Chicagoland Intergroup
March 20th, 2006
Chairman:Allan S.
Secretary:Rene’ B.
The meeting was called to order at 7:41 p.m.
Readings
Unity Steps:Bob C.
Unity Step 3:Fred L.
Day at a Time:Frank G.
Excused Absences: Steve Jim J. Aurora, Bob K. Northwest Community, Heidi M., Allan H. Mayfair, Kathy H. Lisle, Phil S. Bartlett, Dianna R. Schaumburg, Sam D. Highland, Bob S. Downers Grove, Brian B. Naperville.
New Intergroup Reps: Dimitri W. from Oak Lawn Thursday night.
Corrections to Minutes: Corrections to the February minutes on page 3 “financial guidelinesrevised in 2004”not 2002. Motion to accept minutes of the February meeting as amended. Motion seconded. Minutes of February approved as amended.
Old Business: Allan S. reminded everyone that April 17th Intergroup we will have nominations for the 4 Trustee positions. You must be present to accept the nomintion. The election will be held at the May Intergroup. You must be 2 years clean and attending at least 39 regular meetings per calendar year. Please be present at April Intergroup to accept the nomination. Please bring your bio to pass out or have put on the Internet. Your bio should contain your length of time in GA and your service to the organization to date and anything you would like to do to help the organization. All trustees must be able to travel to 2 National Conferences per year.
New Business Meg L. and asked that the Intergroup reps pick up receipts for your rooms. Also please mention in your rooms that the person mark a smoking or non-smoking room and how many beds i.e. 2 double etc on the registration. Meg also asked that we not call the hotel directly and make reservations, as GA will not get credit for your room. If you have done that, please let Meg know. As of Intergroup March 20th there were 84 people registered for the conference and 64 room nights booked. Motion to accept New Business report. Seconded.
Discussion:
Dan B. The hotel may have no way to cross-reference people who book their own reservations with the GA list.
Gail B. There is no motivation for the hotel to give us credit for rooms booked by members on their own.
Report Accepted.
Pressure Relief:
Dan B. announced one financial pressure relief for Romeoville. Dan is also available to come to any meeting to discuss or teach pressure relief.
Motion to accept Pressure Relief report. Seconded.
Discussion: None. Report Accepted
Public Relations: Bob O. reported that Downers Grove North High School will let us set up a booth from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on May 4th to pass out GA literature. We need at least 2 people to volunteer to work the booth. If interested get in touch with Kathy H.
Saturday March 25th at the First Assembly Church on Essington in Joliet will also have a representative of GA passing out literature from 8-12.
Motion to accept Public Relations report. Seconded. Discussion: None. Report Accepted.
Internet:
Rene’ B. for Rick P. reported all changes that she received at last Intergroup were forwarded to Rick and the Internet was updated.
Motion to accept Internet report. Seconded.
Discussion: Bill S. wanted to know why the change for the St. Peters meeting was made in the PDF format but not the Word format of the meeting schedule. Rene’ will check with Rick.
Victor C. asked that Frank L. be removed as the contact person for the Elk Grove meeting.
Linda D. asked that we have Annie M. listed as the contact person for Willa Rawls. 773-924-6314.
Report Accepted.
Phone Service: Rene’ B. reported that the Chicago Hotline is up and running with little or no problem. We had 144 phone calls between Jan 19/Feb 20th and 144 phone calls during the Feb/March period. The cost to GA Chicago is $50 per month. Rene’ will follow up as to why we are still getting SBC phone bills. Also there was a complaint to Phil regarding people getting phone calls from the Hotline during another volunteers time slot. Rene’ talked to Steve Zimmer the Tech Support for the Hotline and he will resolve this issue. Rene’ needs to let Steve know the volunteer(s) who had a problem.
Motion to accept Phone Service report. Seconded.
Discussion: Chris from Oak Lawn asked what to do if we received a call from a support person for a gambler. It is okay to talk with them. Refer them to the GAM/Anon Hotline. Their number is on our meeting list.
Report Accepted.
Sunshine Report: Lynn B. reported all cards for pinnings were given out. Please see Debbie M. tonight for upcoming pinnings.
Motion to accept report. Seconded. Discussion: None. Report Accepted.
Pinnings: Please email pinnings to Cindy M. at or call 630-935-7650.
Date / Day / Time / Location / Person / Years3/23/06 / Thursday / 8:00 p.m. / Oak Lawn Community / Sean H. / 1 year GA
3/24/06 / Friday / 7:30 p.m. / Bolingbrook / David A. / 1 yr. GA
3/24/06 / Friday / 6:30 PM / Willa Rawls / Linda T.
