I arrived in Winnipeg on September 28 and placed our banners and displays in a prominent place in the small showroom of the Clarion Hotel.

On Friday, September 29 at 11:00 a.m., I presented my story of La Vigne and the arrival of A.A. in Quebec to about fifty archivists in the large meeting room.
These two topics are evolving as our research finds new and verifiable information.

In the question period following the presentation, David T., Archivist of Ottawa, Area 83, asked me a question about the Dropbox and I was able to fly away on this theme that I love. The room was really suspended from my improvised speech, I gave them a small demonstration of the Dropbox's work capabilities and I think I triggered a real reflection on the subject of digitization, storage on the cloud, sharing archives between archivists from different areas and districts.

I also heard some very good presentations, including those from Gail, who is really passionate about archives and who is behind this workshop from the National Association of A.A. Archivists.

She paid tribute to Nell Wing, A.A.'s first archivist (after Bill) and traced the history of the twenty-one annual meetings of the NAAAW. It is thanks to the questions of the NAAAW archivists that G.S.O. has been able to develop an archives committee, guidelines and an archives manual, which are so rich and which really distinguish us as an association.

One word I remembered: when asked if and how archives conveyed the message, she replied that archives are the message we convey to future generations! A simple formula as I like them. As Bill said, if archives did not exist, the message would distort to the point of losing its meaning. If this were to happen, the alcoholic who still suffers would certainly not benefit from it.

Another detail caught my attention. Gail asked what kind of archivists we are, A.A. collector archivists, A.A. historians, or A.A. archivists? Each of these forms has its value and utility, but the question to ask is who we are spending all this money, time and energy on. Who do we serve? Members, groups, district, area, public?

Michelle Mirza told us about G.S.O.'s archives office. She presented us exclusively (cameras were banned until the images were approved by the Conference), a dozen very beautiful images from a previously unreleased film shot in Stepping Stones, in the presence of Bob, Bill and Lois. The film will soon be restored and returned to archives and researchers. These are absolutely awesome images that we look forward to sharing with Bill, Bob and Lois' friends.

With a Quebecer from Winnipeg, Jocelyne (90), Sylvain (89) and I had dinner in Saint-Boniface and visited Louis-Riel's tomb. This guy told us that A.A. first arrived in Winnipeg in a Langley or Headley penitentiary in 1945 and that it was a Quebecer who brought it there... It's worth checking, because it doesn't quite match the official history of the three members who founded it, including a guy named Grittir. I will try to find out more, it would be another page of the beautiful stories of the countries above.

There are many other things, including delicious meals, enriching conversations, interesting encounters and much more. I can tell you that we have a good place in the hearts of Jo-Anne and Gail, because we have our hearts in the right place too!