OCT 28, 21 .. AN IN PERSON / ZOOM HYBRID MEETING ..

Rhetorical Question : Which is best? A Live, In Person Meeting or a Zoom Meeting?

My personal jury remains out, and I think will forever fail to give me a clear answer to this Rhetorical Question : Which is best, a Live, In Person Meeting or a Zoom Meeting?

Having just written the above, the answer just came to me!

Answer : There is no best answer! Both have advantages and both have disadvantages.

Until the Covid-19 pandemic, the worldwide health crisis of the past year and a half, (that I personally date to March of 2020 when it became a stark reality to me in Lompoc, California, when a local club chained its doors shut) there (basically) were no Zoom AA Meetings.

ZOOM MEETINGS

There are a myriad of reasons to support a Zoom Meeting. 

I will not even begin to list all of the reasons to support a Zoom Meeting except to say, IF you need an AA Meeting, a Zoom Meeting is absolutely (with no qualification, restriction, or limitation; totally) better than no meeting at all!

IF you need a meeting, and you are physically unable to attend, or even find, a local, Live In Person Meeting, then a Zoom Meeting is your answer! 

IF you are too ill, or otherwise unable to leave your residence, a Zoom Meeting is an excellent solution. If you think, for one New York Minute, that there are Live, In Person Meetings everywhere, then you have not done enough world travel or even extensive travel here in the United States.

Zoom Meetings however are available 24-hours a day, seven days a week, all over the inhabited world.

LIVE, IN PERSON MEETINGS

What could possibly be a reason NOT to attend a Live, In Person Meeting?

The Covid-19 Panedemic. 

Odd as it is for me to to write this, in my opinion the Covid-19 Pandemic itself has become perhaps the only reason to think about not attending a Live, In Person Meeting. It has been my personal experience, this past year and a half, that many (if not most) of those attending Live, In Person Meetings are NOT wearing masks and the meetings themselves are NOT stressing social distancing. 

No, No, No! I am NOT saying that there are NO, Live, In Person Meetings, following Covid-19 Pandemic protocol suggestions! Possibly 10% of the Live, In Person Meetings ARE serious about being (to the best of their ability) safe in terms of Covid-19 transmission.

Also, the emergence of the Covid-19 vaccines has been a very positive development since this past January of 2021.

HYBRID MEETINGS

A Hybrid Meeting combines a Zoom Meeting with a Live, In Person Meeting. 

At a Hybrid Meeting you have both a Live, In Person Meeting as well as a Zoom Meeting where, to some extent, the people on zoom can see the people in the live meeting and visa versa, the live attendees can, to some degree, see those on the Zoom Meeting.

Today I attended, for the fourth time, a local Hybrid Meeting and it was excellent. The members of this Hybrid Meeting spent a fair sum of money, coupled with some highly technically skilled members, to set it up.

As you can see below, it is nice to be able to see the out of doors.

In many respects, the Hybrid Meeting is an excellent solution during these Covid-19 pandemic times.

SEP 28, 21 .. A RHETORICAL QUESTION ..

Here is the Rhetorical Question : 

Do any of you know how any human being (we will assume another Alcoholic) can instill into another human being the desire to go to any lengths in order to stop drinking alcohol?

Several years ago (it was December of 2018) I was speaking in Kyzyl, Russian Siberia. As was always the case, I never knew what I would find when we (me and Mike my Russian translator) entered into a venue. 

I always assumed it would be an AA meeting or something to do with AA (visiting a rehabilitation center etc). 

When we entered a very large building, I noticed from the people in the corridors (nurses and medical gurneys etc) it was a hospital and I assumed that we would be speaking at an inpatient rehabilitation center within the hospital.

When we got to the top floor, we entered into a large room and we were seated at a table up on a stage. Then, wonder of wonders, into the room flowed an assembly of young men and women wearing white doctor's coats. After everyone was seated, an important (he was the head of the hospital) man came into the room with an aide. After we were formally introducted, he joined us sitting next to me on my right with Mike on my left.

I turned to Mike and asked what was happening. Mike calmly turned to me and said that I was going to address the graduating class of medical students.

I nearly fainted on-the-spot. I am used to talking to groups of AA members or at least other alcoholics wanting to get sober.

I thought silently to myself : What on earth am I going to say to this assembled multitude of graduating medical students?

Bob Earll, one of my AA heros, often would say when he got up to address the attendees at a conference : I wonder what I am going to say today?

After some preliminary remarks by the head of the hospital the time came for me to stand and deliver.

As I stood up (and I mean this) I thought what on earth am I going to say?

OK. Lights, camera, action.

I stood and silently looked out at the group, looking from front to back and from side to side. I have seen this technique used by other speakers addressing other groups than AA members.

And? Here are my opening words :

"I have bad news for you all. I feel that you expect me to have the answer to the issue of alcoholism and, sad to say, I don't have any answers. However, IF someone wants to stop drinking alcohol, we in Alcoholics Anonymous stand ready to assist them."

And? I spoke for two hours. 

I always encouraged attendees to interupt me during my talks because people forget their questions if they have to wait until the end of a talk. And their questions assist me to steer my comments in different directions as applicable.

And? I answered a lot of questions during and after my talk. But I could not answer the question of how anyone can successfully transmit to another the desire to go to any length to stop drinking alcohol. 

That desire MUST originate within the individual himself or herself.

Judging from the reception and enthusiasm of the questions and comments, and the fact the two hours flew past as if twenty minutes, it turned out to be a successful day for the group.

Still smiling about this day in my life.