0419 – Proposal 6: Step Meeting

Proposal 6: Step Meeting

GROW will allocate the first weekly meeting each month as a Step meeting. The Weekly Lead Listkeeper will identify the date of the first Sunday each month when asking for volunteer leads, naming the corresponding Step (eg, January = Step 1) as the topic for that week. Grow will continue to have a Tradition as a monthly topic, sent out by the Weekly Lead Listkeeper as per current Grow conscience/guidelines. (October 2018)

Recommended Language: Add a bullet to the Weekly Lead Listkeeper’s job description as follows:

Allocate the first meeting of each month to the corresponding Step by identifying the Step as the topic next to the date on the volunteer lead request message.

Rationale: It appears the Step/Tradition monthly topics are shared on much less than any weekly topics despite us having longer to do so. From time to time (about 10 times over the last 4 years) we have seen a Step as a weekly topic. The number of shares was similar to weeks where the topic was self-selected by the lead – showing that by having the focus of a Step in the weekly meeting does encourage more sharing than our current monthly practice.

As our primary purpose reminds us, our job is to carry the message. Creating an opportunity for more reflection and sharing on the corresponding step each month can only add to our effectiveness as a group in sharing the program. Not to mention be of potential benefit to our own programs!

By agreeing which week would be the Step topic week in advance gives us the chance to nominate ourselves as weekly leaders for whichever week we like, knowing we are free to offer to lead the Step week or any of the other weeks where the topic is open for our own selection.

As is current for our conscience/guidelines should there be a weekly leader drop out or vacancy the Weekly Lead Listkeeper can send a message out to the group requesting a new volunteer for a specified date.

Summary of Comments on Proposal 6

I enthusiastically support dedicating one of our weekly meetings each month to be a Step Meeting. I haven’t seen much or any change in terms of numbers of step/tradition shares so at present we still don’t emphasize the Steps or have much focus on them at all. Something that as it was raised 6 months ago, really does show the current monthly format doesn’t work effectively.
I’m not sure why it is such a sticking point to not do this, if we’re practicing Tradition 5 and as per our discussions after our group conscience questions 6.2 seems a straightforward solution. I feel sad that we seem to be splitting over this idea. My support for 6.2 comes from a place of wanting to feel we as a group carry the message of the 12 steps to the best of our ability especially to those new in aa. There seems to have been an alternative proposal / discussion being made along the lines of sending out additional reminders about the monthly step/tradition topic but on a weekly basis… Is this ok to be including discussions about this now before we’ve voted on proposal 6.2? If the group supports a weekly reminder, is the assumption that it’s going to help us share on 2-3 topics (the weekly, the step/tradition?) or is it still treating the step like a bit of an add-on? I love the weekly topics, I love our meeting format, & I’ve felt the clarity & coherence in the current execution by the weekly lead listkeeper, I would love us to pull together and work together for the good of better carrying the message of the 12 steps and the aa program. I don’t feel supporting 6.2 will detract or take away but will add to and enhance what’s already here, it’s just a bit hidden… I’d be happy to support an amended proposal where we run with the first meeting of the month dedicated to a step as a trial for a 12 month period, or even over an 18 month period.
I agree with this proposal. In F2F meetings I try to mix it up i.e. discussion, big book, step. So why not the same in Grow?
In my opinion this is not needed as we have a monthly step meeting.
I get the sense that we are united on the importance of having Steps as topics regularly. I agree that this is in keeping with AA practice both f2f and online. Where I came from f2f we called them “mechanical” or “technical” meetings. The Steps show us how to recover from the seemingly hopeless state of body and mind so they are necessary. Common practice is to attach a Step to each month, since there are 12 of each. Keep It Simple is good. 🙂 My question is, if we go to a Step leader each month, does she use the current language and add to it? Or does she come up with a unique lead of her own? Another thought I had is that the Step does not need to be the first week of the month if someone is celebrating an AA birthday that week… although that confuses the schedule a bit. On the other hand, the celebrant could find it a worthwhile challenge to work her birthday into the Step topic. I know I would be intrigued by that. As the new WLL I do not object to sending out a reminder to share on Step and Tradition each week if we decide to go that way using the current format. I do think the Traditions are important also, and would like to remind us that yes, we have newcomers who are not familiar with them, but we also have mid- and old-timers who need reminders — me being one of them! The Traditions are WHY AA works.
I like Laura’s suggestion I don’t think we should allocate a week for step meeting. But could post the step/tradition meeting just as we have been except weekly. Instead of monthly. It seems more a case of out of sight out of mind. But I completely disagree with separating traditions from the steps. It gives a seeming lack of importance to our traditions. Which as we all know is what keeps us running.

Results of Voting on Proposal 6

Voting: Fifteen (15) voted yes and there were zero (0) no votes. The proposal passed unanimously and is adopted as a Group Conscience decision.

Group Conscience Decision:

The following bullet will be added to the Weekly Lead Listkeeper’s job description as follows:

Allocate the first meeting of each month to the corresponding Step by identifying the Step as the topic next to the date on the volunteer lead request message.