Tentative Virtual Region Board Meeting Agenda 

January 7, 2024, 1 PM ET (UTC-5)

 Members Present:  Chair, Trustee, Tech Support, Secretary, Bylaws Chair, Co-Chair Convention, Data, Treasurer, Co-Chair Convention, Twelve Step Within, Digital Coordinator, Digital Resources, IGOR Chair, 2 visitors (including former secretary) (15 total)

STRATEGIC VISION: The function of the Virtual Region Board is to serve and support its committees, intergroups, meetings, and members and to carry the message to those who still suffer. 

•     Start Recording and Live Transcription
•     Serenity prayer is read & Strategic Vision is read
•     The Minutes from the December board meeting are approved.

Committee Updates or Questions, if needed

1. Bylaws:  No updates
2. Convention: The Co-Chair shares. There is a call for Service for the Committees. Every Saturday at 12pm Eastern time they meet. They put a globe behind the image and trying to have a more diverse look. The Welcome Center will now be called The Newcomer Center. They are looking for people to do service in the next 2 months. From 2-4 hours/week. It’s under 2 months now until the Convention. Soft open: we won’t go public until we are 2 weeks out.
3. Data: Our Data Chair has resigned, and we need a new one. It helps to have someone who has a technical background. A few lawyers have occupied this position, but the person really needs to know technology, like google drive. Please send all info via email for the new people: their name, email, phone numbers to Data. The Data Committee needs support.
4. Finance: Last Finance meeting Dec. 10. Next meeting Jan 14. Segway into World Service documents have come out; registration is open. They want to know your Intergroup Chair.
5. Twelve Step Within/Workshop: Welcome to our  new Twelfth Step Within Chair! We are not going to do Unity Day/100 pounder; we’ll do it another time. The Data Coordinator and the former Secretary will onboard the new Twelfth Step Within Chair.
6. Public Information Professional Outreach/Unity With Diversity: Welcome to our new chairs, one of whom is from Ebony Intergroup.
7. Intergroup Outreach and Renewal (IGOR): They need a Secretary. They have a subcommittee with a Chair that is working on the topics that will be included. They are doing some restructuring as well. The Inventory will be a great tool for unaffiliated meetings.
8. Digital Communications: The report stands.
9. Newcomer Open House – Vice Chair talks about it. People who speak Spanish, French or German are needed. If you are not on the WhatsApp group for the Open House, please shoot the Vice Chair an email or text. January 27, 8:30 am Eastern to 10pm Eastern.

Old Business 

•     Virtual Region Inventory Mailing Update Status. Group elected VR inventory facilitators to finish it. It’s pretty much ready to go out. It’s been approved by the Data Committee. The Trustee said that this inventory seems to be better than the one that World Service did. It’s easier and quicker. Remember that we have over 400 unaffiliated meetings that probably don’t know what the Virtual Region is. The due date is March 15. It will go out in the next 2-3 days, so that gives 2 months to respond. Congratulations everyone for your work on that! If you see the “soft” copy, please don’t fill it out yet and don’t share it yet, as they will be making one minor change to it.  
•     Calendar Status: The Vice Chair and the Digital Resources Committee Chair  will speak to this. The latter says that they started the work to make the changes necessary for the calendar. On the Committee pages, they will put the times. Individual committees please make sure that the information is correct. We are just going to use the Google calendar for internal business meeting.
•     Board Meeting Dates & Times 2024: The group decides Sunday is the best. 11:30-1:30 or as late as 2pm. We discuss. 1:30pm Eastern Time seems to be the better time. We decide on the 1st weekend/month. We decided NOT to meet 5 months: 1) February (everyone go to the Convention meeting instead, go there and find out how you can help them, because they need the help); 2) May, 3) June (instead go to two  meetings at the Assembly),4) November (instead go to two meetings at Assembly) will not meet;  in 5) December Chair proposes a fellowship meeting. We WILL meet (January), March, April, July, August, September, October.
•     Request from finance information audit and statute: there was a request for a lot of info. When the Chair went to find the info, there were many  empty files. The Chair got about 80% of the data, some from oral history, and she knows who to track the rest down. Clarify that we are talking about an annual appeal letter of our accomplishments. The Chair will get this out later today (as a rough draft). The Chair would like to record the old-timers and their stories. Idea to have a Zoom meeting. Workshop in the making. FYI, we only moved to google drive 3-4 years ago.
•     Status of updates of bylaws P&P and minutes from the last assembly. Secretary will send the minutes to digital and copy bylaws. The Digital Resources Committee  can work with the webmaster  to get the stuff on the website. This is a routine post-Assembly action. The Trustee points out that there are fewer and fewer Bylaw changes. The Bylaws have largely been worked out. Maybe the policies will have changes.

