I am a part of an area that has a difficult time retaining female members with clean time. It is not as if all female members with clean time have stopped coming around, but it would be good to have more so as to be more attractive to newcomer females. I am not interested in hearing about my individual powerlessness in the matter, that is something of which I am already conscious. My personal impetus is to put in the footwork and allow my HP to take care of the rest. But, I am interested in hearing of how other areas have used PR/PI methods, or whatnot, to develop their fellowships. This is the first forum that came up in a quick Google search. If there are other forums which will treat this matter with seriousness, please do tell.
Welcome. Your question is an important one. I am not a female but I have been aware of this issue for years. When our area started, there were only a few women. Some of them used male sponsors because they had trouble finding female sponsors. They stuck together and gradually we reached a critical mass of women going to meetings. Today, we have lots of women in our area--probably around 50%. Even so, it is important for the women to stick together, get phone numbers, network, etc.
I know of several cases where women came to the rooms for a while then left, even though they found benefit from the message of recovery. The reason? Being hit on by 13th steppers. It's the ugly side of our fellowship that doesn't get talked about enough.
In the upstate area of New York that we left for Florida in May we had Saturday meetings for Men only(my homegroup MEN DO RECOVER) and for women only(WOMEN WITH WISDOM). One of the things that both our individual groups would do is either quarterly of bi-annually we would put on SPEAKER JAMS. The format would have a theme and each group would have speakers on 12 different topics relating to recovery.Both men and womens groups would get addicts from all the TRI-STATE area to partake in the functions.Many women would meet others and share their ESH and talk of how to best offer meeting places to carry our message.Also attending AREA meetings,maybe as GSR or a trusted servant representing your area or the area itself offers opportunities to share about your situation and let others know you may have a struggling area.I was GSR for my monday night group NEW DAZE for couple years and used to travel with a few women from other groups and they would constantly be bringing up conversation in helping their individual groups reach out to more women. Keep doing what you can, in prayer and support
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Our purpose is to remain clean,just for today,and to carry the message of recovery.
