1. Two weeks Before                   
   1. Post announcement to recovery meeting → Sample
   1. Include agenda

Collect Names of Members. . .

I use Microsoft Outlook for my email client.  I create a “Rule” in Outlook to automatically sort incoming emails with the SUBJ “ASP’s November Business Meeting” into a dedicated subfolder “BM Sidebar”.  Since members are instructed to Reply to my announcement, all replies are automatically presorted into that folder for me to access at the end of the month.  I generally try to respond to each as they come in, thanking them, and sometimes a bit more if the member had more to say.  Sometimes a member’s email address does not provide their name, so I reach out to them for a name.

• One Week Before → Sample
  • Post second announcement to recovery meeting
  • Include agenda
• One Day Before

I do the following steps late in the evening the night before so that it does not arrive early.

1. Compile List of Names and Email addresses of members I track names and email addresses in a worksheet of a dedicated spreadsheet.  By placing a “1” in the cell left of each member that responds to the current month’s Business Meeting, I avoid having to type in most names and email addresses.  Members that did not attend the last meeting need to be added manually.Then sort the list based on the “1” column, then the alphabetical list of member names.  This gives a list of alphabetically sorted names and emails that I can add to the Business Meeting Opening email. 
   1. Subscribe Members to Business Meeting
      1. Log into Business Meeting server

http://www.asp-afg.org/mailman/admin/businessmtg/

User Name     xxxx

PW                 xxxx

FYI, the Mailman software is not sophisticated security-wise.  One user name/password for all of us. 

You will want to edit the automated welcome message sent by the server when members are subscribed.  Click on this link, or scroll down to the ‘Notifications’ section on the “General Options” page.  After changing the automated welcome message to be yours, then proceed. . .

1. Click on Emergency moderation of all list traffic is enabled banner link

Select “No” to turn Emergency Moderation OFF

Click on “Submit Your Changes” button

1. Click on “Membership Management” link
   1. Click on “Mass Subscription” link
   1. Paste simple list of email addresses into the top box; one address per line
   1. Click on “Submit Changes” box at bottom of page
2. First Day of Business Meeting
   1. Post Opening Messages to Business Meeting

The night Before, or early morning on first day of the month

Being a night owl on the left coast, this is easy for me.  An alternative is to set up a Delayed Delivery and have the computer send the message at a pre-determined time.  Outlook makes that easy, however it doesn’t appear to be possible in RoundCube webmail.

1. Business Meeting Welcome → Sample

The Welcome informs the members about the nitty gritty details of how our business meeting works.  Links to various pages in the website are included, especially the KBDM page. 

• Business Meeting Opening → Sample

The Opening is the official start of the Business Meeting. 

We open the meeting with the Serenity Prayer, followed by a list of everyone attending the meeting; members first followed by the officers of the Steering Committee.

Next is the list of agenda topics for that particular meeting.  If an agenda topic is the result of a member’s request, then that member is required to attend that Business Meeting.  If the member does not attend, that agenda topic is automatically dropped and not to be discussed. 

Barring exigent circumstances, it is not OK to discuss issues not on the agenda.  This is because we believe that we have a responsibility to inform the full membership in the recovery meeting of the issues we will be discussing. 

Lastly, some more technical references.

• Call for Steering Committee Reports, aka Staff Reports → Sample

This is the Chair asking for reports from the individual officers on the Steering Committee.  Ideally, the officers are reasonably prepared and will respond promptly.  The exception is the Treasurer.  Since we start the Business Meeting immediately after the close of the previous month, it may take a couple of days for the Treasurer to compile their report.  Additionally, the Treasurer’s Ledger needs to be posted to the website and a link provided back to the Treasurer to complete their report. 

A week is dedicated to the presentation of Steering Committee reports and Q&A.  I like to inform the members of the time frame, including the date we will move onto the next agenda item. 

However, if there is an active and healthy discussion going on in the Business Meeting, I prefer to let it continue.  FYI, a healthy discussion may be energetic and tense as people may disagree.  As long as they are being civil and respectful, it’s healthy. 

• Second Week of Business Meeting
  • Close the Steering Committee Reports portion of Business Meeting → Sample
  • Announce the First Agenda Item → Sample
    • Announce the agenda topic, the person that requested the topic; an individual or perhaps a Steering Committee officer that will take lead on the topic, and the time frame for the discussion. 

Since we require members who have requested an agenda topic to attend the Business Meeting, we generally expect that member to introduce their topic, explain why they requested it and what they are looking for. 

FYI, the reason we require members attend the Business Meeting with their agenda topic is to prevent members harboring resentments from ambushing the Business Meeting with a controversial topic, knowing the topic will likely send the meeting into a tailspin, all while they “are on vacation”.  An alternative form of ambush is when a member has the floor to explain their agenda topic, but then uses the opportunity to bring up a different topic – very likely a controversial one. 

Fortunately, we rarely encounter these behaviors compared to what I’ve seen in face-to-face meetings; especially at Area Assemblies. 

1. If the discussion is likely to lead to a consensus and group conscience that is likely to invoke the 3-meeting rule, then it’s usually a good idea to inform the members that this is the first, second or third meeting and that we will not establish a consensus at the first two meetings.  Only at the third, and subsequent meetings, may the Chair determine that a consensus has been reached, at which time three things happen.
   1. The Chair announces that the meeting is switching from the KBDM process to the traditional parliamentary process.
      1. The Chair announces that there appears to be a consensus and states exactly what that consensus is. 
      1. The Chair asks for a motion that must reflect all facets of the consensus.
2. Third Week of Business Meeting
   1. Announce the Next Agenda Item  → Sample
      1. This could be. . .
         1. If the previous week’s discussion resulted in a consensus, then the following week is dedicated to a motion, second and discussion of the motion → Sample
         1. If the previous week’s discussion was a motion, second and discussion of the motion then the following week is dedicated to the voting on the motion.  If so, then a poll is created on the website, the final motion is restated verbatim to the meeting and in the poll, the polling link is posted in the meeting, and the meeting is placed on Emergency Moderation for a week while the polls are open.  After a week of polling, the polling is closed and the results announced to the Business Meeting.  Depending on time remaining in the month, the meeting may or may not be closed. → Sample
         1. If the previous week did not result in a consensus, then the next agenda topic is announced and the meeting proceeds as usual. → Sample

Closing comments.  The two things that I see causing the most problems in the Business Meeting are (a) the meeting wandering off topic, intentionally or not, and (b) the meeting not following the KBDM process. 

Love and SERENITY,

Steve

December 15, 2022