[Businessmtg] CMA, Alternate GR, and At-Large Discussions - 1

[Jerry]

Biz-Pals,

Regarding our CMA

Having reviewed my collection of Service Manuals which go back roughly 30 years, I see little or no change in the definition of  Current Mailing Address (CMA.) It is and always has been simply an address to which the WSO sends info DIRECTLY to each group.

There were always members who picked up the mail (from a PO Box or from their home address) and brought it to either the group's leader(s) or the group directly however the group had decided. That service was not dissimilar from the folks who served by tending to the coffee or setting up rooms. 

More recent Service Manuals have moved description of the group's mail addresses under a subtitle of "Initial Group Service Positions" describing the CMA as the PERSON (emphasis added) who picks up the mail and delivers it to either their group's leader(s) or the group directly depending. Elsewhere it's included under the subhead "Group Service Positions" with the duties:
. Receives postal and electronic mail
. Shares the mail with the group

UP TO THIS POINT there was no change to the purpose and practice of the CMA other than semantics and the inclusion of email communications which in parts large and small has supplanted the older snail mail communications in many business applications.

THEN along came the long-awaited acceptance and recognition of electronic meetings as full-fledged Al-Anon Groups by the World Service Conference - the "highest" group conscience of Al-Anon. As ASP's List Administrator at the time I participated in the initial organizational meetings which I had thought were intended to blend electronic meetings into the established Al-Anon service structure.

I QUICKLY found these early meetings and agendas were controlled by the WSO, were very light on content, and focused primarily on soliciting suggestions for an identifying name under which this new collection of meetings could be classified.

WHERE, it seemed, we were to be squeezed into the Al-Anon structure was far from the primary concern. My lasting impression was that electronic groups were still not going to be fully equal to traditional f2f groups despite our official "acceptance", having been assigned to a separate classification. More recent events seem to support those suspicions - We're all relegated into one Area and assigned into Districts with little consideration for meeting dissimilarities including language barriers and our various format differences. Subsequent comparisons I did with some f2f Areas led me to believe that electronic meetings could reasonably deserve more than one Area.

STEVE filled in after I resigned ASP's List Administrator and acting Secretary positions so I refer you to his accounting he's shared recently.

ON TO part 2 on the newly created roles for what used to be the very simple administrative role of each group's CMA to follow...

Jerry
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