Committee No. 5

Question 1.     

Could the Fellowship discuss the advantages and the means of making the Archive at GSO York more accessible?

Background

1) During the last couple of decades much good work has been undertaken to preserve experience by storing written and digital records. Those privileged to view the Archive at York have recognized the great spiritual wealth of the material contained in the Archive. Although some of these records are available to view at GSO and some Regional and Intergroup Archivists have used the Archive in order to compile Histories, the Archive is seen only by very few.

2) Whilst the Anonymity of members past and present must be respected, is it not a basic need and responsibility of Alcoholics Anonymous to share the experience strength and hope contained in the Archive?

Possible Methods of achieving more accessibility:

1) A viewable Catalogue of Material deposited in the Archive at York.

2) Appropriate sections of the material stored on the computer at GSO made open for viewing by members at more outlets throughout the country, e.g. Service Offices.

3) Archive material that is stored digitally anonymised using a computer redacting programme which would remove any personal details from material stored digitally (e.g. Newsletters) and thus make it possible to allow open viewing by members on discs or web site pages in a similar way to Conference Reports.

4) A spreadsheet or database of information taken from the records in the Archive, compiled in order to convey some of the information from the Archive but also to act as a finding aid (example page).

This could be indexed by Group name or discipline and after scrutiny to ensure it is accurate, and free of sensitive items, could be openly viewed by members on discs or web site pages, or sent to members on request. A team of approximately a dozen trusted volunteers, working on an agreed template could possibly cover Archive documents such as Minutes, letters and Reports up to 1966 within a year or so. Members interested in a particular discipline or in a particular group could thus gain information from the spreadsheet and would know where specific information could be located in the Archive.

           Example spreadsheet

 Question 2.

Would Conference consider the necessity of having dedicated Conference Delegates from Share and Roundabout and make a recommendation.

Reasons/Background

• AA Great Britain (GB) adopted the Concepts in their entirety.  Concept 4 states that  Grapevine sends a Delegate to the US/Canadian Conference in order to speak for Grapevine in any decisions made by that Conference which would affect Grapevine.  �??Directors    of...Grapevine...executive staff...shall always be voting members of the General Service Conference itself.�?�
• Concepts 3, 8 and 11 also relate to Grapevine, Inc.�??s relationship to Conference.
• Because of AA GB�??s need to adopt the Concepts in their totality, Roundabout has always  had the prerogative to be represented by a Delegate at Conference. 
• Once the Newsletter split (into AA Service News and Share), Share had an equal prerogative  to be represented by a Delegate at Conference.
• The Share and Roundabout Delegates have always been elected from their respective Editorial Teams.

However, the circumstances between the USA/Canada and GB are not the same:

• Grapevine is a separate entity from AA, as is AA World Services (the printing arm of AA in the US/Can).
• Under Concept 8, Grapevine is protected from decisions made by Conference and needs  separate representation at Conference.  Because of this, a Grapevine delegate is sent: a) to  represent Grapevine�??s views; and b) to answer Conference�??s questions about Grapevine.
• In AA GB those functions are undertaken by the Share / Roundabout Trustees.
• The Share and Roundabout Editorial Teams are each Sub Committees of the General   Service Board (GSB) of AA GB; each Team is chaired by a Trustee of the GSB and those     Trustees already attend Conference.  The current situation means that Share and Roundabout are doubly represented at Conference.
• Share and Roundabout are the only Sub Committees of the GSB GB which send separate Delegates to Conference.
• Share / Roundabout have not always sent Delegates to Conference, some years no-one has attended.  The reasons being:
  

• • All Sub Committee members may have already attended Conference as Regional Delegates.
    
  • A Delegate must be a serving member of the Sub Committee throughout their three-year term at Conference.  This may conflict with their four-year term of service on the Sub Committee.

• The Share / Roundabout Conference Delegates have only their own AA GB Sub Committees  to be accountable to (up to 8 members each) as opposed to Regional Delegates, who have thousands of members to whom they are answerable and whose views ought to be taken to Conference.
• At Conference, the Share / Roundabout Delegates are attached to one of the six Committees and are able to vote in those Committees.  They also vote in the plenary sessions.  This gives them a disproportionate advantage in terms of fair representation of the Fellowship.
• In attending Conference, Share / Roundabout Delegates do not significantly contribute to  our primary purpose work.
• There are financial implications to each Sub Committee having a Conference Delegate: attending Sub-Committee meetings; Pre- and/or Post-Conference meetings; and Conference itself.

The proposers suggest that there is no beneficial reason for the two magazines sending special Delegates to Conference.  Conference Delegates are responsible for making the decisions and the journals�?? Board Trustees are in a position to respond to any queries Conference may have in matters affecting either Share or Roundabout.

Question 3.

Review Violence and Personal Conduct �?? The Group pages 82-85, The Structure Handbook for Great Britain.