District 9 Minutes
4 November 2007

ATTENDANCE: DCM – Sheryl O.; Alt DCM – Carrie C.; Treasurer – Georgette W.; Archives – Mary Ann P.; Corrections – Johnny G.; CPC – Marty G.; Grapevine – Park M.; Literature – Mary Beth P.; PI – JoAnn N.; Treatment – Mary Ellen H.; Intergroup Liaison – Lisa W.; Secretary – Pat J. Groups Present: Bettendorf – Gail B.; Central Discussion – Colleen M.; Clinton – Jeff B.; Foxhall – Vicki V.; Marquette – Jamey C.; West End – Kim M.
Secretary’s minutes were approved.
TREASURER’S REPORT: Beginning Balance – 2,583.00; Income - $75.00; Expenses - $201.00; Operating Balance - $2,457.00
REPORTS:
DCM: I attended the DCM sharing session and area assembly at the Area 24 Fall conference in Sioux City, Iowa in October. The DCM sharing session brought 6 issues to the group of different ideas that we would like to talk about or need some collective experience from other district DCM’s. I found this to be helpful and took from it a new idea I would like to do at our District. On Saturday I attended the assembly where our delegate reported that our Area 24 contributions to GSO are down 1% from last year. We currently have 30% of the groups in Area 24 contributing. Also, make note that flyers were sent out for the 2008 West Central Regional and the dates were wrong. The dates are as follows: February 29, March 1, 2, 2008. The treasure reported for this time period an opening balance of $3635.89 with income of $5903.40 expenses at $2279.15 minus prudent reserve of $3000.00 leaving us with an ending balance of $10,260.14. I also have copies of group contributions. Under old business a motion was made to approve guideline reimbursement for Area officers & chairs concerning WCRC & WCRF to be in effect January 2008. A committee has been formed to look at forming a Spanish speaking district and has been tabled. New business Dave N is our new CPC chair and Lynn S is our new newsletter chair. The area also voted in our Nominee for West Central Regional, Trustee Jim R. A motion was made for our Delegate to send a letter to GSO Board with our concerns on the Grapevine gray pages being added back in the Grapevine. The concern is endorsement and affiliation. At this time there are no bids for the Area 24 spring assembly in 2009. The Area will table until January.
Alt DCM: I attended the Fall Conference in Sioux City. The Conference was very informative and I enjoy obtaining information regarding our Area business and observing how business is conducted at the Area level. I spoke with the two other District Committee members regarding the scheduling of the Cluster meeting and will try to schedule that with the other districts within the next thirty (30) days. The number of hits on the website for October 2007 was 469. Our website is www.aaquadcities.com.
Archives: I was unable to attend the Fall Conference in Sioux City, Ia. but Mary Beth attended the Archive’s meeting in my absence. The Archives Committee members met on October 21 to discuss further duties for the committee. We archived materials collected thus far, including district minutes, group flyers, inter-group newsletters, and the Archives Newsletter, AA Markings. We have purchased a new archives display board and began to plan which items we will put on it. Our next archive meeting will be November 25, at 3:00pm.
Corrections: All is going well with the Men’s meetings on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. We still have no official word on when the new jail is opening. The speculation is sometime early December. When the new jail opens, we will be starting Ladies meetings as well. Day and times for the ladies meetings will be determined once we have an official date that we can start. This will be coordinated with the approved female members and the jail. Corrections participated in the community resources outreach event that was held on Saturday November 3^rd. It was from 8:00 am until 1:00 pm. The District 9 AA Corrections both was very well received and very well attended. Several brochures where handed out and many conversations were held with community members. This event was well covered and documented by the media. It was on the front page of the QC Times and was on local television as well. With respect to our eleventh tradition, only information about the event in general was reported.
CPC: The CPC committee met on Saturday, November 3, 2007.  "We” attended the fall conference in Sioux City in October and found some new ideas for displays.  During our meeting on Saturday we implemented some of those ideas and now have a very nice display.  The CPC meeting at the conference was a success.  Thank you AA for the opportunity to attend.  We will be receiving PowerPoint slides from Dubuque point of contact and will be reviewing the slides and hope to use them in future presentations.  We also have ideas for our next project (thanks to the sharing of ideas in Sioux City). 
Grapevine: I was unable to attend the Fall Conference in Sioux City. Jamey C. attended in my absence. They discussed Alcoholism at Large, the Gray Pages. It is believed to be an infringement of affiliation and endorsement.
