Welcome from List Administrator

This is the welcome letter from the List Administrator that is sent to every member when their email address is subscribed.  That also means that when an existing member changes their email address, this letter is sent to their new email address.

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Hi new ASPer!

Welcome to A Serenity Place!

I’m Steve, the List Administrator. This note is to help acquaint you with our meeting at A Serenity Place. Our guidelines are not so much a set of rules to follow, but a description of the kind of meeting that we have at A Serenity Place. If these guidelines describe the kind of regular face-to-face Al-Anon meeting that you like, you will probably enjoy your Al-Anon recovery in our meeting. On the other hand, if you find this description too restrictive, you may prefer to look for another meeting that better meets your needs.

1. A Serenity Place is a nice, quiet little meeting that follows the Al-Anon Steps, Traditions, and Concepts as they were written. Like Al-Anon itself, this is not a meeting where “anything goes.”

2. Conference Approved Literature: This meeting uses Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature (CAL). We do not use ANY outside literature, regardless of its source or potential value. In other words, submission of any quotations from any outside source is considered inappropriate at A Serenity Place. This includes excerpts from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, other recovery literature, poems, etc.

3. Meeting Format: We have a simple and consistent meeting format at A Serenity Place. Each day, a meeting chairperson opens the meeting by posting a specific set of readings which rotate on a weekly basis. The Chairperson, then offers some experience, strength and hope (ES&H) on their topic at the end of the opening message. Other members share on the day’s topic, or the previous day’s topic, or . . . some other Al-Anon related topic. Reading page 353 in the One Day at a Time book (ODAT) may provide some help in understanding this process.

4. Crosstalk. One definition of crosstalk is any dialogue between members during the meeting, and is generally considered inappropriate at an Al-Anon meeting and at A Serenity Place. If you would like to “Reply” to a member’s share, please send your reply to them privately. If your e-mail software does not provide you with an individual’s e-mail address, please refer to the membership list on the web site rather than posting a personal reply to the entire meeting.

5. Business Section. We have a private “members only” section at our web site. The web address is
http://www.serenitysys.com/A_Serenity_Place/Business
Please make a note of this address!
There are many resources for ASP members at our web site.
· Change your ASP subscription to nomail for vacation or to Unsubscribe
· List of Service Positions and our Trusted Servants
· Weekly schedule of meetings
· FAQ about Al-Anon and online meetings, especially ASP
· Fliers for Al-Anon events
· Membership Roster for ASP (currently under construction)
The Business Section is [sometimes] password protected, and may employ other technologies to ensure the anonymity of the members of A Serenity Place. Currently, we use a single user name and password for everyone:
User Name: ASP
Password: member
Feel free to visit here often.

6. Business: We try to avoid posting business messages at A Serenity Place. If you have a business issue that you would like to bring up, we suggest that you first send a note to a member of the Steering Committee. Perhaps the meeting has already addressed your issue.

7. Complaints. Occasionally, something happens at any meeting that bothers other members. If you have any complaints or criticisms of A Serenity Place or of the behavior of one of our members, please write any member of the Steering Committee.

8. Attraction rather than Promotion. Please feel free to tell your Al-Anon friends about A Serenity Place. If they wish to join after visiting our web site home pages, they may contact the Greeter Committee themselves; we do not subscribe new members by referral.

9. Examples of Things NOT to do at A Serenity Place:

a. Crosstalk (already discussed above)
b. Commentary on other member’s shares. Good or bad. Please share your compliments to other members privately.
c. Discussion of religion, politics or other outside issues that are inappropriate for any Al-Anon meeting
d. Attachments. Do not send attachments of any kind.
e. Fancy backgrounds, stationary, fonts, graphics, HTML or JAVA or any other script or executable file. If you use any of these features in your other emails, please set your email program to send “plain text” to ASP. Very small graphics & email signatures are OK provided that they are inoffensive and do not create a burden for members to download.
f. Virus warnings. Most are hoaxes, but if there is an imminent danger of a virus to the members of ASP then only the List Administrator will make an announcement.

After you have been a member of A Serenity Place for a while, you may wish to make yourself available to do some service for the meeting. Like many face-to-face meetings, our rotation and election processes are a little informal, and perhaps confusing. It may help to contact a member of the Steering Committee.

If you have any questions about A Serenity Place, technical or otherwise, please send me a note and I’ll do my best to help.

Love and SERENITY,
Steve R.
steve@serenitysys.com