May 4, 2005 Business Meeting Minutes for Al-Anon

Attending:  Shimo,  danz123, Maria123, cdb, cloud, garom, greta,
jrtjosey, kismetstrand, Quietvoice, SenoraBob, shadow 1, acebass,
Peggy7, buzzfree, cindy, mamerich, haximon, david62, Mastiff, rollo,
kerry55, Dot48730, tiredtonite,

Shimo opened the meeting with a moment of silence followed by the
Serenity Prayer.

OLD BUSINESS

First Item - Approval of April 6, 2005 minuites.
Two corrections on names - Mastill should read Mastiff and Buss should
read Buzzfree.
Minutes were approved with corrections.
It had been agreed at an earlier meeting that the minites would be
posted on the Message Board.  Maria agreed to do so when Dot sends them
to her.

Second Item - Meeting Schedule and Requirements as of May 4th.

AM
Mon - tiredtonite/Shimo
Tues - Shimo/wille
Wed - Nanuke/no alt
Thurs - wille/no alt
Fri - Mastiff/no alt
Sat - Greta/Teddybearpoet
Sun - Mastiff/no alt

PM
Mon - Joanie/no alt
Tue - Bikerdad/Cabeca
Wed - Davi/Cabeca
Thurs - Kismetstrand/no alt
Fri - ^butterfly/no alt
Sat - Nightwatcher/no alt
Sun - No chair/no alt

This group requires chairpersons to have 6 months experience in f2f meetings and alternates to have 90 days in f2f meetings.   If you are interested in helping us complete our schedule, please contact Cindy at POSTALGIRL6976@aol.com or John at mip@12stepforums.net
Greta and SenoraBob will download scripts and be prepared to help.

Kismetstrand offered to help them with the scripts after the meeting.

Third Item - Financial Report
No report.  John was not available and Kismetstrand and Mastiff are not set up on Pay pal yet.

Fourth Item - Current Bans In Place
No progress.  John was not available.

NEW BUSINESS
Fifth Item - Closing Prayer - Request for Chnge.
Shimo copied the members request into the room as written to her.

Al-Anon is unique fellowship whose members are people from many lands, of many races and walks of life. (Al-Anon Family Groups - Introduction).  Although the Program does require faith in a Higher Power members are only required to believe in any Power greater than themselves (12 and 12 pg ix).  We are very careful to use the term Higher Power to keep this clear, to remind ourselves that we do not endorse any particular religion.  While it seems the majority of Al-Anon members in this group are Christian, some of us, like me, are not.  Some of us are not
allowed to participate in prayers from another religion, like the Lord's Prayer, beautiful as it is.  Because of this, I cannot volumteer as a chairperson, although I have many years experience chairing meetings.

Tradition Four states that each group should be autonomous.  Closing with a religous prayer may give people the impression that this is a religious-affliliated organization.  I have personally seen instances of this, where a member has repeatedly posted messages such as "G-d Bless
the Christian Al-Anon Chatters" with crucifixes framing the message.  Newcomers may get the wrong impression and never return due to religious symbolism.  While I mean no disrespect to anyone, and apologize to anyone I've offended, I would like to respectfully submit the suggestion that we find some other non-religious prayer to close our meetings, such
as the Serenity Prayer or the Al-Anon Declaration - When anyone, anywhere reaches out for help, let the hand of Al-Anon and Alateen always be there, and "Let It Begin With Me".  Of course, if the group conscience decides to maintain the status quo, I will respectfully continue to leave each meeting before the prayer is said.  Again, I apologize to anyone I've offended with this, and also for attempting to "rock the boat", but this is an issue I feel strongly about and the Business Meeting is the place to bring up topics like this.

Shimo Opened the floor for discussion.
After much discussion pro and con a motion was made and seconded to change the closing prayer to the Serenity Prayer.  The motion failed 11 no - 8 yes.  The closing prayer remains the Lord's Prayer.

Shimo closed the meeting with the Lord's Prayer.

Thank you all for attending - Dot

Next meeting June 1, 2005.