[Businessmtg] List Administrator Report

Mon Nov 1 18:09:45 PDT 2021

Hi Lynne,

Yes, if we wish to be represented and be a part of the upcoming Area meeting, then it is imperative that we elect a GR during this Business Meeting.  

Do we have a contingency plan?  No, not that I'm aware of.  Well, I guess I'd have to say that I don't count the "plan" that some have that simply doesn't consider this important, significant or whatever.  

Like so many things in life, the answer to the question is actually quite simple.  The fact is that the Area meeting January is for ELECTED Group Representatives.  Only.  Status as the CMA does not count.  

Personally, I'm quite hopeful that we will be successful.

Hugs,
Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Businessmtg On Behalf Of travelynne2 via Businessmtg
Sent: Monday, November 1, 2021 6:51 PM
Subject: Re: [Businessmtg] List Administrator Report

Thanks Steve for this report! 

It’s so great to see the timeline from WSO! It does seem imperative that we elect a GR during this business meeting if that person is to represent us in January at the first Area meeting. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we can do that!! What an exciting thing it would be to be a part of! 

Does ASP have a contingency plan if we do not elect a GR this meeting?

Hugs,
Lynne

Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 31, 2021, at 11:56 PM, Steve Rankin <steve at serenitysys.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi ASPers,
> 
> The last few weeks have been especially interesting in our household.  For those that don’t understand the code, “interesting” is a code word for all kinds of hell broke loose, which led to my needing to ask Anne O. to close out the last Business Meeting.  The good news is that my wife and I finally made it back home safely, and we are on the mend.  It’s pretty much “Ops Normal” again at the Rankin household as we hunker down for winter.  
> 
> Other than that, the situation here in my part of the ASP service world has been pretty much normal.  In other words, there is a stream of members that don’t seem to follow instructions and either run into their own problems or create problems for your List Administrator.  Some of those members are new, but some have been around for a substantial time, yet continue to do the same thing over and over again, creating the same problems over and over again.  Sigh.  
> 
> The most common problem is members sending their shares to more than just the ASP address.  The server isn’t very smart, but it is smart enough to tell if you addressed your share to more than just the ASP address.  Trying to sneak around this by using the BCC function doesn’t fool the server, folks.  The solution is simple – draft your share and send it to the ASP server and no one else.  Period.  BTW, this includes the Business Meeting.  We have 2-3 members of the Business Meeting that do this somewhat regularly. 
> 
> As most of you recall, the membership passed Motion #22 in the last 
> Business Meeting.  Motion #22 completely replaced Motion #4 from 2006.  
> If you were not in the September meeting you may want to take a look 
> at the body of Motion #22 at
> 
> http://www.serenitysys.com/A_Serenity_Place/Business/nbm/asp_service_s
> tructure_revised_OCT_2021.html
> 
> or
> 
> <https://tinyurl.com/nd7w6rcw> https://tinyurl.com/nd7w6rcw.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to talk about voting in ASP Business Meetings.  We had 30 members of ASP in the September Business Meeting.  Only 23 bothered to vote.  While only one member voted “No”, seven (7) members voted “No” by not voting at all.  Yep.  See folks, for a motion to pass at ASP, it must receive a 2/3 majority of the members PRESENT IN THE MEETING.  Any member that does not vote, gets counted as a “No” vote.  So, if you care at all about a motion passing, please vote!
> 
> 
> 
> Moving on. . .
> 
> You may have noticed the announcements that I’ve posted in the ASP recovery meeting.
> 
> *    Announcing the new Recording Secretary position.  
> *    Announcing the new Group Representative position.
> *    Announcing the vacancies in the List Administrator and Secretary positions.
> 
> The maintenance of the website (primarily updating the website) is now part of the Secretary’s responsibilities.  As the acting Secretary, I am working on recruiting someone for the Recording Secretary position.  We have a few updates to make on the website, so I’m postponing those updates until we have a Recording Secretary.  I’d much rather have the new Recording Secretary have the opportunity to learn by doing real updates than by pretending.  Unfortunately, I haven’t received any responses for the Recording Secretary yet. 
