Types of AA Meetings
I realized that it would be helpful to start a discussion on what is bothering this alcoholic currently. In my immediate area, there were 4 Discussion Meetings a week and 4 Speaker Meetings. The 4 Speaker Meetings have regular attendance and participation but one of the Discussion meetings, a Big Book Meeting, folded before Christmas because they could not afford to pay rent due to lack of attendance. The other 3 Discussion Meetings, a 12 and 12 Study, a Women’s Discussion, and a General Discussion are all just hanging on by a thread with very limited attendance (2-3 people, many times one). My questions to the GROW membership are what types of meetings do you attend and do you have a preference for a certain type of meeting?
All AA Meetings are great, and I have never left a meeting without learning something. My preference is for Discussion Meetings where everyone gets a chance to talk and hear more than one other person share. One of these Discussion Meetings (the 12 and 12 Study) had the reputation that it was for the educated AA members – which was just an excuse used to not attend by many. That meeting has the same cross section of long-time recovering alcoholics, newcomers, and all stages in between as well as alcoholics with degrees and alcoholics who can’t read but are just as smart as those with formal educations. Three of these meetings are all held at the same place and are part of the same Group that has a Speaker Meeting. This Group started 66 years ago with the Speaker Meeting, then about 30 years ago the General Discussion Meeting started, then 25 years ago the 12 and 12 Study Meeting came into being and I started the Ladies Meeting 10 years ago.
I was wondering what type of meetings you ladies of GROW have where you live and is attendance staying the same or falling off?