Ooooooooops. Saw this too late. :(

How did it go??? :)

I bet it went just nice. Care to share?

Hi guys back from the meeting and yes it went well in my humble opinion.The guy chairing had a quick count up just before he opened up He said " dont want to worry you but theres about 45 which is i bigger than normal for that group I felt a little nervous waiting to get started but once i opened up it was just like talking to friends which they are as it was one of my area groups
A good friend just whispered in my ear before the start "just share from the heart" thats what i tried to do Some kind things were said to me after the break in general shares I felt honoured and privalged to have been asked thanks for asking

Oh, nice rivalino! Always good to hear someone sharing from the heart. I need to speak soon. It's time. I'm kinda dreading it. LOL

Have a nice weekend. :)

~Chris

Great to hear. Isn't it amazing when you just let it it without thinking what your going to say? That's when ya know it comes from the heart.

at the risk of sounding like an igorant hillbilly: What's a main share? Is that fix the group thing?

Treadster, it's when the speaker tells their "story"... experience, strength & hope.

Don't know what the meetings are like upstate NY, but here on Long Island, at open meetings there are two speakers who tell their stories, no sharing from the group. At discussion meetings someone tells their story and then they open the meeting up for everyone to share. Only those who have a desire to stop drinking can attend.

They are sometimes referred to as "drunkalogues", but we all need to hear where people came from otherwise there would be no identification. The best though is hearing the strength and hope that follows the drinking history. :) :)

~Chris

we call it an open talk in my area. DT do you have theses type of open meetings in upstate NY?

I suppose its just a slight variation on term's as chris & gim mentioned I used the term "main share" because being in the uk I thougt if i used the term"top table share" which is what we actually call it in my area Manchester uk it may sound misleading.The group i spoke at on friday have a rotating chairperson each week.each week the chair has to find someone to share there ESH for about 20 or 25 mins then theres a short comfort break after which the meeting is open for shares from the floor usually those shares will relate to identity with the main speaker but not allways .if someone just needs to share there stuff they would usually thank the speaker and share what they need to
Quite a few meetings in my area have open meetings once a month were two aa & hopefully one alanon member would use the entire 90 minutes to share there ESH without much time for anything aprt from a couple of thank you shares from the floor
I suppose thats were the local autonamy gives groups that bit of freedom to try to set the meeting up in how it works best for them Not been to a meeting in the states yet but one day i'm sure i will
have a great meeting if you are going today in what ever format that might be;)

Nice rivalino... and thank you for letting us know what a table top share is! You're right. I wouldn't have had a CLUE. LOL It is very much what we call here a closed discussion meeting. No breaks except at my 11:00am Saturday meeting which is 90 minutes. They call it the "bagel meeting" cause there are always fresh bagels. Spoiled!! ha ha It's very unusual for meetings to be more than an hour, though.

When I visited the UK in 1998, I was sober, but did not make any meetings while I was there. Next time!! I'm threatening M8Bear that I'm going to come visit someday. ;)

No meeting for me today, but an AA picnic with over 200, maybe closer to 300 AAs from all over our county. Interesting and fun but a very, very long day. I know now that I cannot let myself get so tired. I came home a little irritable!

Off to bed now for me. Nice and early!! :)

~Chris

Here in the UK lots of meetings start off with a main speaker, I have been priveledged enough to do it many times. I always pray before I start to allow my HP in to guide me.