[Businessmtg] Question re newcomers page-clarification

Wed Mar 29 06:11:26 PDT 2017

I think beginner packets are a great idea in addition to the newcomer page
on the site.

Jane

"It is easier to put on slippers than to carpet the world." ~Stuart Smalley

On Wed, Mar 29, 2017 at 7:08 AM, Jerry <logmark at comcast.net> wrote:

> Morning Biz-Pals,
>
> As ASP's Treasurer/SC 'n BM Member back in the days of "The Great
> Newcomers Packet Robbery", a historical note:
>
> Once approval of the motion Steve mentioned was had, I ordered a quantity
> of Beginner Packets (BP) and had them sent to our duly appointed/elected
> (?) BP Distribution Person and separately mailed off a sufficient quantity
> of envelopes and postage stamps to cover posting them.
>
> To my knowledge no newcomer ever requested a copy, and it wasn't long
> before the BP Distribution Person left ASP without further contact and
> taking our beloved BP's and supplies with them, never to be seen again.
>
> I'm a bit fuzzy on exactly why we didn't re-appoint and reorder to keep
> the program going. Intuition tells me we were burned once and weren't
> prepared to be burned again. None-the-less, the approved motion is still on
> the books so we ought to something about this one way or the other.
>
> In addition and as a part of this process, the approved motion to set our
> Prudent Reserve amount as "one year's expenses" was worded that way so
> future increases in costs and services would automatically increase our
> Prudent Reserve level. I believe our intention was to add the actual BP and
> postage costs we incurred after a year of sending out packets to our
> then-current PR. Since the program withered on the vine after that loss,
> the annual costs couldn't be calculated, and ASP's PR remained as it was
> prior to this ordeal (and where it remains to this day.)
>
> Now that we're caught up with sending the WSO funds in excess of our
> Prudent Reserve quarterly, as called for by approved motion, we want to
> remember that restarting a Beginner Packet program would also need to
> include increasing our PR amount both where stated in our 7th Tradition
> page/footnote and as regards any future ASP donations to the WSO. Since we
> have no clue about what the actual costs of program renewal would be I'd
> suggest, if we were to  decide to restart the effort, that we look at the
> amount of money spent and lost back then and add that amount to our Prudent
> Reserve number before we calculate any future WSO donations.
>
> Hugs,
> Jerry
> -
>
> On March 29, 2017, at 1:05 AM, Steve Rankin <steve at serenitysys.com> wrote:
>
> I’m not sure that I’m the one that is confused.
>
>
>
> I believe the current discussion is about how to help newcomers to ASP.
>
>
>
> So, I go to the website just like a newcomer might do, and voila! I find a
> link labeled “Newcomers”. Great!
>
>
>
> Only, the entire page is dedicated to either something I get every day
> from ASP or to stuff at WSO. I really don’t see how what is on our Newcomer
> page has to do with helping the newcomer.
>
>
>
> So, tonight was my home group. A sponsee was chairing the meeting, and we
> had a newcomer, so I snagged an extra Newcomer’s Packet just to see exactly
> what it is our face-to-face meeting gives newcomers.
>
>
>
> “Information for the Newcomer” S-4
>
> An excellent pamphlet arranged in a Q&A format:
>
>             Who are the members and why are they here?
>
>             How will it help me?
>
>             Do I have to say anything?
>
>             Will anyone say I’ve been here?
>
>             Is this a religious fellowship?
>
>             . . . and so on.
>
>
>
> “So You Love and Alcoholic” P-14
>
> This pamphlet talks about alcoholism as an illness, and includes the
> classic Do’s and Don’ts.
>
>
>
> “Understanding Ourselves and Alcoholism” P-48
>
> Another excellent pamphlet. This one addresses questions like:
>
>             What is Alcoholism?
>
>             Who Are Alcoholics?
>
>             Why Do Alcoholics Drink?
>
> Then, it moves onto Understanding Ourselves
>
>
>
> “Dear Mom & Dad” P-67
>
> A pamphlet for Alateens to give to their parents to explain to them why