Literature: I attended the Conference in Sioux City, Ia. The Literature chair workshop was very informative. A 12 and 12 audio C is available in English, French and Spanish for $18.00. Kevin told me when he was going to be available at different conferences to sell literature. We also discussed different ways to get literature in our area.
PI: I attended the Fall Area 24 Conference. We watched the public service announcements that will be distributed to local TV stations. It was asked that if we saw a PSA being shown, we should send them a thank you note. If anyone sees one, please let me know. All of the PSAs say to look us up in the phone book and/or local newspaper. As you know, I brought up the problem with the local phone books. We are also not listed in the newspapers. I called some local newspapers and this can be very expensive. There is a community page that is free. No one returned my call. I believed I looked into this years ago. They will run a small ad from time to time when there is room. Some of our other options are to run it once a week in the Go Section and/or the Leader. The estimate for this is about $25 a week for the Go Section and $35 for the Leader. I will be putting this on new business.
Treatment: The month of November is nearly booked with speakers and chairs for the various treatment centers. It has been suggested that the weekly speaker meeting held at the Salvation Army be changed to an open discussion meeting. A Marquette member dropped the ball on booking those meetings for the month of October. Brett F. has said he will take the responsibility for the month of November and I have asked two friends from Fox Hall to book speaker meetings for the months December through May. I think it is in the best interest of Salvation Army residents to hear speakers. I didn’t respond to the calls made to Sheryl on a timely basis and will try to be more responsible myself in the future.
Intergroup Liaison: The balance in the general account and savings accounts as of Sept. 27, 2007 is $ 9141.80.  Of this balance, liabilities total $1685.00 and $2400 is budgeted for November expenses.  This leaves a remaining balance of $ 7456.80.  The treasurer will prepare an annual budget starting in 2008. Call counts for September were 7 12-step calls, 244 information, 1 Alanon/Alateen, and 67 visitors.  Our 24-hour telephone service is working smoother than ever thanks to our loyal phone rotation volunteers, Wes, our great phone chair, Vonage, and QC online. We need volunteers to work Thursday mornings from 9 -12:30 at the office.  We sometimes need afternoon volunteers as the office manager’s mother is in the hospital in Peoria and she sometimes has to make trips there.  The issue of the Office Manager Annual Performance Salary Increase was tabled until the November meeting. We did get an extension on the current IRS matter until Nov. 15, 2007.  The CPA is working on this.  The office manager is going to compile a report on exactly what the IRS matters entail to be available at the November meeting. The Alternate Chairperson position is open.  Election for this position will be in November. Website renewal was coming up and we have to decide if we still want to participate.
Bettendorf: I attended the Fall Conference in Sioux City on Oct 19^th & 20^th. We will be having election of officers at the November business meeting. The room will be open all day on Thanksgiving Day and all are welcome.
Central: Greetings from Central Discussion. At our last business meeting we had election of officers. They are: Dwayne – Chairperson; Linda B. – Treasurer; Amanda – Secretary; Alternate GSR – Mark C. I had the pleasure of attending the fall conference in Sioux City in Oct and it was very informative.
Clinton: The Clinton Group will be voting this month to have our 60^th Anniversary event catered and the Group will pick up the tab for the great meal we have planned. That will mean no out-of-pocket expense for those attending our Jan 13, 2008 event. Flyers will be handed out for this event at our December meeting.
Foxhall: Greetings from Foxhall. Everything is going well and attendance is good. Our elections for chair positions will be Nov 13, 2007. Our meeting is Tuesdays at 7:30 pm. Everyone is welcome.
Marquette: I attended the Fall Conference in Sioux City. It was a wonderful time and very informative. Attendance is up.
West End: The West End Group has a new open woman’s Grapevine meeting. It is held on the first and third Sunday of the month at 10:00 AM.
Old Business: JoAnn made a motion for the PI Committee to look into ways to make Intergroup’s phone number more visible. Sheryl pointed out that she didn’t need a motion; this could be done at the PI Committee level and report back.
Missed meetings – DCM could not find any past actions in place that stated if you missed three consecutive (as a Chairperson), you had to step down from your position. Other Areas also have this in place. After much discussion, a motion was made and passed stating: “A Chairperson may be dismissed after three consecutive absences. The Steering committee will make the final decision before dismissal.
New Business: GSRs should take back to your groups to see if District 9 should put in a bid for the Area 24 spring assembly in 2009. Also, should District 9 put an ad in the weekly paper regarding AA for one year? Estimate $1300 for GO section and $1820 for Leader.
It was voted to increase CPC budget by $150. Meeting adjourned at 4:30

Next meeting will be on December 2, 2007 at 3:30 at Central Discussion.