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Our last update included this survey with questions about group practices and experience during the shelter-in-place. In addition to gathering the particulars of individual meetings, it is our hope that the questions are thought-provoking and will stir you toward conversation with your meeting regulars about what will come next. The shelter-in-place order took us by surprise and created a fair amount of chaos — not unlike alcoholism, perhaps. Going forward, and taking an approach based on recovery, we hope to provide a smooth transition as we move toward Phase 2 of the reopening of California. Changes are coming in both San Francisco and Marin.

Intergroup would like to facilitate a transition that supports the fellowship in being stewards of AA for the future. To do so, we need your participation. What will the transition look like? What will meetings look like? Will groups return to their old spaces as if nothing happened? Will groups continue to meet online, or perhaps as a hybrid of both online and in a physical space?

Further, there will very likely be local and state requirements, as well as requirements of individual meeting facilities to incorporate and abide by. Per our fourth Tradition, each group will continue to be autonomous, within the structure of the wider communities in which we exist. 

With information from the survey and from conversation with other areas and service entities, we hope to provide our members with tools to create best practices for the new normal. As always, we will offer them as suggestions and in support of AA as a whole.

The survey will be open for one more week, through May 22. To our local members: if you have not already, please fill it out now. All are welcome; trusted servants are particularly encouraged. Results will be published after our June Intergroup meeting.

In other news, our Fellowship and Archives Committees are actively planning an engaging virtual Founders Day event for the afternoon of Saturday, June 13. Details will be forthcoming, but confirmed speakers include our Area Delegate, Teddy B-W, who will have just come from the 70th annual, but first ever VIRTUAL General Service Conference and William S, from Fairfield, CT, an AA member and published historian who will be doing a visual history presentation. 

In honor of the history that is being created right now we are putting together a time capsule and are looking for “Signs of COVID-19.” If your meeting posted a closure notice when the SIP Order was announced and you can safely get there to see if it is still up, please snap a photo and email it to [email protected] before the end of May. We will share more from the time capsule during our event.

Meanwhile, our local service committees continue to meet virtually. Information, if available, for upcoming orientations and business meetings (SF H&I, Archives, SF Teleservice, Marin General Service, CNCA and Marin Teleservice) can be found here.

In closing, we want to share what one local member wrote earlier this week about her experience over the last two months: 

What has really struck me about this time is how determinedly AA got its act together and got online. Intergroup was absolutely stellar, and there were a lot of regular old AAs, too, who just said “ok, we gotta get this meeting online” and they rolled up their sleeves and figured it out. And then people started showing up from around the country and even the world at our meetings, and suddenly we could make it to a meeting across town that was inconvenient before, and out of this horrible health crisis, AA flowered, again, in a whole new way. It feels like a freakin’ miracle, to me. We didn’t just survive, we grew!

Another member shared this* (non-AA) article which clearly demonstrates the resilience of the recovery community. Your Intergroup Representatives, Service Committees and Board of Directors are working together and with other local service entities in considering creative and engaging ways to harness the growth and surge of energy we have recently experienced. This may take the form of a series of town hall meetings, new online resources, updates for best practices or shared experience, including a checklist of considerations for moving forward. Until next time — Stay tuned. Stay safe. Stay.

And please, for the love of what is yet to come, complete our survey, share this information with your social media communities, send us pictures for the time capsule 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

Maintaining – or getting – sober during a global pandemic is not something any of us have experience with. This time has been referred to by many as akin to wartime. Right now, we are making history in how we are navigating our sobriety and the challenges associated with the shelter-in-place order, including feelings of isolation and powerlessness. But this is not the first crisis AA’s have been through. 

On Saturday, April 11 from 2 – 4PM, our Intergroup Archives Committee, in collaboration with Jackie B., is presenting A.A. in War & Crisis: A Historical Perspective. Special guests are Roger W. and Greg M. Join us to hear their experience with AA and sobriety during WWII, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. AA made it through then and we can do so now; join us to learn how. Meeting details can be found here.

