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.

JUN 28, 21 .. THE TRADITIONS AND ZOOM HYBRID MEETINGS ..

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.

MAR 22, 21 .. PHOENIX .. LIVE A.A. MEETING vs ZOOM A.A. MEETING ..

My last, live and in-person A.A. meeting, was back in the time period from March (meetings in Lompoc, California), April (meetings in Kingman, Arizona, and Laughlin, Nevada) and through to the end of May of 2020 (meetings in Anchorage, Alaska).

At the end of May 2020, because of the Covid-19 virus issue becoming increasingly serious, I stopped going into closed rooms with people I didn't know (many of whom were NOT wearing masks nor socially distancing) and this included live A.A. meetings.

I am now physically in the Phoenix, Arizona, greater metropolitan area. I have a close and special friend here who leads and hosts a 7am, Saturdy morning meeting. My friend ASSURED ME : Everyone would be wearing masks (in accordance with local Covid-19 protocols for indoor gatherings) and that social distancing would be enforced.

So I decided to visit this meeting and see for myself how it would feel after almost ten months of Zoom A.A. meetings.

I will get right to the one, major, and surprising to me, thing that I experienced and, to some extent, learned as to Live Meetings vs Zoom Meetings.

I felt totally relaxed and comfortable in the Live Meeting last Saturday.

I will elaborage on this (feeling relaxed and comfortable) at the end of this Post.

Now into some details.

1. The meeting was in a very large room (see the photos below at the end of this Post). The meeting attendance varied from 14 to 16 members (usually this very large room holds meetings of possibly 100 people). As a result, Covid-19 protocol social distancing was absolutely exceptional.

2. My friend was correct : each and every member present had a Covid-19 protocol mask. However, not each and every member actually and correctly wore their masks.

Four members (yes ! I was counting !) wore them on again, off again, on again, off again and two of them completely removed them. 

3. I can hear much better at Zoom Meetings.

4. I can write down memory joggers at Zoom Meetings. I don't feel comfortable 'taking notes' at a live meeting. Last Saturday, at the live meeting, we had three topics (love and tolerance is our code, gratitude, and Appendix 2 the Spiritual Experience) to discuss and I like to make short memory joggers for myself.

5. To go the the live and in-person A.A. Meeting, I had to get out of bed, get dressed, eat some breakfast, get into my truck and drive (about 30 minutes each way) to the meeting. I am now used to just sitting down at my computer in my home and attending an A.A. Zoom Meeting.

Yes ! I know ! Getting up and going out to a meeting is no-big-deal BUT it is a major difference between the two types of meetings.

Now here are my thoughts about being far more relaxed and comfortable at the live in-person meeting.

This was the biggest and most surprising thing I encountered.

Think about this : at a Zoom Meeting you are (well I am) usually sitting about 12-inches away from a computer screen. So I am looking at a lot of mini-images of people, some of whom are very active and moving about. 

At the live meeting I was able to look at people who were sitting quite still, some of whom were maybe 25 feet away from me, and I could just let my eyes look around the room at the other meeting attendees.

Doing this I found extremely relaxing as compared to the stress of staring at the screen of my laptop (and somtimes in the Gallery View) and looking at a myriad of mini-images.

So there you have it, my take on my first live and in-person meeting in almost ten months.

Below are a few photos of the North Scottsdale Fellowship Club where I attended the above meeting.

And into the meeting room we go.

Here in Arizona, we discovered 'ticket meetings'. You get a ticket when you enter the meeting. Then the meeting host picks tickets at random. If your ticket is called, you have the opportunity to share.

None of you will imagine whose ticket was the first one called upon to share. Yes ! Yours Truly.

The next three photos 'pan' from left to right. The first photo looks at the kitchen area.

The next photo below looks at the podium.

Lastly, below you can see that the main meeting room is very large. There is also a smaller meeting room across the hall from the main meeting room.

So there you have it. 

The live and in-person meeting was oh so relaxing. Amazing the difference between this meeting as opposed to staring at a computer screen 12-inches from my face.

Yes ! Of course ! I know you can sit back away from a Zoom Meeting Computer Screen. You can call in and quietly listen (I've done this often and it's a good option). You can bring up a view of the speaker only (to limit the distraction of the Gallery View). 

Smiling .. 

As I Write .. 

Over And Out From Phoenix, Arizona.

 

SEP 30, 20 .. MORE .. YES STILL MORE .. ABOUT ZOOM MEETINGS

 I keep thinking to myself, enough-is-enough with regard to zoom meetings, and maybe this is a true statement with this being my fifth (5th) zoom meeting post. 

