Secular AA's Global Speakers Tour 2021 January 3 Kim from Oregon & Declan from Ireland

Secular AA's Podcast

This was the first world tour of First Sunday of Every Month secular AA speaker meeting, on Zoom January 3, 2021 with Kim from Eugene OR and Declan from Dublin IE. Included is a little informal pre and post-meeting chit-chat. The plan is to visit a new city/town every month and bring a local flavor of atheist/agnostic AA to the world. February we’ll be in Orlando with the OMAGOD group, March will be Cape Town South Africa, hosted by the Secular Serenity AA group, April will be from Montreal, London in May and Cottonwood AZ in June—all of the first Sunday of the month.

We conducted a poll, asking members what the want from the International committee/board and the ICSAA website. Here’s what members have to say.

Five Questions: What role should ICSAA play & what should www.aasecular.org provide?

#1 Answer: 77% agree the website should keep a list of secular AA meetings times and location.

#2 Answer: 67% agree the secular AA board should facilitate communications within the fellowship

#3 Answer: 55% agree we should consider more virtual secular AA conferences

#4 Answer: 53% agree we should have more information about starting secular meetings and events

#5 Answer: 5% agree we should only focus on a biennial face-to-face conference and keep it simple.

Every new edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous (1st: 1939, 2nd: 1955, 3rd: 1976, 4th: 2001) includes a new Foreword looking at AA today. AA writes, “Taking advantage of technological advances, for example, A.A. members with computers can participate in meetings online, sharing with fellow alcoholics across the country or around the world. Fundamentally, though the difference between an electronic meeting and the home group around the corner is only one of format. In any meeting, anywhere, A.A.’s share experience, strength and hope with each others, in order to help other alcoholics...”

20 years after writing that a global pandemic proved this to be true. While not every member enjoys Zoom AA meetings and gatherings to the same extent they looked forward to face-to-face gatherings, we have a generation of AA’s who got and stayed sober online, having never been to a community center or church basement to meet AA members. Interestingly something about the above Foreword excerpt really got some members upset. In 2006 the General Service Conference Literature Committee was told by the fellowship to remove: Fundamentally, though, the difference between an electronic meeting and the home group around the corner is only one of format. And so, they did. New printings of the 4th Edition since 2006 don’t have that ironically prophetic statement in the Big Book.

Today’s recording will challenge the suggestion that online AA is second class AA. You’ll hear and feel the sobriety and joy.

Find out more about secular AA and the International Conference of Secular AA @ https://aasecular.org

Secular AA is AA sobriety without the God-stuff, one of the fastest growing subcultures within Alcoholics Anonymous offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org