[Businessmtg] List Administrator Report

[Steve Rankin]

Hi ASPers,

 

I apologize for not having my report prepared earlier, but I decided to do something different this month and provide a bit more insight into the world of the List Administrator at ASP.  Please do NOT interpret this in any way to be a complaint about the LA workload, or how the LA needs help to get the job done.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I estimate that I spend about 5-10 minutes a day doing the normal List Administrator work. The exceptions to “normal” can be time consuming, but those situations are unpredictable and simply have to be dealt with when they come up.  Sometimes those situations are immensely frustrating, other times they are equally rewarding.  

 

It’s been an interesting month since we last met in an interesting time.  Personally, I’ve plenty busy. . . trying to teach my young Collie to come to me instead of exploring the neighborhood, meeting new neighbors, the usual honeydo stuff around the house, my hobbies, and so on.  

 

ASP has been hopping, too.  I’ve been using Microsoft Outlook since June 1996, and I have it set up to automatically sort the majority of my incoming email.  Administrative email from the ASP server automatically goes into one folder, shares go in another, Steering Committee another, Business Meeting another and so on. The count of emails in some of the various folders for ASP looks like this for August:

ASP Shares                                                                 1,823 shares (58.8 per day)

Admin messages from ASP server                             1,424 messages (45.9 per day)

Admin messages requiring action                              118 (3.8 per day)

Responses to Unsubscribe                                          15 (0.5 per day)

Correspondence to the List Administrator                 69 messages (2.2 per day)

Responses to purge                                                     462 (25.7 per day) [60 duplicates]

TOTAL                                                                       3,896 emails (125.7 per day)

Now I know that sounds horrific, but that’s a fact for an Al-Anon meeting with roughly 400+ actual members. The good news is that the List Administrator doesn’t need to read all of them.  So, what do I really need to read?

 

First, I learned many years that it is a waste of time to read all those admin messages the server sends.  However, that does not mean that I get to ignore them!  Not at all.  My solution is simple – log into the server at least once daily and deal with the emails the server is holding because members didn’t do what they’re supposed to do.  By far, the most common mistake is to send a share to the server using the “Reply to All” feature in their email. This results in a Bounce message from the server to the List Administrator and the member, requiring the List Administrator to log in, click a few boxes, etc. to clear the message.  

 

Because this is so common, and because the server’s default message is a bit cryptic, I manually cut and paste a much more descriptive note to the member from me about why their share was rejected and how to avoid that in the future.  Most members “get it” right away, but we do have some repeat customers that I eventually need to have a one-on-one conversation with. 

 

The second most common reason the server is holding a message is because the server recognized that the sender wanted to unsubscribe.

 

Then, there are the private messages I receive from members.  I read and respond to every one-on-one message I receive.  There were 69 of those in August.  These messages can take anywhere from 2-3 minutes to respond to, or possible half an hour or even longer.  On occasion, those communications evolve into sponsor/sponsee relationships.  

 

WSO recently processed the paperwork to make me the “CMA” for ASP.  That’s WSO-speak for “Meeting Contact”.  Since officially becoming the Meeting Contact, I’ve been able to join the “Electronic Meetings Community on ‘AFG Connects’”.  “AFG Connects” is theoretically a ‘community’ for CMAs to share ideas, etc. much like an Intergroup, District or Area would be in the face-to-face world of Al-Anon.  However, there are some significant differences:

1.	First, one is required to agree to a couple of pages of legalese to join “AFG Connects”.
2.	The legalese says that WSO doesn’t monitor “AFG Connects”, however they say they will kick you out if they don’t like what you have to say there.  
3.	Another part of the legalese says that whatever you write on “AFG Connects” you agree to allow WSO to use however they wish, in literature, etc.  In other words, if a CMA comes up with a great slogan and mentions it in “AFG Connects”, WSO now has the write to use it and even copyright it in their literature.  

What I’ve discovered so far is about 98% of what I’ve found in “AFG Connects” is infomercial stuff from WSO by staff.  

 

Lastly, I’m concerned about the fact that members of Al-Anon started a member-focused Intergroup over 20 years ago called “OLA-IS” which can be found at www.ola-is.org <http://www.ola-is.org> .  At first, WSO cooperated with OLA-IS.  WSO even helped OLA-IS arrange a ground floor conference room with excellent access at the first Al-Anon International Convention in Salt Lake City in 1998 where we had a half-dozen computers set up online.  Members of the various online meetings staffed computers connected to their online meeting and demo’d the experience to a slew of Al-Anons.  Unfortunately, about a year or so later WSO decided that they wouldn’t allow an online service entity and turned against OLA-IS.

 

Yes, this has been a sore spot in my craw for over 20 years, and now that WSO is hosting its own version, but strictly under its control.  ☹

 

About compliance with European Union’s GDPR law, and a similar California law, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).  The gist of these laws is that people have a right to control their personal information, and that businesses are required to respect those rights.  After reviewing the details of both the EU’s GDPR and California’s CCPA, it is clear to me that ASP has no responsibility regarding either.  

GDPR: The regulation does not apply to the processing of data by a person for a "purely personal or household activity and thus with no connection to a professional or commercial activity."  ASP is purely personal with no connection to any professional or commercial activity.  

The CCPA applies to any business, including any for-profit entity that collects consumers' personal data, which does business in California, and satisfies at least one of the following thresholds:

*        Has annual gross revenues in excess of $25 million;

*        Buys, receives, or sells the personal information of 50,000 or more consumers or households; or

*        Earns more than half of its annual revenue from selling consumers' personal information. 

ASP doesn’t come close to meeting any of these minimum thresholds, therefore the CCPA does not apply to ASP.

 

Love and SERENITY,

Steve