MINUTES TAKEN BY: Heidi K

Attendees

    Natara
    Heidi K
    John R
    Chris H
    Jen W

Agenda for this meeting can be found here

MEETING NOTES

Read Tradition 2
Serenity Prayer
Set out guidelines for the meeting

    Discussion on consensus vs. majority; majority chosen

OLD BUSINESS

Reminder that elections begin 12/18/24
    Discussion: Elections will begin at the Wednesday, 12/18/24, Moorpark meeting. This is 2 weeks before changing of the guard (start date occurs first meeting day of January/June) as decided at the last business meeting. The last Moorpark meeting to nominate and vote will be the Tuesday Newcomer meeting. Sharing the new Secretary Onboarding job description will be important for the current secretaries so potential nominees can understand the job. Training will be provided; to be discussed later in the meeting.
    Motions: None

How to conduct elections
    Discussion: Reminder that nominees can decline a nomination. Discussion about how to place nominees in a zoom waiting room, anonymous polls. It is important to share in the meetings that the job starts 2 weeks after the vote for the incoming secretary.
    Motions: None

We need an Intergroup Rep
    Discussion: The position of Intergroup Rep remains open in OIAA; Online Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous. Moorpark can have a seat at the table but we need to nominate and approve a person to do it. Dates were reviewed as well as clarification of the commitment. Heidi K expressed interest and can report back her level of interest after the March 2025 OIAA meeting. TechSteppers/security training is offered more often than the OIAA meeting.
    Motions: None

NEW BUSINESS

Presentation from the New Secretary Onboarding Team
    Discussion among today’s attendees:
    HeidiK spoke for the Secretary Onboarding Committee (Mouncey, Ali and HeidiK). It was established in August 2024 and created a secretary training guide for Moorpark. This document has a job description, guidelines, responsibilities, how-to as well as the nitty gritty of running the meeting.
    HeidiK will have a live training for new secretaries on Saturday 12/28/2024 (@ 1:30pm Pac) after all the meeting days have elected their secretaries. This online training may be recorded; new secretaries can decide beforehand if they want to attend or watch the recorded version (which will have any identity removed but retain the instruction portion).
    This training document was screen shared for the business meeting attendees. (A draft of the document is here; please request access. It will live on the Moorpark Online Resources page soon.)
    Discussion was centered around these questions on the document HeidiK had about the following:

    • A question under the heading of Role of Secretary was about how, or if, to enforce the concept of not discussing politics or outside issues; specifically what the secretary can say, and when they should step in if a share goes into politics or other potentially divisive issue. Natara suggested that the secretary could gently remind the sharer that how they feel about the political issue is allowed, but that comments about politics are an outside issue. “Sorry, that’s an outside issue,” was suggested. Chris asked if politics could be discussed before/after the meeting, as there was a situation he dealt with. Natara suggested the concept of “keep the room safe.” Online meetings aren’t quite the same as in-person in the situation that people can walk to the parking lot and discuss anything they like. In a zoom room after the meeting is not the same situation.
    • A question was raised about the definition of “crosstalk,” and should a secretary be monitoring this more closely. The answer was that means, ‘I won’t share about your share’. It was also called ‘advice from the podium.’ Natara said that crosstalk is mentioned in meetings as something people think is not allowed but there is no specific Moorpark policy on crosstalk.
    • A request for clarity on the secretary’s role on if someone was visibly drunk in a meeting, should the secretary do anything to stop a share by this attendee. It was discouraged since it is difficult to determine for certain what is being consumed unless an open liquor bottle is viewed. If someone is actively trolling or drinking with evidence, they are distracting and can be removed from the meeting.
    • A question was raised about clothing being worn (or not) during a meeting. This is a judgement call and can be handled by the secretary who can privately message the person who may not realize they are distracting, and ask them to cover themselves. Or, the secretary may choose to turn off that attendee’s video.
    • For the above issues, Natara suggested that this statement be added back into the script for clarity and to keep the sanctity of the meeting; “The Responsibility Statement of Alcoholics Anonymous says “I am responsible. Whenever anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of AA always to be there. And for that: I am responsible.” In keeping with that Statement, we ask that you avoid talking about politics here, even before and after the meeting, as it is divisive, and we like to keep this a safe space for everyone.”
    • A question was raised about what a secretary should do if they need to quit the job. Natara said the protocol is that Moorpark meeting would need to have an emergency election to nominate and vote in a new secretary.
    • A question was raised about the amount of time sober a secretary “should” have before considering or accepting the responsibility. Six months plus being in process or finished doing the steps with a sponsor was preferred; however if anAA member had relapsed and had less than 6 months and a working knowledge of the steps and was comfortable with the responsibility, they would be fine.
    • There was additional discussion among all about how to handle security and/or co hosting roles; should co hosts sign up ahead of time. While that would be ideal but difficult to plan. The secretary should ask a trained attendee if they would serve as co host and admit attendees and perform backup at key moments such as mute all, ask to unmute, and security.
    • There was additional discussion about best practices on how to find speakers and keep track of past and potential speakers. HeidiK had been updating a spreadsheet on her own drive for the last year including all Wednesdays, which co secretary was responsible for which Wednesday, what speaker was scheduled on which day, their contact information, location in the reading including page number and first words of paragraph, and how the speaker was found. It was requested to share that document so all secretaries could potentially use it, and thus grow a larger speaker list and increase information sharing across all meeting days. HeidiK agreed to share this document to the Moorpark google drive.

      • Not relating to the secretary training document, a question was raised if any decisions should or could be made by having just 5 people in attendance at today’s business meeting.


    Motions: JohnR made a motion that 5 people could make a decision about changes to the script, such as adding the responsibility statement back into the script. Chris seconded. The motion was carried unanimously.
    Overview: HeidiK will post the Secretary Training Document after final adjustments are made; this will be prior to 12/28/2024 training day.

Update about the Tuesday Newcomer Meeting
    Discussion: JohnR shared with the group that he has been running the newly repurposed Tuesday meeting for newcomers. He said it has been running fine. The past Tuesday the scheduled speaker could not attend, so JohnR pivoted to a topic participation type meeting. He didn’t use the regular content, but chose to discuss a Daily Reflection instead which he thought was easier for a newcomer to handle.
    After comments about the Newcomer meeting’s good progress, discussion continued about how to improve, such as adding to all Moorpark scripts that there is a newcomer meeting on Tuesdays, what tomorrow’s schedule is in Moorpark, and that Moorpark’s meeting is the same day and time, such as, “We are here 7 days a week at noon Pacific, same codes. You can find our schedule at https://moorparkgroup.online.”
    Motions:
    Natara made a motion that the script be updated for all Moorpark meetings. JohnR seconded and the motion was unanimously carried.
    Natara offered to make a flyer for the Newcomer meeting and JohnR was grateful for the offer.
    JohnR commented that the countdown of days for newcomers that he’s been doing isn’t as impactful as was expected so he would like to return to the milestones format.
    Motions:
    Natara made a motion that the milestones replace the countdown. JohnR seconded and the motion was unanimously carried.

Natara reviewed the schedule, the next business meeting will be on 3/1/25, and then 6/7/2025 which precedes the next election for Moorpark secretary.

Motions:
Natara made a motion to close the meeting. JohnR seconded and the motion was unanimously carried.