I also attended The Area 36 RUSC Conference in Lake Elmo the last weekend in January. Area 36 Alt Chairperson Nancy T. and her committee did a fantastic job hosting and organizing the conference. A special thank you also goes out to all the volunteers from Area 36 and District 15 that participated in helping the conference be a suc-cess. I will be attending the West Central Regional Conference in Billings and look forward to all the discussion around the upcoming conference agenda items.

We are currently busy planning our Spring Fellowship/Workshop on March 21. Our topic is Service; Gratitude in Action inspired by the RUSC conference.

We continue to support Corrections in Washington County with meetings at Washington County Jail, Oak Park Heights and Stillwater Prison. We are working on several new ideas for projects in the coming year and as always we need ideas and welcome any volunteers to help serve on a committee.

District 15 is made up of Washington County stretching from Forest Lake (North) to Cottage Grove (South) and from Oakdale (West) to Stillwater (East). We are home to 3 Alanos, Forest Lake 156 Club, Stillwater Roach Hall, and Cottage Grove AA in the Park. There are approximately 130 meetings in District 15. Due to geographics, there are a few Wisconsin groups that also choose to be active in our District as well. Our District meeting is the 4th Monday of the month at 7pm at Christ Lutheran Church in Lake Elmo.

Grateful in Service,

Jennifer G., DCM District 15

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Fellowship and a panel discussion: What vital part service plays in our program, our daily

lives, and our serenity. What is “Gratitude in Action”

Where: Christ Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall Lower Level 11194 36th St. N Lake Elmo, MN 55042When: Saturday March 21, 2020 11:30 - 2:30Menu: Pulled Pork and Chicken 7th Tradition Offering Bring a Salad or Dessert to pass***For more information visit www.aadistrict15.org or Email [email protected]


DCM Reports including three new GSRs. The February meeting included GSR presenta-tions on their group’s history.

We have been pleased with the increase in participation at District by sev-eral Groups. We are always looking for more people to get involved. There are committee and other positions and numerous opportunities to match almost anyone’s interest. It is a great service opportunity. “There is how-ever, a vast amount of fun about it all.” –Alcoholics Anonymous p.16

Yours in service,

Jeff M., DCM District 17

District 18District 18 passed the budget for 2020. Our literature committee was approved to purchase the updated new edition Service manuals, GSR pamphlets and other various pamphlets to be made available for GSRs at the district meeting and to share with their groups. Our new group records chair, Alex G., has been hard at work with coordinating group outreach to the inactive meetings in our dis-trict. We have a very active Cooperation with the Professionals in the Community (CPC) and Public Information committee. Currently our Public Information is reaching out to local radio about PSA spots, as well as working with District 8 and 25 about billboard GSO approved ads. I want to thank our outgoing Finance chair, Jo T., for her service in the last year, and with that to welcome our new Finance chair, Angie S., to fulfill the remaining portion of this rotation. We had a great turnout and success at our work-shop on February 1, and our Alt DCM Marvin J will begin putting together a committee to start planning our 2020 workshop for hope-fully this Fall, so stay tuned. On our District 18 website, we do have a calendar for district and area 36 events, so if you want to add an anniversary meeting or workshop contact our webchair. Overall it is very exciting to be a part of this very active district, and I hope that in doing some group outreach this year that we reel in more groups and members into getting involved.

Eric M., DCM District 18

District 19Hello from District 19!

Our District has been buzzing with activity over the past few months. We have filled our service positions for our Treasurer and our Alternate DCM and we have been getting these individuals up and running. Our District members have plans to increase our out-reach efforts to have better representation for all of our meetings at District, as well as increase our inviting and discussion of how the District can help the individual groups.

Our members have been active with initiating several service activi-ties throughout the District, including: donating additional copies of our Big Book, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, and As Bill Sees It to be circulated to all locations of Dakota County Libraries; increasing access to transportation for seniors to local AA meetings, and updating several senior centers with AA literature. We also continue to have groups take meetings to the Dakota County Jail, Cochran House, and Margaret’s House. We have several members working on utilizing our resources to increase the AA literature in medical clinics and high schools.

Yours in service,

Marnie T., DCM District 19

District 20No report.

District 21Hello Area 36,

District 21 is starting to get busy. We have grown to 15-20 regu-lar attendees, with 80% GSRs or alternate GSRs. While I am still attempting to get folks to commit to a chair position, some GSRs are beginning to take on service opportunities to reach out to the still suffering alcoholic. We have reached out to Hennepin County librar-ies to ensure they have AA books in their catalogue. I am happy to note that there are 39 Big Books in 33 locations. While many of those libraries are not in our district, it was still cool to see all of the libraries are covered. The 12x12 is in 9 locations, with a copy for each location. I would like to see the 12x12 in all 33 locations, so more work to be done there. We are currently working on reviewing and getting AA books and literature in all of the high schools in our district. So, more work to be done there as well.

District 21 produced its first newsletter in 6 years! I am hoping to find someone to take on that bi-monthly project as it can be a lot of work. For now, I will continue to create it as I have found it a very useful tool in reaching out to groups when you can’t visit them every month. I just received a copy of a District 17 newsletter from Jeff, and I will be sure to copy some of his ideas for the next newsletter.

At our most recent District 21 meeting, GSRs have stepped up and are taking on sections of the General Service Conference Agenda Items to present to other GSRs at our March district meeting. I am so excited to see the GSRs engaged in reviewing and presenting on potential policies that can or will shape AA for the next generation. GSRs have also decided to put on workshops. They have decided to alternate locations for each workshop. Currently, the workshop top-ics are: Sponsorship and How to Retain the Newcomers; Singleness of Purpose; and a four-part workshop going over the 4th Step that is tentatively scheduled for March. Exact dates and times are to be determined for each workshop. I will send out a flyer as soon as I get it!

I also want to give big thanks to the following: Christina G., Area 36 Corrections Chair; Ron S., Area 36 Public Information Chair; and Stacy M., Area 36 Alternate Delegate. Christina and Ron did a brilliant job reviewing their chair positions and facilitated wonder-ful discussions at District 21! Stacy was able to visit just before the Trusted Servant Leadership Training (TSLT) and gave a fantastic preview of the TSLT event. We had 3 GSRs, and a guest of one of the GSR’s, attend the TSLT, so that was awesome!

I will be beginning my second round of visiting groups to spread the word about the GSC Agenda Items. Here we go again! See you all in March.

In love and service,

Patrick S., DCM District 21, again

Districts 22, 23, 24, 25, 27No report.


From Our CommunityMinneapolis Intergroup

March is all about Gratitude Night held on March 28th, 2020. Thank you to all the Area 36 service committees that were able to attend Gratitude Night even with the Delegate’s Workshop happen-ing on the same day. We understood that some could not make it. It is my favorite event for two reasons. One is to get together with Area 36 service. It has a great sense of unity that night. And also we acknowledge all the AA members that have helped in one way or another with all the vital services of Minneapolis Intergroup to be able to reach out to the still suffering alcoholic.

In May we will kick off our annual Group Outreach Program. Each year 70 groups are randomly selected to receive a visit from a vol-unteer who will bring a packet of information to share with a group about the vital services of Minneapolis Intergroup. Group Outreach training sessions will take place on May 2nd or May 9th at 11:00 am following the regular Saturday Orientation Meeting at the Mizpah Church. If you are interested in participating, just come to either of these meetings to prepare to make a visit and to be assigned a group.

Your service will enhance Intergroup’s efforts in two ways. It assures that our meeting directory information is correct and informs members about opportunities to carry the AA message through Intergroup 12 Step Services.

Basics of Group Outreach: Visit the group. Complete Group Update Form. Notify the office of which group you visited and the date. Return the Group Update Form to the Office.

Yours in Love and Service,

Gail S., Office Manager

Northeast Regional TrusteeNancy, Roy, Missy and Tom:

Thank you again for a wonderful RUSC. I sincerely appreciate your Area’s outpouring of hospitality and warmth. Although I am not familiar with the prior format, I found the current RUSC format: thought provoking (i.e., the three questions), informative (i.e., the readings) and principled (i.e., the quality of the speakers themselves). I especially appreciated the opportunities for Fellowship - and I made a very good friend in Lisa.

