Click any of the following links to read helpful information.

• 20 Questions: Are You an Alcoholic? 
• A.A. At a Glance 
• A.A. for Alcoholics with Mental Health Issues 
• A Brief Guide to A.A. 
• A Message To Teenagers 
• A Newcomer Asks 
• Do You Think You’re Different?
• For Beginners 
• Frequently Asked Questions 
• How It Works 
• Information on Alcoholics Anonymous 
• Is A.A. for Me? 
• Is A.A. for You? 
• LGBTQ Alcoholics in A.A. 
• Problems Other than Alcohol 
• Questions & Answers on Sponsorship  
• The God Word: Agnostic and Atheist Members in A.A. 
• This Is A.A. 
• Women in A.A. 
• Young People and A.A. 

** Please note: The Buzz will increase in frequency at the end of the month. We received feedback after the first few months of shelter-in-place that frequent communications and updates were appreciated and desired. Our hope is to, eventually, use this platform to provide more specific information about our Intergroup Service Committees and larger A.A. Service Entities for a more comprehensive local A.A. digital experience.**

Town Hall #3 is Rapidly Approaching!

Our third Town Hall meeting will be held Thursday, August 20th, 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Our first workshop-style format, this meeting will focus on keeping virtual meetings safe, using “breakout rooms” to create space for newcomers and fellowship in the digital world, and managing digital contributions. Discussion will include how all of these topics, together, can provide group members with novel (and exciting!) service commitments. Join us and share how your group has tackled some of these issues during our open sharing session. Please see this link for meeting info.

August Intergroup Meeting

The summary from our August Intergroup meeting is posted. Included are the IFAA financial reports through June 2020, as well as the meeting minutes.

The August issue of The Point is up! The Point Committee is always looking for content; we’d love to read your stories of experience, strength and hope. More information can be found here

The 45th Annual Western Roundup Living Sober Conference 2020 will be held Aug 21 – Aug 23. This conference is the oldest and longest-running LGBTQ AA/Al-Anon Conference in the country! Click flyer or here to learn more.

Call to Action: Step into Service

Looking for ways to stay involved and be of service to your A.A. community? Feeling deprived of your usual group service commitments? (We’re looking at you, sorely missed coffee and sweeties). Getting involved with our various Service Committees is a great way to stay connected and contribute outside of your usual meetings. 

Love historical stuff? Try our IFAA Archives Committee. Dying to pick up the phone and talk to another alcoholic? Check out SF Teleservice and Marin Teleservice (Orientation & Business Meeting). Some other groups who are holding meetings in the second half of this month are Marin General Service, Marin PI/CPC, and CNCA. Additional information for each of these… and MUCH more… can be found on our Events Calendar.

IFAA Bookstore is still in operation, and will be closed on Labor Day, Monday, Sept 7th, 2020. You may order literature, books and chips ONLINE at our website. We will ship (at a reduced rate) via UPS or make your order available for curbside pick up, Monday through Friday, from 10 AM to 4 PM. 

For the love of coffee and sweeties, please share this information with your social media communities and encourage your A.A. fellows to subscribe to The Buzz. All of our prior updates can be found here.

Your IFAA Intergroup | Central Office

On July 16th, Intergroup hosted its second Town Hall. The main topics discussed were liability regarding potential return to in-person meetings, and what “hybrid” meetings might look like. Links to the slides and minutes are here. Ideas for the next Town Hall include a “Trusted Servants Workshop” for online meeting management, focusing on co-hosting/security/spiritual bouncer role and/or using breakout rooms for fellowship and/or tools for supporting newcomers. Have suggestions for additional topics? We’d love to hear them. Send to: [email protected]. 

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings…

In-person meetings at Gratitude Center and Dry Dock have resumed (with restrictions). Please visit their websites for in-person meeting specifics. Additionally, Marin’s PI/CPC (Public Information / Cooperation with the Professional Community) have connected with the Marin Department of Health and Human Services regarding the potential for outdoor sites as meeting places. More to come on that. 

