[Businessmtg] Group Representative Report

[aohara77 at comcast.net]

Hi All,

 

As one of the founders of ASP, I was asked to step in as the ASP Group
Representative until we have a volunteer from the ASP group step forward
into the role.

 

Since I was asked to fill the role in early January, I have attended two
Assembly meetings that were organized by members of the WSO.  Both meetings
used Web Ex technology, and as many as 200 virtual meeting groups sent GR's
to the meetings.  It was quite an experience. I have never participated in
this type of an Al-Anon event, I gained new perspective on the challenges we
experience at an ASP Business meeting - managing the discussions, and
staying on task both by the leaders and attendees.  

 

At the first meeting on 1/22, little was accomplished due to some technical
and organizational difficulties, the intent was to have elected all officers
at that meeting.  Instead the meeting went for 4 long hours and we only
elected an Area Delegate.   Kudos to the leaders of that meeting,  because
the next meeting on 3/5 was very smooth!   During the second meeting,
leaders referred to our area as Non-Georgraphic/Non-Panel - I am not sure
what Non-Panel means and have requested that information as well as the
minutes from 3/5  meeting.  I was only able to stay for about half of that
meeting.

 

The election process:

*	Each individual answered a series of questions in writing.  At the
first meeting, we got the responses during the meeting.  At the second
meeting, those responses were shared ahead of the meeting and presented in 3
languages.
*	During the meeting each prospective candidate spoke briefly and
given a time limit.  At the first meeting, translation services did NOT work
- and so the narrative appeared in the chat box, first in Spanish and then
in French, and there were oral translators standing by to assist during
discussion.  At the second meeting, closed captioning was enabled - allowing
the meeting to progress in a timely manner.
*	Once the prospective candidates had finished speaking, they were
removed from the meeting and the assembly could ask questions.  At no time
were we able to speak directly with anyone standing for a position.  It
seemed odd because there were some really good questions that of course the
WSO couldn't answer.
*	Then the election took place but we were never given the tally, just
the end result of the vote.  The voting poll was built into the Webex, those
on smartphones could vote through the Webex, those on landlines or mobile
devices that weren't "smart" emailed their votes to dedicated email address.
*	I was able to stay long enough to vote for all but the Area
Secretary.

 

I do believe all Area positions are now filled.  Area Delegate, Area
Chairperson, Area Treasurer, Area Secretary.  This elected group  has a lot
of work ahead of them.  It was clear to me that WSO is going to let this
group define their own processes - and their role at these initial meetings
was simply to facilitate getting this structure in place.  I will be most
interested to learn more about how they manage determining their operating
costs and prudent reserve as well as how they will manage the treasury.
As soon as that is defined and shared, we will be able to define how we want
to distribute our excess funds.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Yours in service,

 

Anne O.