Types of AA Meetings - Why They Are Important To Me

Going to AA meetings is an important part of recovery from Alcoholism. Starting off in recovery you must go to meetings. That’s where you’ll find the fellowship, you’ll likely find your first service position when you’re ready, you’ll find a sponsor that will take you through the steps and you’ll get good exposure to a lot of information on this disease.

I was encouraged to go to different format meetings to get introduced to the different types of literature we use. I went to Speaker Meetings, Big Book Meetings, Step and Tradition Meetings, Discussion Meetings, and “other” literature meetings. It’s hard to talk one-on-one with a lot of people about experiences with the different literature we use, so attending different format meetings is a great way to hear lots of experiences all at once. It’s also a great way to expose yourself to a wider range of people to find a sponsor and to build your fellowship.

I also found it helpful going to literature meetings to keep reading the literature. On my own I am not great at sitting down and reading through the Big Book, or other pieces of literature. Going to meetings where they are read and discussed keeps it fresh for me. I am also actively working with sponsees and that also helps keep me in the literature.

Here are some common meeting formats that I still go to now:

Speaker meetings really help me identify with other alcoholics. I get a more in-depth view of how someone drank, the different ways they tried to control their drinking, and what they consider their bottom. I also get the hear what their early sobriety looked like, and what their recovery life looks like now. I usually go up to the speaker after the meeting and say thank you for sharing and maybe a very quick point of how their story relates to mine. No matter how different someone’s story differs from mine in terms of the people, places and things, I am always able to identify with why they drank, how they couldn’t stop no matter what they did, and how taking the steps helped them find a Higher Power. Getting sober at 20 years old made it difficult to identify with people, places, and things. I never had a wife, but I did ruin relationships the same way. I was still in school, so I had lost a career, but I did call in sick when I was actually drunk. I never had anything repossessed because my parents owned the car I drove. I really had to focus on the lack of control, the powerlessness and hopelessness that was shared and I still try to do that today. I always try to find the similarities in a speakers talk instead of the differences.

Big Book meetings are helpful to keep me reading the book on a regular basis. Left on my own, I am not the best at carving out time to read. I do meet with my sponsees regularly and we go through the book, but I like going to meetings to hear other people’s experience with the different sections. It’s also really important to hear the Old Timer’s perspectives when they share on a section of the book. They have so much more life experience staying sober and helping others than those with less time.

Step meetings are usually conducted using the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 and 12) and focus on a particular step each week. The 12 and 12 has more detail about the individual steps and some of the experiences of the early members of AA. For newcomers, it’s important to hear how each step builds on the one before it. Even though you may not be on that particular step, even if you’ve never taken any of the steps, you will hear about why it’s important to take the steps in order. For anyone with some time, it’s important to stay fresh with the steps so we can keep growing in our understanding and effectiveness in delivering a message of hope that this program works.

Tradition meetings tend to be part of a Step meeting that reads from the 12 and 12. I attend a “Step Meeting” that goes over one step a week out of the 12 and 12, but the first meeting of the month they read the Tradition of that month. This group has several members with 40+ years sober that still attend many meetings a week, have sponsors, sponsor others, and have some sort of service commitment. They are active Old Timers and have lots of great experiences in how the traditions have played out in the groups that they have been part of through their years of staying sober. The traditions, as discussed in the 12 and 12, give us a good idea of how AA stays together and doesn’t get pulled apart like some of the other groups that tried to tackle alcoholism.  Keeping to a singleness of purpose, one alcoholic helping another alcoholic, comes with its trials and errors. Through those trials and errors, the early members formed the traditions to keep us focused as a membership.

Discussion meetings can be helpful to hear how others deal with life on life’s terms. How they have something challenging going on in their life, how they have not relied on their Higher Power for the strength to walk through it, and what actions they are taking to get back to the spiritual path. Or the meeting could be a topic like “I have to go to a work/family function and there will be alcohol. What do I do?”. Or “What do you do when you can’t make direct amends to someone?”. Sometimes Discussion meetings can lean more on “discussing the problem” and less on discussing the solution. Good discussion meetings really depend on the people in the meeting. Topics are always good topics, but if the attendees are not spiritually fit the meeting might stay in the problem.

Other literature meetings like “As Bill Sees It”, or anything like that gives us another outlet to come together to talk about taking the steps, finding a Higher Power, how we miss the mark on relying on that Higher Power, and how we get back to the spiritual path that we are supposed to walk.

All meetings are generally good. I go to different meeting types each week. Some rotate what literature they read from and discuss each week. There is a meeting I attend on Saturday mornings and that group meets 7 days a week. Each day is a different format. It’s a great meeting. But I do like attending other groups to get a wider range of experiences with different AA members in different areas.

There’s lots of AA meetings available to attend in-person or virtually. If you’re struggling with drinking, seek out the help you need, you can’t do it on your own. I know I couldn’t do it on my own and still can’t.

Find a sponsor that will take you through the steps as outlined in the book. You’ll see more of the truth about who you are and eventually it’ll change your life.

Change Your Truth, Change Your Life.

Haler Smith