[Businessmtg] Districting

[Anne]

Hi folks,

 

First, thank you all for your input, grateful to see so much dialogue.  

 

I am back online and trying to catch up with the discussion/questions.  I am
pausing again, Steve and I had a long talk yesterday and I have been sorting
through all of his points now.  The biggest issue for me is that there is so
much intertwined into the simplistic approach the taskforce has taken, which
is simply to break the groups out into meeting start times and the map of
the world to get a good cross section for the districts without really
considering platform or language.  I continue to believe that this is really
what was done in the world of brick and mortar and so I am a little "okay"
with this.  Consider this when looking at F2F meetings.  They meet in a
variety of spaces, churches of all denominations, supermarket common areas
(went to one of those), schools, parks, etc.    Districts were/are defined
by geographic boundaries, years ago, when I was a GR, my district met
locally but the Area we were in had their meetings more than an hour away
and so I opted out of attending those.  The only constant that I saw then
was that the geographic boundaries made language a non-issue.

 

There are some strong feelings against this task force recommendation, and
so I would like to understand what those objections are from those of you
have experience with district meetings as a GR or a DR, I would like to hear
more from you.  I am struggling to understand why platform is so important
to some of you.  

 

>From my perspective, I don't think platform matters, if there are tech
issues, all groups can reach out to the GEA tech coordinator if there is an
issue with their platform.  I don't think that I, as GR or DR would be able
to fix another email groups technical issue and I don't think district
meetings are intended to include that.  Beyond that, I am not sure I am
clear on why we can't be part of a district that has a mix of platforms or
as a "minority" platform.  


Yes this is a simple yes/no vote and the GR's have had little say in this
and while the presentation covered many things, I am not sure it really is
KBDM in action.  I continue to be uneasy with the fact that once we vote
yes, we don't know what the "plan" is.  We know that if we vote no, a new
task force will be created and we start over again.

 

It seems to me, that if this recommendation is accepted, those that are
responsible for the next step towards implementation may run into an issue
with it and have to modify it to move on - which means a new task force and
new/modified recommendation.  Seems like our votes may be temporary and
change as the process moves forward.

 

Tangled within all of this is the fact that one area simply cannot serve all
the electronic groups.  Languages other than English, Spanish and French are
a large problem for WSO, there is little representation in the current
structure, with the addition of electronic meetings, it has become even more
apparent.  If there was an area that served those countries and groups it
may be that with the help of a GEA or WSO tech coordinator that area could
come up with a solution.

 

Based on the outcome s of this week's discussion, I may bring some of our
points to the GEA leadership for their consideration.  A separate topic from
districting but an important one.

 

FYI, I have copied the report Lynne shared on my behalf below for easy
reference.

 

I will continue  reading all of your input, it has been very helpful!

 

Anne

 

 

 

Here again is the Task Force recommendation that GR's will vote on January
20th 

 

 

Recommendations of the GEA Districting Task Force

 

* All groups registered in the GEA, regardless of whether or not they have a
GR, will be placed in districts.

 

* Groups will be assigned to districts. Groups will not choose their
district.

 

* Districts will, whenever possible, consist of up to 20 groups.

 

* DR terms will align with the terms of the current panel. Thus DRs elected
during this panel will serve until 12/31/24.

 

* Because 57% of the GEA groups do not have a GR, it is recommended that
districts include a mix of groups that have and do not have a GR, so as to
avoid inadvertently creating districts in which none of the groups have a
GR.

 

* The UTC meeting start times displayed in the electronic meetings list on
Al-Anon.org are to be the primary consideration for sorting groups into
districts. Language and platform will have the next highest priority
followed by language.

 

* To promote unity and understanding in the GEA, each district where
possible will include a mix of at least two platforms.

 

The primary means of sorting groups into district will be based on meeting
start times, and those will be mapped to UTC - Coordinated Universal time.
The Task force had a pie chart that broke the world into these "buckets" - a
great visual that was not shared with GRs to 

bring back to their groups.   And while, I don't have the pie chart that 

illustrated how the groups would be mapped to districts, this site has
helpful information UTC Time Standard (timeanddate.com) [1]

 

The taskforce used the KBDM process to put together their recommendation, It
is not perfect but it is a start. For us as an email meeting that meets
24/7, our placement into a district that is based on UTC and meeting start
times will be tricky.  I haven't really heard much about how that will work
for the 24/7 groups and there is still the question of accessibility for
those groups that are not English, French or Spanish speaking.  Again, the
plan is not perfect but is a start and one that I am sure will be refined
over time.