choublak

Questions:

1. Do you have to have been an active member for a certain amount of time?

2. Do you have to contact the headquarters and let them know?

3. Finding a place to hold meetings - how do you go about selecting one? Where do you get the money to rent out a space, if necessary?

Thank you in advance.

DesertEyes

Here you go:

http://www.al-anon.org/members/pdf/guidelines/G27.pdf

http://www.al-anon.org/members/pdf/guidelines/G12.pdf

http://www.al-anon.org/members/pdf/guidelines/G13.pdf

Mike

LexieCat

Anybody can start a group. The joke about starting an AA meeting is that all it takes is two alcoholics, a coffee pot, and a resentment.

You don't have to advise intergroup until you get the meeting going and want to be listed in the meeting list. Contacting intergroup or World Services, though, might help you get going--I seem to recall they can send you a packet of things to get started.

There are a couple of ways you could go about getting a meeting space. One would be to hold meetings in someone's home temporarily while you get started until you collect enough from the Seventh Tradition to rent space at a church or other facility. You can call around to the local churches or hospitals to see if they can accommodate your group, and to negotiate rent.

The Third Tradition states: 'The relatives of alcoholics, when gathered together for mutual aid, may call themselves an Al-Anon Family Group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation. The only requirement for membership is that there be a problem of alcoholism in a relative or friend." So there is no "time" requirement, though being involved in Al-Anon for a while would obviously be a plus.

choublak

How can you really "prove" this though?

I mean, I've heard of cases where men go to Al-Anon meetings to try and pick up women, etc.

LexieCat

Prove what? That the group has no other affiliation?

Or that there be a problem of alcoholism in a family or friend?

Either way, it's pretty much the honor system. There's no AA or Al-Anon police to decide who is or isn't a member, though I guess the group could eject someone who is clearly there for predatory reasons only, or where there is an actual threat posed to others. That would be a matter of group conscience.

choublak

This.

And, hypothetically if it's just me starting it, finding members would be a safety concern for me. Could I make it a women's only group?

honeypig

choublak, don't know if you missed this, but I posted this reply to your thread about starting a new meeting in the Newcomer's forum also.

http://www.al-anon.alateen.org/membe...elines/G12.pdf

This pretty much answers every question you've asked so far--might be helpful to read it. I suspect your local office can answer anything not covered in this document.

Good luck w/starting your new meeting.

LexieCat

I think the way it works with AA is that "men only" and "women only" meetings are OK, but that groups should not EXCLUDE anyone. IOW, if a guy showed up at a women's meeting, or a woman showed up at a guy's meeting, you shouldn't kick them out of the meeting. I've never heard of a group where this became a problem. Meeting lists usually list meetings as a "men's meeting" or "women's meeting" and I've never heard of anyone deliberately crashing a meeting for the opposite sex.

honeypig

My A blundered into a meeting that happened to be a women's meeting, not knowing it was a women's meeting. As you say, they made him welcome, and he said it was a good meeting. I don't think he has gone back to that one since, though, since it would be kind of rude to do so knowing they are a women's meeting and since he has plenty of other options.

DesertEyes

I've been to meetings held at the Police department. Doesn't get any safer than that

Around here people don't just start a meeting. They have a once-a-month potluck at their home with a "book study" afterwards. These are private, and by invitation only, _not_ listed in the directory, and a basket is _not_ passed around. After a year, if the book study grows and people show up regular, _then_ they move it to a public facility and change it to a regular meet.

Mike