[Businessmtg] Group Representative Report - October 2025 BM

Wed Oct 1 18:59:22 PDT 2025

Hello Business meeting members,

Thank you for letting me be of service.    If there are any questions feel free to email me.

Below is the Group Rep Report for October 2025:

A. Items below from the 2025 Delegate's report from 65th World Service Conference (WSC) discussed at the ad hoc meeting on August 23, 2025:
   Note:   The GEA is accepting more tech team members, if interested, please reach out to, Techcoordinator at gea98.org<mailto:Techcoordinator at gea98.org>

  *
Burt P. , the GEA area delegate reported on the April 2025 WSC meeting, which was postponed from the June 21st meeting, since we ran out of time.  Note.  In theory, all Area Assemblies are ‘big’ because they include every GR and GEA Officer & Coordinator.

  *
The World Service Conference (WSC) and group conscience protects the whole structure of Al-Anon.
     *
WSC
        *
90 Voting members
        *
67 delegates (2/3 of the World Service Committee is group delegates)
        *
13 Board of Trustees
        *
3 executives
        *
7 office staff
     *
3 rotating panels, so always some experience and fresh input.
        *
1/3 first year, 1/3 second year, 1/3 third year   
        *
The delegates are from each area (service manual pg 75); 3-year term.
           *
Year 1 = confusion
           *
Year 2 = capable
           *
Year 3 = confident

  *
2024 Membership Survey Results
     *
Full Report at 2024-Membership-Survey.pdf<https://al-anon.org/pdf/2024-Membership-Survey.pdf>
     *
Surveys every 3rd year since 1984
     *
15,375 members participated
     *
Participant average age is 63.4 years
     *
First meeting at age 44.4 years
     *
87% female, 12% male, 1% neither

  *
There is a pause on group naming policy until the 2026 World Service Convention.
     *
WSO procedures based on the changed policy
        *
New or changed Group names to follow new policy
        *
Encourage groups to use the "Attendees" designation.
        *
Group name issue:  inviting and being attractive, and avoiding public controversy is important
there is a community identifier box on the listing site, for helping identify groups
We welcome all friends and families of alcoholics.

  *
2025 Projects
     *
Core Systems Overhaul
     *
2025 A.A. International Convention
     *
eBooks Globally
     *
2026 - 2029 Al-Anon/Alateen Service Manual
     *
Passing it on Strategy
     *
Outreach to Professionals

  *
Certified CPA, Brown Edwards audit firm, Audit conducted Jan 2025 with no known issues.

B. Choosing a Group's Name Policy Implementation Town Hall meeting on September 13, 2025:

  *
  Brief Background
     *
The 2024 World Service Conference adopted changes to the Choosing a Group's Name Policy ( Service Manual pages 85-86 v4).
     *
The World Service Office (WSO) and the WSO Policy Committee implemented the Policy as they understood it.
     *
Many Groups and members raised concerns and submitted appeals.
     *
At the 2025 World Service Conference:
        *
Received 138 pages of appeals and discussed the topic at length;
        *
Worked together to understand perspectives as we were able;
        *
Invited our Higher Powers to be present and to guide the Conference to an informed Group Conscience; and
        *
Pressed 'pause' on implementation until the 2026 Conference to allow areas time to provide further feedback on the Policy's implementation.
        *
The World Service Conference adopted the following motion by substantial unanimity (71%)
           *
Allow group names to continue to include identifiers such as those currently listed on page 28 of the 2022-2025 v4a including "men, women, parents, adult children, young adults, other gender identification/sexual orientation, etc. with the understanding that in keeping with Tradition, Three and Five, the group will welcome anyone affected by someone else's drinking" until the 2026 World Service Conference to allow WSC Structure Areas to discuss the implementation of the 2024 WSC-approved "Choosing a Group's Name" Policy.

        *
The Areas are seeking to know the will of groups, then make a final discussion/decision.

        *
From my group's discussion, the groups already named will be grandfather in and new groups will fall under the updated group naming convention

  *
During the Pandemic, more groups formed with specific names, which brought the group naming issue forward in 2022.

