Portland Area Service Committee
of Narcotics Anonymous
4069 NE MLK jr. Blvd
Portland, OR 97211
April 24th, 2004
The Chair called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm. The meeting opened with a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer for those who cared to join in.
The 12 Traditions were read by: James
The 12 Concepts were read by: Chris
Concept 4 was read by: Greg
The Dedication to Service was read by: Steve
Roll Call of the BOD
12 present.
Roll Call of Groups and Mail Call
38 present. Group mail and copies of the NAWS News were handed out.
Count of voting GSRs to establish a quorum
All groups attending were eligible to vote. The average number attending
was 45 and quorum was set at 23.
New GSR Orientation
Treasurer’s Report, Joan T.
See enclosed reports. Joan had an additional matter she wanted to discuss
but waited until Open Forum to bring it up.
Secretary Report, Mary E.
Rick motioned to suspend the reading of the minutes, seconded by Recovery In The
House. Motion passed by general consent. There was an amendment to
the minutes on page 3. Under “P.C.R.C.N.A. XIII, ad hoc, Allen M.”
within the report, the last sentence should read: “The next meeting will be
held at Providence Medical Center on NE 47th and Glisan Street in Portland the
third Sunday of the month at 2:00 pm.” The word “last” should be
stricken from the minutes. Motion to accept the minutes as amended made by
Suki, seconded by New Journey, motion passed by general consent.
Suki was present at Area this month. Please address any questions to her
while the meeting is being conducted. Also, let one of us know if your
group is being represented at area today if you missed role. This is the
responsibility of the GSR to let us know your group is present and being
represented. All sub-committee Chairs need to fill out a report form for me and
a financial report form for Joan. I am continuing to follow up on the
application with the post office for a non-profit mailing rate/permit. The
application requires a proposed budget for our fiscal year that Joan will
provide.
Once the budget has been made, I will submit for approval from the body at Area
and continue to proceed with the application process.
I attended the meeting of the schedule ad hoc auditing committee and the Public
Information business meeting.
Chair Report, Colin W.
The Chair would like to propose holding the May PASC business meeting on
Saturday the 22nd, one week earlier than the meeting day is normally held in
order to accommodate a national holiday weekend. There were no objections
to the Chair’s decision so the next monthly business meeting will be held May
22, 2004 at the same location and time.
Open Forum
Joan T. has established two additional positions to assist the Treasurer in the
performance of duties. Sunny agreed to act as one of those assistants, handling
the accounts payable portion of the Treasurer’s responsibilities; Charlie will
be the other and cover the accounts receivable. Her purpose in doing this is to
increase accountability for the funds under the control of this committee,
because the way that we do things now is very much counter to standard
accounting practices. It is usually considered to be poor practice at best (and
an invitation to embezzling, at worst) to have a single person be responsible
for both the handling of funds for a corporation and the record keeping that
details how those funds were spent.
She noted that the establishment of these positions is probably counter
to the current By-laws—they contain a specific description of the
Treasurer’s duties which states that the Treasurer performs all of the tasks
of the position.
Mary E. read the appropriate section of the By-laws to the committee, so
that everyone present would be working from the same information.
“Treasurer: The Treasurer shall receive all designated Area funds, pay all
designated Area Subcommittee allotments, and maintain all designated Area funds
and reserves in the PASC bank account. At the beginning of each calendar month,
the Treasurer shall disburse or set aside the money to pay all the bills that
will be due in that month, set aside a prudent reserve of two months operating
expenses with the exception of literature, and shall disburse all remaining
funds to the Pacific Cascade Region of Narcotics Anonymous. The Treasurer shall
also serve as the treasurer of the PASC BOD. The Treasurer shall have a
suggested minimum of three years clean time.” PASC By-laws, p.3.
Joan answered a couple of questions from the floor regarding how these
individuals were chosen and whether or not these are elected positions at
present or are intended to become in the future. She also provided some further
information regarding her intentions and reasoning. Discussion thereafter
centered primarily on how the change might affect what happens at the PASC
meeting itself. Joan gave clear descriptions of which person should be
approached for what purpose and that, ultimately, she no longer believes it is
necessary for her to be present at the monthly area meeting once the duties have
been divided.
