Starting a Meeting?

[TheSunAlsoRises]

Hey all,

Not sure if this is the right sub-forum but its AA related so i'll give it a shot. I live in a city with no young peoples meeting. Singapore. There are lots of younger people here that could use the program for sure. Including myself. I hit a meeting everday and everything... work with a sponsor etc. Anyhow i've been thinking for a couple weeks that we should start a young people's group. Today I called one of my friends and he said he would be more than willing to help me out. I called our intergroup Rep (who was a temp sponsor for a month when my reg. one was back in the US) he said a young peoples meeting would be a great idea. Anyway anyone have any experience? Possibly strength and hope to offer haha

[CarolD]

What a great idea...good for you!

I've never started a meeting....but I do have this link

Starting* a Meeting* - resources for alcoholics anonymous, narcotics anonymous and others practicing the 12 steps of recovery

Best of luck ..

[tricky164]

good for you !! AA needs people like you, you are the life blood of this program and what a fantastic bit of service. peace and fellowship to you. god bless

[Music]

Anyone can start a meeting. I'd start by announcing the beginning of the meeting and the date. Make sure it's known that the first meeting will start as a business meeting to establish a format. How to open, what to read, announcements etc. Setup time and coffee should be decided, election of people to fill jobs such as GSR, Treasurer, Secretary etc. I know meetings aren't "organized" but there is a group organization that's important so the group isn't running blind. I for one, don't like putting my money in a basket if I think it's going for a purpose not AA oriented, so make the purpose for the collection clear. Just get started and stick with it 'cause you may not get the response right away. Keep the expectations reasonable. Good luck.

[dgillz]

Print up flyers and have them posted at all the meeting rooms. This is how new meetings get started here. Every new meeting can be more attractive to some because of timing, location, etc. In your case that attraction will likely be that it is a young person's meeting.

Along those lines, don't be afraid to pass out flyers where young people are more likely to be - coffee houses, university, gym or athletic field, etc.

Please post back with updates, I hope you get it going. It is truly a blessing when a young person gets sober and don't have to wait until their 40s or later like some of us.

[AlwaysGrowing]

Go for it. I spent some time in a young peoples meeting early on and enjoyed others my age since we related more.

[TheSunAlsoRises]

Thanks so much for everyone's input. I have a question... if we meet somewhere like a coffee house (some of the meetings do that here) and there is no overhead is it possible to not worry about the 7th tradition? at leas early on? Always growing good to hear you have some experience and enjoyed young peoples meetings. Dgillz... yeah that sounds like and interesting idea, could probably generate a lot of interest... Thanks everyone i'll keep y'all updated...

[dgillz]

Even if there is no rent (I am sure the coffee house would love to have your coffee business!) there are still expenses. You will need to purchase literature, chips (if they do that there) big books for sale to newcomers, etc.

So I would definitely still have the basket passed. Elect a treasurer and open a bank account, and set it up so that it would take at least 2 people to withdraw money from the account.

[lizw]

I've been told you only need 2 things to start another good AA meeting.
1. A coffee pot.
2. A resentment.



It's a joke, obviously but if I were you, I'd try and get as many people involved as possible - young or not as we were all young once and most alkies are young at heart.

I've been involved in starting a couple of meetings and someone has to committ to turning up every week once it gets started which sounds fine in theroy but in my expereince, is hard to do. Especially when the only people who turn up are the ones you don't like. (As much as you can in AA)

There is also the issue of being a group or a meeting. I think being a meeting means it is all more flexiable as while you are part of AA, you don't feed into the service structure so don't need GSR's etc....

We started a Young Peoples Convention here in New Zealand a few years ago, maybe 5 or 6. It was tons of fun.

[Wolfchild]