[Businessmtg] [Business Meeting] Newcomers and asking questions

[Emma W]

Hi all,
  Like Jessica I am a newcomer to ASP since mid-summer. I did get a couple
of personal welcomes, but no real reaching out, etc - so like Jessica, any
belief out there that there's plenty of direction, welcomes, etc was not my
experience either.
 So far I have l overall liked my Al Anon experience at ASP - I'm grateful
to the founders and the trusted servants and to a lot of ESH from folks.
  On the topic and the other shares to date on the topic, a couple of
points:
1) I've been coming to Al Anon F2f rooms for over 10 years and I have a
sponsor in another state from the State where I currently live, and so I
did not expect a big welcome, nor did I expect a newcomers packet and a
List of phone ## (or ASP equivalent of emails)  I could reach out to when I
needed to make 'an Al Anon call.'  Personally, I've reached out to others.
2) I agree to the dissolution of whatever newcomer committee that may be on
the books - I'm not aware that it is working; this is the first I heard of
its existence.
3) My experience in reading ASP emails from newcomers is that newcomers to
ASP who are also newcomers to Al Anon are regularly unclear about their
role in finding a sponsor, e.g., I'm seeing open emails to the entire ASP
readership list that are an search of anyone, any BODY, who will agree to
be their sponsor. I feel for those folks, and I feel that the ASP website
or something does not help those very newbies around stuff like that. I
know there is that menu Option of "Sponsorship" with the email from Mary
Ellen, but something more may be of service to the Al Anon newbies.  --
Jerry, please guide me as to what part of the Business Meeting structure is
appropriate to raise such an issue?  A request for an agenda item for a
future meeting, or what?
4) Steve, I am so very grateful for your vision that created ASP and your
on-going commitment to it.  It seems a great combo of entrepreneurship and
altruism.  I need to say that I feel both grateful when you share the
historical perspective for issues in ASP and the context that provides, and
there are times when I feel silenced from raising issues (one small example
is when someone said they couldn't easily find something on the website,
and an email was forthcoming saying it was easy to find....  For the
website designer/manager maybe it was easy, but as a new user, it was not
as easy for some of us, including me).  I am not asking anything except
that you consider my point of view.
5) In my experience at f2f meetings, there's not exactly an organized form
of special attention for newcomers, but the meetings that have that great
feeling of welcome have had some form of a newcomer packet that on the
front has a list of numbers, and usually someone is asked at that meeting
in an ad hoc kind of way to give that newcomer packet to the newbie and to
talk with them for a few minutes after the f2f meeting to answer initital
questions and to say we hope they keep coming back.  When that was done for
me years ago it took about 5 minutes of someone's time, there was no
expectation that person would be my sponsor, and it made a big positive
difference for me.

In gratitude,
Emma