To say, or to even imply, that the Covid-19 virus, along with its many effects on all of us over the past year and a half, was less than enormous, would be pure folly.
I, for one, had never ever heard of the term zoom meetings until March of 2020, when the meeting rooms doors in the Lompoc, California, fellowship were chained shut and the local members were told to go online and find zoom meetings.
We now know that zoom meetings in the business world have been ongoing since Zoom Video Communications was founded by Eric Yuan on April 21, 2011, in San Jose, California.
What foresight our co-founder Bill W had when he wrote on page 17 of the A.A. Big Book the following sentence : We are people who normally would not mix.
What wisdom our co-founder Dr. Bob had when he stated (you will find this in the A.A. conference approved book, 'Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers') : If you love everyone in A.A. you haven't been going to enough meetings.
HYBRID MEETINGS
Let's begin with this statement from Wikipedia : A hybrid event is a tradeshow, conference, seminar, workshop or other meeting that combines a 'live' in-person event with a 'virtual' online component.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_event
Now that we are seeing a vigorous return to 'live' in-person meetings, many members who live in remote areas with few (if any) 'live' in-person A.A. meetings, have been supported in their quest for sobriety through zoom online meetings. These members are fearing their zoom meetings are going to disappear and are very concerned.
Tradition 5 states : Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
To this end, to continue to try to support the zoom meeting population, quite a few 'live' in-person meetings are striving to continue both their zoom online meetings and coupling them with the members sitting in the 'live' in-person meetings.
Thus the term HYBRID MEETINGS has come to be a reality here in A.A.
Ah yes, we are people who normally would not mix and if you love everyone in A.A. you haven't been going to enough meetings.
I am personally involved in three HYBRID MEETINGS.
One of them is going along smoothly with no ripples.
Two of them have had extremely contentious (causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial) interactions with a member who is stating that Hybrid Meetings are in violation of both Tradition 11 : Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films, and Tradition 12 - Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
I am in the camp that believes this : Zoom meetings are NOT open to the public so Tradition 11 does not apply. To find and to enter a zoom meeting, you must first have a zoom meeting identification number and, in some cases, a password and then you must wait in a waiting room until the zoom meeting host allows you to enter the meeting.
Dr. Bob spoke at length about the fact (in his opinion) we do not have anonymity within A.A. If we don't know who one another is we can't help them outside of meetings should they experience a life crisis and need help from another member.
Finally we come to Tradition 4 : Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole. The A.A. conference approved book, The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, states on page 146, that every A.A. group can manage its affairs exactly as it pleases, except when A.A. as a whole is threatened and further that every group has the right to be wrong.
In each instance, the group, after discussing it with the member, simply quietly suggested to the the contentious member perhaps they might prefer to leave the meeting (which they chose to do),
I pointed out that all across the nation A.A. groups are experimenting with Hybrid Meetings and this is not unique to us here.
Onward, ever onward! Change is the only constant. And? There are those who resist change.
