RULES & RESPONSIBILITIES FOR ALL

Miracles In Progress

AL-ANON ROOM OPERATORS

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General Responsibilities

 The position of Room Operator or Monitor is one of responsibility.  It is not a position of power.  To keep the room safe for all those who enter our room, and to encourage others to keep it Al-Anon focused.

 Therefore all operators are required to abide by the following rules regarding our room.

 Al-Anon Room Operators Must:

 * Have a Minimum of six (6) months experience in face to face Al-Anon Meetings

 * Be a listed Miracles In Progress Al-Anon Group Member

 * Be positive, respectful, patient and compassionate to all.

 * Be a Chair or be an Alternate Chair for at least 1 meeting a week

 * Provide service work for the group

 * Help newcomers locate Face-to-Face meetings in their community

 * Set an example of conformity to the 12 steps and 12 traditions

 * Help maintain the safety, security and confidentiality of the room at all times

 * Always ask the chairperson if they want assistance during the meeting PRIOR to sending any paragraphs into the room, kicking people out of the room, or assuming any of the other chairperson responsibilities.

 * Make every effort possible to attend the Group Business meetings and Op meetings.

 * Interact on the Al-Anon bulletin board at http://alanon.activeboard.com

  Al-Anon Room Operators Must Not:

 * Promote online meetings as a replacement for Face-To-Face meetings, only as a supplement to
them.   (Understanding that there are some individuals due to health and medical conditions that  cannot leave their home)

 * Be judgmental of others.  Understanding  that some  Al-Anons are deeper in their disease than other Al-Anon痴.

 * Knowing that none of us are professional counselors,  we do not give advice or endorse or
oppose any cause, therapy or treatment.

 * Discuss member's religious beliefs or lack thereof.

 * Indulge in gossip or criticism of others, either in the room or in PMs.

 * Allow personal attacks of any kind or arguing to take place in our room.

 * Engage in lengthy private messages while chairing a meeting.

 Chairing Meetings

 * Scheduled Chairpersons & Alternates are expected to arrive 15-30 minutes prior to scheduled meeting time.

 * All chairpersons are expected to be consistent in their chair responsibilities and chair at least one meeting per week.

 * If a chair person is not able to maintain their meeting responsibility, they should  send an email to all room operators asking for a replacement chair  or if a chair cant make a meeting due to illness or other .
If possible, the notice should be sent out 24 hours in advance of your absence.  Understanding that this is not always possible.

 * As a chairperson you are responsible to maintain the safety, security and confidentiality of the room. You do this by removing all individuals who sit idle for  minutes, removing any individual who becomes argumentative, disrespectful or sends inappropriate messages into the room or in private message.  Not gossiping about members.

 * Idle times are:  7 mins for sign in.  10 mins for room idle time.  We are to ask the Al-anon in PM as well as in the room if they are here.  Give them 3 mins to answer.

 * Al-Anon meetings should be conducted in a timely manner, approximately 90 minutes or less.

 * Shares should be not allowed to exceed more then 2 minutes past our 5-7 minute share time per share.  Chairpersons are responsible for bringing lengthly shares to a end for the benefit of others who may wish to share during our meetings.

 * Chairperson should not engage in lengthy private messages while chairing a meeting **** My note-  this is due to ops that are no longer with us that use to have multiple PM windows open while chairing and didn稚 pay attention to the room****

 * Always observe proper order and decorum while chairing a meeting by greeting individuals, thanking members for their share. Do not allow cross talk during a meeting.

 * If a member is sharing and gets booted offline, the chairperson can wait a few minutes to allow the member to re-join the room.  A brief message to those present stating that the meeting will wait a couple minutes to allow the individual to return is generally sufficient.

 What Constitutes Proper Meeting Topics?

 * Remember to always keep the meeting topics focusing on US not the A in our life.

 * If a topic is questionable, try to courteously suggest a different phrasing of the topic.

 * If a topic is that of a sexual nature, present the topic to the group as a whole for group approval.

 * You should limit the topics to no more than 2-3  and allow others to share off topic if they wish.

 This will help keep those present for the meeting focused on the topics.

  Handling Disruptions

 Most people come into our room in search of a listening ear and understanding heart. There are those however, that come into our room and display a very rude and aggressive conduct. We will not allow abusive behavior such as this in our room.

 * Any Operator that observes this behavior should politely and courteously ask the individual to stop using this conduct.  After attempting to correct the problem in this manner, if it persists, the operator should kick the individual out of the room, using the Kick (why) function and giving the `uncalled for conduct' reason for the Kick.

