MAR 28, 20 (Part 1 of 2) .. ZOOM.US AND MY FIRST EVER ON-LINE MEETING

My welcome to the 'high tech' (at least it is 'high tech' to me) world of AA Meetings on the internet (be it via lap top / desk top / or even a smart phone) has now begun.

With so very many meetings being closed/shut down/meeting room doors locked due to the COVID-19 corona virus issue sweeping the entire planet (or so it seems) more than a casual member or two or three have asked me.. 

"Are you using on-line access to meetings?"

"No I haven't been doing that."

"Why not?"

Unable to provide even the smallest credible reply to the above simple question, I decided to look into it.

Just in case one of you reading along here is interested, here was my process.

Step 1 (sound familiar?)

Realize that I have a problem that I want to solve but that I'm not able to solve myself.

Step 2

Seek out a power greater than myself to assist me.

Step 3

Make a decision to get assistance.

Step 4 

TAKE ACTION. 

I called two of my closest allies (I'll call them Dan and Tom) for assistance. Dan is actively hosting an online / internet meeting and Tom who is trying to accomplish what I'm trying to accomplish, gain access to an on-line meeting. 

How odd is this? My also uninitiated friend Tom, who knew just a smidgen more than me, managed to get me successfully online while he himself is still struggling to fully complete his task.

This is why newcomers to our program can sometimes actually be of more assistance to another newcomer that we long-timers with our decades of recovery!

Action Step 1.

I don't know why I did this, but I began by calling Tom my fellow newcomer to on-line meetings.

I was instructed by Tom that first I needed to sign into and then join something called zoom.us.

https://zoom.us/

With Tom on the phone with me, I went to the above website and said to him .. "I'm at zoom.us."

Tom said for me to look at the far upper right corner where it says .. SIGN UP, IT'S FREE.

Taking a very deep breath (after looking at all of the disclaimers such as this site uses cookies, etc) I clicked onto the SIGN UP, IT'S FREE button and I signed up with my Mongolian name (an anonymous name here in the U.S.) and established ("Lord do I really need yet another password in my life?") a password for zoom.us.

Action Step 2.

Tom then said that I needed to get with Dan who would tell me how to find 'our' meeting online and to access it using zoom.us.

Dan sent me an email with an attachment showing, not just one, but many meetings for the entire week.

Then I tried but I could NOT sign into 'our' meeting. 

Back to Dan I went who said .. 

"The meeting is not open yet. Wait until this evening at our regular meeting time and then sign into our meeting on the link I gave you."

And now, please scroll down to Part 2 of 2 below, where I will continue with..

The Rest Of This Story

Post Script .. The date of this meeting was Thursday, March the 26th 2020