Schedules Committee Meeting September 3, 2024

Attending, Jackie Lyn, Chairperson; Herb S. Secretary; Mark W. Alt-DCM, D32; Kathy, D6; Dean T., D9; Lance, D32; Tim C, D3; Jason D4; and Wendy H, D8.

Jackie Lyn opened with “We” version of the Serenity prayer

  1. Anniversaries, illness and deceased: Mark celebrated 18 years on August 18.
  2. Approval of minutes from August 6, 2024 meeting: Jackie Lyn reported that Rompiendo Fronteras was spelled wrong in the minutes.  She will make the change for the records.   There being no further corrections, we accepted the minutes with the one change.
  3. Welcome guests: Mark is attending as Alt-DCM and possible new Schedules Chair for D32.
  4. Report from the chair:
    1. Jackie Lyn has a goal of making meeting changes more timely.  If for some reason the timing is poor for you, please send the email back to Jackie, Herb or Meghan.  They can make the change for you.
    2. Registration for the International Convention starts September 10.
    3. There are two new young people’s videos available on aa.org.
    4. The Area 11 Convention is the weekend of September 13.  Registration ends today.
    5. Jackie introduced the idea of putting the minutes on the Area 11 website.  Reception of the idea was positive.
    6. Area 11 Group Inventory was held August 14.  Minutes are available on request.
    7. The Area 11 GSO Bus Trip is September 27.  Details can be found on ct-aa.org.
    8. The budget in the works.  Details will reported be next month.
    9. Jason asked if there was a charge for the Area 11 Convention.  The cost of attending the convention is $40.
  5. District Reports:
    1. D4.  Jason is waiting for credentials.

Old business:

  1. Challenges for Schedules Committee? None
  2. Any concerns for Website Committee/Webmaster?  None
  3. Schedules Committee page on ct-aa.org: Herb has started creating new guidelines that can be included on the page.  A possible layout would be mission statement, guidelines, contact information and a link to the meeting change form. The Area asks that only anonymous email addresses be used on the website and some District Schedules Chairs don’t have them.  Herb will create anonymous email addresses for those who don’t have them and need help making them.  Mark volunteered to help with the new Schedules page.

New business:

  1. Merging the Schedules with Website Committee:  Herb outlined some reasons this might be a good idea.
    1. When the Schedules Committee was formed, the committee was charged with accumulating meeting information, editing it, and then arranging the printing of meeting books.  That is no longer true.  Now the job is editing the website.  The change of duties might justify a change of committee structure.
    2. The two committees are very connected, as they both edit the website.  If they merged, the meeting finder would be handled by district reps just as the events are handled by a member of the Website Committee.
    3. If the two committees were merged, the process of editing of the website would be consistent throughout, leading to greater efficiency and accuracy.
    4. Because of redistricting, there are now many small districts that may have trouble filling all service committee positions.  If the Schedules Committee and the Website Committee merged, there would only be need for one rep from each district instead of two.
    5. Because there are two committees, communication between the two committees is often slow.  This matters when Schedules Committee concerns are time sensitive. For example, a District Schedules Chair might not be able to make changes for his district.
    6. After some discussion, Jackie Lyn asked the committee if they thought the idea of the two committees merging was worth pursuing.  A majority of the members thought that it was, so Jackie will ask the Area 11 Executive Committee about the best way to proceed.

Tim discussed Tradition 9. “A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsibly to those they serve.”

  1. Jay discussed Concept 9. “Good service leaders, together with sound and appropriate methods of choosing them, are all levels indispensable for our future functioning and safety.”
  1. Next month: Wendy will discuss Tradition 10, and Kathy, Concept 10.

 

Next meeting: Tuesday October 1st at 7:00pm

Meeting closed with the “We” version of the Responsibility Pledge.