[Businessmtg] Archiving X

[Jerry H.]

Hi, All,


     First, thanks, Steve, for adding details to my relatively weak introduction to this topic. Upon re-reading my intro I see I leaned well into possible negatives perhaps skewing this discussion.


     If for no other reason than to serve as an ersatz diary / journal, I think archiving shares is a positive. I learned about journaling in my early f2f recovery. A benefit I hadn't thought of was being able to go back and read what I wrote years ago - and to recognize my improvements; the benefits of my recovery efforts were evident in the growth I could see for myself in my own words. Any ASP member can call up their own shares and read through their progress. Someone looking for a sponsor could access the past shares of someone they're considering in order to help them make their decision. These are all good things! 


     About anonymity. I find it a bit odd that folks are taken aback that their email shares might be available for others to find, to read, to use in who knows what ways. We are after all an on-line meeting, and [Everyone Please Note!] if it's on-line it's always possible it can be found and accessed by a skilled and persistent hacker-type. ASP and our service provider offer good security measures, but nothing is absolute.


     If absolute anonymity is important to any individual member (or the appearance of it anyway) on-line media may not be the place to be. Even f2f Al-Anon, by the way, is not without its anonymity slips. My bet is that on-line Al-Anon as we do it here at ASP is MORE SECURE than any f2f environment. Go to enough f2f and you will eventually run up against a broken anonymities. Compared to ASP, f2f meetings do not have less risk and perhaps more simply because of meeting within the confines of smaller communities.


     Which leads me to ask: What is the concern which raises this topic?


     Yes, it is true that the principle of anonymity is foundational to Al-Anon. Also true that each Al-Anon member gets to choose how much anonymity they need. I'll say this to that: 1) Don't go to the hardware store looking for bread. We're an on-line outfit; no on-line format can possibly offer perfect assurances of anonymity. 2) Don't use your full (or actual) name in either your email address or within your shares; I see this often at ASP and hope not to hear someone who self-discloses such info is worried about ASP's archives.


     I did bring up the apparent size of ASP and I still think it's an important part of this discussion. The fact is that 1,200 or so daily topic emails go out to 1,200 or so member addresses every day. A large membership does increase the possibility that one of those members might have ill will. Do we react to that small risk by cutting out the many others who are of good will? Each of those emails are posted to an active inbox somewhere. Does every person on the end of every one of those emails read every or even some of those emails? Absolutely not. Do I read every ASP email every day? Absolutely not. Is everyone expected to read every email every day? Again a big no. So what's the big deal about purging ASP's numbers to include only regular, active readers? Is it ASP's job to make sure members are attending meetings, or is that the job of every individual member - to determine how they choose (or don't choose) to use ASP or Al-Anon? For me it's up to them, not ASP to determine. The risk is much smaller than the potential for reward for these members.

     I think it's important to include how ASP fits into the Al-Anon structure at the moment. For the foreseeable future on-line Al-Anon meetings are viewed as "outreach," not "groups" as defined by our Service Manual. Hey, I don't agree with that, don't like that, but group consciences being what they are - that's what we are. Outreach. So having 2,100 or so computers out there holding all those thousands of emails full of ESH no differently than a CAL pamphlet left lovingly on a waiting room magazine table in a doctor's office for others to find is a good thing. Why would we ever worry about whether every "member" gives a thought to the email building up in their neglected mailbox? Some will; that's good enough for me.

     And keep in mind - these are active email addresses, every one. If an ASP email goes out to a lapsed email address we get a bounce notification an could eliminate that address from our membership list if it continues. Note: we get very few notifications of bad email addresses, so I'd have to say every one of those 1,200+ ASP shares are going out these mailboxes and doing their "outreach" work even if they are not being read regularly. [Even the act of these members tossing our emails in their trash works as a reminder of recovery being available to them.]

     Has ASP gone through the process of eliminating non-responsive members from our list in the past? Yep. I've never liked the process we used mainly because it's making an administrative determination when according to Al-Anon principle it's each member who gets to choose how they wish to interact with their recovery resources. It shouldn't be up to the List Administrator or Greeter Chair, the Steering Committee, or even the ASP Business Meeting. Some things are totally up to the individual and I think this is one of them.

     Unless there is a technical reason for doing so, and to date I haven't heard there is a technical source for this topic which would override my current position, I see nothing wrong with acknowledging that every one of our 1,2XX members deserves continued listing as members unless they personally specify they want out. Keep in mind that anyone who wants out can do so on their own, or even by simply contacting the List Administrator - and some do each day. Our growing membership total is a net number. We have more "in's" than "out's."


     One thing Steve said really interests me. Something about the difficulty of unsubscribing from ASP which may account for some of those unread email boxes out there: We recently put in place an easy way to subscribe to ASP which included what amounts to pushing buttons rather than writing essay answers to many things. Can we not make unsubscribing easier than joining? Push a button to unsubscribe? Send a letter to the LA to unsubscribe? (Seems half of current unsubscriptions happen this way already.) I know this is off topic, but since it has been brought up...


     One last thing. I am surprised that so many here seen to be unaware of ASP's archiving of shares. No, we don't make a big deal out of it, but our member/instruction page - which all new members are "expected" to read upon joining - does include notice of the archives and how to access them. Everybody, please, become familiar with ASP's website content. As LA you'd be surprised how many members aren't and thus ask me he simplest of questions (keeps me hoppin' :-)!


In service,

Jerry

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