What Makes Meetings Strong?

What Makes Meetings Strong?

Reading “What makes meetings strong?“ in Essay May 2021 got me thinking. For me strong meetings are welcoming places, offering full participation to all members; they provide opportunities for service and they encourage fellowship after meetings.

By |2025-09-18T14:33:32-05:00May 31, 2022|Comments Off on What Makes Meetings Strong?

Dear ESSAY

I read with great interest the May issue on What Makes Meeting Strong? It made me reflect on the importance of SA meetings for my recovery, especially when the global lockdown could potentially have shut down SA meetings. Fortunately, our fellowship has responded strongly by using virtual meetings.

By |2025-09-21T23:12:12-05:00August 20, 2021|Comments Off on Dear ESSAY

Editors’ Corner

Dear Essay readers, We hope you find inspiration in this issue on how you can turn your local meetings into strong spiritual gatherings by reading contributions from fellows from all over the world. You can also find out which pieces of literature on meetings our fellowship has to your disposal.

By |2025-09-22T01:25:00-05:00May 23, 2021|Comments Off on Editors’ Corner

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

A woman in AA told me after she spoke in a meeting, quoting Chapter 5 in Alcoholics Anonymous, that “God could and would, if He were sought.” And that’s how I did it. By letting God do it. Because I couldn’t. But God could and would - and did. But I had to go to meetings to learn things like that. “Meetings, meetings, meetings, meetings, meetings ... ” That’s what they told me. “Just keep bringing the body.” (SA 158)

By |2025-09-22T01:27:22-05:00May 22, 2021|Comments Off on Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

There Is Value in Co-ed As Well As Women-only SA Meetings

When I entered the room of my first SA meeting in September 2018, I was the only female. I sat down at a table with five men of varying ages and I felt very alone and fearful. What would these men think of me? It wasn’t until the meeting progressed and these men around me started sharing their thoughts and feelings about working their SA program that I began a slow journey towards being able to view men as people rather than as objects.

By |2025-09-22T01:49:06-05:00May 22, 2021|Comments Off on There Is Value in Co-ed As Well As Women-only SA Meetings

The Chicago Experience of Building a Culture of Sobriety

Hi Mike, thanks for your time today in sharing your experience, strength and hope. Could we begin by asking your sobriety date and home group? Yes, June 3, 1984 and the Holy Innocents group in Chicago. For a long time previously it was at St. Teresa. We have been on Zoom for about a year now; when we were face to face, attendance was around 55-60 and we meet for 90 minutes.

By |2025-09-22T01:28:49-05:00May 22, 2021|Comments Off on The Chicago Experience of Building a Culture of Sobriety

Committing to the Sobriety Definition Unites the Galway Group

In February 1995 an Irish SA member living in the USA, was informed by a friend of another “S Fellowship’’ meeting in Galway. He carried the following message to that meeting: “You are all newcomers. You will only relapse back into your disease unless you get a sponsor, make calls and have fellowship after the meetings.”

By |2025-09-22T01:30:45-05:00May 22, 2021|Comments Off on Committing to the Sobriety Definition Unites the Galway Group

Rigorous Honesty in Meetings is Such a Huge Force

The first characteristic that makes face-to-face meetings attractive for me is openness and honesty. During the meetings there is an “evil monkey” inside my head, constantly whispering to me, telling me how different I should be to the person that I am, whom I should compare myself to, and what other people think of me. But I am not the person the monkey describes.

By |2025-09-22T01:49:40-05:00May 22, 2021|Comments Off on Rigorous Honesty in Meetings is Such a Huge Force

Recovery is Like a Three-Legged Stool

When I think of meetings, I think of something that my sponsor said early in our relationship: “Recovery in SA is like a three-legged stool, you have to have a sponsor, the Steps and the fellowship in order for the stool to remain standing.” Meetings are where the fellowship happens.

By |2025-09-22T01:30:59-05:00May 22, 2021|Comments Off on Recovery is Like a Three-Legged Stool