If you’d like to attend an AA meeting to find out if AA is for you, here’s what to do:
Choose a meeting time and location
Call us at 928-782-2605, day or night, and a sober member of AA will be happy to recommend a first-time meeting close to where you live. You can also see all of our meetings listed on this website.
Just show up!
Meetings start promptly at the time specified and generally last one hour. We suggest for your first meeting to arrive a little bit early. Sometimes there might be people gathered outside. If you are not sure you have the right place, just ask one of them if this is where the meeting is. If it is, then you could tell them this is your first meeting and ask them where to go. They will be happy to help you out. Inside the meeting room, there will be people milling about, setting up coffee and putting out literature. Help yourself to a coffee and find a seat.
What happens during an AA meeting
Meetings often begin with a moment of silence, followed by a few short readings (see below). The chairperson is a volunteer who leads the meeting and might ask if there are any “newcomers” in the room who would like to introduce themselves by their first name only. This is NOT done to point you out or embarrass you. It’s done because as a newcomer you will get the support you need. If you have questions after you get home, please call any of the people who gave you their phone number. You will not be “intruding” … we WANT to help.
You do not have to talk
AA meetings can take one of several forms (discussion, book study, speaker, etc.). At any AA meeting you will find alcoholics talking about what drinking did to their lives and personalities, what actions they took to help themselves, and how they are living their lives today. The chairperson might ask if you wish to speak, but you do not have to say anything if you don’t want to. You can simply say “no thanks” or “I prefer to just listen, thanks.”
Passing the basket…
AA meetings require no dues or fees from its members, but we are fully self-supporting and do have expenses for room rent, coffee and literature. At some point during the meeting, a basket will be passed around to allow the members the opportunity to make a voluntary contribution to the support of their meeting or group. This is for members only, if you are a visitor, please do not make a contribution. As a newcomer to AA, please consider yourself our guest.
Some of the A.A. literature we read at meetings.
“We are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful. We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to Captain’s table. Unlike the feelings of the ship’s passengers, however, our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us.”
Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book. 2002. 4th ed. New York, NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. There Is A Solution, p. 17
