May 2025 DCM Report to Area 58 Assembly

My name is Matt, I am an alcoholic. My sobriety date is December 20^th 2017 and my Home Group is KISS in the amazing District 22. I’m grateful to be serving as District Committee Member and continuing my journey of spiritual growth. We hold our District business meetings in a hybrid format on the 4^th Monday of every month at 6 PM; in-person at the Lafayette Community Center and on Zoom meeting ID 345 408 4570.

              It has been a challenging but rewarding past couple of months with a transition in our Treasurer position. We have had difficulties with the transition of our last two Treasurers and it is remarkable how multiple small mistakes can lead to a large opportunity for learning. We have a new trusted servant, Jack M., who will be helping us reconcile our expenses and forecast for the coming year. We do not have a scheduled month for budget presentation and we are considering July 1 as the beginning of our fiscal year. Our elections are in September for our District service positions so this would give new trusted servants time to settle into their service position before being asked to present a budget line-item request. During our financial transparency discussions, several groups wanted to have an annual tracking of contributions per group. With this in mind, we will also be tracking contributions and presenting those numbers, similarly to how Area 58 does. I’m grateful that my District has been so gracious with me and our outgoing Treasurer as we muddled through all this fun with finances.

              Aside from electing a new Treasurer, I have continued my mission to visit every group in our District. According to the Area Roster, cross referenced with my visits and the Meeting Guide app, we have 31 active groups with 60 meetings a week. My heart tells me there are more meetings than this but I will have an exact count by our May Assembly. That is a commitment I’m making to the entire Area!

              I want to give a huge thank you to my District for the support in going to PRAASA last weekend. I am still reeling from the experience. I was able to see an old friend, make new friends and reflect on my place in AA as a whole. I’m grateful for AA and the humility that it teaches me through a variety of experiences – this was my first PRAASA and I’m so grateful for the messages shared by the presenters during panels and the open mic comments after those presentations. I was able to go to the mic and speak during the What’s On Your Mind session and I was filled with gratitude for the ability to share my experience, strength and hope with such an amazing group of people. It was a genuine honor to be able to speak, just like it is an honor to share with the Area as a DCM.

              I still feel a bit gobsmacked by my experience in Alaska (or it could be the jump to Daylight Savings Time) but I am hopeful that prayer and meditation will get my heart back to the normal eccentric that I am – not this gobsmacked guy who uses the word gobsmacked. Our District has a very enthusiastic and motivated group of committee Chairs and GSRs who are committed to reaching the still suffering alcoholic. We have our Pre-Conference Sharing Session on March 29^th and our Grapevine Chair Chelsea H. is working with Amber N. to host a “Share Your Slice of Life” pizza-fueled Grapevine Writing Workshop on May 3^rd. Please email me at dcm22@aa-oregon.org if you’d like a copy of the flyers. They will also be posted on our district website: https://aa-oregon-yamhill.org/

Thank you for allowing me to be of service,

Matt M.

March 2025 DCM Report to Area 58 Assembly

My name is Matt, I am an alcoholic. My sobriety date is December 20^th 2017 and my Home Group is KISS in the amazing District 22. I’m grateful to be serving as District Committee Member and continuing my journey of spiritual growth. We hold our District business meetings in a hybrid format on the 4^th Monday of every month at 6 PM; in-person at the Lafayette Community Center and on Zoom meeting ID 345 408 4570.

              It has been a challenging but rewarding past couple of months with a transition in our Treasurer position. We have had difficulties with the transition of our last two Treasurers and it is remarkable how multiple small mistakes can lead to a large opportunity for learning. We have a new trusted servant, Jack M., who will be helping us reconcile our expenses and forecast for the coming year. We do not have a scheduled month for budget presentation and we are considering July 1 as the beginning of our fiscal year. Our elections are in September for our District service positions so this would give new trusted servants time to settle into their service position before being asked to present a budget line-item request. During our financial transparency discussions, several groups wanted to have an annual tracking of contributions per group. With this in mind, we will also be tracking contributions and presenting those numbers, similarly to how Area 58 does. I’m grateful that my District has been so gracious with me and our outgoing Treasurer as we muddled through all this fun with finances.

