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Welcome to the 6:00 pm PST Big Book Study Telemeeting. Now let’s take a moment of silence to meditate and invite God to our meeting. We’ll follow that with the Serenity Prayer.
“God. Grant me the serenity….”
In order to help keep the lines clear, we ask that you mute your phone by using the “*6” feature on your phone.
To paraphrase the foreword of the First Edition of the Big Book:
WE OF Sex Addicts Anonymous are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other sex addicts precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. For them we hope these pages will prove so convincing that no further authentication will be necessary. We think this account of our experiences will help everyone better understand the sex addict. Many do not comprehend that the sex addict is a very sick person. And besides, we are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all.
Hello, everyone. My name is _________ and I am a sex addict. I’ll be the facilitator for this meeting. Our Group Conscience has elected to use the Big Book of A.A. as its basic text. Time and experience have proven it to be the most successful approach to the Steps no matter what the addictive problem may be. Because of how it was written, we believe it to be the purest 12 Step document in existence. As far as we are concerned, it is what works for us. The only other literature we reference in this meeting is a dictionary from the late 1930’s. The purpose of this meeting is to learn from the Big Book how to improve how we each work the 12 Steps by extracting the precise instructions it contains. During this meeting let’s try to stay focused on finding the clear-cut directions in the passage being covered today. If you have other opinions, thoughts, theories, ideas or personal experiences that differ from the direction of the Big Book, perhaps after the meeting in fellowship or in a private conversation with one of us is a better place to discuss it. Let’s also keep our egos out of the the meeting by avoiding personal anecdotes or personal histories in the discussion. The study leader is responsible for keeping the meeting focused and may interrupt for that purpose. If you have worked the Steps for sex addiction with a sponsor by the specific instructions in the Big Book and had the promised spiritual awakening, then we would really like to hear your insights into these directions. If are new to S.A.A., to this meeting or to this approach to the Steps, we want you to know you are welcome here. Our hope is that you will hear something that will be helpful to you.
There will be a period of fellowship after the meeting. If you have questions, if you need to check in or get current, or if you want to discuss other literature, please stick around for the fellowship. That would be a better time for these subjects. Before we close the meeting people willing to sponsor will announce their names and phone numbers. We encourage you to stick around.
________ will be our study leader tonight. He/She will be using the Big Book Study Guide prepared by members of Dallas’ Primary Purpose Group of A.A. and adapted to sex addiction by members of the Dallas Primary Purpose Group of S.A.A. In this guide there are questions for almost every sentence in the Big Book. ________ will read a question and call upon a member to read the sentence out of the Big Book which is designed to be the answer. He/She will be calling on several people to answer questions from one paragraph each from the Big Book. Don’t be embarrassed if you get lost or don’t understand the format. Just say “pass” and we’ll call on you the next time around. If you would like to follow along as we are studying and do not have a Big Book, you can access it online at www.aa.org/bigbookonline. We would also like to take a minute or two at this time to allow all of those on the line to introduce themselves.
My name is _________, and I am a sex addict. I’ll be your study leader for the evening. Before we begin our study we are going to review a Tradition. This weeks Tradition is ___ and I’ve asked ______ (please choose a member who is knowledgeable of the Traditions) to read the long form of the Tradition followed by the short form and to offer some comments. We will begin our study on page ___. That will be in Chapter _______.
(Note to study leader… When opening each paragraph for comments, please precede it with this comment, “Let’s open that paragraph up for comment on the precise instructions it contains.”)
Closing:
“Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come if your own house is in order. But you obviously cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us.
“Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of
Happy Destiny.
“May God bless you and keep you until then.”
Our 7th Tradition states that every group ought to be fully self supporting declining outside contributions. S.A.A. meetings around the world normally pass the basket at this time to accept the voluntary contributions of its members. Since that is not possible in a telemeeting, we ask that you make a contribution to the Telemeeting Intergroup. That can be done on-line via PayPal at
www.saatalk.info or you can send a check to :
Telemeeting Intergroup
PO Box 782
Black Mountain, NC 28711
The Telemeeting Intergroup supports all of the telemeetings by maintaining the www.saatalk.info website, scheduling our meetings with the teleconference provider and in many other ways. Their costs are minimal and all excess funds go to the ISO. Face to face groups around the world give out chips to celebrate significant milestones of sobriety. This is not possible in our telemeeting, but we would still like to celebrate these milestones of recovery by acknowledging those who are celebrating. We have chosen to celebrate increments of 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and annual birthdays. Is there anyone here celebrating one of these milestones? (Pause)
As S.A.A. members the most important symbol of our willingness is a desire chip. A desire chip signifies our desire to stop our addictive sexual behaviors for good and for all, though we stay sober just one day at a time. And even though it is not possible to hand these out in our telemeeting, we
would still like to acknowledge anyone who wants to commit to our way of living. Is there anyone here that would like to begin their journey to sobriety tonight?
