Minutes: Board of Trustees
January 24, 2022
11:30 CT

1. Call to order/Serenity Prayer- PaulPresent: Paul, Kelsey, Steve, Colleen, Behzad, Elaine
Absent: Derita, John
2. Approval of Nov meeting minutes- PaulMinutes
Motion to approve by Steve, seconded by Behzad. Unanimous vote to accept.
3. Literature Committee/Approval of new materials- Colleeni. #40 Control
ii. #58 Patience
iii. Possible new book
Committee met Jan 23.
Voted to pass #40 to the Board for approval. Colleen called for avote on #40, motion made by Paul, seconded by Kelsey. Unanimous vote to approve.
#58 was discussed by the committee but needs more time. Discussion around how to
get approval between board meetings and this will be done by email in the future.
Other issues addressed with the committee: A tagline and a standarized style guide isbeing developed for EAI.
A new book idea is being considered that would incorporate some previous materials
and introduce new materials. Colleen will take it back to her committee.
Potential to narrate some of our materials into audio format was also discussed. Colleen
will take this back to thecommittee as well.
4. Italian meeting guideline request addition*- Elaine
The board requests that the word “best” be replaced with the word “ideally” andeliminate the reference between mother and child. Motion by Kelsey to accept theproposal. Seconded by Colleen. Unanimous vote to approve the following: Effective
communication is ideally accomplished when we can look into each other's eyes andreflect on each other's needs. This establishes a capacity to feel the same feelings as
another individual (empathy) through the "mirroring" that is a way to create a
relationship with our interlocutor based on trust and emotional harmony. Elaine will
email Paola with this decision.
5. Psych Conference update*- Paul/SteveElectronic ‘booth’ that allowed Paul/Steve to respond to people. Many interested, neverheard of EA before. A lot of time invested in it but not a lot of responses. 82 total boothvisitors, 17 asked for more information. 134 people viewed the available video Paul had
put together. We’ll put the video on the website.
a. follow up activities- Elaine
6. Outside materials at EA meetings*- Paul/Elaine

a. Email chain
General discussion about group responsibilities vs. what EAI stands for/finds acceptable
to include in meetings. EAI can direct what individual groups do if it affects EA as awhole. EAI has created the EA program allowing individuals to express themselves.
However, there is a line that is crossed when materials are introduced that are not EA
material (for example, religious texts) as part of the meeting - if individuals want tosharesomething personally, that is different than representing the EA program. What are themeasures that we need to take? We agree we don’t want outside materials promoted ingroups. Do we just not list
groups like this on the website or do we reach out to them? A
first step would be tocommunicate that we have become aware of certain issues thatare not within the EAI
guidelines and ask that they stop. Could we communicate with allgroups about thissubject - provide what EA is for clarity to all.
7. By-law Committee update- SteveThe committee’s work is completed and the new document will be presented to theboard for review in February. The bylaws would be brought to the membership at thefall meeting. An agenda item for this will be added to a special meeting on Tuesday Feb
22 at 11:30 a.m. Steve will send the ByLaw committee this information. Elaine will
create an agenda.
8. Communications Committee update- Colleen
No meetings have been organized yet.
9. FY end financial revisions/final- Elainea. Final financial statement FY 21
EAI ended the last fiscal year in the black after accounting adjustments were made.
10. EIDL grant funding- Elaine
Received $10,000 in funding in December.
11. Sponsorship effort update- Kelsey
Working off a spreadsheet to communicate among the volunteers working on thiseffort. 80 people have requested sponsors so far, with 18 matches made. Regularfollow-up is being done by Camille and Kelsey after a month generally.
12. Sustaining donor effort results- Elaine/Paula. ongoing merchandise sales
Interest in developing water bottles with slogans and maybe blankets.

Additional information from agenda:#4 Meeting Guideline request:
Sorry if I come back to the guidelines for online meetings, but we would like you to submit
to the Board of Trustees a sentence that is very important to us and that speaks of"mirroring" psychological concept that further deepens the empathy that must be
established even in online meetings and not only in presence. And this "mirroring" is best
represented when a mother looks at her child: this image is, in our opinion, very evocativeof the mutual trust in our meetings.Thank you.
Paola
Here following the sentence to be authorized:

Effective communication is best accomplished when we can look into each other's eyes andreflect on each other's needs. This establishes a capacity to feel the same feelings as
another individual (empathy) through the "mirroring" that is a way to create a relationshipwith our interlocutor based on trust and emotional harmony, just as a mother does with herchild.
#5 Psych Conf
● December email to those who expressed interest at the booth/online● 11 email inquiries after conference - responded via email with literature#6 Outside materials
Dec 13 email to Elaine: Thanks Kathleen - the emails from Michael are troubling - mainly
because of the outside readings. The down side of 'allowing' groups to be autonomous isthat they can focus wherever/however they choose - ie just focusing on the first few Steps even if that technically doesn't follow our guidelines. I agree that your group should notshare these meetings with others. We can't control what happens around us, but we cancontrol our systems of communication. I would agree that these should not be included on
the 'official' EA meeting listing. This makes me think that we need some sort of agreementwith those who start meetings - that could be a can of worms though - but it might provide
clarity around what is/isn't an EA meeting...though anyone can start one and call it as suchand we might not even know it exists! I guess that's where we leave it at the idea that if it isa 'real' EA meeting it survives, if not, it doesn't. The Board doesn't have strict guidelines forwhen we list a meeting and when we don't - we probably need to develop some. I'm cc'ing
the board President Paul on this. Thanks for bringing it to my attention - let me know if thishelps/answers your question or not.