I was more than a little surprised when
I received my email for the October meeting. Normally we have our
meetings on a weekend, but this was on a Monday. Since most of the
members are retired, I think in retrospect, this may have been a good
call.
We had seven potential new members, but
only six passed the interview and were accepted as members. Again, I
received a shock at the interview, but I agree with the way it was
conducted, as it told us why they wanted to join our support group
and issues they might have with the philosophy of the support group.
I thanked Brenda and Sue for developing a comprehensive interview for
new members, as it could be used in a variety of ways to uncover
potential problems.
The five that several of us had helped
for foot problems and a person that
Jennifer had introduced passed. A
member that Allen introduced did not pass and Allen did understand
and he thanked Sue for the questions that exposed him for the
problems he might have caused us.
Barry moved that Brenda and Sue be
thanked for the interview they had conducted and it was seconded
almost unanimously. The vote was unanimous and Brenda said thank you
to us and said that having the October meeting as our membership
meeting makes for a more consistent way of accepting members.
Sue added that her husband and she had
researched and found the interview program and brought it to Brenda
for her approval. They had adapted some of the questions to fit our
needs. This brought a round of applause and a big Thank-you!
Brenda then asked for some discussion
about the excluded group and how many people had been harassed in the
last month. Then she explained what had happened to me and those
involved. She explained that one had been arrested and would be
spending at least one year in jail with most of it caused by his
actions after his arrest.
She then stated she had received
several harassing phone calls, as had Sue and A.J. At that point,
the new members all said they had been told not to join this support
group. More members admitted they had been told to leave this group
and they would be welcome in their group. Ben said he seriously
doubted this and felt better as member of this group.
I asked who has not been harassed and
no one answered. I suggested that the police needed to be notified.
Then they are can take action to stop the harassing phone calls. I
told them how I was working with the police and they were monitoring
my telephone numbers and had arrested several of the group harassing
me. I said that to date it only involved 9 of the other group and if
the rest of you would join me, they could be stopped.
Brenda asked for a show of hands and
only one person felt that this was not necessary. I gave Brenda the
phone number and called a second number. Shortly, there were three
officers present and one addressed our group and explained what could
be done. Then they moved among us obtaining phone numbers and names
and dates of the last calls. Each was given a card with a phone
number to call after each harassing call and told that the phone
company was working with them to end this.
After they were finished and answered
several more questions, they thanked the group and felt that the
harassing calls would end before long and maybe still happen
sporadically. They did want to catch as many as possible.
Max briefly listed the problems and costs at the financial institutions. There would be no cost breaks below certain balances, which we would not reach. There would be other costs, which could be a burden unless we trusted an individual. Several said they understood and there was a short discussion. Max asked for another month before we collected dues and asked Sue's husband for assistance. He agreed and said he might have a partial solution.
Brenda stated the meeting was over and
cleanup needed to be done. Cleanup did not take long and as we were
leaving, we noticed the police were detaining several individuals.
One officer indicated we should leave the area immediately, which we
did. Later the officer did contact Brenda and informed her that the
fellows were some of the harassers. Brenda sent out
emails to all members, which had all concerned.
Allen suggested that the potential
problem was the member he had promoted and his objective was to
inform the others. He said he would inform the police.
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