Minneapolis/St. Paul May 15, 1999

Please copy this newsletter for your group.

Gopher State Roundup is coming up on May 28 ­ 30, 1999. It will be held at the Radisson Hotel South in Bloomington. Registration is $10. There are eight speakers, meetings, and A.A. films planned. Last year there were over 6,000 registered.

The GLBT in A.A. Hospitality Room will be in room 225 again this year. Saturday night, before the keynote speaker, there will be a potluck dinner in our Hospitality Room. Bring a dish to pass and a big appetite! Hope to see you there!

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"June Is Bustin’ Out All Over"

Saturday, June 5, 1999

9 PM

Dance preceded by an 8 PM Meeting

2218 1^st Ave. So.

Minneapolis

$5 Donation Suggested

Bring "finger food" for the potluck table

The Pride Alumni Association is sponsoring a recovery weekend, June 11, 12, and 13. The weekend will open with a picnic and meeting at Pride Institute on Friday at 6 PM. The remainder of the weekend will be held at the Minneapolis Regal Hotel.

There will be several speaker meetings and workshops, plus entertainment.

The weekend is open to everyone in recovery ­ not only Pride Alumni. Plan on attending! It is a great opportunity for fellowship and strengthening your sobriety. As Blanche, an Al-Anon speaker said about such opportunities, "You never know when you will find the piece that just fits!""

We are also sponsoring a dance on June 5^th. Donations from this dance will go to help finance next years Gopher State Hospitality Room, the meeting list, this newsletter, and literature for the IAC Representatives.

Pledges have been received to keep the Web Site up and running for the next year.

Buttons have been ordered for IAC, to help people become aware of it and fund it’s projects. A button announcing the IAC Dance at the International Convention is also being ordered. They should be available in June.

The GLBT in A.A. Hospitality Committee also met on May 2, 1999. The Project Plan was discussed, and several committee chair persons named. There are several chair positions still open, so if you would like to get involved, please contact Sally B. or Donovan H. There will also be sign up sheets at Gopher State Roundup and at the Dance on June 5^th.

One of the big projects for the International Convention is going to be scheduling volunteers. About 250 volunteers will be needed. We do have over a dozen volunteers who have sign up from around the U.S. and Canada, and we have received one from Australia and one from the Virgin Islands. It is really exciting to feel this is truly an International Event!

We have requested the 14^th floor of the Minneapolis Regal Hotel for the Hospitality Room space. GSO will make not assign space until June. We have also put in a bid for the first floor cafeteria space at Minneapolis Community and Technical College for the IAC Dance, which will be held July 1, 2000.

The Hospitality Room will require at least 5 volunteers every hour for three days! We also need several committees to plan and put up decorations, plan a welcoming social, sell dance tickets and man the information table.

The Dance will be the largest project. At the last convention an estimated 2000 were in attendance and the dance was several miles from the Convention. If we obtain the College as a dance site, we will be about 6 blocks from the Convention, so could have more attending the dance than ever before. For the dance we will need decorators to help set up, ticket takers, people to clean up during and after the dance, among others.

There will also be three panel discussions for the GLBT A.A. community during the Convention. We will need ushers for these, also. GSO will work with IAC to pick from those who register, who will sit on the panels and facilitate them.

Lots of work lies ahead, so please get involved and do some service work - and have fun at the same time! Our planning meetings are held the first Sunday of the month, except for holidays, when we meet the second Sunday. Meetings are held at 2218 1^st Ave. So.

We will be making available, buttons for the dance and for IAC at future events. They will be available for a small donation for the Hospitality Committee/IAC.

They have developed a packet for distribution at round-ups. They have greatly increased the number of IAC Regional, State, and City Representatives, forming a much better network than what has been enjoyed in the past. They will be posting IACTIVITY on the IAC Web Site in the near future. IAC also provides experience, strength and hope to gay and lesbian A.A. groups around the world and to loners who have no other regular contact with gay fellowship. They have been working with GSO and GLBT in A.A. Hospitality Committee to increase our presence at the International Convention in the year 2000. They have also been working hard to make ends meet financially.

IAC has published a directory of world GLBT meetings available for $5, which includes mailing.

As you can see, they have been doing wonderful service work in our community. They also need our support! All the phone calls, printing, and mailing adds up, as well as working on funds for the initial layout for the International Convention.

Please remind your group (or do it as an individual) to support IAC financially. It can be done as part of the breakout of the 7^th Tradition, or as a separate pledge. You can do it anyway you want, but please do it!

We would like to thank all of you who have donated time and money to helping us in carrying the message. Thank you to the groups that have included us in the 7^th Tradition or who have pledged set amounts each month. Also, thank you to the individuals who have pledged monthly amounts to keep the Web Site up and running over the next year.

If you or your group would like to make a donation for the International Convention in the year 2000, or to the continuation of this newsletter, the GLBT Meeting List, the Web Site, or the Gopher State Round-up Hospitality Room, please state what the donation is for and send it to:

IAC ( the International Advisory Council for Homosexual Men and Women in Alcoholics Anonymous) have the new edition of the World Directory of GLBT meetings. They are $5 each. The IAC newsletter, IACTIVITY is free, but a donation of $5 is suggested to help with expenses including postage. Both can be ordered from IAC: a non-profit corporation, P.O. Box 18212, Washington, DC 20036-8212.

Please check to see if your group is including IAC in the 7^th Tradition. Some members also make a special gift to IAC on their anniversary date of one or two dollars per year. IAC offers many services for our community. Please support them.

IAC’s Web Page has ordering information and other information and will soon include IACTIVITY at: www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/8450.