[Businessmtg] Full Participation...

[logmark at comcast.net]

Biz-Pals, 



I've got another angle on this full participation thing. 



True, the Service Manual suggests that by fully participating 

in a meeting one becomes a member of that group. This "full 

participation" qualifies one to vote and stand for office - the 

suggestion being that each of us is to determine whether we 

"participate fully" enough to vote. Some groups do set official 

participation requirements, though in my experience most set 

a rules-of-thumb for standing for office - six months for some 

positions and a year for others. 



I know very many newcomers who participate as fully as they are 

able who, as yet, do not have the ability to serve a group well 

beyond the group. (I also know very many old-timers who fit that 

same bill :-) 



I'd suggest that this "full participation" threshold be used 

not so much in determining who can stand for office, but who 

is eligible to be a voting member of the the Business Meeting. 

This would not deter others from voice in the Business Meeting 

thereby taking part in the discussions (and participating!) and 

gaining the experience that will come in handy when and if they 

ever decide to stand for a position. Area Assemblies use exactly 

this method to permit any Al-Anon to enter into the discussions, 

but then limit voting only to the list of those qualified as 

outlined in the Service Manual. 



Currently anybody who wishes to join the ASP Business Meeting gets 

a vote. I'd think that continuous membership in the Business 

Meeting of say [6?, 12?] months could be sufficient participation 

to qualify as a voting member. 



These are rough ideas and I haven't thought them out completely, 

but it seems to me that any problems with people standing for 

office without sufficient experience would be taken care of 

by the choices of the qualified voters - the exceptions being 

if only one person is standing for a position or all candidates 

are short of experience. No solution for that at the moment, sorry... 



Jerry 

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