[Businessmtg] Prudent Reserve and Excess Funds

[Steve Rankin]

Hi folks,

 

As you read about earlier today, the new Area Delegate announced on the CMA
Connects forum yesterday the info on how to make donations to the new Area.
So, we now have all the info we need to be able to donate the portion we
decide on to our Area.  I also noticed on the forum that someone asked
specifically about the equalized Delegate expense. That hasn't been answered
yet.

 

So, we now have all the info we need to be able to donate the portion we
decide on to our Area.  

 

Before I speak to what I believe we should do, I'll say a few things about
the WSO that I know to counter those that seem to believe that supporting
WSO is a core part of our 7th Tradition.

 

I will acknowledge that there are Al-Anon Guidelines suggest donating to WSO
is a part of OUR being self-supporting.  In fact, the Guideline for the
online meetings states that ALL excess funds of online meeting should be
donated to WSO exclusively.  I'll note that those Guidelines were written by
WSO and the Board of Directors, not the fellowship through the normal CAL
process.  Rather self-serving, IMHO.

The same thing applies to the Service Manual - it is written by WSO - where
the emphasis is more subtle, but nonetheless favors donations to WSO over
other Al-Anon service entities.

 

In Al-Anon we learn that we need to take care of ourselves first.  In my
mind, that also means that we need to take care of those that are closer to
us before we try to take care of those that are not so close.  Another way
of looking at it is that we need to take care of those that serve us
DIRECTLY before we try to take care of those that serve use indirectly or
from a distance.  Which is one reason why so many face-to-face groups donate
60% of their excess funds to their local district, then 30% of their funds
to their Area (usually their state) and finally 10% of their excess funds to
WSO.  Remember, that the District and Area also donate their excess funds up
the food chain, so in the end, all excess funds go to WSO.

 

So why some members demand that we donate all of our excess funds to WSO as
soon as possible escapes me.  Why would a member forsake supporting their
local service structure in favor of supporting WSO.  Especially, when the
local service structure is made up of volunteers and the WSO is paid staff.

 

Someone mentioned that during the pandemic WSO didn't receive the financial
support it usually does.  Actually, that is not true.  In fact, earlier this
year I received a note from WSO stating "The Board of Trustees (BOT) would
like to extend a big thank you for your continued financial support!
Contributions for 2021 exceeded budgeted expectations by just over $79,000".
What I understand seems to have happened is that many members, unable to
donate to their groups, sent larger donations to WSO than usual.  

 

OLA-IS

Online Al-Anon Information Service was started in the 1990's by some leaders
of the online meetings.  For a number of years, OLA-IS was the sole online
source of information about online meetings.  Anyone interesting in online
Al-Anon could find a meeting, including a brief description of the meeting,
at OLA-IS.  When WSO finally developed an online presence and began
providing information about meetings for members, WSO wrote OLA-IS and
threatened them, and declared that there was no such thing as an online
Information Service, although they "allowed" OLA_IS to maintain the website.
That wasn't the first time WSO was heavy-handed with members about online
meetings.  WSO sued Don R., the founder of CAFG 3 times in federal court.

Instead, WSO declared that WSO represents the online meetings to WSO and the
fellowship.

 

CURRENT MAILING ADDRESS (CMA)  Every Al-Anon Group and Meeting has a
"Current Mailing Address" known as the "CMA" for short.  The idea is simple
- WSO keeps groups and meetings informed by sending information to the CMA.
Unfortunately, WSO does not send information about the fellowship that may
be of interest to online meetings to the CMA.  WSO has never sent me a
single thing informing us that the WSC decided that we are a group, that we
should elect a GR, that our GR needed to register with WSO to be allowed to
participate in OUR Area's Assembly.  

If WSO represented us to WSO and the fellowship, why didn't they inform us.

 

CMA CONNECT FORUM.  WSO established a forum for CMAs, which it monitors.  To
join the forum, the CMA must first agree to a very interesting Usage Policy,
written by WSO that allows WSO to publish anything said in the CMA Connects
forum in Al-Anon literature - WSO owns the write to publish anything written
by a member of Al-Anon in the forum HOWEVER WSO also states that none of the
members may quote what is said in the CMA Forum.  In other words, it is OK
for WSO to quote what I might say in a post in the forum, but it is not OK
for me to share what they say in the forum.  I'm clueless what Al-Anon
principle that is based on.  BTW, the attorney that WSO hired a couple of
years ago to track the online meetings recently "reminded" us on the forum
about the usage policy.  Why, she didn't say.

 

During this time, many of the online groups raised questions about what to
do with excess funds.  Unlike other topics, WSO never said a word.  It was
obvious that most groups had no clue that the new Area would need to be
financially supported.  A couple of us tried to point that out, but so many
members of Al-Anon know nothing about our service structure, except they
know about WSO.  

 

I'll also note that WSO didn't inform the forum for a month or so after last
year's WSC that we were now a group.  They told us that they would hold a
webinar and explain it last July, but then postponed it until September.
Then they finally started letting us know the details - which they
controlled - in November.  WSO held election Assemblies, which they also
controlled completely, including the agenda.  Only GRs that were registered
with WSO by a deadline that WSO set were allowed to attend.  Even after we
elected a temporary Area Chair for the purpose of leading the election
Assembly, WSO controlled that Assembly, too.  Our Area Chair was merely a
figurehead.

 

None of this is new behavior.

 

Back in February 1996, Ric B. the Executive Director of WSO told me
personally that the Board of Directors would classify online groups as
"meetings" and not groups as part of a 3-year trial, and that at the end of
that trial that they would extend the trial for 3 years and at the end of
that 3 years, they would extend it. . . 

And so it went until the fellowship itself, through the face-to-face
meetings Delegates passed two group consciences at the 2021 World Service
Conference in May 2021 that online meetings were officially groups.

As much as it frustrates me, it didn't surprise me that WSO would drag its
feet as much as possible on implementing the WSC group conscience.

 

If you get the feeling that I'm annoyed with WSO, you are correct.  Their
treatment of the online meetings has been inappropriate for over 26 years,
and their handling of the 2021 WSC group conscience has been selfish and
self-centered.

 

Love and SERENITY,

Steve