Scripts / Meeting Materials

NBW HOST SCRIPTS

FOR 12:30:

Welcome to the {TIME SLOT and TYPE OF MEETING} of New But West. My name is (Chairperson) and I’m an alcoholic.

This is a CLOSED meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, only for those with a desire to stop drinking. If you have used any alcohol or self-prescribed medication today, please refrain from sharing but do contact someone after the meeting.

Please mute your connection when you are not sharing. As an added measure of security, the chairpeople have been instructed to mute all participants, until called upon.

For when you are sharing: The mute control can be found in the lower left-hand corner of the Zoom interface. When it’s time for open sharing and you would like to do so, please click on the “Reactions” tab at the bottom of your screen and select the “raise hand” and “lower hand” feature. If you are joining us by dialing in and would like to share, please press “star 9” to virtually raise your hand. All are welcome to participate.

I’ve asked a friend to read the New But West Preamble posted on the screen.

[Use the new version found on this doc.]

OPTIONAL: I’ve asked a friend to read ________ {please see meeting list for readings}

{For 12:30 Beginner Meeting} The format of this online meeting follows the 12:30 New But West Beginner format. For Monday through Wednesday and Friday, the chairperson will share on a topic of their choosing for up to 5 minutes, and then we will go to open sharing, by Raised Hands. On Thursday, we will read from Steps 1 through 3, and then we will go to open sharing by Raised Hands. By group conscience, we use three-minute timed shares. When you have one minute remaining in your share, you will receive a written warning in the chatbox, and when your time is up, you will hear a verbal, “time”. The last five minutes of the meeting will be reserved for any burning desires.

{For 12:30 Rotating Meeting} The format of this online meeting follows a combination of the 12:30 New But West Speaker and Literature formats. Monday is a Topic meeting, Tuesday is a Steps 4 through 7 meeting, Wednesday is a Speaker meeting, Thursday is a Steps 8 through 12 meeting, and Friday is a Big Book meeting. The last five minutes of the meeting will be reserved for any burning desires.

{For 5:30 Meeting and Sunday @ 5:00} The format of this online meeting follows the 5:30 New But West schedule. Monday is a Beginners meeting, Tuesday is a Big Book meeting, Wednesday is a Closed Topic meeting with the last Wednesday of the month being a Grapevine meeting, Thursday is a Step meeting with the last Thursday of the month being a Traditions meeting, Friday is an Open meeting with the last Friday of the month being an anniversary meeting, and Sunday at 5:00 pm is a Closed qualification meeting.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, we read the Preamble and How it Works.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we read the Preamble and Acceptance.

{For Men’s Meeting on Monday @ 12:30} The format of this online meeting follows the 12:30 New But West Men's Meeting format. Our speaker will share for 15-20 minutes and then choose a topic, after which we will go to open sharing with Raised Hands. By group conscience, we use three-minute timed shares. When you have one minute remaining in your share, you will receive a written warning in the chatbox, and when your time is up, you will hear a verbal, “time”. Would someone volunteer to be our spiritual timekeeper?

{For Women’s Meeting on Wednesday @ 12:30} The format of this online meeting follows the 12:30 New But West Women’s meeting format. The chairperson will share on a topic of their choosing for up to 5 minutes, and then we will go to open sharing, by Raised Hands. By group conscience, we use three-minute timed shares. When you have one minute remaining in your share, you will receive a written warning in the chat box, and when your time is up, you will hear a verbal, “time”. After our 1 PM secretary’s break, the chairperson will call for any burning desires. At 1:29, the Promises will be read.

Because this is a video conferencing platform, you might consider these measures to maintain your anonymity and respect our meeting space:

Please, for privacy list your first name and last initial only. You may change your display name by clicking on your name & selecting rename.
You may also choose to participate in the audio-only format. See Zoom for details.
Please, do not record or photograph the meeting.
Please, do not cross-talk.
If you choose to be on camera, please be respectful of our meeting space and your fellows. Thank you.

