One Corona Too Many Meeting Format

(Secretary: This wording is suggested, but please feel free to adjust on the fly as long as you don’t change the meaning— you are a trusted servant)

Secretary: please designate at least one co-host to assist with moderating the meeting.

Hi everyone and welcome to the _______(Group Theme / Nickname)________ meeting of the One Corona Too Many Group of Alcoholics Anonymous. My name is __________, I am an alcoholic.

Let’s open the meeting with a moment of silence, followed by the serenity prayer.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

If you are concerned about anonymity, please feel free to turn off your video and/or rename yourself to a pseudonym of your choice, preferably a funny one.

If Meeting > 6 people: Please mute yourself unless you need to speak. To make this meeting feel more lively, we suggest unmuting to thank people who share, read, and celebrate.

I may mute you if background noise is spilling through your microphone — please don’t take this personally.

This is the AA Preamble:

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of individuals 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 A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. A.A. 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.

The One Corona Too Many group is a virtual AA meeting started in the South SF Bay Area in response to the Corona Virus fiasco. We’re glad you’re all here!

(Ask someone to read How it Works on Page 58 of Big Book)

(Ask someone to read 12 Traditions on Page 562 of Big Book)

(Secretary: you may want a piece of paper to write this down)

Are there any newcomers with us tonight?

Is this anyone’s first time joining us?

Are there any AA birthdays or sobriety milestones we can celebrate?

Are there any AA announcements?

  • 7th Tradition Contributions can be sent to our new treasurer Yennefer (Jennifer B) on Venmo at @yenneferOCTM — contributions will pay our tech and group expenses, including subsidizing literature. The balance will be distributed 100% to GSO.
  • Big Books and 12/12’s are available online for free at AA.org. We’ve pasted a link in the chat. If you’d like a printed copy, we sell Big Books at $14 each, which includes shipping within the United States. If this cost is prohibitive, we don’t want it to be a barrier so we have a sliding scale, including giving a book FOR FREE if you need it. Please talk to our literature person Mikie if you’re interested in getting a printed book
  • If you’re in need of a sponsor, or are willing to sponsor, please stick around after the meeting or email us at onecoronatoomany@gmail.com.
  • If you’d like to secretary your own virtual meeting as part of our group, stay on after the meeting ends or email us.
  • If you just want to get into service, let us know! We’ll find you something to do 🙂
    • If you have a coffee person: And with that, we’ll go to our coffee person. How’s the coffee ________ (name of coffee person)?
  • Please keep shares to ~(3/4/5 — pick whatever seems best given meeting size) minutes so lots of us can share. (Optional: ask someone if they want to be timer)
  • We’re not a glum lot, and we do allow cross-talk at this meeting. But remember: with great power, comes great responsibility!

Optional: (You don’t have to do a joke)
Anyway, they say it’s best to open with a joke, so here goes:
(Read a recovery joke. Feel free to ask someone else to read)

If Speaker Discussion:

(Introduce Speaker). They’ll speak for about 15 – 20 minutes then we’ll open it up for sharing on whatever is on your heart today.

(After speaker): Do you have a topic, for anyone who wants one?

If Black Hole Media Discussion:

This meeting format is a little different! We encourage speakers to come and share with us anything that speaks to their recovery or spirituality! In fact, we encourage speakers to bring something new and fun, so we’ve had music videos, poems, spiritual books, and more shared. This means that whatever is shared might not speak to you — if that’s the case, don’t worry, it’s not official AA doctrine, just the speaker’s experience. Come back next week 🙂 And with that, I’d like to introduce our speaker who will share for 15-20 minutes.
(Ask Speaker if they need to share screen, and if so make them a cohost)

For all Meetings:

If > 6 people: double dipping is allowed after everyone has finished sharing.
If <= 6 people: since this is a small meeting, double dipping and cross talk are allowed. Remember! With great power comes great responsibility!

(Feel free to make it a tag meeting, topic-tag, or a call on people meeting, or a point in some direction from your camera to call on people meeting, or a shout out if you want to share meeting — it’s all good).

If everyone has shared and nobody is moving: Would anyone like to check in on how you’re doing today?
(If nobody jumps in) We can motion to end the formal meeting early if everyone wants to. Is there a second?

10 Minutes Before the End: We reserve the last 10 minutes for newcomers or people who haven’t shared. Is there anyone with us that has a burning desire to share who hasn’t shared yet?

(Approximately 3 minutes before the hour)
That’s all the time we have folks. That’s to everyone for a great meeting! Welcome newcomers, visitors, and birthdays. Thank readers and helpers.

Remember: what you see here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here.

(OPTIONAL FINAL READING: Ask someone to read:
A Vision for You: Page 164 of Big Book OR
Step 9 Promises: Page 83 of Big Book OR
Step 10 Promises: Page 84 of Big Book OR
“We Are Sure God Wants Us to be Happy Joyous and Free”: First Paragraph page 133 of Big Book OR
Reading of your choice)

I’ve asked _______________ to lead us out with a prayer of their choice.

Thank you for a great meeting! Feel free to hang out afterwards on the call.

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