And on Monday, HelpChat, our online chat service will host an orientation for new volunteers. HelpChat is the blue bubble on the lower right of your screen that reads “New to A.A. and want help?” HelpChat volunteers serve in support of Intergroup | Central Office in carrying out our primary purpose of helping the sick and suffering alcoholic and coordinating services which individual groups in San Francisco and Marin cannot provide on their own. All information, included requirements and registration information, can be found here.

As many of you who have been going to meetings hosted on Zoom know, navigating the security changes has been quite a challenge. We tried to get out ahead of this as best we could, but are still receiving requests for passwords. We may have missed some updates in the frenzy, but according to our data, these 168 meetings have not been in touch with [email protected] since the changes went into effect. We have outlined three options for staying listed. Details about this change can be found in the last update here. 

We are requesting that each meeting send its meeting information, via a Zoom Meeting Invite, to [email protected]. This will give us the complete information necessary to update your meeting page to keep the schedule accurate. Please put the meeting name, day, and time in the subject field.  

Note: Each group will need to decide on its own course of action with regard to the changes Zoom made to it’s service and the meeting host will need to implement it.

Detailed information about the options can be found here. In short, however, they are to 1) Keep the meeting wide open, 2) Maintain a password, but do not include it directly in the link and 3) Email the Group for the Password. We have made the decision not to list meetings that don’t allow for any of the above options as they are not accessible to anyone outside “the know” and therefore not helpful on aasfmarin.org or to newcomers.

If members of your group need help in figuring out how to remove meeting disruptors, please contact the volunteers at [email protected] for support. Many of the groups that have assigned co-hosts are up and running and they are happy to help. Zoom security protocols seem to change every day; we will do our best to help you stay up to date and accessible.  

Stay tuned and please, for the love of an accurate schedule, share this information with your social media communities (but not meeting passwords!) and encourage our members 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

Changes in Passwords | Waiting Rooms | Intergroup Services

Friends, if your meeting was set up using a Basic (Free) Zoom or single-license, Pro Zoom account you may need to take action to ensure the meeting information we have posted on our meeting schedule is still accurate and that the meeting can still be accessed. 

Why? Because effective immediately, Zoom implemented changes to those two types of accounts. (More info here.) In short, Meeting Passwords and Waiting Rooms will be TURNED ON by default; the prior default was OFF. 

Further, you will need to resend your meeting information, via a Zoom Meeting Invite, to [email protected]. This will give us the complete information necessary to update your meeting page to keep the schedule accurate. Please put the meeting name, day, and time in the subject field.  

Note: Each group will need to decide on its own course of action with regard to the changes Zoom made to it’s service and the meeting host will need to implement it.

Here are your options.  

Option One: Keep the meeting wide open

This will require the host to set the meeting up again and adjust the settings to enable the one-click option. This is the most accessible way to post meeting info and may increase the likelihood of your meeting being disrupted. 

In your “Personal User Settings,” enable “Embed password in meeting link for one-click join” by using the toggle on/off. Detailed instructions can be found here,

When that is done, you will need to email [email protected] the Zoom Meeting Invite. The password will be included in the posted link. Meeting attendees need only click the Meeting Name and then the Link to Meeting for immediate access to the meeting (or the Waiting Room… keep reading).

1. Click Meeting Name

2. Click the Link to Meeting

If you choose Option One, you do have some deterrents for distruptors; you can keep the “Waiting Room” enabled, which again, is now the default. However, should you choose to forego that option, you can disable that feature. More detailed Instructions here.

Adding two to four co-hosts, depending on the size of your meeting, is our current suggestion for managing the Waiting Room and for removing participants if necessary. Detailed instructions here.

Option Two: Maintain a password, but do not include it directly in the link.

This will require meeting attendees to enter the password manually. This is still a luxury problem  and less work than having to get your physical person to a physical meeting. Bonus: it reduces the likelihood of getting bombed by trolls.