Rick pointed out that the Treasurers for Activities and Literature, the
two subcommittees that generate the majority of the funds for the PASC, each run
by the same guidelines that the By-Laws specify for the area Treasurer; if we
are concerned about providing greater accountability for the donations Area
receives, then we should also logically be concerned about accountability for
the funds generated by those committees. Ron remarked that Rick is mistaken and
that the Activities Subcommittee has already separated those functions; Rick
agreed. There is still concern about the Literature committee and handling
of their funds.
Jerome requests assistance in beginning a new bilingual meeting for Russian
speaking addicts. Anyone who could facilitate such a meeting or knows
someone who could should contact Lawrence J., the Outreach sub-committee Chair.
Colin apologized for not forming an ad hoc committee at the last business
meeting to address tracking meetings and keeping the meeting schedule current.
The Public Information committee, (who currently handles the schedule changes),
Outreach and Public Information sub-committees took initiative to meet and
discuss problems and solutions about maintaining the meeting schedule. The
next meeting of the committee will be May 2nd, 2004 at 2:00 pm at 6506 SE Foster
Rd.
The Pacific Cascade Regional Convention XII will be held May 14th-16th in
Roseburg, OR. Flyers are available.
Vice Chair report, Allen S.
Allen conducts sub-committee reports.
Activities sub-committee, Aaron R.
There are many activities planned for the summer months and we need addicts who
are willing to be of service to help out. Please see the Activities at a
Glance calendar for sub-committee meetings and upcoming events. A hike up
Multnomah Falls trail is planned for Saturday, June 5th.
Hospitals & Institutions sub-committee, Brad C.
57 commitments were held, 3 were missed, 1 was cancelled and a total of 979
addicts were seen in April.
Hotline sub-committee, Rusty B.
No report given.
Literature sub-committee, Jeff S.
We had $3007.52 in sales and our WSO order was $2951.27.
Outreach sub-committee, Lawrence J.
The committee is helping with the schedule audit. We visited 2 meetings
this month, (Recovery in the House). There are still more positions open
on the committee board more volunteers are welcome and there is lots of work to
do. Bryan E. is our vice chair
and Heather S. is our Secretary. No clean time requirement to participate
on this committee.
Public Information Sub-committee, Jim B.
At our last meeting, we discussed and implemented a working format for how we
conduct business and touched on the need to possibly create guidelines for the
web site. We then turned the meeting over to the Ad hoc committee chair
for auditing the schedule.
RCM/Alt RCM report, J.B.
RCM report to area: 1) Regional budget passed 2) Conferences and conventions
handbook on guidelines passed 3) Tom M., of the High Desert Area, has been
nominated to the World board and has already gone through two of the major
hurdles necessary for election this year at the WSC. As a practical note only
those that are present are voted in. Kathy K, our Alt. Regional Delegate to
World, made a motion to send Tom M. to the WSC with the unused allocated funds
for the unfilled 2nd Alt. Reg. Delegate. With much discussion, including
personal motives, the motion failed 4-4-3. I voted against this motion because I
felt it was an inappropriate use of regional funds. 4) Denise of the
Mid-Willamette Valley Area was nominated to be the interim 2nd Alt. Reg.
Delegate because the position is currently open and funds are allocated in the
budget and we need to have a Reg. Delegate in training. She is aware that the
position entails 6 years of commitment up to and through the delegate positions.
5) Other Regional nominations were made and included currently serving officers
except for Kathy K for Regional Delegate. Nominations that are still open
include Literature chair, Additional needs and Archivist. 6) Copies are
available for upcoming Regional and Zonal events including PNW#27 which will be
held in Vancouver, BC on Oct. 7) Our next RSC and GSR Assembly will be on July
24th and 25th in North Bend and all GSRs are strongly encouraged to attend. 8)
There was no Regional Activities Calendar because only two areas submitted
upcoming events. In loving service and gratitude, JB
PASO sub-committee, Ron C.
The committee will request, in motion form, an amount designated for use as a
refundable deposit on a possible location site. We would like to clarify
that a previous motion for such funding was never used. We would also like
to clarify that Motion #14 was passed as a workable business plan by the body of
this area.
By-law ad hoc committee, Mary E.
Unfortunately we were unable to meet again during the month of April. The
next meeting will be held at my house on Wednesday, May 12th at 6:00 pm.
Committee members and other interested persons may want to attend. I am
hoping this will be the final meeting of the committee.
P.C.R.C.N.A. XIII 2006, Chair, Aaron, R.A bid for the convention was made during
the last Regional Conference and was accepted. The final date for the convention
will be the first weekend in May of 2006.
