November 2, 2018
Dear trusted servant,
We are pleased to announce that Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., has licensed the Meeting Guide technology. Meeting Guide was launched in November 2015 and provides a platform for local A.A. entities (Areas, Intergroup/Central Offices, Districts, etc.) to post their local A.A. meetings and currently provides information to more than 100,000 users, reflecting some 86,000 meetings. Since the meeting information is all made available through the app’s mobile-friendly interface, those seeking a meeting have a simple, one-stop place to look.
The collated meeting information will be available in the future through G.S.O.’s website, www.aa.org, and will be a component of the proposed A.A.W.S. app. The intent of incorporating the Meeting Guide component is to make it easier for members to find A.A. meetings.
A.A. Intergroup/Central Offices, Districts and Areas that provide online meeting lists are invited to have their meetings displayed through the Meeting Guide. If you are already synchronizing your meetings through the Meeting Guide app there is no additional action necessary. When the new aa.org website launches at some point in 2019, your information will be seamlessly included.
Please note the meeting information database will operate completely independently from the Fellowship New Vision (FNV) database that is currently supported by G.S.O. Meeting Guide is a separate tool that offers A.A. entities full control of their local meeting information and collects it
in one place. Users of this new portal will be linked to the service entity providing the information.
Participation is, of course, voluntary, but the more connected the service is to the Fellowship as a whole, the more powerful a tool it will become. The current listing of Intergroups and Central Offices and other local entities in “A.A. Near You” on aa.org will not be impacted. Those wishing to contact A.A. in their community will still have access to the information that is currently available on the site.
We have developed instructions about how to connect with this new resource at https://meetingguide.aa.org. If you have any questions about this initiative or how to synchronize your meetings to this database, dedicated support is in place.
We welcome your input and suggestions.
In fellowship,
G. Gregory T., General Manager
A.A. General Service Office