[Businessmtg] Archiving

[Linda F]

I have been following the posts on this topic and if I'm understanding
correctly the topic on the table is whether ASP should continue to archive
people's shares (at some point maybe purging/unsubscribing will be on the
table too).

My initial opinion was that while I personally did not care for archiving,
either choice was fine by me.  I didn't see a need to do it, but I also
didn't see it as a problem that needed to be stopped.  After some
reflection on Traditions 1 and 12, I come to a different opinion.

Tradition 1 states that "our common welfare", or "personal progress for the
greatest number of people" governs what makes for unity in Al-Anon.
Tradition 12 says that "anonymity is the spiritual foundation of these
traditions, ever reminding us to place principles above personalities."
The question for me, therefore is, what is the principle that comes first?
I have decided the principle I need to base my decision on for this topic
is: what is best for ASP's common welfare?

It is frequently pointed out that the online nature of ASP means that it's
going to do some things differently from f2f meetings.  That being said, I
still think what governs our decisions needs to be what is in the best
interests of helping the greatest number of participants make the greatest
amount of personal progress.  I don't think archiving people's posts is in
the bests interests of our common welfare for the following reasons:

--one of the most important things we do is provide people a safe place to
share and seek recovery.  I think the initial reactions of many in this
business meeting to discovering that their posts are currently being
archived is a microcosm of how the wider group of people reading ASP would
react--upset.  ASP would not be as safe of a place anymore for the many
people who need it.

--one of these posts suggested that people might be able to use archived
shares to look up particular topics as needed.   I have always been taught
to focus on using CAL, and to point people in the direction of using CAL
when needing to think more deeply on a particular topic.  I think
suggesting the use of archived posts would take away from our pointing
people in the direction of what would most aid their recovery

--many of the posts are by newcomers who are in the throes of their
situation, can be pretty raw emotionally, and don't necessarily reflect the
solution or Al-Anon principles because that's the best the newcomer can do
at this time.  Those newcomers, if they stick around and continue to work
the program, probably won't want to look at their old shares again as their
thinking changes.  And those types of shares are not very productive for
helping others find Al-Anon principles that help them recover.  Again, CAL
is a better source for education and inspiration.

--on the issue of falling into the category of outreach vs. meeting: the
outreaches I have seen (ex: visits to jails) are very scrupulous about
anonymity issues and the only things I know of that are taped are done so
with the speaker's permission.

If you're still tracking with this long email, my conclusion is that I am
against continuing to archive shares.

HUGS (Helping Us Gain Serenity), Linda