The password will be posted as a separate number in the meeting page a mere one click away. Waiting Room options and co-host suggestions apply here, there and everywhere.

You will need to resend the information via a Zoom Meeting Invite to [email protected]. This will give us the complete information necessary to update your meeting page with the password. Please put the meeting name, day, and time in the subject.

Option Two looks like… 

1. Click Meeting Name

2.  Locate password and enter into the Zoom popup after clicking the meeting link

Option Three: Email the Group for the Password

If your meeting does not want to provide the password in the schedule, you will need to provide us with a group email address so members can write you for access info. If you do not have a group email address, here is information on getting one. You can circulate your meeting password among your known members while those who are not regulars can email the greeter, if you will, for the password. 

In this option, attendees will need to…

1.  Click on the Meeting Name

2. Email the group

We will not list meetings that don’t allow for any of the above options as they are not accessible to anyone outside “the know” and therefore not helpful on aasfmarin.org or to newcomers.

That said, keep in mind that we have several other ways newcomers can reach us: 24/7 Teleservice, [email protected] and HelpChat (our online chat tool), all staffed by volunteer members of AA.

NOTE: We learned that sharing meeting passwords on social media is one of the primary ways meeting disruptors are getting meeting information, so you might want to refrain from that practice at this time. 

Finally, the Austin Bid for ICYPAA Committee hosted a webinar today that we will share as soon as the recording is ready. It covers much of the Zoom User Settings for those that are in need of assistance. Further, you can email our group of volunteers at [email protected] for help in both setting up and/or accessing meetings. We request that all meeting updates and changes to your currently listed meetings continue to get routed to [email protected] once the new Zoom Meeting Invite has been sent.

This certainly is life getting life-y… and the terms are a bit tough right now. Your trusted servants and special workers at Intergroup | Central Office are here to help. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.

Stay tuned and please, for the love of a few days of smooth sailing, share this information with your social media communities (but not meeting passwords!) and encourage our members 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

Below, please find information on:

• Stopping Trolls in Their Tracks
• Intergroup Hosted Zoom Rooms?
• Group Email @aasfmarin.org 

At times, it feels as if the moment we have a solution, we are faced with a new problem. For example, remember back on March 97th? When the problem was how the remote meetings were displayed?! What we’d give for that problem today!

Levity aside, our latest resource, Handling Online Meeting Disruptions in the Moment, is meant to help you keep going if your meeting gets “Zoombombed.” While it is true that we cannot simultaneously be accessible to an unknown combination of anonymous people and also completely safe from internet trolls, we can help our members add tools to the toolkit, a practice we are all familiar with. We have done what we can to distill best practices for Personal Anonymity, Default Settings, and Managing Meeting Participants in Zoom, which is all quite new to most of us, and share them with you. And if what we’re sharing isn’t speaking to you, maybe this one from NY Intergroup will appeal. 

Please take some time to rehearse using these resources and set up some practice meetings. Note: it is strongly suggested that each meeting elect a group admin, or co-host, to manage the participants, allowing the meeting secretary to run the meeting. A few of the protocols offered here, set up in advance and practiced a few times, can keep these disruptions from derailing your meeting entirely.

It bears repeating that, as with face-to-face meetings, each group decides for itself how to handle disruptions. AA Meetings, regardless of the forum, are microcosms of the real world and all that comes with it. The service piece published by GSO, Safety and A.A.: Our Common Welfare, states: 

“… behavior can hijack the focus of a meeting and frighten members, new and old. Some groups have developed plans for addressing disruptive behavior and have established procedures through their group conscience to ensure that the group’s welfare is protected.” 

Setting up policies and procedures ahead of a Zoom meeting is part of this responsibility.

