Temporary AA meeting arrangements for Canberra and surrounding region during the Covid19 pandemic
For the foreseeable future there will be meeting closures and alternate meeting arrangements while we follow social distancing guidelines. It's important that we keep in contact with each other, especially people who are new to AA and older members who may be housebound to avoid exposure to the Coronavirus, while at the same time maintaining our own recovery.
A number of groups have alerted the Canberra AA office that they are temporarily not meeting in their regular venues. Some groups have shared that they are utilising digital platforms, such as Skype, social media and free teleconferencing platforms, so they can continue to have meetings and fellowship. Groups may also consider developing meeting contact lists to help members keep in touch.
Please see updates under the 'Meetings' drop down menu on this site. Here you can also find details of groups that are meeting via alternative methods.
Below are some resources you may consider using. Please note: Linking to another website or platform does not constitute an endorsement by the Canberra Central Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Resources
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If your group is considering running an online meeting, the AA World Services website has some useful guidance here - https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/options-for-meeting-online
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The Australian National Office of AA has a wide range of information and resources https://aa.org.au/
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There are also links to a number of live Australian online meetings on the Australian Online Intergroup of AA (see bottom of home page) http://aoig.oso-aa.org/
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Recordings of meetings are available for free download. One of the more long running sites is https://www.xa-speakers.org/
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Our General Service Trustee has set up an AA Australia YouTube Channel. You can find it here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-tS4S8g5CDgsCP43AESsZg
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This is a platform for publishing any video or audio content for the fellowship. It is based off the AAWS YouTube Channel.
*Message from your CSO committee (AA Office committee) to members unable to do meetings at present, and others:
We know members may have to, or prefer to, stay at home in coming months and may not be able to join online or phone meetings. And your friends and fellow members in recovery may not be aware of that.
If you would like to let your friends and supporters in recovery know that you are home bound and would appreciate a call, a text, or email communication, please let us know. We will put your name (first name, surname initial and group membership - if any) on a list on the website so that members who have your number will know you'd like some contact.
To do this, please email or call the AA office between 10am and 3pm on weekdays. Office staff will check
messages when they're in and pass on your details to the Information Coordinator to put on the webpage.