Well, I arrived home safely last night. My flight was right on time and the drive home was clear and dry. In fact, it was colder in Massachusetts than it was in Minnesota! I’m looking forward to meeting Missy, and seeing Tom again, at this coming General Service Board weekend in Manhattan.

If they ever run me out of Eastern Massachusetts, it’s a comfort to know I have a home away from home in Minnesota (gush).

Unity does not fade,

Francis G.

Northeast Regional Trustee

St. Paul & Suburban Area IntergroupSo far this year has been exciting. Our building has been sold twice over the course of the first two months. Thus, as many in St. Paul know, we are in the process of searching out a new home. We are currently negotiating with a church which has some space which is easily set up as a separate entity. There are several aspects of that kind of lease that require extensive research and negotiations.

Contributions remain fairly strong. However, with a potential move and a trend toward increases by most of our vendors we are always grateful when groups increase their level of contributions as well as when members decide to become Faithful Fivers.

Our Lifeline newsletter has taken on a slightly different look. In addition, it now contains more articles from around the Fellowship (those not already in the A.A. Grapevine) that offer up some very interesting experience and points of view. We are, as always, looking for local folks to provide their own experience that we can publish. To date, we have received a several wonderful submissions!

Our Regional Trustee will have his final article (due to his rota-tion as Trustee) in the April Lifeline. He has done an excellent job of sharing his journey with us over the past 4 years. Our goal is to reproduce those articles in a separate publication that may be of great help to those wanting more information on the A.A. General Service Structure and experience. We are grateful to be, I think, the only newsletter that has carried an ongoing article from a Trustee in their experience. An amazing look inside that service responsibility!

Another rather enjoyable activity is the event that we are jointly planning with the Minneapolis Intergroup and the ICYPAA International Bid Committee. I understand that District Eight has also decided they would like to contribute to offsetting the cost of that event. This, to me, is a wonderful miracle! To see the two Intergroups, a district and the Young People entity joining together in a project. It is an incredible example of unity at work in A.A.

We have a newly elected Board of Directors. They are beginning to settle in with many challenges and opportunities ahead of them. We appear to have gotten a very enthusiastic new group and I look forward to their ideas for the Intergroup office.

Dennis B. – Office Manager

THE FELLOWSHIPW E C R A V E

GAMES — MEETINGS — SPEAKERSOBRIETY COUNTDOWN — DANCE

S h a r i n g u n i t y w i t h i n t h e c o m m u n i t i e s w e s e r v e

SATURDAY—JUNE 6, 2020

MINNESOTA STATE FAIRGROUNDSPROGRESS BUILDING

A united e�ort of both Minneapolis Intergroup & St. Paul Intergroup, District 8, as well as the Young People in AA International Bid Committee

1:00 PM to 10:30 PM

From Grapevine September 1946


Parting Thoughts as WCR TrusteeBy invitation from the Pigeon Editor, I’d like to share some parting thoughts in my waning days of service as West Central Regional Trustee. Rotation will take place at the 70th General Service Conference, where one of the seven past delegates standing for election will succeed me. Our eight current delegates in the West Central Region (WCR), along with four delegates chosen at ran-dom from the Conference Trustees Committee and four trustees from the Trustee Nominating Committee will be the voters for this election.

I look back to when I received the call from our delegate in 2016 that my name had come out of the hat. I had never envisioned it ever even making it into the hat, so I was a bit stupefied to find out the results. It seems that even though I had known all the trust-ees dating back to Don B. from Area 36 in the early 1990’s and saw the service they provided, I suddenly didn’t seem to effectively grasp what I was about to undertake.

Between April and July, when I was to attend my first General Service Board (GSB) meeting, I was informed about three GSB committees I was assigned to, and also was placed on three sub-committees, one of which I was to chair. Yes, a bit of the “baptism by fire” if you will. At that first board meeting, on the first day, we had a brief orientation on fiduciary responsibility, a finance orien-tation, and a couple other items I am but dimly aware of and have little recall. I quickly discovered that the GSB runs on a robust committee system and always tries to accomplish a week of work in a weekend.

The October Board meeting in Rye was right after the World Service Meeting. I had some lasting experiences meeting world ser-vice meeting delegates from all around the world. One interesting result of those new friendships was a number of requests for infor-mation on the Concepts. Dennis B. from Area 36 had a number of available presentations and shared those with people in other countries.

One of the more poignant memories of year one was that at the January Board meeting, I made a video presentation of a minority opinion on an agenda item that came out of the Public Information Committee, where I was a member. The vote was 19-1. It likely set the stage for other votes of similar nature. I had to accept the group conscience, but the GSB always gave me the opportunity to be heard.

In my first year I also was a member of the Trustee International Committee. It was one of the most mind-changing committees dur-ing my four-year tenure. Approaching it in the first year, trying to find ways to eliminate expenditures for this committee and to keep our AA dollars focused on services locally, I came to appreciate how, with relatively few dollars from our overall budget, A.A. has the opportunity to carry the message in some incredibly large-scale ways. Also, to see what was happening in countries where A.A. is newly-established showed how much you can do with so little, and how passionate these new countries’ memberships were in spread-ing the A.A. message. In fact, I came to realize how much we could learn from them……

My second year had committee changes, two of which I’ve been on for the last three years – Finance and Nominating. Over the course of the three years we’ve had a broad spectrum of important issues take place on these committees, and I will always be grate-ful to have been a participant. For example, Nominating has been working on evaluating and considering changes to the GSB that will make it more effective in service to the fellowship. Finance has been wrestling with how to divest ourselves of the large liabil-ity on our balance sheet, the pension plan.

There’s no doubt that the Printers Copy Manuscript issue that took place over the first and second year proved to be very trying and was easily the most divisive issue during my tenure. Between the challenges during the process as well as the 2018 General Service Conference’s discussions on the issue, my serenity and peace of mind were challenged.

The second and third years also brought on a second position: being a director for an affiliate. In a rare departure for a WCR trustee, I was seated on AAWS’s corporate board. This doubled the travel to NYC and more than doubled the workload. The hallmark

experience is how embedded I was in the operations of AA. Several committees and sub-committees, plus I had the opportunity to be the inaugural chair of the AAWS Internal Audit Committee and I chaired the DELTA Committee, which was put into place to evalu-ate the literature sales and pricing process.

Year three had me chairing my first Trustee Committee: Nominating. This brought with it an extra benefit, which was the process for selecting two new Class A trustees. This will also go down as one of the best memories of service as a trustee. I was also seated on Trustee International Conventions-Regional Forums, and with the 2020 International Convention looming, I knew it would be a challenging place to serve.

Participation in Regional Forums will also carry lasting memories. I had the opportunity to chair two in the West Central Region. As a region we introduced a process to forums that coordinated meals with trustees, nontrustee directors and staff members with the AA members attending the forum. It became a huge success not only in our region, but it is now being embraced by other regions, too. I also had the chance to be the AAWS director to the Eastern Canada Regional Forum in 2018. One of the most notable memo-ries of that was I was a 2nd-language attendee, as we were in the heart of French-speaking Quebec and wearing a headset for the weekend for translation proved to be an eye-opening experience.

It was a big transition from year 3 to year 4. That is because I left AAWS, which was 60+ percent of my time in service as trustee. However, what I thought was going to be a quieter fourth year didn’t occur. I had become part of a committee in my third and fourth years with the goal of improving the orientation process for new trustees. I was tasked with a myriad of writing and pre-sentation topics for orientation. And just when I thought I was done after the July orientation in 2019, I was asked to stay on to help author an orientation manual. Hence, my fourth year can be characterized by extended writing projects, and I’ll barely get it all done by my final GSC in April.

I recently wrote an article for the St. Paul Intergroup newslet-ter, Lifeline, about my experience as a trustee serving the eight delegate areas in the WCR. I won’t go into detail on that facet of service, but I want to note it as the highlight of service as trustee. I’ve had the opportunity to visit all eight delegate areas, some as many as three times, and the spirit of service surely pervades all the areas.