New GSR Recognition
Learning to Live Jerome J. GSR
The Nooner Anderson Alt GSR
Roosevelt Alt GSR
Burnside Blues Gary J. GSR
Here & Now Joey J. Alt GSR
We welcome them and ask that they keep coming back!
Break 3:45 – 4:00 pm
Reopen meeting with a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer for those who care to join in.
Recount of voting GSRs
30 present.
Unfinished Business
Motion#23; removes the directive from our by-laws stating that we vote for
officers using a written ballot.
The Chair ruled the motion out of order because the maker was not present.
This ruling was made because some members said that a previous motion had been
passed allowing the Chair to make this ruling. The Archivist will research
the existence of said motion and will report on it at the May business meeting.
New Business
The following motions were taken out of order because they were requests for
starter kits for new meetings and to accommodate the Literature committee.
Motion #29; submitted by Lawrence C. and seconded by Late Night Recovery. Requesting a Starter Kit donation for a new young people’s group called “Doin’ the Deal.” Our meeting is held every Saturday night from 7-8:30 p.m. Our current location is 8640 SE Ellis until we can get a permanent location. Purpose: To gain a starter kit donation for a new young people’s NA group to carry the message to the addict who still suffers. Motion passed by general consent with 1 Abstention.
Motion #30 was withdrawn by the maker, Thomas Z.
Motion #31, submitted by Marty, seconded by The New This Is It. Requesting a starter kit for a new meeting called “Keeping It Real”. Meets Monday night at 7:30 p.m. at 5641 SE 111th Ave. in Portland. This is an open meeting, handicap accessible, and has a children’s room. Purpose: To carry message of recovery to addict who still suffers and support a new NA meeting. Motion passed by general consent with 5 abstentions.
Motion #26, submitted by Mary E., seconded by Recovery in the House. Affects
the PASC By-laws. To permanently change the day of the month that Area meets to
the third Saturday of the month in May, November and December.
Purpose: To promote attendance at area by removing conflict with national
holiday weekends and to accommodate the planning of both sub-committee and group
business meetings for those months.
Discussion included a comment that several of the subcommittees have a calendar
that is established by their chairs and takes those holidays into account.
Someone pointed out that this motion limits the PASC unreasonably, in that
sometimes a 31-day month has 5 Saturdays, so permanently setting the PASC
meeting on the third Saturday in those months might place our meeting much
earlier in those months than normal. Colin agreed to determine a calendar for
the remainder of this year and submit that to the PASC in May for approval. He
also agreed to propose a calendar for 2005 in January of next year. The motion
was withdrawn by the maker.
Motion to extend business meeting made by Never Alone, seconded by New Journey, result of vote: 17 For, 2 Opposed, 0 Abstentions, motion passed.
Motion #27 To be voted on by the PASC groups at their next regular business
meeting.
Submitted by: Area Schedule Inventory Ad hoc Committee, seconded by Late Night
Recovery. Motion: to only have Portland Area meetings on the PASC
schedule.
Purpose: To be fully responsible to those we serve and to be able to produce an
accurate schedule that can be responsibly maintained.
Motion #28, submitted by the Area Schedule Inventory Subcommittee: To remove all phone numbers from the Portland Area meeting schedule except the Hotline and Helpline numbers. Purpose: to protect the anonymity of individuals when providing meeting schedules to clearance facilities. Motion did not receive a second.
Motion #32, submitted by Jackie, seconded by Never Alone: to entertain a
men’s convention in 2006. Purpose: to bring more unity between men in (the)
fellowship, promote healing from all addictions.
After some discussion about whether or not this question would be more
appropriately handled by the Activities subcommittee, the motion was withdrawn
by the maker. (Jackie agreed to attend a meeting of Activities and to propose
this motion there instead.)
Motion #33, submitted by PASO as an emergency motion, seconded by Learning to
Live. To release up to $750.00 to the PASO for a refundable good faith offer to
hold a possible location for the Area. The PASO shall present to the Area at the
May PASC business meeting a budget for this location if it is found to be
appropriate for the Area. Purpose: to secure possible location for the PASC.
After significant discussion regarding the proposed location and the logistics
of making a good faith offer (including under what specific conditions we would
be able to obtain a refund), the motion passed unanimously.
Motion to close by New Journey, seconded by Late Night Recovery, motion
passed unanimously.
Meeting adjourned at 4:55 pm.