[Businessmtg] Moving on to Next Agenda Item

[Dawn Werezak]

Hello Everyone,

 

The business of ASP is conducted in the Business Meeting only, very similar
to the business meetings in face to face meetings.  Like face to face
meetings, ASP has elected trusted servants who take care of the business of
keeping this online meeting running smoothly and efficiently.  The service
structure and meeting structure were decided upon by the group conscience
and have been dually noted on the Business web page found through using the
Members Only link, found at the bottom of every share that comes from ASP
and was included in the Welcome Letters each of you received when you joined
ASP.  There is no password to access the Members Only pages.

 

Like every other business meeting that I have attended, in two countries,
several states and provinces and at various levels of Al-Anon, we have an
agenda for the meeting.  It is not an open discussion or a free for all
where anything goes.  We have an agenda to follow and get through before the
end of the business meeting.

 

One of the differences between online meetings and face to face meeting is
that unlike f2f meetings, where we are often asked by our sponsors to attend
the business meeting with them and they fill us in on what happened before,
here were rely on business members who are new going to the business page
and reading the events of the last business meeting on their own so they are
up to speed on what has happened.  This has nothing to do with control or
censorship or freedom of speech and so on, rather it is a tried and true
practice for this meeting allowing us to move through agenda items as they
are set out.  Some of you might find that unfair or impractical, however, we
are now into week 2 of the business meeting and there has been no movement
regarding what we are here for, which is to elect a Secretary to that
position.  

 

Each person that comes to Al-Anon has their own ideas about what works and
what doesn't work for them. They have their ideas of how things should be
done and many times that contrasts with what is actually happening in the
meeting which causes discord from within.  When I came to Al-Anon I did not
understand why they read the Traditions at each and every meeting, didn't
they know that they were unimportant and inconsequential.  It frustrated me
to no end that we wasted so much time reading them when we could just jump
to the meeting, in fact, why did we have to read any of that junk.  It
rankled within me and I was positive I knew better.  It took several months
for me to figure out that there was a good reason for the readings, for that
few minutes of focus before we got to the actual topic and I became grateful
for that time to bring my mind and body into the same room.  I cherish that
time these days instead of having a crap committee going on in my brain
about how stupid this was.  I did not know better and I had no understanding
of the purpose. 

 

This is one of the reasons that we recommend that a person be a member for a
minimum of three months before standing for a service position.  That time
is so that you can see how the meeting works, the purposes of the way things
are done and so on.  It is important to have a basic understanding before
moving forward.  The service structure that we have for Trusted Servants was
very carefully and diligently put together and voted in by the group
conscience.  It works for this meeting.   If you can't trust what you do not
yet understand and are unwilling to observe the process then perhaps this
isn't the meeting for you.  

 

The item on the floor at this time is that of Secretary.  Those who are
interested in running for the position of Secretary need to fill out the
Resume found at http://www.asp-afg.org/ASP/nbm/index.htm  Once you have
completed your Resume for this position on the Steering Committee please
forward it to Tara, our Chair for this meeting.  

 

Please have your resumes completed by Friday, November 13th so that they can
be posted to the business meeting for the members to view and ask questions
of the person who submitted their resume.  Once resumes are received and
posted and all questions answered we can set the poll up for voting.  We
normally leave the poll open for five days to allow everyone the opportunity
to vote.  

 

If you have any questions while filling out your resume, please feel free to
contact either myself or Tara with them.  Please feel free to ask any
questions about the position as well.  

 

We have until the end of November to get through this business meeting so we
need to move on.

 

Love and Serenity,

Dawn

List Administrator