[Businessmtg] FW: Assembly vote on districting and a response to Steve's last Hurrah

[Steve Rankin]

Hi Anne,

Thanks for attending Saturday's GEA Assembly, and for your prompt short
report.  I'll be looking forward to a more detailed report, whether from you
or from the GEA.  FWIW, Rosemary, the GEA Chair posted a note in the CMA
Connects Forum this evening.  I suspect that she posted something similar on
the GR's forum.  For the benefit of our members, I've pasted a copy of what
Rosemary posted below.  

While we disagree on how we would choose to vote, you know that I support
your decision to vote as you see fit.  Likewise, you know that I will
continue to provide my feedback and thoughts for what I believe is for the
best of ASP and the Al-Anon fellowship as a whole.  

In keeping with that theme, I'll offer some observations about this
Assembly, the decision, as well as some background that might help explain
my perspectives.  

THE ASSEMBLY VOTE ON DISTRICTING
The results of the Assembly are EXACTLY what I expected.  A large majority
voted to approve the recommendation vs a small minority.  Just as there was
no passable alternative presented to the Assembly, there was no alternative
result to be expected.

Other points that should inform us of the GEA in general.

*  Only a small minority of the groups in the GEA attended.
If the GEA has 521 groups and 153 GRs attended the GEA Districting Assembly,
that means only 29.4% of the groups attended the Assembly.  
If 43% of the groups have GRs, and only 29.4% attended the Assembly, that
works out to 68% of the GRs attended, or 32% skipped - pick your
perspective. More stats follow.
It is unclear how many groups there are in the GEA.  Yes, I understand that
new electronic groups seem to be forming almost daily, but neither the WSO
nor the GEA are informing us of the count.  Which means we have to extract
that information from a variety of sources.  Here goes.
Not the total number, nor the distribution of those affiliated with
geographic area vs GEA.
My calculations using WSO's website show 1,430 electronic groups TOTAL.  I
recall WSO reporting roughly 700 groups when WSO was handling the initial
GEA election Assembly.  Subsequently, WSO began accepting electronic groups
changing their affiliation to geographic Areas.  
To the best of my knowledge, the GEA has not reported how many groups are
affiliated with the GEA.  Nevertheless, they did include a chart in the
December GEA meetings that APPEARS to show the number of groups in each UTC
Time Zone "bucket".  That totals up to 521 groups.  If that is accurate,
which is my hunch, then the GEA represents only 36% of the electronic
groups.  The corollary is that 909 electronic groups have chosen to
affiliate with established geographic Areas.  
Does that say anything about the perception of the GEA among those groups?
Maybe, maybe not.  My hunch?  Yeah.  Consider what we can reasonably expect
in terms of influence on the WSC from our GEA.  As I have said more than
once, we will have a very, very small voice in the GEA, which is just one of
68 Areas, and vastly overshadowed by the 24 voices and votes representing
WSO staff.  OTOH, the 200 electronic groups in Los Angeles have a very
significant voice compared to the 300 f2f groups in that district.  I
suspect that similar numbers occur in other geographic Districts and Areas.
So, I just checked Washington State where I live.  197 f2f & 130 online -
almost 40% of the groups in WA AREA are online

*  A small minority of those groups chose the more challenging path.
Here I am referring to the GRs that voted against the recommendation.  There
are two ways to look at this.  First, that a large majority voted for the
recommendation.  Second, that 20 GRs were willing to endure the pain and
challenges of doing it better.  

*  The Task Force recommendation was approved by a substantial majority.  
Quite true.  Unfortunately, I have little reason to believe that this was an
INFORMED group conscience of the GEA groups.  

*  About the "next steps" the GEA Chair shared near the end.  
What can I say?  I will be looking forward to hearing what they were. 
How many examples of failure to inform, failure to communicate, failure to
give groups reasonable notice, and failure to treat the GRs with respect do
we need before we say "No, this isn't OK."?  
Are you going to share with the members of the Business Meeting the response
of the GEA to your question?

*  Expectations.  
Like most folks, before I got to Al-Anon I tended to have unrealistic
expectations.  In Al-Anon, I have learned to have reasonable expectations.
For instance, it is reasonable to expect the sun to come up Monday morning;
at 0941 PST to be exact.  That's because Sunrise is a very reliable
phenomenon.  Likewise, I can expect my wife to not merely go to her AA
meeting on Monday, but to leave the house at about 445pm because she's been
doing that for decades.  The kinds of expectations that cause me grief are
those that are based my wishes, not reality.  For example, expecting my
ex-wife to come home from work instead of getting home late. . . and drunk.
Or expecting my younger daughter to act like an adult.  Afterall, she's in
her 50's now.  Oh well.
When I apply this to the GEA, I know that I need to consider the historical
behavior of the GEA, not what I would think their behavior should be or what
I would like it to be.  How many examples of failure to inform, failure to
communicate, failure to give groups reasonable notice, and failure to treat
the GRs with respect do we need before I say "No, this is not OK and I need
to stop believing and supporting this behavior."?
Are you going to share with the members of the Business Meeting the response
of the GEA to your question?