Intergroup Hosted Zoom Rooms

As mentioned in a previous update, at tomorrow night’s Intergroup meeting, we will take up whether to establish an account with Zoom that we can offer local groups. The idea was largely in response to so many online meetings being at capacity. However, it may well be that like meeting room rent, Zoom accounts are best left to the individual groups themselves. Please take a look at what NYIG is offering and take this short survey to guide us forward. Thus far, our survey results are minimal; we need your input. Details, if any, will be forthcoming

Group Email @aasfmarin.org

We have decided to offer group email addresses at the aasfmarin.org domain. Many groups (and meetings) are setting up anonymous email addresses named after their real-world meeting for platform logins, digital contribution and more. This allows them to publish a contact method, and reply to it, without exposing any individual’s identity; it also allows them to share access to the communications, and to transfer the handling of the group’s communications between people — for example, as Trusted Servants rotate in and out of their service terms. While not difficult for individual groups to set this up, you may find your group name already taken. There are advantages and additional considerations that went into our decision to offer this service; more information can be found here.

In closing, in response to the meeting disruptions, one member wrote, “We can get through this while staying open and available to the newcomers who need us, and who knows, in a couple years I bet you anything we’ll start having newcomers whose first exposure to AA was when they were bored during the quarantine and listened in as part of a zoom-raid.“

We are fortunate that there are so many ways newcomers can reach us: at any one of the 397 remote meetings currently listed on our schedule, [email protected], 24/7 Teleservice and HelpChat, our online chat tool. Thank you all for participating in our primary purpose and being the hand of A.A. for San Francisco and Marin.

Stay tuned and please, for the love of a technology when it works the way we want it to, share this information with your social media communities and encourage our members to subscribe to The Buzz.

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

Below, please find information on:

• Updated FAQ and more
• New! Personal Recovery Resources: Read | Listen
• New! Managing Meeting Participants
• Group Safety
• Remote Meeting Growth
• Intergroup Hosted Zoom Rooms?
• Group Email Accounts in the @aasfmarin.org Domain
• 2020 International Convention Cancelled

We have updated the content in our FAQ for Locals and Move an A.A. Meeting to Zoom in 5 Steps. We also added Read | Listen, which are resources for personal recovery and, perhaps most importantly, added Managing Meeting Participants. More updates and additional content are on the way. Meanwhile, please visit those pages on aasfmarin.org. 

Managing Meeting Participants was in large part due to the numerous communications received in the last few days about inappropriate behavior in online meeting rooms. As with a face-to-face meetings, how each group handles disruptions is a decision for that group to make autonomously. AA Meetings, regardless of the forum, are microcosms of the real world and all that comes with it. The service piece published by GSO, Safety and A.A.: Our Common Welfare, states: 

“… behavior can hijack the focus of a meeting and frighten members, new and old. Some groups have developed plans for addressing disruptive behavior and have established procedures through their group conscience to ensure that the group’s welfare is protected.” 

The majority of our members are likely new to online meetings; learning to navigate the platforms at all ~ much less when confronted with offensive behavior ~ is extremely challenging. The Marin PICPC Committee has addressed Online Meetings, Publicity, and “Zoombombs” in its most recent communication. They offer resources that may be helpful to individuals and groups when making the decision on how to handle meeting disruptions.

In happier news, we are adding new meetings to the Remote Meeting Schedule every day and have gone from 27 meetings on March 15 to 376 – that is a 1400% increase. To say this has been a challenging time is to put it mildly. Please send gratitude and support out to the twenty or so Trusted Servants and two Special Workers who are stepping up in various teams to coordinate these efforts and make these resources available. 

We had hoped to share good news about a collaborative effort with New York Intergroup to make Zoom Rooms available to host groups for free. Each room would have been able to accommodate up to 500 or 1,000 participants per meeting and allow default security settings to be established for the highest level of anonymity and privacy possible while still being accessible to newcomers. Unfortunately, this is no longer an option as the NYIG Board changed its mind about partnering with any other offices.

