Hi, meggy. From what I've seen, the "beginner's meeting" is usually a small meeting of newbies that is run by a couple of experienced Alanon folks. Rather than having the format of a regular meeting, it allows for more explanation and question asking about Alanon and how it works. I don't know that it's
necessary to attend the beginner's meeting unless you so choose; there's no rule stating you must attend X number of beginner's meetings before you're allowed into regular meetings.
My first meeting was a "beginner's meeting", followed immediately by the regular meeting at that same place. I attended 1 more beginner's meeting, then just started going to regular ones as I didn't feel the beginner's meetings were nearly as helpful to me as the main meetings. YMMV.
I'm not familiar w/the phrase "open door" meeting. We do have "open" meetings by us of both Alanon and AA. Here's the difference: A regular meeting is only open to those who "qualify" (not that anyone asks you)--to attend a regular AA meeting, you should be an A; to attend Alanon you should be family or friend of an A. An open meeting is one where anyone at all is welcome, and there will be a couple of speakers from AA/Alanon rather than the usual meeting format of sharing, etc.
So I can't say if your "open door" meeting is the same as an "open" meeting or not. Maybe someone else knows the phrase and can shed some light.
You've probably seen this before, but in case not:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...ings-like.html
There is also a lot of info on the Alanon site itself about what meetings are like and how Alanon works.
http://www.al-anon.alateen.org/
I'm glad to hear you're thinking of going. I hope you do decide to check it out. I don't think you can really go wrong if you do--either way you'll certainly meet more people who understand and you'll learn more about those particular meetings and also about other meetings in the area. You have nothing to lose by going except an hour or two of your time, and everything to gain.