MINUTES 4/6/10

. Reviewed and approved agenda
. Reviewed and approved Treasurer's report
. Reviewed and approved Minutes, February and March
. Report: by Webmaster on Website
. Report: by Liaison on upcoming worldwide SLAA events

Old Business:

Treasurer's duties proposed language *Revised*: Suggested one year of sobriety, one year as an op (will be 450 op level), provides input to establish officer consensus determining conflicts over restrictions/bans applied for, and inappropriate behaviors when an incidence is not clear or not covered in the guidelines. Maintains ledger of debits, credits, and balances of account, and submits monthly treasury reports to the Fellowship. Collects donations from the Fellowship from SLAAOnline P.O. Box, regularly (p.o. box to be in the area wherever the treasurer lives), pays website fee monthly, pays for domain name of website yearly, pays for P.O. Box yearly, maintains prudent reserve of $140 dollars and sends excess in donations to SLAAFWS (as per previous group conscience). APPROVED

New Business:

New Ops:

Red - see her letter APPROVED
Bob APPROVED
John (JohnnyC) APPROVED
Anna - INTERNET CONNECTION DROPPED WILL HAVE TO REAPPLY NEXT MONTH

Proposed policy on How to Handle Suicide Threats (by Joe/Glorry): *APPROVED*
I propose that we use the following scripts. My proposal is that we break up the script into three portions. a reminder, a warning, and a final warning, then de-voice if necessary. I know this is a pain but i think it helps allow for more gentleness in the beginning and only gets firm if the situation dictates.

Reminder :We care about your safety and your life. We are here to help. However, we are not professional counselors, and most of us are too far away to be of direct assistance. If you plan on/or have already hurt yourself, please contact a friend, family member or local helpline that may be able to better assist you.

Warning:We care about your safety and your life, therefore we ask if you have plans to/or have already hurt yourself, please contact 911 or a suicide helpline. This Channel is not a suicide help line, and we are unable to help in this situation.

Final warning:We care about your safety. However for the safety of all of our members, we ask that you do not continue to discuss plans of self harm, please contact your local suicide helpline, or 911.___________________________________________________________

Further I motion that we have a statement on the website (as a link) that individuals in the room may post if no op is present (The suggested wording I propose is as follows).

"As a Recovery Group we care about the safety of all of our members. Our experience, strength and hope is limited to Sex and Love Addiction. We are unable to assist in Medical / Psychological Crises. Out of concern for your safety and the safety of the Group, we ask that any emergency situations be addressed thru the appropriate emergency channels. If you have harmed yourself, or are planning to harm yourself, please call 911 or a Suicide Help Line. Thank-You."

Next Motion: Extend Meetings to 1 1/2 hours- (Susan's Motion) due to increase in the size of our meetings (some times as many as 35 to 40 people and a huge influx of newcomers).
Some of the Day folks (Europeans who may not be able to be at this meeting, due to difference in the time zone) didn't like the 90 minute meeting idea, so I promised to bring their ideas to this meeting. The ideas that the day folks tossed around were:
- Open the meetings with everyone in one room, then split the group into two, then everyone would reunite for closing script.?- Eliminate lengthy newcomer introductions, introduce newcomers briefly. Do not ask if they want to share at that time, do not do chips. If a newcomer decides to share later, they can raise their hand in the normal way, and they can be given a chip at the end of their share. Many feel that having so many newcomers in the meetings is taking up half the meeting at timesUse a designated timer. The Op tells everyone up front that they have three minutes to share, with a one minute wrap up. Folks can volunteer to be the timer. - Add more meetings. Especially a "Newcomer meeting", and one at 7 pm EST- And finally, if someone has shared at one meeting, we ask that they only share once a day. (Perhaps a script can be incorporated that all are encouraged to only share once a day). MOTION WITHDRAWN BY PROPOSER