So many “lasts” have been occurring over the past year, and just a couple weeks ago I had my last Board weekend. I must note to everyone that it takes a bunch of drunks on the GSB to label a period of Wednesday to Monday as a “weekend”. So a word of warn-ing to those of you who may become the WCR regional trustee: delusion still can run rampant, even on the GSB!

I bid you farewell as the WCR trustee. Area 36 provided three fine delegates that I had the opportunity to serve with over the past four years. It is apparent that A.A. is alive and well in Southern Minnesota, and I note the continuing actions taking place to reach both the A.A. members and include them in the service structure as well as bringing the A.A. message to all who need it. The Spirit of Service shines bright in Area 36!

Yours in Service,

Tom A., WCR Trustee

From Grapevine

July 1958


Unapproved Minutes Area Committee Meeting, February 22, 2020 SOUTHERN MINNESOTA AREA ASSEMBLY

OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUSAREA 36 COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

FEBRUARY 22nd, 2020Serenity Prayer and Introductions: Roy E.-Area 36 Chairperson

Approve December 7, 2019 Area Committee Meeting Minutes:

Eric M., District 18 DCM motioned to approve minutes and the motion was seconded by Tabithia W., District 16 DCM.

Minutes December 7, 2019 Area Committee Meeting Minutes Approved.

Introductions verified a quorum.

AREA 36 OFFICERS’ REPORTS:

AREA 36 DELEGATE PANEL 69– MISSY R.:

I was unable to attend the Recovery Unity & Service Conference (RUSC) or the Trusted Servants Leadership Training (“TSLT”) due to work and fam-ily commitments. I did attend the January Board Meeting at the General Service Office in New York because I am the Delegate Committee Chair for the Finance Committee for the 70th General Service Conference (“GSC”) in April. I was allowed to sit at the table with the Trustees Committee on Finance and some of the members of the Grapevine Board while they looked at last year’s budget vs. actual. They also reviewed and passed the 2020 bud-gets for AAWS and the Grapevine boards.

AAWS was significantly over budget last year for a number of reasons such as: The ERP System didn’t end up running as planned and needed to hire a consulting group that deals with Non-Profits to help out. This consulting group didn’t understand our Non-Profit practices and processes so GSO had to hire a second consulting group. The first company is no longer helping us.

GSO needed to acquire more space in the building they are currently in due to overflowing closet-sized offices. New York State passed a law that every company must have a lactation room for mothers, so they needed to acquire the 8th floor which had asbestos issues and this responsibility falls onto the renter (GSO) to take care of.

There was a large backlog of contracts involving licensing agreements that needed to be taken care of so legal fees were much higher than anticipated.

Employee Pension Fund and Insurance Funds are almost 100% fulfilled. Used to be under-funded. So this is good.

Group Contributions are up by 6% by 40% of Groups that are contributing.

I was allowed to sit on other Committees as an observer; not able to contrib-ute unless they allowed us to ask questions. Did ask some questions to get caught up on what was being discussed on the Agenda Items.

Really gave us an appreciation on what the unpaid Trustees do on their own time, especially from our non-alcoholic Trustees.

Jason just added the Agenda items on the Website.

West Central Regional AA Service Conference (“WCRAASC”) is next weekend and there is an email out stating a change of venue. There is Shuttle service to the venue from the airport. Information can be found on www.2020WCRAASC.org for additional and corrected information. Charging stations will be available. Will not have a hospitality room at the new venue.

By invitation, I presented Agenda Items at District 16 last Thursday.

ALTERNATE DELEGATE – STACY M.:

I attended the RUSC and TSLT.

I will have the March 28 Delegate’s Workshop f lyer ready and sent via email to everyone. As Alternate Delegate, I am responsible for Delegate’s Workshop combined with Assembly with a jam-packed Agenda which will be held at Best Western Plus in New Ulm. Lunch will be served on-site to make it easier, but you can go off-site if you wish. Similar to last year, Committee Chairs will look at distribution of Agenda Items. We will be combining Committees at tables to make it a little bit more balanced. Literature will be at its own table. Alt DCMs have taken responsibility for the off-Com-mittees which are Committees that don’t line up with Area 36 Committees:

Agenda, Policies and Admissions, Report and Charter, Trustees, International Conventions and Regional Forums.

Also willing and available to come to a District to talk about Service or spe-cific Agenda Impact Items to help Missy out.

CHAIRPERSON – ROY E.:

I missed attending the TSLT due to a medical issue at home. Craig H. did a fantastic job as Chair as well as everyone involved.

We have a full slate of Committee Chairs. Welcome to Dennis T. as Cooperation with the Professional Community (CPC) Chair and Rob Y. as our new Treatment Committee Chair.

I attended the Recovery, Unity and Service Conference (RUSC) and Nancy T. and Committee did a fabulous job.

In December, I talked with the Ad Hoc Committee on the new Area 36 Area Calendar and I also personally visited four Districts and one Group to talk about the Proposal on the Ad Hoc Committee changes for the Area Calendar which will be discussed this afternoon.

ALTERNATE CHAIRPERSON – NANCY T.:

Since our last Dec meeting, I have attended the TSLT, the RUSC, and partici-pated in the Officer phone conferences.

With respect to our January 2020 RUSC report, thank everyone who attended, participated and particularly those people who volunteered to serve in essen-tial capacities: Sue M. really helped out at the registration desk and other people who are not in attendance today. Our Committee of six couldn’t have done it alone. Francis G, Northwest Regional Trustee, served as an excel-lent Guest Speaker and the audio is available on the Area36.org website. We offered break-out sessions to break up the three-day lecture format as an opportunity for people to interact with each other and this proved to be a pop-ular change according to the evaluations. Also popular were the social hour activities with a note that they went on too long. The social hour replaced the ice cream social which did generate a good portion of funds for previous RUSC events at $5 per participant. Please let 2021 RUSC Committee know if you want the ice cream social back. 2021 RUSC will be at an out-state loca-tion rather than in the metro. The 2020 RUSC Committee hasn’t had a final wrap-up meeting yet. Teresa has prepared the initial RUSC financial reports where evidence shows that we did not break even or close to even on RUSC, but we did lose less money than usual. One major invoice we are waiting on is the American Sign Language contract. We did offer ASL thru-out the conference instead of just one day.

SECRETARY – KELLI M.:

In absentia, Kelly reports that she could not attend today’s Area Committee Meeting due to a death in the family. She attended the TSLT and the Recover, Unity, Service Conference. She looks forward to attending the WCRAASC in Billings and hearing more about the 2020 Agenda Items.

TREASURER – TERESA K.:

Thanks to Laura and Tabithia who served as couriers from Faribault and St. Paul. I attended TSLT and talked about Budgeting. Attended RUSC and will be able to attend WCRAASC in Billings next weekend. Participated in all Officer conference calls and keeping up with the regular bookkeeping activities.

Have started the 2021 Budget process and will update Committee Chairs’ spreadsheets upon return from WCRAASC in Billings. Hard copies of the budget worksheets are available. Those that do not need hard copies, will receive the excel spreadsheets via email.

Summarized 2019 Year-End and 2020 Year To Date, as of February 19, 2020, Financials. See Financials listed on a separate page of the Newsletter. Today’s financial reports show activity through February 19, 2020. We had a lot of financial activity in early February. The cover sheet is a narrative description of the highlights, and page two of the cover sheet includes a brief explanation of the line items that are significantly over budget. The Reserve was bumped up in the amount of $2,100 to bring it up to the 1/6th threshold of the 2020 budget. Literature petty cash account was adjusted to $118 for Literature Chair to have cash at hand for literature sales at conferences and AA events. Anything collected over that amount is deposited.

Questions:

Karin S., District 7 DCM, asked if the Financials can be emailed and Teresa responded that they can but will not be colored pages.


Unapproved Minutes Area Committee Meeting, February 22, 2020 AREA 36 DCM SHARING AND STANDING COMMITTEE

REPORTS:

DCM SHARING:

Eric M., District 18 DCM reported that Marty T., Gopher State Outreach Chair, announced the need for volunteers. Missy P., Delegate, Panel 69, pro-vided outlined Agenda Items.

