Thirty some years ago there were two NA Meetings a week in my town. Supplemented my NA Meetings with other Fellowship but soon was clear it wasn't cutting it for me or them.
I started a third NA Meeting, a Saturday Night Literature Study Group. (Not "Book" or "Basic Text" Study, didn't have it yet). Many a night I'd be the only one there. I'd open the meeting anyway, read all the meeting opening literature. Then read other NA literature, what little there was. And I stayed Clean. One night a person showed up for the meeting. Happened to be a counselor from my 9 month stay in a Theuraputic Community (not 12 Step based, pscho-babble and humilation therapy based, learn about what makes you tick and you can be "normal", i.e. use socially.) He was a "successful" graduate from the program later becoming a counselor, and later discovered 'ludes late in life and they brought him crawling. Never saw him at a NA meeting again, And I stayed Clean. Occasionally a person or 2 would show up for the Meeting, often as not it was a Meeting of one. And I stayed Clean. Another night a woman showed up. Turned out a few years before we had been neighbors. She had been living in a condemned house next to the condemned house I was living in. We both moved out when they came and tore them down to build the then new County Jail complex. (how fitting!) That night we were both Clean at a NA Meeting. Haven't seen her in years. And I stayed Clean.
Around a dozen years Clean I did a NA Service Work resume and at that time had served full one year terms over 30 positions. I didn't ask for accolades. I didn't expect applauds. Early in NA I heard that in order to not fall off the edge get involved in the center and the Center of NA is Service. Giving without expectations. I believed it and so I did it with as much gusto as I did getting and using and finding ways and means to get more. And I stayed Clean.
The basics never change. And I continue now working on 33 years Clean by the Grace of My Higher Power whom I choose to call God through the Power of NA.
-- Edited by Mike M on Sunday 24th of March 2013 09:00:51 PM
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Work the Steps or Die MF. (My Friend :) Clean One Day At a Time by The Grace of God through The Power of NA
Well, to say I am a bit disheartened would be fair. After the work that was done to upgrade the meeting/chat room, its accesibility from this board, and providing over 4,000 registered NA members here of the meetings on Tuesday and Saturday nites with what I think was adequate advance notice...(several days before and a reminder on the day of)...
One person showed up in the room, 30 minutes late and then stayed for 3 minutes.
This is exactly why we haven't had any online NA meetings on this site for several years. Simply because the group has not been willing to support them by simply showing up, and participating in them.
Of course the next step would have to be "coming of age" as a group and its members taking responsibility for the groups needs. Chairing the meetings, meeting greeters, sending notifications to the group members, volunteering to sit in the room between meetings so a newcomer doesn't end up sitting in a empty room alone, someone to reply to emails that get sent to the groups email acct., group related business meetings, ect. However, none of this is nescessary if the group members don't even show up to the meetings to support them in the first place.
I will honor my commitment for 90 days, (chairing 12 meetings) and if the group doesn't support them then I will have to take it as a group decison to end them. My time, my life, is just as valuable as any one else's. There are a thousand other things I "could be doing", just like every one else. Keep in mind that I'm not just a Addict myself, but the founder and webmaster of this whole site where 6 other groups meet and gather. Trust that I do not personalize this, as its evident on the group message board as well. Look at it. The majority of post are daily readings (literature), not exchanges of ES&H between addicts, and so many of the post have zero replies to them, those that do have only 2-4 replies, predominately by the same 2-4 people each time. (btw, I'm grateful for those 2-4 people because without them, this portion of MIP would be absolutely flatlined, dead completely.)
For a NA group to grow takes its members to not be online social butterflies in the NA community; running back and forth to every NA related site or group and periodically stopping in for a few moments. It takes those that consider themselves members dedication and devotion to one site, one group, (what we call our "Home Group" in the f2f world). It takes being responsible and accountable to the group as a whole, by providing service work, being in your seat when meetings are held, being available to the newcomer when they come in and join us, reaching out to those that are struggling, and providing the willingness to carry the message of NA in our shares, posting real life, personal recovery issues on the board, and replying to others that do so.
This is a program of attraction, not promotion. This is a truth. And when we can see that over 5,000 people have registered on the groups message board, and it is only shared on by 2-4 people each day, and that we have scheduled meetings that are not being held, and those that are arn't being supported... We as a group are not being very attractive to the newcomer, or even the old timers.
So, I ask... what are you willing to do to make this group, its board, and its meetings more attractive, that encourages those that visit us for the first time, to stick around and participate frequently, regularly and with consistency? To start with, it would take your willingness to do just that, participate frequently, regularly and consistently, here on the board, and in the room.
In closing I would like to say that I apologize for my own lack of dedication or committment to this group over the past few years. I am working on changing that at this moment in time by doing what I am doing, as my amends to the group. I hope you will accept it. I started this group in 2000. I was dedicated to it, devoted to it for over 2 years, but the site, the board, the meetings never really got the support from other NA members that it needed and I eventually burned out. I am only one person. I can only do so much. Today I am asking YOU to help me. Help me bring this group to a place of attraction. Help me do the many little things that get done to make it all come together. Without your help, we will end up right back where we are, and have been for a few years now. Little to no activity, not a place of excitement for those that are looking for it, not a place of comfort for those looking for it, and not a place where the NA way is being expressed in the clearest of terms but in a manner that is attractive to all who venture through our door here. No one can do this alone. We do together, what we couldn't do alone, and we should never leave a addict seeking help, support and love in the cold.
I was out of town this past weekend and tried to be there via smartphone but of course it sucked the life out of my phone but I plan on attending as many as I can
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"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
I really look forward to visiting MIP everyday, but as a message board, not a chat room or meeting site. I am blessed by living in an area where several meetings are held daily and I can choose to attend during the day or at night. I think it's wonderful that an effort is being made to offer meetings here MIP...from time to time newcomers to the site comment about wanting to be a part of that activity. I applaud your determination to see through on your stated commitment. If the meetings draw participants then it is an idea whose time has come. But if it does not draw enough members it may be because the fellowship has grown to the extent that meetings are accesable to more addicts. Thanks for operating this site.
ps.....both of your emails were in my 'junk' folder....not sure why and I have since listed your email address as 'safe' but it's possible that not as many saw your announcements as you think.
