my open meeting are not as in dept of our promlems and more general,to help other understand what we are doing at meetings. and the format is the same. lets loved one know what a meeting is like and why we r there.
I remember that when I became chair of a Monday meeting I had to read the introduction and say that it was an 'open discussion' meeting. It happened that the next week there was an argument about the topic I had chosen for the 'chair's choice' meeting. Someone said that 'open discussion' meant that we could talk about whatever came to mind at the moment. I had to explain that 'open' meant anyone could attend, and that 'discussion' meant share on a topic as contrasted to a Step meeting, or a beginners' meeting.
Most of the meetings around here are open meetings. The exception was a meeting wherein there were members who didn't want people to know that they were alcoholic and didn't want to share anything with outsiders,,, so they requested a 'closed' meeting to make it less likely that they would encounter anyone who was not alcholic and feel embarrassed. Someone said also that there are a lot of students here in this college town, and that some students might be studying alcoholism and so attend a 12 Step meeting,, and he didn't want to be studied.
Though some people rather get ego strokes out of being public about their recovery, or leadership in the program,, others really want confidentiality and secrecy about their alcoholism.
amanda
-- Edited by amanda2u2 at 21:31, 2005-12-17
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do your best and God does the rest, a step at a time
