Covid at WSBC

The conference started with 188 voting delegates. By the last session Saturday morning, that number was down to 170. That shrinkage happens every year — because people have to leave early, for example. But this year, two people were reported to have tested positive for Covid on Thursday afternoon, and they were not isolated incidents,…

More OA numbers

The World Service Business Conference is so committed to information’s getting back to intergroups, réunions, and individual members that the conference manual’s first appendix is a form to be filled out indicating the sorts of information that should be carried back home. The first few blocks of the form are about who attended the conference,…

Reconsideration (or not)

R6 Chair Kimberly C asked on Friday for the conference to reconsider its decision of Thursday to consider major religious holidays in the scheduling of future conferences. Her rationale was that nonreligious people could feel as though they had been relegated to lesser status. Indeed, the second pro speaker said as much, quite emotionally. She

Term limit debate

One the last measures the conference considered was to add term limits for trustees. This was offered as a bylaw amendment: “Trustees shall be elected at the annual WorldService Business Conference for a period of threeyears. Trustees may be elected at any annual Conference in order to fill the remaining term created by a vacancy

Gender in the Steps

One set of proposals would have changed the Steps(!!) by removing references to “Him.” For example, Étape 11 would have changed to read, “…to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God….” I think it is fair to say that many delegates expected these proposals to be among the most controversial this week….

Growing pains

The chair’s first comment this morning included a parable about working together. She said she has sensed growing divisions among us, white vs. nonwhite, English speakers vs. non-English speakers, and American vs. non-American. She did not say so, but the comment may have been spurred by the vote on taking religious holidays into account when

Trustees elected

Owing to rotation of service and other factors, 10 vacancies out of 17 positions existed on the Board of Trustees as delegates gathered for the conference. Six candidates stood for election, and all were elected. One of the vacancies materialized because Beth B., La Région 6 syndic, reached the end of her term and chose not