[Businessmtg] supporting WSO & OLA-IS -Traditions

[Emee Arthur]

The whole contribution thing is compicated. ASP falls under the catagory of an  AL-ANON MEETING and not an AL-ANON GROUP.  On-line meetings could be considered outside entities themselves and if that were the case, then WSO could NOT accept our donations at all. The service manual recognizes & guides Al-Anon GROUPS, not MEETINGS.  On-line meetings are committed though to abide by the guidance of the service manual, the same as a group would..we have been given pemission to use the Al-Anon name and literature, and the Steps, Traditions & Concepts.  If we want to remain an on-line Al-Anon meeting, then we must follow Traditions and guidelines.  WSO has canot caught up with the needs of on-line meetings yet and hopefully more infomation will be added into our service manuals about the workings of on-line meetings.  We should not, in my opinion, hold back funds from WSO because of this. WSO does have us listed now on their website and we have finally gotten a few lines in the service manual and other pamphlets. We are making progress!  I can understand WSO's caution with this type of meeting and their need to go slowly.  I am grateful that Caution is being used.     Also, if we, as an on-line meeting, believe we need OLA-IS to help our on-line meeting in some way (public outreach, institutions, and to help keep our meeting informed) then I think we need to pioneer this new medium and support OLA-IS until WSO tells us that we are hurting Al-Anon as a whole.  We are not breaking a guildine or Tradition since there is no specific guideline written on this yet.  If supporting OLA-IS does hurt Al-Anon as a whole, then we of course would discontinue immediately.    So...I would like to suggest that  our meeting contribute to both WSO and OLA-IS (if we believe we still have a need for this position). I believe WSO does recognize our needs and knows the powerful benefit that on-line groups are to Al-Anon as a whole.  I think they just aren't sure yet how to handle all of the issues that on-line meetings present.  We just need to be patient and supportive.     Emee