Communication in AA has been no ordinary measure from the beginning. It started with life-and-death
for our Co-Founders and remains a matter life-and-death for all afflicted with alcoholism. And one Alcoholic talking to another is the core of transmitting our program one to another. There is always a critical need for AA to communicate within at all levels. This will be a year where voicing your feelings and ideas will be more important than ever before. Our General Conference Theme is “AA in a Time of Change”. We are certainly
in a changing world with all of the use of technology driven by the pandemic. So much will be up for discussion and debate. Please know that your input will help shape a develop AA’s path forward. How do we best function in the new world yet hang on to our core communication? How do we evolve with the world without leaving even one drunk behind? How do we integrate into this digital world, yet keep our precious “one alcoholic talking to another alcoholic” intact? Many matters of importance will be up for debate and decision in the upcoming four or five years. I invite each of you to get involved in the process.
Conference preparation is definitely upon us. With a record amount of background material, (Over 1400 pages) there is an amazing amount of information to review. As a Conference Committee Chair, I am involved in some of the Pre-Conference planning. We had our Treatment and Accessibilities Committee Housekeeping meeting on March 8, and our Joint Trustee’s meeting is upcoming. We met with our Regional Trustee on March 9 for a Board Report. I was invited to present at a workshop on communication in AA on March 10. As an officer in the Southwest Regional Delegate’s Assembly, I had a number of meetings to help plan and prepare the Virtual 2021 SWRDA which was held on March 12 & 13. The SW Regional Delegates have started a meeting every other week to increase comfort level with a Virtual Conference. I have been supporting our Area 46 Ad Hoc 2021 Convention Committee each month. I separated al of the background material for distribution to the Committee Chairs and DCM’s for Pre-Conference input. I worked with our Technology Chair to provide the information for the Agenda Item Survey. And lastly for the month, I prepared for our Pre-Conference Assembly held March 27 & 28. I guess that it is fair to say March was another busy month.
The 71st General Service Conference will be held April 17 – 24th. I hope that all of you will participate in the conference process. The Standing Committees and DCM’s held sharing sessions on agenda items, and we had our Pre-Conference Assembly. Our Area survey is still open. There are still opportunities for you to express your voice to the Delegate before this year’s Conference.
At our Pre-Conference Assembly, I released a video from the current Trustee’s sub committee looking into all of the requests for changes to our literature. This Trustee’s Committee is researching the nature of the requests and looking for commonalities. You are invited to go to our Area 46 website and visit a link there to the presentation. I will be asking Districts to plan some time along with the Delegate’s Conference Reports this year to have conversations around this matter. If you are interested, I invite you to review the presentation that is now available. I look forward to many productive discussions.
I remain forever Grateful for the opportunity to Serve Area 46 as your Delegate. Thank you for allowing me to be the caretaker of this great responsibility for a short while.
In Love and Service,
Bill L.