[Businessmtg] ASP Expenses, more input, & a half-baked apology

[logmark at comcast.net]

The new ASP member is right. She did ask me for 

the expense data - and I didn't get round to it. 

Apologies. 



For others who may not be up to date in this, ASP 

operates on $1,301 dollars a year. since it is the 

group conscience to maintain a Prudent Reserve of 

one years expenses we did some math and came up 

with that figure as our usual expenseswhich covers 

our server payment ($99.00/mo.,) our PO Box, our URL 

(if that's the right terminology to use) and incidental 

postage or telephone reimbursements when they (rarely) 

come up. 



We did have another group conscience to begin purchasing 

and providing Newcomer Packets to new members who request 

one when they join our group. We did purchase quite a few 

along with postage to mail them out. My recollection is 

that those expenses did not get rolled into the 1,301 

number - primarily because it turns out that there are few 

who requested them and it worked out to be a one-time expense, 

not an ongoing budget item. 



Also note that any member can go to the ASP member website 

and click through a few selections to arrive at our register 

of transactions for every dime which has arrived at ASP 

since Steve turned over the reins to the group. Complete 

transparency proofed by our List Administrator against the 

original bank statements I receive and sent to her monthly 

(except I'm behind on that just now - sorry D.) 

- - - - - 



A word about email communications - especially in the Business 

Meeting where disagreements are not uncommon and deciphering 

other's tone gets way muddled - often by suspicions of the reader, 

but also from the state of mind of the writer: Everybody cut 

everybody some slack. If we don't we'll bicker forever - just how 

it is. 



I freely admit to being irritated at this EIN thing. Like, I've 

been treasurer of a multi-hundred-member group with world-wide 

membership for 4 1/2 years. I don't find it personally helpful 

to focus on this elementary stuff when there forces out there 

like Homeland Security Authorities and other of that ilk making 

regulations for groups exactly like us (international associations 

of many people who have money moving through the internet and 

to mail systems.) I suspect from their point of view we're a 

potential threat that needs clear identification. 



I also admit to requesting input then minimizing some that has 

come in. That is wrong. Won't happen again. But I will tell you 

(again) that PayPal says we gotta, and our professional bankers 

say an EIN isn't enough for them should we try to open a new 

account in the current financial atmosphere. 



That is good enough for me. From that information I deduce (or 

assume if it is preferred) that this is universal. In any case 

that is still good enough for me. If others want to dig out the 

regulations or go to their bank managers, ask the same questions 

I did ("international internet mutual support group treasury account" 

should do as the base line) and get told that they would open 

such an account without articles of incorporation I'll fly to where 

you are and plant a big ol' smooch on your cheek. (Then I'll work 

on you a bit to run for ASP Treasurer when the election comes about 

and give you a copy of our EIN :-) 



Maybe that's a good suggestion. How about a number of us take that 

description above ("mutual support group" is the language that comes 

from the WSO which we used when we got our EIN; the rest are my words 

to accurately and fully state what we are) and get out to their banks 

and ask the questions we'll learn something. I'd love to hear the 

answers people get. Please, do not attempt to classify us as anything other than what we are. There is no place in Al-Anon for even the slightest of misrepresentations. 



I want to add that I've served on the Board of Directors of an Alano 

Club for two three-year terms over the past dozen years and though 

our paid memberships rarely topped 250 we had by-laws and non-profit 

standing from day one. Couldn't have done a thing without them. 

We're different for sure, but I'm afraid the regulators have finally 

gotten around to roping us in. 



[By the way, By-Laws are simply legal documents that state who we are, 

how we do business, and what our mission statement and policies are. 

Most or all of this is in the literature every member received when 

they joined ASP. With a little shuffling of paragraphs and section heads and some re-wording which doesn't change content we'd have it done. 

There is nothing big in By-laws we would have to newly create, just the form of our current policies' presentation.] 



Lastly an answer to a fair question: What do we gain from incorporation? 

My answer is simple: We gain the consequences of doing the right thing 

as best as we are able to discern it. That's how I've come to my 

positions as I have presented them here. I'm good with that. I'm good 

with anything we come up with within this group conscience. It's just 

that two of the possible decisions are to do nothing or to do something 

but verrrrrrry sloooooooowly; they don't work for me at all. 



Hug$, 

Jerry 

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