[Businessmtg] May 2023 ASP Group Representative Report

[Anne]

All,

 

At our last business meeting, I gave some Group Representative (GR)
background as well as some information about the Area.  As noted then, the
Global Electronic Area (GEA) is very new and is lacking some of the
established outlines and procedures that the geographic Areas use.  The lack
of districts being most apparent and the focus of the GEA - again I was
honored to be a part of the District Thought Force committee, this group
completed their research and then made a recommendation for districting that
will eventually move to a District Task Force committee.  This next Task
Force will be charged with taking the final recommendation and coming up
with an implementation and execution plan.    

 

The District Thought Force did not have an opportunity to present anything
at the Area assembly in early March, however, a summary from the Thought
Force was shared with the GR's as part of the published agenda and
associated supporting documents.

 

After the Area Assembly in early March, the Thought Force was invited to
present their findings to the Area officers.  Now the Thought Force
participants will be presenting to the Area at an Adhoc Assembly in May
where all GR's will be invited to hear from the District Thought Force
Committee.

 

Thought Force notes.. 

What rose to the top as the most important considerations for districting:

:Languages - participation is the key to harmony, those non-English speaking
GR's and DR's will not be able to participate easily in an English speaking
district.

:Platforms - although overlaying different meeting platforms was an
important consideration, there may be reasons to keep some platforms
together.

:Time zones - accommodating 24 time zones is tricky but can be done with
enough forethought.

 

Other considerations:

:Number of groups to a District might need to be limited due to the
expectation that the District Representative (DR) visit the groups in their
districts.  

 

And then potential barriers to participation in Districts either as a GR or
a DR:

:Language

:Technology

****note - barriers are nothing new to Al-Anon meetings, prior to virtual
meetings, members faced barriers re: accessibility when they were based in
rural areas that had no meetings, or if they were housebound.

 

And finally, although NOT part of information brought forward as part of the
District Thought Force's summary, we discussed with the Area officers the
need for the GEA to be broken out into smaller areas.  

 

Please let me know if there are any questions.  

 

Hugs,

 

Anne O.