Money Handling

How we handle money at A Serenity Place

Seventh Tradition:
Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

Trust is a problem for most of us in Al-Anon.  Some people may not be comfortable with sending money to someone they’ve never really met.  Since A Serenity Place is an online email meeting, it is unlikely that most of the members of our meeting will ever meet each other, including our Treasurer.  So, we have strived to put together a simple, yet effective system for handling the donations from members.  This system provides the individual members a way to verify that their personal donation was actually received and accounted for–yet at the same time, not permitting the other members of the meeting to see who has donated what and who hasn’t.  And, of course, we want to keep the system simple enough so that the security aspects of the job don’t become an undue burden on our trusted servants.  It is important to remember that the members who serve our meetings are trusted servants not slaves.

Since incorporating in early 2022, the Treasurer now has full control and access to the ASP bank account and PayPal account.   The Founders provide necessary checks and balances by having the same access as the Treasurer.

Here is the basic system for processing member donations . . .

  1. A member SENDS a donation to ASP.
  2. Donations may be paper or electronic.
    • Paper includes personal checks, bank checks, money orders or cash sent to the current 7th Tradition PO Box.
    • Electronic includes donations via PayPal.
  3. The Treasurer
    • RECEIVES donation from an ASP member.
    • Photocopies paper donations (checks, money orders, etc.)
    • Treasurer DEPOSITS funds into ASP checking account.
    • Treasurer enters transaction Date, Amount and at least one of the following: Postal Code, Check #, PayPal transaction # into ledger (ASP REGISTER REPORT)
    • ASP REGISTER REPORT provides members with (1) verification that donations were received and deposited, and (2) the bank and Prudent Reserve balances.
    • Treasurer reconciles the bank account monthly; the Founders confirm the information.
    • Treasurer provides Secretary with a bi-monthly PDF of the ASP REGISTER REPORT
  4. The ASP REGISTER REPORT is posted on the ASP website by the Secretary without delay for the bi-monthly Business Meeting.
  5. The Treasurer makes regular monthly financial REPORTS to the Steering Committee.
  6. The Treasurer makes bi-monthly financial REPORTS to the Business Meeting.

Updated 2/26/2023 7:00 PM EST