[Businessmtg] Pittsburgh Convention

[Emee Arthur]

1. WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH THE MONIES OVER AND ABOVE OUR PRUDENT RESERVE?  
 
*****PLEASE NOTE: IN AL-ANON IT IS NOT CALLED A CONFERENCE, IT IS CALLED A CONVENTION.*****     b) Do we send a representative to the Al-Anon Conference in Pittsburgh?  
There are several things I have to consider before answering this question: All my references will be from the 2006-2009 Service Manual.  IMHO I think it would help our business meeting run more smoothly if everyone used their Service Manual to help make informed decisions before making motions and voting. I like that our Administrator has asked us to list references to our statements.
 
 
1.  The funds we are talking about would be coming from the group's Prudent Reserve overflow which is still considered ASP's group funds.       a.  [Page 88, says that GROUP FUNDS are NOT used for gifts to their members, that funds are used for Al-Anon purposes only.]  I could understand using our funds to send a REPRESENTATIVE to an Ola-OC Assembly where our group would be involved and we would have a vote. If this were the case, we would most likely include this expense into our yearly budget and be sure to set enough money aside for our representative to attend each year.  It would be important for the growth of our on-line group.         b.  The Convention in Pittsburgh is a fun event, not a working/voting event, so (IMHO) to send someone to this event would be considered a gift to our members and against the suggested guidelines on page 88.  
 
 
 
 
2.  What is Al-Anon's definition of a Group REPRESENTATIVE?
 
       a.  A Group Representative is someone who is chosen from their group to be responsible for attening District meetings; Attend Assemblies; and Relaying information to and from the group and voting for the group.  The Representative is also responsible to learn the Traditions and to assist the group with group problems using these Traditions and more, see page 44. 
 
        b. Since we are an on-line group there are no District or Assembly meetings where we would vote on anything outside of our own group's issues. We do hope that WSO will one day recognized on-line groups as equals to our f2f groups and give us a voice & a vote.  We discussed this in the Jan. business meeting.  This means (IMHO) that we ought to try to live by the same standards as a F2F group does (as Steve recently mentioned in his discussion over the Newcomers Packets). 
 
 
 
 
3.  Who does NOT qualify to be a Group Representative?
        a.  Dual members cannot be Group Representatives, Alternet Group Representatives, District Reps or their Altenates see page 133. We have many duel members in our ASP group that have identified themselves as such. None of these dual members (IMHO) ought to representing our group as voting members outside this group, even in the Ola -OC position,  if we are trying to imitate F2F groups as has been suggested.
 
 
   4.  I am thinking that this trip to the Convention could be stretched to fit the description of something that would widen one's Al-Anon Recovery therefore making our funds available for an "Al-Anon purpose" if our moral conscious agreede with that.  Because this is a world-wide gathering of members, I imagine it will have tremendously wonderful workhops and speakers, so I do see this Convention as a personal Al-Anon Recovery benifit to any member who attends  - but how would this help our group?  If our group wishes to considered a "Gift of Al-Anon Recovery" for one of our members then it is worth discussing.  However, if we do so then I believe that this trip ought to be open to ANY member of the ASP who wishes to go, who is a member at time of the motion passing (if a motion is made & passed).  Some of us might think that our  officers deserve to be given first choice since they work so hard for us but we have to remember that when we do service, we do not accept payment of any kind for our Al-Anon Services (only service expenses are paid).  Attending this Convention would not be a form of Service where a REPRESENTATIVE is needed, so to favor one of our officers for this PERSONAL trip would be wrong (IMHO). So with all this thought and reading through the manual, I AM NOT in FAVOR of sending a representative to the Convention in Pittsburgh.
I am curious to hear what the rest of you think.
Emee
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