[Businessmtg] Steering Committee service positions

[Anne OHara]

Good Morning,

 

I'd like to piggy back on to some of the responses to bus meeting member
inquiries about the Steering Committee, the personal growth opportunities
service brings,  the open positions and the feedback from two current
members of the steering committee.  It is a lot and I am not sure I will be
able to articulate my observations and experiences clearly.  This medium is
VERY difficult to work in.  You don't have inflection, facial expressions or
the ability to correct an impression or misunderstanding quickly.

 

.         I have been a member of ASP for a very long time, at least 15
years.  During that time, I participated in the server move and
establishment of business meetings and the steering committee.  I served as
Webmaster from 2006 to 2011 and then Treasurer from 2011 to 2014.  I most
recently was voted in as Archivist in January.  Moving the website from
Steve's ownership and location to its current home took the greatest amount
of my time.  But beyond that, the role of webmaster and treasurer are truly
administrative.  They require a few hours a month.  The steering committee
time commitment has been the same.  At no time in those first 8 years were
any of us trying to make big changes.  All changes went through the business
meeting and there was never more than one (sometimes 2) items on the agenda.
The work was manageable.  I learned a lot about patience, collaboration, and
the application of the traditions and concepts.  It forced me to step
outside of myself, so that I was thinking and working towards the good of
the group.   Bus meeting topics many times lasted for many months before
working their way through the KBDM process, the chair and the LA did not try
to force solutions in those days.

.         The positions I have chosen in the past have not been time
consuming, I believe the LA and then the Secretary spend the most amount of
their time, followed by the Greeter chair.  I am always willing to step
forward for a new position, but I hope that others will do so too. 

.         Fast forward to today.  I stopped attending the bus meetings soon
after a new rotation of Steering Committee members entered the picture
(2015).  I couldn't keep up with the agenda topics, there were more than one
on a regular basis and a need to come to a decision quickly.  There was a
lot of what seemed to be 'pressing' issues that  in my opinion were personal
preferences that weren't urgent.

.         With the current website it is a much cleaner and more modern
visual, however, all the rewriting of content and how nested some important
info is, has become something of a problem too.  The website is not a blog,
and although permission was granted to update the site to a newer version,
there were decisions made by one or two people that were never discussed (to
my knowledge) with the larger group.  For example, decisions about nesting
the acronym table behind a page that identified and defined acronyms should
have been a project approved and reviewed by the business meeting.  No one
person should decide which acronyms are worthy of display.  I still haven't
gone through the pages, because of time constraints and time commitments but
I suspect there are more big changes that should have been called out for
review.

 

I have never been in favor of making big changes to ASP, I have a deep
respect for what has developed through the Al-Anon process and so when I do
read resumes for the positions, I vote specifically with that in mind,
anyone that wants to change ASP is a red flag to me.  The service positions
are limited to 3 year rotations and so any quick changes can be disastrous.
We are unique as an online meeting, we have an obligation to the meeting
members to keep things simple so that we can all work on our recovery.
Making change for the sake of change or because one person doesn't like what
is in place makes no sense and threatens the health of the group.  This is
what I am seeing now and what I believe has created the internal conflict.
I mean no disrespect to those who have felt attacked by Steve, I don't know
how or when things started to sour between he and the LA, Secretary and
Webmaster, I have been told it has been going on for 2 years.  There was a
most recent push to ban him from ASP when I joined the SC in January, that
failing, the next was to just ban him from SC and Bus Meeting meetings.  It
didn't happen but I do know that he was put on moderated status and censored
for some period of time.  I have seen Steve voice his concerns and
corrections over the years, I get that feedback from him now as the
facilitator of the Newcomers group, I don't always agree but I respect what
he has to say and I take it into consideration.  We should all be humble
enough to take direction as we learn.  I know I had to!  Email is harsh
because of what it is, I try hard not to take things personally and that has
contributed to my growth.

 

With that said, the roles of each SC position are posted on the website, I
encourage you to apply, even in conflict we can learn a lot.   This conflict
will pass, there are opportunities for a fresh start and for healing. The
concern as always is that we can't see each other and develop the personal
relationship that can get us through some of the rough spots.   The month is
coming to a close, but I do encourage you to reach out to the SC members for
more info about the jobs and the principles and not about the personalities.
With rotation, personalities come and go, the principles stand.

 

Hugs, and if you read all of this, thanks!

 

Anne