[Businessmtg] Newcomers Committee/Info

[Bubbe Turner]

Hi all,

There are wonderful Guidelines published by WSO specifically for Newcomers'
Meetings.  Read them, absorb that information.  It works as a meeting
separate from other meetings (not before, during or after other meetings),
specific subjects are suggested, CAL is provided (aside from a simple
Newcomer packet), a list of other meetings is provided and newcomers are
encouraged to attend as many as possible in addition to the Newcomers
Meeting (which is a series of 6 meetings) and the NC meetings are led by a
series of volunteers with long time service and attendance in the program.
It Works If You Work It.

I did it for years in a rural area with not many f2f meetings available and
our attendance was always an overflowing room full of people.  There are
solid suggestions contained in the Guidelines that should be heeded.  At
our local NC meeting we were fortunate to have had visiting WSO members
attend a couple of different times and it was marvelous.  They High-5'd
afterwards.

Otherwise in an OL situation short shares by mostly long time members on
suggested topics from the Al-Anon SC Guidelines posted in a groups
information pages as 'Newcomer Page' is helpful.  This has successfully
been done in other OL email meetings.  The main criteria is to Keep It
Simple (and available).

This is my long time experience.  It is a simple thing to accomplish.  The
main reason the Newcomer Committee here at ASP wasn't productive is because
there was a lack of knowledgeable members and a lack of information
available or refused.
BJ