San Francisco and Marin Intergroup Meeting – Proposed Minutes
Wednesday, March 1, 2023, 7-8:30 PM

Intergroup coordinates services which individual groups in San Francisco and Marin cannot provide. We bring these services, as well as service opportunities, to our Member Groups. Our Intergroup observes the intent and spirit of A.A.’s Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts for World Service, as well as A.A.’s Three Legacies of Recovery, Unity, and Service.

7:00 Getting Started
  1. Open with the Serenity Prayer
  2. Call to order. Statement of Purpose
  3. Review the minutes and agenda
  4. Roll Call
    1. 38 groups represented: 25 from San Francisco, 13 from Marin

  1. New IGRs, Visitors, AA Anniversaries
    • . New IGRs: Pat P., Rise & Shine (Marin); Christian F., Saturday Serendipity (Marin); Steve Y., Be Still (San Francisco)
  1. Visitors: None
  2. AA Anniversaries: Maggie K., 35 years; Courtney S., 2 years; Mary W., 3 years; Joel M., 4 years; Andre B., 7 years; Steven S., 18 months, Nikki T., 16 years
  1. Approval of agenda (housekeeping item):
  2.   Approved
  3. Approval of last month’s Intergroup Meeting minutes (housekeeping item):
  4.   Approved

 

7:15 Officer Reports
  • Board Chair: Charlie
    1. 2022 Annual Report
      • Thank you to all who worked on getting the annual report out.
      • The Annual Report is available on website to download, in The Buzz and we are working on printing (date TBD)
      • Highlights include: bookstore sobriety medallions 9852 sold, pop-up bookstore, meeting breakdown, where visitors are coming from, most popular pages on the website. HelpChat text box that provides immediate access via text on the website, with a monthly average of 22 chats, highest month in February with 43 chats.
      • Plug to join service committees and how to contribute is also available in the report
    2. Board Rotation Season is coming in June
      1. Voting on three new board members (3-year term) and a new treasurer (2-year term)
      2. More information in the coming weeks. Reach out for more information [email protected]
  1.  

 

  • Treasurer: Jim
    1. Revenue
      • Total revenue $36,000, 16% ahead of budget, however -24% behind last year
      • Year-end push for contributions flooded in December 2022
      • Last year the flood of contributions happened in January
    2. Expenses
      • Total Expenses were $28,000, -14% under budget and -8% below prior year
      • Off to a good start but factors likely to erode like internet upgrade, general inflation, lift maintenance
    3. Surplus
      • Slight $9,000 surplus in January 2023
      • Likely to have another surplus in February but this revenue will need to support expected deficits from March through August 2023
    4. Prudent Reserve and Rating:
      • Liquid cash increased with operating surplus to 3 months = Excellent
      • Likely to increase further in February however will erode from March through August with expected deficits
      • Contributions happen as treasurer commitments turn over by and large
      • Prudent Reserve Calculations: Average of 2022 Expenses and 2023 budget $27,013 per month, 6 months = $162,078
      • January balance sheet $162,098 ($20 Interest posted 1/31)
    5. Faithful Fivers:
      • 373 Faithful Fivers (down 2) donated $4,923 (down -$144) averaging $13.20
      • January saw only a very slight downturn in Faithful Fivers
      • Rebranding poll next month: send or re-send to [email protected]
    6.  Questions:
        • Any impact to our budget due to Sobriety by the Bay being in San Jose this year and contributing to the San Jose Intergroup, rather than our Intergroup?
          • Response: No, we are doing better than we were last year – individual and group contributions more than made up for last year
        • What is the monthly expense burn rate?
          • Monthly burn rate is the number of months of expenses above and beyond the prudent reserve. That number is the denominator, when calculating the prudent reserve. Average of monthly budget and prior expenses divided by 12.
  1.  

 

  • Executive Director: Christina
    1. Thank you Letter to the Fellowship
      • Included in the packet is a letter of gratitude from Intergroup. Thank you to the groups for stepping up and helping with our projected deficit. It is also available on the Red Alert bar on the website.
    2. Excited to announce New Logo Reveal with name change (SF & Marin Intergroup)
    3. Central Office Updates
      • Close to internet upgrade but not there yet. Has a great team supporting upgrades. Choices are limited for the building.
    4. Bookstore – placed an order for literature so Central Office is well stocked after physical inventory.
      • Received notice from AA World Service, AA Grapevine, and medallions wholesaler that prices are increasing. Big Books are not marked up, but we will be looking at price increases. New plan for bookstore shared at next IGR meeting.
    5. Open Service Opportunities:
      • Central Office Volunteers
      • Volunteer Bookkeeper – QuickBooks
      • Tech Committee Chair
      • SF Teleservice Chair and 2 Daily Coordinators
      • Archives Committee Chair
      • Marin Sunshine Club Co-Chair
      • SF Public Relations Chair
    6. Filled Service Opportunities:
      • New Co-Webmaster: Richard!
      • New Associate Editor with the Buzz: Tad H.
  •  