MID-MEETING Secretary’s Break: >> By Group Conscience, these general announcements are to be read in their entirety, as written, at the Secretary’s break in all meetings <<

In keeping with AA’s Seventh Tradition, Intergroup and NBW both need our support. New But West accepts contributions through Venmo @NBWTradition7, and Intergroup accepts contributions on their website. New But West now accepts credit and debit contributions on our website, newbutwest.com or .org. You may make your contribution anonymously. I will post the 7th tradition details in the chat window in a few moments.

Is anyone at their first AA meeting? This is not to embarrass you, but to welcome you.

Is there anyone new to this meeting who would like to introduce themselves?

Is there anyone counting days, 1 to 90, who would like to share their day count?

Is anyone celebrating an anniversary of 90 days, one year, or more this month?

We have an Anniversary Meeting on the last Thursday of every month in the Big Room for the 12:30 meeting and the last Friday of every month for the 5:30 meeting. If you’d like to share your anniversary with us, please alert today’s chairperson or the overall chair, and your name will be added to the celebrants list for that month. Also, feel free to just join the Big Room meeting on that day, and alert the chairperson before the start of the meeting. Anniversary coins are available by mail upon request, by filling out the Coin Request form on the Contact page of our website, newbutwest.org or .com.

{For 3rd week of the month} Friendly reminder that our Anniversary Meeting is next week.

Business meetings for the 12:30pm meeting are held the first Tuesday of every month at 1pm in the “Big Room” and the second Monday of every month after the 5:30 meeting is over.

PDF versions of the Big Book, the 12 & 12, and Living Sober are available to any newcomer or day counter, upon request. Please alert today’s chairperson, or our Literature chair, for links.

Sponsorship is an important part of recovery, and we have an interim sponsorship program here at New But West. If you have a year or more of sobriety and are willing to be an interim sponsor, please raise your hand at the camera, or type your name and any other details you care to share into the chat window. If you are seeking sponsorship, please take this moment to see who is available to you.

Are there any AA–related announcements?

Please Announce for the 12:30 Meetings:

On-Line and In-Person service sign-ups for the January to June 2022 Term can be found on our website at newbutwest.org/service. You may also contact Jane L (jane@lence.org) directly to sign up. As always, we require a year or more of continuous sobriety to do service for our meetings. We are continuing to seek co-chairs for in-person meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and still have online service positions available.

I’d like to remind everyone that in the spirit of the Twelfth Tradition, “Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.”

In other words, who you see here, and what you hear here, please leave it here.

{For 12:30 Beginner Meeting ONLY} We will now resume sharing with those counting days.

{For 12:30 Women’s Meeting ONLY} Are there any burning desires?

End of Meeting: Please join in the Serenity Prayer.

___________________________________

FOR 5:30:

Welcome to the {TIME SLOT and TYPE OF MEETING} of New But West. My name is (Chairperson) and I’m an alcoholic.

This is a CLOSED/OPEN (Fridays) meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, only for those with a desire to stop drinking. If you have used any alcohol or self-prescribed medication today, please refrain from sharing but do contact someone after the meeting.

Please mute your connection when you are not sharing. As an added measure of security, the chairpeople have been instructed to mute all participants, until called upon.

I’ve asked a friend to read the New But West Preamble posted on the screen.

5:30 Preamble

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.

The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self- supporting through our own contributions. A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

This version has been modified to be gender-binary per this group’s consciousness and does not reflect the views of A.A. as a whole.

I have asked another friend to read (MWF&Sun - How it Works/ T&TH - Acceptance) - READINGS BELOW

The format of this online meeting follows the 5:30 New But West schedule. Monday is a Beginners meeting, Tuesday is a Big Book meeting, Wednesday is a Closed Topic meeting with the last Wednesday of the month being a Grapevine meeting, Thursday is a Step meeting with the last Thursday of the month being a Traditions meeting, Friday is an Open meeting with the last Friday of the month being an anniversary meeting, and Sunday at 5:00pm is a Closed qualification meeting.

(Introduce Speaker/Start Reading Literature)

MID-MEETING Secretary’s Break: >> By Group Conscience, these general announcements are to be read in their entirety, as written, at the Secretary’s break in all meetings <<

In keeping with AA’s Seventh Tradition, Intergroup and NBW both need our support. New But West accepts contributions through Venmo @NBWTradition7, and Intergroup accepts contributions on their website. New But West now accepts credit and debit contributions on our website, newbutwest.com or .org. You may make your contribution anonymously. I will post 7th tradition details in the chat window in a few moments.

