Author: Cushing P

In keeping with our tradition of anonymity at the public level, full names and personal email addresses are never used on our District website. Each committee chair is set up with an email address committeename@centralalaa.org (e.g., cpc@centralalaa.org). We then set up a blind email forward through our hosting company. Emails can be delivered to your regular email address, or can be accessed as webmail on our host’s website.

To request a District 8 email account for district work,  contact the webservant.

No matter how carefully we design our service structure of principles and relationships, no matter how well we apportion authority and responsibility, the operating results of our structure can be no better than the personal performance of those who must man it and make it work. Good leadership cannot function well in a poorly designed structure. But weak leadership can hardly function at all, even in the best of structures. But once we have created a basically sound structure, that job is finished, except for occasional refinements.

 

With leadership we shall have a continuous problem. Good leadership can be here today and gone tomorrow. Furnishing our service structure with able and willing workers has to be a continuous activity. It is therefore a problem that in its very nature cannot be permanently solved. We must continuously find the right people for our many service tasks. Since our future effectiveness must thus depend upon ever-new generations of leaders, it seems desirable that we now proceed to define what a good service leader should be; that we carefully indicate in each level of service, especially in our Board of Trustees, what special skills will always be required; and that we review our present methods of finding and choosing that leadership.

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“A.A. Service Manual Combined With Twelve Concepts for World Service, 2015-2016 Edition,” p. 34. A.A.W.S. All rights reserved.

It’s election time in Area 1 and, therefore, in District 8. As members of the “odd” panels, we hold our elections every two years, and those panels of trusted servants serve in the odd, then in the even year. Groups may hold elections for group servants at different intervals, but we encourage positions of general service (General Service Representatives (GSR) and Alternates (AGSR), District Committee Members (DCM) and their alternates (ADCM), along with those members who chair subcommittees of the District (Corrections, PI, CPC, etc.) be elected to serve concurrently with our Area Officers (Delegate, Alternate Delegate, Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary and Registrar) and Area committee chairs.

For information on the upcoming election assembly at Area 1, CLICK HERE to visit the Area 1 page of our website.

District 8 elections will be held during the regular District meeting October 1, 2016. In keeping with our informed group conscience at the district meeting, we will use the Third Legacy Procedure to elect a new DCM and ADCM. We will then use majority vote to elect a District Secretary, and to fill the chair position of our service committees. To understand the responsibilities and suggested experience needed to serve in any of these positions, consult the A.A. Service Manual, available HERE.

A.A.’s Third Legacy Procedure is a special type of electoral procedure, used primarily for the election of delegates and regional and at-large trustees. It is considered to be unique to A.A., and at first glance, appears to introduce a strong element of chance into a matter that should depend solely on the judgment of the majority. In practice, however, it has proved highly successful in eliminating the influence of factions or parties that seem to thrive on most political scenes. The railroading of a candidate for election is made difficult, if not impossible, since voters have a wide selection of candidates to choose from. More importantly, a second-place candidate who may be extremely well qualified but without early popular support is encouraged to stay in the balloting rather than withdraw.

Third Legacy Procedure is as follows:

1. The names of eligible candidates are posted on a board. All voting members (of the area or Conference body) cast written ballots, one choice to a ballot. The tally for each candidate is posted on the board.
• The first candidate to receive two-thirds of the total vote is elected.
2. Withdrawals start after the second ballot. If any candidate has less than one-fifth of the total vote, his or her name is automatically withdrawn — except that the top two candidates must remain. (In case of ties for second place, the top candidate and all tied runners-up remain as candidates.)
3. After the third ballot, candidates with less than one-third of the total vote will be withdrawn automatically, except the two top candidates remain. (In case there are ties for second place, the top candidate and all tied runners-up remain as candidates.)
4. After the fourth ballot, if no candidate has two-thirds of the total vote, the candidate with the smallest total is automatically withdrawn, except that the top two candidates remain. In case there are ties for second place, the top candidate and all tied second-place candidates remain.
   • At this point, the chairperson asks for a motion, second, and a simple majority of hands on conducting a fifth and final ballot.
   • If this motion is defeated, balloting is over and the choice is made by lot—“going to the hat”—immediately.
   • If the motion carries, a fifth and final ballot is conducted.
5. If after the fifth ballot no election occurs, the chairperson announces that the choice will be made by lot (from the hat). At this point, the top two candidates remain. In case there are ties for first place, all tied first place candidates remain. In case there are no ties for first place, the top candidate and any tied second-place candidates remain.
6. Lots are then drawn by the teller, and the first one “out of the hat” is the delegate (or trustee or other officer).