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PANEL 49 SHINES Slide 2 Slide 3 Panel 49 Goes to Stepping Stones Every 3 rd year WSC (World Service Conference) is held in Stamford Connecticut so the Delegate s can visit Stepping Stones Home of Lois & Bill Wilson Slide 4 Stepping Stones Slide 5 Canadian Delegates meeting The Three Panel 49 Delegates from Canada miss the Canadian Delegates Meeting Sunday April 10 2011. Why you may ask? Slide 6 The Fly By Night Panel 49 La Guardia Airport AFG We were too busy having a meeting on Patience we were delayed 10 hours at La Guardia before flying out to Norfolk we left at 10:30pm and we got to the hotel at 1:30am. Long after the Canadian Delegates meeting ended. Slide 7 2011 World Service Conference Task/Thought Forces Task Force to create a process for Conference members to submit items for the WSC agenda Thought Force for Areas to show how service contributes to growth and is an integral part of the Al Anon program Slide 8 Thought Force on how to include dual members in service work while maintaining our policies Thought Force to identify information for a guideline on memorial contributions Thought Force to support Areas in dealing with groups whose activities fail to consider Al Anon or Alateen as a whole Thought Force II on the Current Conference Structure Slide 9 Thought Force II on Current Conference Structure Alternative Strategies Continued from last year. The charge was to: Identify ways that would allow smaller Areas within the service structure to combine, and larger Areas (with 400 groups or more) to divide. Develop alternative strategies that would address these issues, and help each Area achieve full representation from its Delegate. Include the pros and cons of each strategy. Slide 10 Framing: A Thought Force at the 2010 WSC suggested several strategies to help Areas achieve full representation from their Delegate. The current Thought Force developed three strategies that would enable Areas to divide or combine. Under the current policy, an Area can split only once. Some Areas that have split once already now have a large number of groups. One Area raised this issue, which was discussed on the Conference floor. The charge for the Thought Force is based on two premises: 1. allowing Areas with more than 400 groups to divide; and 2. allowing small Areas to combine. Three strategies have been developed that could be used to enable Areas to divide or combine. Slide 11 Strategy One: To develop criteria that would enable an Area to evaluate its effectiveness in providing full representation to all of its groups. An Areas decision to combine or divide could improve the Delegates ability to effectively represent the Areas groups. Since the Delegate is the direct link between the WSC and the groups, this issue will help the Area to fully assess whether its current model of representation fulfills two-way communication. Slide 12 Pros Promote greater understanding of representation within Al-Anon. Consistent with Concepts One and Four Defining representation, in terms of Concept Four, could deepen the groups understanding of how they are linked directly to the decisions of the WSC through their Delegate. An Area discussion about this vital link might help to uncover communication gaps, reveal more effective means of communication that would be beneficial to the Area and the WSC, and most importantly, reinforce Concept One, that the groups hold the ultimate authority for Al-Anon world services. Cons It may be difficult to reach a definition of full representation that would be acceptable to all. Slide 13 . Strategy Two : Design an inventory to help Area Assemblies determine if and when they should divide or combine. Pros Would help Area Assemblies to look at specific issues and clarify them. Would provide a basis for decisions, and would be required before any request to divide or combine. Would provide unbiased information for decision- making. Would involve groups, in accordance with Concept One. Slide 14 Whether or not to divide or combine is a complex question. The inventory would identify specific issues for the Area to focus on. The inventory would need to be completed before Areas made a request to divide or combine. In fact, the inventory would provide most of the required documentation in a consistent format. Completing the inventory would enable an Area to collect unbiased information for decision-making. The inventory would be part of the Knowledge-Based Decision-Making process. In keeping with Concept One, all groups in the Area(s) affected would have the opportunity to contribute to the inventory. Slide 15 Cons Assumes all groups affected will participate and be heard. Would incur some mailing expenses. There are some cons. For the inventory to be completely successful, all groups in the Areas would need to participatewhich may