Area 11 Guidelines Ad Hoc Committee Proposed Policy Updates/Changes
(based on actual practice)
As of August 2026 – Draft

Presented March, May and July 2026
1. Special Service Committee meeting minutes:
Current: Monthly meeting minutes sent to Area Delegate
Suggested Change: Monthly meeting minutes to be sent to Area Chair and Area
Archives
Justification:
● Upon review, committees are not currently doing this and have not done this for
quite some time
● In consultation with the current Delegate, Area Chair and Archives Chair, special
service committee meeting minutes would be most useful if sent to the Area
Chair and Archives.
● Is there a common practice? In looking at other Area Guidelines, they all do
different things. Many do not mention it at all.

2. Suggested Length of Sobriety for Archives and Communication Chair:
Current: 5 years suggest sobriety
Suggested Change: 3 years of suggested sobriety
Justification:
● All other Special Service Representatives have 3 years as suggested length of
sobriety
● In consultation with current Archives and Communications Chairs, these
positions do not currently or in recent rotations have not had chairpersons with
the suggested length of sobriety
● In consultation with current Archives and Communications Chairs, both agree a
minimum suggested sobriety of 3 years is sufficient
● Is there a common practice or guidelines set in the AA Service Manual? No.
Other
● Areas have various suggestions from 1-5 years of suggested sobriety. The AA
● Service Manual does mention ‘Other Area Officers’ which somewhat corresponds
with our Special Service Committee Structure (pg. 28) but does not give a
suggested length of sobriety for these roles

Area 11 Guidelines Ad Hoc Committee Proposed Policy Updates/Changes
(based on actual practice)
As of August 2026 – Draft

Presented May and July 2026
3. Change of location of Area Committee Meetings
Current: located at 581 Meriden Ave, Southington, CT
Changed to: online
Why? That is our new current practice
4. Area 11 Representative to Connecticut Al-Anon – THIS WAS ALREADY VOTED ON
AN APPROVED…. So this is now about the job description, not the position itself.
Current: We had two (2) Area 11 positions that worked with Al-Anon:

– Al-Anon Workshop Representatives
– Al-Anon Convention Representative

Change to: One (1) position titled Area 11 Representative to Connecticut Al-Anon
Why?
● Working in partnership with Al-Anon, their need is to have one point person at Area
11 who can identify an AA representative for workshops or conventions as needed.
● Because the Al-Anon schedule has changed a bit, they may or may not have a
convention or workshops each year. It is therefore unnecessary to have a
permanent position for events that may not even happen.
● This does not reduce our collaboration with Al-Anon. It is simply making it more
efficient so Al-Anon has a single point person for communication who can get them
AA speakers, volunteers, planning representatives as needed.
● The committee wrote the job description in collaboration with Connecticut Al-Anon,
Area 11 Delegate and past people in these positions.
Click HERE to see the draft.

5. Intergroups – THIS IS NOT A POLICY CHANGE – just a description
Current: There was nothing written in the Area 11 Guidelines about Intergroup at all
Change to: Having a section that defines what an Intergroup is (based on materials in
The AA Service Manual and The AA Home Group pamphlet) and lists the two
intergroups that do currently exist in Area 11.
Click HERE to see the draft.