*  About the GEA sharing the pie chart, and other supporting information.
For reasons that only the GEA knows for sure, the GEA has not merely failed
to provide the GRs with their charts, graphs and detailed explanations
supporting their recommendation, the GEA has openly refused to do so.  This
has nothing to do with anonymity since we're not talking about individuals.
Why the secrecy?  

*  The upside-down pyramid.  
The last time I saw the depiction of the upside-down pyramid in Al-Anon was
in Al-Anon literature when I was a GR in the mid-1980s.  Back then, the
Service Manual was a collection of 4 pamphlets in an optional compact
binder.  Much has changed since then.  WSO/BoD have imposed more than one
"directive" at the fellowship since then.  Not to speak of the inordinate
number of votes given WSO staff at the WSC.  FWIW, WSO's 23 votes in the WSC
is only 8 short of killing ANY motion before the WSC.  In other words, the
Delegates could vote 60 to 8 for a motion and still lose if WSO didn't like
the motion.  

*  Progress, not Perfection.
I've heard this a number of times, yet I haven't heard anything supporting
even a hint that that GEA proposed the recommendation as a trial.  At least
when WSO/BoD made the decision to deny the online groups "group" status and
called us "meetings" instead, denying us a role and representation in the
service structure, they did call it a trial.  And Ric B., Executive Director
of WSO was honest enough to say that the trial would be renewed as often as
necessary.  It took over 20 years for the WSC to form a committee to
reconsider the issue, and another 5 years for the committee to make its
report, followed by another 2 years to implement.  Bottom line?  I seriously
doubt that there will be any notable changes in the districting of the GEA
districting in the following decades, other than creating new districts to
absorb new groups while keeping current districts under 20 groups/district.

If making a decision in itself is progress, then all of the decisions I made
before Al-Anon also qualified as progress, not perfection.  Just sayin'.  

In conclusion.  After attending dozens of Assemblies, Area business
meetings, and District meetings over the decades, my experience, strength
and hope after Al-Anon works in on how Assemblies and such actually play out
suggests that Al-Anon habits tend to dominate the scene.
The Assembly went exactly as I expected it to.  The vast majority of the GRs
voted for something, in spite of not being informed, or presented any
alternates or pros & cons.  
Will another email group be assigned to the same district as ASP?  Probably.
Will a GR from that group ever attend district meetings?  The numbers tell
me probably not.  Will any districts have sufficient depth to flesh out the
usual slate of officers and coordinators in the Service Manual.  Unlikely.
Will any districts have sufficient voice in the GEA meetings and Assemblies
to make a difference?  Maybe, but probably not considering how the district
size is being tightly controlled.    

Time will tell.

Love and SERENITY,
Steve


 


I will be looking forward to reading the minutes of the Assembly and hearing
about the results of the districting and specifically the make-up district
ASP is assigned to, and what progress our district makes.    

Love and SERENITY,
Steve


======================

Jan 20, 2024 5:57 PM 
Rosemary Binder 

HELLO   HOLA    BONJOUR
Al-Anon Declaration of Unity
Warm Greetings CMAs!
We are grateful for all of the trusted servants who worked together to
create, develop, and move
the Global Electronic Area (GEA) forward.  Your guidance, dedication, and
tenacity continues to be
a source of hope and inspiration. We are especially grateful to our friends
at WSO and all the CMAs
who serve our GEA groups.
In April of 2022 the Global Electronic Area was impaneled by the WSC as the
68th Al-Anon Area.  
On January 20, 2024, less than 2 years later, in a landslide vote the Group
Representatives (GRs)
voted to move forward with the recommendations of the Districting Task
Force!  We are so grateful 
that the Districting Task Force will be continuing their excellent work to
implement Districts in the 
GEA.
What an exciting time to be part of this developing Area.  A special time to
share our talents, skills,
experience, strength, and hope.  For together we can make it! 
Love in Service,
Rosemary B.
Member
GEA Chair
"Any good that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow
creature, let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."  When
I Got Busy, I Got Better, page 32
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