Group Re-registration Deadline December 31, 2023

This is an announcement all D.A. Groups regarding the requirement to re-register all meeting before December 31 and explaining the upcoming vote next year. This post is longer than most, but is important for all groups to consider.

Our new Registration form is ready for use:

ANNUAL GROUP REGISTRATION / MEETING UPDATE FORM

We ask you to fill this out before December 31, 2023. 

Why This Is Happening

There are two important reasons why this needs to be done now. 

1. The GSB and GSO want to clean up the database so that we are sure the meetings on our list are active and welcoming for all D.A. members. Recently, it’s been difficult when newcomers call the office to know if some meetings are still functioning. Some of this is due to the pandemic and the shift to video platforms. But some groups have simply not re-registered in several years. When we are helping members who call the office, we want to be able to say where and when, what focus, and how to access a meeting without worrying that we are sending someone to a non-existent location or a meeting that is not following the Traditions. 
   
   Earlier this year, we wrote about this in the Focus. D.A. Focus – First Half 2023. For the first time, we are asking you, when you register, to accept the Traditions that keep our meetings healthy.
   
2. At the time of writing in the DA Focus we hadn’t anticipated that we would have another reason for doing this. You may have heard from your GSR that A.A. has given us permission to change the Steps and Traditions to reflect Gender Neutrality and to expand Tradition 11, if the Fellowship so chooses. So D.A. will be holding a ballot in the New Year for all registered groups to vote on whether to accept changes that were proposed at the Conference in 2023, or not. (Summary of the relevant Conference Motions below.)
   
   The Conference Charter, Article 3 (DAMS 2023 – page 83) requires 75% of registered groups to agree to any change in the Steps and Traditions – not just 75% of the groups that actually vote.

Summary: Re-Registration is crucial by the end of the year. Please re-register, and encourage your Group and Intergroup to actively seek out other groups who may have let their registration lapse, and encourage them to update via the new form.

The Voting Process

One of the reasons the previous vote to update Tradition 11 did not pass is said to be that non-active meetings still on our meetings list received a ballot but didn’t vote. Since the Charter requires 75% of ALL groups to vote in favor in order to make a change to the Steps and Traditions, any groups that do not vote must automatically be counted as “no” votes. They could not be counted as “yes” votes because they could not be counted in the 75%.

We are putting forward our best efforts to avoid this happening again. If your group does not register or reregister before the deadline of December 31, 2023 your group’s old registration will not be on the website directory and your group will not be sent a ballot. 

Even if you don’t have a GSR, you will need at least two email addresses of trusted servants, one of whom will vote on the group’s behalf. It may be important, where possible, that these email addresses are of long-term members of your meeting. Please note, your registration emails for your group are your group’s access to vote in the coming ballot. 

In order to have an impartial and secure vote the GSB has contracted an outside vendor who has expertise in this area of specialized online voting. 

This information will be held in the USA by an external data processor and be shared with the company in the UK who will manage the ballot on gender neutrality. Please only share your email address if you consent to this. Some members have found that the best way to maintain anonymity is to create a specific email address for this purpose, such as “solvencyrocks@anonymousexample.com”.

Please note that it is groups who vote, through these trusted servants, not individuals. The Ballot will be open long enough for groups to determine their group conscience – approximately four months. 

Please be assured that the GSB and GSO will do everything we can to reach our D.A.groups. We will use this email method and we will do our best to contact groups via the contact information we have on file. So if you receive this and other emails more than once, we apologize but it’s in service of getting as broad a group conscience on this as we can.

The Vote to change the Steps and Traditions to reflect Gender Neutrality and to expand Tradition 11.

For your information, here are the two motions that were passed by substantial unanimity at the WSC 2023 in Newark:

1. The WSC Literature Committee moves that the conference approves authorizing the General Service Board to send out a ballot to the registered groups of the Debtors Anonymous Fellowship, to include the following:
   
   ‘With permission from A.A., the Conference proposes to revise the D.A. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions by replacing the words he and him with the word God, and to rephrase Tradition Two as follows: “For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as God may be expressed in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.”
   
2. The WSC Literature Committee moves that the Conference update Tradition 11 to strike out the word “and” between “radio and films” and to add at the end “television and all other public media”.
   
   The Tradition would therefore read:
   
   “Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television and all other public media.”

Yours in service,
The AdHoc Committee of the General Service Board of Debtors Anonymous