Most of the Districts have money and are focusing on Group Outreach. There will be a lot of Workshops in the near future. The District 22 Workshop is on March 7 from 9am to Noon. We discussed opportunities to spend money in the Public Information and Cooperation with Professional Community Committees. District 22 is working on a possible proposal with respect to treatment center closing and the big impact on the deaf community which might start drawing away from Twin Cities area.

There are two new DCMS: Jeff M., District 17 DCM, and Alan S., District 14, and Karla E., District 09 Alt DCM.

Group Records reported that it is chaos with new database.

Chairing next month is Jennifer G., District 15 DCM; and Alan S., District 14 DCM, will be taking notes.

Please refer to DCM report section for additional details of each District and their specific activities.

ACCESSIBILITIES – VAL P.:

Representatives from Districts 19, 13, 18 and two representatives from District 27 attended this morning’s meeting. The first topic discussed was on Outreach to Senior Living facilities which was suggested by Jaclyn from District 19. We are working on a pamphlet to explain to Groups on how to adopt a facility in helping individuals who live there get to a meeting. Also discussed was the Group’s responsibility to possibly supply literature to those facilities. We did talk about having a meeting take place at the facility, but most meeting rooms are glass fishbowls due to safety and medical reasons, but will interfere with anonymity.

The second topic discussed were the GSC Agenda Items. We discussed the fact that the Agenda Items are sent out in a .pdf non-character image format image and cannot be recognized using the text to voice tool. Additionally, there is an official Spanish translation being worked on and some members use the copy/paste into translation tool. We came up with an email to send to the GSO Accessibilities Chair for better access.

We will be having an AA booth at Deaf Awareness Days on April 18 and will be hosted by Troy and Erik at the White Bear Lake High School.

Questions;

Karin S., District 7 DCM, asked if Val would be reaching out to Districts on the Outreach to Senior Living Facilities project and Val responded that the Committee needs a month to get the pamphlet together and will also be reaching out to Terry A who now lives in Area 35 and has professional expe-rience with senior living facilities for her help on getting correct language into the pamphlet.

ARCHIVES – MALCOLM F.:

Four representatives from Districts 13, 18, 24 and 27 attended the meeting this morning. A suggestion was made to put on an Archives Workshop. Will be getting District visits on the calendar. Missy R. brought the Archives Agenda Items to our attention and we discussed. One Archives Agenda Item is to consider a request to develop a book about the History of AA since 1955.

Our Archivist, CJ M., has a goal by end of 2020 to have three main visible areas at the Repository: a Grapevine/La Vina area; a GSO information area and a Financials area. The remainder of the Archives is in a second room next to this area which is in a constant process of becoming more organized.

CJ and other people have assembled a portable Archives display that has enough books and photos to fill a table to be used at Events. Archives puts on pretty large displays each year at Gopher State Roundup and at Founders Day. We would welcome invitations to bring Archives to your AA events.

Please send us your District and Group flyers of events, committee reports, or any AA materials from your Group so that Archives can preserve them safely throughout time.

COOPERATION WITH THE PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY (CPC) –DENNIS T.

Representatives from Districts 7, 17 and 22 attended the meeting this morning and we reviewed the CPC Agenda Items.

We will be able to have a CPC presence at the Conference on Integrated Behavioral Health in April and another on Addiction and Faith that draws around 300-400 clergy. We will search out and identify two other major conferences to attend as well before the end of the year.

Districts 7 and 22 will be working together on a CPC breakfast in October targeted to health care workers and emergency medical services personnel.

We have an objective to try to put together a Joint CPC 101 Workshop to edu-cate groups and individuals on what CPC does in Area 36.

Missy R. requested that the CPC Committee formulate a question that she can pose at the General Service Conference under the CPC heading about the need for a pamphlet specific to mental health professionals.

Questions:

Alan S., District 14 DCM, contributed that as the outgoing District 14 CPC Chair, he wanted to thank District 13 and Pat M on helping with two CPC Breakfasts where we had observers from District 7. If any Districts are put-ting on any CPC breakfasts, we can share. Lisa S is the current District 14 CPC Chair.

CORRECTIONS – CHRISTINA G.:

Representatives from Districts 16, 18, 22, 24, InterGroup Office Manager, and Corrections Temporary Contact Program Coordinator, attended the meeting this morning.

There is a new Inside Sponsorship Program at Lino Lakers that allows people residing in the correctional facility to work with AA members on the outside. Contact Laura S., the CTCP Coordinator, to volunteer.

Laura S., our CTCP Coordinator, was elected Alternate Chair for Bridging the Gap Workshop; and has also been recognized on a national level via invitation to participate on the National Corrections Conference Advisory Board as a member at large.

Annette W., Corrections, District 24, needs volunteers to help take meetings into the Scott County Jail in Shakopee. Suggested that everyone encourage their Groups to submit Minneapolis InterGroup Contribute Your Time forms so folk coming out of Jail can call Minneapolis InterGroup for an AA Contact when they get out of Jail.

Skip L., Corrections, District 22, is working with administration at the Hennepin County Adult Corrections Facility to start an AA Orientation meet-ing for new people.

Volunteers participating in the CTCP program who would like a way to write to an AA Member in a correctional facility without divulging their home address can use a service offered by Minneapolis InterGroup. To use this service, call Minneapolis InterGroup.

The Corrections Committee is working on a Quick Reference and Frequently Asked Questions Guide to use as a tool for volunteers interested in service work within a Correctional Facility. Districts 16 and 24 have found success in creating reference guides for volunteers.

Patrick S., District 21 DCM, invited me to talk about Corrections Committee.

Laura S. will be available to discuss CTCP at Districts.

Questions:

Missy R.: I sat as an Observer on the Corrections meeting at the January Board meeting. GSO really appreciated the work Laura S. has done putting a template together in showing correctional facilities in our Area on a national level.

FINANCE – NANCY T.:

Five people attended the meeting this morning. Treasurers from Districts 7 and 18, and Finance Chair from District 18. Currently, only two Districts, 8 and 18, have Finance Committee Chairs comparable to the Area level. Teresa K., Area Treasurer, also attended. Discussion included the topic of using debit cards and electronic contributions in Groups that are coming to play at Districts; and use of bank checking accounts vs. non-financial institutions. District 18 is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) so any contributions received by District 18 would be tax deductible. Also discussed the use and contents of Finance Policies. District Finance Policy diverges from Area Finance Policy.


Unapproved Minutes Area Committee Meeting, February 22, 2020 Also discussed the GSC Agenda Items for the Finance Committee. Our Delegate, Missy R., is the Chair of the GSC Finance Committee. Discussed the pamphlet, Self -Support where Spirituality and Money Mix. Specifically, where Southern MN Area uses a Central Office or InterGroup Office to other areas that may not rely on a Central Office structure and there are some issues with the pamphlet’s directional contributions graph as some Groups take the contribution suggestion in the pamphlet as gospel. Requests for Agenda Items and changes to that existing pamphlet is given to every new Group Treasurer, Areas, and Districts.

We postponed discussion on the ongoing proposed changes to the Area 36 Finance Policy which dates from 2015. We are gathering substantive and non-substantive changes that have been made from several previous rotations and will discuss at next Area Committee Meeting.

We are entering the budget period for a number of Districts. I am available to talk about Budget, Finance Policy or service work in general.

I will be flying to the WCRAASC in Billings, Montana.

GRAPEVINE/LA VINA– PAUL L.:

District 22 Literature Chair attended the meeting this morning. Missy R. delivered the Grapevine/La Vina Agenda Items. The Proposal to the reprint-ing of the Best of the Grapevine Volumes 1 through 3 will not be on the Agenda. I will get the background facts from our Trustee, Tom A., at the WCRAASC.

I attended all Area events and looking forward to hearing more about The Best of the Grapevine at WCRAASC in Billings.

