4/20/26
Reviewing consent agenda
On agenda: a, b, g
Pulled c, d, e, f — first and last for amendment, others withdrawn entirely
Second half of meeting closed
Videos of the atrium
Since there was nothing else scheduled, I took a field trip to Los Alamos. I have blog about that under my real name.
Tuesday, 4/21/26
I'm really enjoying running into people who I previously only met online. A lot of the people I knew from the Virtual Region are here.
I registered this morning & got my information packet. I'm having trouble motivating myself to read stuff.
I went grocery shopping this morning and then found that all the groceries I already had in the fridge in the room were frozen solid -- resulting in experiments in microwaving stuff I normally would not microwave.
There are 3 OA meetings per day at this event.
There's an orientation tonight.
This afternoon I attended part of the trustees meeting. I got distracted by hunting for my hat, which I need in the sun around here, which I thought was lost, tho it later turned up in my room under one of my shopping bags.
I learned that the consent agenda that they were discussing were actually not in our delegates binder, because the trustees agenda is different from the business conference agenda. I've been struggling to understand an agenda that apparently wasn't even available to be examined.
There were some reports.
The treasurer was the one who I most understood, so I have more extensive notes. These were from this month.
- contributions are ahead of budget
- sales of literature are behind budget
- pamphlets & digital literature are ahead of budget
- $147k monthly income -- head of last year and on budget
- expenses better than forecast
- net income $12k
- but the stock market is down -- creating an overall net deficit of $92k
- can't depend on the portfolio to keep us above water, but the stock market is up again -- a budget is not dependent on investments
- there's a YTD surplus of $20k
- the budget does involve going into reserves. If we don't get an additional $178k, we're going into reserves (which are $2 million)
- I don't understand this part, but apparently some members save money by placing multiple pamphlet orders rather than one large order
The day started with a workshop called the power of we. We did some playful exercises. I was a bit late, so I missed some of them.
The first exercise invited involved, writing things on pieces of a puzzle that you could then put together. I don’t know what they started with, but the second thing they put on were slogans – slogan for each puzzle piece.
The second exercise involved first writing a service that someone did for you that helped you connect with OA. The second involved with writing an affirmation that helps you in OA.
Then we met with our committee for about two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. We formed subcommittees. I was on the unity with diversity committee. We had three sub committees that we formed had to do with
1) Communications, with diverse populations;
2) accommodations for people with disabilities,
3) Working towards having future world service business conferences in other countries.
Then we had subcommittee meetings. I signed up for both two and three, but was only able to go to one, so I chose accommodations for people with disabilities. I volunteered to be secretary of that subcommittee. I was the one who originally suggested that subcommittee last year. The subcommittee is going to be working on a workshop relating to accommodating people with disabilities in OA.
For dinner, they have shuttles going into old town, Albuquerque, where there are restaurants and interesting old buildings. Unfortunately, most of the shops there tend to close around five. The shuttle buses only start at 4:30.
In the evening, we had a workshop relating to the financial problems that world service is having. They are running a deficit budget. Their ideal budget would’ve had a $400,000 deficit. They did manage to whittle that down to 178,000 deficit. They have $2 million in reserves, but they don’t like running a deficit budget. They encouraged us to make monthly contributions to world service.
My intergroup used to make additional direct donations to World Service. Now we just send in what meetings direct. I think we should resume additional direct donations.
They own their own building with no mortgage. They have 14 employees.
They’re having 3 meetings a day here – and I’m not getting to them, except for part of one
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4/23/26
NB: Things to bring (for future conventions)
- Paper. You have to communicate with others by note and they only give you one sheet of paper
- Binoculars. I can’t see the facial expressions of people speaking and sitting in front
- Auxiliary battery: you’re not supposed to plug in in the room
Made motion to eliminate “or chewing gum” from standing rules
Rotation of seating. Don’t leave stuff on table at lunch.
Should bring binoculars to see across the room. Should bring paper, because they only give you one piece and all communication is by notes.
Roll call, by state or province or county
Announcements to Rebbe, Secretary, via page
Need to bring auxiliary battery for charging as plugging in is not allowed
Amendment to strike “or chewing gum” fails
Standing rules approved
Amendments
Strike, insert , strike and insert
To put words back in — Strike from amendment. Might strike Strike to put stuff back in
Germane: should not change topic
Secondary amendment must amend the amendment
Reference committee
Two from each region
Working out issues with motions. Combining items of same subject matter
Consent agenda
H removed from consent agenda
A, C, F
Approved without discussion
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Missed chair’s report
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Treasurers report
Working on breaking out reserves as to what they are for
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Managing director
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Region reports
9 is pulled for questions
Committee reports
Convention
Willing to consider convention outside the USA
Need better communication—previously just sent messages to regions and asked them to pass on. Not working. Need more direct communication
Delegate support
Mexico not here
Most applications for assistance were international
International publications
Royalties down, don’t know why
Materials
Conference v board approval of literature
Conference approved got widespread distribution and are approved by this conference
Board approved literature examples:
Specific purposes
Lifeline articles
E.g. meeting format
Website review
Problem accessing bookstore from phone and tablet
oa.org has faces on it — marketing decision — no members faces — believe it will attract newcomers
Parliamentary inquiry
Conference approved literature
Possible duplication of effort wrt accommodating disabilities
Quarterly board meetings are supposed to eliminate duplication of efforts
Proposed literature motion A-a
Literature re mental health adopted
Literature motion A-b
Unity with diversity checklist
Will be a free download
Previous book should be on it
Trustee candidate speeches
Apparently there are 6 candidates for 7 slots
There were five Americans and one not
There was only one man
*****
Proposal g
Amended to be opt in rather than opt out to conform to GDPR (European law)
List of attendees before
Carries
Motion d
to reference
Motion E
Change overeating to eating
Quite a bit of dissent in pros and cons. Maybe this is against our brand and history
Carries
Proposal H
Pro: not just at the beginning
Con: the purpose of this was to prevent closing with a Christian Prayer ( The Lord’s Prayer) which is commonly done in other fellowships
Con: shouldn’t prescribe meeting content
This is for the policy manual and suggested meeting formats
Question: What about the serenity statement (secular)?