not happen. There would also be some costs associated with conducting the inventory. Slide 16 Strategy 3: Design a step-by-step process that could be used by Areas to help them divide or combine. Our third strategy is to recommend the development of a process that all Areas could use to help them restructure when dividing or combining. Slide 17 Pros Could help Areas simplify a complex, new experience. Would provide a unified working process. The implementation of this strategy would simplify the newly-developed process for the Areas, and would provide a uniform way to proceed. Slide 18 Cons We dont know all the steps that might be involved. Each situation could be very different; the process could be different as well. Each situation could be very difficult; the process could be difficult as well. Slide 19 2010 Auditors Report and Financials Audit Report and the Tax return are posted on the website for those wanting further information. Summing it up: Looking good - We have no debt Contributions and Literature sales stayed consistent even through bad economy Total Contributions US & Canada Total Groups- 15,760 Total groups contributing 9137 57.98% Average $ per group - $104.04 Costs of Services provided by WSO - $3,754,44 Average cost per group $238.23 Slide 20 Canadian Contributions 2010 Total Canadian Contributions: $108,008 US up from 102,698 US in 2009 Ontario South Contributions: 61.8% of OS groups contribute to WSO Average per group is $113.29 For 2010 OS total is $24,505 up from $22,797 in 2009 Individual contributions from OS are $1218 down from 2009 - $3,280 Other Countries: $18, 023 up from $14, 956 Bequest are down - $62, 749 from $100,639 Grand Total is $1, 2006, 323 down from $1,248, 194 Slide 21 Total Number of Registered Groups World Wide in 2010 25,452 in 130 Countries U.S. Al-Anon 13, 286 U.S. Alateen 1,031 Canada Al-Anon 1,363 Canada Alateen 80 Overseas Al-Anon 8,999 Overseas Alateen 693 Slide 22 Income from The Forum and Literature Sales Forum Subscriptions: Up from last year: 2010 - $279, 521 24,000 subscriptions 2009 - $275, 568 20,000 subscriptions Literature Sales: Down from last year: 2010 - $2,976,590 2009 - $3,007,728 Literature sales should be up in 2011 with the advent of our new books Slide 23 Presentation: Our Spirits Soar with Every Gift Sung to the tune of When the Saints Come Marching In Verse 1: Each time I give, my spirit lifts. My spirit soars with every gift. When I help someone find recovry, I receive more than I give. Verse 2: Each time I give, my spirit lifts. My spirit soars with every gift. When an Alateen attends our chat room, I receive more than I give. Chorus: Each time I give, my spirit lifts. My spirit soars with every gift. When I reach out to help another, I receive more than I give. Slide 24 Verse 3: Each time I give, my spirit lifts. My spirit soars with every gift. When AFA touches those who suffer, I receive more than I give. Verse 4: Each time I give, my spirit lifts. My spirit soars with every gift. When another structure develops, I receive more than I give. Slide 25 Verse 5: Each time I give, my spirit lifts. My spirit soars with every gift. When someone reads my FORUM sharing, I receive more than I give Verse 6: Each time I give, my spirit lifts. My spirit soars with every gift. When World Service comes to visit, I receive more than I give. Slide 26 What spiritual benefits do I receive when I give of my resources? Slide 27 Slide 28 Slide 29 Slide 30 Slide 31 Slide 32 Slide 33 Slide 34 Thought Force How to Include Dual Members in Al-Anon Service Dual Members in Al-Anon Service While Maintaining While Maintaining Our Policies Slide 35 How would you describe a dual member ? A dual member is a member of both Al- Anon and Alcoholics Anonymous What exactly is the policy? Read pages 78-79 of the 20102013 Al- Anon/Alateen Service Manual Slide 36 When and why did it start ? 1966: A.A. and Al-Anon work together to create the policy that differentiates the two fellowships. Separate Fellowships 1967: The guidelines for group separation between A.A. and Al-Anon were approved at the Al-Anon World Service Conference Slide 37 Separate Fellowships Officers of each group should be members of either A.A. or Al-Anon, depending upon the groups affiliation Separate Purposes The primary purpose of A.A. is to help fellow alcoholics recover. The primary purpose of Al-Anon is to help the member live with herself/himself, as well as with the alcoholic. Slide 38 Separate Purposes We are separate entities with separate purposes. Dual members do not serve in Al-Anon policy-making positions, otherwise this would give the appearance of not being separate Slide 39 Consider Some Ways Dual Members Can Serve. Depending on Area/local policies, serve on event committees: Area District Group Al-Anon Information Service Assist Public Outreach/Institutions: Area District Group Al-Anon Information Service Slide 40 Support fellowship communications: Area & district Web sites Area & district newsletters Attend to technology needs: Area District Group Al-Anon Information Service Become certified as an Al-Anon Member Involved in Alateen Service (AMIAS). Contribute to WSO Publishing Slide 41 Support strategic planning by serving on Thought Forces and Task Forces: Area District Al-Anon Information Service Liaison to local A.A. via convention or Intergroup service. Slide 42 Strategies 1.Develop a workshop for all service arms to use as a framework to begin a productive discussion. 