Self Support Area 83 - I am responsible..........: August Self Support Topic "Prudent Reserve"

Monday, August 6, 2007

August Self Support Topic "Prudent Reserve"

Hi Friends, here is a topic that could make for a lively discussion at your groups business meeting as well as introduce your newcomers to spiritual principles around money.

Prudent Reserve

General Service Office

In 1954 A.A.'s Board of Trustees established a reserve fund whose principal purpose is to provide the financial resources necessary to continue the essential services of G.S.O. and the Grapevine for up to one year in the event of an unexpected and substantial reduction in the normal revenues of the organization.

Area 83 International

Area 83 has a prudent reserve of 1 year, this money is invested in an interest bearing account that has little or no penalty should we need to access it.

Your Home Group

It is suggested that after meeting it's expenses, each group should have a prudent reserve. Funds in excess of the groups expenses and the prudent reserve can then be forwarded to support District/Intergroup/Area and General Service Office.

Here are some General Service Conference Approved pamplets that suggest and explain the need for a prudent reserve. You can order these from General Service office or veiw them online at www.aa.org

Self Support; Where money & spiritulaity Mix
Memo to an A.A. Group Treasurer
The A.A. Group....Where it all begins.

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12 Concepts of World Service (Short Form)

I. Final Responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole fellowship.
II. The General Service Conference of A.A. has become, for nearly every practical purpose, the active voice and the effective conscience of our whole society in its world affairs.
III. To insure effective leadership, we should endow each element of A.A. – the conference, the General Service Board and its service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives – with a traditional “Right of Decision”.
IV. At all reasonable levels, we ought to maintain traditional “Right of Participation”, allowing a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.
V. Throughout our structure, a traditional “Right of Appeal” ought to prevail, so that minority opinion will be heard and personal grievances receive careful consideration.
VI. The Conference recognizes that the chief initiative and active responsibility in most world service matters should be exercised by the trustee members of the Conference acting as the General Service Board.
VII. The Charter and Bylaws of the General Service board are legal instruments, empowering the trustees to manage and conduct world service affairs. The Conference Charter is not a legal document; it relies upon tradition and the A.A. purse for final effectiveness.
VIII. The trustees are the principal planners and administrators of overall policy and finance. They have custodial oversight of the separately incorporated and constantly active services, exercising this through their ability to elect all the directors of these entities.
IX. Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for our future functioning and safety. Primary world service leadership, once exercised by the founders, must necessarily be assumed by the trustees.
X. Every service responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority, with the scope of such authority well defined.
XI. The trustees should always have the best possible committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants. Composition, qualifications, induction procedures, and rights and duties will always be matters of serious concern.
XII. The Conference shall observe the spirit of A.A. tradition, taking care that it never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power; that sufficient operating funds and reserve be its prudent financial principle; that it place none of its members in a position of unqualified authority over others; that it reach all important decisions by discussion, vote, and, whenever possible , by substantial unanimity; that its actions never be personally punitive nor an incitement to public controversy; that it never perform acts of government, and that, like the society it serves, it will always remain democratic in thought and action.

Thanks to the contributions of groups such as yours in 2006 General Service Office was able to ..

G.S.O.'s Records Department continues to be able to keep track of all those group trusted servants you tell us about, and to send them literature and materials that may be useful in their Twelfth Step service. This includes G.S.R. kits, D.C.M. Kits, Box 4-5-9 and other materials that show up in group mailboxes.
A. A. members who may be: working on a seagoing vessel for long periods; living in remote areas with no A.A. meetings; or confined to their homes by serious illness or physical incapacity are able to stay sober through correspondence and a bimonthly bulletin sent from the General Service Office.
A television public service announcement (P.S.A.) featuring actors in brief scenes in which the still-suffering alcoholic may recognize himself or herself followed by information on how to contact A.A. if the person wishes, was made available for Public Information Committee service around the United States and Canada. Sometimes a bleary eyed drinker gets a message of hope through these PSA,s
A.A. Literature was translated into Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Croatian, Hindi, Kazakh, and Turkish, among other lanugages, enabling the hand of A.A. to reach across language barriers and carry the message of recovery.
Approx. 2175 inmates of jails, prisons and other correctional facilities will be able to be linked to outside A.A. members this year for corresondence that will help them stay in touch with a sober A.A. member. This service is percieved as such a life-saving one to inmates that the requests from male inmates continue to exceed the number of outside male volunteers. The corrections assignment at G.S.O. would be happy to hear from more volunteers.

Final General Service Conference Agenda Items (Dealing with Finance)

E. Discuss a request to incorporate shipping costs into literature pricing.
D. Discuss a request “to eliminate volume discounts on literature orders.”
C. Discuss a request to “Develop a communication plan for the purpose of increasing the level of group participation and self-support within the Conference structure.”
B. Consider two suggestions to add text regarding reimbursement for G.S.R. (general service representative) travel expenses from group funds to the pamphlet “Self-Support: Where Money and Spirituality Mix.”
A. Discuss a request to increase the maximum annual contribution (or a one time bequest) that the General Service Board can receive from an A.A. member from $2,000 to $3,000.