[Businessmtg] Group Representative Report - Area and District information

[Anne]

Hi Bus Meeting friends..

 

So much has happened since we last met.

 

There were two assemblies, the first was in January and the second was in
March.

 

In January: there was a vote on the districting proposal that I shared with
all of you, and the GRs also voted on recording what I thought was just the
GEA sponsored assemblies.  Both items passed.

 

In March: we voted on the minutes from all the past assemblies and the
annual budget.  We also heard from the Bylaws task force and our Delegate.

*	I was blindsided here because I thought I would be able to ask
questions about  the meeting minutes that basically restated the agenda and
the budget that had at least one line item that I needed more information
on.    That never happened, our treasurer was taking questions ahead of the
assembly in the email channel, however, it wasn't clear that this would be
our only opportunity to ask our questions, sigh.  

 

My observations are that the GEA leaders have gone from moving at a snail's
pace with long stretches of silence to a pace that exceeds what I would
expect in Al-Anon.  Most notably, the KBDM process is being side stepped a
bit.  This last assembly lasted an hour and a half with no opportunity for a
Q and A session. For example, I voted yes to recording the assembly in
January not realizing that all gatherings sponsored by the GEA, like
workshops would also be recorded.  I was not alone in this several GRs have
been surprised by this.  Lesson learned for me is to not vote yes to
anything that hasn't included a discussion that is thorough.  

 

In other news, our delegate Burt, is holding two sessions, Your Delegate
Listens: Group responses to WSO questions - these are 4 hour sessions that I
am unable to attend.  He seems to have prepared a lot of material for these
sessions, I only wish I had the time to attend.

 

And, more good news - we are now in a District!  ASP is in District 53.  A
small group of GRs have responded to group emails and meeting invites, we
have already met once and will be meeting again on Saturday.  We agreed to
the first Saturday of the month.   The GRs that attended, 3 from email
groups and 1 from a phone group.  The fifth GR who joined near the end of
the meeting is from Mexico and only speaks Spanish, we are working on
getting transcriptions in place for Saturday and the 6th GR who responded to
the invites is in South Africa, we believe that they will be able to join us
this week.  The others have GRs that never responded, we did invite CMAs and
hope that more will attend as we extend invites each month.  We have 20
groups in our district.  Looking forward to meeting more GRs.

 

So I am trying to keep balance and find channels to express myself with my
program in mind and Al-Anon principles in mind.  I did start filling out a
feedback form that is sent after each assembly.  I have tabled that and will
use Saturday's district meeting to work through my observations and
honestly, some frustrations  with the GEA -  these other GRs who also have
attended the assembly have a shared experience with me and have some service
ESH to share at the District meeting.  No DR yet, we are getting to know
each other now.

 

I have kept the report high level, so if you are looking for more detail,
let me know.

 

Yours in Service,

 

Anne