AA-Australia Online meeting format
Our group is a fully registered group with AAWS
We conduct well structured voice/audio meetings 8 pm daily EST Australia and have regular Group Conscience meetings to help us adhere with the traditions and at the same time, to enhance our group unity.
For our meetings, a chairman is elected and the procedure is as follows.
The Chairperson brings the meeting to order and introduces him/herself and welcomes all to the meeting.
Singleness of Purpose (below) is read out.
This is a closed meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. in support of AA singleness of purpose, attendance at closed meetings is limited to persons who have a desire to stop drinking. If you think you have a problem with alcohol, you are welcome to attend this meeting. We ask that when discussing our problems, we confine ourselves to those problems as they relate to alcoholism.
Chair person then calls for two members to read, one for the 'Preamble' and one to read 'How it Works'.
Next he asks for a moment's silence for the alcoholic still out there struggling to come to terms with their disease.
A gentle reminder is folloed by saying, "Whom you see here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here!"
Chair person asks group members to please refrain from messaging in text while the meeting is in progress as it tends to distract the speakers.
From then on the meeting proper begins with the chairman either selecting speakers of his/her preference or members click on the hand up top if they have a desire to share.
During the meeting if it is a designated topic re. "As Bill Sees It" or "Daily Reflections" the corresponding numbered excerpts are read and re read during intervals between speakers.
Towards the end of the meeting the 7th tradition is called for by mentioning that members if they so desire could add a little extra to their basket group f2f meeting or whenever they drop in to their area CSO maybe pass on a 7th tradition donation in the name of the online group of which, they consider themselves a member of.
At the conclusion of the meeting a member is called to do a reading e.g. "The Promises" or "A Vision for you"
Another member is asked to lead us out with "Serenity Prayer" or a prayer of his/her choice and the meeting is called to a close.
Open chat follows and the secretary winds up proceedings relaying any group announcements available.
All group updated information can be found on the AA-Australia web site www.aaustralia.co.nr with all meetings list daily at 8pm eastern standard Australian time.
The following text may be read for any appropriate times or situations during the meeting etc.
1. Welcome to AA-Australia Unity Recovery Group. Feel free to join us 8pm EST each day for an ID or optional topic meeting. We ask please NOT TO CROSS TALK IN TEXT while the meeting is in progress. Disruptive behavior wont be tolerated! www.aaustralia.co.nr (@msn)
2. Hi Folks, if you are bothered or continually hassled by people causing personal grief etc by voice or posting irritating text into the room please right click their name and hit ignore!!!
3. For As Bill Sees topics set link to topic is from here: http://www.aamaine.org/Bill/bill228.htm to find the actual page date link, just add new number instead of the 228 showing. Then copy and paste it into room. For numbers lower than 10 make sure you add a zero first, e.g. 08
4. Text (below) in the room if needed by the chair for determining whether visitor to room is a member of AA or just a curious onlooker.
Hi there, are you a friend of Bill W’s or an alcoholic? If you are you are, you’re in the right place. If drinking is a problem it’s our business, if its not it’s yours, but you are most welcome to stop and listen but unfortunately, not permitted to share.
5. * * Just a reminder * * * It is group policy that no red, pink or florescent colors are allowed * * * Just a reminder * * * God Bless (@msn)*
Prayers
Irish Prayer
May there always be work for your hands to do
May your purse always hold a coin or two
May the sun always shine upon your window pane
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain
May the hand of a friend always be near to you and
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
Serenity Prayer
God grant me
Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, and the
Wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship
as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.
Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me a channel of thy peace
that where there is hatred,
I may bring love
that where there is wrong,
I may bring the spirit of forgiveness
that where there is discord,
I may bring harmony
that where there is error,
I may bring truth
that where there is doubt,
I may bring faith
that where there is despair,
I may bring hope
that where there are shadows,
I may bring light
that where there is sadness,
I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to
comfort than to be comforted
to understand, than to be understood
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one
awakens to Eternal Life.
Amen.
Some kindly chosen and needy words for certain times
Few people have been more victimized by resentments than have we alcoholics. A burst of temper could spoil a day, and a well-nursed grudge could make us miserably ineffective. Nor were we ever skillful in separating justified from unjustified anger. As we saw it, our wrath was always justified. Anger, that occasional luxury of more balanced people, could keep us on an emotional jag indefinitely. These "dry benders" often led straight to the bottle.
Nothing pays off like restraint of tongue and pen. We must avoid quick-tempered criticism, furious power-driven argument, sulking, and silent scorn. These are emotional booby traps baited with pride and vengefulness. When we are tempted by the bait, we should train ourselves to step back and think. We can neither think nor act to good purpose until the habit of self-restraint has become automatic.