Your Board of Directors will be in conversation with the Intergroup Representatives at our April 1 meeting to discuss the possibility of moving forward with our own account. The idea was largely in response to so many online meetings being at capacity. However, it may well be that like meeting room rent, Zoom accounts are best left to the individual groups themselves. Please take a look at what NYIG is offering and take this short survey to guide us forward. Details, if any, will be forthcoming

We have decided to offer group email addresses at the aasfmarin.org domain. Many groups (and meetings) are setting up anonymous email addresses named after their real-world meeting for platform logins, digital contributions and more. This allows them to publish a contact method, and reply to it, without exposing any individual’s identity; it also allows them to share access to the communications, and to transfer the handling of the group’s communications between people — for example, as Trusted Servants rotate in and out of their service terms. While not difficult for individual groups to set this up, you may find your group name already taken. There are advantages and additional considerations that went into our decision to offer this service; more information can be found here.

In closing, we are passing on the unfortunate news that the International Convention, scheduled for July 2020 has been cancelled. Details can be found here and in this FAQ about registration 

So stay tuned and please, for the love of a wide berth on a narrow sidewalk, share this information with your social media communities and encourage our members to subscribe to The Buzz.

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

COVID-19, Update #7: Gifts of the Program 

Below, please find information on:

• Complimentary access to the AA Grapevine and recordings from the 2019 AA History Symposium
• Additions for your Online Meeting Format
  • Zoom Rooms
• Getting a Group Conscience
• Digital Contribution Platforms
• Service Opportunities: Teleservice and HelpChat
• Remote Meeting Schedule Version 2.0!!! 
• Literature needs?

Details:

A special message from the AA Grapevine:  Due to the current changing health situation, many AA meetings across the U.S. and Canada are finding it safer to close. To help members during this time, we are giving everyone free access to most of our 2020 Grapevine and La Viña issues. Please share with your fellows.

Additionally, the wonderful members who bring you the annual AA History Symposium have made recordings from last year’s event available free of charge! Click here to stream presentations from the Fifth (V) Symposium on A.A. History, held in the Bay Area, and including the theatrical performance from Saturday night’s banquet. Password is thebroadhighway.

We have posted an FAQ for locals as well suggestions for updating your meeting format to make online meetings run more smoothly. We hope they help. 

We are collaborating with New York Intergroup to make Zoom Rooms available to host groups for free. Each room will be able to accommodate up to 1,000 participants per meeting and we can secure anonymity and privacy settings for all. Stay tuned for details!

Meanwhile, check in with your group for a group conscience about using this service. If you want to learn more about getting a group conscience – and really? What better time to do so than during a Shelter-in-Place pandemic?! – check out Best Practices, Third Legacy Voting and How To Start an Online Meeting on Zoom developed by the Austin ICYPAA bid committee.

We have curated information on various Digital Contribution Platforms to help your group determine how you might practice the Seventh Tradition using a digital basket. If you have questions, comments or concerns, please email [email protected] – we are here to help!

With Central Office closing, the San Francisco and Marin Telesevice Committees have taken over the phone lines 24/7. Each committee is hosting a remote orientation this week. There is a one-year sobriety requirement to volunteer for SF Teleservice and a six-month sobriety requirement to volunteer for Marin Teleservice. Orientation details can be found in Upcoming Events. We ask each Teleservice volunteer to read The Buzz and our COVID-19 updates and to stay current with the information on aasfmarin.org as we are continually posting new content and making updates. HelpChat, the online chat tool, will also be holding an orientation this week. Details will be posted on aasfmarin.org and sent out in the next update.   