With this increasing complexity of meeting mediums, our aasfmarin.org website will soon be returning to our former meeting schedule format which has been updated to allow for remote (phone/online) and hybrid meetings. We hope to have it up and running within the next week. Stay tuned for further updates and a Call to Action! Why? In the transition, we may lose some meeting information and we need all hands on deck to help us validate that meeting info is accurate. Please keep an eye out for that communication which will include a link to a new and improved webform for members to use to Register as a Trusted Servant, List a New Meeting, or Update an Existing Meeting. All in the same place! Isn’t that exciting?

Rotation?

Historically, many groups hold elections in June. If you are a new Treasurer or Secretary, please help us out and register as a Trusted Servant as soon as the new form goes live! Along these lines, a gentle reminder to please send in contributions if your term just ended and your group has funds to distribute.

Upcoming Events

The 45th Annual Western Roundup Living Sober Conference 2020 will be held virtually the weekend of August 21 – August 23 and is FREE to register! This is THE oldest & longest running LGBTQ Alcoholics Anonymous conference with Al-Anon participation in the WORLD. See here for more info.

Service Committee Meetings/Orientations:

• Technology Committee (online) – August 3rd @ 6pm – email [email protected] for an invitation to join the virtual meeting. More info here.
• Intergroup Representative Orientation (online) – August 4th @ 6:30pm – Meeting link here.
• Intergroup Meeting (online) – August 5th @ 7pm – Meeting details here.
• The Point Committee Meeting (online) – August 8th @ 12:30pm – Meeting link here.
• Golden Gate Young People in A.A. (online) – August 9th @ 12pm – Meeting link here.
• SF Public Relations Committee (PI/CPC) (online) – August 10th @ 6:30pm – Meeting info here.
• Marin H&I Orientation (online) – August 11th @ 6:15pm – Meeting link here.
  • Business meeting @ 7:15pm – link here.
• SF New GSR Orientation (online) – August 11th @ 6:30pm – Meeting info here.

Business meeting @ 7:30pm – link here.

Our second Town Hall meeting is tomorrow night, Thursday, July 16, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. We will resume our discussion on considerations for resuming in-person meetings with information on liability and technology for Hybrid meetings. We will also share updates from Intergroup and continue with an open dialog about working together as a community. Updates include some sneak previews and we hope to see many of our SF and Marin members in attendance. We will add additional content here, where the information from the June Town Hall is located, for you to reference during and after the meeting and for all who cannot attend.

While the majority of meetings remain closed – or remote, the IFAA Bookstore is still in operation! You may order literature, books and chips ONLINE at our website. Central Office is closed to walk-in customers, however we will ship (at a reduced rate) via UPS or make your order available for curbside pick up, Monday through Friday, from 10 AM to 4 PM. Please help us get the word out that this service, nor any of our others, have been interrupted.

The summary from our July Intergroup meeting is posted. Included are the IFAA financial reports through May 2020. The July issue of The Point has also been posted and, once again, includes an audio recording. The Point Committee is always looking for content; we’d love to read your stories of experience, strength and hope. Featured articles will be on H&I at Friendship House plus other locally written stories. More information can be found here.

In addition, several service committees will hold their monthly meetings in the second half of this month. Among them are SF H&I, IFAA Archives, SF Teleservice, Marin General Service, Marin PI/CPC, CNCA and the Marin Teleservice (Orientation & Business Meeting). And an advance heads up: the August Intergroup meeting will be on Wednesday, August 5, so mark your calendars! Additional information for each of these … and more … can be found on our Events Calendar.

For the love of dogbirds, please share this information with your social media communities and encourage your A.A. fellows to subscribe to The Buzz. All of our prior updates can be found here.

All decisions will be re-evaluated as the situation changes; we are doing our best and appreciate your support and understanding.

Your IFAA Intergroup | Central Office

An excerpt from The A.A. Group… where it all begins pamphlet published by A.A. World Services:

The purpose of all A.A. group meetings, as the Preamble states, is for A.A. members to “share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.” Toward this end, A.A. groups have both open and closed meetings.

Closed meetings are for A.A. members only, or for those who have a drinking problem and “have a desire to stop drinking.”

Open meetings are available to anyone interested in Alcoholics Anonymous’ program of recovery from alcoholism. Nonalcoholics may attend open meetings as observers.

