In this article, Gillian shares her experiences as the Continental European Region (CER) Delegate to Conference, giving an insight into how questions can be proposed to Conference. She also reflects on her first time attending Conference, where she was struck by the strong sense of camaraderie and fellowship.
CER is part of the AAGB service structure which is composed of 16 regions. Each region has a team of six delegates who are responsible for taking the opinion of their region to the annual AA Conference in York. I am the delegate to Committee 3.
Every year, questions are submitted to the Conference Steering Committee for approval. These questions can be on almost any topic and have to follow some quite strict guidelines. In December the definitive list of 15 – 18 questions will be published.
These questions are then discussed at group or intergroup level and members submit their responses. From January, our team of delegates have several meetings and offer an open webinar in order to collect all the responses which we then take to our individual committees.
This year, ‘24 was my first time at Conference. It was demanding and hard work but one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.
I arrived on Friday and, after a welcome meeting, it was straight into the committee room and down to the task in hand. Us newbies were known as red dotters because we wore a red sticker to identify ourselves and everyone was so welcoming and eager to help. The feeling of camaraderie and fellowship in the room was amazing.
On Saturday, we spent the whole day hammering out the best response to our questions, always bearing in mind that we were trusted servants delivering the opinions of our region. One of our questions was ‘Would Conference consider how online meetings are best represented and sharing information with each other?’ This provoked hours of discussion and editing but we finally drafted a response we were happy with.
The responses from all the committees were rapidly compiled into a final draft and delivered to an assembly of the entire conference on Sunday. Voting then took place to decide if the Committees’ recommendations should be accepted or not.
It was truly a privilege to be part of this event. Our team works year round to ensure that we serve the region in the best way possible but we can’t do this without your contributions. Please set aside time in your groups to consider this year’s questions for Conference, submit your responses on time and the delegate team will be proud to represent you at Conference 2025.
Gillian S, CER Delegate to Conference