Greater Toronto Area Intergroup

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Greater Toronto Area Intergroup

GENERAL MEETING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2017

(These Minutes approvedby Floor Members)

The meeting convened at 8 p.m. with a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer. Nina L. (Sisters in Sobriety) read the Twelve Traditions.

THOSE MEMBERS PRESENT:A Place to Share, Aurora, Bayview, Beaches, Beverly Hills, Birds of a Feather, Bloordale, Church Street, East York, Friendly, Glenholme, Half Century, High Park, Hill, King City, Leslie, Long Branch, Maple, Markland Wood, Meadowvale Fellowship, Midtown, Night Owls, Noon Rap, North Toronto, Orleta (Polish), Pine Hills, Port Credit, Primary Purpose, Queensville, Reaching Out (Brampton), Responsibility, Restoration & Recovery, Richmond Hill, River Drive Park, Royal York, Sisters in Sobriety, Six Points, Spiritual Kindergarten, Stepping Stones Discussion, Streetsville, Streetsville St. Andrews, Sunnyside, Twelfth Tradition, and Yorkville.

District Liaisons:Districts06, 12, 14, and 22.

Executive Committee Members: Aaron K., Bert J. (EC Vice Chair), Dan B., Nina L., Richard E., Roman R. (EC Chair), Simon W.,Sue H., and Vanessa C. (Finance Chair).

Subcommittee Chairs:Accessibility (Committee member), Archives, Communications, Finance, Grapevine (Secretary), Info AA Day 2018, ORC 2018, Twelfth Step, and WSOH 2017.

ADOPTION OF MINUTES – September 2017:

MOTION to adopt Minutes as presented moved by Mike C. (Beverly Hills) and seconded by Jeannette E. (Stepping Stones Discussion). MOTION CARRIED.

Chairperson’s Opening Remarks- Roman R. (Stepping Stones), EC Chairperson:

Roman thanked everyone for attending this evening, and shared the following information:

• When standing to ask a question during reports, please state your name, group, and service position;
• There’s lots of business this evening, including a Motion to Suspend Business to obtain two new EC members, in addition to a group conscience vote under Unfinished Business;
• There is a call for resumes for the ORC 2020 Chairperson. 10 years of continuous sobriety and relevant committee experience is needed. Deadline for applications: January 31, 2018. Please send resumes to 234.

At this point in the meeting, the members of the Executive Committee introduced themselves to those present.

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There was a MOTION to Suspend Regular Business to elect two new EC members, which was carried. After explaining the length of sobriety needed for the positions, and what was involved in serving as an Executive Committee Member, Roman then asked for nominations/volunteers from the Floor.

Jack V. (Reaching Out/Brampton) will serve as a new EC member. There is still one EC member needed. An election will be held next month.

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There was a collection of the 7th Tradition, which totaled $163.20.

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FINANCE REPORT – Vanessa C. (Rox Glen Traditional), Finance Committee Chairperson:

Toronto Intergroup FINANCE Report at Sept 30, 2017

SUMMARY: / ACTUAL Results:
Sept 2017 / BUDGET:
Sept 2017 / ACTUAL Results:
JAN. to Sept 2017 / BUDGET:
JAN. to Sept
2017
Income / $10,645 / $14,996 / $101,884 / $106,970
Expenses / ($18,761) / ($19,849) / ($160,481) / ($172,938)
Net Income or (Deficit) / ($8,116) / ($4,853) / ($58,597) / ($65,968)

SEPTEMBER 2017

The Actual results show expenses for the month of September exceed income by $8,116 (a budgeted vs actual difference of $3263).

The unfavourable result for Sept 2017:

-Lower than anticipated Group Donations

-Individual donations that are higher than anticipated for September

-Higher than anticipated operating expenses (gratitude month mailer).

JANUARY 1 to SEPTEMBER 30, 2017

For the first 9 months of 2017, Intergroup recorded an Actual Net Deficit of $58,597 versus an anticipated Budgeted Deficit of $65,968.

The ahead of budget results of $7,371 ($58,597) – ($65,968), primarily reflect the following:

-Lower than anticipated operating expenses (-$2,125)

-Lower staff costs (-$4209)

-Lower Committee expenses (-$2597) – due to monthly fluctuations in spending

-Lower net Literature sales (-$8453)

Prudent Reserve:

Target Prudent Reserve of $ 287,787 vs. Actual Prudent Reserve of $244,344.67.

