Dear Al-Anon members and Trusted Servants,

At the recent 2020 virtual World Service Conference (WSC), the World Service Office (WSO) shared with the Conference members the email created by the Board of Trustees’ Electronic Meeting Work Group to welcome newcomers to permanent registered electronic meetings. For more than 20 years, the WSO has registered meetings taking place online and via phone conference call. These meetings have evolved and grown significantly over time. Today, there are over 300 registered electronic meetings.

With the challenge of living during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Al-Anon groups scrambled to find ways to continue to meet and chose to meet temporarily online using many of the same platforms where permanent electronic meetings have been taking place. It is clear that members realize the importance of being able to welcome newcomers and offer hope despite the restrictions of the pandemic. Meeting in this new environment also brought questions of what and how to provide information to newcomers.

We are pleased to announce that the welcome email shared with the 2020 virtual WSC members can now be received by newcomers to any electronic meeting—whether it be temporary or permanent. We encourage you to share this URL with any newcomers to your meetings.

Welcome Newcomers

Please don’t hesitate to contact GroupServices@al-anon.org if you have any questions.