Archive for the ‘Financial Affairs’ tag
Wearing All The Hats
Hey Fam,
After some recent events and sharing a little about myself in a thread about the 7th Tradition, I decided to vent a bit here and see what ES&H you guys can give me. I suspect some of you will share with me stuff I've already been told before...but I think I need to hear it again anyway. LOL!!
Okay..here goes: When I came home from jail in 2001, I joined a new home group. The group I previously called "home" had become too wild for me, plus my work schedule didn't allow for me to attend like I wished. My new home group was small and intimate, and it met once a week on Sunday evenings. The members were a mix of men and women, and some had extensive clean time and others were fairly new. Everybody was nice, polite and very respectable. There were 9 group members and the meeting averaged about 15 people every Sunday. I felt comfortable there and we got to know each other very well in a short time.
I immediately volunteered for a service position, and when the rotation came around I was voted in as the new treasurer. I thought it was pretty cool because as a newcomer I was removed from the treasurer position because I didn't have enough clean time. At this time I had almost 3 years clean and I wanted to prove I'd be the best treasurer this group ever had.
I loved my home group and I looked forward to going every week. Keeping the financial records was easy and the tasks that came with the position were a breeze. Prior to the ends of my using, I took pride in effectively handling my own financial affairs, so it wasn't a big deal for me to pay the rent, purchase supplies and give a report during group conscience. I guess I did such a good job that everytime rotation came up, I'd get voted back in as treasurer. I guess it didn't help any that two of our senior members moved out of town, one member joined another group, and another member went out on the zeal. In a matter of three years, I became the senior member of our group and those who once attended every week, would now came erratically.
Our GSR resigned because she got a new job and had to work on Sundays. Our "speaker seeker" got a new job and if he didn't have to work on Sunday, he'd prefer to go fishing. Our coffee maker got sick and has suffered illness after illness - sometimes being hospitalized for long periods. I could go on, but I think you get where I'm headed. Before I knew it, I was wearing almost all the hats. It was tiresome, but I did what I felt I had to do to keep the doors open. Setting up the chairs, making the coffee, putting out the literature, shoveling snow, cleaning up after the meeting, giving reports, attending our area meeting, etc...
Some new members eventually joined, but they were very irresponsible. They'd come late and sometimes leave early. No one wanted to be GSR or treasurer. Our speaker seeker would forget to get a speaker. Our greeter relapsed. It got to the point where I'd come on Sunday's expecting things to go wrong - sometimes they did and other times things went worse than wrong. LOL!!
Oldtimers would visit and see what was going on and suggest that I leave and join another group. They said I should step back and let the group "sink or swim." I tried that - hoping the others would step up to the plate. No such luck. An example of this is the time I stayed home. The meeting is supposed to start at 4:30...my phone rings at 4:50...a member asks why no one is at the meeting and the doors are locked? Apparently, if neither one of my vehicles is seen in the lot, nobody opens the doors (4 group members have a key!!!). WTF???
As it stands today, there's only 4 group members that show up regularly. Our secretary has been late 3 of the last 4 weeks. Last Sunday she showed up 45 minutes late!! We still have no GSR. No speaker seeker. Our greeter has showed up once in a month. Our coffee maker has been here two weeks in a row, but before that... once in 5 weeks. I could go on....
Comments? Suggestions?
G
After some recent events and sharing a little about myself in a thread about the 7th Tradition, I decided to vent a bit here and see what ES&H you guys can give me. I suspect some of you will share with me stuff I've already been told before...but I think I need to hear it again anyway. LOL!!
Okay..here goes: When I came home from jail in 2001, I joined a new home group. The group I previously called "home" had become too wild for me, plus my work schedule didn't allow for me to attend like I wished. My new home group was small and intimate, and it met once a week on Sunday evenings. The members were a mix of men and women, and some had extensive clean time and others were fairly new. Everybody was nice, polite and very respectable. There were 9 group members and the meeting averaged about 15 people every Sunday. I felt comfortable there and we got to know each other very well in a short time.
I immediately volunteered for a service position, and when the rotation came around I was voted in as the new treasurer. I thought it was pretty cool because as a newcomer I was removed from the treasurer position because I didn't have enough clean time. At this time I had almost 3 years clean and I wanted to prove I'd be the best treasurer this group ever had.
I loved my home group and I looked forward to going every week. Keeping the financial records was easy and the tasks that came with the position were a breeze. Prior to the ends of my using, I took pride in effectively handling my own financial affairs, so it wasn't a big deal for me to pay the rent, purchase supplies and give a report during group conscience. I guess I did such a good job that everytime rotation came up, I'd get voted back in as treasurer. I guess it didn't help any that two of our senior members moved out of town, one member joined another group, and another member went out on the zeal. In a matter of three years, I became the senior member of our group and those who once attended every week, would now came erratically.
Our GSR resigned because she got a new job and had to work on Sundays. Our "speaker seeker" got a new job and if he didn't have to work on Sunday, he'd prefer to go fishing. Our coffee maker got sick and has suffered illness after illness - sometimes being hospitalized for long periods. I could go on, but I think you get where I'm headed. Before I knew it, I was wearing almost all the hats. It was tiresome, but I did what I felt I had to do to keep the doors open. Setting up the chairs, making the coffee, putting out the literature, shoveling snow, cleaning up after the meeting, giving reports, attending our area meeting, etc...
Some new members eventually joined, but they were very irresponsible. They'd come late and sometimes leave early. No one wanted to be GSR or treasurer. Our speaker seeker would forget to get a speaker. Our greeter relapsed. It got to the point where I'd come on Sunday's expecting things to go wrong - sometimes they did and other times things went worse than wrong. LOL!!
Oldtimers would visit and see what was going on and suggest that I leave and join another group. They said I should step back and let the group "sink or swim." I tried that - hoping the others would step up to the plate. No such luck. An example of this is the time I stayed home. The meeting is supposed to start at 4:30...my phone rings at 4:50...a member asks why no one is at the meeting and the doors are locked? Apparently, if neither one of my vehicles is seen in the lot, nobody opens the doors (4 group members have a key!!!). WTF???
As it stands today, there's only 4 group members that show up regularly. Our secretary has been late 3 of the last 4 weeks. Last Sunday she showed up 45 minutes late!! We still have no GSR. No speaker seeker. Our greeter has showed up once in a month. Our coffee maker has been here two weeks in a row, but before that... once in 5 weeks. I could go on....
Comments? Suggestions?
G
