Reopening In-Person Meetings

Keeping our members safe is part of our traditions, as is complying with local authorities. Although a couple facilities are planning to reopen for regular in-person meetings, the risks and regulations are both high.

Through Town Hall discussions with our fellowship, we are exploring the best way to use our space.

Currently, about half of our original groups are successfully holding remote meetings and continue to use the 7th Tradition to pay rate. The landlord has generously agreed to discount our rent by half through December 2020 (to $1,250 a month). Assuming the current meetings continue to pay rent, we are able to hold onto our space at least to next March. However, we will need to add additional meetings or fundraising to create a sustainable future beyond that.

In our June 2020 Town Hall, we discussed the possibility reopening with a different format. Instead of “How can we go back to our usual meetings“, we want to answer the question “What’s the best way to serve the newcomer and suffering alcoholic“.

Until there is a vaccine and the virus is truly under control, which will take at a year or more, the safest way for a group to meet is remotely, an option that is proving successful and even advantageous for out-of-town and isolated members.

However, there are members and newcomers that cannot make use of remote meetings for a variety of technical and personal reasons. How can we best serve this population?

Also, it’s likely that many current meeting sites will no longer allow on-site meetings in order to avoid liability, so across San Francisco this underserved population will increase.

We have started discussing a new way to use 2900 as a meeting site specifically for our members who have no other options.

What might that look like? How can we do it safely?