> 
> FYI, we’ve had two or three members of the Business Meeting posting shares to the BM “with multiple recipients”.  What that means is that they are sending their posts to more than just the Business Meeting server address.  It doesn’t matter who you try to send it to, or whether you try to send it TO: or CC: or BCC:        DON’T DO IT.     Your note will not get posted to the Business Meeting.  
> 
> 
> 
> STATUS REPORT on the new Virtual Area and Group Representative situation.  
> 
> The World Service Office hosted two nearly identical “All CMA” Webinars to bring the CMA’s up to speed on what is going on with the transition of electronic meetings to full-fledged Groups, and the plan moving forward to creating the new Area and other alternatives for the electronic meetings.  
> 
> So, let’s start with what is a CMA.  The acronym CMA stands for the “Current Mailing Address” of the meeting.  This is/was the nomenclature used for electronic meetings such as ASP, and different from the nomenclature used for Groups.  For reasons I never quite understood, the “CMA” is also the title of the member of the electronic meeting that is the contact person between WSO and the electronic meeting.  The CMA has been one of the collateral duties of the List Administrator for years.  As the electronic meetings transition themselves from “meetings” to “groups” and elect a Group Representative, the CMA positions will disappear and be replaced by the Group Reps.  In the meantime, ASP’s communication link with WSO is our CMA.
> 
> Some years ago, WSO created a confidential forum for CMAs called “AFG Connects”.  One of the things that annoyed me about this forum is that WSO “owns” it and stipulates that anything posted on the forum belongs to WSO and may be used by WSO.  In other words, if Susie Q. posted something in “AFG Connects”, WSO can use what she wrote in CAL or whatever.  Permission is required by WSO to participate.  Hmm.  OK, getting past that . . .
> 
> I get a daily digest of the messages posted to “AFG Connects”.  Most of the chatter is somewhat personal to other groups and has little if anything to do with ASP.  However, it is something that needs to be checked frequently because every once in a while WSO pops up with something we need to pay attention to.  The good news is that by receiving the digest directly in our email, the CMA/GR just needs to make a quick check of that email when it arrives. 
> 
> After a false start this Summer, WSO finally hosted the informational webinar last week.  It was about 2 hours long.  Unfortunately, WSO made a point that the webinar was confidential and not available for anyone else, so I can’t pass the link to everyone here.  ☹  However, they did make one of the graphics available for us to pass on to our groups.  That is the CMA Timeline:
> 
> http://serenitysys.com/A_Serenity_Place/Business/nbm/CMATimeline_10.23
> .21.pdf
> 
> or
> 
> https://tinyurl.com/27ks98jz
> 
> Please take some time to look at the Timeline.
> 
> Please note that the Timeline starts out with CMAs now, but before the end of November, transitions to Group Reps.  
> 
> In fact, the deadline for groups to submit the name and contact info of the newly elected Group Representative is January 14th.   
> 
> I REPEAT, THE DEADLINE FOR ELECTED GROUP REPS TO CONTACT WSO WITH THEIR CONTACT INFO IS FRIDAY, JANUARY 14th.
> 
> Just a few days later, the new GRs will receive the information from WSO on electing the new Area Officers.  
> 
> I seriously hope that we can elect a Group Rep this month.  I’d love to be able to pass the baton I’ve held for years to a new Group Representative who will be able to truly represent ASP to the greater fellowship of Al-Anon – something the CMAs were never able to do.
> 
> Love and SERENITY,
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ____________________________
> To Unsubscribe, go to: http://www.asp-afg.org/mailman/listinfo/asp
> The ASP web site with all kinds of info for ASP members is 
> http://asp-afg.org/members/ For assistance with other ASP issues, 
> contact Steve the Founder of ASP, at steve at serenitysys.com

____________________________
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The ASP web site with all kinds of info for ASP members is http://asp-afg.org/members/ For assistance with other ASP issues, contact Steve the Founder of ASP, at steve at serenitysys.com