Meeting Format

MEETING FORMAT

Hello everyone.  My name is ______.  I am addicted to nicotine, and I will be chairing the meeting. Our meeting today is a ___________

WELCOME! - It doesn't matter in what form you have used nicotine or how many times you may have tried to quit. If you have a desire to live nicotine-free you are welcome here. We suggest attending a number of meetings to discover for yourself how the caring support of others and the daily practice of Nicotine Anonymous principles has helped us experience the gift of freedom from nicotine.

May we have a moment of silence, followed by the serenity prayer, please?

THE SERENITY PRAYER 

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

PREAMBLE – Chair can read or ask someone else to read 

Nicotine Anonymous is a fellowship of people helping each other to live our lives free of nicotine.  We share our experience, strength and hope with each other so that we may be free from this powerful addiction.  The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using nicotine. 

There are no dues or fees for Nicotine Anonymous membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions.  Nicotine Anonymous is not allied with any sect, denomination, political entity, organization or institution; does not engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any cause. Our primary purpose is to offer support to those who are trying to gain freedom from nicotine. 

7th TRADITION

Our 7th Tradition states: Every Nicotine Anonymous group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. If you would like to donate to Nicotine Anonymous, go to https://nicotine-anonymous.org/donate 

RULES OF QUIET AND COURTESY 

We observe the rules of quiet and courtesy so as not to interrupt whoever is sharing. Please keep muted when not sharing. *6 to mute/unmute on phone. Using video or not is each individual's choice. Please no smoking or vaping on webcam. Please click “raise hand” when wanting to share by going to participants window lower right (*9 on phone), and I will call on you in turn. 

Please be conscious of the amount of members who may want to share, so limit shares to 4 minutes. Please do not distract the person sharing by typing large amounts of text. When we each share our own experience, strength, and hope, we refrain from cross talk. This means we focus on ourselves and we do not interrupt, criticize, or offer unsolicited advice directly toward another member. Thank you for your consideration.

GREETER

Ask if there is anyone willing to volunteer to greet people as they come in and to post the greeter paragraph for newcomers.

Suggested GREETER PARAGRAPH

Welcome to The 5 D's Club meeting. If you have a desire to live nicotine-free, you are welcome! Please raise your hand by going to the Reactions button and Raise Hand (*9 on phone) and wait to be called on if you wish to share. Please limit typing in Chat when someone is sharing. Whether or not to show yourself on video is an individual's choice. Please limit your share to 4 minutes. When we each share our own experience, strength, and hope, we refrain from cross-talk. This means we focus on ourselves and refrain from interrupting, criticizing, or offering unsolicited advice directly to another member. Reminder: this room is G-rated. Thank you.  We’re glad you’re here.

 Will someone please read the 12 Steps of Nicotine Anonymous?

THE TWELVE STEPS OF NICOTINE ANONYMOUS 

1. We admitted we were powerless over nicotine - that our lives had become unmanageable. 

2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him. 

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventor of ourselves. 

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 

7. Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings. 

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out. 

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to nicotine users and to practice these principles in all our affairs

Will someone please read the 12 Traditions of Nicotine Anonymous?

THE TWELVE TRADITIONS OF NICOTINE ANONYMOUS 

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon Nicotine Anonymous unity. 

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving god as he may express himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern. 

3. The only requirement for Nicotine Anonymous membership is a desire to stop using nicotine. 

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or Nicotine Anonymous as a whole. 

5. Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the nicotine addict who still suffers. 

6. A Nicotine Anonymous group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the nicotine anonymous name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose. 

7. Every Nicotine Anonymous group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. 

8. Nicotine Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers. 

9. Nicotine Anonymous, as such, ought never to be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve. 

10. Nicotine Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the Nicotine Anonymous name ought never be drawn into public controversy. 

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV, and films. 

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Do we have any announcements for the good of Nicotine Anonymous or The 5 D's Club?

Service work is part of our recovery. If you would like to co-chair or Chair meetings, contact a chairperson.  

GC DECISIONS 

Our group has agreed that only the Nicotine Anonymous conference-approved literature, or with certain approved 5 D's Club literature, such as junkie thinking and the 5 Ds, are allowed.

Please be aware of the number of members who may want to share. We ask that you limit shares to 4 minutes. 

No one should record any part of any meeting.

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WELCOME NEWCOMERS

Do we have any newcomers, attending your 1st, 2nd or 3rd meeting, or anyone who has never been to a Nicotine Anonymous Online meeting and who'd like to introduce yourself by your first name?

Celebrating Time 

Is there anyone celebrating time without nicotine or an upcoming quit date?

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MEETING TOPIC

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END OF MEETING

Nicotine Anonymous is an anonymous fellowship. Everything that is said here, in the group meeting and member-to-member, must be held in confidence. This is the only way we can feel free to share what is in our minds and hearts, for this is how we help one another. 

Whom you see here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it STAY here!

OUR PROMISES 

On our path to freedom, joy, and serenity, we are guided by the twelve steps of Nicotine Anonymous, which allow us to successfully steer the treacherous curves of craving, emotionality, turmoil and unmanageability. Our spiritual life is not a theory; we have to live it. 

Physical improvement has been almost immediate. Our sense of smell and taste returns; the world takes on a new dimension of color and clarity. Our self-esteem is fueled by the genuine realization that a power greater than ourselves has pulled us from the muck of denial where we have been ever so slowly killing ourselves. 

We no longer have to answer the "craving call" every twenty minutes! We choose to ask for the help this program offers so that we can reduce our risk of becoming one of the millions of premature nicotine related deaths each year. What relief! 

We are learning to assert ourselves where previously we have been aggressive or passive; we are also beginning to love ourselves. As the numbness lifts, we begin to feel again, sometimes, to the temporary peril of those around us! 

Gradually, our interest is focusing on Nicotine Anonymous rather than nicotine. We begin to forget we had been nicotine users, except at meetings. We now realize we have been participating in a grand hoax. We haven't given up anything at all! 

Health is a new experience. We are humbly grateful for this gift. Our Higher Power, through this program, has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. 

THIRD STEP PRAYER 

Relieve me of the bondage of self.  Help me to abandon myself to the spirit.

Move me to do good in this world and show kindness.

Help me to overcome and avoid anger, resentment, jealousy and any other kind of negative thinking today.  Help me to help those who suffer.  Keep me alert with courage to face life and not withdraw from it, not to insulate myself from all pain whereby I insulate myself from love as well.

Free me from fantasy and fear.  Inspire and direct my thinking today; let it be divorced from self-pity, dishonesty and self-seeking motives.  Show me the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness and love.  I pray for all of those to whom I've been unkind and ask that they are granted the same peace that I seek. 

Through trust in our Higher Power, we found that we were taken care of in surprising and simple ways. This gave us new confidence and an increasing faith. Our victory over our own difficulties encouraged us to continue, and we became an example for others as well.

KEEP COMING BACK. IT WORKS IF YOU WORK IT