> the Alateen needs to go to Alateen meetings. As with other Alateen
> literature, there’s some really good stuff there for adults.
>
>
>
> “Sponsorship - Working Together to Recover” M-78
>
> The sponsorship bookmark describes what sponsorship is and who sponsors
> are.
>
>
>
> “Al-Anon Spoken Here” P-53
>
> Besides being an excellent pamphlet for newcomers, this pamphlet is
> especially useful for members of other anonymous fellowships as well as
> professionals.
>
>
>
> “What do YOU do about the Alcoholic’s drinking?” P-19
>
> This pamphlet outlines an amazing number of things that many of us did
> before we got to Al-Anon. The bullet-point format eliminates the excess
> text of prose and gets right down to the nitty gritty. It closes with just
> a few simple suggestions.
>
>
>
> “Just for Today” M-12
>
> The classic Al-Anon bookmark that has helped so many of us get through a
> tough day.
>
>
>
> “Getting Started” S-15R
>
> An abbreviated CAL order form featuring nine hardcover books.
>
>
>
>
>
> A fantastic collection of informative pamphlets (mostly) that face-to-face
> meeting routinely give to their newcomers.
>
>
>
> Why don’t we do the same?
>
>
>
> Unfortunately, that’s not so easy to do.
>
>
>
> See, online meetings are not permitted to reproduce or quote CAL other
> than the 1 single paragraph included in a share. No exceptions.
>
>
>
> While there is some CAL available online that members can download, the
> pamphlets in the Newcomers packet is not included. So, we really can’t even
> provide a link to somewhere in the WSO site where an online member can read
> what the face-to-face meeting give away to new members.
>
>
>
> A few years ago on 3/10/2008, Emee, a member of ASP back then, made the
> following Motion #7 <http://asp-afg.org/members/motions-made/> :
>
> “It is moved that ASP send Newcomers Packets to new members that are – new
> to ASP, new to Al-Anon and who request it.  Fulfillment expenses to come
> out of the ASP treasury budget.”
>
> I seconded the motion and passed 17 for; 1 against and 1 abstain.
>
>
>
> The April 2008 financial report shows expenditures for Newcomers packets
> and postage for the first and last time. In other words, that process seems
> to have disappeared at some time since April 2008. I know we modified our
> welcome to newcomers to include an OPTION that gave them an opportunity to
> provide a snail mail address so we could mail them a Newcomers packet just
> like they’d get in a face-to-face meeting. I don’t know when that faded
> away, except that I know it wasn’t included in the recent updates made to
> the Welcome letter sent to newcomers by the Greeters.
>
>
>
> It seems to me that the appropriate course of action at this point is to
> request the Steering Committee comply with Motion #7 by including this
> option in the Welcome Letters sent out by the Greeters. If the members of
> ASP feel that trying to snail mail the Newcomers packet to newcomers isn’t
> something we want to do, then we need to discuss that at a future Business
> Meeting, and if we reach a consensus and group conscience to rescind Motion
> #7, then that is the new group conscience of ASP.
>
>
>
> NOTE: this is not intended to be a reflection on the current Steering
> Committee - the Newcomer packet ball was dropped years ago. However, this
> kind of thing would be much harder to fall in the cracks in the future if
> the Steering Committee made regular reports to the Business Meeting.
>
>
>
> One last thing . . . something that we could do for every newcomer to ASP.
> Develop our own Newcomers packet. We could use the face-to-face newcomers
> packet as our example and go from there.
>
>
>
> Hugs,
>
> Steve
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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>
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>
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>
> The ASP web site for ASP members is http://www.asp-afg.org/Members/
>
> For assistance with other ASP issues, contact the List Administrator, at
> list_administrator at asp-afg.org
>
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