Minutes: Annual Membership Meeting. Sept 14, 2019 – Approved as they read below on
10/8/19
Scott J.’s President of EA message focused on thriving, and health and wellness. Looking at how
we can increase engagement among the membership. Key points he focused on were: * A year
ago we only had three trustees on the board * After a purposeful effort to get more on theboard, there are now six trustees * Right now, we have the equivalent of 1.4 employees. If wehad more money, this staffing situation could increase in order to be able to reach morepeople. * How to attract people without promoting (Scott clarified the difference between
attraction and promotions – see notes later in the meeting’s minutes) * We are working on
partnerships within EA * Scott believes that the board is well rounded based on who is serving
and the skills that they have. * Gus is deeply missed (he was the former EA President who died
unexpectedly in March) * When we sent out votes to groups in previous years for ratification,
we had fewer than 30 groups voting to ratify. * Engagement has increased as a result of theissues of whether to refer to God or Higher Power and in terms of the way proposed bylaw
changes were presented. * Reactions to proposed by-law changes and controversy aroundreference to God/Higher Power resulted in decreased donations from the fellowship in thespring of 2019, which hurt the organization as a whole in trying to achieve our mission. * Scottlooks forward to re-energized committees, as well as new committees. * We as a board
continue to emphasize integrity and transparency.
Elaine’s Director’s report focused on * We have a competent and dedicated staff. * Claire has
been helpful doing a plethora of things, including keeping donor records. * Sandy Wells
manages accounting as well as incoming orders. * Carlene manages shipping. * Officecontinues to be closed on Fridays. * Elaine’s grateful for the staff. * She’s focused on
addressing technology issues and updating software systems. * She’s making significant inroads
into the Global EA community – i.e. EA is active in Germany and there are two groups in Iran. *She’s hopeful that with a full board that we can move the organization forward.
Scott summarized for those who might be on the EA Annual meeting telephone call and are notfamiliar with who we are - EA has been around since 1971. People gather in person, on chatrooms, phone, and skype.
Steve motioned to adopt rules of order, John seconded. Motion passed.
Each group gets 1 vote. Charlie from NJ wanted to confirm which group he will represent – heselected a Skype group to represent instead of the one from NJ.
Steve gave a report re: a new Bylaws Committee that’s being formed and summarized: * We’recurrently accepting applications for the committee until Sept 30. * The work the bylaws
committee will be charged with is to work on the bylaws without specifically trying to address
hot-button topics. There will likely be some proposed changes to the bylaws. The goal is tofocus on how we operate as a fellowship and how the bylaws can be written in a way that
supports this work and to make sure that the membership gets to ratify all changes. *Membership applications are available on the website. * Membership/fellowship will adopt orrevise by-laws, not solely the committee’s recommendation.
Questions were fielded from callers about procedural vs. content in regard to by-laws.
Steve shared that the plan is to hold at least one group telephone meeting each month 60-90
minutes in length on days which are mutually convenient for everyone with the first meeting
being held in October, if possible.
Colleen gave a report re: Communications Committee summarizing: * We are putting together
a communication plan regarding how best to communicate with members. * From October 131 we’re accepting applications. * We’re encouraging people to apply for the committee. *The challenge and opportunity is to pull groups together around the world.
Scott’s report on activity in regards to Books and Lit.: *There seems to be both good group
growth and health and individual growth in people as they are reading the new pamphlets, asgroups are working the steps, and people are using exciting and transforming new material likethe Welcoming Spiritual Awakenings Workbook. * Ongoing reflection questions are being
added to pamphlets – we will be rolling this out as we can afford to make these revisions – interms of new language in pamphlets they will focus on ‘trusted servants’ instead of ‘leaders’
Paul’s report on the finances - *he reviewed 2019 vs. 2018, as well as FY20 forecast * he was
asked about # of total groups – 650 registered groups across the world, no way to really know
how many groups there are as many don’t register to be included on the website
We had an open discussion during this annual meeting asking for ideas to attract more people
which are as follows: * Contact medical professionals, religious organizations, gov’t, editors,writers, articles, radio, use internet as best as possible - Scott cleared up promotion vs.
attraction: promotion includes a promise of a result of doing something, attraction provides
information/creates awareness. EA does not promise anything – all efforts to share themessage focus on letting people know of EA’s existence.
Comments from members on other matters: * Someone mentioning that foundation wasshaken due to literature changes. This person noted that ‘people are trusted servants’ and said
that the emphasis should be to ‘consider the current membership before attracting morepeople’ * Someone recommended that we make sure that we show up on Google results,
Google Maps * Someone noted the need for more outreach and more financial donations –that we can improve online donations from members. * Someone said that getting newmembers to stay is difficult. * Someone else asked if he is allowed to put into a paper a noticeof the meeting and the answer is yes, he is allowed to do that. * Someone commented thatthey would like the literature could be less expensive. * Derita’s comments: In Ohio they havea meeting in a hospital once a month * If WE want the fellowship to grow, WE have to get theword out.

The membership meeting closed with Announcements: * There’s an Annual telephone
conference call, Oct 19, how to cope with fear and anxiety using EA tools. Greta stated that thiswill be her last year managing the annual phone conference and invited anyone who would liketo do it in the future to contact her.
We closed the Annual membership meeting with the Serenity Prayer.