0422 – Proposal 2: Revise Secretary Position Description

Proposal 2: Revise the Secretary’s position description to delete contradictory, ambiguous, or unreasonable expectations.

Rationale: The Secretary’s current position description assigns duties to the Secretary that are not clearly articulated or that duplicate or contradict GROW policies contained in the Common Welfare Guidelines and Item #9 of the Business Meeting Guidelines. The suggested changes eliminate the contradictions and reflect existing GROW policies.

Recommended Language
Summary of Comments
Results of Voting

Secretary

• 1 year term
• 2 years sobriety
• One year membership in GROW
• Must be member of Business List
• Should have completed AA Steps 1 – 12.
• Adheres to confidentiality of private emails
• Serves on the Steering Committee
• Works closely with the other Trusted Servants including privately and discreetly informing members who stray from the guidelines
• Serves on GROW’s “Mini-Steering Committee” Will be available, in conjunction with the Business Chairperson and Listkeepers, to answeraddress questions/concerns/issues from any member of GROW. These Trusted Servants will confer among each other to provide an appropriate answer or resolution based on prior Group Conscience guidelines, and will respond back to the inquiring member
• Maintains a list of emergency contact phone numbers of all trusted servants for use by trusted servants, not for general distribution.
• KeepsMaintains a current list of trusted servants and term dates
• Calls for nominations/volunteers
• Confirms nominees will accept and serve
• Announces new trusted servants
• Sends Steering Committee Welcome Letter to all new trusted servants
• Fields questions sent both publicly and privately (This is too general to be useful. It should either be written more specifically or be removed.)
• Serves as temporary back-up to the Business Meeting Chair
• Does NOT handle anything related to the business meeting (These two lines are contradictory and unnecessary.)
• Informs the business chair if elections are needed for trusted servants.
• Reviews GROW mail daily. (Not necessary to the position.)
• Has an understanding of the duties of each job. (There is no way to verify that the TS “understands” the duty of all jobs. Therefore, this line is meaningless. It is also unreasonable to expect one person to understand everyone else’s job.)
• Sends FYI Letter and GROW Mail List Guidelines monthly to GROW membership
• Knows how to access job descriptions and form letters (particularly the monthly FYI and GROW Guidelines letters) necessary to carry out the tasks. (This “duty” should be included in the Common Duties, not in this specific job. Every Trusted Servant should do this.)
• Sends letter of introduction to new Temporary Mentor and the birthday, sponsor, weekly meeting lead, and 12th step listkeepers when they begin new term. (She already sends welcome letters to all new Trusted Servants. Delete this item.)
• Is available to temporarily carry out the tasks of the Temporary Mentor and Birthday, Sponsor, Weekly Meeting Lead, and 12th Step Volunteer listkeepers, as necessary. (There is no reason to expect the Secretary to carry out the duties of other Trusted Servants. The Common Duties places responsibility for covering jobs on each Trusted Servant. They are supposed to contact the Secretary or Business Chair to work out solutions when they can’t carry out their duties temporarily or permanently.)
• Maintains current copies of birthday, sponsor, weekly meeting lead, and 12th Step Volunteer lists. (It should not be the Secretary’s responsibility to maintain current lists. (At the most, the TSs should be responsible for providing her with copies of their current lists. There may be better ways to keep back-up copies of these lists – for example, on the website.)
• Acts as a focal point to receive complaints when Trusted Servant(s) do not fulfill responsibilities and works with the Steering Committee and the Trusted Servant to resolve performance issues.
• When a Trusted Servant becomes unavailable or unwilling to fulfill her duties, temporarily serves in that role and works with the Steering Committee to fill the position. Train the new volunteer who accepts the vacant position. (It is not appropriate to expect the Secretary to cover for every TS position. It is her job to work with – even lead – the Steering Committee to see that the job gets done, hopefully by someone who has been in the position before.)
• Conducts a Group Inventory every 2 years (in even-numbered years) between the Business Meetings of April and October by sending out the 12 Questions on our website. 3 questions will be sent to the group each week over a 4-week period. Each week’s responses will be summarized, posted back to the group, and the results discussed and reviewed by members at the next Business Meeting to determine if action needs to be taken. These will be posted in addition to the Weekly Topics.
• In the event that the current Greeter and / or Listkeeper is unable to complete the task of their respected positions, the Secretary can put out a call to the membership for help to fulfill those tasks needed until the current Greeter and / or Listkeeper issue is resolved. The Secretary’s call to the membership would include a prerequisite of having served in those requested positions so that they may assume those duties quickly and efficiently.
• In 12th Step Volunteer Listkeeper’s temporary absence, either alert 12th Step volunteers of a need for support or work with Steering Committee to assure these duties are covered. (There is a process for TSs who can’t do their job to work with the Secretary and Business Chair … and the Steering Committee … to fill the position temporarily or permanently.)
• Common duties and requirements to all Trusted Servant positions is described here.
• Wording for letters commonly used are provided in the links below:
  • FYI Letter
  • GROW Mail List Guidelines
  • New Trusted Servant Letter
  • List of Trusted Servant letter templates is provided here.

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We will discuss this proposal during the first 3-day session. Please send your comments to grow-business@oso-aa.org or to me privately before midnight (your time) on Monday, April 4th.
Please remember to include the proposal number in the subject line of your message.