  Kicking People Out of the Room:

 It is not with pleasure that we kick people out of our room, as we believe that the majority of those that come here are seeking help. However, there are occasions that require us to remove people from the room. For example:

 * Guests:

Guests who do not identify their presence in the room are given 3 warnings, (a combination of Private Message and Room Message) to identify their presence. After 7 minutes if the Guests have not identified themselves or their presence, they should be kicked out of the room.  Using the kick (why) function.  Reason for kick: Failure to identify presence in room or non-responsive.

 * Remaining Idle: 

ANY Individual, who remains idle for more than 10 minutes, is given the same courtesy as explained in the unidentified guest paragraph.  If they do not interact with the group discussion, or answer the identify presence question they are kicked out of the room using the kick (why) function.  This does includes any individual who remains idle, including those who change their name indicating,  afk (away from keyboard),  brb (be right back), etc.  Reason for kick: Idle to too long or non-responsive. (Note: OP_Present is not to be kicked out of room for any reason at any time)

 * Disruptive Individuals:

 Individuals who are disruptive or argumentative in nature are asked to discontinue their disruptive behavior by the room operator.  If the disruptive or rude behavior continues,  the operator uses the kick (why) function and removes them from the room.  Reason for kick: Disruptive Behavior

 * Individuals on `Ban' list:

 People who are on the group consensus `ban' list are to be kicked out of the room immediately. These individuals are banned for a legitimate reason and will not be allowed back into our room until they respect the current ban.

 Banning People from the Room

 An operator can ban an individual from re-entering the room for a 24-hour period.

 * Individuals who use continuous profanity or vulgarity

 * Individuals who send sexuality explicit messages into the room or in private messagesto others present

 * Individuals who return after having been kicked from the room for disruptive behavior and
continue that behavior, should be banned by the operator.

 * Individuals who are on the group ban list must be removed from the room immediately

 *To ban an individual use the Ban (why) function and enter the appropriate reason for the ban.

 Downloading mIRC, Scripts and Paragraphs:

 To download mIRC, the  scripts for the meeting opening and closing go to http://www.12stepforums.net/mirc.html.  There are step-by-step instructions on how to set your computer up so you can chair meetings.  If you have any problem in the set up, it is suggested that you print the information prior to beginning to download, so you have the instructions in front of you at all times.

  No More than 2 Ops in the Room:

 If when you enter the room, there are already 2 operators in the room, you are required to de-op yourself.  This does not include OP_Present. (2 Operators plus OP_Present is the rule of thumb)The presence of too many individuals in the room with op status gives the appearance that there are too many 'chiefs' and not enough 'Indians'.

 If one of the 2 ops in the room gets bumped off line or leaves the room, all you need to do is leave the room and re-enter to get your op status back or type the command /msg chanserv OP #alanonchat nickname.  Remember to Op another Op before you leave.

 Group Business Meetings and Op Meetings:

 Our group business meetings are held the first Sunday of every month after the scheduled 7pm (est) meeting.

 Op meetings are held every second and fourth Wednesday of the month.

 All individuals with operator status are required to make every effort possible to attend these meetings.

 Making Announcements in the Room:

 Following the close of every meeting, the chairperson must copy and paste the following announcements into the room: (Note: Be sure you copy the square and numbers at front of first sentence in announcement so its colored when you send it into the room)

 4,15Each Sunday morning at 10 am est,  we will be having a Spiritual meeting with a topic relating to the Spiritual part of our program.
 
2,8Each Thursday night at
9pm eastern time we will be having a Step/Tradition Meeting to help new people get to know and understand how to work the 12 steps. After going through one Step per week, and getting through the 12 of them, we then start a Tradition a week on this same night.  Please join us!!  Thank you for supporting our group.

 1,9Our group business meeting is scheduled for the first Sunday of every month. The business meeting begins after the regularly scheduled 7pm eastern time meeting.  Please join us for this meeting as this is where the group comes together to make group related decisions.

5,11This site is supported by members voluntary contributions/donations.  If you would like to make a contribution to help offset the expenses visit http://www.12stepforums.net/funds.html.  Your contributions are needed and appreciated.

 Please be sure you have the 'topic.txt' file on your desktop so you can copy and paste group related information into the room before, during and after meetings.

 **These guidelines regarding Chairpersons/Ops responsibilities will be updated from time to time as deemed necessary. Should they be updated you will receive an email with the new updated version attached. Thank you for your time and attention to these matters. Should you have any questions, please email  director@12stepsforums.net  and we will get a reply to you as soon as possible.