I will attend the Delegates Workshop on March 28, and the same evening will have a Grapevine display at the Minneapolis InterGroup Gratitude Night. I have also been invited to display at the MNYPAA Fellowship that is having a Conference the same weekend, March 27-29, 2020, in Rochester; and a Grapevine representative will attend to provide Grapevine/La Vina literature there.

GROUP RECORDS – WILLIAM W.:

I attended TSLT and RUSC and will attend the WCRAASC in Billings, MT.

The biggest concern via feedback forms are that people want to make sure that meetings are published on www.aaminnesota.org and that the meeting guide is accurate. Findings are that meetings don’t exist or wrong time or type is listed. There are organizational questions. The smart phone meeting guide app is hosted by GSO. Information the meeting guide app is not AA approved in any kind of way. Anything on the meeting guide app is from aaminnesota.org which is meeting information fed from Area 36 + 35 Group Records, St. Paul InterGroup and Minneapolis InterGroup and sometimes there are conflicts and Area 36 Group Records. I update the website and GSO updates their database. The new Net Suite database training happened in January and was excellent, but the substance was not. GSO is about two months behind on updates and there are lots of errors. We can look at the Group information, but cannot change anything. I am maintaining all Area 36 Group information on an excel spreadsheet and info is then uploaded into www.area36.org.

Another thing about the new database is there will be new Group numbers, but will also keep the old Group numbers. We do not know how you can know your new Group numbers yet.

Should be working by March. Yesterday, a letter to us Registrar Greg T. that March is off and will be informed of progress with a new date.

Our Area website has a way of updating information and Jason H. is helping with placing it on the Area 36 website to update our meeting. Do not use the Update Your Meeting currently on the Area 36 website. Also, GSO requires that we don’t have a Group Name identical to another Group name within the same City to lesson confusion.

Because of delays at GSO processing new meetings and positions informa-tion, new Group, GSR, or Positions Packets/Workbooks will not be received in a timely manner and it may be months before receiving them. William’s personal recommendation is to order the new Group, new GSR, new Position Workbooks or Packets directly from GSO or obtain through Minneapolis InterGroup if they have the inventory.

Questions:

Teresa K. asked if GSO is sticking with the 6-digit: New # convention for Groups. Generally 6 digit numbers. Are they sticking with that … any way to differentiate because I maintain the Group #s in Quick Books. Some way that will be sorted out.

LITERATURE: VINCE F.

In absentia, due to work, Vince reports that he attended all Area events. There were triple than last year’s literature sales at RUSC.

NEWSLETTER: RIKI S.

In absentia, due to illness, Riki reports that the deadline for DCM reports is the day of the ACM, but since she is sick, you can turn them in on Sunday, including District event flyers. Area Officers and Committee Chairs’ reports are due on Wednesday.

PUBLIC INFORMATION (PI): RON S.

I attended and brought PI displays to TSLT and RUSC. I was invited and attended Districts 21 and 14. District 1 invited me to participate in an AA Information talk at a Church on March 15. After Delegate’s workshop, I will have a PI display at the Minneapolis InterGroup Gratitude Night. I spoke with Greg C. who just rotated in as Area 35 PI Chair about the MN State Fair booth. Brian M. will continue as coordinator of the State Fair Booth. I encourage Districts to get a day assigned for the State Fair Booth.

Representatives from Districts 17, 18, 22 and 24 attended the meeting this morning. Discussion included providing AA information to local publications; homeless youth centers, hospital ERs; digital billboards; process of talking to program directors at local radio stations

We discussed the Agenda Item initially brought up in 2016 concerning Google ad words concerning grants and how to account for the $10k free air time with the government. The second Agenda Item is a new one on plans to develop an AA podcast. There are many factors that go into this and we are worried AA and Technology with respect to roll out problems with production and implementation to produce.

Please invite me to do a PI presentation at your District.

STRUCTURE: STACY M.:

Alt DCMs from Districts 7, 8, 16, 17 and 23 attended the meeting this morning.

One of the Structure Committee’s responsibilities is maintaining our Area Actions Update. We have access to the Minutes and along with those Minutes we have the Area Actions. Volunteers will take sections and compare. We have holes in our Minutes and we plan to publish that list into some meaning-ful Actions.

Discussion this morning also included one of the Structure Committee’s task responsibilities to continually review how the Area functions and how it com-municates to be sure that Groups in the Area are served and communicated via our Trusted Servant Guidelines. There is really no guidance in place in our Area Actions that says who, what, when, and with what frequency we should have review and approval of the Trusted Servant Guidelines. They were first introduced and approved in December 1991 and one other time about three years ago. The Structure Committee will, at a later date, propose a guideline for review and approval of the Trusted Servant Guidelines.

Another ongoing responsibility are the Area By-Laws. Volunteers will take a look at them between now and May 2020. Every four years, we need to renew our filing with MN Secretary of State with an updated copy of our By-Laws.

I will be working with William W., Area Group Records Chair, over the next several months to put forth an updated Area Map. Two Alt DCMS from Districts 17 and 23 pointed out that District 10, which has been a dark District for many years, actually doesn’t exist as the Hector, MN meetings have started attending the District 17 meeting and the rest of District 10 has migrated to District 23. After the meeting this morning, it was mentioned that there is a teeny drop down area in District 13 where a new Alano Club is formulating and they are attending the District 18 meeting. It was suggested that other meetings in this teeny drop down area be visited and lock them into a District and provide a new Area Map which will be discussed at the June Assembly.

Questions:

Edwardo S. from District 27 asked why District 27 isn’t listed on the Area Map. Stacy responded that District 27 doesn’t have geographical boundaries because it is a linguistic District. Edwardo suggested District 27 be added as a footnote and Stacy advised that the Structure Committee would be happy to do that.


Unapproved Minutes Area Committee Meeting, February 22, 2020 TECHNOLOGY – JASON H.:

John K, District 15 Webmaster and Edwardo S., GSR for La Nueva Esperanzo, in District 27 attended the meeting this morning.

We discussed the Area Website Improvement project. I reported on the prog-ress since December. Adam B, a member of AA and also a web developer, has done ton of work on investigating our area36.org website and defining what server it is hosted on making sure we have access to all of the compo-nents of that server and how to control it better. Adam and I worked together last week and have created a test website for www.area36.org. Once it is ready, we will send out a link. We have cloned the website and can now start doing some changes to the cloned site and implement feedback on ways to improve the site. Our goal is to have something to show at the March Assembly and gather feedback. Based on feedback, we hope to roll out new changes sometime in May or June, 2020.

Following the website improvement project, we will focus on implementing the Online Contributions form.

Edwardo S. from District D27 mentioned that he performed a Spanish and English Google search for Spanish language meetings in Southern Minnesota MN and there are no good hits for accurate information on where the meet-ings are. We discussed creating a page on www.area36.org with a listing of the meetings available in Southern MN and will also list District 27 with the meetings and service opportunities for people to get involved.

Questions:

Patrick S., District 21 DCM mentioned that discussion at the DCM meeting this morning included that we have a lot of Workshops coming up and we are hoping the DCMs can post them on the Area Web Calendar. Jason advised yes, we will have a Calendar with Events.

William W., Area Group Records Chair, advised that within District 27, there are a number of Spanish speaking groups in Area 36 not listed in District 27, but are listed in their geographical District. Jason advised that this is some-thing to consider.

TREATMENT- PATRICK M.:

Roy E. advised that Rob Y. is stepping in as new Area Treatment Chair but unavailable today so Patrick M., Treatment Temporary Contact Coordinator (“TTCC”), ran the meeting Treatment Committee meeting this morning. Stacy M. read the report.

There were seven attendees at the meeting this morning, which included four new Treatment Chairs and one Alt DCM considering the position. We dis-cussed the process of registering these positions with GSO.

Discussed included the GSO Action Items for Treatment, that new Treatment Chairs might consider performing such as connecting with local Treatment Centers, coordinating efforts with Corrections, CPC and PI Committees, developing an attitude of keeping things simple and getting a small number of things done well rather than getting overwhelmed with a lot of things and not getting anything done.

