Saturday 4pm - Technical Information

For the Secretary/Chair to read before leading a phone bridge meeting

 As the Secretary/Chair for this meeting you will be given a “leader code” that will give you more features on the key pad than other members.

          Here is some information that will help before dialing into the meeting once you have been given the leader code.

1. Dial the phone number and then use the regular pin number followed by the # sign that everyone else uses.

2. There will be a voice prompt after entering the regular pin # that says “IF YOU ARE THE MODERATOR PLEASE PRESS 1.”

3. Follow the prompt and Press 1. The word “moderator” and “leader” mean the same thing.

4. The voice prompt will again say “PLEASE ENTER THE MODERATOR PIN (Leader Code) number FOLLOWED BY THE # SIGN”.

5. You will join the phone meeting muted after entering the leader code and # sign.  Press *1 to unmute yourself and then introduce yourself as the Secretary/Chair of the meeting. Press *0 for a menu of all features.

Probably one of the most important services you can give as the Secretary/Chair is to have the highest sound quality on the phone bridge system.  This means without background noise and weak sound quality. “Sound” is all we have for the phone meeting to work.

Background noise can be taken as disrespectful or interruptive while members are speaking.  As a trusted servant you can guide the meeting without background noise or interruptions to the best of your ability.

Along with your own skills; here are a few tips and a few pieces of information to help you: 

1. Technically the phone bridge system is built for “only” one person to be unmuted at a time.  This of course would include, You (the Secretary/Chair) as well as the Timekeeper to stay muted by using the *1 keys.  The timekeeper only unmutes to say “time”. The Secretary/Chair unmutes a few seconds before the member is done sharing to welcome the next share.  You can remind the timekeeper to please stay muted except to say “time”. (Only one line unmuted at a time).

2. As the Secretary/Chair (with the leader code) you are encouraged to use the *5   to clear the line to address the noise.  This ensures that members will be able to speak so their share can be heard.  Then the member can press the *1 keys to continue sharing without the previous background noise.  We call this “Cycling Through”. (Most of the time people forget to mute and don’t know they are not muted). This can be done by saying “Excuse the interruption, I’m going to clear the line” and then press *5 keys. You then could say, “Whoever was sharing please press *1 and begin again,” or “Whoever would now like to share please press *1 to unmute yourself.”

3. Some meetings have multiple readers. The extra unmuted lines will cause the reading to be heard by some but not by other members.

Here are some suggestions.

1. Organize the readers so they know the order they will be reading.

2. Then tell the rest of the readers to mute until a few seconds before it is their turn to read.

3. After each member reads remind them to mute again.

4. (AS A Rule of Thumb), just because you can hear does not mean that other members can.  These phones meetings have global coverage. Not all phones have equal sound. Only one line unmuted at a time will keep a clear worldwide phone line for everyone during the meeting.

These 4 technical points can promote safety, warmth and recovery similar to face to face meetings. This was written to assist you to know and understand the phone bridge technical features.

Thank you for taking the time to read these suggestions. If you need help, just ask.   Congratulations on doing service and beginning the flow that opens our heart to what it already knows---that we all need each other. 

Sincerely,

Your Web Coordinator

The Meeting Format Starts Now

(This is the part you read out loud)

FORMAT:

Saturday 4pm Opening our Hearts, Transforming our Losses 

1.    SUGGESTED AL-ANON WELCOME

            We welcome you to the Saturday 4pm Al-Anon meeting—”Opening our Hearts, Transforming our Losses”--and we hope you find in this fellowship the help and friendship we have been privileged to enjoy.  We who have lived with the problem of alcoholism understand as perhaps few others can. We, too, have been lonely and frustrated, but in Al-Anon we are discovering that no situation is really hopeless and that it is possible for us to find contentment, and even happiness, whether the alcoholic is still drinking or not.

            We urge you to try our program.  It has helped many of us to find solutions that lead to serenity.  So much depends on our own attitudes, and, as we learn to place our problem in its true perspective, we find it loses its power to dominate our thoughts and our lives. Our situations are bound to improve as we apply the Al-Anon ideas.  Without such spiritual help, living with an alcoholic is too much for most of us.  Our thinking becomes distorted by trying to force solutions, and we become irritable and unreasonable without knowing it.

            The Al-Anon program is based on the 12 Steps (adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous), which we try, little by little, one day at a time, to apply to our lives, along with our slogans and Serenity Prayer. The loving interchange of help among members and daily reading of Al-Anon literature thus make us ready to receive the priceless gift of serenity.

            Anonymity is an important principle of the Al-Anon program. Everything that is said here, in the group meeting and member-to-member, must be held in confidence. Only in this way can we feel free to say what is in our minds and hearts, for this is how we help one another in Al-Anon. (Al-Anon Service Manual pg.24).

