[Businessmtg] Districting

Mon Jan 15 19:12:13 PST 2024

Hi Lynne and everyone else here,

PROBLEM #1:  Actually, I believe that the GEA can solve the biggest problem - " that is that there is only ONE Area for all 1000+ electronic groups across the world".

The solution is to split the Area.  Consider that there are 50 states and 3 Canadian provinces represented by 78 Delegates. That tells us that more than a few of the original State Areas have split over the years.  Sometimes that was because the Area was so large (think California, New York and Texas) but other times it was because the state demographics challenged it.  Washington state is a classic example where the Puget Sound/Seattle region is very different from the eastern 3/4 of the state.

To affect this solution, I believe that the GEA would be best served by:
a. Incorporating this scheme into their districting plan by creating districts that are ripe for splitting off into new Area(s)
b. Incorporating this scheme into the GEA's long range overall plan

PROBLEM #2:  I absolutely agree that this is a problem, although WSO denies it.  The proof of the pudding is in a share I stumbled across the other day when perusing the CMA Connects Forum for something else.  A CMA shared that her face-to-face group went electronic in response to the COVID lock downs.  Later, when the lockdowns were lifted, her group decided to (a) continue their face-to-face meeting as a HYBRID meeting with both f2f and Zoom, AND REGISTER THE ZOOM MEETING SEPARATELY.  The result is that members of that meeting have two votes in the overall Al-Anon service structure.  Is this a unique situation?  I seriously doubt it.

PROBLEM #3:  Districting ASP with other 24/7 groups.  While this appears to be a part of the GEA plan, it is a subordinate part.  The GEA has earmarked 64 groups to place in districtS delineated by the 5am to 11:45am UTC Time Zone.  Of those 64 groups, 13 are email meetings, 2 are Bulletin Board, 1 Facebook, 1 WhatsApp and 47 groups of unknown types, but assumed to be primarily Zoom meetings.  However, the GEA's plan is to (a) limit districts to 20 groups max, AND (b) prioritize a spirit of unity by mixing groups up in districts OVER the priority of placing groups in districts by platform, and (c) include groups without GRs in those 20 groups/district maximum.  
Applying this algorithm results in 4 districts, EACH with:
     12 members primarily from Zoom groups, 
     3 members from Email groups,
     1 from BB or Facebook groups
Next factor in the reality that 57% of the electronic groups do not have GRs and the end result of members attending the district meetings would look like this:
     5 members primarily from Zoom groups, 
     1 Email group
     0 from BB or Facebook groups
The result is a 5:1 ratio of Zoom groups participating in the district meeting to email groups.  

Why split up the 13 email groups?  What purpose does that serve those groups?  
It is almost guaranteed that the predominate Zoom meetings would require that the district meet via Zoom, while if the district was the 13 eMail groups instead, it would have the ability to decide whether to continue using email to meet as a district, or any other platform it wished.  

PROBLEM #4:  I attended an "Al-Anon App" meeting on Friday evening.  What I discovered in the process of attending that meeting was that joining the Al-Anon App meeting actually resulted in joining a Zoom meeting.  Hmm. The Al-Anon App is little more than an app that triggers Zoom.  

PROBLEM #5:  It is confirmed that the GRs will be presented with a single choice - accept the Task Force recommendation, or nothing.  
The GEA is denying the groups the right to use the KBDM process, as well as denying the groups the right of decision in the broad sense.
As I mentioned before, I see this as blackmailing the GRs into accepting the Task Force recommendation.  Recall that the Task Force recommendation differs significantly from the Thought Force recommendation AND is contrary to the policy described in the Service Manual.  
If the GRs pass this recommendation, the result will be:
     1. The GEA will permanently place groups into districts as they choose,
     2.  The groups will have no voice in how or where the GEA places them,

     3.  THIS WILL BE A PERMANENT DECISION.	

As far as I know, there is no provision for this being a provisional decision, a trial or anything of the sort.  Once in place, this decision will be permanent and almost impossible to reverse.  

In my usual less than humble opinion, there is far too much wrong with BOTH the Task Force recommendation AND the GEA's handling of this issue for this to be acceptable.  

Love and SERENITY,
Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Businessmtg On Behalf Of Lynne
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2024 2:48 PM
To: steve at serenitysys.com
Cc: ASP Business <businessmtg at asp-afg.org>
Subject: [Businessmtg] Districting

Hi, 

First, it seems to me that the biggest problem is one that the GEA cannot solve. And that is that there is only ONE Area for all 1000+ electronic groups across the world. 

The second biggest problem in my opinion is that F2F groups that went electronic during the pandemic, are now being counted as an electronic meeting in the GEA instead of in their Geographic based district/Area. I get that once you open a meeting to the world that there could be people joining a meeting in San Diego that live in Argentina, etc. However, I’d be interested to know if that is actually common. I don’t know. But if a meeting is electronic but based in one city/region, then I don’t understand why it is in the GEA and not their geographic Area. But again, I don’t know if this is something the GEA can fix. It sounds like an WSO issue. And it is not in the scope of the district task force. 

I mention those though because the issue of forming districts in the GEA is linked to both of these other decisions, which we have no control over. 

Aside from all the issues I have with the GEA and the district task force recs, I want ASP to be in a district with other 24/7meetings. That is the most important thing to me. It is not clear to me whether or not that will happen based on the task force recommendations, as so many details will not be ironed out until after they are approved (or not). But I trust Anne to represent our interests. I also want to thank her for her hard work as our GR! 

Hugs,
Lynne

Sent from my iPhone
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