Grow Business Meeting – April 2025

Monday, April 14: Chair opened meeting, presenting Business Meeting Guidelines and the meeting Agenda to participants.

Agenda Item 1: Transition of GROW 7th Tradition fund management to Homegroup.online (HGOL).

Rationale:
HGOL handles all of the bookkeeping, clearly tracking all contributions and distributions, simplifying the Treasurers reporting duties.

• Moving to HGOL, a dedicated platform, removes any confusion by clearly separating group funds from a Treasurers personal finances.
• HGOL offers easy contribution links and multiple payment options, making it simpler for members to contribute.
• Relying on a members personal account can create problems if the Treasurer rotates out unexpectedly. HGOL streamlines the process of changing to a new Treasurer, ensuring that the financial infrastructure remains consistent, regardless of changes in Treasurers.
• HGOL is designed by and for AA members to support AA groups online in practicing the 7th Tradition responsibly. It aligns with our principles and practices.

Implementation:

• Open a Homegroup Online account in GROW’s name.
• Configure the account to make distributions in accordance with group conscience.
• Notify members of the new method and gradually phase out the personal Paypal and bank accounts over a 30 day period.
• Provide updated contribution instructions in the 7th Tradition (Pass the Basket) weekly letter.
• Update the Treasurers Service Position on the website to reflect changes as necessary.
• Conclusion: This change will safeguard our funds and simplify the contributions process for members while maintaining full alignment with AA traditions.

Results of Voting:
14 members voted
13 voted yes
1 voted no

Therefore, Agenda Item 1 is adopted as a Group Conscience decision

Agenda Item 2: Technical Issues on Mailing List

This topic to my understanding will not need a vote after a discussion. This is more of a check in and concerns about whether the members are receiving the weekly meeting. Some members were having technical issues and Wendy and De worked to resolve this concern. Also the second part of tech. issues that have arisen included some members were not getting the weekly shares.

Note from Business Meeting Chair:

I read about the tech issue of some members not getting weekly meetings and some members not receiving the shares of the members. I am not sure if all the members remember to check spam and trash for weekly meetings and shares. I know when I started with GROW I had to check Spasm and Trash on a regular basis. At this time I was also using a yahoo mail vs gmail account. Once I set up  gmail I have not experienced any issues. If individuals are still having issues I am not sure how to address the issues other then continue to have the person reach out to the list keeper or me (I would be willing) to forward the shares and weekly meeting to that person until a permanent solution

Can we discuss if either of these two issues are still being experienced by any members and add in any solutions you may have?

The Issue:
Listkeeper Wendy D reached out to Dean on this issue. I am not a tech person, so please bear with me. Basically, Dean explained that some email providers are increasing security because of scammers.  They look for the certificate. The current platform the GROW is on does not have that certificate.  So sometimes, depending on how many shares are sent out at once, Gmail, or yahoo or cloud email recipients won’t get the email. They are blocked. The block generally lasts a day and then the member will get them again. I have experienced this with my Gmail.

There are other platforms out there that offer this certificate and would therefore stop this from happening. Pricing seems reasonable. And Dean would NOT be our support person. Although he said he would help us transition to the new platform, if we choose to go that route.

Bottom line. This is not going away and there is nothing we can do to prevent this from happening, unless we change platform. It just is random and we won’t know if it happening, unless someone tells us.

We currently use mailman. There are also mailman2 and mailman3 that offer the certificate.  So possibly similar feel and admin function, just a step up in security – i don’t know .

It has settled down since the last big issue about a month ago. But it will happen again according to Dean.

Discussion:

Based on this, and other shares it appears that members are still experiencing tech issues and the issues are not going away and Dean is addressing them as they come to light.

It appears the group has the following “solutions” to the tech issues at this point:

• Leave as and if a problem arises reach out to a listkeeper and they will talk with Dean
• Look into changing the platform that GROW uses; however, this would mean Dean would not be working with GROW.

Having read Wendy’s explanation about the tech issue I would be in favor of staying with the current system and continuing to work with Dean and see if the issues continue. If the last keepers are getting a lot of complaints as we go forward then I would like to see a sub committee formed to look into possible using a different platform to reduce tech issues.

Results of Discussion on Agenda Item 2
10 members voted yes to monitor the situation
1 member voted to look for a new platform now

Based on these results we will monitor the tech issues and look at it again in October.

Agenda Item 3: Review to see if the business meeting email format can be simplified.

This is a rough outline of the current business meeting format. One to two weeks before the meeting begins, the Business-meeting Chair sends out these documents:

1. A form letter notifying the members when the business meeting will begin.
2. The listkeepers automatically subscribe all Trusted Servants to the grow-business mailing list. They will also subscribe any Grow member who wants to join the meeting.
3. Another letter is sent to participants who want to propose a change to business meeting procedures. The letter explains how to write up the rationale. Members submit their proposals to the business chair so that so they can be put on the agenda.
4. Business Meeting Guidelines.
5. Business Meeting Agenda.

Current Business Meeting Process

1) An opening letter opens the business meeting, and the first Agenda Item sent out
2) Participants  discuss the Agenda Item for three days
3) The Chair sends out a summary of the discussion and calls for a vote if it is needed
4) Participants have three days to vote on the Agenda Item, and the Chair tallies the votes announces the results.

This process continues for every Agenda Item.

5) After all Agenda Items have been discussed and voted on or closed, the Chair prepares meeting minutes and sends them to all Grow members. The minutes include current reports prepared by specific Trusted Servants (Chair, Secretary, Listkeepers, Treasurer, and OIAA Rep).

The Chair asked participants for suggestions on ways to change the current process to make it more friendly so more people would be willing to participate in a business meeting that is an email format.

A note from the Business Meeting Chair:

When I first came to GROW and the business meeting was held for me it was very confusing. I couldn’t comprehend the process; however, I think it’s important to share with you it could’ve been where my mindset at where I was when I first came to GROW.

I will say that being business cheer has given me a new perspective. It has clarified the process for me. I understand it much better. The only thing that I could think of doing is the rules of Roberts the agenda format for writing a proposal to be put on the agenda or two things that could maybe just be sent directly to the members saying put this in a file and when we have a business meeting instead of sending that out all the time you could just say, please refer to your copy of, and that might shorten that part of it, but I am not sure the discussion in voting can be shortened unless you want to do two days of discussion versus three

I’m also wondering if this is something that should be done through a subcommittee get as many ideas as we can right now and then create some sub committee that maybe we could look at the process a little bit more in depth and then bring it back on October’s meeting