Our group conscience believes that the best place to check-in or get current is with a sponsor. After all, this is where real recovery takes place: in working the Steps with a sponsor. If your sponsor is unavailable and you need a temporary sponsor, if you don’t have a sponsor or if you are looking to change sponsors, we believe we can help. Will those of you who have taken these steps by the directions in the Big Book and had a spiritual awakening please announce your names and phone numbers so that those looking for help will know to whom they can entrust their recovery? (PAUSE to allow members to introduce themselves.)
Are there any S.A.A. related announcements? (Pause)
Are any prayer requests? (Pause)
Now let’s have a moment of silence for these and the addict who still suffers followed by the Lord’s Prayer or a prayer of your own choosing said in silence.
[Read the following to close the meeting, except the last meeting of the month. At that time, skip it and go directly to the Group Conscience meeting.]
Now it’s time for fellowship. I would like to remind everyone that this is an open call. We have no way of knowing who all is on the line. Please bear that in
mind when you give out personal information.
(the following is only for group conscience meetings held on the last Satuday of the month)
Group Conscience
It is now time for the Group Conscience meeting which will be followed by fellowship. If you are new, please stick around, we? We’d love to talk to you.
(Note to Trusted Servant : please review Robert’s Rules of Order at http://www.robertsrules.org/ prior to the Group Conscience Meeting. We follow these loosely.)
AGENDA
Welcome to the Sunday Morning SAA Big Book Study Group Conscience Meeting. My name is ______ and I’m a sex addict and your trusted servant for this meeting.
To paraphrase from Alcoholics Anonymous Appendix I:
“To those now in its fold, Sex Addicts Anonymous has made the difference between misery and sobriety, and often the difference between life and death. SAA can of course mean just as much to uncounted sex addicts not yet reached. Therefore, no society of men and women ever had a more urgent need for continuous effectiveness and permanent unity. We sex addicts see that we must work together and hang together, else most of us will finally die alone. The TwelveTraditions of Alcoholics Anonymous are, we SAAs believe, the best answers that our experience has yet given to those ever-urgent questions, ‘How can SAA best stay whole and survive?’ ”
Would someone please read The Twelve Traditions, the short form, p. 562 in the 4th Ed. of the AA Big Book? (p. 564 in the 3rd Ed)
Will the Secretary please read the minutes from last month’s group conscience meeting?
In keeping with our traditions, do we have any old business to discuss? (start with any old business from minutes read then ask for any additional old business, if none, move on)
Do we have any new business to discuss?
In keeping with our traditions, this group rotates service positions.
We need a Trusted Servant to lead the Big Book study section of the meeting for the next month. Suggested guidelines for this service are completion of the 12 steps in SAA using the Big Book and is currently sponsoring someone by taking them through the SAA twelve steps using the Big Book. Suggested sobriety is 90 days. Who would like to volunteer?
We need a Trusted Servant to open and close the meeting for the next month. Suggested guidelines for this service position are to have worked the steps with a sponsor using the Big Book for sex addiction (Currently on Step 12).
Who would like to volunteer? (This position may be taken by the same person who leads the Big Book study if another volunteer is not available, although rotating and shared service is preferred if possible).
You can find the opening and closing online at www.saatalk.org .
(At the February group conscience we elect a new Intergroup representative)
This group is a member of the Telemeeting Intergroup. Our Intergroup representative is elected for a one year term in February. Suggested qualifications for an Intergroup representative are as follows from p. 51 of the Group Guide:
1. At least one year experience in the SAA program.
2. At least six months of current continuous sexual sobriety.
3. Experience in service work at the local level.
4. Endorsement of their home group – affirming that the individual has the serenity and wisdom in the program to serve at the Intergroup level. These will be read prior to selecting the intergroup representative at the February group conscience.
Our current Intergroup representative is _______ May we hear the Intergroup report for this month?
Is there any other New business? (pause for new business)
Should a meeting format change occur, outgoing trusted servant please update this format with those changes and email the new document to website@saatalk.org
Please help me close this meeting with the Serenity Prayer.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Fellowship
Now it’s time for fellowship. I would like to remind everyone that this is an open call. We have no way of knowing who all is on the line. Please bear that in mind when you give out personal information.