[Businessmtg] Discussion of Surplus over Prudent Reserve

[Steve Rankin]

Hi ASPers,

Yes, I have taken a while to get around to sharing my take on this issue. Because the issue is complex, my response would have been complex enough in itself.  However several members of this Business Meeting have made statements, allegations, etc. that I feel need to be addressed, and that has greatly compounded my response.  

I'd like to respond to the points that have been made.  Please excuse the confusion that may result as a result of the lack of formatting in this plain text only environment.  I'll use several line-breaks and a row of =============== to separate sections, so you can focus on one section at a time.


1.	First I’ll address the obvious issue some folks are having regarding establishing a group conscience in this meeting.  One of our established policies regarding the format of the Business Meeting is #11 at The gist of this policy is that a decision on any issue that is controversial will be extended over a period of 3 meetings, or 5 months.  Minimum.  This policy was established to prevent any decision from being made quickly on any issue that is controversial in nature.  Several of us have seen f2f meetings that pushed through decisions on controversial topics that were catastrophic later.  Since this issue is obviously controversial, our established policy dictates that our discussion on this issue will take place over an extended period of at least 3 meetings.
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http://www.asp-afg.org/ASP/nbm/format.htm  
#11.  Major or controversial issues.  Issues which would result in a major change to ASP or are 
       controversial in nature will have a delayed discussion and voting procedure.
#11.i.		Month 1:  Announcement of topic followed by truncated discussion to illuminate issues.  Discussion limited to 1 week.
#11.ii.	Month 3:  Full discussion of topic.  Discussion may be extended to following month(s) as needed.
#11.iii.	Month 5+: Voting on motion. 
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1.  ASP financial transparency.  I’ve heard several members of this Business Meeting complain about the lack of transparency of the financial affairs of ASP.  I don't know what meetings you go to, but I've been going to meetings for just a few weeks less than 30 years and I've never seen any f2f meeting that posted the full array of financial information, or the list of group consciences, or . . . that ASP does and has for nearly 17 years.  Yeah, we didn't post any financial reports for the first 10 years because it was real simple - I setup ASP on my personal server and paid all the bills for 10 years straight.  Not at all unlike meetings in rural areas that are held in a member's home.  However, in November 2005 I started a new Business Meeting for the purpose of passing the entire operation over to the members of ASP, and we actually did exactly that in May 2006.  Jerry was our first Treasurer, and quite frankly Jerry wasn't especially happy with the process and reporting that we asked him to do so that donations would remain anonymous yet could easily be authenticated by the members that donate.  It took a number of months of discussions between Dawn (the new List Administrator) and Jerry before we started having genuine financial reports.  

What other Al-Anon meeting or Al-Anon service entity, including WSO, gives you such a complete and detailed financial report that is readily accessible to any member with less than a half-dozen mouse clicks?  Any time.  

The Prudent Reserve question as well as what to do with the surplus has been controversial from the beginning.  So controversial, that there was a real risk of "surplus funds" being distributed before we'd even figured out how much of a Prudent Reserve was needed.  As a result, a motion was made 10/11/2007 and passed unanimously that no funds would be distributed until the Prudent Reserve was determined.  Roughly three months later on 1/18/2008, we established the Prudent Reserve with this motion "It is moved that ASP's Prudent Reserve be set at one calendar year's expenses."  It passed by substantial unanimity at 20/1.  

At the time, our annual expenses were approximately $1300.  Currently, our estimated annual expenses are $1600 per year.  Which means that we have a theoretical surplus of about $440 as of the first of this year.  Yes, the web site needs to be updated.  That's an example of why we needed to elected a Web Master - thanks again to Raine for making herself available.

I say 'theoretical surplus' because we expect to have some legal expenses this year as well as the possible/hopeful support of a gathering of online meetings at the AFG International in Vancouver, BC this summer.  

In other words, ASP's financial affairs are more transparent than any Al-Anon meeting or service entity that I know of, with the possible exception of the Northern CA Area when I was Treasurer 1997-1999.  :-)  

The bottom line of our financial situation is that we are NOT sitting on a huge pile of surplus funds.  More than we need, I'm pretty certain.  But, until we know more about some of these costs, we don't really know how much we have that's surplus.  Plus, as I'll describe later in this note, there's some issues about what we could and should do with the excess.

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2.  OLA-IS.  Yes, OLA-IS does SEEM to be defunct.  But, is it really?  No, not even close.