Additional Comments/Clarifications provided by Vanessa include the following:

Donations Chart/Literature Sales Chart: These sheets were included in your Financial Reports package. This is for the years 2015/2016/2017. Literature sales are down a little; it is not clear as to why. As of October 24, Gratitude Donations (individuals and groups) are at about $30,000. Hopefully this figure will be higher taking in to account the months of Oct./Nov/Dec.

Office Report: Freda, who was our Office Manager has left us; she’s moved on to work at a public accounting firm. That’s a big change. We are doing our best to deal with this, while we figure out how we are going to move forward. We are taking Freda leaving as an opportunity to fully review the duties of the staff, and looking at potential re-structure in order to reduce costs. When reviewing and creating the budget for 2018, we recognize that there are more efficient ways of operating. We will give you a detailed report next month that is concurrent with the 2018 budget presentation. Please bear with us while we sort it out.

Office Update: In order to deal with Freda leaving, we’ve hired a part time bookkeeper. This bookkeeper (currently until December) will work for 5-10 hours a week, at a reasonable rate. Freda has also agreed to stay on at a maximum of 4 hours per week (weekends only). This is to help with the accounting side of operations. The Office Manager’s voice mail -- as well as the email address -- has instructions for a list of staff or EC members you can get in touch with. Freda, Vanessa, and one other EC member will be monitoring the e-mail account.

Yearly Gratitude Initiative:We have some ideas towards this; we will have a better idea of this next month. Gratitude Month is an important event for Intergroup. The responsibility for thus falls under the Finance Committee (i.e. prepare the Gratitude flyer, bringing better awareness of this initiative to the groups). The idea is, that instead of Gratitude Month being the role of the Finance Committee (as there is not enough ‘volunteer power’ to do this), that we create a subcommittee for Gratitude month that would exist throughout the year. This would be much like other Intergroup Subcommittees that are seasonal (i.e. WSOH, Info AA Day). This committee would be able to look at a more cost-effective mailing, and hopefully update the outdated mailing list. This is a big job and is not realistic for the Finance Committee to take on. If a change is made in this regard, it will be included in GTAI’s Procedures and Guidelines document.

2018 Proposed Budget: Thank you to the subcommittees who have confirmed. The FC gave a deadline of October 31 for their proposed budgets. The subcommittees we haven’t heard from are: Archives, Corrections, Public Information, Treatment, WOSH, and Communications. If you have emailed and it was missed, please re-send to . If these subcommittees can confirm by the end of this week, that would be great! If not, we will assume that the budget for your subcommittee will be the same as 2017.

After presenting the above report, Vanessa mentioned to Reps that if they have any questions regarding the financial reports, they can send them to .

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS______

ACCESSIBILITY –Jen G. (Sisters in Sobriety), Committee Member:

1. Both Steve and I attended Kingston Area meeting this past weekend. Accessibilities had a separate meeting that was very well attended. Several issues discussed. Resources shared on making meeting locations and special AA events accessible. Other subjects discussed: lack of attendance at meetings (last meeting 3 attended), the committee direction and purpose and location/time of the meetings. Virtual participation (i.e. Skype) and teleconference participation was discussed because some members were finding the location of the meetings at 234 a challenge to attend. Having bi-monthly meetings also discussed. Several attendees reported they would be attending the Toronto meeting more frequently.

Accessibility had a separate session for the Service Day on service dogs which was very informative. There was an inspirational share on one members’ experience bringing meetings to a member’s home who could no longer attend meetings.

1. Steve will be stepping down as the meeting Chair in December. The committee needs a new Chair. As well, the secretary position needs to be filled.

Yours in love and service, Jen G, Sisters in Sobriety, Toronto Accessibility Meeting member

Next meeting: There will be no meeting of this subcommittee in November.

ARCHIVES – Gord H. (Bloordale), Chairperson:

We have tickets and flyers for the 33rd Annual Archives Breakfast to be held on Sun. Nov.5 at the Oasis Convention Centre (Mississauga). Tickets are $25 and available from Bob D., myself, or any members listed on the event flyer. Please announce at your groups! The event features a delicious breakfast and a great speaker (Don S/, Bayview Group). The book ’50 Years of AA in Ontario’ is available for only $10 either from Archives members or at the Literature Dept. at 234.

