Greetings, and welcome to the preparations for the 2020 International AA Convention. My name is Megan M, and I am the GaL-AA 2020 convention chairperson. My deputy chair Marty and I will be giving you steady updates on our progress – and updates on ways you can get involved both at the convention itself and in pre-convention fundraising near you to support GaL- AA’s 2020 events, including the Friday night dance and a hotel hospitality suite.
Please sign up on the GaL-AA website, gal-aa.org, to receive email communications about the 2020 conven- tion (and the rest of the great work GaL-AA does!). On behalf of the entire 2020 convention GaL-AA team, we are looking forward to working with you, and we are excited to welcome you to Detroit.
Yours in service, Megan M., Detroit Committee Chair
It was very exciting at “Together We Can” the LGBT recovery conference in Detroit, held at the Troy Mar- riot this March. The GaL-AA Board came out in force to help get us started on the 2020 International Conven- tion to be held in Detroit. The Board was here in De- troit back in 2017 to plant the seed for “Love and Tol- erance is Our Code” in 2020. This year they held a meet and greet before the conference, where we met the Atlanta 2015 chair. They also held a very success- ful workshop to help us start getting organized for 2020 and to think about fundraising.
Atlanta had a very successful LGBT presence at the 2015 International Convention and we hope to be equally successful. Atlanta instituted the first “Miss International Sobriety” and we plan to continue this tradition. It was a very fun and engaging fundraiser for the Atlanta Committee. Speaking of Fundraising, we plan to start off small, first with events among the LGBT groups in Detroit. We will need your help, we can not do this alone. Between the March Roundup (mainstream AA) And Together We Can, we collected over 50 e-mail addresses.
We would like to get support from across the country and around the world. We in Michigan have a tradi- tional rivalry with Ohio and we have garnered some interest with our friends from the Buckeye State. The attendees from Toronto, Canada have already shown support. Just as AA grew from a handful of people, we plan to grow in order to have the best LGBT represen- tation at the 2020 International Convention. The theme of “Love and Tolerance is our Code” could not better reflect our attitude of acceptance of ourselves and others in AA, as well as the world at large. Hope to see you and meet you at the convention.
Yours in service, Martin Mc., Detroit Committee Deputy Chair