OLA-IS created and maintained an excellent web site and was the ONLY game in town (aka the world) for a number of years.  WSO did nothing for a long time to connect newcomers interested in an online meeting with the meetings.  OLA-IS went above and beyond the concept of a simple list of online meetings by posting a brief description of each meeting.  I don't know how many members have come to ASP because they liked what they read in the description of ASP compared to the other online meetings.  

Sandie said the OLA-IS site is dated.  So what.  Some folks say the ASP site is dated.  So what.  Both the OLA-IS sites and the ASP site are extremely functional, and both are used by an immense number of Al-Anon’s looking for an online meeting.  

The OLA-IS site is still the #1 source for newcomers looking for an online meeting.  And a close second for ASP is the original ASP web site that is still on my personal server.  

FYI, I Googled "Al-Anon Online meetings" this evening. The results were in this order:

1. Paid advertising
2. Paid advertising
3. OLA-IS
4. OLA-IS
5. About.com > first reference was to OLA-IS
6. 12stepforums.net
7. stepchat.com/afg/
8. WSO
9. WSO
10. ASP - the original ASP site on my personal server
11. Online Meeting List for Al-Anon Family Groups of Massachusetts
12. How to find a meeting by eHow.com ==> OLA-IS

As you can see, once we get past the paid advertising, OLA-IS is THE prominent resource for finding an Al-Anon online meeting.  In fact, WSO just barely beat out ASP!!!  Even though ASP has never done anything to promote itself. 

So, while OLA-IS seems to be defunct it's very clear that OLA-IS is performing a service that WSO still can't or won't match.

But, WHY is OLA-IS  . . .  shall we say "stagnant"?  Look to WSO for the answer to that question.  
  
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3.  Literature.  Yes, it's true that WSO produces the Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature.  This may sound blasphemous, but the reality is that a major reason why WSO publishes a constant supply of new literature is to make money.  It’s more about marketing literature to the fellowship than it is about the fellowhip needing yet another book.  

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4.  Patience.  How many times have I heard that we just have to be patient with WSO.  They are just being "cautious" before they take any action to bring the online meetings into the fold.  Yet, at the same time, I also hear about how it's been a long two years that the prudent reserve question has been on the table.  Well, folks it's been over 17 years that I've personally been involved with the integration question - over 17 years since Ric B. told me face-to-face in San Jose, California how he envisioned it would be.  And that's exactly where we are.  

Two years ago, Ric told me that the question had come up again and the response was that they were "afraid that someone from outside the US/Canada would get elected as a GR and then they'd have someone outside the US with a vote in the WSC process.  I'm not sure why that's so scary since they invite delegates from other countries to attend the WSC.  True, they don't have a vote, but they do get an opportunity to speak from the podium.  Probably a lot longer than the 2 minutes a Delegate from the US/Canada is given. 

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5.  WSO as our Group Representative.  Every Al-Anon Group has the right to elect their own Group Representative.  The GR is core of the Al-Anon service structure.  The GR not only attend District Meetings and Area Assemblies, the GR’s are the only people that can vote for District Reps, Area Delegates as well as their Alternates and other officers.  The GR is the person that takes the issues of the Group to the District Meeting, and to the Area Assembly.  The GR then takes information about the greater Al-Anon fellowship back to the Group.  

Just like representative government, the Group elects the GR to represent the interests of THAT individual group to the District and Area.  It is not until the Area Delegate attends the WSC that the Delegate is supposed to take on the bigger picture of Al-Anon as a whole.  

When a GR fails to represent the meeting, the Group has the right to elect a new GR to represent them.

WSO has unilaterally stated that WSO will represent the online meetings to both WSO and to the Al-Anon fellowship in general.  How can that work?  How does that work?  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work at all.  

It was over 18 years ago that I was the Business Chair of CAFG tasked with chairing a committee to determine the structure of CAFG and how we fit in the big picture of Al-Anon.  It was during that time that I had my first f2f discussion regarding the structure of online meetings with Ric B., Executive Director of WSO.  Ric explained his perspective on how the online meetings would fit into the Al-Anon fellowship on that day in San Jose, California.  That’s exactly where we are today and have been for roughly 15 years:  WSO would register online meetings as “meetings” not groups, and as a result there would be no GR’s and no representation in Al-Anon service structure.