District 8 had a Workshop focused on Steps 6 and 7 along with a movie night that was well attended; and are considering investing in another bus billboard campaign.

District 22 is working on a Workshop on Spirituality on March 7.

District 23 has only a couple of Treatment Centers and has had success bring-ing AA meetings into the New Ulm facility.

District 1 is having a Workshop in March on various topics related to Recovery and Service.

District 19 Literature chair has reached out to nursing homes with need for Big Books.

Our Treatment Temporary Contact Coordinator has organized a small project to clean up the contact database in May or June with pizza provided and a location to be determined. Contact Patrick at [email protected].

OLD BUSINESS:

Ad hoc Committee on Area Calendar proposal – 2ND MOTION

Area 36 February 22, 2020 Area Committee Meeting Agenda reads:

Adhoc Committee on Area Calendar Presentation – 2nd Motion

Introduction of Committee: Jim V., Dennis B and Mark M, Karin NM, DCM Dennis T and Carla N

Background: Committee met 2x/month. They looked at documents 2010 to current.

Area will be impacted by proposal: Budget, Financial Policy, Archives, Accessibilities and group records all contributed.

1. Combine RUSC with Area 35

2. TSLT in your own District

3. Starting in April 2 day event for ACM and Area Assembly

Roy E. opened and advised that the Ad Hoc Committee on Area Calendar Proposal was up in December for conversation and the Proposal today is to pass this along to be voted on at the March Assembly. It is a seconded motion to be added to the Agenda at the next Area Assembly. The vote today is only to bring the Proposal to the Assembly Agenda. Roy introduced the members of the Ad Hoc Committee present today, Mark M., Dennis T. and Jim V., can assist with answering any questions. Since December, the only correc-tion on the Proposal side is where it says “host an Area Assembly during a rotation Election Assembly” where previously we had “October Assemblies.” The Election Assemblies will be hosted in New Ulm, Mankato or St. Peter. There were some asterisks that referred back to some areas in the proposed schedule comparison that were removed. Roy clarified that on removing the asterisk, on the older copy it says “Assembly Agenda set at prior day’s ACM which leaving people to believe that on Saturday we were going to set the Agenda for the Sunday Assembly which is not true; the Assembly’s Agenda will continue to be set at the previous ACM. We do have the ability to bring a floor action to the Assembly the day of; currently having our Assemblies on a Saturday and that has not changed. We want it to be clear that on an ACM/Assembly weekend, we are not going to be driving the business at the Assembly from the previous day.

Typo which can be very confusing under the Proposed v Current Schedule Comparison where the 2-day 1st Year, 2nd Year has Saturday, Saturday, Saturday and the last Saturday should be “Sunday.”

At this point, this came to the floor and seconded to add this Proposal to the next Assembly. The floor is open to questions and discussion.

Alan S., District 14 DCM, brought up feedback received from a District 14 GSR where they oppose this Proposal because they cannot support the lodg-ing costs and do not want to set a precedent that a GSR would lodge at their own expense.

Teresa K., Area 36 Treasurer, referred to missing information in the 4-page handout plus FAQ received today. The original document we received at the last ACM included the financial effects. Financial breakdown and impact should be included in the FAQ. Mark M. responded that the FAQ has nothing to do with the 4-page Proposal. The presentation has not changed because it’s over. The Proposal that we bring to the Area Assembly will have the Saturday/Sunday correction. Teresa clarified that the revised FAQ points out that page 9 of the Proposal has the cost breakdown that doesn’t exist in the 4-page handout. The financial impact would be helpful in the FAQ

Patrick S., District 21 DCM, asked for clarification on the breakdown cost to the Area in that the Area breaks about even on the expenses of the Proposal, but does not include or covers GSR’s expenses. Patrick also asked for clarifi-cation on the time commitment for the Delegate’s Workshop at night. Mark M. clarified that the morning would be the individual Committee break-out to discuss Agenda Items; the Committees read their reports in the afternoon ses-sion of the Delegate’s Workshop or do we present at night. Mark responded yes.

Sue M., District 8 DCM, suggested that the Area Assembly be held first, then the ACM followed by the Delegate’s Workshop, since the ACM in the 2-day event isn’t setting the Agenda for the Area Assembly. Jim V. answered that it may not work because we would have to have two ACMs prior to the Area Assembly. Patrick provided that we don’t always have two ACMs prior to Area Assembly; only the December and February ACMs are held prior to an Area Assembly. Stacy M., Structure Committee Chair, confirmed that a motion was put forth by the Structure Committee in 2001-2002 and passed by Assembly as to why part of the Area Calendar was designed this way.

Curt K., Past Delegate, Panel 67, reminds us that once a Motion is in front of the Assembly, it is turned over to us and it is ours. So much work has been put into it, so let’s take the time to deliberate and work it out rather than take it or leave it.

Laura S. inquired about reimbursement of f loor positions that are not


Unapproved Minutes Area Committee Meeting, February 22, 2020reimbursed for lodging, such as the Archivist, Technologies and the Temporary Contact Coordinators. Roy responded that this wasn’t considered in the scope of the Proposal but is a good point and could be a substantive potential future motion or could be a friendly Amendment. Reimbursement for these positions were not included because it would require a change in the way we currently do business where those 4 positions are being reimbursed mileage only.

Eric M., District 18 DCM, inquired if the morning standing Committee meet-ings giving reports in the afternoon with focus on the nighttime Delegate’s Workshop. Sunday Agenda would be the February ACM so people wouldn’t be confused by that as he is seeing some redundancy. For what Agenda is the 2-day Saturday ACM setting? Mark M. responded that the focus at the ACM on Saturday afternoon. The standing Committee meeting in the morning would focus on Agenda Items, but there could be other business that comes up. By having the ACM in afternoon, something can come up at the ACM for the first time in April and then in August for the next Assembly. Anyone can make a Motion to the Proposal with a change.

Stacy M. commented with encouragement to the Body to think outside the box because this is really new but does have elements that we’ve always had. From an organization standpoint, we only have to have one meeting per year and that there is no requirement that we have more than one meeting per year; just not less than one per year. We have tried things like this before but Conscience has changed. Let’s move forward to the Assembly.

William W., GSR, Minnetonka Big Book, commented that his Group is excited for this Proposal and there is discussion about getting more involve-ment and participation in General Service with less weekends.

Roy E., Area Chair, provided that this is not an all or nothing declaration made by the Ad Hoc Committee and as Area Chair, I asked this Proposal to be created.

Marty T. asked to bring attention a correction needed to the Zone map with respect to zoning discrepancy of Red Wing and Albert Lea.

Ed M., speaking as GSR, Nicollet Group, having weekends free is to my favor. Speaking as District 25 DCM, we are struggling as a District and need the Trusted Servant Training.

Patrick S., District 21 DCM, commented that one GSR, previously from Iowa, stated at the District meeting that Iowa does a 2-day and it works well. She did not talk about GSR funding involvement. Montana and Wyoming do it as well. GSRs are concerned about the financial costs as they are not self-supporting if they cannot be reimbursed for lodging and we cannot as a Body make this decision for the Groups. We are in favor of having more time at the Delegate’s Workshop and believe it should return to its own independent day and have GSRs participate at the 2nd day. We do not believe the Proposal is ready for Assembly and could contain a million Amendments and would like the Ad Hoc Committee to provide more options. We would also like to hear about child care availability at ACMs and Area Assemblies.

Karin S., District 7 DCM, commented that her District discussed the Map Zoning and notes that a mass quantity of participants in service are within the Twin Cities area her District asks why aren’t more Assemblies in the Twin Cities zones? Roy responded that this question has gone on for many years and the majority of the drunks in Area 36 live in the four-county area, but Area 36 made the decision that there would be an equitable rotation through-out the actual landscape as opposed to the populated areas of the Area. There are Groups that feel like they should have more than a one in four rotation. Karin added that the financial aspect could potentially increase participation. A two-day Assembly closer to the Twin Cities, so cost of commute is lower and more can participate without the financial burden. Mark M. pointed out that this year and possibly next year, the ACM itself is closer to the Twin Cities. With respect to financial, the two-night Assembly in a hotel that can handle it, the cost to the Assembly would be extremely more than outstate the metro. Mark M. voiced that maybe we need to have another Area created.