The problem is this : I (is it just me?) still seem to be on a learning-curve and all of the answers to (call them) issues with regard to zoom meetings, do not just appear instantly and in full.

Financial Cost of zoom meetings.

Yes Sports Fans, unless you have (and yes many of you do indeed have them) unlimited GB internet data usage plans, there most certainly could be a financial cost to you for zoom meetings if you exceed your allotted number of GB in a billing period.  

When I first learned about zoom meetings, the months of March, April up until May 8,2020, I was staying in motels that provided internet access. So I had free internet access with absolutely no costs to me (other than those included in my room rent).

When I returned home May 8th, I went hog-wild on zoom meetings and came out free and clear because I came home in the middle of my billing period having used zero GB of data.

Then reality finally kicked-in. Before I knew the ins and the outs of zoom meeting costs and giddily kept attending meetings helter skelter suddenly my June internet usage bill came due and (low and behold) I owed an additonal $64.91 (or sixty five United States Buckaroos). 

I then understood that zoom online meetings use (not megabytes MB but) gigabytes GB of data. I have an internet plan that allows me up to 15 GB per month. For my plan I pay $39.99 per month. IF I exceed my 15 GB allowance there is an additonal charge for any overage. 

Translation : I need to watch my internet data usage because I do not want to be paying $65 dollars a month above my allotted usage of 15 GB.

What is Chapter 2 of our Big Book titled. 

THERE IS A SOLUTION

And? THERE IS A SOLUTION to zoom meeting costs.

First Solution : While on a zoom meeting STOP the VIDEO. This will save about 50% of the data usage.

Second Solution : Telephone into the zoom meeting. I know of two telephone numbers you can call and attend the zoom meeting for free.

720-707-2699

253-215-8782

The downside to this second cost savings method for zoom meetings is this : You can not see anything. It would be like a blind person attending any meeting. You can hear but you can't see. You CAN PARTICIPATE if called upon by pressing * 6 on your telephone.

Zoom Meeting Popularity.

Many people do not like and will not visit zoom meetings.

What to tell all of your friends who steadfastly and resolutely say that : "I don't like zoom meetings!"

Tell them this (and I am speaking of actual experience) as you lose another friendship of years duration : "It isn't about what you like or don't like. It's about carrying your own personal message of recovery to someone who needs to hear you!"

And my own opinion? A zoom meeting has to be considered as an acquired taste. NO. NO WAY will a zoom meeting approach the warmth and comraderie of a normal meeting. BUT a zoom meeting is far FAR better than NO meeting at all.

This is my own personal experience with the phenomenon of zoom meetings.

APR 9, 20 .. ZOOM.US AND MY THIRD ON-LINE MEETING

At least for the 'time being', this brief wrap up of my third meeting will be my last Post about the zoom.us online A.A. meetings.

Like all of life's many adventures, as we become more and more familiar with something that is radically new to us, the more comfortable our experience therewith becomes.

In the final analysis a zoom.us meeting is still an online, internet meeting using a computer or a smart phone etc et al. And therein lies a built-in problem because computers and online activities are fraught with all of the many challenges one encounters.

To wit: I was successfully signed into the meeting. I was feeling very comfortable with the venue. After several other members had shared, I was asked to share. I happily began to share about an event that happened recently (one which I plan to write a separate Post about in the near future) here in the Motel we are staying in. 

When out-of-the-blue my internet connection was disrupted and I was instantly and unceremoniously dropped! Just-like-that! An internet experience we've all had!

It took me some 15 or so minutes to get back into the meeting and my interest and momentum suffered a severe hit!

To end on an upbeat note: After the meeting ended, five of us remained signed in and online and we had a really great meeting-after-the-meeting.

But there is no doubt that these zoom.us meetings have a time and a place and I plan to continue to sign in weekly.

APR 2, 20 .. ZOOM.US AND MY SECOND EVER ON-LINE MEETING

This post is about my second online meeting using zoom.us. 

It follows my two previous posts, Parts 1 and 2, dated MAR 28, 20 in which I discuss my first ever on-line meeting. Just in case you did not see the two above posts, below are links to them.

http://aaphotoshere.blogspot.com/2020/03/mar-28-20-part-1-of-2-zoomcom-and-my.html

http://aaphotoshere.blogspot.com/2020/03/mar-28-20-part-2-of-2-zoomcom-and-my.html

In Part 2 above I wrote that "My Jury is out as to my feelings was it good / enjoyable or not?"

It is a lengthy post that goes into some detail about my (was it good / enjoyable or not) feelings.

Now I am fresh from my second on-line meeting and here are tonight's feelings.

First I went back to zoom.us and opened up a new (my second) zoom.us account using a different name. My initial zoom.us account uses my Mongolian name and connected Mongolian e-mail address. I did this for total anonymity being new to the zoom.us system.