Opening Our Hearts, Transforming Our Losses, quotes from Chapter 2

          In this particular meeting, we apply Al-Anon tools to the challenging subject of loss. We learn that “Living with alcoholism can feel like we’re in a constant state of mourning. We may have become so adept at living with loss that we go about our days unaware of its presence . . . .  In Al-Anon we learn that we didn’t cause the alcoholism in our lives, we can’t control it, and we can’t cure it. If we’re trying to force solutions, we can remember “Easy Does It.”... “Easy Does It” reminds us to be gentle with ourselves. We don’t have to try harder or do better. We have tried long and hard enough. Though we may not be able to change the alcoholic, we discover there is one person we can change—ourselves” (Opening Our Hearts, Transforming Our Losses, quotes from Chapter 2, 2007, AFG Headquarters, Inc.)

2. And now, some information about the bridge: 

Phone Etiquette

a. Prior to joining the meeting, we ask members to temporarily disable their call waiting by dialing *70 before calling the number to the phone bridge (example *70-1-712-432-8733). If a member does not disable their call waiting, we may hear your conversation or beeping.

b. When you dial in, you will start the conference being muted.

c. Stay muted at all times unless you are sharing. You can un-mute by pressing your *1 keys. You will hear a voice saying “you are now un-muted”.  Some phones do not have a long enough beep for the muting and un-muting to happen. You may have to press *1 several times for this function to work. When the voice comes on, you will know that the *1 keys have worked. 

d. We ask members to use the *1 keys to mute even if they have a mute function on their individual phones. The *1 keys ensures the greatest sound strength for the entire phone line and provides the greatest service to all members of the phone bridge during the meeting.

e. Please do not use a speaker phone for sharing or we will all hear an echo.  Some speaker phones will not mute even when pressing your *1 keys.

f. To hear a menu of all the features--such as volume control or member count--simply press * by itself.

3. READING STEPS/TRADITIONS/CONCEPTS

We now need three volunteers to read from Al-Anon’s three legacies, which can be found on the last few pages of Opening Our Hearts (or of the meditation books).  Can I get one person to read--?

a. Preamble to Al-Anon’s 12 Steps  2 pages before January 1 in all three meditation books

b. Al-Anon’s 12  Steps   found one page after December 31 in all three meditation books

c. One Tradition & One Concept of the month  (one and two pages respectively after the 12 Steps in all three of the meditation books)

THANK YOU TO OUR READERS

4.  ANNOUNCEMENTS (AND ANY MEETING BUSINESS)

a. According to the 7th Tradition, Al-Anon is fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.  Although we have no expenses related to this phone bridge, we invite you to send contributions to the WSO (our registered WSO ID is 30521349) or make donations at face-to-face meetings.  Please note that short business meetings will take place on the 3rd Sat of the month, right after the announcements, for up to 5 minutes. We do this to ensure that this meeting has a chair for the upcoming month, two months, or quarter. If we need to consider more detailed business, the group may opt to have a longer business meeting at the break or after the meeting proper closes.

And now, are there any Al-Anon related announcements?

[3^rd Sat of the month: short business meeting]

b. Do we have any newcomers today—to Al-Anon or to Al-Anon phone bridge meetings?  We invite you to introduce yourselves so we may greet you. Please press the *1 key to un-mute _____________.  Welcome, we’re glad you’re here. 

c. We now need a volunteer who is willing to stay on the line after the meeting to greet our newcomers, answer questions about Al-Anon, and/or explain the phone etiquette. Do we have a volunteer?  …Thank you.

5.  INTRODUCTIONS

We now go around the globe and introduce ourselves by first name only.  If you wish, please mention from where you are calling.  Please be sure to press *1 to un-mute so that we can hear you. After introducing yourselves, we ask that you re-mute (by pressing *1 again) so that we can hear the names of individual members who are saying hello. 

I’ll start: Hi, I’m _______________; .and I’m calling from ____________________.

6.  MEETING FORMAT

This meeting focuses on Opening our Hearts, Transforming Our Losses, which shows that “anyone who has been affected by alcoholism has faced loss, and probably many losses.” Each week, we read one or two sections from this book, with our starting and stopping points determined by the chair and organized in large measure by bold faced print and/or clear breaks in the text. 

Can we now get two volunteers for today’s reading?  Thank you.  Our reading today starts on p. ____, with section ____ ; and goes through the end of section ____ , which ends on p. _____ .  Would the first reader begin and would the other volunteer continue the reading seamlessly?  

After the READING is completed, Chair thanks the readers.

