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Date: 14 October 2005 To: WSC Participants From: Human Resource Panel Re: HRP Update Greetings from your NA World Services Human Resource Panel (HRP). With the 2006 World Service Conference (WSC) a few short months away, we have been busy preparing ourselves for achieving the goal of presenting highly qualified nominees to WSC Participants. As part of that, we have also been focused on our communication with the World Board, Regional Delegates, Zones and the fellowship as a whole. We are pleased to report that communication between the HRP and World Board continues to be positive and helpful. The Panel Leader of the HRP, Chair of the World Board, and Executive Director of the WSO continue to meet via conference call to ensure communication between the two bodies is clear. There is also a regular flow of information between the HRP and World Board via letters and memos. During each of our April and July 2005 meetings we spent a full day with the World Board discussing the topic of Leadership Development in NA. We are grateful for that opportunity and look forward to doing more of that work in the future. We’re pleased to report that Mindy A. was elected as the Panel Leader of the HRP at our April 2005 meeting, and assumed that position at our July 2005 meeting. We want to thank Tali Mc. for her leadership as the previous Panel Leader over the past two years. The HRP has set a new standard of training for the newly elected Panel Leader. In the spirit of consistency and sharing experience, a newly elected Panel Leader now spends three months working hand in hand with the outgoing Panel Leader. This new standard is already proving to be helpful and effective. In pursuit of our goal of presenting a solid slate of nominees to Conference Participants at WSC 2006, we conducted a review of each step of our nominations process. This included looking at all communications with World Pool members who have expressed the willingness to be considered for an NA World Services trusted servant’s position, and a review of our entire timeline, including candidate interviews and reference checks. Our most important objective with the interviews and reference checks are having interactions that fulfill the goal of providing each potential candidate the opportunity to expand upon the written information from his or her World Pool Information Form (WPIF). The more experienced members of the HRP, Tali Mc. and Francine B., have shared their experience with maintaining focus, consistency, openness and respect with each interviewee. As you may remember, a motion was passed at WSC 2004 which allows Regions, Zones, and the World Board to forward names of NA members to the HRP to be included in our nominations process after the round of evaluations known as the blind CPR process is complete. For purposes of communication, the HRP is referring to these candidates as "RBZ Candidates" (Region, Board, Zone Candidates). The first step of including RBZ Candidates in the HRP process was clear communication with each NA entity that can forward names. The HRP produced a document called a "Candidate Submission Form" which is used by those bodies to forward a name (or names) to the HRP. The Candidate Submission Form was then mailed to each Regional Delegate, Zone, and the World Board with a letter describing how to forward a name to the HRP. We are able to report that some RBZ Candidate names have already been submitted to the HRP for consideration. As directed, each RBZ Candidate will be included in the HRP process, once the blind CPR process has been completed. A great deal of discussion has taken place within the HRP regarding any potential impact the inclusion of RBZ Candidates may have on the processes of nominations and elections. Some issues have been clearly and easily resolved; but questions remain, and the HRP will be continuing to communicate with the World Board and Regional Delegates regarding the inclusion of RBZ Candidates. Some Regional Delegates have contacted us with questions, ideas and concerns. We are also in communication with the World Board on this issue. We are looking forward to even more discussion regarding this new process with WSC participants. With this in mind, and as part of experimenting with this new process, we are going to be trying something new for WSC 2006 nominations and elections. As usual, in the March 2006 Conference Report we will publish the names of those NA members who are being nominated for NA World Services trusted servant positions. What will be new about this is that the report will include the name of each nominee, the position for which that person is nominated, and if his or her name was forwarded to the HRP by a Region, the World Board, or a Zone (or any combination of the three). Additionally, we are asking those bodies who have forwarded names to the HRP using this new process to refrain from reporting those name(s). We ask this because there is a possibility that a name could be forwarded and not necessarily result in an HRP nomination at the end of the process. We make this request in the same spirit exercised when convention program committees choose members to speak at conventions, where it is not considered appropriate to release the list of potential speakers, only those who have been selected. We see that same principle to be valid here. As we said above, the HRP will be publishing the names of the nominees along with their source information in the March Conference Report. This will result in one central list of those who are nominated. We believe this to be thoughtful and respectful to all who have been considered. It may be helpful to restate that because this is the first time we are implementing this new process, much of what we are doing can be considered experimental, and we look forward to the opportunity to evaluating all of this with you at the upcoming WSC. In the mean time, we thank you for your continued support. As always, we invite any communication from you. Feel free to write or call with any thoughts, questions, or concerns. |
