Board Report The Board is comprised of sevenTrustees (four alcoholic and three non-alcoholic) plus the Board Secretary.Each Trustee wears three hats...Trustee of the fellowship in Ireland,Director/Trustee of the Company(incorporated) and Trustee of thePension Fund for GSO staff.

At the recent reconvened conferencein August two new NAT's wereapproved to the Board, namely Mr.Eamonn Dillon and Mr. Phil Garland.Phil replaces Mr. Denis Doherty whorecently retired after giving threedecades of dedicated service invarious areas to the Fellowship. Thenew NATs bring much neededexperience as they have been activein other fields and NGOs i.e. charitiesand voluntary organisations etc. andbring expertise in Law and ChildProtection etc, with them to informdecision making at Board level.

We meet on a monthly basis, normallyan all-day meeting in GSO on aSaturday.

The Board is available to meetProvincial Intergroup ConferenceDelegate teams on invitation.

As custodians of the Twelve Steps andTwelve Traditions, the Board looks at

issues such as anonymity breaks,Public Information, particularly ourdeclaration of responsibility... “I amresponsible, when anyone, anywherereaches out for help, I want the handof AA always to be there, and for that; I am responsible”.In so doing the Board looks how bestit can efficiently and prudently use AAresources and funds in carrying themessage e.g. looking at ways to getbetter value for money for thefellowship in PI. The Board continuesto oversee the issuing of The RoadBack and the News Sheet.

The Archives are held at GSO andcan be viewed by appointment. Theseare also brought to every All-IrelandConvention for viewing.

Finance: Concern was expressed atBoard level that in some cases fundsare not passing through the Structureefficiently. Table top contributions aredown on previous years and it is feltthat the movement of moneys fromGroup to Area to Intergroup is beingunnecessarily retarded. A prudent reserve is normally threemonths running expenses.

Administration costs have increased atGSO and an analysis of expendituresis currently underway to look atpossible savings. The Road Backsales are somewhat down butliterature sales are up generally. Asuggestion to maintain the Road Backsales would be for groups to elect aRoad Back anchor person, who wouldorder the special discounted groupcontribution and account to the group

News Sheet Oct/Nov 2015 Page 1

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS GENERAL SERVICE CONFERENCE OF IRELAND

The views and opinions expressed in The News Sheet are notnecessarily those of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous

in Ireland as a whole.

Declaration of UnityThis we owe to AA’s future:

To place our common welfare first;To keep our fellowship united.

For on AA unity depend our lives;and the lives of those to come.

News Sheet Oct/Nov 2015 Page 2

business meetings regularly. (see TheNews Sheet Aug/Sept edition)It is hoped to move to an onlineordering system for The Road Backand have e-format copy soon.

Articles are urgently being sought forThe Road Back. Please contributeyour story, humorous incident or yourperspective on recovery, the traditionsor an area of service.

70th Anniversary of AA... asubcommittee of Conference iscurrently in situ charged with theresponsibility of investigating feasibleoptions on how best the fellowshipmight commemorate our 70thanniversary for 2016. The committeewill report to March Conference 2016.

AA Directories issued 3/4 times ayear, usually as soon as stocks aresold out.

The database system is beingupdated at GSO... both hardware andsoftware... for greater efficiency andintegration. Usual tendering process isbeing adhered to.

The Website will undergo a ‘new look’and will be more appealing and user-friendly. It is now a few years on sincefirst launched.

Intergroup and Area minute copiesneed to be mailed automatically toGSO for inclusion in the historicalarchives of the fellowship in Ireland.

Guidelines for Listings in theDirectory… (suggested)

For an overview of how the Traditionsapply to groups, see the pamphlet

"The AA Group ... Where it all begins."

In brief:• all group members are alcoholics (orhave a desire to stop drinking) and thegroup is willing to "open the door to allalcoholics who seek help, regardlessof profession, gender, or otherdistinction" ("The AA Group," p. 15)• the group is fully self-supporting,declining outside contributions• the group has no other affiliation• the group does not endorse outsideenterprises• the group has no opinion on outsideissues• the group maintains the anonymity ofits members (no full names or photosof members in public view)From page 22 of the pamphlet "TheAA Group" (copyright AAWS, Inc.;reprinted with permission):

"Even the appearance of being linkedto any organization, club, political orreligious institution needs to beavoided.”"Therefore, an AA group that meets ina prison or treatment facility or achurch can take care not to use theinstitution's name, but to call itselfsomething quite different. This makesit clear that the AA group is not

Responsibility DeclarationI am responsible.

