Do you need to find new, fresh speakers for your meeting?
Dear Fellows,
If so, we can help! The next Brooklyn Intergroup Speaker Exchange is on Saturday, April 10 at 8:00am ET.
If you've never participated in a speaker exchange, this is how it works:
- Speaker Chairs (AKA Program Chairs) meet on Zoom with a list of speaking commitments they need to fill for the next couple of months. (Some Chairs exchange all of the commitments they need to fill, and some only exchange a few.)
- The Chairs are paired off in breakout rooms randomly to exchange commitments. ("I'll take two of your Sundays at 3:00pm if you take two of my Mondays at 7:15am.")
- The breakout rooms stay open until all of the commitments have been filled. (Chairs who fill all their commitments quickly usually leave the exchange early.)
- After the exchange, the individual Speaker Chairs will use the list of commitments for which they sign up to find speakers to actually speak at the meetings.
- Some Speaker Chairs will take this list to their homegroup's business meeting and make an announcement like this, “I need 2 speakers for upcoming Mondays at 6pm and I need one speaker for an upcoming Sunday at 4pm”.
- Other Speaker Chairs will ask people they know, sponsees, etc.
So, Speaker Chairs still have to find speakers, but they are finding them for meetings other than their home group.
Cons: One possible con is that you don't know who you are going to get as a speaker for your home group. Since it's up to someone else to find the speaker for your group, you don't have much control over who it will be. (However, this is a good opportunity to practice a little 3rd Step Letting Go.)
Pros: The pros of participating in a speaker exchange are numerous:
- Your home group members will be exposed to speakers they've never heard before.
- You get to meet other Speaker Chairs from around the city.
- You get to participate in the building and strengthening of our recovery community.
- You have the opportunity to learn about other meetings and even visit them (if you decide to attend the meetings for which you find speakers).
- You get to keep an AA tradition alive, even in this time of isolation.
Thank you for reading this long description and we look forward to seeing you at the next Brooklyn Intergroup Speaker Exchange.
Please fill out this form to participate in the Brooklyn Intergroup Speaker Exchange on Saturday, April 10 at 8:00am ET.
And please remember that you don't need to exchange all your commitments. You can choose to exchange as few or as many as you like!
WHEN: Saturday April 10, 2020 @8:00am ET
WHERE: The exchange will be conducted over Zoom. The Zoom Meeting ID will be sent to participants before the event.
WHAT: We will be exchanging speaking commitments for May and June 2021.
This virtual speaker exchange will be limited to the first 16 groups that reply by filling out the form! We will open future exchanges to more groups.
ANYTHING ELSE? Please send questions or comments to: exchange@bigaa.org
Please forward this email to anyone who can use the information, and encourage your friends and fellows to subscribe to our updates at bigaa.org. If you know of a Brooklyn meeting that's open and not listed below, please let us know at info@bigaa.org!
In service,
Brooklyn Intergroup
24 hour hotline: 718-851-3039
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