 

7:35 Intergroup Committee Reports

  • Outreach Committee (Alison)
    1. Meeting was held tonight and meets at 6:00PM before the monthly Intergroup meeting
    2. Would love to grow and get some Marin representation
    3. Currently working with other service entities to get more engagement and more IGRs and talked about drafting an email with a cool piece of collateral
  • Archives Committee (Mike)
    1. Meeting quarterly now and next meeting is March 19th at Central Office at 12PM (also via Zoom)
  • Public Relations (Peter)
    1. Announcing SF Public Relations Meet the Committee Event on 3/11 from 10-11:30AM at Central Office. Learn about SFPR and committee opportunities – join us to brainstorm for 2023 SF Public Relations works
    2. Event held today with UCSF nursing students
    3. Spoke with a parent of SF school district to outreach at schools
    4. Marcus from Central Office and Peter met with SF District Attorney and Board Supervisor Dorsey to discuss what AA does and doesn’t do including court cards.
  • Sunshine Club (Clayton)
    1. Currently arranging meetings for three women.
    2. Seeking new co-chairs, especially one from Marin. Those interested in this service commitment need not be a current Sunshine Club Volunteer, 2 year sobriety commitment and contact [email protected]
    3. AA members who wish to schedule an AA meeting in person can also send a message to [email protected]

 

7:50 Service Committee Liaison Reports

  • SF General Service (Joel)
    1. District 16 looking for Spanish speaking liaison
    2. Pre- Conference Assembly – where the Area Delegate will hear all group consciences will be Saturday April 1st – April 2nd
    3. Agenda Topics Workshop – March 11th from 10AM-3PM
      • If you can’t attend but have questions about how to lead a sharing session please reach out to your DCM or if you don’t have a DCM, ask [email protected]
  1.  
  2. Marin Teleservice (Jillian)
    1. Next meeting Tuesday, March 28th at 6:30PM
    2. All committee members changed out and volunteer opportunities available
  3. Marin General Service (Kate)
    1. Panel 73 off to a great start
    2. PRAASA 2023: March 3rd-5th, Los Angeles, CA and will be in San Francisco in 2024
    3. Group Conscience on Annual Delegate Contribution by our Area (California Northern Coastal Area) to the General Service Board in respect to the 2023 General Service Conference be the anticipated full cost per conference member of $9,000
    4. Delegate, Eric L. presented on how to make Agenda Topics attractive to group members to increase participation
  4. Marin Accessibilities – District 10 (Cathy)
    1. 2 New members at February meeting
    2. Meets every 2nd Monday at 7PM on Zoom
    3. Targeted Message: share the Inclusive Language handout – Using the correct language makes people feel welcome. The whole structure of AA is trying to be all inclusive. Please spread the word back to your groups.
  5. SF H&I (Chad)
    1. Next Business Meeting in person March 18th at 10AM Mission Fellowship, 2900 24th Street SF (held on odd months from 10-11AM
    2. For those interested in volunteering 3 H&I Zoom meetings and 22 in person meetings. We need volunteers

 

8:00 Old Business

  • Inventory Question 6 Break-Out Session: Is Intergroup Serving its purpose adequately? What can Integroup do to become more effective?
    1. Group #1: Realized there wasn’t overall representation from SF and Marin but Central Office has a list and start encouraging IGRs to make announcements. 3-month rotation of in-person meetings to online. Everyone loves the break out groups but sharing more personally and having steady stream of announcements may be easier at in-personal meetings.
    2. Group # 2: Suggestion to have a buddy system pairing a new IGR with an experienced IGR. Hold two separate meetings; first financial and detailed and a second meeting that is more in tune with opportunities and involvement. IGRs in between meetings make a point to travel to and visit underrepresented meetings in their areas. Create a 5-year plan using creative promotion and get back together in person.
    3. Group #3: Need more participation and groups to get involved. New outreach committee that meets before meeting – what’s level of participation there? The buzz weekly communication – need to do more outreach. Normally 10% of people do 90% of the work – maybe the Outreach Committee can come up with scripts or handouts for people to show what IGR is and what we are doing. Try to make it as attractive as possible. Business of Intergroup is dry, unless you are into advanced AA it’s not very exciting unless it’s the money issue that came up recently. Post Covid – really through a monkey wrench in this thing. Don’t get to meet face to face, easy to turn off the camera – let’s get back into the rooms.

More focused message – having some place on the website or literature where we aggregate all the service opportunities – page on the website with links to go to committees. Reach out to groups without IGR reps and push that out there and do more in person.

