[Businessmtg] Steering Committee Report - Sept., 2019

[Jerry H.]

STEERING COMMITTEE REPORT - SEPT., 2019

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   There was a error, technical or human we don't know yet, which caused the poll on Motion #20 to close earlier than planned. One business meeting member who attempted to vote on time had their vote rejected. Notice was received, the poll was reopened, and that member did get to vote.


   There was one complaint to the Steering Committee (SC) of an inappropriate share by another member. The email in question was reviewed by the SC members, the majority of whom viewed that email's overall content as an expression of the author's personal experience. A few of the word choices, though, were recognized as very close to the line. No action taken.


   A number of ASP members noted that they were receiving an invitation to attend a recovery meeting not associated with ASP and unknown whether it was associated with Al-Anon. These member's and approximately 20-30 other ASP member's addresses were thus contacted as far as we know. ASP's membership roles are accessible only by a few authorized trusted servants and require password access. A past trusted servant could have copied those files before they left ASP, or a current ASP member could have made up a personal list of these addresses copied from the topic posts of ASP members. The only way ASP could eliminate the inclusion of personal email addresses from the daily shares would be to change ASP's settings, but the consequences of that would be members not being able to contact other members directly, an important part of recovery. No action taken at this time. Please contact the SC at steering_committee at asp-afg.org if you have concerns.


   The SC felt that the agenda for the September business meeting needed to continue focusing on getting ASP's service positions filled. While we are in receipt of a number of member-suggested topics for discussion, none were determined to be of the magnitude of the problems ASP faces due to a lack of volunteers for those vacant positions and the stresses being experienced by those trusted servants who continue to work overtime to fill the gaps to keep ASP functioning. Solutions are urgently needed for our service problem. Suggestions of avenues we might take to repair what has become a critical fault are required.


   It's only fair to admit that I, as the SC Chair, have mismanaged my timing of events recently which led to a) the July motion poll running over into August, and b) the tardy call to join the September business meeting which resulted in this meeting not starting on the 1st as usual. Not sure how much blame is mine for the agenda not being ready to post with the announcement for the business meeting, but as SC chair I accept it all.


In service,

Jerry H., ASP Steering Committee Chair

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