Poor meeting attendance

[notkernels]

I live in a small community of about 20,000 people and while I know there a thousands of addicts in our town we can only help those that seek help and attend meetings. Our area has 3 meetings per week and usually only sees about 4-5 people. I have taken on responsiblity for the Saturday night meetings and for the last two weeks no one has shown up. While I consider it "service work" to show up every Sat. night even when no one shows up I would love to see our meetings get at least some support.
Anyone have any suggestions on how to attract fellow addicts in the community?

[Sugah]

One way we've beefed up attendance at meetings is to visit other areas and ask that out-of-town folks visit us to help keep us going. Asking at the area meeting might help as well.

My first home group while I was still in rehab was attended by between 60-100 people every week. It had been in the same place for ten years, and I learned that one lone gentleman showed up every night for a year and a half alone, just keeping the doors open. So, take heart. Healthy meetings don't just appear. Someone somewhere made the commitment and took it seriously.

Thank you for your service.

Peace & Love,
Sugah

[kj3880]

We've done flyers for poorly-attended meeting, and given them out at bigger meetings and at events. We've also asked for help at Area Service meetings with good results. Is the meeting listed in the schedule and online? You are indeed doing a great thing by keeping those doors open. Bring a text and use that hour to do step work or reading until more folks find you?

Love,
KJ

[Gmoney]

Even in large areas like Syracuse have meetings that need support. I'm not far from you (about 90 miles) and members from my area visit yours pretty regularly for speaker jams and your annual convention. The suggestion of attending your next ASC meeting and asking for support is a good one, IMO. If your group is on the meeting list, let me know the name of it and I'll spread the word. There's a number of members here that love to get on the road and check out different meetings.

Don't feel bad. You're not the only dedicated member that keeps the door open and the lights on. I did it for a long time and my home group is still small...but guess what? I like it just like that! Keep up the good work!

G

[notkernels]

Thanks everyone for their advice.
Yes we're on the literature and web site and our group name is "Lake Effect" which meets in Oswego NY. I will definetely bring it up at the area meeting but am wondering if maybe I should send meeting schedule to the local treatment center?
As for spending the hour reading my text, oh YES! Did that last Saturday night and it was nice.
Thanks everyone for their kind words and advice. I haven't been active on this forum for over a year but was pretty active when I first realized I needed help. Thank god for this forum and the people who post here. You all saved my life!!!!

[Gmoney]

I will definetely bring it up at the area meeting but am wondering if maybe I should send meeting schedule to the local treatment center?

I was just thinking that may be H&I's job. If you brought it up at the ASC and spoke directly with your H&I Chair, maybe the next time the treatment center is visited they could ensure meeting lists are available for the clients. Just a thought.

[Thx2HP]

I'm just curious...when you say "no one has shown up," do you mean besides you and other other trusted servants for the meeting? Or do you literally mean it's just you--alone--waiting to see if anyone shows up? If so, then the meeting has no Treasurer? no GSR? no coffeemaker?

In our area (East Bay Centeral in Northern California) we require that a meeting have all the trusted servant positions filled before we consider it a meeting and put it on the schedule. We believe when the 7th Tradition talks about a meeting being "fully self-supporting," that also means enough trusted servants to fill all the positions.

Now, if you do have all the positions filled and just no one else is showing up, then I would definitely suggest creating a flyer that lists the meeting name, day, time, format, address, etc., and bring copies to the other meetings in your area; bring flyer copies to the ASC meeting and announce it; and make sure H&I knows about it for treatment centers that take members to outside meetings.

Also curious...how are you paying the rent with no one attending? Even if you get people coming from treatment centers, they never contribute to the 7th tradition, so that won't help with the rent. Oh, and one suggestion....we've found that the flyers that have headings like "MEETING NEEDS SUPPORT" don't tend to attract many people. It's worked better to phrase it as a "NEW MEETING YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT!" And we've also found that 1-hour meetings (vs. 1-1/2 hours) tend to attract more people, as do speaker meetings. Once attendance picks up, you can later change the time to 1-1/2 hours to give more people a chance to share.

What time of day/night is the meeting? If it's too early (say 6:00 p.m.), maybe people don't have a chance to get home from work and out again. There's lots of things to consider. But I'd suggest starting with bringing your sponsees...your friends and their sponsees and friends. Have each trusted servant for the meeting bring even one person, and you should have 8 people!

[notkernels]

Holly cow thx2hp you certainly got lots of questions. Our meetings are every Monday, Thursday and Saturday night at 7:30pm at the Salvation Army. When I say alone I mean alone. Only me myself and I. Our normal meeting size is anywhere from 3-6 people. On Monday night we had 8 people which thrilled me.
Lastly I'll use your suggestions about wording of meeting and such.

Thanks

[Lily]

NotKernals....I hear ya...I used to chair a meeting and it was me, myself and I one night. I was reading my Basic Text when the lights shut off, they were motion censored....lol.

The most we ever had in the 6 months I chaired out was I think 8 ppl. The meeting sadly closed about 4 months ago after having been there for 20 yrs.

