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WELCOME TO THE ONLINE MEETING PAGE
JOIN ONLINE MEETING
Heart t' Heart has several online meetings. A complete list of the
meetings is at the top of our
list of all Heart t' Heart
meetings. Since online meetings
are a little
different from regular face-to-face Heart t' Heart meetings, and much different
from the sharing on the forum pages, we thought a few brief explanations might
be beneficial.
ABOUT HEART T' HEART MEETINGS IN GENERAL
Heart t' Heart meetings follow a specific format each time. There are
several important reasons for this:
It provides continuity and familiarity
It keeps us focused on the principles of recovery
It keeps the meeting focused on the solution, rather than the problem
It helps maintain a spiritual tone to the meeting
It keeps us on topic
It avoids letting the meeting degenerate into a "gripe session" or advice-giving
session
It provides a safe environment where people do not feel singled out or picked on
Many wish to have questions answered or talk in depth about a specific
challenge. There is time after the closing prayer to do this with those
who desire to remain for a bit. If a more extended discussion is desired,
perhaps a special meeting can be planned to meet those needs.
ABOUT THE HEART T' HEART ONLINE MEETINGS
As much as possible, we try to keep to the regular HtH meeting format.
That means our meetings include:
Opening Prayer
Introductions
Reading of the Steps
Sharing on the Tools (see 9 tools pamphlet)
Study/Discussion materials with sharing
Individual sharing, emphasizing solution more than the problem.
Closing Prayer
Further discussion or Q&A as needed
Heart t' Heart online meetings are not like a regular chat
room. The meeting is conducted by a leader, and people do not jump in and
post (comment) except at those points in the meeting when the leader invites
people to share. Then sharing is done one person at a time and others do
not interrupt, but wait for their turn. It may be helpful to simply
"listen" for a while at your first meeting to see how the meeting is run.
Following a specific format may feel somewhat restrictive to some, but it is the
best way to keep the meeting focused on the principles that help us find
sobriety. In the online meetings as well as other HtH meetings, we follow
basic 12 step traditions, for example, by avoiding cross-talk (directly
responding to someone else's sharing or giving advice). This keeps the
meeting safe for everyone.
ABOUT THE "CHAT ROOM" PROGRAM WE USE FOR THE
ONLINE MEETING
When you go to the chat room, the first screen you see asks you to sign in.
Please use whatever name you want to be called by in the meeting. This
name will appear by each of your comments. This is a private meeting, so
only those who sign in will see your name or your posts. If you choose to
register and enter a password, the username you choose will be saved for you.
If you register, please do not enter your last name or your real e-mail address.
Make up one to preserve the spirit of anonymity we practice at our meetings.
One of the first things you notice once the meeting starts is that things go
more slowly than in a face-to-face meeting. It takes longer to type than
to speak. For that reason, the person conducting the meeting will copy and
paste from a word-processing document (the 12 Steps, for example) as much as
possible to speed up the meeting. Participants in the meeting might want
to type out their introductions and sharing ahead of time and then copy and paste them (if they
know beforehand what they want to say).
To enter comments (when sharing, for example), type in the box
and the bottom of the screen and then hit "Enter" or click on the "Send"
button.
It works best to post short sentences or phrases,
rather than typing your whole comment before entering it. That way others
in the meeting can follow along as you are typing rather than having to wait
until you are completely done before they can read anything. Of course, if
you have pre-written your sharing, you can copy it and paste it in all at once.
It happens sometimes that a person loses their connection to the
Internet. If this happens, do not close the browser window, just reconnect
to the Internet and click on the "Refresh" or "Reload" button at the top of your
browser window (or click on "Reload" in the View menu). That will update
the comments.
IMPORTANT: When you
leave the chat room, please do so by clicking on the word "Exit" at the
top
right corner of the screen, rather than just closing the window. Otherwise the
program doesn't register that you have left the meeting and others may keep trying to talk to you.
HOW YOU "ATTEND" THE ONLINE MEETING
As mentioned above, all the online meetings are listed at the top of our
list of all Heart t' Heart
meetings.
To attend any meeting
, click on
JOIN ONLINE MEETING
at the time of the meeting
*If you need to convert the times to
your time zone, you can access a time converter by clicking
here. Under
the "From Time Zone" column, select US/Mountain or America/Denver. Under
the "To Time Zone" column, select your own time zone.
If you get an error message when you try to
connect to the meeting, keep trying. It may take a few tries.
If you have any questions or comments about the online meeting,
you can e-mail us by clicking
here.
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