Proposal 9 – Meeting Listing/Delisting

Submitted by Region 5 (NE USA); Region 2 (Greater Western USA); Central Coast IG76, CA, USA; Washington State IG595, WA, USA; CA1006, Pismo Beach, CA, USA; CA915, Arroyo Grande, CA, USA; WEB381, Arroyo Grande, CA, USA

Issue:All current and future meeting listing and delisting criteria shall be subject to review and approval of the conference body, as a large matter of Policy (per Concepts I, II, VI). Any current meeting listing criteria shall be brought forth to the 2024 Annual Business Conference (ABC) for that review. WSO shall not institute new or update existing meeting listing criteria without the separate approval of the Conference.

Background:Sometime in 2023, for the first time ever, certain criteria appeared as requirements for registering or updating a meeting (see bottom of https://adultchildren.org/meeting/meeting-register/). While some of these criteria appear to have a reasonable, clear basis (such as agreeing to follow the 12 Traditions), others seem puzzling. For instance, “We understand that if our group or its listing are in violation of any California State laws or USA Federal government laws, our meeting may be removed from the WSO website until such time as we move into compliance with those laws.” What if my meeting is in Africa?

Whether the Conference agrees that this a reasonable and fair basis for being considered a true and fully legitimate ACA meeting is currently unclear. It is also unclear from where the full set of criteria originated, and whether it has been reviewed or approved by the WSO Board. Either way, the full set of criteria have not been submitted for approval by the Conference.

Implementation/Resources:In the past year, the WSO Board has created a Service Review Panel (SRP) “of Board and non-Board ACA members to evaluate meetings and event listings and refuse or remove listings that are inconsistent with the ACA Twelve Traditions or the ACA Twelve Concepts, or that violate provisions of the OPPM or the WSO Bylaws.” (see Motions 2022_1210_01 and 2023_0429_12 in the Book of Motions

https://acawso.org/aca-wso-book-of-motions/)

While Traditions apply to all service entities within ACA, the WSO OPPM and Bylaws are governance documents that pertain and apply to WSO only – not to meetings, the Fellowship, or any Intergroup or Region. (Autonomy, Tradition IV)

The set of requirements for being an ACA meeting beyond following Steps and Traditions is a decision for the Fellowship via the Conference. The WSO Board is meant to act as Trusted Servants of the Conference per Traditions II and IX as well as Concepts I and II. Perhaps a way through this could be to have the Service Review Panel made to be an advisory body that, while accountable to the Executive Committee of the Board of WSO (per Tradition 9), functions only to (1) make recommendations to the Conference for review/approval and (2) act on violations only of those criteria that the Conference has approved by Substantial Unanimity. In addition, all members of the SRP shall be nominated and elected by the Conference on an annual basis.

WSO Analysis:

Response:

At the 2023 ABC, the Board informed the delegates that meeting listings policies were being reviewed/developed for recommendation to the fellowship and would appreciate an opportunity to discuss these policies at the 2024 ABC.

Concepts VI and VII state that, our Annual Business Conference “traditionally has the final decision respecting large matters of general policy and finance. But the Annual Business Conference also recognizes that the … active responsibility in most of these matters would be exercised primarily by the Trustee members of World Service Organization”, and “the Trustees are thereby fully empowered to manage and conduct all of the world service affairs of existing policies of ACA.”

In 2023, the criteria for registering meetings for the meeting directory was clarified to more clearly detail the criteria as listed in the existing policy in the BRB on page 602.

• The previous criteria was general –“…listingontheWSOwebsiteindicatestheir agreement to abide by the ACA 12 Traditions.”
• The intention of adding a checklist of agreements to register a meeting was to provide more clarity and support for new groups and newcomers.

Factorstoconsider:

• As per Concept VI and VII, as described above, the Board determined:
  • Because World Services is bound by the laws where it is incorporated, when WSO received notification of a pending lawsuit about a protected class of ACA members being ejected from a registered meeting, there was a need to protect our legal and fiduciary responsibilities. This was done by adding a legal point to the checklist.
  • to add a statement that when meetings register they agree to follow The Suggested Commitments to Service as stated in BRB on page 601.
• There will be times when the Board may need to make an immediate decision regarding a meeting listing in order to fulfill their fiduciary and legal responsibilities to the Fellowship.
  • Updates regarding any of these decisions would be provided to the Fellowship at the first possible opportunity.
• The Board created a peer review panel of experienced WSO volunteers to form the first “Service Review Panel” to ensure there was a thorough review of complaints about meetings and when necessary, provide recommendations to the Board.