[Businessmtg] Additional Meeting

[Jerry]

Biz-Pals,

I've given this and similar adjunct ASP meetings a lot of thought over the years. Consequently I have some fully formed ideas without having an opportunity to express them. Thanks for the topic, Jane.

The Off Topic meeting idea has been around for a while now. I think it gained some traction because some folks were bothered by how many shares were hitting their inbox every day. OT traffic has been discussed (allow/disallow) before and, as you can see, it's still here.

Freedom of expression seems to be one good reason it stayed. ("Nowhere is there more freedom of expression than in Al-Anon.... " or whatever the exact quote from CAL is.) Why try to bump it into a separate thread or address I don't understand. The OT traffic is so light that it's far from bothersome.

What an OT site would/could do, as Jane alluded to, would provide:
~ Newcomers a place to look for quick fix input, and maybe get some from other inexperienced members.
~ A place to talk about topics some folks may not want to bring up in a topic meeting (where everyone could have benefited from their ESH.)
~ A means of bypassing the essential Sponsorship role.
~ A perfect place for phishing for sponsees. This relatively common activity works against newcomers and long timers alike freely choosing sponsors based solely on their intuition without influence.
~ One more thing which would need close management and constant oversight.
~ Probably a string of other downside things I'm not going to ponder.

Most of all, thought, I think it would dilute the Unity of the group so important to members' recoveries. I would prefer that someone interested in a meeting after the meeting would start up a new and separate meeting for that purpose alone. Having autonomy would allow it to set its own policies and standards - something which if done under the ASP umbrella would require additional and possibly contradictory policies and practices.

Second-level thought: Would there be any additional costs? We are charged with being self supporting. If no, then this is of little consequence except for finding the additional trusted servant(s) to fill oversight (read that "control") positions of the meeting - that's a resource which is oft times in short supply around here, too. If yes, then is ASP member Tradition 7 support currently at a level to finance additional the service?
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I've got to boogie out to a B.U.G. Shoot (Backup Gun Shoot) so I'll stop for now. I'll lay out some other ideas I've had which may contribute to this discussion in the next day or two...

Jerry
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