[Businessmtg] Service Difficulties

[Jerry]

Biz-Pals,

Full disclosure: Of the three ASP service positions I have held over the years I resigned from one about six months short of my three-year term.

Background: Prior to ASP service I had served f2f groups as setup and cleanup guy, literature chair, treasurer, group representative, district representative, and member of my Area's policy committee.
The earlier positions were generally one-year positions. GR and DR positions were the typical three-year terms. My Area policy committee service was appointed and relatively short stint while we addressed particular issues.

So I had some service experience before I joined ASP. When Steve's ownership of ASP was assumed by the group I was elected ASP's Treasurer with a typical three-year term for officers. My Treasurer duties were (despite Steve's recent notes 😇) easy. Once set up with a P.O. box it was a matter of receiving mail, making deposits, learning the ropes to deal with PayPal, and then keeping the detailed Tradition 7 Register up to date. There were a few details I needed to adjust to, nothing significant. So, yes, easy.

Until it came time, after three years, to be replaced. For nearly two additional years (exact length not recalled any more) I was stuck beyond my expected service because a) at the time Business Meetings weren't held regularly, and b) it took time for replacing me to get to the top of the agenda.

My second service position, after decompressing from my over-serving experience, was in one of the two regularly ignored "two general member" SC seats required by ASP Policy. With a six-month term it's ideal for introducing oneself to Steering Committee service, while performing its intended role of injecting "outside" input into what can become limited to "inside" thinking. By some thought to be ineffective at best and disruptive at worst, these two positions with voting power in the SC are the only check the ASP membership has on the SC's deliberations and actions should something ever go awry. In my opinion these positions would serve the group better if they had a one-year term. That they are relatively unknown and officially ignored when listing vacant SC seats I place on those who are determined to keep them so despite our Policies.

My third service experience was not entirely pleasant - sometimes excruciating. Part of this was on me. My first clue could have been that, because nobody else was standing for the open List Administrator position, I should consider it. I'd held leadership positions in the past with good results, so why not? I've seen this before: some responsible person being moved into decisions by perceived pressures, not by spiritual motivations. Coupled with my thoughts on the service autonomy I carried with me from my f2f experiences I agreed to serve. These are on me.

Then the Secretary position went vacant moving those responsibilities to me as LA. Though that's what the Policies & Practices require, performing both jobs overloaded me at a time when life was attempting to do the same privately. Short term it would have been okay; long term not. So, yes, I resigned a half year short of my expected three-year term. A large part of this, in my mind, falls on the group's membership not setting a priority on keeping ourselves self supporting when it comes to service needs. No one should find service so burdensome that their recovery and private life become affected. Now I will say that some, as demonstrated by our current trusted servants, are capable of doing double duty. My respect to them. But I just couldn't see my way to serving out those last six months and did the right thing for me.

"Together We Can Make It" speaks to me on this. When everyone lifts part of the load service most often flows smoothly. When one link becomes overloaded the chain suffers. Opening up to the entire membership about our open service positions and the need for more folks to attend the Business Meetings, both to support the group with their input and to have more members become eligible to serve in open slots, may help. If not perhaps it falls on the impersonal nature of electronic formats which makes participation in service more unlikely - maybe it's baked into this medium. I'd like to think not.

Lastly, as our current situation reveals, living without a solution on the horizon places ASP itself at risk. Expecting continued service from already overloaded trusted servants, primarily because of members not stepping up into group service, is a path toward continuing the problem. In the f2f "old days" there was encouragement of new members to participate in service - straighten chairs, hang the banners, Alateen sponsorship, etc which are not a part of electronic format meeting. Often newer members were urged to "get in the car" taking them to District Meetings and Area Assemblies. None of that here.

Maybe we need to be active on an individual basis in recruiting members, new or otherwise, into service.

All I got for now,
Jerry
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