Hi all. I'm from the Cleveland, Ohio (USA) area and here we have a meeting format called "Ask It Basket". It's one of my favorite meeting format types.
I was wondering if you also have this type of meeting format in your NA meetings, and what area are you from?
In the Ask It Basket N.A. meeting each member is given a small piece of paper where we can write a topic or question or whatever. The question is asked anonymously (no name on the paper). The paper is folded and put into a basket. Then one of two things can happen -- a 3 person panel can be selected to each draw a piece of paper from the basket and answer that question until all the questions have been answered, or the group's chairperson can one by one pull a topic from the basket and allow any two people from the group to answer or comment on the topic pulled from the basket until all topics have been answered..
In Ask It Basket meetings, there are usually 10 to 20 topics pulled from the basked and commented upon. These type of meeting formats are really fun, have a lot of interaction and involvement from almost all group members, and allows other group members to comment on any topic that another group member may be experiencing or struggling with.
We have them on occasion, I enjoy them. I go to the meetings in Cornwall, Ontario. The meeting format comes from the Group pamphlet I believe. Happy meetings to all!
I know this is an older topic and hasn't been posted in for a while, but I had something I wanted to add...
I'm from FFASCNA in Ohio...I've been to several different types of these basket meetings. Around here most of our meetings have a rotating format (i.e. 1st week of the month may be ask it basket, 2nd week speaker, third open discussion, etc). We don't have any that are strictly ask it basket meetings.
I've seen them done how you described with the questions or struggles/topics people write down. I've seen many with topics preprinted on pieces of paper and you reach in and grab. I like this form the best. Everyone gets something different (HP gives you something to think about with your topic perhaps? LOL) - plus you aren't sitting there during the meeting trying to come up with your brillant and insightful response (silently cursing when someone says something you wanted to say on the topic); it's on the spot and each is different...and as is the norm, if you don't have any E,S,or H to share on the topic, simply pass.
Recently a group (Bucyrus,OH) has implemented a "BUT CAN"...it has strips saying all our famous excuses. For example, you may pull a paper and it will say: "...but I'm too tired to go to a meeting" or "...but my family needs me right now, I don't have time to call anyone"....that should give you a good idea what I mean.
My homegroup is currently working on a topic can. We have revamped the format and need to get the topics ready before the end of next month.
-- Edited by ItsAllGolden on Wednesday 26th of December 2012 11:08:42 AM
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