My Speech

"I will try to help others.  I will try not to let a day pass without reaching out an arm of love to someone.  Each day I will try to do something to lift another human being . . . "

Very briefly . . . as your resident grenade thrower and pot stirrer and pushy east coast presence guy . . . I wanted to mention that at the business meeting next week where I'm going to propose we end the great hybrid experiment.  I've been grateful for Zoom over the last year and believe it's going to be a permanent presence in AA here on out.  However, I've been attending the live meeting for the last two weeks and I find the hybrid portion so distracting that it's keeping me away from the actual basement - the whole flow of the meeting is gone with all of the moving of mics and chairs and the delays muting and unmuting people.  Moreover, I've noticed that a lot of members who came here regularly aren't coming back - not even for a look-see - and, more importantly, I've seen a number come back for a meeting or two and then not return.

I decided to do an unofficial survey of some of these people who have come a few times to see how they feel and I've also contacted some people I respect and the almost unanimous preference is to separate out the Zoom and the live meeting.  I know this would be a hardship for those of us who live out of town or can't make it physically to the meeting but I really think we're in a crucial time here - a lot of people attend other meetings or aren't returning here once they see it's a hybrid and I'd like to see the meeting thrive.

The other ongoing issue is going to be finances.  We now have to pay full rent and over the last year we've not gotten much in the way of contributions from Zoom attendees, myself included.  Plus, I think having a big screen and a camera is going to keep newcomers away.  I don't think we've gotten a single newcomer in two weeks.

I don't think this is the time to discuss this further but I feel so deeply about it I wanted to give people fair warning it's coming up -  I'd be happy to stick around after the meeting if anyone wants to shoot arrows at me.