ACB 2007 International Conference Report 

Our ACB 2007 conference was yet another success. This year’s conference has marked a milestone in many ways. The outcomes of the conference were great, and new exciting things happened to help take ACB to the next level.

We announced our new website with the new multilingual approach to provide access to people in other countries, and we introduced Ulises, from Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter as the new webmaster. The process of making our site available in French and Portuguese will start soon. We have a volunteer who will help translating the website into those languages.

Our new redesigned website was not the only thing that brought ACB to the 21st century. Our conference was broadcasted over the internet. People from all over the world were able to listen, see and participate – even vote – in our conference. Ryan, from Chicago, was the Engineer who made this cutting edge technology available to us at the conference. People from all over the Internet world were able to form part of our conference, even if they weren’t present. People from places as far as Australia logged on to our broadcasting. We had a few anonymous loggers (people who logged on without registering). That was a great sign that our voice is starting to be heard all over the world.

This year’s conference approach was very social and laid back (Did we do anything in the agenda at all?). Anyway, we did have very powerful sessions, full with valuable information, but more important, sessions that provided us with the much needed safe space for us to talk about our unique experiences of being part of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender individuals. “You are not alone” was the message that echoed on each one of the attendees… a message that many of us have waited a long time to hear.

Among the informational sessions, we had a guest speaker, Viktor K. Oraham, from the Oraham Law Firm, P.C., who is an Estate Planning Attorney. Many of us as Jahovah’s Witnesses lived our lives not thinking of planning for things like retirement, estates, long-term illness, or other incidentals. Also, in the US we also face the challenges of not having recognition as same-sex married couples. Protecting our assets and our partners’ is not only an essential part of the business aspect of our lives in “the world”, but also something that many of us, coming from the Jehovah’s Witness organization, need to learn to think about and make it part of our lives.

This year the conference planning committee took a different approach to the way the conference financial planning was done. In previous years, our conference has faced financial challenges. It has also represented financial burdens to the conference planning committee. This year, thanks to the amazing work done by the planning committee, we were able to “factor-in” the financial aspect of the conference. Not only we were able to cover all conference expenses, we already have funds for next year’s conference!

Speaking of next year’s conference, ACB 2008 will mark the 10th anniversary of our international conferences. The new planning committee will decide the theme, logistics and all other aspects of the conference. For the first time in ACB’s history, the conference will be held outside the continental United States. We voted and agreed to hold our next conference in Toronto, Canada. Our Toronto chapter is hosting us next year.

Last, but not least, we are very pleased to report something that brings great satisfaction to us.  We had a visit from Ruby, a Canadian documentarian and ex-JW who decided to make a documentary in which all of us formed part of.  Our conference was recorded for the purposes of using the material for her documentary.  She also interviewed a few atenndees individually. We will provide details of the documentary as they are released.  We want to thank Ruby and her wonderful crew for including us in her project.  We love you Ruby!

Solidarity and support are the best words that can describe our 2007 International conference.  We hope to see you on our next conference.

See ACB 2007 web gallery.

Watch Flash videos of the conference.

See past conferences galleries.

See past conference reports.

Back to Home page.