During these last 18+ years WSO has done as close to nothing as possible to represent the online meetings:
a.	In the late 1990’s I received a questionnaire from WSO polling the online meetings regarding the new Guidelines for Online Meetings that WSO was about to publish.  We were given a 2 week deadline to respond before WSO published the Guidelines.  The online meetings were not given any opportunity to participate in the development of these guidelines other than a token chance to answer a questionnaire AFTER the final draft of the Guidelines had been completed.
b.	The first version of the Online Meeting Guidelines was 2 pages long; 75% of which was about how the online meetings had to make donations to WSO.  
c.	A few years later WSO published a second version of the online meeting guidelines – that was the last time I received anything from WSO.
d.	The online meetings are required to sign a formal contract annually to use limited quotes from CAL in our meeting shares.  

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6.  Withholding donations.  Personally, I don't have any problems with folks deciding to withhold donations because they don't like what the organization is doing.  In fact, that seems to be a lot more in line with applying the principles of Al-Anon than supporting the organization regardless of its behavior.  Apparently, I'm not alone as several members of this business meeting have told us that they've stopped supporting (making donations) to ASP because they didn't like what we were doing.   

Well, folks some of us don't like what WSO is doing.  And it's not just two or three of us.  In fact, I know of several f2f meetings that have taken group consciences in recent years to stop supporting WSO (or GSO in the case of AA meetings).  

In other words, it seems quite reasonable to me that ASP withhold supporting WSO until such time that WSO genuinely supports the online meetings.  By genuinely, I mean with the same level of support and representation given to f2f meetings.  Representation requires that the communication is open both ways - not merely downhill as in WSO talking to the online meetings, but not listening.  And it's not just listening that's needed.  Our representative is one that actually represents our causes to the greater fellowship.

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7.  Sandie tells us that WSO sends a copy of the “Forum” to the CMA of every meeting, including every electronic meeting.  What is CMA?  In our house it’s the Country Music Awards?  Please avoid the use of acronyms except possibly for the very obvious ones like ASP & WSO – even our Service Manual suggests we avoid acronyms.  I know my f2f meetings usually pass the “Forum” around for any that wants it, but since WSO doesn’t permit us to distribute an electronic copy of the “Forum” I’d appreciate someone explaining how this is somehow ‘supporting’ the online meetings.  

As for the Newsletter?  I've never seen it.

What I do know is that in the 10 years I was the List Administrator and official Meeting Contact I NEVER received a copy of the “Forum” or ANY newsletter.  

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8.  The WSO Quarterly Appeal.  Sandie says that WSO sends the Quarterly Appeal to every Al-Anon meeting, including the online meetings.  She also she’s never seen it posted on our web site and that we SHOULD be advising our members of it.  (emphasis added)  I disagree on several levels:

8a. Just because WSO asks a meeting to do something does not mean that the meeting SHOULD do it.  Remember, ours is an upside-down organization where what the meetings want, WSO SHOULD do.  But not the other way around.  FYI, I know of several f2f meetings that have taken a group conscience to not pass around the quarterly appeal – that is entirely their right under the group autonomy of Tradition 4.

8b. ASP is an International Meeting.  We not only have members that live scattered all over the globe, we have had officers in other countries.  This basic characteristic of ASP is the primary reason why WSO refuses to acknowledge ASP as an Al-Anon GROUP, even though according to the Al-Anon Traditions we are an Al-Anon Group in every sense of the word.

But, if WSO says that we are not a Group because we are online with an International membership (putting the WSC at risk of having an International GR), then it follows that we are NOT under the purview of WSO.  With the exception of using WSO copyrighted CAL.  

In other words, since we are an International meeting AND we WSO refuses to recognize us as a Group, then it follows that WSO is clearly not the only Al-Anon entity that we could reasonably donate funds in excess of our Prudent Reserve.

NOTE: The Al-Anon office in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA represents the USA and Canada ONLY.  It is unfortunate that they named themselves the “World Service Office” and incorporated as “Al-Anon World Headquarters”.  More than a little egotistical IMHO.  ONLY members of Al-Anon that live in the USA and Canada have the right to participate in the service structure of WSO and the WSC (World Service Conference).  Ironically, one of WSO/WSC’s fears is that someone from another country might get elected GR in an online meeting and that wouldn’t be OK with them.  The bottom line is that WSO is the World Service Office in name only. 

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9.  A common room for the online meetings at the Al-Anon International in Vancouver.  

