[Businessmtg] Newcomers

[Cathy A.]

Hi All,

I have been reading all of the shares about different things we can do to
help our newcomers.

Two people mentioned something like this today.

I feel that continuing to just add pages and pages to a Newcomer page is
not what a newcomer really wants. Especially if they are also new to
Al-Anon.
The new members to Al-Anon just have a need to share and get answers. They
don't want to keep reading stuff that they possibly will not comprehend for
a while.

I went to f2f meetings for years before coming to an online meeting so I
was able to understand how to come in and sit back and see what was going
on. And I really had a big problem coming into my first online meeting but
I understood I needed to wait. Maybe my HP was telling me to just sit.
Yes I had a problem sharing in the beginning, but I noticed in the welcome
letter I could ask the List Administrator to help me. It was still
frustrating, but the LA was great with me.
A lot of newcomers don't want to read too much they want their answers.

My thoughts are to add an email address for anyone new to our meeting.
I have not figured out all of the logistics yet but....
Something like a beginners meeting but different.
Keeping it Simple.
There can be one or two chairs a week who introduce a basic share about
Al-Anon and how an Al-Anon meeting works and how online meetings work and
some information on how to share, no CC or BCC etc. And how to share at a
meeting, about topics and OTs. ==A simple personal share at the beginning
of the week.

And a second share by the chair or chairs (a couple of days later) focusing
on Step 1.

In this way the new members here can learn in a situation where they can
understand and learn about crosstalk etc
They can share to this meeting and if they are not understanding then the
chair explains it to them individually or to the whole group etc.

I realize there are multiple days a week we bring in new members. I have
not figured how long someone could be in this meeting. (Maybe a week or
so.  ??)
These new members can share the way they want/ need until they understand
how it works.

This type of situation will free the regular meeting to stay on topic and
there will probably be a decrease in OTs etc.
And when they come to our regular meeting they will already understand most
things about an online meeting, how to share, OTs etc. And knowing some of
this now their mind is a little calmer to read more informational pages and
they will have a couple of email addresses for them to go to to ask for
information etc. (The chair(s) and reminded about the LA etc)

I think writing this here may sound confusing but it is simpler than it
looks and there are more thoughts in my head about this.

Thank you for letting me share and put in my two cents. 😀

Take Care of Yourself!
Cathy