Zoom A.A. meetings here in the United States were an entirely new concept to me commencing in March of 2020 when the Covid-19 virus caused many meetings to be shut down and the doors closed.
I have since learned that, in the business world, zoom meetings have been ongoing since Zoom Video Communications was founded by Eric Yuan on April 21, 2011, in San Jose, California, in the United States.
HYBRID MEETINGS
Let's begin with this statement from Wikipedia : A hybrid event is a tradeshow, conference, seminar, workshop or other meeting that combines a 'live' in-person event with a 'virtual' online component.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_event
Now that we are seeing a vigorous return to 'live' in-person meetings here in the United States, many members who live in remote areas with few (if any) 'live' in-person A.A. meetings, have been supported in their quest for sobriety through zoom online meetings. These members are fearing their zoom meetings are going to disappear and are very concerned.
A.A. Tradition 5 states : Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
To this end, to continue to try to support the zoom meeting population, quite a few 'live' in-person meetings here in the United States are striving to continue both their zoom online meetings and coupling them with the members sitting in the 'live' in-person meetings.
Thus the term HYBRID MEETINGS has come to be a reality here in A.A.
Change can be difficult for all of us.
Recently some members here in the United States have stated that Hybrid Meetings are in violation of both Tradition 11 : Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films, and Tradition 12 - Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
The other side to this opinion is the belief that Zoom meetings are NOT open to the public so Tradition 11 does not apply. To find and to enter a zoom meeting, you must first have a zoom meeting identification number and, in some cases, a password and then you must wait in a waiting room until the zoom meeting host allows you to enter the meeting.
Finally we come to Tradition 4 : Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole. The A.A. conference approved book, The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, states on page 146, that every A.A. group can manage its affairs exactly as it pleases, except when A.A. as a whole is threatened and further that every group has the right to be wrong.
I think the Hybrid Meetings are a great solution to helping those in small and remote communities maintain their sobriety.