Discussion of Assembly 2024

Dates: updated bylaws, minutes, and procedures.

•     First weekend in June for Assembly 1?? No objection, but the Treasurer can’t attend. The Treasure says that maybe we will get ourselves a deputy treasurer. The Chair will see if it’s legally ok for the Treasurer not to be there. We will table this and the Chair will research the law. Table the June date until she researches the laws.
•     November weekend: November 16th-17th is confirmed. That means motions due in September. They’ve had it the last weekend of October before. That’s after Election Day and Thanksgiving is not until the end of November. If it’s during IDEA we can include it.

New Business –

•     10 Min Motion to establish a translation and interpretation committee and apply for key translation licenses:  The Chair’s opinion is that there is not equity in the translation of OA literature and materials (and she thinks they are antiquated). The Publications Manager at World Service said that if we formed a Translation and Interpretation committee, then the region would have a lot more freedom. She is going to put before the board members to start a translation and interpretation committee as an Ad hoc committee, and then it would have to go to the Assembly and be formalized. The Trustee is sure that we can be granted a license to do the translation and disperse it. We could do that ourselves without having to get World Service approval. And yes, we would have permission to do this and more importantly to distribute it. If a Lithuanian living in Brazil wants to buy a piece of literature, we could sell it to them directly without having to go through Amazon. The biggest problem with international literature is international shipping. It will take time  to get the licensure, but it would be worth it. Valor para cambiar has started to do Step Studies. One of the problems that they are having is that they truly are a virtual intergroup. They are not just from Spain, Colombia or Mexico. They are from all over. So,  if they have the Argentine version or the Colombian version, it’s hard to do a Step Study. The Chair gives the example that the Spanish version says that  “we are impotent” in front of food, not we are “powerless”. So, this is momentous. The Chair and the Trustee said that this will solve a lot of problems. Once the Virtual Region does this, The Trustee  is sure that Regions 9 and 10 will follow. The Trustee points out that we are not behaving like a global fellowship, but this will help us get there. The Virtual Region will be the first region to have those licenses and then they can even hire interpreters. If  an intergroup translates, they have to make sure it follows Traditions. The 12 Step Forum, uses a universal translator and then hire someone in the fellowship to check it. And the Chair says that we don’t save it just for the Virtual Region. We share it with others. Some concerns mentioned. Motion to start an Ad hoc & Interpretation Committee. When it’s a motion, only Board votes. There are no objection, so the motion carries. We will have a call for Service for that Committee.  

• Report from the chair on separate IGOR undertaking advising board. To discuss later.
• Discussion on liaison structure request put forth a motion at the next assembly to change from Liaison to co-chair. The Chair would strongly support changing the liaison model, but there’s nothing we can do about it until the assembly, so she tables the motion.

Board Updates or Questions, if needed

• Chair: She’s been working a lot with the Convention committee. Valor para Cambiar has had like 800 newcomers this year, so they need sponsors.
• Vice Chair:  No update from report.
• Treasurer:  The Virtual Region got some surprising donations: someone who donated $—-  for the end of the year, and the Chair who won $—-  on a Facebook contest.
• Secretary: No update from report.
• Data Coordinator: No update, but Chair speaks on the change on any region sub-domains announcement. Google and Yahoo are changing the way email works. If you have a certain email format, starting February 1, your email might end up a lot in spam. There will be a lot of changes coming in this area. Please be patient and know some of these things are out of their control. 
• Digital Coordinator: she’s having some internal confusion about her role. Tech Support saw in the Policies and Procedures that the Digital Coordinator is supposed to oversee the website. The previous person who held her position was also the webmaster, and now we have a webmaster. Things are being changed on the website without notifying her. The Chair will meet with the Digital Resources Coordinator and the Chair of the Digital Resources Committee . The Digital Resources Coordinator wants to establish a log, so there aren’t things just going on in the website.
• Trustee: No report.
• Finance: They want what they are working on to be “real” stories. He requests that the Board takes a look at it. Cee took the OA appeal letter and created 7 vignettes.

          That’s All Folks!