Public Information Committee Report

Ist Quarter

Purpose: 

The Public Information Committee’s primary purpose is to carry the AA message to the alcoholic who still suffers. The Committee promotes the unity of online AA groups in accordance with Tradition One; carries the message of AA in accordance with Tradition Five; and responds to the needs of the online AA groups in accordance with Tradition Nine. The Committee provides a central source of information about Alcoholics Anonymous; OIAA and answers general questions about our website; the OIAA organization; listed online meetings; the directory; requests for general information; and complaints or directs those concerns to the appropriate committee for a response.  

First Quarter 2024:

The Public Information Committee received 187 legitimate inquiries from January 1 through March 31 2024. We received 55 spam emails during the same period. All spam emails were rejected and reported to Google. Those ranged from offers to purchase bit coin, drug products, or web services.

Roughly 95% of the legitimate requests were answered by a PIC member with the 5% being forwarded to the Policies and Admissions Committee, Steppers, or a Board member for a reply. All queries received prompt replies, usually within hours of receipt.

PIC has 5 active members currently. The chairperson reached out to all listed PIC members during the quarter and heard from four individuals, Bill P., Dave W., Suzanne M., and Wamala N., that they wished to continue serving. We added two new volunteers during the quarter — one who responded to one request before disappearing and a second who has not responded after receiving the Google Workspace training module. Wamala completed the training module and replied to one request, but he does not respond to email now.

We have requested volunteers for the committee but received only one response to that request. She completed the training but replied to one request before deleting her PIC email address. The necessity to use either a tablet or computer to access Workspace seems to be a stumbling block. Some members used smartphones for their volunteer work in the past and are unwilling or unable to use the Google Workspace platform.

Managing incoming email requests is doable with our present “crew.” We rarely receive more than 2 or 3 requests per day.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary M.

Public Information Committee Chair

pic.chair@aa-intergroup.org