[Businessmtg] Response to questions

[Steve Rankin]

Hi ASPers,

 

Let me start my response to the recent questions by linking three key pages
on our web site. These pages are valuable references for almost everything
about ASP that comes up in Business Meetings, including the recent
questions.

 

 

*	KBDM page 

This page describes the complete Knowledge Based Decision Making process we
use at ASP. http://asp-afg.org/members/kbdm/

 

 

*	ASP Group Consciences page. 

 

In Novembers 2005 I called special Business Meeting to discuss my turning
over the ownership of ASP to the members of ASP. This meeting lasted until
May 2006 when ASP began operating on its own. This page contains all of the
Group Consciences since February 2006 when we discussed what the members of
ASP wanted ASP to be after I turned over ownership of ASP to the members, as
well as those group consciences since then.
http://asp-afg.org/members/group-conscience/

 

 

*	The ASP Service Structure page.

 

This page contains the actual content of Motion #4. This motion established
the service structure at ASP, which includes defining the roles (authorities
and responsibilities) of the elected Trusted Servants AND the role of the
Business Meeting in ASP. 

 

 

IMPORTANT NOTE:

 

There are two core concepts of our structure at ASP that may help the
members of the Business Meeting understand how things work at ASP. 

 

A.	The role of the Business Meeting is "Establish general meeting
policies by substantial unanimity of subscribed membership of Business
Committee."

 

B.	The role of the Steering Committee is to administer the policies of
ASP. Specifically, that means that the Steering Committee administers all
technical affairs of ASP and implements ASP policy and practices. 

 

In other words, the Business Meeting establishes GENERAL meeting policies,
while the Steering Committee implements those policies and handles all of
the administrative business of ASP. 

The Business Meeting does not discuss or make decisions regarding
administration or logistics issues. 

The Steering Committee does not make policy decisions. 

 

 

Onto to the questions . . .

 

 

1.	Who will be responsible for adding the items?  

 

The Steering Committee is responsible for implementing ASP policy. In this
particular case, we are talking about a web page, so it would logically fall
on the Web Master to publish and maintain that web page. During times that
we have not had a Web Master, I have made updates to the web site, but only
at the request of the List Administrator and/or Steering Committee. 

 

 

 

2.	Would they have to be approved? 

 

Generally speaking, NO. 

However, there may be exceptions. For example, someone might request a topic
that was discussed just recently, so the Steering Committee would likely
inform the member of that fact and not put it on the web page. Another
possible example would be a request for a topic that is inappropriate. That
could be something that is either inappropriate in Al-Anon meeting, or
perhaps outside the scope of ASP, or perhaps violate one of the Traditions,
Concepts, etc. 

With the advent of this new page, I'd certainly hope (expect?) that every
topic request would reach the ENTIRE Steering Committee, not just one
member. Also that the Web Master would inform the Steering Committee that
she had completed the update to the web page with the newly received topic
request. 

As a result, decisions to not include a topic request should be visible to
the entire Steering Committee which is a safeguard that valid topic request
get onto the web page. 

If it was determined by the Steering Committee that an agenda topic request
was inappropriate, then the List Administrator, who represents the Steering
Committee, would be the trusted servant responsible for informing the member
making the request. 

Please note that any member can reach the entire Steering Committee by
addressing an email to steering_committee at asp-afg.org
<mailto:steering_committee at asp-afg.org> . 

 

 

 

3.	Opinions. 

 

We are discussing a web page for posting a listing of agenda topics
requested by members of ASP. 

This is not a place for posting opinions, or essays. 

 

 

 

4.	Order of agenda topics in the Business Meeting.

 

As was mentioned earlier, the Steering Committee discusses the priorities of
the agenda topics for the upcoming Business Meeting. Al-Anon's Concept Three
gives the Chair (ASP Secretary) the right of decision to set the agenda as
well as to make changes to the Business Meeting agenda during the Business
Meeting.  

 

 

 

5.	"Talking" about not having service positions filled vs. doing other
things in the Business Meeting. 

 

Basically, this is a result of the discussion in the Steering Committee and
the decision of the List Administrator who was the Acting Secretary at that
time. FWIW, I was the dissenter in the Steering Committee. 

 

 

 

6.	Will some topics continue to take months to surface?

 

Probably. It will depend on how many topic requests are received as well as
the relative priorities of those topics as perceived by the leadership of
ASP. The good news is that even the "lowly" and/or controversial topics will
still be on the list and visible to all, so there's much less opportunity
for topics to get swept under the rug or fall in crack.

 

 

 

7.	The question of not allowing more than one member to share an
opinion, or to disagree?

 

I don't know where this came from. We always allow members to share their
ESH in our Business Meetings. While we do prefer that members try to relate
or describe how our Traditions and Concepts apply to the issue we are
discussing because that helps keep the discussion focused on principles
instead of personalities, we do allow opinions, too. In fact, our KBDM
process specifically says:  (Note "E" at the end)

 

=======================================================

VI. Posts to the discussion

Members are asked to read ALL the new posts before posting a response or
question. Please do NOT ask questions that have already been answered. A
post may be:

A. A question;

B. A statement of fact-if so please provide supporting evidence;

C. A statement of Al-Anon principle-if so, please quote the applicable Step,
Tradition or Concept;

D. A statement of experience-if so, please say so and describe the Al-Anon
experience in our usual way: what it was like, what happened, and what it is
like now;

E. A statement of opinion-if so please be clear that it is your opinion and
not a statement of fact or Al-Anon principle.

=======================================================

 

 

8.	What if it's already been discussed?  Voted on?  How will the person
know?

 

Members can easily check our Group Consciences page to see what decisions
have been made in the past at ASP. That page includes the complete text of
every motion, who made the motion, the tally of the voting and the date. If
a member wanted to know more about the discussion of a previous motion, they
can go to the Business Meeting Archives and read the emails of that Business
Meeting. 

 

 

Love and SERENITY,

Steve