[Businessmtg] FW: Reports

Tue Oct 8 13:47:07 PDT 2024

Yes Mary, it is true that we have a group conscience describing the disbursement of funds in excess of our prudent reserve.  Unfortunately, it is also true that the landscape for electronic meetings has changed dramatically, especially for email meetings such as ASP.  

As we have discussed on more than one occasion here in the Business Meeting, these changes have resulted in what amounts to a catastrophic decline in the number of new members joining ASP.   How extreme?  A few years ago, we averaged over 80 new members/month.  Today, we've had a mere 68 new members join ASP over the entire year; an average of 5.66 new members/month.  That's a 91% reduction in the flow of new members.  Unfortunately, our discussions have not led to any solutions.

Concept 3 states "The right of decision makes effective leadership possible."   When Al-Anon trusted servants are faced with issues as significant as this, good leadership compels the trusted servants to make administrative decisions within their operational authority for the benefit of the group.  Concept 2 supports this "The Al-Anon Family Groups have delegated complete administrative and operational authority to their Conference and its service arms."  

The first responsibility of ASP's trusted servants, especially the officers serving on the Steering Committee, is to ASP; not to the District, not to the Area and not to WSO.  Maintaining our prudent reserve is a higher priority for the Treasurer than making donations to the Area and WSO, especially in times when both have excess funds.  

Please note that Motion #24 states: 
"2. Funds in excess of the Prudent Reserve are to be donated quarterly according to the following formulae:
"3. Interim: Until ASP belongs to an Electronic District.  District N/A, Area 60%, WSO 40%.
"4. Permanent: Once the conditions of (a) above have been met, the following formula for donating excess funds applies.  District 60%, Area 30%, WSO 10%."

Since ASP now belongs to District 53, Condition #3 no longer applies and Condition #4 takes effect.  In other words, 60% of our $594 excess funds is owed to the District → $356.40.  Unfortunately, the District has not yet addressed the issue of receiving donations, so while ASP does belong to District 53 invoking Group Conscience 24.4, it is not currently possible to make a donation to District 53. 

So, what about making the other donations in the meantime.  Well, that could be done, however, doing so could easily result in other problems.  First, donating the current excess to solely the GEA and WSO would violate GC 24.  That leaves donating 30% to the GEA ($178.20) and 10% to WSO ($59.40) leaving the District's $356.40 in our excess funds.  What prevents that $356.40 from being treated as simply part of ASP's excess funds the next time around?  Well, the Treasurer could track that as a separate account.  While that would be a minor accounting issue, what prevents that from falling in a crack, such as a future Treasurer interpreting that as part of ASP's excess, or someone in the BM pushing for donating those funds to the GEA and WSO in lieu of District 53?

>From my experience in Al-Anon service, the District is the service entity that provides the most service to the groups, which is why groups devote the majority of their excess funds to their Districts.  Besides, the District's excess funds then go to the Area and WSO, so they never get short changed anyway.  

Lastly, you said "I also believe that if we drop below our prudent reserve, consistent appeals to the membership would garner more funds to cover those reserves."  What this means to me is that if ASP's funds drop below our prudent reserve, it becomes the Treasurer's responsibility to make [more frequent and] consistent appeals to the membership for donations.  I respectfully disagree.  Group problems belong to the group, not the trusted servants.  I have long said that no member of ASP has the right to be a consistent problem for a trusted servant of ASP.  Normally, this is about some members that are frequent flyers creating admin problems for the List Administrator.  However, the corollary to this is that the membership as a whole doesn't have the right to create problems for the leadership, whether by its action or inaction.  In other words, a lack of donations by the membership does not create a duty or liability for the Treasurer to increase his/her workload by increasing the frequency if their workload.  Tradition 7 applies to every member of Al-Anon, not just the trusted servants.

For everyone's convenience, I have copied a portion of my July Treasurer's Report below.

Love and SERENITY,
Steve

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

TREASUER’S COMMENTS:  [July 1, 2024]
  * Donations have fallen this year.  Lest anyone go down the path thinking that this might be a result of the recent server purge, please note the following donations by month:
     January $90, February $30, March $173, April $350, May $75, June $79.    
     FYI, ASP's expenses total $133/month, so it is obvious that our ordinary donations do not support our expenses.
  * Donation numbers have fallen; both the number of members donating and the total amount:
     2023:  38 members made 69 donations totaling $ 2,426
                  4.2% of ASP members donate to the 7th Tradition
                15 members donated more than once last year
                  7 donations/month totaling $ 202/month average.   
     2024:  17 members made 25 donations total $797
                  6.2% of ASP members donate to the 7th Tradition → 93.8% of ASP members are not supporting ASP financially.
                  5 members have donated more than once this year
                4.2 donations/month totaling $133/month

-----Original Message-----
From: Businessmtg On Behalf Of Mary Abbott
Sent: Tuesday, October 8, 2024 4:13 AM
To: steve at serenitysys.com
Cc: ASP Business <businessmtg at asp-afg.org>
Subject: [Businessmtg] Reports

Thanks to our trusted servants for their reports. I don’t have any questions but a comment or two.

 I believe we have a group vote that ensures funds above our prudent reserves will be sent to our service organizations. We have a prudent operating reserve with lots of operating cushion. Until we have a group vote stating that use of funds above our reserves is up to the discretion of the ASP treasurer, I believe those funds should be sent. I also believe that if we drop below our prudent reserve, consistent appeals to the membership would garner more funds to cover those reserves. 

Mary

Sent from my iPhone
____________________________
To Unsubscribe, go to: http://www.asp-afg.org/mailman/listinfo/asp
The ASP web site with all kinds of info for ASP members is http://asp-afg.org/members/ For assistance with other ASP issues, contact Lynne, the List Administrator of ASP, at lynne at asp-afg.org