At both types of meetings, the A.A. chairperson may request that participants confine their discussion to matters pertaining to recovery from alcoholism.  Whether open or closed, A.A. group meetings are conducted by A.A. members who determine the format of their meetings.

The virtual Town Hall on June 18 was attended by almost 300 members. We gained valuable information from those who joined us and have received positive feedback that the information presented was useful and appreciated. Considerations for resuming face-to-face meetings were reviewed along with dialog about the concerns our groups are faced with today. All of the information from the meeting is posted here.

With the news of an increase in local COVID-19 cases, reopening will be delayed. The poll results from the Town Hall reflect that our community is also being patient. We have an opportunity to use this time to continue working together in planning for a safe and sustainable return to in-person meetings. 

It became clear that members want to explore possibilities for Hybrid Meetings and discuss liability issues/waivers. We are scheduling another Town Hall for July 16 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM to cover these topics and to continue our open dialog. Additional will be posted on aasfmarin.org and sent out in the next update, but please mark your calendars now.

The July Intergroup Meeting will be on July 1, therefore we are hosting our monthly orientation for new IGRs on June 30.

Other events and service committee meetings, including GGYPAAs 4th of July Marathon are posted on our events calendar.

Our Intergroup Archives Committee is still looking for you to support an effort to capture this unprecedented time in AA’s history where nearly all meetings in the Bay Area have become virtual. We want to ensure that these experiences are recorded so future generations of AAs can understand this time and draw on the resiliency and innovation demonstrated. 

Please fill in your responses here to ensure that your group history is represented in our Archive. Suggestions to help you get started are included and multiple entries for each meeting are encouraged!

Please share this information with your social media communities and encourage your A.A. fellows to subscribe to The Buzz. All of our prior updates can be found here.

All decisions will be re-evaluated as the situation changes; we are doing our best and appreciate your support and understanding.

Your AA Central Office

Our first virtual Founders Day Extravaganza is behind us and we learned what worked – varied and diverse speakers –  and what didn’t – the recording! Sadly, due to a technical error, we were not able to retain the audio recording of the event. We do have results from some of the fun polls we took throughout and congratulations to offer Cathy P, in Novato, and Melanie L, in San Francisco, the winners of our door prizes.

As promised, we are happy to share the results of our Shelter-in-Place survey from last month! We took the information you offered and used it as we prepare for…

… what’s next in the land of IFAA Intergroup | Central Office? Our first ever virtual Town Hall, is this Thursday, June 18, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. We will discuss considerations for resuming face-to-face meetings and have an open dialog about working together as a community as we start planning to meet in person again. Details and registration information can be found here. We hope to see many of our SF and Marin members in attendance. 

During the Town Hall we will touch on the following: 

• Suggested Topics for Discussion as You Plan for Reopening
• What to Do if an AA Member Tests Positive for COVID-19 & Attended Your Meeting
• Consider New or Revised Service Opportunities
• Perspective on the above through the lens of our Traditions

Introductory information is posted here and we hope to see YOU there!

We also have the June Intergroup Meeting Summary posted. Included are the IFAA financial reports through April 2020. The June issue of The Point has also been posted and, once again, includes an audio recording. The Point Committee is always looking for content; we’d love to read your stories of experience, strength and hope on how you have managed these last few months. More information can be found here.

If writing your own story is too much at the moment, allow us to remind you that our Intergroup Archives Committee is looking for you to support an effort to capture this unprecedented time in AA’s history where nearly all meetings in the Bay Area have become virtual. We want to ensure that these experiences are recorded so future generations of AAs can understand this time and draw on the resiliency and innovation demonstrated.  Please fill in your responses here to ensure that your group history is represented in our Archive. Suggestions to help you get started are included and multiple entries for each meeting are encouraged!

In addition to the Town Hall this week, several service committees will hold their monthly meetings in the second half of this month. Among them are the IFAA Archives, Marin Teleservice (Orientation and Business Meeting), CNCA and the new Intergroup Representative Orientation. And the July Intergroup is on the 1st, so go ahead and mark your calendar now! Additional information for each of these – and more – can be found on our Events Calendar.