[Businessmtg] CMA, Alternate GR, and At-Large Discussions - 3

[Jerry]

Biz-Pals,

For quite a few years (if not forever) Al-Anon groups have struggled with keeping service positions filled. It runs the full spectrum from some never having problems to some groups operating without trusted servants at all.

Our collective history has shown that groups which have few or no trusted servants gradually have increasing internal problems which all too often lead to either dominance by a few or failure of the group.

ASP is not alone when it comes to filling our service positions. To most members it appears everything is ticking along just fine. Daily meetings are posted, there are sharings, so everything seems right with the world. Yet seldom (rarely!) do we have all our service positions filled with one trusted servant filling one position and all positions filled.

THE AT-LARGE positions are hardly ever filled partially because the Business Meeting time available for other topics or other elections are taken up with "more important" things. Additionally there are some, even on the Steering Committee (SC), who have through the years downplayed the need for these positions, actively saying that they're unnecessary and don't need to be filled.

I, for one, think these two At-Large positions are essential. Their six-month term may make them less effective than a longer term, but their role givings a varied voice to the ASP membership within the SC along with a tempering two votes in forming the recommendations which come to our business meetings. Many voices are highly favored over just a few. It is my position that At-Large positions should be the voices of the regular members' Experience Strength, and Hope, unburdened by other duties.

~ SO I AM against the suggestion to tax one with the CMA title and the other with the Alternate Group Rep title and duties. Doing so would defeat the purpose and benefits of having this fresh, unencumbered input from these rotating positions.

~ AN Alternate Group Rep position is an important Al-Anon service position and we need one, just not at the expense of having even fewer voices on the Steering Committee.

THAT leaves the obvious: how in the heck are we to get members to step in to fill all our service positions plus an added Alt GR?! Well, in f2f meeting the topic chair may salt their meetings with topics on the importance of service, what makes a healthy group, or the wider meanings of Tradition Seven. If that doesn't work maybe some frank shares by experienced members.

Sometimes things get so bad that current trusted servants have to hold firm to just their service term and office and stop over-serving. In f2f this is not that unusual. A treasurer may just drop the books on the table and stop serving at the end of their agreed-to service term. A GR position may go empty for lack of a volunteer leaving the group without a link with worldwide Al-Anon. Consequences fall on the group, not the former trusted servants.

The importance of service to our personal recovery goes unspoken within ASP meetings and the results have become all too obvious. The group needs some sort of change. It might be as simple as allowing the past f2f service years of our current, experienced members to count, particularly or fully, against our requirements for serving the group. It could be that our requirements of prior service for SC positions need shortened for the next few years in order to bring in new blood. I just don't know.

What I do know is that times they are a'changing and doing nothing may just be riskier than doing something new. What can we do differently to get more members interested in service?

Jerry
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