[Businessmtg] Thoughts

[Jerry H.]

Hello all,
First I'd like to suggest answers to a few questions which have been posed Margaret and Mary A.:

[Margaret]
1.   Why are most of the daily chairs not listed as attending this or July business meeting?
>>> Each member either volunteers to attend the Business Meeting (BM) or doesn't. Daily Chairs are not obligated to attend BM's; ASP has no requirement that they do so.
2.   In f2f meetings that I have attended, business matters and Service needs are announced frequently.    In depth discussion and voting is usually left for business meetings but members, including newcomers, are being made aware of the existence and needs of Service.   Why are there no such announcements in the regular meetings on ASP?   Why has Service not been addressed in a Daily Topic discussion in the last 4 months?
>>> ASP practice is to announce each BM 7 days before the BM begins. This announcement is made to the entire membership giving everyone the opportunity to attend.

[Mary A.]
The first idea is dependent on the answer to a question. Does ASP have a policy against having an acting secretary or treasurer until a member who is in the process of completing the required service has completed that requirement? If there is no policy prohibiting this kind of "acting" position, I think that it should be considered.
>>> ASP has by group conscience requirements for those who can serve on the Steering Committee. Those requirements would not change were we to elect acting or temporary officers.
>>> ASP has no provisions for acting or temporary officers. [Note: Despite not having an approved provision allowing for the appointment of temporary officers in emergency situations, I did so when a recent Treasurer resigned for personal reasons and no one stood for the vacant position. Needing someone who met ASP's qualifications in a hurry, I asked Steve who graciously accepted.]

[Mary A.]
...There currently must be only a dozen or two members who have meet the required service commitment to volunteer for either of these two positions. With such a short list, perhaps it
is time for the steering committee to contact these few members and speak with them individually....
>>> If there are records of past trusted servants who are still active members in ASP I think this would be a good idea. Keep in mind that if they are still active they would be aware that there has long been a need for a new Secretary and Treasurer if they read the BM announcement agenda.
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My thoughts...

My decades of full-on Al-Anon and continuous service is telling me that much of the difficulties we are experiencing are coming from an unwillingness to accept that following the 7th Tradition is a must for both personal recovery and every meetings' survival. I have a suspicion that many online Al-Anon members don't have the sponsorship that is often responsible for in-depth understanding of our Traditions and for leading newer members into service. If I'm even only partially right are these things ASP can change? I just don't know.

And even if we could can we do it in time? In about a year there will be two additional vacancies on ASP's Steering Committee. With few or no members willing or qualified to fill the current and upcoming SC vacancies ASP is in for some dire straits. With ASP having proven itself as a solid source of recovery for so many over the decades I find it sad in the extreme that the membership as a whole is so unwilling to keep it going by providing the service that it needs.

It's true that part of the reason for our tribulations could be sourced in our practices - that shorter service commitments could at least fill the service slots. But nobody is discussing how less commitment may affect the group. Some suggest that ASP is not run like face-to-face meetings - that we ought mirror those groups. But nobody is discussing how ASP is different than F2F - that we're more like Areas or in some respects like the WSO's structure with legal and world-wide responsibilities.

Al-Anon's standard for service commitment for Group Rep and higher offices has been three years for as long as I've been an Al-Anon. A year of active membership in ASP and year of prior ASP service adequately prepares members for Steering Committee level / officer service. Anything less I'm not so sure. Two years possibly - one year getting up to speed and one year of being fully effective. Personally I'm not in favor of taking what I consider a risk by reducing ASP's qualifications.

All I know for sure is that one way or the other solutions must be found soon; at the speed of our BM's we'll be fortunate to agree on corrective actions before some of our remaining SC members time out.

In service,
Jerry
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