[Businessmtg] Rotation, etc.

[logmark at comcast.net]

Morning Biz-Pals,

Reading through Dawn's share (only a half cup
of coffee - not so bad, Dawn) I find myself
much in agreement with much she related. Where
I disagree, or have "other understandings,"
there still aren't great differences between
our positions. Pretty good for Al-Anon.

I do believe that ASP, coming from our former
position as a one-man band shop into a more
familiar Al-Anon leadership pattern, is affected
by our not having a history of needing rotating
positions to run smoothly. Our current trusted
servants are the first wave of elected officers
we've had; this is the first rotation of officers
we've had to go through. [Those of us still in
office since the changeover have now served for
three years and two + months.]

In order to run smoothly Al-Anon groups need to
rotate officers and service positions. That's
clear in every reference to service anywhere in
our literature. We can reject Al-Anon's suggestions,
but to do so invites discord. Where I have seen
officers overstay their length of service I have
always seen control grow and membership and recovery
shrink.

So the sole strong exception I take to our LA's share
is one of characterization, not content. Yes, the
short truth is that Jerry wants out. However, Jerry's
reasoning isn't "I quit" it's "Rotation of officers
is a spiritual requirement; it permits others to serve;
and it prevents ownership of the office and the potential
for control by (always only partially recovered) folks.
I hope that's clear to everyone because it's very
important to me that this is understood. Service is
critical to my recovery and I serve in quite a few
capacities at Group, District, and Area levels in
addition to here at ASP. I intend to continue as
service needs and my willingness determine.

It occurred to me that most of my f2f meetings have
been in there states. Those in Arizona seemed strange
to me because they ran business meetings differently
than here in my part of Michigan. They had separate
business meetings as Dawn described them. Perhaps
my "thousands of meetings" haven't been operating
as most do in Al-Anon, so I bow to the Separate
Business Meeting example.

Perhaps what I really intent in my thinking if not
in my expression is not continuous "Group Consciences,"
but a good old-fashioned "Group Inventory." Every
healthy group I attend pulls out Al-Anon's "Guidelines
for a Group Inventory" every year or so to review how
well or not-so-well the group is serving its members,
Al-Anon as a whole, and our communities.

Having squeezed this thought out of my noggin, I can
state without reservation that a good Group Inventory
is missing from ASP. Any perceived "problem" is
usually discussed and resolved using these published
guidelines. And, for the record since ASP is indeed
the closest you can get to a F2F meeting online, an
inventory would look darn good on our resume!! :-)))

Back to our Rotation of Officers. This Treasurer's
position is easy-peasy and someone should jump at the
chance to grab it before someone else does. After all,
it's addition, subtraction, and counting - how hard
could it be!? (Now, somebody stand for this Treasurer's position would'ja, huh!) (Tiny arm twist...)

I have worries about our more time-consuming service
positions. If there is something that needs fixed,
I lean toward having service positions which demand so
much from one person - often dealing with problems, not
kudos. Not thankless tasks, but let's just say demanding
beyond reason.

The duties of LA are so time consuming as described as
to prevent almost any sane person from accepting them
without a great deal of arm twisting. I, for one, put
in about 150-200 hours into Al-Anon service a year in my various capacities. The though of putting that much time
into just reading emails over the course of a year stuns
me. No one should have to work so hard in Al-Anon!

Despite my convictions regarding service and my love
for ASP, I would not ever stand for LA as it is currently
outlined. I'm not the most dedicated server in the
world, but if I won't do it, then there are very few
who would either.

Yet ASP requires a LA while Al-Anon suggests three-year
rotations. To solve this conundrum I believe that the
duties of LA need to be made reasonable from an effort
point of view. We seem to have defined the position in
such a way that it is not at all welcoming to the
spiritual concept of rotation.

So, there you go. Jerry's request to stick to rotation
schedules for the Treasurer position we ourselves claim isn't/shouldn't be dominating our agenda. As I stated
in the beginning, this shouldn't turn into a Jerry-wants
-out meeting, but it has. At the top of our agenda should
be how do we make our service positions palatable to those
not now serving? Is this possible in an online setting?
If so what do we do we aren't currently doing? If not
must we deviate from Al-Anon practices in order to sustain
our meeting and to what degree?

Lastly (very lastly) my positions have not one thing to
do with the personalities involved. Everyone here in
service has done wonderful work and some beyond my ability
to express enough gratitude. Thank you all.

Hugs,
Jerry

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