For example, there are at
least a couple of AA meetings in Florida that use Solutions in their
title. The founders and others identify themselves as recovered and
encourage others to do so when they feel comfortable doing so. The
emphasis is on the solutions to living and sobriety as outlined in the Big
Book. The meetings are listed in the local AA directory, and members
tell me they go trolling now and again to other meetings.
Apparently, their
trolling consists of identifying themselves as recovered and talking about
solutions. They don't fly in the face of the meeting, or tell them they
are doing things wrong - they simply share their own experience from a
recovered and solution point of view.
Usually, I'm told, at
least one or two people ask them about what they said after the meetings
and many of those eventually show up at the solutions meetings.
It's
not that difficult to start an AA or other 12 Step meeting! Most of the
meetings we have today were started by one or two individuals who felt the
need and were willing to give it a try.
It
takes making a commitment to a particular meeting time, a place to hold
the meeting, announcing it around and a willingness for the founders to
sit, waiting for people to show up for at least 3 months. A pot of coffee
helps. A copy of the Big Book is a good idea too.
The
format of the meeting is best if it's written out and put where people can
use it. Issues like how long the meeting is should be decided as well as
what type - open or closed, a discussion, speaker or Step meeting, etc.
Preliminary reading material needs to be picked out, and it might be a
good idea to include part of the opening paragraph of the Foreword to the
First Edition as well as the usual Portion of Chapter 5.
The
part of the Foreword you might want to include reads:
"We,
of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who
have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show
other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main
purpose of..."
After
the meeting is solid and there's a reasonable expectation it will
continue, ask your central office or Intergroup to list it in the meeting
lists.
If
you start such a meeting, let me know... I'll get it listed here as well.
Love, peace and
abundance,