And finally, what you have all been waiting for! Version 2.0 of the Remote Meeting Schedule is NOW LIVE! While we are still tweaking search and sort features, and request you kindly hold off with suggestions until we’ve had more time to work on it, you can now easily search by day and time as well as see the geographic origin of each meeting. Further, each meeting has a page on aasfmarin.org that allows you to:

• Display your Digital Basket Information
• Upload your Meeting Format
• Upload an Image of your Physical Meeting Location

We are looking into best practices for security with regard to displaying collection information. We request your continued patience and cooperation and if you have expertise in this area, please let us know. We highly recommend gathering an informed group conscience before you submit digital platform information or upload your meeting format or image and request that your Intergroup Rep, General Service Rep or current Secretary be the one to send these submissions. 

A note to the meetings already listed: please email us a PDF or TXT of your Meeting Format and an image if you would like to use one. 

Your Special Workers are continuing to work from both home and the office. If you need literature, we will consider opening the online store back up and shipping it to you or having set pick up hours. Please email us at [email protected] so we can assess the need. More will be revealed.

So stay tuned and please, for the love of a good internet connection, share this information with your social media communities and encourage our members to subscribe to The Buzz.

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

We hope you find the information below about various digital contribution platforms useful. It was curated to assist your group in making a decision on which digital payment solution to implement for your 7th Tradition collection. The information is not in any way intended to be an endorsement, affiliation or recommendation for any of the services and presented for your convenience only.

A.A. Meeting Format Additions for Online Meeting (Zoom)

Use your regular meeting format with these helpful additions, as warranted. 

CHAIR: [Please use the “mute all” function as the facilitator to mute everyone. Before the meeting begins, please ask someone to read the preamble and all the customary literature of your meeting. PLEASE ALSO SELECT A TIME KEEPER IN ADVANCE (if customary) AND EXPLAIN THEY CAN UNMUTE FOR WARNINGS AND CALLING TIME (It’s best for this role to be  SOMEONE WHO WILL BE USING A LAPTOP)].

Welcome to the [insert meeting name] group of Alcoholics Anonymous. My name is ________ and I’m an alcoholic. This is a new process for our group,  so it may be a little shaky at first. We ask that you please be patient as we work through all the little snafus; thank you for showing up and being of service. 

Please take a moment to find the “raise hand” feature on whatever device you are using – it may be on the participants’ section at the bottom of your screen or it may be on a section called “more.” It is also possible to see a list of participants in the meeting. Please refrain from commenting on people’s share in the chat window as it is cross talk! The chat function will be useful for making announcements to the group as a whole. It is also possible to collapse the chat window. 

The chair will place everyone on mute so as to minimize any noise. Please use the raise hand feature to be recognized. The chair will then unmute people at various points throughout the meeting. PLEASE RE-MUTE YOURSELF AFTER YOU SPEAK.  AGAIN, PLEASE RE-MUTE YOURSELF AFTER YOU SPEAK :-)

[Use your meeting’s typical format, either speaker, literature or something else. Introduce the speaker or read the literature or ask for topic suggestions from the group, if that’s the usual format. Read from your group’s regular script, for newcomer recognition, AA anniversary recognition, and out of town visitor recognition.]

• 7th Tradition: While the speaker picks a topic we will practice the 7th Tradition, which states that we are self-supporting through our own contributions. The money collected will ensure we can cover our meeting’s rent and expenses when we meet in person again AND supports our local Central Office and AA services worldwide. [Type the link to the digital basket url, email or handle into the Chat text] The group’s [venmo/google pay/paypal account] can be found in the Chat text.
• Literature Announcement: you can access PDF versions of the Big Book, 12 & 12 and other AA approved literature online at www.aa.org 
• Invitation to sponsor: Would all the people who are available to be a sponsor please text the word “Sponsor” in the chat text and provide a phone number where you can be reached after the meeting?
• Announcements: If there are any AA related announcements, please text them to the group using the chat feature.

• Timekeeper [Optional]: By group conscience, we have a timekeeper for 3-minute shares with a 1-minute vocal warning after 2 minutes, so that we can allow for as many people as possible to share. I have asked ______ to be our timekeeper. 

We will now close the meeting.

And remember, who you see here and what you hear here – please let it stay here. 

(Close according to your group conscience.)