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CENTRAL OFFICE REPORT – GNOSB MEETING JULY 31, 2025

Shorter verbal report since we have much planned and to discuss for this month’s meeting. Onboarding the new Board Trustees, updating the website, and completing the next printed meeting book were a notable part of the office’s focus this past month.

Onboarding New Board Trustees. Updated our organization’s records with the Secretary of State and Hancock Whitney Bank to reflect our new Board of Trustees and signers on the organization’s bank accounts. Shared access to GNO Service Board Google Drive and other documentation with new Trustees to facilitate informed group conscience discussions and decisions and to encourage informed and empowered trusted servant leadership as we begin this new fiscal year together. Created and provided to Trustees new documentation to facilitate informed discussion and decisions around bill pay and financial decisions throughout the fiscal year.

Sharing Data and Analytics. Office manager spent the past year researching and gathering data on various aspects of our organization’s operations to provide both data and analytics to supplement more informed group conscience decisions for this new board and moving forward. One main focus was budget and finance, to provide information and context to financial reports for our newly reformed Budget & Finance committee. Another focus was Big Deep South Convention, to provide information and context on contracts, financial records, timelines, and other documentation to the ad hoc committee on Big Deep South Convention Financials, as well as to the organization’s CPA. Another focus has been on data for contributions and retail sales, to make data-backed decisions for orders and product inventory maintenance.

Website Content and Navigation/Accessibility Updates. Menu updates have transformed the experience of our aaneworleans.org website. Please do explore the new and existing content that is now more accessible as a result of the drop-down menus, and thank you for your patience while we corrected and updated that website functionality.

• Find a Meeting. Drop-down menu options include the Meeting Guide web listings, more info about Online Meetings (including info about how to get meeting attendance records from online meetings), our new Meeting Notes & News page (longer version of the page from the monthly Bulletins, plus a new section for short-term meeting updates, such as during holidays and hurricane seasons – or even as it were, snow days).
  
• Events Categories. Drop-down menu options include category-specific Events page (Speak & Eats, Fellowship Events, Workshops & Panels) for a faster glance at upcoming Events.
  
• Resources. Drop-down menu options include our “New to A.A.?” page for Newcomers, new pages for folks looking for help for others (Is Your Loved One Drinking Too Much?), info about Home Groups and Group Service, Printable Resources for Meeting and Groups, and For Professionals Who Work With Alcoholics. Plus pages on Sponsorship, Accessibility, Other 12 Step Resources, and more updates are in the works.
  
• Service Resources. New menu addition, though the link to this Service Resources page (and its contents now in the drop-down menu) was previously housed on the main Resources/Printable Literature page. Contains various resources about different areas of service available through our recovery program (GSR, T&C, Grapevine, etc.).
  
• Bulletins. Drop-down menu options include pages for easier access to the monthly Bulletin, Bulletin Archives (past Bulletins), service material info about Service Board & Central Office, GNO Service Board Meeting Minutes, Central Office Reports, and the GNOSB By-Laws.
  
• Contributions. Drop-down menu options include pages for easier access to Make Contributions, learn more about GNO Service Board Financials, about Splits for home groups (including lists of group contributions to Central Office for 2022-2025 YTD), the Literature Fund, and Central Office Gift Cards.

We continue to work on this website and look forward to your feedback on how we can provide information and resources via our website to connect members, newcomers, and our wider community with our program and fellowship of recovery, service, and unity. Let us know what you would like to learn or see: office@aaneworleans.org 

Printed Meeting Book and Production Process Documentation. Created the next iteration of the printed meeting booklet, available at Central Office August 2025. And while doing so, also created thorough step-by-step documentation of how we created this printed meeting booklet using our office’s current technology. This publication process was updated significantly from the first iteration (released in October 2024) to be more efficient and apply lessons learned from the first publication process. We hope documenting the process will also make this task a service contribution for volunteers interested in being part of. 

Office Procedures Update. We have been updating our office procedures manual to reflect new procedures and updates to previous procedures based on newer technology and recent experiences of our Fellowship and society at large. These procedures are being documented for both volunteers (current and new) and front desk workers’ tasks as well as the office manager’s tasks. Our intention with these updated procedures is so we can effectively train new volunteers and special workers on the technology and tasks involved in day-to-day, month-to-month and annual requirements to keep the office operational and our products and services available to our members and visitors.

Service Board Inventory. We heard out the voices present from our fellowship and have begun processing those comments to bring our office’s contribution to a collective effort and list of goals for the future of the office and our board. This includes adding the Exploring the By-Laws, Together section of the monthly Bulletin, as suggested by a member in attendance at the inventory.

Bulletin Backer. Annual Subscriptions: April 2025: 4, $144. May 2025: 3, $108. June 2025: 5, $180. July 2025: 1, $36 (to date). $36/year for 12 monthly printed Bulletins; digital PDF version available via our website and email list.

Technology Upgrades – Zoom for Hybrid Meetings. Our Service Board meetings and recent inventory and committee meetings have been successfully hosted in the hybrid meeting setting via Zoom. We hope this accessibility feature of our meetings will encourage more participation in this meetings and committees across our regional Fellowship. How to best provide records of attendance of online participants in discussion.