[Businessmtg] Newcomer Committee

[Linda F]

I am in favor of disbanding the newcomer committee.

I am relatively new to ASP, but have attended f2f meetings for several
years.  I joined ASP because I no longer can get to f2f meetings.  I
greatly appreciate being able to attend meetings online and have been happy
to be a part of this.  I appreciate all the service our trusted servants
put in.  Reality is none of us are perfect, which is why the spiritual
principle of anonymity is so important--as the 12th Tradition says, we must
place principles above personalities.  I need to trust that when I do so,
focus on our unity as a group, and trust that a loving HP is in charge,
things will work out the way they're supposed to.  They may not work out
the way I want them to, but there's a good reason I'm not God.

Re: is there a better way to meet the needs of the growing numbers of
newcomers to the group?   Not everyone who comes to a meeting stays.  I
came from an area where there were very few newcomer meetings and so if you
wanted the ESH of Al-Anon you got it through regular meetings where people
welcomed newcomers and would happily take a struggling newcomer aside to
talk one-one when needed, but otherwise simply carried on with a regular
meeting when a newcomer was present.

At the moment it seems to me that ASP does a reasonably good job with
newcomers given that we are an online environment.  If a newcomer wants to
find help here, he/she will.  We do have the option of responding to a
person's share directly and privately, kind of the the online version of
talking to people after the meeting.   I have seen several posts by
newcomers thanking the group for the help and support they received when
they shared, so members are doing that for each other.  I also think it's
okay if we aren't "sufficient" for the newcomer as I believe that there's
no substitute for attending f2f meetings for growing your recovery.  It's
been my experience that we Al-Anons like to be self-sufficient and isolate,
and I don't want us to do so much that we make it easy for someone to hide
here.  If a newcomer decides he/she needs more than ASP has to offer and
would do better to attend a f2f meeting in his/her community, that's a good
thing.

On the other hand, some newcomers do need guidance on how to make use of
ASP.  I like the idea suggested by Anne K of making a "new member" page.  I
think a page clearly designated as such will probably get more newcomers
checking it out, and linking to the member instruction page.   Maybe even
including a link to a new member page in the welcome email.


HUGS (Helping Us Gain Serenity), Linda