The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
1. I signed up to chair a meeting in April. What exactly do I do? Is it just reading through the preamble and such, or do I need to prepare anything?
2. Where can I buy the ODAT, Courage to Change, or AA "Big Book" books? I see them on Amazon but I'd like to support local Al-Anon meetings through my purchase, if possible.
3. Does anyone go to open AA meetings? Do you need to identify yourself as an Al-Anon member? I've heard it's cool for anyone to go to the open AA meetings, but I want to make sure I am respectful of AA meetings.
Hello and welcome , you should be able to buy your books from your local meetings , if not ask your group rep if she can order them for you , some cities also have literature depots where you can purchase books .. we print a service manual that takes you thru a meeting format and will answer an questions you may have on what to do. you can also purchase these from your literature depot thier good to have anyway and thier not that expensive maybe 5.00 - and when i was new I used to go to open AA meetings occasionally they gave me hope ,that maybe one day my husb would choose sobriety , but after awhile I thought damn these are still about him and I was tired of thinking about him , hehe but i still enjoy a speaker meeting AA and attend conventions etc . So follow the directions in the service manual , pick a topic you would like and voila , you got a meeting .
Welcome to Alanon. To Chair a meeting there should be guidelines for running a meeting. The older members can help you. Our group sells books and has pamphlets to give out. I go to AA meetings because there is no Alanon in my town (although I offer to hold a separate Alanon meeting). You have to identify yourself as Alanon. My AA group is very open to me attending however some groups are not as welcoming. I learn alot from the A's but I know my place is with Alanon.
Hi Rachel. I can't help with chairing your meeting (though I wish you luck with it) but I do have input on attending open AA meetings. My Abf has always been in recovery while I've known him, and the world of alcoholism was (I thought) new to me when we were first together, so I went to quite a few open AA meetings. Doing so has taught me so much on how it is for him, what his journey has been like, and what it is he gets from the 'brotherhood' of AA. Along the way, over the last year-and-a-half, I began to feel left out, in a way: he had somewhere to go to when he was struggling, and I had no place. I also realized (or finally admitted to myself) that my father was probably an alcoholic, and my last husband certainly was, and that I am The Fixer. When Abf and I hit our first big issue in our relationship, I became sneaky, and suspicious and was making myself crazy with my behavior and obsession on how to control the uncontrollable; how to Fix It. That's when I found MIP. I haven't mustered up the courage for F2F meetings yet. (I know, big black mark for me lol) Anyway, my point is this: open AA meetings help me understand Abf a little better, but too many make me focus more on his recovery than my own. I'm still an early work in progress.
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~Rhivenn. __________________________________________________________________________________________ "You come to love, not by finding the perfect person...but by seeing an imperfect person, perfectly." ~Sam Keen.
Rachel, it is fine to go to any open AA meeting. You could say you are there to learn, as you are a member of Alanon. You could blend in and say nothing, but the odds of being able to blend in are much better in a big meeting. If it is a tiny meeting of regulars, at some point they will all look at you and be like "Okay...so what's your story?" There is less sharing in speaker meetings also...
When we chair at my group, there is a binder that takes us page through page on the format. We have preset topics lined up week to week in a master book. Some people prepare a quick reading on the topic and some don't. Whatever you feel works for you.
You can purchase books at most Al-anon meetings. If not you could look up your local office if there is one in your area. You could also have the rep of your group put in an order.
I used to go to AA meetings weekly and have done two AA step studies that had Al-anon participants. I no longer go. I found I started working an AA program and was going downhill fast. I needed my own program. When starting my program it was vital for me to try to understand the A in my life so I could learn compassion and be more patient and not so angry. Really I didn't need to understand him, but myself and work my own program. For me, going to AA meetings really needed to come after my own program, not before.
