[Businessmtg] ASP membership requirements for volunteering as a Greeter

[Anne O.]

Hi All,

Some more thoughts to repeat and information to chew on.
I believe since some time in 2012, the greeter chairs have been using 6
months as a minimum requirement in the recruitment emails to the meeting
membership.  I have a habit of not reinventing the wheel (and I can be a bit
lazy) and took an email sent by a prior chairperson to craft my own.  I did
not read the policy on the website when I started in my position last year
and apparently several of us may not have done so.  With that said, I think
our greeters have done a great job keeping the doors open and ushering
newcomers into the meeting, to my knowledge there have been no breaches.  My
opinion on some of the concerns shared.
-As greeter chair, I read every request before I approve the subscription
sent by the greeters.  This method of checks and balances has kept us on
track with Tradition 3.  We do get requests from family members looking for
help with drug addicted family members.  We provide other options to those
inquiries.
-I came to F2F Al-Anon almost 30 yrs ago and was swept up into service
almost immediately, it kept me coming back to meetings and did not disrupt
or distract.  It is purely a personal choice.  We all have different
mechanisms for coping.  Just because we reduce the membership requirements
it does not mean we are pushing anyone into service.
-greeters can opt out, not always easy for me (as chair) but it happens and
has happened to me.
-long timers may have multiple service positions outside of ASP and are just
not able to add anymore to their plates, giving the newcomers the gift of
service is a good thing.
-last year all the greeters I had, were ASP members for less than a year.
This year I turned away multiple volunteers because they didn't meet the
minimum of 1 year.

I am still very much in favor of reducing the requirement to 6 months, I
also think that in this position, the need to have other Al-Anon experience,
although a good thing is not relevant to succeeding in the position.  

Hugs,

Anne

-----Original Message-----
From: Businessmtg
[mailto:businessmtg-bounces+aohara77=comcast.net at asp-afg.org] On Behalf Of
Anne O.
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2019 11:21 AM
To: aohara77 at comcast.net
Cc: ASP Business
Subject: [Businessmtg] ASP membership requirements for volunteering as a
Greeter

Good Morning Friends,

 

I am Anne O. ASP's Greeter Chair.  I have been a member of ASP for many
years, I joined in the early 2000's.  This online meeting has been a life
line for me like it has been for many others.   

 

Some background info on the Greeter role to consider as we discuss reducing
the requirements to serve in this position.

 

I became Greeter Chair in March 2018.  I am responsible for recruiting and
training Greeter volunteers.  The greeters and I share access to the 'New
Member Request' inbox.  We review each request for 3rd Tradition
qualifications before sending those requests through to be subscribed.  The
Greeters take turns managing the requests and will respond to the
individual, subscribe them and then welcome them to the group.  The greeter
is also available to answer individual questions and support troubleshooting
as needed.  Each member subscription process is two step, the greeter sends
an email to the server and then the Greeter Chair has to approve it before
anyone becomes a member.  The Greeter does NOT have access to the member
database, and the two step process offers a set of checks and balances which
is good for everyone.

 

Recruiting hasn't been easy.  Most recently I started recruiting for the 5/1
Greeter rotation and although several people stepped forward, they hadn't
been with us for a year yet.  So on May 1, we had one new greeter, and two
others who had already served 12 months stayed on.  Then in May we got one
more volunteer who qualified.  We are still short new recruits, Kim has
stayed on in the role (thankfully!), she has been a greeter since 5/1/2018.
If I could have accepted 6 month membership, we would have been able to fill
the positions, I had about a half dozen inquiries from members who hadn't
yet been with us for a year.  Based on comments from those who have shown
interest in the role, I can only hypothesize that newer members have more
recent memories of where they were in their Al-Anon journey when they went
through the process to become members of ASP.  Those memories may be driving
the stronger desire to volunteer as greeter.

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

I propose that we discuss reducing the membership requirement for ASP
Greeters from 12 months participation with ASP to 6 months.  In my humble
opinion, I do NOT think we should reduce that requirement further to say 3
months, even if the volunteer has Al-Anon experience.  In my opinion, one
needs to understand how the online ASP meeting works before taking on the
Greeter role.  Newcomers to ASP should first get a sense of the online
meeting flow before taking on the Greeter process.  In my experience, during
my year and a half as Greeter Chair, the Greeter flow can be tricky and for
some it has been overwhelming.  There is a lot of file management and
coordination of communication between Greeters, Greeter Chair and
prospective new members.   Additionally, many of the questions that come in
to the Greeter are tied to the mechanics of the online meeting.  How to
share, how to change email address, etc.

 

That's all I have for now!  Looking forward to hearing from others on this
topic.

 

Hugs, 

 

Anne O.

 


_______________________________________________
The ASP Instruction page is http://asp-afg.org/members/asp-instructions/

The ASP web site for ASP members is http://www.asp-afg.org/Members/

For assistance with other ASP issues, contact Jerry the List Administrator,
at  la at asp-afg.org

_______________________________________________
Businessmtg mailing list
Businessmtg at asp-afg.org
http://www.asp-afg.org/mailman/listinfo/businessmtg