We adhere to Tradition 5, and all our Traditions, as much as possible, with the only requirement for membership being a desire to stop drinking. We also adhere to Tradition 6, lending our name to no other entities. At the onset of the pandemic, when live meetings stopped and other state-run and outside service support centers closed, Pawasarat-Losalio saw the center’s success rate plummet.
Online and telephone meetings are also available. Various platforms are used depending on what the group members prefer. Some are video meetings where you see each other’s faces. At other online meetings, everyone’s video is off.
They figured out on the fly how to get connected with clients under the new, isolated conditions and used the online platforms to offer support, which worked out well. Some groups, with the consent of the prospective member, have an A.A. This may be provided on a slip that has been furnished by the referral source, or via a digital method if the group is online. The referred person is responsible for returning the proof of attendance. Meetings welcome attendees from court programs and treatment facilities. The strength of our program lies in the voluntary nature of membership in A.A.; however many of us first attended meetings because we were pressured to by someone else.
Common Meeting Formats
We ought to all be ready and willing to help the Newcomer or any suffering alcoholic. May your Higher Power guide you on your journey of sobriety. We are a Group of recovering alcoholics, a member of the Online Intergroup, that holds A.A. Meetings following an Online format. Our hope is that any suffering alcoholic who reaches out for help will find it from the members in our room. We prefer AA Online to be a website of attraction rather than promotion.
- Around that same time, the World Health Organization warned that alcohol use during the pandemic may potentially exacerbate health concerns and risk-taking behaviors.
- It’s too easy to turn off the camera on Zoom and not pay attention while sitting on your couch, he said.
- Meetings are typically listed as “open” or “closed” meetings.
- Even Zoom detractors inside AA recognize its importance during the immediate shutdown of the pandemic.
Click the Key, type Password, and Login. Choose a Username, and no password is needed. Learn how to make the most of the resources available through Online AA meetings. Videos, pamphlets, and guides on how to work the program are available in multiple languages.
Success Via Zoom
There are a variety of formats for A.A. Meetings and each meeting takes on the feel of their local area. At most meetings you will hear members talk about what drinking did to them and to those around them. Most also share what actions they took to stop drinking and how they are living their lives today. If one can begin to adopt a new way of life through working the steps, AA teaches, the obsession to drink alcohol will be removed.
Groups are starting to make the transition, but the pace is too slow for some. The debate still kicks up in meetings occasionally. It’s too easy to turn off the camera on Zoom and not pay attention while sitting on your couch, he said. And to be lazy with an AA program is a death sentence for a real alcoholic.
Still other meetings use a dial-in conference call number. Group meetings are conducted by A.A. Members who determine the format zoom meetings protecting anonymity of their meetings. If prompted to Register before entering the room, type the Username you want to use and a Password.
How Zoom Helped Alcoholics Anonymous Members Stay Sober During A Pandemic
Educated us to the true nature of the illness. The chair usually opens the meeting with the A.A. Some call for a moment of silence and/or recite the Serenity Prayer.
Protocol Here We do Not hold zoom meetings. Our meetings are held in Text Only Format (No Audio/Video). Per Tradition 12, Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions. One national study on the alcohol poisoning topic from the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine documented that 60% of its field reported increased drinking, and 35% reported increased binge drinking during the pandemic.
Become a member today and support our work all year-round with a $10 monthly gift. Because there’s so much more work to be done. If our journalism is free to access for everyone, you might ask, how do we produce the Civil Beat journalism you’ve come to know and trust? The most sustainable way we operate is through individual donations. AA classifies alcoholism as a disease that involves mental obsession over alcohol as well as a physical allergy that triggers a “phenomenon of craving” that kicks in viciously once one sip is ingested. Now, as the pandemic eases and restrictions are being lifted, in-person meetings are returning as the norm.
Bill, who has helped scores of men get sober, also relied on Zoom at the onset and switched to renegade meetings as they became available. He praised the platform for doing its job in a pinch but recommends against an alcoholic relying on it. Nielsen reported a 54% increase in national sales of alcohol right at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, compared with one year before; and online booze sales jumped 262% from 2019. Around that same time, the World Health Organization warned that alcohol use during the pandemic may potentially exacerbate health concerns and risk-taking behaviors. But, Sherry said, the online version of her meeting has had remarkable turnout. Attendance is consistently high, newcomers have joined and remained sober online, and visitors drop in from across the world and share in the experience.
Local entities like intergroups, central offices, and area and district offices may also provide meeting information. To find your closest local entity, please search via A.A. You can also request more information from your regional correspondent at GSO.
Referred to A.A. through Court Programs and Treatment Facilities
It’s one of the conditions AA and recovery programs teach people to fight. They must acquire a new fellowship and make friends with people who don’t abuse substances. HIR, as it’s known, is more of a volunteer in-house recovery destination; Bridge House clients are court-ordered in many instances. HIR also offers wraparound counseling and recovery services, including AA and NA meetings, for monthly or extended periods. The center began connecting its staff to clients individually out in the community after the clients moved off the campus, paying for cellphones if clients didn’t have them so they were accessible.
The chair will often ask if there are any people new to A.A. Attending the meeting who would like to introduce themselves. It isn’t mandatory to identify yourself but it might be helpful if you are attending your first meeting. Many meetings begin with a reading from the Big Book — frequently a portion of Chapter 5 (“How It Works”) or Chapter 3 (“More About Alcoholism”). As a valuable privacy principle for new and longtime members might be read. Many meetings close with members joining in a moment of silence followed by a prayer, or perhaps by reciting the Responsibility Statement or other A.A.
Zoom and online platforms played a big part in making some of those connections. The Bridge House teaches recovery on-site for six-month intervals, and a big part of its wrap-around programing is having clients attend AA and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Then some members, drug overdose death rates national institute on drug abuse nida like Chris, fearing they could slip, started attending a network of renegade meetings. They didn’t believe Zoom meetings provided the same fellowship, energy and miraculous messaging of in-person gatherings. Proof of attendance at meetings is not part of A.A.’s procedure.