Group Conscience?

[2dayzmuse]

As many of you know, I am the treasurer of my Home group. The GSR of our group has made it quite clear by mentioning more than once that as soon as his term is up, he is going to leave our group and find another Home group. We will be electing new trusted servants by November.

In October, there is the annual General assembly. We sent the same GSR last year and provided most of his expenses for him and his GF for the weekend trip. We are a small group and our funds are limited. I have heard our GSR mention that he was upset that we did not have enough money in our account to send him to the assembly this year. He was not very understanding or sympathetic to the situation, yet buys hundreds of dollars of literature without getting approval from our group.

He brought up the upcoming assembly again and asked if I thought we would have enough money to send him. We do have enough money, but it would deplete the account and we would be scraping to make rent for the following month and it would totally expend our prudent reserve. Of course, he mentioned that we would put this before the group and vote whether we would fund his trip for the weekend.

Here is my problem. Our group is very small. Our home group members attend infrequently and a vote would not be an overall fair assessment. More than likely only a few would be voting. One vote would be his GF who would attend the trip with him. I'm pretty sure I know how her vote will go. What bothers me is, should we foot the bill for him to go and have a great weekend, then have him leave our group to go else where leaving us penniless and strapped for rent? This doesn't seem right to me. I know it will be up to the group overall to decide. I don't want to cause a fuss, but his attitude about our group, and the way he has carried on about it in a negative light in front of newcomers has left a bad taste in my mouth.

Has anyone had any experience on a similiar situation and how did your group handle it? I'd appreciate any input.

[miss communicat]

Muze

From what you've described, a few of my thoughts:

His GF should recuse herself from the voting. Conflict of interest.
HE should not be sent if its true that his future days are numbered with your group.

Does anybody have to be sent if funds are so tight? What are your alternatives?

[CarolD]

You can pay the rent from the prudent reserve if need be.
That's what it is for.

Perhaps a compromise? He pays for a room Group pays for gas.

Our state assembly is 2 hours from us.
and the voting is only a few hours.
Overnights are not required.
That is his task..to cast your group vote.

This may not be true for your state..I dunno.

[StrongR2Day]

I have to agree with Carol, we've never paid for an entire weekend, maybe just the gas, and that would only be since the price has gone up in the past few years.

At a larger group I belonged to, several groups car pooled...it was a four hour drive one way. We never had the funds to feed and house the individual, it was just a long day for them. Is that an option?

[2dayzmuse]

Very interesting. We gave him $350.00 last year. I got the vibe that this wasn't enough because he still had to pay some out of his pocket.

What prudent reserve? Our prudent reserve will be wiped out if we send him. He got real snippy with me a while go. He snapped about how our group doesn't even have a prudent reserve. I replied, yes we do. He came back with well...we don't even have enough to send him to the general assembly. I said, we still have a prudent reserve. We may not have enough to foot his entire bill, but we still have a prudent reserve. I'm now pretty determined to not touch that prudent reserve no matter what.

Thanks for the input. I realize we don't have to feel obligated to send him. I like the idea of giving him some money, but not depleting our fund. If he really wanted to go, he would. I get the feeling that he will go if we foot the bill, other wise, he wouldn't.

[laurie6781]

I have been Sober over 25 years. I have never heard of a group paying their GSR's expenses, any of them to the annual meeting.

I was a GSR for 3 years in California. I was in Los Angeles and Annual was held in Sacramento, one year, San Francisco another year and Los Angeles the next year. Never got gas money, nope nothing. I chose to drive up and stay over. That is part of the responsibility of being a GSR.

Let's see when I was treasurer at different meetings over the years, our 'prudent reserve' at all of them was set at 6 months. Our reserve was enough to cover expenses of rent, cakes, coffee, etc for 6 months. Anything over that was sent out every 3 months at the 60/30/10 division of money.

If you want to take an "honest" group conscience I would get ahold of the regulars and old timers, let them know whats going on and set a date near the end of the month when all could attend and THEN hold the group conscience, however, I still believe that GSR's PAY THEIR OWN WAY.

J M H O

Love and hugs,

[2dayzmuse]

Very interesting. Our group is relatively new. It will be two years in November. When I took over as treasurer, I really knew nothing about how things worked. An old timer was the one who set the precedence of setting the money aside for the GSR. I just assumed this is how it worked. Very interesting. The first year, we received money from a group that folded. We started out in the black. That is why we were able to send the GSR. After our funds were depleted, we pretty much make it month to month fianancially. I will keep what I have learned here in mind and discuss it will those I can. Thanks everyone...

[fraankie]

i read all the posts

i was in favor of paying for him
but
it's true
i never heard of paying for a gsr to go, basically, party
there are meetings
and
i'm sure
some sort of breakfast, lunch buffet at these things
so he's having his cake and eat it, too, sort

but
the interesting thing is
the other posts
it seems that this dude is manipulating the meeting
and
a prudent reserve is of the essence

finally, what does he come back with
per se
our gsr puts his hand up during secretary's break
makes at most 3 announcements about the gsr meeting
and
like, hey, it's time for a smoke

an essential question is
will his attendance affect the group or the assembly?
does his attendance financially affect negatively the group as a whole?

i'm sure the answer is in one of the traditions
but
'nuff said



best
fraankie

[FriendofBill]

Group conscience meeting

Explain situation, ask for suggestions on how to resolve, offer your suggestions, make sure everyone has had a chance to voice opinion.

Put it to vote.

God will determine the outcome. As always.

[BigSis]

Sounds like y'all need a tradition meeting or three. Starting with Tradition one.

Our GSR & Me (assistant GR) both went - we got gas and overnight - but only because the danged assembly was 150 miles away. Meals were included in the registration fee. Gas was negligible and three of us from 2 groups shared a room. Maybe he needs to buddy up with a same-gender guy from another group to save expenses? And leave the GF at home! (what is THAT all about? She isn't an officer!).

[2dayzmuse]

No she is not an officer and she goes out of her way to make sure she isn't. I hate to sound judgemental, but getting her to contribute to our group is very frustrating. There are about 3 of us that go back and forth chairing, getting her to chair is like pulling teeth.

Frankie, I hear ya. I could see sending him, but if he is going to step down and leave the group in the couple weeks following, it is like having one last hurrah on our group. I could even see sending him for on last hurrah after serving our group for 2 years, but he has made it very clear how he is unhappy with our group and is leaving it.

It will definitely be put to vote. My fear is he is going to be very unhappy and we are going to have a problem on our hands. But on the other hand, he is leaving. There is also the possibility that all the talk about leaving was merely venting. I'm still leery however.

[daydream]

What a sticky mess! I've seen plenty of those. My questions might be:

How is his attendance at the general assembly going to help your homegroup?
What information is he expected to impart upon the group when he returns?
Does he fully intend to do so before leaving the group?
Can the group trust that he will do so thoroughly?
Is there some other way the group can get the information it needs rather than sending a representative all that way?
Is his vote for the group more important than the prudent reserve?

Good luck. And please keep us updated.