For anyone new to zoom.us, be sure to closely read the next three paragraphs about work e-mail addresses and full last names.

Then last week, as I participated in my first ever on-line meeting, I noticed that many of the members were using both their first and full last names. When you initially open up / establish a zoom.us account you are asked for a work e-mail address and a full name. Being retired thirty years I have no work e-mail address. If I had to have used a work e-mail address I would NOT have opened up a zoom.us account (as in no way would I ever use a work e-mail address).  

So having successfully jumped (the work e-mail address) hurdle I set out to open a second zoom.us account with my English language name using only the first letter of my surname.

Bingo. I was able to do that. First name and first letter of my surname. I was very pleased with this feat.

However, when I signed into the meeting, zoom.us used my e-mail address instead of my name. More on this later.**

SECOND ON-LINE MEETING FEELINGS

Right-off-the-bat I felt much more comfortable with the on-line meeting format and feeling. When they asked "Will someone read the traditions?" I jumped in and read them. The instant I share in a meeting (I often volunteer to read How It Works or the Traditions) I feel a part of the meeting and this applied to tonight's on-line meeting.

It was a one hour meeting to the minute. I liked this. Not everyone shared. I liked this. I felt a lot less odd / stressed just looking at my lap top screen from 12-inches or so away than I did last week. I did a lot of site exploring (full screen/gallery screen/etc) tonight.

Then the volume of the speaker's voice stopped and the speaker became frozen on the screen. There I sat. I telephoned my main meeting contact and he assured me that the meeting was most certainly still underway. So I then knew the problem was at my end and not at the transmission end.

It took me about ten or so minutes (this is where it sure helps to have some computer experience with frozen screens etc) to get back to the meeting but arrive back I did.

**When I came back on-line, my first name and first initial of my last name (not my e-mail address) were shown. This was much to my great satisfaction because on-line I don't want my e-mail address shown for anonymity reasons not to mention spam!

Bottom Line: 

An on-line meeting will never ever be even remotely the same as a live-in-person meeting.

Since I was vastly more comfortable with this my second on-line meeting, I have reason to believe that this will continue to be the case.

My wife shut her eyes and she greatly enjoyed the meeting.

On-line meetings are available 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week. This may be my next on-line zoom.us meeting adventure.

Smiling all the while.

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

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

In Part 1 of 2 above, I shared how I got interested in, and decided to explore, an on-line recovery meeting or (if you will) a zoom meeting.

Now for the actual meeting itself.

I am not new to computers nor to the internet and there are some things I am unable to share with you who are either totally inexperienced or who are running other computer brands (I have a Lenovo lap top) and various operating systems (I am running Windows 10).

I am not using a smart phone. I believe that some people are and I can't imagine doing that.

You have to know how to get onto video, turn on your speakers, etc. 

So (it was actually very simple) I arrived at the meeting. I did not know about myself being either muted or able to speak into my lap top so other members could hear me. Dan led me through this simple process. In the lower left of my screen was a microphone with a vertical red line through it indicating it was muted (off). Clicking onto the icon I could then speak and be heard.

THE MEETING ITSELF

My Jury is out as to my feelings (was it good / enjoyable or not?) about my one meeting.

At a live / in-person meeting, you have the chemistry of the drive to and from the meeting and that of the meeting room itself along with the fact that you are surrounded by other attendees present. You are not literally alone. Many of us have 'our chairs' (we sit in the same location each meeting) and often 'our chairs' are comfortable for us. For some odd reason I didn't feel all that comfortable during my on-line meeting. Nor was there any pre-meeting / after-meeting socialization I am used to.

Here was a big thing for me personally.

At 'my' meetings I know many people, the attendees (to a large extent) are familiar to me. I have years of history with many of them. At my on-line meeting there were 27 members and I only knew 5 of them. So I was listening to 22 members who I'd never met nor even seen previously. Further some were not even local members but those who'd 'found' the meeting on-line even through they lived elsewhere.

In a live meeting I relax and look around. At the on-line meeting I was 'glued to' my computer screen the entire meeting. YES I KNOW I could have gotten up and walked around but I don't do this in a regular meeting. I sit and stay seated but at the same time I am not 'glued to' a computer screen. 

There were also some on again / off again transmission problems with sound and picture that were distracting to me.

I spoke with a local friend here who also had just visited an on-line meeting for the first time. My friend also had mixed feelings quite similar to mine.

Will I return? I may, at least once more. I may also try some of the very large, multi-state, on-line meetings, knowing that everyone will be a stranger.

"Does The Shadow Know?" Maybe I will publish a Part 3 in the future.

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