[Businessmtg] Service requirements

[Jerry]

All,

95% of the time 6 months or 1 year of prior ASP service experience would make little difference. It's that other 5% of the time which my experience tells me that, when we can get them, candidates with 1 year or more of experience is needed.

I've been around and in ASP service for quite a long time, and a constant BM member the entire time. There have been some pretty tumultuous occasions in our past when solid ASP service experience has seen us through some awfully ugly stuff. Without significant Al-Anon service experience and a thorough understanding of ASP's policies on the Steering Committee during those occasions the chaos could well have won out and we'd either be a different group today, or divided by the vitriol of those times.

Those who haven't seen the potential we have for serious conflict within our group and service arms - especially in this online format - may think 6 months of service should be sufficient to handle whatever may arise. Truth is that it is by Grace and the leadership of those with many years of Al-Anon and ASP service experience which saw our way through those tough times.

I'm not blind to our predicament when it comes to filling our service seats, but I think we would be wise to maintain at least a suggestion that 1 year of appropriate service - be it all in ASP service, or perhaps 6 months of ASP service along with some combination of significant ASP Business Meeting membership or service within other Al-Anon service arms - be our minimum.

In service,
Jerry
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On May 27, 2023, at 3:15 PM, Lynne <lynne at asp-afg.org> wrote:

Hi everyone,

My first thought when thinking about this proposed change is what exactly will this change? The terms for greeters and the recording Secretary are one year terms. The term for daily chair is 6 months. Since these are the only appointed positions at ASP, these are the only paths to meet the ASP service requirement required of SC members. So in practical terms, anyone who is a greeter or recording Secretary and fills their full term is going to be qualified under our current requirement of 1 year ASP service or under the proposed change to 6 months ASP service. It is the daily chairs where it really makes a difference. Currently a member would have to serve twice as a daily chair or serve as a daily chair and then a greeter/recording Secretary to be eligible. Since daily chairs can’t serve consecutive terms, it would take someone at least 1 1/2 years to get the 1 year minimum service if they started out as a daily chair instead of a greeter or recording Secretary. 

Lowering the ASP service requirement to 6 months means that anyone who has served as a daily chair would be eligible. This greatly increases the number of people who would be eligible as we have 14 daily chairs per year. Yes, there are a lot of repeat chairs and some are members of AA, but there are only 3 greeters and 1 recording Secretary at a time,so the daily chairs are still a larger source of members with ASP service. 

My other thought when I read through all of these emails is that I don’t understand why we would prefer at least one year of ASP service. What does a member gain by serving twice as a daily chair instead of once? Since that is really what this is about. I don’t think I agree that we should prefer someone with 1 year experience. In my opinion, someone newer to Al anon and ASP could do a SC job just as well as someone with many years experience. It comes down to the person in my opinion. Which has been pointed out will be reviewed by the BM when a resume comes to the BM for consideration.

I also wanted to point out that the benefit of having two founders on the SC is that they provide long term stability. I can say from experience that having them on the SC ensures that even a relatively new Al anon member understands the founding policies and group consciences of ASP so the ship is not led astray. 

I would be in favor of reducing the eligibility requirements to 6 months of ASP service as this would widen the number of eligible people to serve on the SC. And while we are lucky and grateful that both Krissy and Jennifer volunteered to be on the SC (thank you both and I look forward to working with you!!!), we still have two more positions that are vacant. And the recent history of ASP is of chronic inability to fill all SC positions, which is why the SC suggested this change. Please note that all of these opinions are my own and are not on behalf of the SC. 

Hugs,
Lynne





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