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If our meeting/group is one that meets more than one day each week, how many ballots will our meeting receive?
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How will voting work for groups/meetings that meet more than one day each week but still consider themselves to be one meeting?
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Our group/meeting takes place more than one time per week, but we still consider ourselves one meeting: we have one set of service positions, share a name and meeting ID & link, and we share business meetings and typically vote on things such as annual business Conference motions together. So why are we receiving separate ballots?
The response is same for all 3 questions above:
The process for the fellowship-wide vote is based on MA’s Service Manual, the guidebook that helps MA function and serve our primary purpose. The Service Manual explains the, “Procedure for Approval of Changes in the Language of the Steps, Traditions, and/or General Warranties.” This can be found in Service Manual version 7.1 on page 62:
“Should a conference motion pass which seeks to change the text of the Steps, Traditions, and/or General Warranties, the written consent of three-quarters of all groups, as required by the Conference Charter, shall be obtained as follows: The proposed change shall be sent to all meetings registered with World Services and, after no less than 6 months, those ballots returned shall be counted. A yes vote of three-quarters of the returned ballots shall be sufficient to meet the requirement of the Conference Charter to implement the proposed change(s).”
For purposes of this fellowship-wide vote, each “occurrence” of a meeting (meaning each separate day a group/meeting that meets multiple days a week meets) is considered a separate group/meeting (even if the 3 occurrences consider themselves to be one group/meeting for all other purposes) that is required to receive a ballot according to this procedure. The same set of documents sets forth that groups/meetings for the purposes of this motion means each occurrence, for purposes of a meeting/group that meets multiple times every week. And so according to the Service Manual, each occurrence of a meeting/group must receive its own ballot for purposes of this vote.
So, if your meeting/group meets multiple days each week, you will receive multiple separate ballots – one for each “occurrence” of your group/meeting. It is then up to your meeting/group what to do with those ballots. Meetings/groups are autonomous and so they are free to decide for themselves how to handle the ballots that are being provided to them for each “occurrence” of their group/meeting according to the process set out in the MA Service Manual, so long as they adhere to MA Traditions and Principles, and do not affect other groups or MA as a whole.
If we’re a meeting/group that meets multiple days each week, but consider ourselves to be one meeting/group (and so we receive multiple ballots – one for each “occurance” of our meeting/group) what happens if we choose to only return one ballot and not the others we were sent to us?
The results of the vote will be based on whether or not “3/4 of the returned ballots” are in favor or not of the proposed change, so the results are determined based only on a count of the returned ballots. After all votes are returned, MA World Services will count the returned votes, and calculate how many “yes” votes were received. According to the process set out in the Service Manual version 7.1, only if 3/4 or more of the returned votes are “yes” votes in favor of the proposed changes, will the proposed changes take effect. So while every single vote counts, and goes towards or against creating (or not creating) 3/4 in favor needed to make the proposed change, ballots that are not returned will be null, and not be counted.
However, each and every occurrence of a meeting is provided a vote, and so received a ballot, so it’s up to your group/meeting(s) whether or not to vote and return every ballot allotted to it according to the MA Service Manual, or to only return some of the ballots your meeting/groups received.