[Businessmtg] Fwd: May 2023 ASP Group Representative Report

[Tori Sciacca]

Which District and Area meeting was this brought to? GEA? I assume it’s an electronic meeting?
> 
> Tori 👩🏻‍🌾🧑🏽‍🍳
> 
>> On May 1, 2023, at 12:24 PM, Anne <aohara77 at comcast.net> wrote:
>> 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.
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