Oct 2019 – OIAA Report
Hello GROW, I’m an alcoholic named Kirsten and our OIAA Representative, alternate.
The June OIAA Chair’s Report included the following:
- The Ad-Hoc Committee tasked with looking into participating in the AAWS AA meeting guide app license decided to participate.
- The Web Committee is now assessing the feasibility of participating. A little bit about the meeting guide app below (taken from the April Business Meeting report –thank you Lynn)”Meeting Guide app will be part of the new AAWS AA app launched in 2019. The people that run it now will be handing over the reins to AAWS so there should be no traditions issues moving forward.
- Meeting Guide is a free mobile A.A. f2f meeting finder app. It gets its data by syncing with area, district, Intergroup/Central Office and International G.S.O. websites.
- Sites that use their own custom database only need to create a JSON feed to make their data accessible.
- The app is now used by more than 100,000 users every month, using it on an average of 5.75 times per month.”
- OIAA is still working toward reinstating non-profit status—a reduction in fees owed has been negotiated and an anonymous donor has stepped forward to donate some of the back fees.
- The secretary has put out a call for any OIAA-related financial records (2012-2018) that former or current members may have archived in order to help with the reinstatement filing process.
- The Web Committee is building a trial WordPress site to see whether OIAA can switch platforms. Their decision will be based on functionality of the trial site.
The Treasurer’s Report for July:
- Expenses: 2 full years of name domain protection @$89.95
- Total contributions for June: $266.68
- Balance (July 1, 2019): $1430.01
- Issues affecting finances include pending vote on whether to attend the AA World Convention in 2020 in Detroit. The treasurer recommends a vote that includes all of OIAA, including IGRs, to decide whether to participate. Ultimately, the decision may rest on the financial outcome of payments made to reinstate non-profit status.
When I began as OIAA alternate there was an overwhelming (for me) volume of mail going back and forth, much of it unproductive. When I went back through my OIAA folder to prepare this report, I noticed that the volume of mail had dropped off in 2019 Most of the current discussions are related to the above-mentioned items.
It seems as though things are cooling down and people are beginning to work together more productively. This may be a moment of positive change for OIAA. OIAA is looking for folks to serve on the convention committee and the steppers committee (which requires some training). There are opportunities to get involved and have a closer look and the functionality of the organization. That said, I did not volunteer for a committee and chose to limit my participation to reading emails and filing our GROW report.
Thank you for the opportunity to be of service,
X
Kirsten