Have you been to an AA or Al-Anon convention or round up? What did you find there?
This week, I attended “March Roundup 2018”, an AA convention with Al-Anon participation in Dearborn, Michigan. My wife and I both went and attended sessions together, with a mix of AA and Al-Anon topics and speakers.
From Friday to Sunday, we attended workshops on
- God Consciousness
- The Al-Anon traditions
- Double Winners – the AA’s value of using Al-Anon
- Early AA Escapades
- 4 Important pages – 23 and 24 (Step 1, basically) In the “big book”: http://anonpress.org/bb/Page_22.htm and following; in the “12 and 12”: https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_step1.pdf
- Dr. Bob’s Farewell talk, https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/dr-bobs-farewell-talk
- Principles in our relationships
And we heard 6 speakers:
- Danny D (AA)
- Linda L (Al-Anon)
- Matt R and Summer B (Alateen)
- June G (AA)
- Earl H (AA)
As always, there was much more that we wanted to do than we had time and energy for. Activities extended into the night, both Friday and Saturday, with additional workshops, fun, games, and dancing. However we went home to get our sleep (about 45 minute drive). And Saturday and Sunday both started at 8AM, which we definitely were not able to make it that early.
I want to express my joy to the listeners who approached me to say “thank you” for this podcast. I do this podcast for my recovery and for yours, and it is always encouraging to hear how it helps you. We saw friends from our home groups and shared some recovery with them, too.
If you’ve thought about attending a “round up” or convention, I strongly encourage you to do so. If you’re afraid you’ll be singled out as an Al-Anon, I can honestly say that nobody asked me what program I was in. At this one, we made our own name badges, which could say as much or as little as we wanted. Everybody was warm and welcoming, and we got so much recovery wisdom. (Granted, not all the presenters were excellent speakers, but they all had something meaningful to share.)
Please call us at 734-707-8795 or email feedback@therecoveryshow.com with your questions or experience, strength and hope. Or just leave a comment right here.
A listener wrote and asked about a flowchart I had mentioned a while back, where all the choices eventually lead to “don't worry”. She wanted to know where to find it. Here's one version: https://lifehacker.com/this-flow-chart-tells-you-when-to-worry-about-anything-1638610395