  • Intergroup In-Person Meetings Discussion
    1. Tabled.
  • Tech Follow-Up (Andrew)
    1. What does it take to have a hybrid meeting?
      • Pre-Production Questions
        1. Budget: What do we need to do this in a sustainable way?
        2. Will the venue provide internet, screens, or audio or do we need to buy?
        3. Limitations
        4. Test It
        5. Internet limitations
        6. Mobile Hotspots?
        7. There is no one way to do this
      • Audio
        1. How do you get the Zoom into the Room?
        2. Does your venue have a sound system?
        3. An Interface is essential equipment for hybrid
          • converts analog audio signals or digital signals to analog signals which allows you to record and playback
          • Microphones?
          • Computers: Use 1 computer for all audio. No Chromebooks
      • Video
        1. Camera and Encoders:
          • PTZ Camera – expensive. you can move them around with control and create presets with attendees
          • webcams
          • switchers for cameras
          • anonymity: be careful of camera shots. You can tape out areas on the floor for anonymity
          • Devices as video sources?
        2. Roles and Responsibilities
          • Equipment Operators
          • Program Content/Chair
          • Timer
          • Camera and Reading Lips
          • Accessibilities: Interpretation through Zoom or microphone
          • Virtual Operators (Manage Virtual Elements of Session – spotlighting people)
        3. Hybrid Events: There are in person and digital elements
          • compare crossover/livestream (not hybrid). Low Budget and provide a live view into an in person not interactive
    2. Compare crossover: Physical and virtual
      • There is no one way to make Hybrid work
    3. Comments/Question: Suggestion to form an Ad Hoc committee to look into hybrid or go to current hybrid meetings for more information on how they are leading hybrid

8:25 New Business

  • Online AA meetings based in San Francisco and Marin Counties shall be listed on the printed meeting schedule of meetings
    1. Tabled for Next Month

 

8:30 Targeted Message

  1. Check out San Francisco and Marin Intergroup’s first ever Annual Report. Our Annual Report is one of the best ways to see all the important 12th Step work we do every day. A few of the 2022 highlights include our new name, hiring a new Executive Director, welcoming volunteers back into Central Office after the pandemic and launching the Marin pop-up bookstore. It also contains many interesting facts, such as the number of visitors to our aasfmarin.org website, the top selling items in our bookstore and all the meetings that made contributions last year. There’s a lot of great information. Take a moment to read through the report and be sure to share it with your groups!
  2. Join an Intergroup Service Committee! Check out the newly updated org/committees for the complete list of Intergroup Committees, including what they do, when they meet, and service opportunities.
  3. San Francisco and Marin Intergroup needs Central Office Volunteers to answer the phone lines, greet customers, and assist with special projects. Minimum of 1 year sobriety. For more information about this weekly shift opportunity, please email [email protected].

 

Adjourn with the Responsibility Statement

March 2023 Intergroup Meeting Treasurer’s Narrative

Month to Date / Year to Date Ended
January 31, 2023

REVENUES:

Revenues for January 2023 exceeded budget but were well below January 2022. This was likely due
to the push for contributions via announcements before year end to help our deficit which manifested
in December. In 2022 such announcements were not made as we were in surplus territory heading
into year end and the surge happened in January accounting for the variance. February group
contributions are likely to be softer as a result but will likely remain slightly ahead of budget on a year
to date basis. Individual contributions were consistent with budget and prior year while bookstore
revenues exceeded prior year due to increases in foot traffic.

EXPENSES:

Expenses for January were below budget and prior year which is a testament to Central Office’s
continued expense management. An increase in rent, expenditures for required internet services and
wheelchair lift maintenance will erode this to an extent but expenses overall are likely to remain within
acceptable budget to actual variance limits throughout the year. Monitoring against revenues, prior
year, and budget will continue to alert us of any changes that need to be made due to unforseen
circumstances.

NET SURPLUS:

With low expenses and some surge in contributions due to treasurer turnovers, IFAA remained in
positive territory in January though not as much as last year. Due to the cyclical nature of contribution
revenues, we are likely to run a deficit from March through July eroding the surplus. This will also
affect our liquidity position explained below.

LIQUIDITY RESERVE:

Unrestricted cash in addition to our 6-month prudent reserve increased slightly to 3 months up from
2.7 leaving us in a good position to cover cyclical losses from March through July mentioned above.
Prudent reserve was calculated and increased in accordance with our standard formula once yearend
figures were published and the 2023 budget was approved. This is described in further detail in its
own illustration.

FAITHFUL FIVERS:

January saw a slight decrease Faithful Fivers down -2 for a total of 373 contributing -$144 fewer
dollars and averaging $13.20 down -$0.51.