              Aside from electing a new Treasurer, I have continued my mission to visit every group in our District. According to the Area Roster, cross referenced with my visits and the Meeting Guide app, we have 31 active groups with 60 meetings a week. My heart tells me there are more meetings than this but I will have an exact count by our May Assembly. That is a commitment I’m making to the entire Area!

              I want to give a huge thank you to my District for the support in going to PRAASA last weekend. I am still reeling from the experience. I was able to see an old friend, make new friends and reflect on my place in AA as a whole. I’m grateful for AA and the humility that it teaches me through a variety of experiences – this was my first PRAASA and I’m so grateful for the messages shared by the presenters during panels and the open mic comments after those presentations. I was able to go to the mic and speak during the What’s On Your Mind session and I was filled with gratitude for the ability to share my experience, strength and hope with such an amazing group of people. It was a genuine honor to be able to speak, just like it is an honor to share with the Area as a DCM.

              I still feel a bit gobsmacked by my experience in Alaska (or it could be the jump to Daylight Savings Time) but I am hopeful that prayer and meditation will get my heart back to the normal eccentric that I am – not this gobsmacked guy who uses the word gobsmacked. Our District has a very enthusiastic and motivated group of committee Chairs and GSRs who are committed to reaching the still suffering alcoholic. We have our Pre-Conference Sharing Session on March 29^th and our Grapevine Chair Chelsea H. is working with Amber N. to host a “Share Your Slice of Life” pizza-fueled Grapevine Writing Workshop on May 3^rd. Please email me at dcm22@aa-oregon.org if you’d like a copy of the flyers. They will also be posted on our district website: https://aa-oregon-yamhill.org/

Thank you for allowing me to be of service,

Matt M.

November DCM Report

My name is Matt, and I am an Alcoholic. My sobriety date is December 20th, 2017. My home group is KISS in Newberg on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays. We have a speaker meeting on the last Saturday of the month where we have a dessert potluck at 7 and speaker at 8. Our speaker meeting is this coming Saturday.
I’ve started reading the Plain Language Big Book and will withhold judgement until I finish it. One of the lessons my mom taught me is not to knock it until I try it. I take everything to the extreme so I won’t knock it or give it any praise until I finish it! Our local Intergroup office has copies so please reach out to them to schedule a time to visit their office at the Co-Op in Mac. If you need a phone number for Intergroup, please let me know so I can connect you with Sherri.
It feels like a lifetime ago since the November Assembly but it only ended 8 days ago. That is very difficult for me to believe. We have two tabled motions for discussion and I really appreciated seeing District 22 show up. Shout out to Sara H, Laura L, James H, Ashley S and James J for participating in their first in-person Assembly. I had fear during my first assembly but my higher power supported me throughout. I thank my higher power for the courage to show up at Assemblies and not feel out of place. If you were at the Assembly, I believe you were supposed to be there and I hope you felt comfortable. Please let me know if there are ways we can improve the atmosphere so that more GSRs want to show up and be a part of.
I reached out to the City of Lafayette about giving gifts for their annual toy drive. The Lafayette fire department facilitates the drive and we are more than welcome to give donations. In the past, we discussed purchasing toys as a way of “paying our rent” for the meeting space. I believe this would be an awesome opportunity to take toys along with meeting lists for a potentially life saving AA plug. We have until December 18th to drop off gifts but the sooner we get them delivered, the sooner they can wrap. I’ve put this in New Business to discuss later on.
I want to give a huge shout out to the planning committee for the Friendsgiving event. You all did such an amazing job of planning and delivering a wonderful event. I’ve already heard two people talking about how nice it was to meet people from neighboring towns. We didn’t get to the ask-it-basket but we had so much going on. Fellowship was the primary goal and it was accomplished! Deb’s decorations, Melissa’s follow up during the dessert auction, the speaker that Brian invited, James and Ashley’s food juggling were just a couple of the amazing acts of service that I saw. And Santa’s surprise showing was great. That put a huge smile on my face.
Last but not least, I want to acknowledge the Pay It Forward group in Sheridan. I went to their meeting last Wednesday and it was awesome! They have a beautiful meeting space with all sorts of AA decorations and the recovery is real. They meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 PM and I encourage all of you to go say hi.

Thank you for allowing me to be of service,
Matt

Message from the DCM

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