[Businessmtg] Prudent Reserve etc.

[Linda F]

 Thanks to everyone who's chimed in on this topic, I have learned a lot.  I
went through the motions looking for the ones that related to the issues on
the table right now, and found three:
Motion 5: no funds will be disbursed to any Al-Anon entity until prudent
reserve and disbursement of excess funds issues have been resolved by group
conscience.

Motion 6: sets prudent reserve at one calendar year's expenses

Motion 11: 100% of excess reserve funds will be donated to WSO on a
quarterly basis while ASP continues the discussion of the feasibility of
donating to other Al-Anon entities.
These are my thoughts based on the motions we've passed so far and Concept
12:

1) The passage of Motion 11 does not explicitly say it overrides Motion 5
(which feels like what we're doing right now); however, it seems to me that
some clarification is needed here.  The fact that Motion 11 exists suggests
that "prudent reserve and disbursement of excess funds issues" have already
been resolved by group conscience.

If we want to change what we're doing with our excess reserve funds, we
need to have a motion that explicitly rescinds Motion 11.  It would also be
helpful to have language in that motion that clarifies whether we still
need Motion 5, or whether this latest motion fulfills the purpose of Motion
5 and it is no longer needed.

2) I think Warranty 1 (from the Concepts) applies here: that only
sufficient operating funds, including an ample reserve, be Al-Anon's
prudent financial principle.  We have a tendency to talk about "prudent
reserve", but the warranty actually uses the words "ample reserve" and
"prudent financial principle."

The principle here is that we need to maintain a balanced approach to the
way we handle money.  Yes, we need to be self-supporting ala Tradition 7,
thus we need to maintain an ample reserve.  The f2f meetings I've attended
have defined ample reserve as 3-6 months of rent.  I can guess that when it
comes to ASP, we have some expenses that come around once a year, so it is
more wise to base our reserve on one year's expenses.

Having said that, the flip side of being prudent is not holding onto too
much money, which to me is why the word "only" is there in Warranty One.
One of the major ways my desire to control manifests itself is financial
insecurity.  So it's important to me that as part of practicing LGLG, I
have to be willing to not hold onto too much money.

3) With that as background,I am in favor of amending Motion 6 to clarify
language so that the prudent reserve is based on the average cost to
operate ASP over the last 2 years.

4) I would prefer to pass a separate motion on top of clarifying Motion 6
that sets aside a separate reserve account for the one-time incorporation
expenses, with maybe a baseline starting amount from our current expenses,
plus a plan to add a percentage of funds that come into ASP each month into
that reserve account, a cap at $1000, and a specific plan to donate excess
funds after incorporation costs are paid.

5) I would be comfortable with the idea of changing the percentage of money
that we donate to WSO to 10% for now, with the other 90% going into a
holding account until we decide how we want to allocate disbursement of
those excess funds to Al-Anon entities.


HUGS (Helping Us Gain Serenity), Linda