How to start an online 12-step meeting group

Starting a 12-step meeting group has never been easier with the Step Club virtual meeting platform. Step Club is provides a video conferencing experience tailored for 12-step meetings. It's a centralized hub for online meetings for all 12-step programs.

If you're thinking about starting a new meeting, this post will walk you through how to create a meeting group, start scheduling meetings, and share them with your network using the Step Club platform.

1. Things to consider before starting a new meeting

If you're wanting to start a new online meeting group there are a few things you should think about before getting started. There is your group, and then there is the meetings that your group holds.

Your group can host different types of meetings but there's a couple things you'll want to decide on for your group first.

What will your group be called?

A group can be named anything. A lot of times groups will share a name with the meeting that they hold. A group can host different meetings though.

If your group will be focused on a particular geographical area, you might want to include the area in your group name. IE: Miami Group

If the group will host Men's meetings you might name it Miami Mens Group or Miracle Mens Group.

If your group will be nationwide and host different types of meetings you can stick to a generic name like Daily Miracles Group.

You can provide a description of your Group to provide more details about the Group and the type of meetings that it holds.

Is your group going to be associated with a specific 12-step program?

Some 12-step groups focus on a specific 12-step program IE: AA, NA, Al-Anon, GA, etc.

Step Club includes programs that aren't technically 12-step programs like SMART Recovery and Celebrate Recovery.

If your group doesn't fit any of these programs you can declare it as Other.

What type of meeting or meetings will your Group hold?

Meetings have more specific details that describe them. These are similar to in-person meetings and let members know what to expect from the meeting.

Name and description inform users what the meeting is about and any rules or other relevant details.
You can assign other members to the Chairperson or Speaker roles.
Meeting specific details like the 12-step program, the meeting format, the type (open or closed), audience (men, women, etc).

Remember that your group can hold different types of meetings, these can be set and changed for any meeting on your schedule.

2. Creating your meeting group

Creating a new meeting group on Step Club is a quick and easy process.

If you're not yet a member, sign up or sign in to your account.
Go the Start a Group page. This page includes more details about managing a group on Step Club.
After you read through the details, click the Create a Group button near the bottom of the page.
In the Create a Group popover, fill in your Group Name, Description, and select a Program.
Click the Create Group button to submit the form and create your new group.

After you submit the form, you will be redirected to your group home page where you can start scheduling meetings.

3. Scheduling your first meeting

Meetings are scheduled for a specific date and time. This allows them to be managed individually. Group members are notified about changes to scheduled meetings like time changes or cancellations.

To schedule meetings:

On your group home page you will see an Add Meetings button. Click this button to add meetings to your Group Schedule.
The details of this form will be automatically populated with the details of the last meeting that was scheduled. Fill out or update the relevant fields for your meeting.
Select a start time and select all the dates to schedule the meeting for in the calendar.
Click the Add To Schedule button to add the meetings to your Group Schedule.

That's it! Creating a group and scheduling your first meetings is a quick and easy process on Step Club.

In the future we will allow you to create a recurring meeting schedule that will handle automatically scheduling the meetings for you.

4. Invite people to your meeting

Once you have created your meeting group and scheduled your first meetings, it's time to invite people to attend!

There's a few different ways to share or invite people to your meetings.

You can share your Group on social media using the Share button on your group home page.
You can share a specific meeting on social media using the Share button on the meeting page.
You can invite people to a specific meeting directly by selecting the Email option in the Share dropdown on the meeting page.

5. Kicking off your first online 12-step meeting

The last step is hosting your meetings! As the group owner or chairperson, you will receive a notification or email about 15 minutes before your meeting is scheduled to start.

Click the link in your email to go to the meeting page.
On your meeting page there will be a Start Meeting button enabled in the top section of the page.
Click the Start Meeting button and you will be redirected to the meeting room / call.

After you start your meeting, members or subscribers will be notified that the meeting has started. They can start joining immediately.

Summary

Online/virtual 12-step meetings should be easy and accessible for everyone.

Step Club makes the process of starting an online meeting group quick and simple.
It makes the process of finding a meeting to attend easy. You don't need to search across the internet for outdated schedules.
Step Club meetings are a centralized, safe, and transparent place to find and attend meetings.
Joining a live meeting is as simple as clicking a button.

Help us shape the future of 12-step meetings by starting your meeting on Step Club today!