LifeRing Meeting Reports — Delegates Assembly

Doug C • Meeting Convenor • Akron, OH In-Person and Local Online Meetings

Meeting IDs:  Not provided | HWYW meeting open to all

A decade has passed since LifeRing Akron first opened its doors to individuals seeking support in their journey towards addiction recovery. Over the past 10 years, LifeRing Akron has provided a safe, inclusive, and non-judgmental environment for those in need of support, and it was with great pride that we celebrated this milestone anniversary in January.

A secular option seemed especially crucial, given that Akron Ohio is where Alcoholic Anonymous was founded. And while it seemed unlikely that an alternative to A.A. could take hold in the city of its’ birth, Akron LifeRing has done more than that. Indeed, it has thrived.

LifeRing Akron has built up a solid core group of regular attendees. The number varies week to week, but between the in-person meeting and the two local on-line meetings, we can count on 4 to 9 attendees per meeting. Each of the three meetings always has a delegate to the annual LifeRing elections. We have a group text where members can keep in touch daily, reach out if they are struggling, and ask for impromptu meetings if they are having urgent issues.

Community outreach on a local level is important, so LifeRing Akron has always participated in recovery related events. Last year we had a table at the Steps for Change memorial and awareness event and we participated in the International Overdose Awareness Day. We also made lemonade out of lemons by sending one of our members to their weekend OVI class with pamphlets and a Humanly Possible book to give to the instructor. We do have a local website, but it is a work in progress.

LifeRing Akron is fortunate in that we have a number of generous attendees. As such, we are able to meet our expenses, donate supplies to the facility that hosts our in-person meeting, and make donations to LifeRing.

It’s been an exciting ten years! The next ten will be even better!

Doug D.

On behalf of Akron’s in-person and two local on-line meetings.

Craig W • eGroup Moderator
LSRsafe Email Group

The LSR Safe email group was created in 2004 and is the most active email group. Currently, there are 450 members. Monthly attendance varies perhaps with the seasons. Monthly posts number between 500 and 2,000.

The group is quite healthy and usually attracts new members weekly. The numbers do not document the members who read the posts of others but do not contribute their own thoughts and experiences. It is sometimes difficult to keep up with the heavy traffic of messages.

The group thrives largely because of newcomers who are warmly welcomed by all. It is a good mix of long-term Sobrietists, and those in the throes of the early days of abstinence, and all the experiences in between. This group, along with the weekly Zoom meeting of its members, has been vital to my sobriety on a daily basis. I have learned so much here!

Twyla W.
Washington State

Mike McDonnell | Chairperson
LifeRing Ireland

We provide a daily Zoom meeting which attracts a full attendence on every occasion.

We are continuing to roll-out face to face weekly meetings following COVID and currently organise meetings in five locations in Dublin.

Our objective is to continue to grow our face to face meetings in Dublin and in some other areas throughout Ireland. 

We have an excellent cohort of conveners and are constantly working on attracting new people who meet the criteria. 

I look forward to catching up with you and Lifering colleagues.

Kindest regards

Mike McDonnell, Chairperson

LifeRing Ireland | Phone 00353 87 9883919

(Thanks to LifeRing, I have enjoyed sobriety since December 4  2015.)

Lawrence C • Meeting Convenor • Salt Lake City In-Person Meetings

Meeting IDs:  83 and 466 | HWYW meeting open to all

The following is an annual update on LifeRing meetings in Utah as of May 2023.

LifeRing Utah has operated a “How Was Your Week?” meeting midday on Saturdays since 2013. The original convenor was Mahala C., who helped found a LifeRing chapter in Utah. I first attended that meeting in late 2015, and became the regular convenor for it in 2018. Colin B. and Michelle F. have been longstanding alternate convenors for this meeting, and more recently Kade H. has also served as an alternate convenor.

The Saturday meeting originally met at the Utah Pride Center in Salt Lake City. The Pride Center was closed intermittently, and then permanently, as they looked for a new office location. That spurred the search for a new LifeRing meeting venue. Since 2017, we have met from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM Saturdays at First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City, and FBC has been a welcoming venue for us. We are not charged for use of a room or for parking, and the church is also conveniently located near mass transit access.

Weekly attendance varies, but usually is somewhere between 6 and 12 people. The meeting format has remained consistent as a “How Was Your Week?” meeting. We solicit donations, and utilize those funds to make annual donations to the church for use of the room. Colin B. serves as our local treasurer. Our largest expenses are the fees for registration and webhosting of the LifeRing Utah website: www.liferingutah.org. Our website is maintained and updated by our volunteer webmaster, Rob W.

We also have a weekday night meeting. It meets on Wednesdays from 7:00 to 8:00 PM, also at First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City. The first meeting was held in May 2022. It also follows the “How Was Your Week?” format. The convenor is Mark L., who previously served as a convenor for a LifeRing meeting in California. Attendance at this meeting is smaller but regular, usually averaging around four people.