2. Create service tools to support the fellowship in identifying service roles for dual members to assist service arms to do the following: Clarify the criteria Generate a list of available service opportunities 3. Encourage members to write Forum articles. Slide 43 New for 2011 New Public Outreach Website http://www.al-anon.org/ Take a look its awesome. This website is about the newcomer Slide 44 New Books: How Al-Anon Works. soft cover Al-Anons Big Book. The price is low so that groups can have copies on hand to give to members who cant afford it or sponsors can give to sponsees Many Voices One Journey 3 years in the making. This book is about our 60 years of Recovery One Day At A Time. It has 400+ pages and 800 end notes. Its a hard look at our program Slide 45 New for 2011 continued DVD 3 years in the making. This DVD can be purchased for Public Outreach. It has 3 sections, for newcomers, teens and professionals. Ontario South was part of making that video. In the teen section of the video listen to two teens from Ontario South share they made me cry and according to Pat Q (WSO Staff) they make everyone cry. Joan R. shares also in this video. Slide 46 New for 2011 continued PSA 2011 2012 Al-Anon/Alateen TV PSA Portraits Podcasts 4 different podcasts can be listened to: Group Concerns. How my group functions as a community The structure of the Al-Anon/Alateen fellowship The need for GRs and GR duties How to become a Group Representativ e How to become a Group Representativ e And the first in a series of podcasts about Sponsorship The Sponsor-Sponsee Relationship Slide 47 New for 2011 continued Please listen to these podcasts and share this with your GR tables and the members of your groups Blogs: Slide 48 Oprah May Magazine Has an article about AshleyJudd. In this article she speaks to the 10 most helpful books in her life and How Al-Anon Works is one of those books. 2011 Conference Summary The summary will be sent to me in August. Please watch your mailbox for this copy. I will be sending it to you once again this year. Please read it from cover to cover. Ask your groups to order copies for themselves and their groups. All the proceedings of WSC 2011 will be in there much more information than I can give you. The Strategic Plan, the full Annual Report and the Policy updates will be in it. Slide 49 Technology being used in meetings and to come Conference calls Video Conferencing Skype Virtual meetings (on line) WSO has a Task Force in the office researching on how to safely have electronic meetings WSO is looking at Ebooks The Audio recording of How Al-Anon Works would cost $80,000 what will the future bring? Slide 50 TWITTER & FACEBOOK WSO is pleased to announce that Al-Anon is now on Twitter and Facebook. These pages begin a new chapter in our presence on the World Wide Web. Twitter AlAnon_WSO enables us to send outbound messages to the general public, professionals, members and potential members. Our Facebook page, Al-AnonWSO is a source of information, not for members to share with each other. The Policy Committee approved the use of these Web resources for outreach purposes provided that they comply with the Traditions. Slide 51 Regional Trustee Elections Canada Central Slide 52 Three Canada Central Delegates and Out of Region Delegates October 2010, Ontario South elects the Regional Trustee choice for 2012 Joan R. Good Luck Joan! Slide 53 I wanted you to know that I was looking at our Web stats for the Canadian ISPs. I wanted to see if any of the on-line directories, e.g., yellowpages.ca or 411.ca were being used to obtain information about Al-Anon. Two-thirds of total Canadian inquiries came from the ON S Web site. So, you are definitely doing something right and your Web site is being used by professionals and newcomers. Congratulations and hats off to ON S!! Memo received from WSO Slide 54 IQALUIT Slide 55 The WSOs Canadian corporation is relocating on September 1st to a virtual office with an address in downtown Ottawa. Please share this announcement in the next issue of your service arms newsletter or and post the information on your service arms Web site. Slide 56 Slide 57 Slide 58 Vancouver July 5 -7 2013 July 4 th Special Day of Service Registration and Hotel information to be out by July 2012 Wait till you get this information b-4 booking your room so that you can be in Al-Anons block of rooms See you in Vancouver! Slide 59 Slide 60 June 4,5 2011 TEAM Saskatchewan I will be attending this event - the 1 st Canadian TEAM in hopes of bringing back information so that Ontario South can schedule a TEAM Event. 