[Businessmtg] Seventh Tradition Issues

[Marilyn Booms]

Well said Steve.  I agree with your thoughts on recalculating updated
expenses before further donations to WSO.

If this has been asked and answered before,  my apologies.  What "district
" and "area " does an online group such as ours fall under? In a
f2f meeting, district and area are geographic. Does ASP have a home office
per se that would determine our district? Just trying to understand better.

Regardless,  I think we need to keep our group solvent first, by rebuilding
our PR.

Thanks,
Marilyn



On Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 5:53 PM Steve Rankin <steve at serenitysys.com> wrote:

> 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
> <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
>
> ____________________________
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> For assistance with other ASP issues, contact Steve the Founder of ASP, at
> steve at serenitysys.com
>