Face to Face Meeting Format and Agenda.
This can be made (copy and paste) into a word document. Each section separated by ***** (stars) can be printed on a separate piece of paper and then passed out to members, so all can contribute. One member can read more then one item.
Welcome to On-Line Gamers Anonymous. Our Mission: On-Line Gamers Anonymous is a fellowship of people sharing their experience, strengths and hope to help each other recover and heal from the problems resulting from excessive video game playing.
Everyone, please introduce yourselves by name and affiliation - OLGA (recovering gamer) or Olg-Anon (family member).
Example: " Hi my name is Aaron, I am a gaming addict."
Everyone say hi!
Who wishes to read the serenity prayer?
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SERENITY PRAYER
GOD, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living ONE DAY AT A TIME;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
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PASS THE BASKET FOR DONATIONS
Read: Tradition 7: On-Line Gamers Anonymous ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
What this means is that funding for On-Line Gamers Anonymous comes from donations from its members. The reason we decline contributions from non-members is because it can cause a conflict of interest: we may end up in a position where we feel obliged to endorse the opinions of non-members that are contrary to the principles of OLGA. Furthermore, as an organization, we want to keep our focus on recovery, not on fund raising or money.
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Who would like to read "How it Works"?
HOW IT WORKS
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.
Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.
There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average.
There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders,
but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened,
and what we are like now.
If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get, it then you are ready to take certain steps.
At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way.
But we could not.
With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely. Remember that we deal with video gaming addiction– cunning, baffling and powerful! Without help it is too much for us.
But there is One who has all power – that one is God. May you find Him now!
Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point.
We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.
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12 STEPS/PRINCIPLES:
Here are the steps and principles we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:
Step 1. We admitted we were powerless over video gaming, and that our lives have become unmanageable.
Principles - Honesty and Acceptance
Step 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Principle - Hope
Step 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Principle - Faith
Step 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Principles - Action and Courage
Step 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Principle - Integrity
Step 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Principle - Willingness
Step 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Principle - Humility
Step 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Principle - Brotherly love
Step 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure, them or others.
Principle - Justice
Step 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Principle - Perseverance
Step 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.
Principle - Spirituality.
Step 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other video gaming addicts and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Principle – Service
Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.”
Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints.
The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines.
The principles we have set down are guides to progress.
We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
Our description of the video gaming addict,
and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
(a) That we were video gaming addicts and could not manage our own lives.
(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our obsessive gaming.
(c) That God could and would, if He were sought.
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Who would like the read the 12 Rewards that we receive by following the 12-steps into our real lives:
12 REWARDS:
1. Hope instead of desperation.
2. Faith instead of despair.
3. Courage instead of fear.
4. Peace of mind instead of confusion.
5. Self-respect instead of self-contempt.
6. Self-confidence instead of helplessness.
7. The respect of others instead of their pity and contempt.
8. A clean conscience instead of a sense of guilt.
9. Real friendships instead of fake friendships with make-believe pixels.
10. A clean pattern of life instead of a purposeless existence.
11. The love and understanding of our families instead of their doubts and fears.
12. The freedom of a happy life instead of the bondage to gaming obsession.
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The 12 Steps were created so we don't kill ourselves.
We also have the 12 Traditions, so we don't kill each other.
Who would like to read the 12 Traditions?
12 TRADITIONS:
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon OLGA®/OLG-Anon 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 OLGA®/OLG-Anon membership is a desire to stop excessive video game playing.
4. The group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or OLGA®/OLG-Anon as a whole.
5. The group has but one primary purpose-to carry its message to the video game addict who still suffers.
6. The OLGA®/OLG-Anon group ought never endorse, finance or lend the OLGA®/OLG-Anon name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. The OLGA®/OLG-Anon group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. On-Line Gamers Anonymous® should remain forever nonprofessional, but we may employ special workers as needed.
9. OLGA®/OLG-Anon., as such, ought never be organized;
but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. On-Line Gamers Anonymous® has no opinion on outside issues;
hence the OLGA®/OLG-Anon 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 and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions,
ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
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Who would like to read the thought for the day?
(Until the book is published, print one out from the Inspirational Reading Forum on our website - forums/readings-recovery)
MEETING FORMAT: ( Chair Person - Please read)
The meeting format is as follows:
A person introduces him/herself, everyone greets him or her.
A person discusses his/her thoughts on the selected topic for the meeting.
No cross-talk, please! Allow member to finish talking before sharing or commenting. Please follow this format so the person doing the sharing does not lose his/her train of thought while he/she is sharing.
When the person sharing is done, He/she says, "done'.
Others thank him or her,
Now others can share their experience, comments or ask questions.
The next person than shares his/her thoughts on the subject, using the format above.
Thank you.
SHARING:
Is this anyone’s first meeting?
(If so, welcome them, and decide if you want to make this a first-step meeting.)
Does anyone have any issues they need to discuss that are important?
If anyone has any issues they can talk about them now….
if not, have a topic ready to discuss –
this could be something from the reading,
or pick a step and principle to talk about.
For step meetings. here is information about each step and principle, that can be read and then discussed. They can be found here Twelve Step Program.
(Remember, each person speaks in turn, with limited comments and no cross-talk while the member is sharing.)
Discussion may follow each speaker's sharing.
A member can volunteer to go next, or you can go around the room and let each member share. (It is best to set the ground rules first.)
CLOSING THE MEETING:
We have a special way of closing.
Let us hold hands and have a moment of silence for those who are still lost, in and outside these rooms.
(silence)
Those who would like, please join us in saying the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, Who art in heaven.
Hallowed be thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us
Lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory
Now and forever. Amen
REMEMBER: WHAT YOU SAY HERE,
WHO YOU SEE HERE,
WHEN YOU LEAVE HERE,
LET IT STAY HERE!
Keep coming back. It works, if you work it!