Our community has 35,000 people.

I hope your meeting picks up!

[Bren]

H&I can start hitting up the local jails and prisons too. Then maybe when some of them get out they may visit.

[2ala2]

My homegroup has a usual attendance of 30-40 people. For a couple of years it was, maybe, 5 people/meeting.

Last summer we had several meetings in a row with well over 50 people.

Joing the ASC helped put us on the 'map'. It took a while, but we're a solid group now.

In recovery i've learned, everything takes its time, not my time.

[Gmoney]

My home group is one of the oldest groups in my area. It's been around for over 20 years and I've been a member of that group for the past 8 years. I joined because it was a small group and it has remained an intimate, very spiritual and "no drama" type of meeting. Although, over the the past few years we've struggled regarding members being committed to their service positions, we've continued to keep the doors open and provided a safe haven for addicts seeking recovery.

Most weeks we only get 8 to 12 people showing up and maybe 4 of those are actual group members...and sure...we have to fill in here and there for the slackers, but that's okay too. I can't expect everyone to have the same level of dedication as I do or to serve the way I serve. It's not about me.

I recall being the only one to show up one cold winter evening. I made the coffee, set up the chairs, put out the literature, etc... and just when I was considering shutting it down...two addicts showed up during the last 30 minutes. They were grateful that there was someone there (and the coffee was hot!! - Lol!!).

G

[Thx2HP]

Originally Posted by notkernels

Holly cow thx2hp you certainly got lots of questions. Our meetings are every Monday, Thursday and Saturday night at 7:30pm at the Salvation Army. When I say alone I mean alone. Only me myself and I. Our normal meeting size is anywhere from 3-6 people. On Monday night we had 8 people which thrilled me.

Yeah on having 8 people the other night! However, I'm still curious as to how a meeting can start without a full group of trusted servants? If you are secretary, GSR, treasurer and coffeemaker because there aren't enough interested/involved people to fill those key positions, maybe there isn't a need for the meeting. It has been my experience that meetings start up "just cause" and not to fill a real need (like existing meetings are overflowing or there is a need for a step study among a bunch of speaker meetings). So why aren't there people to fill all the positions? And how do you pay rent to the facility with only you attending?

[Missybuns]

There are many places that only two addicts meet to share their recovery. Eventually it does grow with those who have the willingness. Our area is growing and we have I think about 15 groups. Many if not all start with just two who feel the need and have the enthusiasm. Some catch on and grow really well while others lose one of the original two who were so dedicated and they fold.

Not sure how a single individual can carry a "group conscience" to an ASC

Curious...who here considers 2 regular members a "group"? (or maybe that's for another thread)

I would think it would take 3 to start a group...no rules as far as I know, only guidelines.


Missy

[Missybuns]

oh and to suggest how to attract support....the speaker meeting idea and fliers supplied at the ASC is what we usually do.

[WA_NA_Survivor]

I chaired a meeting for ~ 18 months in this township which has mostly student population and attendance has always fluctuated regardless of what anyone does. Attendance especially thins out on long weekends, during major sport events and also over Xmas season. I recall opening up the venue and setting up coffee etc and spending some of those winter evenings waiting, reading, drinking coffee and listening to speaker CD's after driving there in the snow and ice.

The larger Metro areas have a definite advantage for sure but you can manage even with thin or no attendance. I'm accustomed to meetings in larger cities so it was a culture shock moving here - what I would say is that you should get to as many metro area conventions as possible and collect as many speaker CD's as you can. I found it was hugely rewarding to be there for the unexpected addict who shows up looking for a meeting - you can imagine how it would feel to drive to some meeting only to find there's no-one there. Been there, done that.

Remember, attraction, not promotion - there may be some people you can get involved in H&I & Prison meetings, 12th step work of that type is what many people experience as their first indication that NA exists.

Take Care

[Gmoney]

I found it was hugely rewarding to be there for the unexpected addict who shows up looking for a meeting - you can imagine how it would feel to drive to some meeting only to find there's no-one there. Been there, done that.

Ditto.

[notkernels]

What is the consensu on contacting local treatment centers and letting them know you'll stamp their forms to provide proof of attendance???
We had you monthly home group meeting and someone suggested we do this for drug court and treatment center clientele. One member said this would violate the 5th tradition but I've seen this occur at several meetings in syracuse. I'm looking for guidance from others on this board how they see this?

[Gmoney]

I don't know if contacting treatment centers is the right course of action for a home group...I mean, especially just to let them know that you'll sign attendance cards. You've been given a number a great suggestions on this thread so far, and IMO, you'd probably be best served by trying those and leaving H&I work to H&I. As a matter of fact, I don't even believe H&I makes it a point to tell treatment facilities that groups will sign attendance cards.

My question regarding that would be, who are you signing the cards for? The addicts or the treatment center? Contacting the center sounds a lot like affiliation to me. Some might even say it's endorsement (Trad. 6). I wouldn't do it.