The Safety Tent Card will be presented to Delegates for Conference Approval at the 2024 Annual Business Conference (ABC) on May 18, 2024. Here is a history of the development of the Safety Tent Card from the Literature Committee:
The APB (Addressing Predatory Behavior) working group was initiated at the Annual World Convention (AWC ) in Toronto in 2018. At the ABC in 2019, a floor motion was presented seeking delegate support for a tent card that would address safety issues in meetings. The Safety Tent Card was subsequently drafted by an Addressing Predatory Behavior (APB) committee and presented to the Literature Committee for entry into the literature evaluation and fellowship review process in the fall of 2019.
A special edition ComLine on the topic of addressing predatory behavior was written by the APB committee and was published in March 2019.
The Meeting and Service Safety Committee (MSSC) was established at the Annual Business Conference in 2020, at which point the APB working group became a subcommittee of MSSC. In 2021, the writers were asked to revise the Safety Tent Card based on feedback from the fellowship review process. The primary suggestions were as follows:
1. change the term “predator” to a less judgmental term.
2. shorten the tent card so that it could be posted on a desk and read at meetings.
3. refer to a document that explained unsafe behaviors in more detail.
A revision was completed by MSSC and returned to the Literature Committee, with the comment that as the initial writing group had disbanded, they were not able to write a more detailed document. The Safety Tent Card was referred to the Literature in Development Subcommittee to write the more detailed document. That subcommittee decided to refer to the special edition of the ComLine rather than write new material. It also added a sentence about finding a different meeting if a member felt their meeting was unhealthy. The document was sent to the WSO Board of Trustees for approval to submit at the 2024 ABC. The Board of Trustees approved the Safety Tent Card, but deleted the sentence regarding unhealthy meetings. The Literature Committee then rewrote that sentence and resubmitted to the Board of Trustees, which approved it.
Under the Operating Procedures and Policy Manual (OPPM), the Literature Committee is required to present any document to delegates prior to the ABC where it will be voted on. This is not for the purpose of further revising the document, but to answer any questions delegates may have before voting on the document. This meeting will take place at the April 6, 2024, Quarterly Literature Committee Meeting at 11:30 AM Eastern US Time and 9:00 PM Eastern US Time.
Christine L