One “How Was Your Week?” meeting used to meet on Sunday mornings at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, on the campus of the University of Utah. The HMHI instituted pandemic protocols in March 2020, and terminated all in-person meetings in the building. That pandemic protocol remains in place, so the Sunday meeting has remained suspended. It has been removed from the national listing of LifeRing meetings, but is still listed on our local website as suspended, in the hope that it might someday resume. Colin B. was the convenor for this meeting. He hopes that his outreach efforts at HMHI will maintain LifeRing’s presence as a visible and viable alternative to 12 step meetings for people attending HMHI’s intensive outpatient program, as well as patients currently undergoing detox care.

There is a new, independently organized LifeRing meeting in St. George, in southern Utah. It meets Saturdays at 5 PM at the Washington County office of USARA, Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness. It normally follows a “How Was Your Week?” format, but also offers discussion of other topics. Though it is operated independently of LifeRing Utah, the organizers asked to be listed on our website and meeting schedule, and we were happy to do so.

LifeRing Utah has faced significant challenges in the last few years, from the loss of multiple long-standing convenors to all the effects of COVID-19. We are happy to have weathered those challenges, and pleased to have found our meetings resilient and growing despite them. We also appreciate the national leadership of LifeRing, and all the volunteer work that makes its success possible.

Lawrence C.
Saturday Salt Lake City, UH

Shane Simons • Meeting Convenor • Mondays at 7:30pm Pacific Time

Empowered! | Meeting ID: 1193008 | Zoom Meeting ID: 892 959 805, Passcode: LifeRing | HWYW Meeting open to all

Empowered! is a How Was Your Week meeting that is open to all. The meeting agenda stresses the 3 “S” philosophy of LifeRing and encourages participants to create a Personal Recovery Plan and empower themselves in recovery.

Attendance in this meeting has grown over the last 2 years and now includes several regulars and semi-regulars. The bulk of this meeting has consistently been newcomers and I never know what to expect. Keeping that in mind the meeting has remained focused on the newcomers. Attendance fluctuates between 8 and 20 participants. Being the first LifeRing meeting that I attended; I considered this my “home” meeting.

I will represent this meeting as the delegate for the Annual Congress.

Shane Simons

Twyla W • Meeting Convenor • Wednesdays at 5:00pm Pacific Time • Online

LSRsafe Email Group | Meeting ID: 3175007 | HWYW meeting for members of the LSRsafe eGroup

This is a Zoom meeting for active LSRsafe eGroup subscribers. The LSRsafe email group is administered by Craig Whalley:  cswhalley@lifering.org. That group is entirely via email.

Thank you,
Twyla
Lakewood, WA

Sue Betts • Meeting Convenor • Wednesdays at 5:30pm Pacific Time • Online

The Liver Spot | Meeting ID: 31801 | Zoom Meeting ID: 856 0614 8917, Passcode: lifering | Focus meeting open to all

The Liver Spot is a LifeRing Focus Meeting for people in recovery who are also managing SUD-related medical conditions. This meeting embraces the LifeRing’s 3-S philosophy of “sobriety, secularity, and self-direction” and offers a platform for patient-to-patient knowledge exchange.

The Liver Spot is an active and engaged community of folk who join to support their own recovery and the recovery of others. LifeRing's peer-to-peer support model has proven an incredibly powerful tool for core and newcomers. Crosstalk is huge and the camaraderie is unparalleled. It's peer-to-peer support and candid crosstalk that makes The Liver Spot such a unique resource for people in recovery and as a supporting resource for healthcare providers.

History

The Liver Spot was introduced on December 23, 2020. It originated from a Convenor Group email saying something like:

Will someone please start a liver transplant meeting? I can’t understand a word they're talking about.

In the beginning, this meeting ran form 6:00pm to 7:00pm Pacific. We started out with approximately 18 participants – a number that steadily rose as the meeting gained traction. When we reached a consistent group of 30, we voted to extend the meeting for a half-hour to better accommodate group shares and our intensity of crosstalk.

Current

This meeting now supports an average of 55 people per week with a core group of about 40. We've made it through 5 losses, 2 slips, 9 transplants, 10 transplants! Congratulations, Paula!! 10 listings, and countless paracenteses. The Liver Spot is made up of an interesting mix of very strong personalities from a variety of backgrounds. Attendance from hospital beds is a regular occurrence. We’re all very grateful to have the flexibility Zoom meetings provide.

Surviving the wait to be listed and the aftershocks of a liver transplant is tough. Being able to talk with others who are at various stages of their own recovery journeys is cathartic and can build confidence and strength. People in recovery and patients undergo treatment gain a better understanding of the road ahead and the supportive power of a home group cheering for their success.

It’s not unusual for this meeting to run over three hours long. We close the meeting around 7:00pm and slip into what we affectionately call “Romper Room.” It’s a space where we can decompress after the intensity of this immersive, emotional meeting.

There’s a lot of graphic medical treatment talk, so The Liver Spot is not for everyone, but it is open to everyone. If nothing else, it offers a glimpse into SUD-related medical challenges for people who have never considered the long-term effects of drinking.

People find The Liver Spot through hospital recommendations, from friends, and from other recovery support groups, We are especially grateful to all the LifeRing convenors who suggest The Liver Spot to their meeting members.

One of the best things about The Liver Spot? They speak my language! Even if you can’t quite get the pronunciation right, everyone knows you mean paracentesis.

