A.A. Hanoi

Alcoholics Anonymous

Friday Meeting

Introduction

Welcome to the Flexible Friday Hoan Kiem meeting of Hanoi AA. This is an open meeting of alcoholics anonymous. While you do not have to have a problem with alcohol to attend, we ask that shares be confined to the topic of alcoholism and your recovery from it. We also ask that you refrain from sharing if you have had a drink within the last 24hours. We are glad to talk with you after the meeting.


Lets go around and introduce ourselves staring on my right. If you are new to AA, visiting from out of town, or just coming back, please let us know so we can welcome you. We are glad you are here. You are welcome, wanted, and needed.

Preamble

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from Alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

12 steps

Thank you. At this meeting we read the 12 steps from page 59 of the big book starting from “here are the steps we took..” Can I have a volunteer to read that?
“Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:

  1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become
    unmanageable.
  2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we
    understood Him.
  4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
  5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
  6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
  8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
  9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
  10. Continued to take a personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
  11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Many of us exclaimed “What an order! I can’t go through with it.” Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

gUIDING PRINCIPLES

Thank you. At this meeting, we read something to remind us of some guiding principles for tonight’s meeting. Can I have a volunteer to read that?

Anonymity and Confidentiality are vital steps of any twelve step recovery group. Everything that is said in the group meeting, and member to member, is sacred and private. All that is spoken should be respected with the strictest confidence. In this way, we are truly free and trusting to say what is in our hearts and minds. We keep our shares free of crosstalk, which means we do not interrupt any person while they are sharing and we do not respond directly to another person’s share. Please be considerate of each other’s time while sharing so that we all have a chance to share if we so choose.

FORMAT OF MEETING

The format of tonight’s meeting depends on how many people we have. If we have more than 4 people who are alcoholics or have desire to stop drinking, tonight’s meeting is an Ambush Speaker meeting. If we have less than 4 such people, it is a Living Sober Study meeting.

An ambush meeting is when someone is picked at random to share
about their experience with alcoholism, AA, and recovery for 10-15 minutes. After we have read/listened to the lead, we may share on the reading or our experience pertaining to alcoholism and recovery.

**if there are more than 4 people, chairperson picks a person to share. A random number generator on a phone works great. A good skeleton for the share is, how it was, what happened, and how it is now.**

**person shares**

The floor is now open.

End of Meeting 

7th Tradition

AA’s 7th tradition states that we are self supporting declining outside contributions. If you would like to contribute, now is the time. Half of the money collected goes towards our expenses (maintaining the Hanoi AA website, purchasing literature, and sending our excesses to AA world services. As we do not rent space for this meeting we donate the other half to the tip jar.

AA Announcements and Birthdays

Are there any AA related announcements?
Does anyone have a yearly, monthly, daily, or hourly milestone they would like us to acknowledge?

We close this meeting with a reading from the Big Book on page 164 in the chapter entitled “a vision for you” followed by a moment of silence for the still suffering alcoholic,and then by the serenity prayer.


Would somebody like to read a vision for you?


“Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us. Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the fellowship of the Spirit and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny. May God bless you and keep you – until then.”

** a moment of silence***

Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.”

AFTER THE MEETING

Handout “Hanoi Meetings in a Pocket” to visitors.

If there’s a newcomer ask same sex members to write their phone numbers on the back of a meeting in a pocket.

Disburse the money as follows: give 50% to the restaurant and save 50% to give to the AA Hanoi Treasurer at the business meeting on the first Sunday of the month.