[Businessmtg] Business Meeting item #2

[Dawn Werezak]

Hello Everyone,

In response to Sandie's email:

Not everyone finds ASP through WSO, or another Al-Anon member.  There are many ways to discover on line meetings.

Not everyone who joins ASP attends face to face meetings.  In my opinion they should but the reality is that many of our members do not and we are their only contact with Al-Anon.  Can we force them to go out and attend face to face meetings?  Well I think that falls into the category "change the things I can".  

Regarding membership.  ASP averages a minimum of 250 people on our server.  This number goes up and down depending on how many newcomers we have, how many people choose to leave and how many are removed from the mailing list.  If you will all recall, an email went out to the general membership regarding getting involved in the Business Meeting.  Only 12 members aside from the Steering Committee expressed interest in joining and being part of this process.  Not great numbers for sure but that is the reality.

When Steve put out the call that he was retiring from his positions at ASP and we would have to step up and step into service positions behind the scenes so to speak, our Business Meeting was made up of about 20 people.  Of those people only one person per position stepped up and volunteered to be of service.  Those people who now comprise the Steering Committee are the dedicated volunteers who keep this meeting running....some of us spending a couple of hours a day dealing with ASP business outside of the recovery meeting.  I think we are a pretty dedicated lot!

This information is to give each of you an idea of the people who are interested enough in the business side of Al-Anon and in particular ASP to get involved beyond sharing occasionally or chairing a meeting.  

So as far as the 19 members of the Business Meeting making decisions for ASP's future, these are the numbers and people we have who are willing to do this.  I personally as LA have absolutely no intention of trying to get our entire membership interested enough in what is going on behind the scenes to make a decision about where our excess funds go to.  It is enough of a task to do a housecleaning and deal with that matter when all people have to do is read an email and click reply...no thinking involved!

Yes there are 19 interested members in the Business Meeting and yes, we will forge the way ahead for the rest of the group.  Remember, every person in the recovery meeting had the opportunity to join us...they chose not to.

Love and Serenity,
Dawn