1022 – Proposal 5: Secretary’s Duties

Proposal 5: The GROW Steering Committee will develop a plan for assuring the Secretary’s duties are performed while the position is vacant.

Rationale: As the group is aware we repeatedly struggle to fill a small number of key TS positions. This time, the Secretary position is vacant, and some of her duties are critical to GROW’s performance.

The Secretary is responsible for these key duties:

  • sending out two form letters each month (FYI Letter, GROW Mail List Guidelines);
  • acting as the contact for Trusted Servant positions, whether it be when filling vacancies or when an existing Trusted Servant is struggling to handle her duties;
  • maintaining a list of emergency contact numbers for all Trusted Servants;
  • with the Mini Steering Committee, addresses questions/concerns/issues from any GROW member and privately and discreetly informing members who stray from the guidelines;
  • announcing Trusted Servant position vacancies, confirming nominees, and announcing new Trusted Servants;
  • conducting a biennial Group Inventory (in even-numbered years), posting the questions to GROW (3 per week) and posting each week’s responses to the group.

There are probably several ways to see that these duties are covered by our current Trusted Servants; but we need to have a plan for fulfilling the Secretary’s role while the position is vacant. I’m assuming we will continue to announce the vacancy every month until it is filled or the next business meeting come along.

One way to do this would be for individuals to assume one of the following four discrete and straight-forward activities:

  • posting the form letters,
  • being contact for Trusted Servant issues,
  • maintaining a list of emergency phone numbers,
  • being a member of the Mini Steering Committee (we’ve had little to do for over a year).
  • Being a contact for Trusted Servants would be the most difficult of these, particularly in the month preceding the April 2023 business meeting. The activity may be a good candidate for a job-sharing approach if we can work out how to do that.

The Group Inventory should be conducted in 2020. It plays out over a month-long period. Three questions are posted each week, and then the responses are published to the mailing list (and the website). One person could agree to do the whole inventory, or we could separate it into the weekly segments, creating a need for four people and one to coordinate the overall effort.

You may have different and better ideas about how to accomplish this, but GROW needs those duties to be fulfilled whether there is a person in the position or not.
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We will now have 3 days to discuss this Proposal.
Please click “Reply to All” to post your comments on this Proposal.
Be sure your response is addressed to: grow-business@oso-aa.org.
The comment period closes at midnight (your time) on Thursday, October 6th.

I look forward to your comments.

Regards,
danna M
GROW Business Chair
dmcd9999@gmail.com

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