We
quote:
“Fellas,
The term
“convenience” meeting is not common vernacular even in our
besieged area. However, if you used it in a casual conversation with
anyone familiar with the situation they would quickly understand what
you were referring to and do so without much explanation on your
part. You see we used to have about 200 meetings in our area in the
1980’s. They were primarily at 8:00 some noon time ones and early
morning ones. Once the flood started we immediately saw the evening
groups split into “early” meetings (5:30 or 6:00 usually) and the
8 PM meetings. The number of noon time meetings increased and weekend
meetings did the same. We now have 361 registered meetings. Many of
the meetings also split into two groups after the opening readings.
All of this leads to very watered down AA. some meetings get so weak
that they have little member participation. They have the readings,
then a few people share and then you sign the slips and go home. The
whole meeting with 20 people in attendance lasts 40 minutes! That
includes 15 minutes of readings, announcements and other opening
items. Hence my (and some of my associates) term
“convenience”..........
I have
visited many of the anti AA websites. Orange Papers, Stop the 13th
step, stinkin’ thinkin’ and morerevealed seem to be the ones that
come to mind. They are a great source for how “AA as a whole” is
being damaged by the affiliation (I refuse to say cooperation) with
the courts. As to the links you were kind enough to share with me,
they also prove my point.
The
issue of predator behavior is a very sad one indeed. It used to be a
correctible problem because everyone in the meeting had a alcohol
problem that they had a desire to do something about. If a man (or a
woman) was preying on a newer member you could just point out to them
that what they were doing was wrong, would likely lead to one of you
drinking and was harmful to AA as a whole. The offender would not
want to damage his or anyone else’s chance at sobriety and would
usually adjust his behavior based on self interest. Now these creeps
don’t care about the younger member, they don’t care about their
own sobriety and they sure don’t care about AA.”
We
would be interested to hear from other AA members with regard to
their own experience and/or observations of the CMA ('chit') system
(good or bad). We can be contacted at our email address here.
Confidentiality assured
Cheers
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
PS
Our thanks to this member (US) for their contribution to the debate