Archives is fully self-supporting through sales of Breakfast event tickets, the book above, etc. This goes way back. Any ‘profit’ above and beyond event costs goes back into GTAI.

“Whenever a society or civilization perishes there is always one condition present; they forgot where they came from” – Carl Sandburg Next meeting: Fri. Nov.10 at 7 p.m. at 234.

COMMUNICATIONS–Chris C. (Hill), Chairperson:

This is the committee that is responsible for the Website, the monthly Newsletter (Better Times), and the GTAI Meeting Directory.

Newsletter:The November issue of Betters Times is available this evening. Featured in the edition is a call for volunteers for the upcoming Winter Season Open House (see WSOH 2017 Report below).

Website:Featured on the site are upcoming medallions, meeting changes, and holiday meetings (‘Candlelights’). The committee’s time with our current web host (ThoughtMedia) is at an end. The committee’s goal is to increase services provided by a web host, and have chosen to go with WP Engine, which is a top-of-the-line provider, with a similarity in price. The speed is better, and this host site will allow us to showcase a Literature List online. The response to emails will also be faster and will also allow for us to put up online copies of the Newsletter. Our web address will be the same and the look of our site will remain unchanged. The change will be activated in December. A big thank-you to the EC for facilitating this endeavour!

Meeting Directory:This is well-stocked, and available in the Literature Department at 234.

Next meeting: Tues. Nov.14 at 6:30 p.m. at 234.

INFORMATION AA DAY 2018 – Aaron K. (Yorkville), 2018 Event Chair:

As members may recall, the committee has looked for other opportunities and researched the possibility of hosting the event at another venue beyond the 519 Community Centre.

Lansing United Church has been the venue in previous years, and while having been convenient for the suburban traveller as well as members travelling by car from various points in the GTA, the church is still under construction and has yet to secure any bookings. Hopefully a clearance from the City will come soon. I visited the church recently for a look around and to fill out an application. The church staff had just moved into the office after being in a trailer for over a year.

The facility looks wonderful and would be great for our event. Unfortunately they are unable to make a commitment for a booking as yet. And of course, some church events will take priority. 519 Church Street is still available and the committee will need to make a decision by the end of the month.

I’m looking forward to a great day of Service at whichever venue we choose, and the committee is looking to streamline the day for reports and also look to save some money on various expenses. Next meeting: Mon. Nov.27 at 7:30 p.m. at 234.

ONTARIO REGIONAL CONFERENCE 2018 – Steve A. (Six Points), 2018 Event Chair:

Ontario Regional Conference

‘Road of Happy Destiny’

March 9 – 11, 2018

Fairmont Royal York Hotel

Toronto, Ontario

Hi Friends, I am an alcoholic, member of the Six Points Group and my name is Steve. It is my honour and privilege to serve you as the 2018 ORC Chair. As you have no doubt noticed, the posters and flyers for the 2018 ORC are now available. Please be sure to pick up a poster and some flyers for your group.

Registration is now available at Follow the links to register and reserve a room at the Royal York. We are experiencing some difficulty with confirmation emails so you may not receive yours for a few days.

Our treasurer Jill B and I met with the ORC Advisory Committee where our budget was approved. We expect operating costs to be around $112,000 and anticipate an operating deficit of approximately $2,700. Please keep in mind that plus/minus $5,000 is basically a break even position for the ORC. Since our budget was approved we have been made aware of approximately $1,000 in savings.

In the survey we conducted in the spring there were several comments on the general topic of costs of the ORC which I will try to address now. When looking at ORC costs, it is important, I think, that we remember that Toronto is ranked in the top 10 of global financial centres making the financial core of the city somewhat more expensive regardless of which hotel is the host for the ORC.

Cost of Registration: The current registration fee of $35 compares favourably to the same fee for conferences in Philadelphia, Las Vegas and other places. The conference in Philly is near the airport, while the Las Vegas event is not located on the “strip”.

In 2010 registration was $30, for 2018 the rate is $35. This represents an annual average increase of 2.1%. For 2011 the operating expense was about $74,000, as mentioned our budget is $112,000; this is an average annual increase of 7.3%. Over that period audio visual related costs rose from $15,000 to $43,000, an increase of 26.7%. This leaves the remainder of the costs rising at a rate of 2.4%.