When anyone, anywhere,reaches out for help,

I want the hand of AA always to be there.And for that: I am responsible.

News Sheet Oct/Nov 2015 Page 3

affiliated with the hospital, church,prison, treatment facility, or whatever,but simply rents space there formeetings."Our AA group conscience, as voicedby the General Service Conference,has recommended that 'family'meetings, 'double trouble' and 'alcoholand pill' meetings not be listed in ourAA directories. The use of the word'family' might also invite confusion withAl-Anon Family Groups, a fellowshipentirely separate from AA."The primary purpose of any AA groupis to carry the AA message toalcoholics. Experience with alcohol isone thing all AA members have incommon. It is misleading to hint or givethe impression that AA solves otherproblems or knows what to do aboutaddiction to drugs.

"It has also been recommended by theAA Conference that no AA group benamed after any actual person, livingor dead, AA or non-AA. This is oneway we can 'place principles beforepersonalities.'"

Keeping the Directories CurrentGSO attempts to keep its directoriescurrent. However, we must rely oninformation supplied by the meetingsand groups using the GroupInformation Sheet via the structure. Inaddition, it is recommended that itdoes periodic "roll calls", updates toensure correct listing information andcontacts.

The only way the meeting directoriescan remain current is with your help.We urge you to think of the newcomerwhen you view the directory listings.Imagine him or her, full of hope,following instructions and rushing off toa meeting. Then imagine their seeing aclosed door or meeting moved sign etcetc.

Even one instance of the above is toomany.

Here's what you can do to help:• Take a look at your group's ormeeting's listing in the AA directory. Isit current? If not, let Area/Intergroupknow. (again using the GroupInformation Sheet via the structure)• Whether you have one or threecontacts listed, a visitor is most likelyto contact the first name on the list. Isthat person still a contact? If not, letus know.• People go on holiday, get ill, etc.Please inform your contacts that ifthey are not available to respond toinquiries, the group can easilysubstitute another contact temporarily... to ensure the newcomer hassomeone to talk to.

Spotlight on the respectiveresponsibilities of theTrustees

Each edition of The News Sheet willfeature the work of one of the BoardTrustees in order to give members agreater feel for the kinds of servicecarried out by each respective Boardmember, including the BoardSecretary.

Colly G. is responsible for producingthe bi-monthly magazine "The RoadBack." Whilst the Board has theoverall editorial responsibility for TheRoad Back, Colly sources and editsthe content of the magazine.The magazine is always in need ofstories for our meeting in print, ideallythey should either be 450 or 900words long. Colly's otherresponsibilities are the Website andour Meeting App. At this point in timeColly is looking at how we can keepthe Website fresh and up-to-date toserve the needs of the Fellowship.

Currently Colly is chairing a sub-committee of Conference on howbest we as a fellowship can carry ourmessage via Public Information.

News Sheet Oct/Nov 2015 Page 4

General Service Office of Alcoholics AnonymousUnit 2, Block C, Santry Business Park

Swords Road, Dublin 9Telephone: (01) 8420700 Fax: (01) 8420703

gso@alcoholicsanonymous.ie

The News Sheet is intended as an aid to SERVICE throughout the Fellowship in Ireland.Your suggestions as to form and content of the News Sheet will be especially welcome.

Service Structure of The Fellowship in Ireland

Intergroup

A.A. GroupsEach Group is entitled tosend two GSRs to AreaEach Area send four membersas Delegates to Intergroup

The Board itself is made up of four AlcoholicTrustees and three non-Alcoholics Trustees.

Alcoholics Anonymous has been

called an upside-down organization

because, as the structure chart shows,

the Groups are on top and the Trustees

at the bottom.Bill W. wrote in Concept 1 “The AA Groups

today hold ultimate responsibility and final

authority for our world service..... “.Then in

Concept 2, Bill made it clear that the Groups

“delegated to the Conference complete authority

for the active maintenance of our world service and

thereby made the Conference... the actual voice

and effective conscience for our whole society”.

Bill’s early vision was of a worldwide structure.

However, the Conference structures in countries

outside of the U.S./Canada evolved as

autonomous entities.

Four Delegates, known as ConferenceDelegates, represent their ProvincialIntergroup at ConferenceAA Conference includes The Board,The Board Secretary, the four IntergroupDelegates and Intergroup Secretarytogether with our two World Service Delegates

Area

Board

Conference

Confidential 01/10/2015 Page 1

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