[Businessmtg] Officer Requirements - I

[logmark at comcast.net]

Biz-Pals, 



Like others have mentioned I believe one full 

year of ASP membership [and participation in 

topic meetings] should be the minimum qualification 

for serving in our officer positions. 



My reasons may be a bit different: 



In f2f Al-Anon I can get to know a group member 

and see their program working (or not) in a few 

months time. So, were a relative newcomer volunteer 

to serve as the literature person or perhaps even 

a position with a little more responsibility, I would 

have a fair idea of where they were at in recovery 

(or not in recovery.) 



Here on line I can never be certain who's bullshitting 

a good line, who's representing long-term recovery in 

Al-Anon, but has most of their 12-Step work from other 

programs, or who's been working diligently in Al-Anon 

for quite a long time. 



To be honest it takes me about a year of reading some 

folks' shares before I get around to figuring out whether 

a good, strong Al-Anon program is attached to the email 

name. Thus my year minimum for officer service. 

_ _ _ _ _ 



Background reasoning: 



On line Al-Anon carries with it a greater responsibility 

for carrying the Al-Anon message without distortion. I may 

say something in a f2f meeting that is not Al-Anon and only 

a very few people (if any) would be led to believe that my 

share was the "official Al-Anon" line. 



Here, with 400+ members spread across the globe, passing off 

decidedly non-Al-Anon ideas or concepts can easily distort 

the fellowship's purpose. On the one hand Al-Anon WSO and WSC 

are trying to keep misunderstandings down while on the other 

on line can perpetuate wrong concepts faster than the WSC or WSO 

can combat them. I offer the frequent use of "Co-dependence" 

in even our meetings without challenge [when it is a professional 

term of an outside therapy - and up until just a few years ago 

when the Service Manual was reworded to use general language 

about professional terms, the "C" word was offered as an example 

of professional terms not to be used in Al-Anon (the other was 

"co-alcoholic ."] 



...or calling a certain (wonderful passage from CAL) "The Promises." 

By accepting that usage here we perpetuate its use around the world 

and make the WSO's job of fighting this usage infinitely more difficult. 



Only someone who's been around ASP a while gets to see the potential 

for harm this medium has unless tempered by experience. 



Just my initial thoughts....except to say that certain difficult 

to fill positions [?web master because of skill requirements?] 

may require that we shrink the 1-year requirement to get the 

position filled. 



Lunch-hour hugs, 

Jerry 

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