Erma T. / 1 yr. GA
1 yr. GA
5/17/06 / Wednesday / 7:30 PM / Lutheran General Park Ridge / Greg M. / 15 yrs. GA
5/15/06 / Monday / 7:00 pm / Lisle / Donna M. / 1 yr. GA
7/11/06 / Tuesday / 7:30 /
Bloomingdale
/ Jim F.Laura F. / 10 yrs. GA
10 yrs. GAM/
Anon
New pinnings are in bold. Please note that the pinning at Lutheran General in Park Ridge was originally scheduled for 4/19.
Motions to accept Pinning Report. Seconded.
Discussion: Bob O. reported that we now had the last available pinning at the conference filled by Warren G.
Bill S. wanted to know if we have a policy about notifying ISO about pinnings/anniversaries.
Allan S. responded that we do not notify ISO about pinnings. It is up to each room to notify ISO about anniversaries.
Bob O. suggested we fill out the form in the back of the monthly ISO bulletin and mail to Karen at ISO.
Victor C.made a motion to form a committee that investigate and establish a way to process the anniversaries. Motion seconded. Motion Passes.
Debbie M. reported that Karen from ISO would not accept faxes.
Renee L. reported that Aurora has a member responsible for reporting anniversaries and it has worked well.
Bob. O. thinks we should do this at room level not Intergroup level.
Christine K. thinks that it is important and would be willing to be on the committee to help Victor C.
Report Accepted.
New Meetings:
Dave M. reported the Algonquin meeting is now on the meeting list. Lynn B. is the Intergroup Rep from Algonquin. The meeting is Tuesday 7:00 p.m. at 9009 Algonquin Rd. Currently they are not being charged rent. Lynn will investigate if rent will be required.
Motion to accept New Meeting report. Seconded.
Discussion. Harold D. represents the Friday night Hoffman Estates meeting held at a Church. The church would like them to pay an extra $10 per month toward the utility bill. Harold asked that Intergroup approve the $10 increase from $25 to $35 a month.
Gail B. inquired as to the size of the meeting. Harold reported 6-8 regular attendees. Gail suggested we take another look at this meeting being able to cover its expenses before we approve an increase.
Report Accepted.
Activites Report: No Report.
Bob O. asked if anyone is interested in participating in a survey for gambling to please contact Bob. O. This is not related to GA. Allan S. thought it was not approved by GA and any survey should be approved by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Bob respectfully disagreed. Bob asked that Allan S. please call the chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Tom D.2 felt this had no business being brought to Intergroup.
Trustees Report:
Bob O. addressed an issue at the Schaumburg meeting. The Agenda for the Boston National Conference is now on the website.
Rene’ B. will be speaking on behalf of the Chicago National Hotline in favor of the Hotline.
Tom D.2 received a call for a translator for a deaf person at GA meetings. The question was will GA pay the $40 per meeting for a translator and can a translator be in a closed meeting?
Motion to accept Trustees report. Seconded.
Discussion: Allan S. asked people to take the time to look at the agenda. He brought up one of the items on the agenda that would delete the definition of gambling.
Report Accepted.
Frank K. 1st Chair chaired the balance of the meeting.
Supply Report: Jim M. reported that we spent $811.38 and collected $220.40. Jim also asked that if you are aware that you have members who will be getting pinned to try and give him 30 days advance notice to order the pins.
Jim also reported that Joliet Monday night now pays for their own supplies.
Motion to accept Supply Report. Seconded.
Discussion: Can Cindy and Jim M. somehow coordinate regarding the pins. Cindy explained that often people were calling her the day of Intergroup or at Intergroup with pinnings so that would not solve Jim’s problem.
Please call Jim ASAP when you need a pin at 708-699-8600.
Report Accepted.
Treasurers Report:
Gail B. $1913. 95 collected for GA and $835.02 collected for ISO. The room collection was $39.
Gail also said that $11 was turned in to the Central Treasury for the Naperville Pinning Fund.
The only revision to the January Report is that we allocate funds and the pinning funds were not revised and updated last month. The total pinning funds were $264.
St. Charles withdrew $150 leaving $145.
Jim M. thanked everyone for bringing in checks. He also asked that we bring in checks for supplies. Jim also requested that we turn in whole amounts. Please round to the nearest dollar.
Motion to Accept Treasurers Report. Seconded.
Discussion: None. Report Accepted.
Good and Welfare:
Bob O. read from Unity Step Book. He felt that it was very important that we carry the message. He stated that we need to be progressive with our knowledge of this addiction and felt that doing the survey could only help us.
Bob also stated that Intergroup does not count as a GA meeting. Our sole purpose at Intergroup is to conduct the business of GA and be of service to the rooms. He asked that we use common sense when reporting the business meeting at room level and suggested that we may want to give a more detailed report at the first meeting and cover just the important issues on the meetings thereafter.
Prayers were asked for Joey L. Thursday night Oak Lawn.
Steve S. is out of the hospital---please keep him in your prayers.
Ron P. is recovering from a stroke.
Sam D. from Highland ---his sister passed away.
The meeting adjourned with the Serenity prayer.