Everyone needs a meeting where people understand what you’re talking about.

Sue
San Francisco

Charmaine, John, Kirk, Benji and Pat
you are missed

Sue Betts • Meeting Convenor • Fridays at 12:00pm Pacific Time • In-Person

LifeRing in San Francisco City Hall | Meeting ID: 480 |  HWYW meeting open to all

LifeRing opened its HYWY meeting in San Francisco City Hall on February 3rd, 2023. This is the first in-person meeting to run in San Francisco since the pandemic shut down our SF onsite locations. This is a weekly “How Was Your Week” check-in meetings for people seeking support with substance use challenges.

We offer a recovery-forward meeting held on Fridays at 12:00pm noon in Room 278 in San Francisco City Hall. All people who want to be free from alcohol and drugs and stay free from alcohol and drugs are welcome.

We average 8 people per meeting with a core group of five very smart and very likable people who make recovery a focus in their lives.

Empower Your Sober Self in LifeRing face-to-face meetings with like-minded people in recovery here in the City by the Bay!   

Sue
San Francisco

go warriors!

Shane S. • Meeting Convenor • Fridays at 10:00pm Pacific Time • Online

Rise Above This | Zoom Meeting ID: 891 4411 0016, Passcode: lifering | HWYW meeting is open to all

I really enjoy this How Was Your Week, open to all meeting. This late-night meeting draws the night owls and has a good following. It allows participants the opportunity to attend a late-night meeting on the weekend which can be a particularly troublesome time for individuals in recovery. It is the weekend, right?

Participation has been 30+ of late and I foresee continued growth. Many newcomers to the meeting have become a base of “regulars” and it has been rewarding to see them returning. The feedback I have received from this meeting has been very positive and participants appreciate the opportunity to come to a meeting in this time slot.

A regular, genial, positive, and enthusiastic co-host has been a key element in this meeting and will be the delegate: Josh McAdams

John O • Meeting Convenor • Saturdays at 9:30am Pacific Time • In-Person

Meeting ID: 250 | LifeRing in San Leandro, All Saint's Episcopal Church | LifeRing Bay Area

Meeting number 250 was instituted on March 23, 2012 and at this point has been in existence for slightly more than eleven years. Prior to its inception, each of the three founding members had been involved with LifeRing for ten years or more.

The group meets virtually on Saturdays from 9:30 to 10:30 AM Pacific time. Attendance since establishment has varied from two (at a very early point in the meeting’s history) to fifteen, averaging seven per meeting, drawn from a floating population in the vicinity of twenty or twenty four. On average, current regular participants have been attending for eight and a half years and the majority have participated continuously since the meeting’s inception.

The duration of sobriety of individuals present on a regular basis varies from five to twenty-three years, with an average of twelve years per attendee. The cumulative sobriety represented at a typical meeting is approximately ninety eight years.

Meetings were held in-person between March 2012 and March 2020, at which time the Covid pandemic necessitated a shift to an on-line format. As a result, two members living between 400 and 2,500 miles from the San Leandro meeting site have joined the meeting are now participating regularly with the group.

The preference of regular attendees is to continue to meet virtually for the foreseeable future. If, or when, the meeting returns to an in-person format, the expectation is that the on-line connection will be continued to serve attendees living at a distance.

Thank you,
John
San Leandro, CA

Shane Simons • Meeting Convenor • Saturdays 10:00pm Pacific Time

Zoom Meeting ID: 891 6350 8638, Passcode: LifeRing | HWYW Meeting open to all

This late-night meeting serves as an alternative healthy place to be while in recovery. Like the Friday night meeting participants appreciate the late night, weekend, presence of LifeRing in what may otherwise be a difficult time. The regulars in the meeting provide a supportive and positive base and it has become a comfortable place to be. The meeting often runs late into the midnight hour, and many are reluctant to leave. It has become a warm and friendly place for many.

Participation in the meeting has grown to be consistently 30 plus. The meeting is regularly attended by individuals from the Midwest and East Coast which makes it a particularly late showing for them. We also regularly see people from Australia and other countries in the far south Pacific. Notably, it also has several people who are in long term recovery and are exercising due diligence.

A regular attendee who has 7 1⁄2 years in recovery has graciously offered to be the delegate for this meeting: Carlie Lawson

Sue Betts • Meeting Convenor • Sundays at 8:00am Pacific Time • Online

Food For Thought | Meeting ID:  70801 | Zoom Meeting ID: 851 9341 8930, Passcode: lifering | Topic meeting is open to all

This early morning weekend meeting offers a safe, positive space where people in recovery are encouraged to bring forward and discuss topics relevant to their recovery journeys. 

Food For Thought supports approximately 25 people weekly with a core group of 18 people gathering to support each other and themselves. Topics vary and recently include:

• Balancing recovery focus and life
• Routine: How it impacts recovery and how to adjust as things change
• Problematic friendships
• How has your recovery impacted your behavior

This is a strong meeting of people dedicated to making recovery a focus in their lives and an interest in exploring their relationships with their sober selves. 

Thank you,
Sue Betts
San Francisco