Minutes: Board of Trustees
November 12, 2020
4:30 CT p.m.
1. Call to order/Serenity Prayer- Scott

Present: Derita, ​John, Paul, Scott, Kelsey, Bezhad, Elaine

2. Approval of Sept 10 meeting minutes​*- Scott

Motion to approve by Kelsey , seconded by John . Unanimous approval
3. Approval of Sept 25 Board workshop minutes​*- Scott

Motion to approve by John, seconded by Paul . Unanimous approval
4. Communications cmt- Colleena. Standards/expectations for editing writings for EA​*
Colleen and Elaine wrote up guidelines as information for the membership toencourage more submissions. They will be posted on the website andcommunicated to the membership.
b. New plan for approving new materials. ​Colleen and Elaine are working on
finding a system to move materials through the approval process. Elaine/Colleen
will send an email with details. Kelsey is willing to teach people how to use
google docs for editings.
5. Chat meeting update- Scott
Scott is having conversations with chat moderators -they are functioning and there areno/few complaints.
6. Changing the time of the monthly meetings and method - Scott
Elaine will send out a survey to find a time/date that works for everyone. Colleen will
check to see if others can be administrators on GTM for our meetings.
7. Outcomes evaluation effort- PaulPaul reached out to a professor at Loyola who does outcome studies for nonprofits to dosome research on the efficacy of EA programs. She came back with a proposal (seeattached). Scott didn’t think it violates any tradition around anonymity. Kesley suggested
we try to focus on members who have been with the program for a few years. Paulthinks the biggest challenge will be to find volunteers to participate. Elaine thinks it will
be very helpful to present to healthcare providers. We will communicate the opportunity
to get involved in all the ‘usual’ ways. This will both provide data to healthcare providers
as well as to the general public. Paul’s foundation would cover the costs of the study.
8. Financial report​**- Paul
YTD basis for September financials show improvements in our sales and contributions
and expenses are down. Things are looking encouraging. We believe that individual
contributions may be up because people are giving separately online instead of throughgroup meetings.
9. 50th Anniversary plans- PaulPaul wants to spearhead some efforts to celebrate the anniversary. Greta also isinterested in helping. We put some information out to encourage people to get involved
but haven’t heard much back yet. Board ideas should be sent to Paul.
10. International licenses for materials - 3% royalty- Paula.) are we increasing itb.) what do we think it should be ultimatelyc.) If increased, in one move or over 3-5 years
Australia wants to publish their own materials in English but the difference between
sales and royalties came up. Paul suggests a royalty of closer to 10%, gradually increased
over a few years. Elaine pointed out the need to enforce the copyright as well. A proposal
will be created for the next meeting with a plan for raising royalties and find ways tocommunicate with the membership that copying the materials is illegal if they don’t pay
for it. We can’t control others but we can control our message. Scott will work on thecommunications. Paul will work on the royalty piece.
11. Insurance update- PaulPaul had our insurance requoted and we will save about $1,100/year going forward.
12. Sponsorship/solution for people who want
- Paulsponsors to be matched with locally. Possibility of setting up an area of the website forpeople to volunteer to be sponsors and others to seek remote sponsors?
Haven’t done any work on this yet - it would be nice to have a place on the website formatching sponsors up. Scott will send some information about sponsorship and Elaine
will figure out how to communicate it with the membership. Colleen suggested that weneed very clear definitions/tutorials about what it means to be a sponsor.
13. Revisit water bottles for sale?
- Elaine
Could put “established 1971” on the bottle. Slogans would be on the bottle. Elaine isgoing to order them.
14. Member request (Leigh from Australia)​*
Leigh participates in the Apple Valley meeting. Elaine will get back to him to ask to use it.
They could be posted on our apps. Re: the video - the board could put a video together
on sponsorship and meetings in general. These would be testimonies, not speaking onbehalf of the organization. Colleen suggested creating some ‘hacks’ like ‘how to get intoEA.” Kelsey would like to help - Elaine and Kelsey will talk about how to move thisforward. These would be positioned as personal stories, not as spokespeople for EAI.