Val P., commented on a correction needed to something said earlier after pulling information off our online Area 36 Finance Policy where Item (i) states that “Past Delegates shall be reimbursed for travel to Area Assemblies and Area Committee Meetings;” and Item (j) says that “The following five Area service positions shall be reimbursed for travel to Area calendar events, excluding those events outside of geographical Area 36: (1) Correctional Facilities Contact Program Coordinator; (2) Treatment Temporary Contact Desk Coordinator; (3) Technologist (f/k/a Webmaster); (4) Pink Can Plan Coordinator; and (5) Archivist.” Roy agreed that they would be reimbursed, but the question on the floor was whether they’d e covered for lodging.

Will K., District 22 DCM, commented that discussions from the District meeting contained really positive feedback. Some of the GSRs were con-cerned on lodging expense which led him to ask the GSRS when they last attended an Area event. Concerned about the Map which doesn’t have pos-sible locations for Area events in the northern Minneapolis area. The cost is going to be a quite a bit more in Metro area. He is pleased with the location for this ACM. Per District 22, let’s move forward with the Proposal.

Patrick S., District 21 DCM added that we would need less rooms than if Area events were closer to the Twin Cities because a lot of people wouldn’t need to get a hotel and have to commute so far. The concern for overnight stays would be removed. I disagree with dividing Area 36 into two Areas.

Nancy T., Area 36 Alt Chair, requested to Call the Question for this purpose today.

Roy E., Area Chair, advised that there is a Motion on the floor that has been called to question. Voting members are Committee Chairs, Area Officers and Past Delegates which gives us 30 voting members. All in favor of ending discussion

All in favor of ending discussion and go forward to vote on the Proposal: 29

A Vote on Proposal as it stands with friendly Amendment to fix typographical error of Saturday to Sunday is added. All in favor: 23; Opposed” 5.

Eric M., District 18 DCM, spoke to the Minority. He stated that it is too soon to place this Proposal on the next Area Assembly as he only brought this to his District in January and we have GSC Agenda Items to go over and believe they are more important. He added that he would like to get an informed consensus from his District.

Anyone from majority to change vote? None.

Motion passes with friendly Amendment(s) added to the Assembly Agenda.

NEW BUSINESS:

SMAA AREA 36 MISSION STATEMENT PROPOSAL:

Request to bring to the Assembly to vote at the Delegate’s Workshop/Area Assembly, March 28, 2020

2019-2020, Committee/Group: (Dennis B., Rob Y., Malcolm F.)

Roy E., Area 36 Chair, clarified that this is a Proposal is just a request to bring this forward to the Assembly; it is not to adopt.

Malcolm F. pointed out the paper copies of the SMAA Area 36 Mission Statement Proposal are provided on the tables. This is requesting a discussion on whether to carry on with idea of establishing a Mission Statement for Area 36. Malcolm continued to read the Proposal as follows:

During the January 2019 38th Annual Recovery, Unity and Service Conference (RUSC), Dennis B. mentioned from the podium that Area 36 has never established an official mission statement. Rob Y. and I took note of this and we feel the Area could benefit by establishing a written purpose so that people could immediately get an idea of what the Area is and the function it serves as part of A.A. Further, it could be useful as a brief and succinct way members could explain to others when asked about the Area and its purpose.

With Dennis B’s help we found that historically, members of the Area have brought this up for discussion several times in the past, but there was a lack of purpose in pursuing it. We reached out to a past Delegate who was present at one of these discussions in the ‘90s, but we received no feedback on the issue. We have identified other areas in the U.S. that include information about their purpose up front on their web pages. Many include the AA Preamble (Idaho Area 18, South Florida Area 15, North Florida Area 14, Area 1 Alabama, Area 25 Kansas).

Definitions of a Mission Statement:

A mission statement defines what an organization is, why it exists, its reason for being.

*1 A Mission Statement has three main components: a statement of mission or vision of the company, a statement of the core values that shape the acts and behavior of the employees, and a statement of the goals and objectives.

Malcolm did not read the Mission Statements from Apple, Minnesota Zoo and AT&T Mission Statements that were included in the Proposal as research examples.


Unapproved Minutes Area Committee Meeting, February 22, 2020Proposed Mission Statement:

Area 36 (SMAA) exists to ensure a clear and open path for communication within the Southern Minnesota Area and beyond. We do this through diligent and committed adherence to the A.A. principles embodied in the A.A. Twelve Traditions and the Twelve Concepts for World Service.

Motion seconded by Missy R., Delegate, Panel 69.

Discussion:

Patrick S. advised that he had previously drafted an Area 36 Mission Statement in order to get Google non-profit status of which he didn’t get Area approval. He can provide it.

Mark M., Past Delegate, Panel 55 asked Roy E. why this wouldn’t go through two ACMs? Also, can “Southern MN Area and beyond” be clarified? It sounds like we are just talking about the communication. There isn’t any-thing about what the Committees do to help the suffering alcoholic find AA. Roy answered the first question that up to two minutes ago, he didn’t know that we actually had a Mission Statement that said that.

Curt K., Past Delegate, Panel 67, advised that we have an actual document that we incorporated with the State of Minnesota where we had to state a mis-sion statement. If we abide by that, then this is a different Mission Statement. We are just deciding if this should go forward through to Assembly. The information that we need is in our Service Manual and we should stick with that.

Stacy M. added that we do have a couple of paragraphs in our Articles of Incorporation as required. I would not be in favor of putting this Proposal forward because it doesn’t follow process that we have in place that previous trusted servants came up with. This isn’t an insignificant item so I would caution strenuously against the Proposal.

The Body asked Stacy to read Article II. She read, “Article II: This corpora-tion is organized and shall be operative exclusively for charitable, scientific and educational purposes, and in particular, to provide services for those who are seeking through Alcoholics Anonymous a means for arresting the illness of alcoholism.”

Curt K. added a Point of Order. Prior to that we had to form the corporation and apply for the 501(c)(3) status of which that document contains the Mission Statement.

Val P., read Warranty Four from our AA Service Manual: “That all impor-tant decisions be reached by discussion, vote, and whenever possible, by and substantial unanimity.” She added that the problem that we see is there isn’t substantial unanimity. We have a Mission Statement and that is our Primary Purposes and that is not included in what was written up. Let’s do it inclusive of everyone.

Roy E. added that protocol exists whether one or three people brings a Proposal. Any member that calls themselves a member of AA can bring something forward at the GSC or to this Body. However, it would need to be brought forward to two ACMs before Assembly.

Vern F., District 16 Alt DCM asked if our Primary Purpose wasn’t our Mission Statement? It’s already mentioned twice in Step 12 and once in our Traditions. That’s why SMAA exists, to carry the Message.

Mark M. asked if this shouldn’t be assigned to the appropriate Committee, as it is the process at the GSC?

Jason H., Area Technology Chair, commented that he has gotten feedback to www.area36.org, where some people would like some context. Our web-site doesn’t have a clear thing that says what we are about. We are trying to clarify and would like clear thing stating what we are doing collectively. Why do we have an Area 36 website when aa.org already does that? We need to clarify the differences on how we conduct ourselves.

Teresa K., Area 36 Treasurer, suggests that we submit the Proposal to the Structure Committee for review since we have Mission Statement language in a couple of different documents.

Will K., District 22 DCM, requested a motion to pass to the Area Structure Committee.

Roy E., Area 36 Area Chair, clarified that he has the responsibility to take this and bring it to Structure Committee so no vote required.

STRUCTURE COMMITTEE PROPOSAL:

Stacy M., Structure Committee Chair, provided that this Proposal was delayed last time. It was a Motion made, discussed, and voted unanimously coming out of the Structure Committee. Six Districts were represented at the December ACM, two of those representatives were not here today, but two more representatives were here today, so collectively approved by eight.

MOTION: The Structure Committee proposes that the Trusted Servant Guidelines be reviewed for updates by the Structure Committee, once per rotation. Any changes other than to format, or grammar, should be approved by the Area Assembly.

