6PM Beginners Meeting

Finish your day with a grateful, meditative fellowship of like-minded souls.

Beginners Meeting

Good Evening and Welcome to the open Virtual Beginners’ Meeting of the 562 Group. We meet here each Friday at 6 PM. My name is ______________ and I’m an alcoholic. I am your chairperson for the month. We ask that, when we open the meeting for sharing, each member limit his or her share to 3 - 4 minutes in order to give others an opportunity to share.

Introductions:

  • Is anyone attending their very first AA meeting? If so, may we have your first name so that we may welcome you.

  • Is anyone attending this meeting for the first time?

  • We also would like to become acquainted with Newcomers at this meeting. May we see the hands of new friends with less than 90 days of sobriety?

  • We suggest that Newcomers get a Temporary Sponsor – Men with Men and Women with Women. If you have more than 1 year of continuous sobriety and are willing to be a Temporary Sponsor, please raise your hand for a moment. To request an electronic copy of the temporary sponsor list or add your name and number to the list, please visit our website at 562group.org

  • Are the any announcements for the good of AA?

  • Are there any AA Anniversaries?

  • Is anyone counting days that they would like recognized?

The 7th Tradition:

In keeping with our 7th Tradition, AA has no dues or fees and must remain self-supporting.

Expenses include, but are not limited to, rent and sanitation for our meeting space, online fees and

the support of AA's primary purpose to carry the message to the next alcoholic. Please contribute to

the basket or you can contribute via Venmo to @Group-Treasurer or scan the QR code

Read the AA Preamble:

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership. We are self-supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

  • Ask for a moment of silence for the still suffering alcoholics, both inside and outside the rooms, followed by the Serenity Prayer.

  • Ask someone to read How it Works (Chapter 5 from the Big Book).

How It Works

Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest. Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it—then you are ready to take certain steps.

At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.

Remember that we deal with alcohol—cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power—that One is God. May you find Him now! Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon. Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:

1.    We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

2.    Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3.    Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4.    Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5.    Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6.    Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7.    Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8.    Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

9.    Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.’’ Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:

(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.

(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.

(c) That God could and would if He were sought.

Reprinted from the book Alcoholics Anonymous ® Copyright © 1939, 1955, 1976, 2001 by A.A. World Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

This is a Beginners’ Meeting, so we would like to offer some tips for staying sober:

  • Stay away from the first drink: “It's the first drink that gets you drunk.”

  • Stay away from people, places and things that could lead to a drink.

  • “Change old routines” like taking a different route home to avoid old watering holes.

  • HALT reminder: try to not get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired

  • Keep gum or candy handy to ward off craving.

  • Remember alcoholism is a 3-fold disease: Physical, Emotional and Spiritual. Be sure to seek medical help when needed.

  • “Remember your last drunk.” If you don't remember it you may not have had it.

  • Meetings are medicine to the alcoholic like insulin to the diabetic. So, “Meeting makers make it.”

  • Don't get NUTS - Not Using The Steps - start working the steps to avoid anger & resentment.

  • “One day at a time” - any damn fool can sober for one day.

  • Avoid resentments. It is a luxury we alcoholics cannot afford.

  • Get and use a sponsor.

  • The best advice that the chairman can give is “Don’t drink and go to meetings.”

Chairperson share Note: Try to finish your share by 6:30 and to avoid sharing between others’ shares.

Opening the Meeting for Sharing:

  • This is a Beginners’ meeting, so we would like to give BEGINNERS, those with under 1 year of continuous sobriety, the opportunity to share first. Reminder: please keep your shares to 3 to 4 minutes to allow others the opportunity to share.

  • We will go by a show of hands or please feel free to un-mute yourself.

Closing the Meeting:

  • We believe the principal of Anonymity has an immense Spiritual significance – so remember, who you see hear, what you hear here, when you leave here let it stay here.

  • We have a nice way of closing with the “Lord’s Prayer”. Thank You for Your Service!!