*See further detail on next pages.
**Documents will be separately via email#4: Communications

Guidelines for Writing for ESH and Newsletter
Thank you for offering to share your story and message with our Fellowship. When writing forEA publications and emails, you want to understand the focus of each piece, the guidelines forlength and the estimated deadline, as well as any special considerations to keep in mind and thecontact person for submitting your draft. You can refer to the table below for helpful
information.
Also, it’s important to ensure accuracy and readability by making sure your draft doesn’t haveany serious structure or grammar errors or misspellings, and that the tone of your writing is in
keeping with the purpose of the piece. You will want to avoid colloquialisms, acronyms, anduniquely English phrases or references, and carefully consider your use of humor.
Finally, please note the Emotions Anonymous International has final review and approval of all
EA writings. EAI can edit materials for length, spelling, grammar, style and tone so they areappropriate to include in EA publications.
Here are more tips from the ​Harvard Writing Center​. In brief, you will strive to write active
sentences (“I did this” instead of “this was done”); have a logical structure and flow (such as
keeping similar thoughts together in one paragraph); be careful about using dashes, hyphens,colons and parentheses, which can interfere with readability, and always use the Spelling &Grammar feature in Word to spellcheck your work. One way to double-check accuracy is to cut
and paste your draft in this ​free Grammar Check site​. Click on the underlined references to lookat options for correcting any errors.
Following these guidelines will help you produce written pieces that are clear and compelling for
all EA members to enjoy! All reflections/articles can be submitted by email to Elaine at
director@emotionsanonymous.org​. Please include your permission to use your writing as EAI
sees fit. Material submitted will be saved and used when appropriate.

Type of Article

Focus

Suggested
LengthWhere published

Front page
newsletter article

Reflection on something
700 words
pertinent to the current month- ie Nov - gratitude month,
October - Annual
Membership meeting recap

Monthly Strength & Hope
newsletter

Quick Tip of Month

Easy action ideas toencourage serenity

30 words

Monthly –Strength & Hope
newsletter

EA Reflection

Any subject

Typically
Monthly –about 100Strength & Hopewords but can newsletterbe up to 500.

Promise for theMonth

Reflection on a particularpromise

1-2 sentences

website

ESH

Reflection on current subject(past included JFTs, Health
Meetings, Gratitude). Focus
changes every 12 weeks.

4-5 sentencesemail#15: ​Member request (Leigh from Australia ​leighblashki@bigpond.com​)

1. Have you considered producing a short introductory video (about 5 minutes) that provides anoutline of the benefits of EA and a simple, secular explanation of how meetings work? It could
include 2-3 people briefly saying how they have been helped (if there are some who are prepared
to do this - I know I would) or someone from the Board. A video would provide a more engaging
way to introduce people to EA, than the current pamphlet does.
2. My idea is to offer a slightly different meeting.In my (volunteer) work as a meditation teacher andmentor, I have recognized the need to support EA members with some regular guidedmeditation.I would see this new Zoom-based, weekly meeting as have only a couple of readings
at the beginning, followed by a 25-30 minute guided meditation (tailored to 12-step programs –example at: ​https://vimeo.com/461827122​ ) and then about 20 minutes for sharing. (an hour intotal).
3. I also understand the importance of non-affiliation as one of our Traditions. The main reason therecording is shared on the iRest Vimeo is that I don’t have a Vimeo account that allows for me tomake it publicly available.However raising this issue got me thinking that perhaps EAI could
consider having a page on its website for ‘other resources’, on which various books andrecordings etc could be listed (after being vetted by the Board for suitability). At Zoom meetingsmembers often mention a helpful book they had read or useful recording/video they had listenedto. Having such resources simply listed on a page, without any active promotion may be a usefulsupport for members.