[Businessmtg] Seventh Tradition Issues

[Steve Rankin]

Hi folks,

What I am seeing is two separate, although related issues.

First, is the Prudent Reserve Issue.  Clearly, the current amount of the
Prudent Reserve is both inaccurate and insufficient.  If the amount
designated as our Prudent Reserve was sufficient, our funds would not be
below that amount without some ASP encountering significant issues.  

Second, are the new expenses that ASP is obligated for.  Not only do we have
known increased admin expenses, we are faced with unknown expenses &
financial obligations.  For many years, WSO policy stated that the ONLY
place the online meeting should donate excess funds to was WSO.  Ignoring
the problematic issue of WSO "directing" I'll skip straight to the fact that
is simply no longer true.  Earlier this year, the World Service Conference
decided that we are now full-fledged Al-Anon Groups and as such we have the
same obligation to support other Al-Anon service entities besides just WSO.


Perhaps, I should add that most of the face-to-face groups I have known over
the last 38 years used the formula: 60% to District, 30% to Area and 10% to
WSO.  Naturally, the excess funds of the District trickled to the Area and
WSO, and the excess funds of the Area trickled to WSO.

When I look at our 7th Tradition register, I see that our balance fell below
our Prudent Reserve in August and remained less than our Prudent Reserve
through the last Treasurer report on October 31st.  I also discovered that
the check written to WSO for $640 on August 16th resulted in a negative
Prudent Reserve of $194.90.  That in itself concerns me as donations of
"excess funds" should never result in a loss in our Prudent Reserve.  It was
also interesting to see that the PO Box in Kansas costs $146/year while the
PO Box in Washington costs $118/year, however that is the Post Office
pricing for the same PO Box in those ZIP codes.  Go figure.  

(found at
http://asp-afg.org/members/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/11/ASP-Donations-
Expenses-2021-Through-October.pdf)

Considering that we are dealing with both a deficit in our Prudent Reserve
and the excess funds donated to WSO that caused the deficit, a vastly
different set of expenses in the future, and a vastly different array of
Al-Anon service entities to support, I can't justify doing what we've been
doing based on a decision we made 

In June 2013.  

I believe rather strongly that we need to take a serious break from donating
"excess" funds until we have thoroughly revisited our financial obligations,
the calculation of our Prudent Reserve, and our methodology for distributing
our excess funds.  To do otherwise, strikes me as being irresponsible.

I'll also mention that this is nothing new to ASP.  Back in October 2007, we
passed Motion #5

". . . that no funds be disbursed to any Al-Anon entity until such time as
the prudent reserve & disbursement of excess funds issues have been resolved
by group conscience. . ."

Love and SERENITY,

Steve