Roy E. advised that we have a seconded motion on the floor.

Questions:

Will K., District 22 DCM commented that at the last rotation, the Committee took some of this on and our specific intent was to line up with the Area By-Laws. There should be collaboration between Committee Chairs and Structure Committee to review per rotation. In favor for this, but would like to see a baseline.

Stacy provided background that she brought this up to Committees simply because there is no history as to how often to approve or any approval needed, with the exception to the first time voted on or changes made about 15 years later. Don’t need to align with By-Laws because they are a different instru-ment. Should we have approval?

Mark M., Past Delegate, Panel 55, asked for clarification on why this Proposal would go to Area Assembly to be voted on and Stacy responded that it has gone through two Structure Committee meetings, but not out to the Body. Mark further asked if we want to ask the GSRs to vote on the Committee job descriptions and suggests that updates be voted on by the Area Committee Body and not to the Area Assembly.

Dennis T., Area CPC Chair, added that at a minimum, “should” should be replaced by “must” in the proposed language.

Karin S., District 7 DCM, is concerned that the Structure Committee already has a lot of responsibilities and adding that this be reviewed once per rotation is asking too much. Structure Committee should be doing. Are we asking too much?

William W., Area Group Records Chair, asked what is in the Trusted Guide? He added that when doing Archives, there was a really vague description between Archivist and Area Archives Chair. Seemed not really worked through in the first place at least in the Archives area. Are they job descrip-tions for Area and why reviewed every year, unless to Technology, all other positions are usually static.

Will K., District 22 DCM, added that to help Structure and the process of this review, the language could be changed to add that the Committee Chairs have the responsibility to review the specific Committee Chair Guidelines. The Officer responsibilities and how the Area conducts business is in the By-Laws. Our Committee concerns and the By-Laws are what we tell Minnesota as a legal entity which is why the Guidelines should be lined up with the By-Laws. Committees should make their recommendations to Structure.

Roy E. advised that after feeling the sense of the room, he is referring this Proposal back to Structure.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

West Central Regional Service Conference next weekend at the Big Horns Resort in Billings, Montana.

Delegate’s Workshop/Area Assembly at Best Western Plus, New Ulm, March 28, 9am to 5pm

Area Committee Meeting here in Shakopee, May 09

RESPONSIBILITY STATEMENT:

I am responsible… When anyone, anywhere reaches out for help, I want the hand of A.A. always to be there. And for that: I am responsible.


Inclement Weather Procedure for Area 36 Events1. In the event of potential inclement weather, the Area Chair will monitor the weather the night before an Area Event (as listed on the official Area Calendar). The Area Chair will

contact other Area Committee members such as the Area Officers, Area Committee Chairs, and DCMs (as appropriate) to get feedback on local weather reports.

2. The Area Chair will make the determination whether to cancel based on reports from the Department of Transportation, National Weather Service, and information gathered from Area Committee Members. The decision will be made no later than 10:00pm the night before the event.

3. The Area Chair will ensure that Area Committee members are notified by phone, email (wherever possible), and by announcement on the Area Website.

4. The Area Chair will contact Area Officers and the Area Officers will divide the list of Area Committee Chairs and DCMs to contact them by phone.

5. The Area Chair will contact the Technology Chair to post a cancellation notice on the Area Website.

Southern Minnesota Area 36 – Metro Map 9/14/2011

From the February 2000 magazine.


Area 36 Maps

Twin Cities AA ASL MeetingsThese Twin Cities Metro AA Meetings provide

An American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreter

Monday, 7:30pm Tradition 5 (Closed, Step & Tradition)

Valley of Peace Lutheran Church

4735 Bassett Creek Dr.

Golden Valley, MN 55422

Tuesday, 7:00pm Common Solution (Closed Women's Big Book Study)

Spirit of Hope United Methodist Church

7600 Harold Ave.

Golden Valley, MN 55427

1st Wednesday of the month, 6:30pm

Continuous Action (Closed, Step & Tradition)

Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church

4120 17th Ave S

Minneapolis 55407

Wednesday, 7:00pm Outright Mental Defectives

(Open Big Book Study & Call-Up)

St. Mark's Lutheran Church

550 7th St W

St. Paul 55102

Thursday, 7:30pm Foxhall, Chapter 7 (Open, Speaker Meeting)

Wooddale Church (Entrance #5)

6630 Shady Oak Road

Eden Prairie, MN 55344

Friday, 7:30pm Three Legacies (Open Speaker Meeting)

Cross of Glory Baptist Church

4600 Shady Oak Road

Hopkins, MN 55343

Saturday, Noon Mainstreeters (Open, Step & Tradition)

Plymouth II Alano

Oak Knoll Lutheran Church (West End of Bldg)

610 Hopkins Crossroad

Minnetonka, MN 55305

Sunday, 7:30pm SLPSNAAG (Closed, Step)

St. Louis Park Sunday Night AA Group

Union Congregational Church

3700 Alabama Ave S

St. Louis Park, MN 55416

From Grapevine February 2000

www.area36.org The Pigeon March 2020 Page 35Last update: 9.16.19

2020 Southern Minnesota Area Assembly Calendar of EventsInformation about Area events can also be found in The Pigeon (our Area 36 newsletter) and on our website: www.area36.org

Date Event Location Time

January 11 Trusted Servant Leadership Training

Hutchinson Event Center1005 Hwy 15 S, Hutchinson, MN

9:00am – 4:30pm

January 24-26 Recovery, Unity & Service Conference

Holiday Inn & Suites Lake Elmo8511 Hudson Blvd, Lake Elmo, MN

February 22 Area Committee Meeting

Shakopee Community Center1255 Fuller St S, Shakopee, MN

Committees, 9:30am – 11:30amArea Committee, 1:00pm –5:00pm

Feb 28 – March1

West Central Regional Service Conference

Billings Sports PlexBillings, MT

March 28 Delegate’s Workshop/AreaAssembly

Best Western Plus2101 S Broadway St, New Ulm, MN

9:00am – 5:00pm

April 19-25 68th Annual General Service Conference

Rye,NY

May 9 Area Committee Meeting


Committees, 9:30am – 11:30amArea Committee, 1:00pm-5:00pm

June 20 Area Assembly Jackpot Junction Hotel39375 County Rd 24, Morton, MN

9:00am – 5:00pm

July 2–5 2020 International Convention of AA

Detroit, MI

August 8 Area Committee Meeting

Shakopee Community Center1255 Fuller St. S., Shakopee, MN


October 3 Area Assembly Mankato City Center Hotel101 E Main St, Mankato, MN

9:00am – 5:00pm

November 14 Area Inventory Buckham Memorial Library Great Hall11 Division St E, Faribault, MN

10:00am – 1:00pm

December 12 Area Committee Meeting (Rotation Meeting)



All Southern Minnesota Area Assembly calendar events are open to all members of Alcoholics Anonymous, except the Annual General Service Conference. Everyone is encouraged to attend, and participate in, all SMAA events.Attendance and participation is a responsibility of all General Service Representatives, Alternate General Service Representatives, District Committee Members, Alternate District Committee Members, District and Area Committee Chairs and their respective Alternates, and District and Area Officers and their respective alternates.

Area 36 Calendar 2020

Submit event information to The Pigeon editor for inclusion. Please check the Area website at: www.area36.org for a more

complete, current list of workshops, roundups, anniversary events, etc., of interest to the A.A. Fellowship. To ensure opportunity

for attendance and participation at your event, please consider avoiding schedule conflicts with already scheduled and posted

events. We publish A.A. non service events in the spirit of cooperation with others.

From the May 1994 magazine.

Victor E.From Grapevine May 1994

SOUTHERN MINNESOTA AREA ASSEMBLYP.O. Box 2812Minneapolis, MN 55402

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

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PRINCETON, MNPERMIT NO. 161

News from theSouthern Minnesota

Area Assembly

March 2020

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From the September 1993 magazine.

Victor E.

the ieonthe ieon newsletter of the southern minnesota area 36 assembly march 2020 the pigeon...

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