We did this at the first Al-Anon International.  There was a meeting room equipped with a half-dozen computers connected to the Internet.  The room was staff by members of several online meetings who demonstrated in real time, real world how their meeting worked to anyone that came to the room.  I spent a couple of hours in the room and couldn’t help but notice that I was the only person not on duty that was already a member of an online meeting.  In other words, this was a fantastic opportunity to reach out to the larger Al-Anon Fellowship and SHOW them what an online meeting is.  Plus, it was a great opportunity for the various members of the online meetings to actually meet each other face-to-face.

Are we too late to pull this off?  Not in my opinion.  Yeah, I know that WSO (GSO, too) always talk about how they’ve reserved every room within a hundred miles of the Internationals.  Well, we’ve been to 4 Internationals and had no problems getting a room MUCH closer to the convention center and/or host hotel than any of our friends.  Twice, we’ve been within a block.  Once, I even succeeded in making multiple room reservations in the host hotel.    All we need is one hotel/motel that would not reserve all of their rooms.  As you may have noticed, even the host hotels often keep a number of rooms available.  

FYI, the good folks at OLA-IS wrote a letter to WSO roughly 2 years in advance of the last Al-Anon International in Pennsylvania.  They requested an opportunity to work with WSO on the planning for the upcoming International.  WSO ignored the letter.  OLA-IS wrote another letter.  WSO ignored it.  

This isn’t the only example.  I talked with Ric B. a couple of years ago on the phone.  Ric promised me he’d handle a situation for us.  He didn’t, so I called him back a month later. And a month later.  And a month later.  

And WSO says they represent us?  I don’t think so.

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10.  Calling for a consensus.  The KBDM process is quite different from the traditional Robert’s Rule of Order way of doing things.  Yes, I know Al-Anon always said it didn’t follow Robert’s Rules, but in reality it almost always did.  

In any case, it is the Chair’s prerogative to make the initial call whether there seems to be a consensus or not.  And, when the Chair feels that there is a consensus AND that all of the other requirements have been met, then the Chair will note that their seems to be a consensus, state what that consensus seems to be, and then ask for a motion that reflects ALL facets of the consensus that has developed.  If a motion does not reflect all facets of the consensus, then the motion needs to be amended or discarded in favor of a more complete motion.  

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11.  Sandie tells us that we will soon see "The Forum" electronically and there will be a book available electronically.  Will this be “The Forum” or a special edition for the electronic meetings.  Ditto for the book.  

Perhaps more importantly, why hasn’t WSO asked for the participation of the electronic meetings in these decisions?  If WSO ‘represents’ the electronic meetings, then it follows that WSO would both ASK us what we want and that WSO would inform us directly rather than 3rd hand via a face-to-face Delegate that just happens to be a member of our meeting.

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12.  I find it rather disturbing that so many folks here seem to think that we need to take care of WSO first, and then if we find ourselves short of funds we can simply ask our members for more money.  

Our first responsibility is to our meeting.  Only after we have taken care of all of the needs of our meeting, do we consider donating to other Al-Anon entities.  We’ve seen that there are several matters that we should consider before donating money to any other Al-Anon entity because these things are for the benefit of ASP.  Yes, these matters are unsettled.  OK, we have finally have a full slate of officers so maybe we can make some progress in the near future.  

Only then can we make an informed group conscience.

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Lastly, I want to talk a bit about the attitude that seems prevalent among several members of this meeting.  It’s very clear that some of you think the officers of ASP (the Steering Committee) are slow, unresponsive, etc.  My perspective is quite different. We’ve had a few tough years lately with several key officers going AWOL in the midst of officer rotation (List Administrator), in the middle of business meetings (Secretary) and most recently our Greeter Chair.  Even in the midst of the chaos that results from a key player disappearing, the officers have been getting the basics of what ASP needs to function done. And they’ve been doing an excellent job of it.  And they work quite well together AND seem to actually enjoy working together.  Amazing when you consider how volatile the online world often is.  So, if we’re not peddling fast enough for you . . . 

More specifically, Emee made reference to the Steering Committee acting as if it’s God, and expressed concerns “And now that I have said this, I fear I will be put on MONITER status, or worse.”  

Complaining about the fact that a trivial issue didn’t make it on the agenda when the meeting is faced with serious & challenging issues is a little annoying.  

However, suggesting that the Steering Committee is acting like God is something that I find extremely offensive and take quite seriously.  This is not OK.


Hugs,
Steve