That would be an additional amendment (see proposal I)
Question: would this prevent a non-approved prayer?
No it’s a suggestion
Question: would this impact the suggested meeting format?
Yes
Standing count 93-60 adopted
They conduct people to count off and sit after being counted
Motion K
Not considered by reference committee
Virtual retreat
Motion to refer to convention planning committee to be bright back next year. This committee is to be established, if I understand correctly.
Our staff doesn’t have the bandwidth to do this currently. It’s premature to make this decision.
If the committee can report back on it, then we can go forward from there.
Pro: we all trust our service complicated figured out before the board
Con: I feel that referral to Committee is a way of telling something and I really don’t think doing a virtual retreat is all hard
Last convention lost $50k. If we had cancelled we would have lost $90k
What is the difference between convention and retreat? Typically retreats in the past have been smaller service bodies, while conventions have been larger. But this uses the language retreat, in original motion
Motion to refer is adopted
We have 18 minutes and still need to do announcements. Stop for now
Reference subcommittee at 7:30, not at 5:15
Motions B, M, D
Motion and amendment makers should be there
Avoid scents
Closing 7 min early
Evening program about the PIPO service manual
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4/24/26
Trustee election
Very strict procedures
- No papers or bags on table
- No talking
- No one enters or leaves room
- Paper ballots
- X means yes, blank means no
- To abstain, do not turn in ballot
- When finished raise hand when finished
- Pages gather ballots when everyone is finished
Proposal B
Adding plain language big book to approved literature. Currently, only literature copyrighted before 2010 is approved
Relevant to whether this can be read at meetings, not to whether sponsors can use it with sponsees
Concerns with how this may affect OA literature sales
Approved literature may be sold at the OA bookstore
Proposal passes
Proposal M
All AA literature to be approved
Motion defeated
Trustee election results
152 votes cast
77 required to elect
All candidates received more than the majority
1 trustee position declared vacant
All ballots to be destroyed after conference
Motion D
Maker wishes to withdraw
No objection
Was just editorial
Motion withdrawn aaa
Proposal I
Adding Serenity statement to list of suggested prayers
Serenity statement is in materials
“The” should be removed before “courage” and “wisdom”.
I seek the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Proposed amendment to include text of the statement
Second proposed amendment to add the word today to the proposed wording of the serenity statement
Third amendment appears — referred to reference subcommittee
Proposal J
Ethnically Jewish should be a special focus category
Ballot vote
157 ballots
51-96
Defeated
Proposal 1
Changing boards to bodies
Amendment: change bodies to entities
Amendment fails
Passes
Proposal 6
Eliminate bylaws committee
Proposed by the by laws committee
Leave the reference subcommittee which is only used during the World service business conference
Hard to find projects to work on. Better to use efforts in carrying the message
There will continue to be by law amendments
Passes
Proposal 3
Change tradition 5, to eliminate “over” before eating
Requires a lot of hassle to change
Contact all groups
Then if we get approval we’d have to look at changing literature
Would we have to change our name?
Standing count (page goes through and has people count off and sit down after they’ve been counted)
88-64
Not two thirds
Therefore motion is defeated
152 votes
2/3 => 102
7 th tradition collection
$7265.86
15 euros
75 Canadian dollars
Motion 4
Request to withdraw
Proposal to amend step 12 to say “eaters” rather than overeaters — similar to motion just defeated
Proposal 7
Not considered by reference
By law amendment
Historically the substitute chair was not the vice chair
Yet people objected because the substitute was not the vice chair
Needs 2/3 to pass
Majority opposed
Proposal 5
Reference did not consider
Motion withdrawn
proposal 2
Not considered by reference subcommittee
Group autonomy to call HP whatever name and gender is according to their group conscience
Many languages don’t use gender.
Doesn’t require anyone to use any wording,
Requires disclaimer that it’s not in accordance with the conference approved steps and traditions
Goes to reference for three amendments
Proposal I
Reference subcommittee has considered no conclusion
Cannot be further amended
Question called
Standing count
97-49
Adopted
Reference subcommittee 7:15 proposal 2
No scents — hotel soap is scented
Check out new website
Buses only going to albuquerque uptown
