District 9 Minutes

11 September 2011

 

ATTENDANCE: DCM-Pat J. Alt. DCM-Mary Ann P.; Secretary-Nova T;  Literature-Tim G; Archives-Mike; Treatment-Donna;  CPC-Susan F; Corrections-Terri B; Grapevine-Cathy G.; Intergroup Liason-Kevin K.; PI-Lee C.;Treasurer-Park.

Groups Present: Bettendorf-Erica S.; Blandine-Ken A.; Central-Laura M.; Courage to Change-Clark J.; Dewitt-Phyllis E.; Marquette-Mary Beth P.; Big Book-Jim E.; Clinton-Dave M; Sisters in Sobriety-Cheryl K.; West end-Laura M.

Treasure’s  Report-  Beginning Balance $6,608.12;Total Income-$1,027.53;Total Expenses-$689.84;Operating Balance-$6,509.51;Ending Balance-$7,109.51.

Forum Expense Report-Total Income-$1,091.97.;Total expenses-$1337.49.;Total Cost to District 9- $245.52.

DCM-I'm happy to report that the Forum was a great success and hope it was an experience for all of you as well.  292 people registered with 165 First Timers( to a Forum). I want to thank all the people who helped with putting this on and all the Groups who participated and supported the Hospitality Room.  We had many compliments on the Hospitality Room and the friendliness of our District's people.   It's now time to think ahead to the Fall Conference which will be held in Des Moines 7 - 9th of October.  If you haven't gotten your room reservation, the deadline is 9/16 for the special room rate so call soon.  Pre-registration is due by September 24th.  I know it's helpful for the Committee if we get these reservations in soon.  I attended the Area Committee Meeting in Marshalltown on August 14th.  A motion was made to have the Area 24 Delegate send a letter for the 2012 General Service Conference to reconsider using a commission sales agents to sell Grapevine subscriptions.  There was a lot of discussion regarding this.  The person making this motion feels that the process of a subscription is part of carrying the message.  This has been discussed in previous GSC that the relationship of a subscription is different than selling a book.  A subscription binds parties together; that here is no transfer of title like a book; it's a one year relationship and a 10th tradition violation.  It was felt we are hiring someone to carry the message - 8th tradition violation.  It was asked that the GSRs take this question back to their Groups and there will be discussion and vote on this in October as to whether or not we should send this letter. CPC is looking into some new ideas to carry the message; Literature mentioned there's a new Fall catalog coming out; PI shared a new pamphlet "Understanding Anonymity" is going to print and a Spanish public service announcement will go into production next year.

ALT:  The number of hits on the website www.aaquadcities.org for the month  of August were 520.  I thoroughly enjoyed all the information I  learned during the West Central Regional Forum this weekend.  I want  to thank all who participated in service for the hospitality room put on by District 9.  Also thank-you to the many greeters, registration, and transportation volunteers.  District 9 helped to make this forum a  success!
Grapevine: I was able to set up Greeters for the West Central Regional Forum on Friday, Sat and Sunday Sept. 9-11,2011.  The majority of greeters did show up for their assigned time slot and handed out the flyers for the presentation and warmly greeted all the attendees. My meeting for Grapevine will be scheduled this month and I will finish visiting the Treatment Centers to take them Grapevine subscriptions. I enjoyed the enthusiasm of the Forum and feel reenergized in the D9 Grapevine chair position.

Archives: I attended the Regional Forum over the weekend and with the suggestion of Clark I took pictures of the facility and the setup for the Forum. Clark provided pictures that he already had developed and I received banners from Leigh and flyers from Teri B. The next committee meeting that we have planned with be at 2:30 PM on Oct 1st just before the next district meeting.

CPC- In the absence of our chairperson Renae and myself will be filling in to attend  the District meetings. We contacted by email all of the churches listed in the QC Churches United booklet. We had 2 request for information. Packets of information were delivered in person by our chairperson. There is a quarterly newsletter they send out and we are checking into putting an ad in it. Methodist ministers of Scott County do have scheduled meetings and this is an option we are discussing. This would be if we choose to ask to be invited and send someone to attend to offer resources for them to refer.

Literature- Delivered AA meeting schedules to three treatment centers for the literature racks we had placed there in July and checked to see if more literature needed to be ordered.  Also, delivered a bundle of treatment literature pamphlets to Country Oaks and place them in the AA literature rack. The treatment literature was depleted and the rack was being used for among other things, NA meeting schedules, pamphlets regarding nutrition and job seeking related materials. I removed those materials not related to AA and placed them on the same table as the display rack.  I will be checking with personnel at these facilities this month to see if we need to order and place more literature and meeting schedules for these display racks.