7.ANONYMITY STATEMENT:

Before sharing, we offer a gentle reminder that we speak from our own experience. In this Al-Anon meeting there is no crosstalk; and so we ask that you resist the desire to comment on or respond to another person's share.  Also, we ask those who are members of other anonymous programs to try to identify with the Al-Anon approach to the family illness. Ours is a different experience and calls for a different interpretation.

8.TIMEKEEPING:

We have 3-minute shares; and, 10 min before the top of the hour, we open up the sharing especially to newcomers and to regular members of the bridge who often don't get to share. We use this format as a way to ensure as much participation as possible.  We begin to close the meeting at 3-4 minutes before the top of the hour.

Can we have a volunteer to be our timekeeper?  Thank you.  The timekeeper is asked to stay muted at all times, unless he or she is saying, “time.”  When the timekeeper gently says “time,” speakers are asked acknowledge that they’ve heard and begin to wrap up their shares.  And, now, would our timekeeper like to share first?

Open up for sharing. 

[At 4:50 EST]

It is now 10 min. before the top of the hour: and, in accordance with principles guiding our recovery and, in particular, the 4th concept, which reminds us that participation is the key to harmony, we now invite shares from newcomers and those who do not regularly share on the bridge. (If possible, indicate # of people on bridge.)

9.  CLOSING (which begins 3-4 min before the top of the hour).

a) We now begin the closing. First, I'd like to thank everyone who did service: our timekeeper, our readers, all those who shared and all who dialed in to listen.

b) Now, in the spirit of reminding of us why we are here, I shall read a selection of Al-Anon literature, which appears on pp. 269-70, in From Survival to Recovery.

        "If we willingly surrender ourselves to the spiritual discipline of the Twelve Steps, our lives will be transformed…. Though we may never be perfect, continued spiritual progress will reveal to us our enormous potential . . . Our sight, once clouded and confused, will clear and we will be able to perceive reality and recognize truth . . . .We will begin to feel and come to know the vastness of our emotions, but we will not be slaves to them . . .   With dignity we will stand for ourselves, but not against our fellows...

         Sometimes slowly or haltingly, occasionally in great bursts of brilliance, those who work the Steps [and observe the Traditions] change and grow toward light, toward health, and toward their Higher Power."

Names and Phone Numbers: And now, before saying the suggested closing, I want to invite people to call out names of those whose phone numbers they would like to have.  We’ll ask for those numbers right after the serenity prayer.

c) And now the Suggested Al-Anon Closing

         In closing, I would like to say that the opinions expressed here were strictly those of the person who gave them. 

Take what you liked and leave the rest. The things you heard were spoken in confidence and should be treated as confidential. Keep them within the walls of this room and the confines of your mind.

 A few special words to those of you who haven’t been with us long:  Whatever your problems, there are those among us who have had them too.  If we try to keep an open mind, we will find help. We come to realize that there is no situation too difficult to be bettered and no unhappiness too great to be lessened.

We aren’t perfect. The welcome we give you may not show the warmth we have in our hearts for you. After a while, you’ll discover that though you may not like all of us, you’ll love us in a very special way-the same way we already love you.

Talk to each other, reason things out with someone else, but let there be no gossip or criticism of one another. Instead, let the understanding, love and peace of the program grow in you one day at a time. (Al-Anon/Alateen Service Manual pg.24)

d) SERENITY PRAYER:

And now, would all who care to, please press *1 to un-mute and join together in saying the Serenity Prayer.

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.

            (Al-Anon/Alateen Service Manual pg. 12)

CHAIR STATES:  KEEP COMING BACK, IT WORKS IF YOU WORK IT.

 Post-meeting details:

a) And now phone numbers….

MEETING SCHEDULE

Meeting schedule and phone bridge information can be accessed on the web at www.alanonphonemeetings.org. Format changes, determined by the group conscience of each autonomous meeting, can be emailed to alanonphonemeetings@yahoo.com. New meetings and format draft ideas can be brought to the Group Conscience Meeting on the 4^th Saturday of every month at 1:30 EST.

All Eastern Time Zone, same phone and pin number as you dialed in for this meeting.   

8am                      Saturday and Sunday
9am                      Weekdays (Monday ----- Friday)
11am                    Sunday
Noon                    Monday ----- Saturday

2pm                     Sunday
4pm                    7 days a week
8pm                    7 days a week
10pm                   Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
12 midnight         Thursday

Chair passes off to the volunteer (say name) who is able/willing to serve as newcomer greeter. By way of signing off, Chair might wish to say that those wishing to participate in fellowship may stay on the line for approximately 25 minutes after the hour.

THE MEETING IS NOW FORMALLY CLOSED