NoBugaboos

Hello everyone, I am new to the forum. I am no stranger to NA. I have been coming around the rooms for over 8 years but this is my longest period of clean time. At 7 months clean it is my best attempt to date.

The reason for my post is that in my area we are having a meeting slump. Attendance is down and there is more silence than sharing in our meetings.
I am trying very hard to be part of the solution instead of the problem. I
share and give as much as I can but I just don't really know what else to
do. There is a treatment center that comes to many of our meetings and I
just wish that the meetings could be the way they were when I came in to
the rooms. There was so much experience, strength and hope being offered.
I don't want newcomers to think that NA is just this way(silence and everyone looking solemn). There is a lot of clean time in my area it just seems no one has much to say. Any suggestions or words of hope would be greatly appreciated.

REZ

Maybe you could try mixing up the meeting format. This might get people more stimulated. Do you have any literature study meetings? One neat meeting format we sometimes use is to have everyone draw a topic/phrase out of a hat to talk about. You could also try candlelight meetings. Stay the course! Good luck.

NoBugaboos

Thanks REZ. We don't have any literature study meetings in my area(we used to awhile back) that's an idea. One of my home group's meetings(we have 2 a week) is a candlelight meeting. I am curious does this happen sometimes in most areas? The meetings just sort of get stale for awhile?

REZ

Yes, maybe. I think new blood helps. It also helps you to go to different meetings, get a different perspective. Stale or not, we need meetings. I used to live in a town where we had only one meeting (the nearest other town was 50 miles away). About 5-10 people attended on a regular basis. After a while, faces, stories, attitudes, etc. got very familiar and maybe a little stale. But we kept the meeting going because we knew that we needed it.

daydream

Hi NoBugaboos,
I'd suggest discussing this with other members outside the meetings and then bring it up at the next group conscience as a problem. Perhaps suggest the group take a mini inventory on it to identify potential causes, then come up with solutions to try. Best wishes.

Time2Surrender

Welcome to SoberRecovery NoBugaboos. I also have 7 months. We used to have a candlelight meeting in my area too. I had forgoten about that. You just gave me a great idea. I think I will start another. Are there other meetings nearby that have good attendance? Perhaps you could go to a few of those and when they do NA anouncements, mention the groups that could use some support. I take it you probably live in a small or rural area. We recently started a new meeting on Friday nights, and the 1rst and 2nd Friday's of each month are speaker meetings. Its been going really well. We used to have 3 meetings a week. We have grown a lot around here. I live in a community of approx. 100,000. We now have a meeting every single night of the week and also a few during the day and average 20 to 50 people per meeting. And it looks like I am now going to be on a mission to start a candle light meeting. Thanks for the idea.

Peter

Thats an NA meeting for ya.

Sometimes you can't get people to stop talking, next day you can hear a pin drop.

These are just my thoughts and personal experiences on those "quiet" moments in meetings.

There was a time when silence in meetings felt awkward and made me a little uncomfortable. I often felt inclined to say something just to fillin the gap.

I no longer do that because I have come to believe that silence in a meeting can be a good thing. Silence often allows the addict to do a bit of introspection and I believe that there is always someone sitting in that room who has something that he needs to say and that moment of silence may be just what he needs to get him to open up.

However I do agree that when newcomers are present it might not be such a good idea for everyone to sit there mute.

I suggest you could always read a story from the basic text and hope it might encourage someone to share, If not just continue reading.

You could also carry a tape recorder to meeting with some NA approved tapes and play them back if nobody wants to share.

I also agree with changing your format to incorporate different types of meetings.

Step, Topic, Basic Text, Beginners, Spiritual, Tradition. and Open meetings are all different meeting formats you could try.

NoBugaboos

Thank you everyone for your resposes. You all have given me some very good ideas. I am planning on running them by my fellow home group members at our next group conscience.

I am from a sort of rural area but somewhat urban for WV. There are about 60,000 people in this town. NA is rather small right now. It didn't used to be this way but so many have fell out(through relapse or complacency or whatever else). Right now my group has two meetings a week. One is open one closed, one is candle light and the last monday of the month is a speaker meeting. We do try to mix things up a bit. It's just there seems to be a blanket of apathy over the majority of the group right now. I have heard before that apathy and inconsistency are are worst enemies when it comes to spreading the message to the addict who still suffers. It is just so frustrating because now that I am actually sticking around, I really want to be involved and carry that message.

I was reading "The Group" booklet and thought maybe a Question and Answer meeting would be an idea for the night that the treatment center attends our group. A lot of times newcomers ask questions during meetings and they get shut down because of the cross talk issue and such. It's natural to have questions and maybe having one meeting per month just for questions would be helpful.

Thanks again everyone. You have definetely helped.