Grapevine breakout - Regional Service Conference

Subscriptions are selling out in some groups.
Printed material is a great tool for treatment facilities and jails in order to introduce people to AA. We need printed material in addition to the website information.
Remote communities need the Grapevine as a meeting source.
Grapevine reflects our current experience, so our other literature doesn't need to be updated all the time.
Money should not be an issue.
Use the Grapevine to reach the different 'types' of alcoholics, versus trying to create a pamphlet for each group of people.

Topic 3 -- Is there too much emphasis on just buying the Grapevine to make it self-supporting? Should be create a more desirable product?

The quality of the Grapevine has not diminished.
Too much emphasis on the Grapevine being self-supporting, while the fellowship alone is not self-supporting.
Some feel too much pressure to get subscription. They would like to just give a donation to support it.
Why are people not renewing their subscriptions?
Maybe we should look at getting donations versus having subscriptions.
Don't just look at the number of subscriptions, but instead look at the number of people that are being touched by the Grapevine.
Grapevine can be connected to sponsorship.
Maybe we need to review the mission statement of the Grapevine to accurately reflect who we're trying to reach.
Why not have one publication with english and spanish together?
Why have (not current issue) subscription online if we are having problems with subscriptions.
The Grapevine has not always lost money.
What is the cost of "free literature," e.g. pamphlets that we hand out? Why is there not the same latitude with the Grapevine?

Agenda item includes LaVina going on CD. Why not the Grapevine.
Would be very helpful for the vision impaired, or those that can't read (One person of Mexican descent reported that a lot of the immigrants that venture to the US and Canada come from areas in Mexico where than can not even read Spanish, let alone English)
Question was asked if this has been an agenda item. Yes, in the past it has been.
Currently "The Best of the Grapevine" is on CD and is available at the literature table.
How cost effective is doing CD's versus tapes? It is a lot more cost effective to put them on CD than it would be to put them on cassette tapes, as they don't have to hire readers, among other reasons. Might want to try LaVina first to overcome the translation issue.

It would be interesting to see statistics on the length of sobriety of the people that get subscriptions.

There was a period of time when the Grapevine included the 'fringe' of AA and not the core.

It is trying to reflect the fellowship and be a meeting in print. Sometimes they conflict.

Some people get an edition from their group, versus sending in their own subscription.