Agenda - July 2025

• Allow all Area attendees the choice to attend whichever topic based workshop(s) that they want to.
• The separation of GSR's & DCM's at Area 41 is a remnant of a time when GSR's didn't vote i.e. it is a structural leftover.
• The topics currently covered in the GSR workshops can be useful for all area positions.
• Multiple topics could give more people chances to participate in workshop planning. Area Chair and/or Agenda Committee will plan workshops or delegate workshop planning.
• Topics could include, but not be limited to: training & education of GSR's, DCM's, Area Chairs; 3rd Legacy; Orientations; Group Consciences; dealing with difficult situations in service; self-support; chairing meetings; etc.

We are losing people in rotation change. Many qualified people choose not to stand that would be willing to serve if asked. These people have been some of our Groups, Districts, and Area's greatest assets. Appointments could encourage these future leaders to serve when they might otherwise balk. Having the Area Chair appoint committee chairs and service positions could also provide the Area with better rotation. Too often positions have been filled by acclamation because only one person was willing to stand at elections. Elections by acclamation are not "obtaining the best talent we can find," as per Concept 9. Selecting candidates beyond those willing to stand will allow for greater rotation. Building leadership for the future is also a concern, but Concept 9 lays it out pretty clearly:

• "Good leadership cannot function well in a poorly designed structure. But weak leadership can hardly function at all, even in the best of structures. But once we have created a basically sound structure, that job is finished, except for occasional refinements. With leadership we shall have a continuous problem. Good leadership can be here today and gone tomorrow. Furnishing our service structure with able and willing workers has to be a continuous activity. It is therefore a problem that in its very nature cannot be permanently solved. We must continuously find the right people for our many service tasks." It will continuously be difficult & we must continuously FIND the right people.
• "Fortunately our Society is blessed with any amount of real leadership - the active people of today and the potential leaders of tomorrow as each new generation of able members swarms in. We have an abundance of men and women whose dedication, stability, vision, and special skills make them capable of dealing with every possible service assignment. We have only to seek these folks out and trust them to serve us."
• "We shall be in continual need of these same attributes tolerance, responsibility, flexibility, and vision among our leaders of A.A. services at all levels. The principles of leadership will be the same whatever the size of the operation. Maybe this seems like an attempt to stake out a specially privileged and superior type of A.A. member. But it really is not so. We simply are recognizing that our talents vary greatly. The conductor of an orchestra is not necessarily good at finance or foresight. And it is quite unlikely that a fine banker could be a great musical performer. So when we talk about A.A. leadership we only declare that we ought to select that leadership on the basis of obtaining the best talent we can find."

If passed, the current chairs and service positions would stay in their current role until the next rotation, as per usual. At first passage, the current chair will develop a trial process that works best for Area 41. At the next election, the new chair will implement the new process.

Note: this agenda item only applies to committee chairs and service positions- NOT to the officer positions.

• Currently, our budget only affords the opportunity to have our West Central Regional Trustee visit once per rotation, usually at our Elections. Having another yearly guest visitor/ presenter/ speaker, who is from outside our Area or even Region, or even from the General Service Office or a Trustee, would provide broader service experience.
• Finance information to follow.

To support the ongoing efforts of the Archives Committee, propose increasing the annual Archives Committee budget by $200, specifically designated for Archivist supplies. This would create a clear spending boundary for materials such as preservation tools, storage supplies, and labeling items, ensuring they do not reduce the general operating funds for the Archives Committee.

This adjustment is intended to proactively support the essential work of the Archivist without requiring unexpected reimbursements or impacting other committee needs.