7 were held in 2010, 6 scheduled for 2011 and 2 for 2012 Slide 61 Thought Force to Support Areas in Dealing with Groups Whose Activities Fail to Consider Al-Anon or Alateen as a Whole Identification of Group Practices that May Be Considered Problems 1. High Pressure Groups 2. Unregistered Groups 3. Unfilled Group (district and Area) Positions 4. Failure to Follow the Intent of the Group Registration Process 5. Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) study groups Slide 62 6. Speakers from High Pressure Groups 7. Lack of Trust at All Levels 8. Outside Literature Used in Meetings 9. Modification of the Wording of the Steps, Traditions, Concepts of Service, and Warranties 10. Failure to Financially Support Al-Anon as a Whole Does Ontario South have any such groups? Slide 63 Occupancy Costs Slide 64 In 1994, due to increasing costs of doing business in New York City, the World Service Conference voted to relocate our World Services. A study was conducted and after much research, the relocation committee recommended and the Conference voted to relocate to Virginia Beach, Virginia. At that time, Va. Beach was little known, but was developing as an attractive place to do business and the costs for property and construction were very reasonable. A recent report shows that Va. Beach is now within the top five business friendly cities in the US. WSO Building Slide 65 The Conference also voted to try to own property and voted for a 15 year trial. At the 2011 World Service Conference, the members will vote to either End the trial and keep the building End the trial and sell the building Extend the trial for another period of years. What you can see on this chart, is the green bars for 1993 - 1995 are the lease cost for our office the last 3 full years our WSO was in NY City. Slide 66 1996 the new office in Va. Beach was complete and the office relocated from New York City to, Va. Beach. so with the blue and red you see the cost of occupancy in the two locations for the year The Blue is for the six months in NY City, the Red, being the first six months in Va. Beach. Starting in 1997 and through 2008, the dark blue bar is the estimated cost for occupancy in New York City if we had relocated to a designated Not for Profit building, that is a rental property that is taxed according to laws affecting non-profit organizations. The yellow bar illustrates the actual occupancy cost for each of those years in Va. Beach. Slide 67 Ownership vs. Leasing Distributed at the 2008 World Service Conference Slide 68 At a World Service Conference several years ago, we were reviewing the Occupancy Cost report that the Board goes over every year. A Delegate asked if there were ever any statistics available to compare Ownership costs compared to Leasing costs in Virginia Beach, so this chart was created. You will see with the passing of time, Leasing costs noted in the blue - have gone up which is normal, while the cost of ownership the yellow bar- has gone down. There have been a few little spurts or increases in the cost of ownership. Those increases were to cover repaving the parking lot, change out of the Heating and Air conditioning system to bring it up to new OSHA standards. You can see the costs are decreasing. We have managed to escalate our bond payments and paid off of our mortgage in March of 2010. Slide 69 Slide 70 Slide 71 Slide 72 Slide 73 Slide 74 Panel 49 Delegates Had the great opportunity to participate in the business of the World Service Conference, and Panel 49 Shines! We were present to assist in the process to have the Alateen Traditions protected We were part of the 50th World Service Conference We got to work on the wording for our new Service Manual We were part of the CCT and RCT processes to elect our Board of Trustees We were present and took part in the discussion to enhance cultural competence We were part of the vote were finalizing the ownership of our Al-Anon home And now we are present to be part of celebrating Al-Anons 60th birthday We have laughed and cried, and dined. Oh boy have we dined. And together we shined! Slide 75 Year 3 April 2011 Al-Anon is 60 years old! Happy Birthday Al-Anon! Slide 76 Slide 77 Remember Al-Anon's "Statement of Unity adopted by the l982 World Service Conference Each member of the fellowship is a significant part of a great circle of hope. While respecting each others individuality, our common welfare must come first. Our recovery depends on our mutual needs and an atmosphere of trust. Slide 78 QUESTIONS?????