Hotel Room Rate: In 2010, the conference room rate was $169, in 2018 the rate will be $181, an average annual increase of 0.9%. As hotel staff remind me, the hotel industry is based on supply and demand. On June 15th, the walk-in rate was $500 per night. Admittedly, March in Toronto is not June, but the rate is likely to be $275 - $300.

Banquet: There is little doubt the banquet is expensive, but not out of line with downtown restaurants. The banquet price in 2010 was $60, in 2018 the price will be $70, an average annual rate increase of 2.4%. The price includes gratuities of18% and HST of 13%. As a comparison my wife and I recently celebrated our anniversary, went out for dinner on King St. before the theatre – cost $120.

One Day Ticket: The idea of a one day ticket has been suggested before – the general idea being $20 for Saturday. There are 3 issues with this idea:

Organizational - The Advisory Committee asked me to form a committee to plan and implement a 3 day conference. Everything we do: arranging speakers, audio visual, registration etc. is geared toward achieving that goal.

Operational – as you know, we do not have scanners, turnstiles or ticket checkers outside meeting rooms. It would be very difficult to “police” ticket holders for attendance.

Financial – generally, 1,000 people register prior to the ORC. In addition, 1,000 people register on both Friday and Saturday. If 500 people were to register for one day – the cost to the ORC would be $7,500 or 6.8% of the operating expense budget.

Our web site is Please visit often and, as mentioned, sign up to receive newsletters and updates. You can also submit your information to volunteer – remember, the best job at the ORC is being a greeter. Any questions? YILS, Steve A., 2018 ORC ChairTWELFTH STEP – Cynthia F. (Yorkville), incoming Chairperson:Good Evening Everyone, I am an alcoholic and my name is Cynthia. I am your new chairperson for the Twelfth Step Committee. I am very grateful for this opportunity and looking forward to being of service.

I will have a more detailed report for you next month, I am just getting settled into my position right now and don’t have too much to tell you. The committee met on October 11th and there was a very good turnout at the meeting, I am hoping this trend will continue. If anyone is looking to be of service and would like to join our committee please come out to our next business meeting. Our next business meeting will be at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 8th at 234 Eglinton Avenue East.

We are always looking for phone greeters and currently would really like some more volunteers for the overnight shifts. Phone Training/12 Step Training occurs on the 1st Sunday of each month. Any members interested can call the Intergroup Office to get MaryAnn B’s contact information to schedule a training session. Sobriety Requirement for phone duty is 1 year continuous sobriety. Sobriety Requirement for 12 Step Volunteers is 2 years of continuous sobriety.

Yours in Loving Service, Cynthia F.

WINTER SEASON OPEN HOUSE 2017–Darren T. (Mount Royal-York), Event Chairperson:

Service Opportunity!

73rd Annual Winter Season Open House 2017

Monday, December 25, 2017

At St. James Cathedral Centre – Snell Hall – 65 Church St., Toronto

Calling VOLUNTEERS for the following Roles:

*Greeters*Speakers*Set-Up*Tear-down*Kitchen Help*Food Prep*Servers*Turkey Cookers*Cookie Bakers*Meetings Support

Contact: Darren T., WSOH Event Chairperson: .

Please start announcing WSOH in your meetings (using the event flyer) as a Fellowship Event Invitation for something fun to do on December 25! As we know, the holidays can be the loneliest, most tempting time of the year.

Please announce at November Business Meetings “WSOH needs support for the following positions”:

• Coffee Station Lead
• Greeter Lead
• Tear Down/Close Out Lead
• Pre-Event Baked Goods (Bakers) or Turkey Cookers

For those interested in applying for WSOH 2018 Event Chair, the committee encourages you to take part this year!

• There is a venue conflict with St. James Church (current location) in 2018, so this will be an exciting time to get involved!
• The committee has great ideas to share for next year

Next WSOH Committee Meeting: Tuesday, November 28 at 7 p.m. at 234.

DISTRICT REPORTS ______

CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES –Bert J. (Silverbirch), EC Liaison:

Bert reported that he was at the recent Area 83 Assembly, and attended the Correctional Facilities workshop and meeting held there. The committee will try to elect a new committee Chairperson at the upcoming meeting. Next meeting: Wed. Nov.1, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. at 234 (Committee meets bi-monthly).