Is anyone at their first AA meeting? This is not to embarrass you, but to welcome you.

Is there anyone new to this meeting who would like to introduce themselves?

Is there anyone counting days, 1 to 90, who would like to share their day count?

Is anyone celebrating an anniversary of 90 days, one year, or more this month?

We have an Anniversary Meeting on the last Friday of every month for the 5:30 meeting. If you’d like to share your anniversary with us, please alert today’s chairperson or the overall chair, and your name will be added to the celebrants list for that month. Also, feel free to just join the Big Room meeting on that day, and alert the chairperson before the start of the meeting. Anniversary coins are available by mail upon request, by filling out the Coin Request form on the Contact page of our website, newbutwest.org or .com.

{For 3rd week of the month} Friendly reminder that our Anniversary Meeting is next week.

Business meetings for the 12:30 pm meeting are held the first Tuesday of every month at 1 pm in the “Big Room” and the second Monday of every month after the 5:30 meeting is over.

PDF versions of the Big Book, the 12 & 12, and Living Sober are available to any newcomer or day counter, upon request. Please alert today’s chairperson, or our Literature chair, for links.

Are there any AA–related announcements?

For the 5:30 Meeting:

5:30 pm NBW in-person meeting will take place Monday, Wednesday, Friday with Rainbow Room continuing to meet on Tuesday and Thursday until further notice
All of our service positions for NBW 5:30 Zoom and in-person meetings have been filled. Congratulations to all our Trusted Servants.
A quick update about our in-person meetings. In accordance with the most recent meeting with the church, masks must be worn in the church common areas (including the bathrooms). Masks are to be worn inside the meeting space according to the Group conscience for the NBW 5:30 meetings. All NBW in-person chairs will keep the air circulating in the space so we can continue to keep our physical space open during this time.

In other words, who you see here, and what you hear here, please leave it here.

________________________________

READINGS

NEW BUT WEST PREAMBLE

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.

Service Material from the General Service Office A.A. PREAMBLE © Copyright The AA Grapevine, Inc. Reprinted with permission Rev.5/15/13 SM F-92 This version has been modified to be gender neutral per this group’s consciousness and does not reflect the views of A.A. as a whole.

ACCEPTANCE

From page 417 in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Acceptance is the answer to ALL of my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation- some fact of my life- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God's world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept my life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.

7TH STEP PRAYER

My Creator, I am now willing that You should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that You now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to You and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do Your bidding.

HOW IT WORKS

Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.

Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it — then you are ready to take certain steps.

At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.

Remember that we deal with alcohol — cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power — that One is God. May you find Him now!

Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.

Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.’’ Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:

(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.

(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.

THE PROMISES

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past, nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity, and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us -- Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.

ACCEPTANCE

From page 417 in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous:

Acceptance is the answer to ALL of my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation- some fact of my life- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God's world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept my life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.

7th TRADITION COPY/PASTE
With respect to the 7th Tradition, Intergroup and NBW both need our support. New But West accepts contributions through Venmo @NBWTradition7 - enter the digits 2305 to confirm for your first time contribution - and Intergroup accepts contributions on their website. https://www.nyintergroup.org/shop/contributions/

You may also make credit and debit contributions on our website, newbutwest.com or .org. You may make your contribution anonymously.

(Chairs, please be sure to copy and paste, as opposed to cut and paste, thank you.)

LITERATURE LINKS

12 AND 12: https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/twelve-steps-and-twelve-traditions

BIG BOOK: https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/alcoholics-anonymous

LIVING SOBER: https://olipdf.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/living-sober.pdf

NEWBUTWEST

133 West 46th Street
2nd & 3rd Floors
(Bet 6th & 7th Aves)
New York, ny 10036

NBW HOST SCRIPTS

FOR 12:30:

5:30 Preamble

ACCEPTANCE

HOW IT WORKS

NBW HOST SCRIPTS

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FOR 12:30:

5:30 Preamble

ACCEPTANCE

HOW IT WORKS