[Businessmtg] Secrecy of the Steering Committee Business

[Jerry]

Hi, Margaret and all,

As a former ASP SC member (Treasurer, At-Large member, List Administrator and occasional Acting Secretary) I'll take a stab at your question regarding anonymity/secrecy:

 "I would be interested in knowing which Step(s), Tradition(s), and/or Concept(s) have been used to establish and maintain that practice; which Al-Anon principle(s) is used to justify continuing it."

** I'll use brackets [ ] to indicate where I may have forgotten the exact texts, or may be substituting words within Al-Anon references, to help apply them to the group level.
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Tradition 12 - Anonymity
     "Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles above personalities."

     At every level within Al-Anon, personal, interpersonal, within Groups and all service entities, anonymity is our spiritual foundation. Summed up elsewhere: "Whom we see here, what we hear here, when we leave here, let it stay here." "Your anonymity is protected at all times." and "Only in this way can we say what is in our hearts and on our minds for this is how we help one another in Al-Anon."
     In order to fully express ourselves anonymities, ours and others', need to be assured.

Tradition 5 - Purpose
     "Each Al-Anon Family Group has but one purpose: to help families of alcoholics."

     Of what help would we be to families of alcoholics if we made it a practice to blab member-to-member or trusted servant-to-member, the particulars of discussions had in closed meetings?
     Some of the discussions within the Steering Committee (SC) occasionally include exceptionally personal details, especially when an ASP member's behaviors disturb the Topic Meetings. Who would want those details available to all? Doing so would certainly be damaging, not helpful.

( Also see Warranty 3 - "that no [group] action ever be personally punitive...)

Tradition 4 - Autonomy
     "Each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting another group..."

     ASP, formed as only the second electronic Al-Anon meeting ever - very early in the internet era - by our Founders made every attempt to write its group's procedures to comply with traditional Al-Anon's suggested operating principles.
     Those procedures have by-and-large served ASP exceptionally well. When necessary the volunteers who make up our Business Meetings (BM) have found it beneficial to tweak our Practices here and there to improve our "product" - offering Al-Anon recovery via the internet.
     The Principle of Group Autonomy allowed this and the results have been an exceptionally stable platform in a potentially very chaotic medium.

     Of course there are Trust issues involved, particularly regarding service entity meetings where elected folks have been delegated the responsibilities to guide and make certain decisions for the group. We're Al-Anons and don't take well to situations where we don't have our finger figuratively in the every pot. Learning to "trust the process" comes slowly. Which brings up:

Concept 2 - Delegation
     "The Al-Anon Family Groups have delegated complete administrative and operational authority to their Conference and its service arms."
     Applying this to ASP's structuring, ASP members have delegated administrative and operational authority of our group to, firstly, to our Business Meeting. Our BM in turn has delegated certain authorities to our SC. Then our SC, and Its officers individually within their purview, can and have granted limited authorities to various committees.
     All ASP members have access to these processes, primarily by engaging in our elections and with participation in our Business Meetings, but also by communicating with our entities and individuals in service directly.
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     The foresight of the Founders to have also included 'two at-large seats' on the SC in our Founding Policies further enhances members' opportunities to participate in decisions beyond the BM. ASP members can join every BM, and by doing so can stand for election to sit on the SC for a short 6-month period, offering their inputs and votes in this process.

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For now that's all I can come up with.
Hope this helps,
Jerry
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On January 9, 2026, at 8:24 AM, Margaret G <margaretserenity at outlook.com> wrote:

The confidentiality/secrecy associated with the Steering Committee's business and practices is the reason that I will never stand to serve for any of those positions. Sadly, it has sometimes made me reconsider whether or not I can continue to participate in ASP recovery and general business meetings.  However, I love the friends I make in those meetings and the wisdom I continue to find here.  So far, I keep coming back, taking what I like, and leaving the rest.

I would be interested in knowing which Step(s), Tradition(s), and/or Concept(s) have been used to establish and maintain that practice; which Al-Anon principle(s) is used to justify continuing it.

Thank you, to all who serve now and have served in the past to keep the meeting running.

Margaret G.
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