Treatment facilities:  The Abbey in Bettendorf; CADS on East Locust in Davenport

CADS on South Fairmount Street in Davenport Country Oaks Treatment Facility. 

PI- Dropped of PI display @ abbey function, left pamphlets, business cards, mtg schedules, not many items were taken. GSR please go back to your groups and ask if anyone wants to participate in PI. Ken Atkins from Blandine has joined our PI comitee. PI has been calling laundry mats and asking if we can place grapevines in laundry mat areas,. This also helps support grapevine.

Corrections: The Friday am jail meeting starts back up again this week on the 16th. We’re lookin forward to having that meeting back on the schedule. We looked into moving it to a weekend meeting but that didn’t work out. I am looking into adjusting the sobriety requirements. At this point this is just an idea. I have yet to review GSO infor on this subject and I would like to talk to our jail contact and the past chairpersons before moving forward. I have received requests for Corrections Bridging the Gap contacts but have very few contacts to work with. I sent email out to each GSR a few days ago asking for the sign-up sheets that Elle sent out a few months ago. I believe we need to kick-start this program again to get it up and running. I will be in contact with all GSR’s this week to review how Corrections Bridging the Gap works and to ask them to give this program a boost at their next business meeting. Correction’s has received a request from RCF to have us involved with their program. Clark J has put me in touch with Becky at RCF who I spoke with this past Friday morning. Clark has been doing a wonderful job with the Treatment Bridging the Gap presentation. Because the majority of its clients already attend AA, RCF is looking for something a little different to suite their needs. It was originally thought they wanted an AA meeting brought in but Becky said that was not the case. Becky mentioned the part of the presentation they enjoy the most is the discussion period after the video where we share a little of our experience, strength and hope regarding what AA has done for us and how AA can help them. She still wants a presentation so it was decided that a speaker meeting would be brought in on the firs Tuesday of each month from six to 7:30. This meeting will be for men and women since they bring in the women from 605 Main. We will bring in two speakers per meeting.

Treatment: Is has been discussed and decided that RCF (Residential Correctional Facility) service work should be overseen through Corrections rather than Treatment and Terry B (Corrections Chair) will be contacting RCF to discuss their needs.  We put out our Treatment Display at a Recovery Walk hosted by The Abbey along with schedules on Saturday, September 10th, 2011.  We will be having a Treatment Committee Meeting on Sunday October 2nd – Blandine Group 117 ½ Perry Street, Davenport, IA immediately following their 11am meeting (about 12pm)  I brought more sign up sheets for GSR’s to take to their home group in an effort to update the Bridging The Gap volunteer list.  Please be sure to pass these along to your treatment liaison (if your group has one) or post and encourage members from your Home Group to volunteer and return them to me ASAP.  I attended the West Central Regional Forum at the Clarion Hotel Sept 9th – 11th, 2011.  I found it to be very enlightening and informational.

Group Reports-

Courage to Change- Annual Picnic is scheduled for Sept 24th. It will again be held at West Lake’s Breezy Point. All are welcomed.
Central Discussion- Central Discussion will be having their anniversary at the Knights of Columbus on September 18,2011. Doors open at 11:00. Lunch starts at 12:oo. Speaker starts at 1:00. Our next business meeting is on October 16, 2011 at 5:30pm.

Sisters in Sobriety- Sisters in Sobriety had a great time helping out with the District 9 Hospitality Room for the West Central Forum.  We also wanted to thank Pat J, Park P,

and all of our District 9 Fellow AAers for their warm help as greeters,

registrars, and manning the Hospitality room.  Sisters in Sobriety is happy to report we had an awesome 2 year Anniversary Speaker Meeting and Celebration on August 6.  We also are happy to report our attendance has tripled since our beginning just 2 years ago.  Thank you for your continuing support.  Ladies, come visit our Big Book meeting on Saturday mornings 10 am, 3019 N Harrison, Davenport.

 New Business: Clark would like to make a motion that District not support the banquets at the Spring Fall Conference as this does not promote “spreading the message”, to our District. GSR’s are to take this back to their group and will vote on next month.

Old business- Mary Ann discussed a presentation tool for GSR’s to take to their Groups, better explaining what District does. Park&Mary Ann will bring an example next month.
Our next meeting will be on October, 2nd at 3:30pm.