C. GEA electronic Alateen Town Hall, October 4, 2025;

  *
I can email the summary to individuals.  Just let me know if you would like the summary.
  *
The main questions for discussion:
     *
1. What are your / your Group’s concerns with the draft WSC EASBR (one page)? Attached.
     *
2. Would you / a Group member be interested in being part of a GEA Thought Force on electronic
        *
Alateen (if one is formed)? (No names are need at this time.)
     *
3. What one take-away from today’s conversation would you like to share with your Delegate as he
        *
prepares for the 2026 World Service Conference?

Break - GR meeting:

  *
Cleaning House.  On ongoing project has been ridding D53 of inactive groups and/or groups that we’ve been unsuccessful communicating with.   Jerry has attended 4 meetings and continues to attend meetings without GRs. This is a big gift to D53.

  *
 August 2025 District meeting Cancelled. September meeting on September 20th info below:

  *
Group Participation.  Amazingly, out of our 16 groups, we have 8 GRs and 3 Alternate GRs.  At the September 2025 D53 meeting, we had 7 GRs/Alternates and 1 DR present which is good. There are 8 groups with a GR and 8 groups that do not have a GR and more participation would be beneficial. In the past, we’ve been averaging 5 GRs/Alternates at or District meetings, which means that over 50% or the groups in District 53 are actually represented at our meetings. That is outstanding considering that 4 of the groups in District 53 are phone meetings and one is Spanish-speaking.

  *
General.   We had a great discussion on the group name issue and bottom line; special interest groups have problems and regular groups do not. This topic is being shared in ALL of AL-Anon’s groups, face-to-face as well as the groups online, on the phone, and on zoom;  and no vote will be taken until there is general consensus and solidarity across the fellowship.  But it is good to understand and share viewpoints and opinions, as we look at this together.  We generally want to maintain unity, not be splintered into many small groups.  What we share is bigger than what divides us!  Burt, our Area delegate will be taking info from the groups to the 2026 conference for discussion. The naming of groups issue is a fellowship issue instead of a GEA issue.

We have a really great treasurer, and our own district website, which we are transferring over the next two months to the new server, as the Treasurer moves the District email off of the website of his group. It is paid up for the next two years.  We do have a reserve of funds, also, but we want to bring up the idea of our groups each donating modestly to the District within the GEA, (global electronic groups), so that we are helping Al-Anon grow in this general international expansion.    We voted to keep the treasurer in the current role until the end of December, and another group member is considering taking over the Treasurer position.

  *   Seventh Tradition.  District 53 discussed the issue of our finances and the need for District 53 to have a treasurer and all the good stuff that goes with being financially responsible through the Seventh Tradition.  Back in February, we elected a Treasurer and we now have a bank account and are accepting donations from the groups of District 53.

  *   Website.  Few things are better than a decent website for making information available to the groups, their GR’s and even the regular members of the district.  The GRs easily reached a consensus on our need to have a website, which is now live https://www.serenitysys.com/district53/ .  The website provides a wide variety of info for the members of District 53: the groups of District 53 (group name, platform, GR name and email, how to contact the group and the WSO number of the group), contact information for all District and GEA officers, an archive of all District 53 meeting agendas & meeting minutes.

  *
District 53 has a mailing list for our GRs and District officers.  This makes it easy for any of us to communicate with the rest of the trusted servants in District 53.  With the mailing list, each of us only needs to know one email address for District 53 and the server handles the rest, and only the server needs to be updated.

The following items are District 53 items:

  *
Important news was that WSO, World Service Office,  will not enforce policy on group names and hold a moratorium on this question until 2026.

  *
E-books for CAL are coming, but for now they have books for sale, and don’t want to undercut the book sales of developing AL-Anon programs, so are waiting to see when it will be appropriate to introduce them.  The sale of CAL is the primary source of funding for WSO.   As a result, WSO is very reluctant to do anything that will impact on the sales of CAL.

  *
AL-ANON’S 75TH anniversary is next year, 2026 and a new service manual will be forthcoming.  The latest edition of the Service Manual is published every 3 years.  Unlike other types of CAL, the Service Manual is revised frequently by WSO.  For example, WSO has published the 4th version of the 2022-2025 Service Manual.  The following link has the service manual and page changes.  https://al-anon.org/for-members/members-resources/manuals-and-guidelines/

Thank you for letting be of service.

Kathleen H
ASP - GR