how does your home group handle signing of court papers?

[NMDemDist2]

we get a LOT of court ordered people in our Alano Club here. some of them even stick around a while :rofl:

it's come up that a judge 'heard' that people left a certain meeting early and the name of the AA member who signed the papers that day (the meeting chairperson) was disregarded on every sheet on every meeting he (the AAer) signed. since he chairs a LOT of the meetings it negated quite a few of the needed signatures for folks.

my feeling is that this is totally an outside issue and that the group should have no opinion on it. it is my stance that trad 1 leave it to the individual AA if they want to sign their name and under what circumstances, depending on what level of honesty they want to practice.

trad 6 leads me to believe that we are not allied with the court system and it's not AA's job to tell on those who try to come to the meeting late, get their paper signed and leave early (see trad 1)

and that trad 9 tells me the last thing we need is a new 'rule'

how does your group handle this?

:hi:

[FloridaJudy]

1. We always announce at the beginning of a meeting

right after the opening, that anyone who needs papers signed can give them to the chair at the end of the meeting. I've chaired many meetings, and have never been asked to sign at the beginning. If someone's been there, I'll sign. I don't care if she came in late, or he snored loudly through "How it works", or it spent the entire meeting slumped over a GameBoy, I'll sign. I'm not the hall monitor, I'm the chair.

Just make that policy part of the group conscience: papers get signed after the meeting. We've never had a problem with it.

[Kajsa]

2. That's how they do it at our local Alano Club.

And it works great.

Everyone puts their courtcards in the basket
during the 7th Tradition and they get signed at the end
of the meeting by the secretary.

If someone sleeps through the meeting,
that's their business AND their loss.

:hi:

[NMDemDist2]

7. that's actually a pretty good idea

if they weren't there for the announcement they are out of luck eh?

[KitchenWitch]

3. My home group here has people throw them in the basket with the 7th Trad

then they can pick them up from the basket after the meeting.

No fanfare, no calling out, etc.

[NMDemDist2]

6. that's how we handle it now

but the 'attendee' can show up 30 minutes into the meeting (we do 7th trad about 45 minutes in) then grab the paper 10 minutes before the meeting ends and boogie :shrug:

[Justpat]

4. I attend meetings all over the US because we

travel a lot in our business.

Meetings in some places in MD were really strict about the slips: no hour attendance at
meeting, no slip.

Other places just wing it.

Where I am now they go in the basket at the start of meetings and are not signed until
the meeting is over.

Tradition 6 leads me to believe that we never should habve become an arm of the legal system.

[NMDemDist2]

5. for me it's a matter of personal honesty. I can't sign my name that someone

attended if they didn't :shrug:

seems simple enough to me :evilgrin:

[Justpat]

8. I agree. n/t