[Businessmtg] Alternate path to Steering Committee service

[Lynne]

Hi everyone,

ASP is operating with only one of five elected trusted servant positions 
filled by an elected member. The Founders, Anne and Steve, are pitching 
in to help keep ASP running. However, this means that Anne is doing 
double duty as the Greeter Chair and the Group Representative and I am 
doing double duty as the List Administrator and the Secretary, and Steve 
is filling in as the Treasurer. There has also been a chronic inability 
for ASP to have a full slate of elected Steering Committee members. All 
of this goes against several Al anon principles listed below. We 
urgently need new tools to increase the pool of eligible applicants to 
the steering committee. We are getting burnt out doing all of these jobs 
with just the three of us.

Tradition 7: Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining 
outside contributions.
Concept 4: Participation is the key to harmony.
Concept 10: Service responsibility is balanced by carefully defined 
service authority and double-headed management is avoided.

The current requirements for election to the Steering Committee is one 
year's prior service at ASP in an appointed service position (Daily 
Chair, Greeter, Recording Secretary). Candidates are elected by the 
membership of the Business Meeting and must not be a member of AA.

The Steering Committee previously brought a topic to the business 
meeting in January about lowering the ASP service requirement for the 
Steering Committee positions from 1 year to 6 months. That is not being 
discussed now (it will be discussed later in this meeting if there is 
time), but is just an example of ways that we are trying to make service 
on the Steering Committee more accessible to widen the pool of eligible 
applicants.

What we are proposing now is that the Business Meeting give the Steering 
Committee the authority to waive the ASP service requirement on a 
case-by-case basis. What that means in practice is that if someone is 
interested in applying to serve in one of the Steering Committee 
positions, but that person does not meet the current ASP service 
requirements, the Steering Committee could decide to interview that 
candidate via a Zoom call to discuss the position and their previous Al 
anon and ASP service. If the Steering Committee UNANIMOUSLY agrees, we 
would bring the application to the next Business Meeting for 
consideration. The Business Meeting would still elect all Steering 
Committee members. If the Steering Committee does not unanimously agree 
to support waiving the ASP service requirement, then that candidate 
would still be able to apply for the position once they have acquired 
that ASP service experience.

The discussion of this topic is now open.

Hugs,

Lynne