District 4 February 2023 Meeting Minutes

   MINUTES

District 4 – Virtual District Meeting 

February 14, 2023

6:30 p.m. 

Mtg. ID: 863 7353 3658 

Password: 230403 

Sue L chaired and called the meeting to order at 6:30 with the Declaration of Unity.

Present: Sue L , Stephen, Genie, Dave N., Anne, Cathy, Sue B., Chuck B.,  Amy H.

Reading of the minutes was waived.

 Reports: 

1. DCM report:  Read by Sue L.

• Emailed District 3 about providing seed money for the District to host an assembly in September or November.  At this time, the District is not able to host.  I have asked District 1 if it would like to host either Assembly.  The Alt-DCM is looking into it and will get back to me.  In the meantime, I suggest that we keep the reimbursement for the January assembly separate so that it is available if District 1 decides to host.
• The Delegate has distributed a list of the final Agenda Items.  I’m sending them to District 4 in an email which you will have received before the District meeting.  Information regarding the 73^rd General Service Conference and all events in Area 50 leading up to the Conference is available at area50wny.org, under the Delegate’s Page.  The password to access the protected files which contain confidential material is – area50.  This page will be continuously updated.
• Jeff S, the NY/Penn liaison is beginning an email exchange chat, like a chat hotline.  If you are interested in learning about this idea contact Jeff at (716) 450-3533 or FFJeffSmith@gmail.com.  He needs support.
• NERAASA – weekend of February 23 – 26 in Albany, NY.  If you are a GSR attending NERAASA please keep all travel receipts for reimbursement.  All are encouraged to attend.
• 12^th Annual Archives breakfast is April 29, 2023.  Tickets are $22.00 and will only be available by pre-sale. Contact Joe V at (716) 465-9327 with any questions.
• The District continues to seek 100% participation by the groups in its district.  Look for friends in non-participating groups and encourage them to stand for GSR.
• NYSIW – July 28 – 20, 2023.  James C, Chair of the Workshop, is looking for volunteers to help with the event.  Please contact James at (716) 587-2903 or James.J.Conley@gmail.com if you would like to work on this important event.
• Place of Worship and Law Enforcement Committees have received pamphlet racks and tear off sheets for distribution throughout the district. 

In love of service,

Sue B, DCM

2.   Treasurer Report: Anne

• Treasury Balance is $2295.86

3.   Accessibility report: NONE

4.   CPC Report: Dave N.                                                                                                                   

• Not much to report from CPC. Our February meeting was cancelled. We did meet with two judges in Niagara County. There have been efforts to contact local rehab facilities.

5.  Archives Committee report: Joe B. 

• Archives has new chair Pat M.
• Archives has new committee member Cindy. We welcome new committee members. Cindy has been great addition serving as secretary. We appreciate her leadership.
• Archives is looking forward to convention in Niagara Falls we will have nice display.
  If your group is having special function and you’d like us to come and represent Archives we would be happy to do so. Includes group anniversaries, group dinners, also area days, day of sharing.  
• Looking forward to our Archives breakfast Saturday April 29. Tickets are $22 Last year we had about 300 for breakfast.

5.   PIC Report:  Anne

• The committee has been working hard at developing Internet display ads with FLX, a digital company in the Finger Lakes.  They will bring this up to the districts at the ACM and March 15^th DCMC meeting.  Hoping for support for at least the first 2 months and see how it goes from there.  The plan is to have targeted ads to the 4 intergroup areas with a number to call for help.  Google Ad Exchange uses the IP address of the user and their search history to target the ads to the user. Cost is $225/month
• A motion was made by Stephen and seconded by Anne for District 4 to contribute $450 for the first 2 months.
• Tables are up at Buff State on Tues/Thurs from 11-1 during Bengal Pause with literature racks and tear-off sheets.  Volunteers are always needed.
• Ann was be to order 100 cardboard literature racks and has a listing of all schools by district she would like some help with finding contact numbers for each school.

6.   Web chair Report:  Genie

• Following our January District meeting, I began scouring the interactive district map again for items to add to the various categories on the Backyard page.  
• Over the next few days, I was able to add several on my own and Sue B, with her keen eye and knowledge of the area, assisted to point out some additional churches and schools which needed be added.  Four eyes are better than two!  
• I updated some category titles for better accuracy and inclusivity (ex; “Churches” was changed to “Worship”; “Medical” was changed to “Health and Wellness”).  
• I added some categories (ex; Human Services, Emergency/Fire and “Other” which is a bit of a catch-all but currently includes bottle redemption centers and a bail bondsman –where better to post our fliers, after all? 
• I alphabetized the listings within the categories to make it easier to search.
• I updated the blog announcing the January GSA event to reflect it being hosted by District 4 only, (although the event had passed.)
• January meeting minutes were posted on the blog post page.  I initially experienced a formatting issue and bullet points weren’t displayed properly, but I believe the problem is fixed now.  
• February meeting agenda has been posted on the blog.  
• The “District 4 Meetings” post remains at the top of the page to make it easy to access.  
• Sue also assisted with some updates to GSR information, which I corrected on the Meetings blog and on the Groups page (I thought I had corrected it previously but either some things changed or else the original edits I made didn’t save properly.)  To my knowledge, it’s up-to-date now.
• I added a blog post with the General Service Board announcement regarding the resignation of the chairperson.

As always, I’m open to any suggestions for blog posts, event announcements, edits/updates to existing pages or other ideas.  I can be reached at thebestisyettocomeaa@gmail.com

Area Service Committee Presentation: NONE

Old Business:  NONE

New Business: 

• A suggestion was made to develop a newsletter like District 15 to circulate to meetings that do not have a GSR to keep them updated with news from the District and Area.

Meeting closed at 7:21 with the Responsibility Declaration. 

Respectfully submitted by Secretary, Amy H.