[Businessmtg] Bylaws & Incorporation

[Celia Mclamb]

Thanks Steve for your service and hard work compiling all this. It  looks
good to me.

Celia 😊

On Sun, Jan 9, 2022 at 2:15 AM Steve Rankin <steve at serenitysys.com> wrote:

> Hi ASPs,
>
>
>
> This has been a long time coming, but it is finally here.  As usual, some
> history is called for.
>
>
>
> Over the 25 years that A Serenity Place has been around, banking rules have
> evolved in response to government regulation, market conditions, and world
> politics.  In the good ol' days, anyone could open a bank account with
> little if any documentation supporting the name of the account.  Those days
> are long gone.  It seems that every time we elect a new Treasurer, the
> world
> has gotten a little more complicated since the previous Treasurer.  The
> solution was clear; the path for any organization to perpetuity and a
> legitimate identity in the real world is to incorporate.
>
>
>
> I went through the process for my own commercial corporation last Fall.
> Shortly after we file the corporation documents, ASP will be able to open a
> bank account in ASP's corporate name, which will greatly simplify the
> handling of Seventh Tradition funds by the Treasurer, AND will allow the
> rotation of Treasurers without any changes in the bank account other than
> changing the signature cards on file.
>
>
>
> It isn't unusual for an Al-Anon service entity to incorporate.  My Al-Anon
> District was incorporated before I became the District Rep in the 1980's,
> and my Al-Anon Area was incorporated in 1983.  There are some
> administrative
> hurdles, the biggest has been drafting the bylaws.
>
>
>
> The bylaws are the rules adopted by an organization chiefly for the
> government of its members and the regulation of its affairs.  The good news
> is that ASP has a website with over a dozen pages that document our group
> consciences, policies and procedures.  The bad news is that none of it is
> in
> the format of the legal document required.  Plus, there are things that
> need
> to be documented in the bylaws that aren't documented on the ASP website.
>
>
>
> I started by accessing copies of bylaws from several Al-Anon service
> entities looking for an example that provided the framework I thought would
> work for us at ASP.  Then, I went through each section, clause by clause
> and
> wordsmithed everything so the final version (a) read like an Al-Anon
> document, not something else, and (b) reconciled with every policy,
> procedure and group conscience of ASP.  Periodically, the bylaws needed to
> be updated to comply with new group consciences.   The project was
> fundamentally finished in late Summer. Then. After being reviewed by Anne
> O., it went through a series of minor edits, corrections and bug fixes.
>
>
>
> The objective of this meeting is to approve the draft bylaws so the
> Steering
> Committee can proceed with the incorporation process.  I will be posting a
> second email containing the actual text of the draft bylaws in a few
> minutes.
>
>
>
> 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
>