What an A.A. Intergroup Does

It is late and you want a person. Not another article, not a map that dumps you into a list and walks away. You want someone who can tell you where people actually meet. aa.org will not do that job. It does not contain a meeting finder. It tells you to contact local A.A. resources for a meeting list, and it points toward online meetings. The human, when a city has one, is at the local office.

If you are in a medical emergency, call 911 before you hunt for a listing. Call or text 988 if this is a mental health crisis. NIAAA says alcohol withdrawal can be life-threatening when someone who drinks heavily over time stops suddenly. An office phone cannot manage that, and neither can a meeting.

What that local committee is

The long form of Tradition Nine says groups in a large metropolitan area may have a central or intergroup committee, which often employs a full-time secretary. That is the plain version of the thing you are looking for. Not every place is a large metro, and not every committee has a paid secretary. Where the job exists, it is a service job.

Tradition Eight says A.A. should remain forever nonprofessional, but service centers may employ special workers. The long form describes professionalism as counseling alcoholics for fees or hire. Usual Twelfth Step work is never paid for. So the person on a service-center payroll is not a sponsor you hire, and not a counselor the fellowship assigned you. The short form of Tradition Nine says A.A. as such ought never be organized, but it may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve. An intergroup answers to the groups. It does not govern them. Leaders remain trusted servants.

Trustees of the General Service Board, in that same long form, are custodians of the Traditions and receivers of voluntary contributions that maintain the General Service Office in New York. That office is a service office. It is not the voice that picks your Tuesday meeting. Your meeting list still comes from local A.A.

How you actually reach them

Use Find A.A. Near You and the Meeting Guide app. The app is free, on iOS and Android, and supported by Seventh Tradition contributions. It syncs with area, district, intergroup or central office, and international general service office websites. Local entities control their own listings and provide them voluntarily. The detail view can show the format and notes the group provided. The app also has more than one way to find local A.A. contact information. That path is how you get from a website to a person. The local office has the street and the phone. Guessing either one wastes the night.

Meeting Guide lists in-person and online meetings. A listing can show the time, the place, and the group's name. Local entities refresh what they choose to send. The app is updated from those sources twice a day. If a listing looks wrong, the correction goes to that local entity through the links in the app. You can suggest a fix where the app points you.

Which search is which

The meetings search on this site is a separate public-feed search. The listings are not verified here. It is not the intergroup. It will not put the full-time secretary on the phone. Use it if you need a list you can scan tonight. Then confirm with the local office when a human is what you actually wanted. How to find a meeting walks the practical steps. The first meeting guide is for the doorway, once you have a time.

There is a phone number on this site, (800) 653-9376, and it is the wrong number for this job. Calling is free to you. Treatment providers pay for the referral service. The line is not an intergroup, it is not A.A., and it is not SMART Recovery. SAMHSA's National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357), is free, confidential, and answered in English and Spanish. It finds treatment. It is not the intergroup. FindTreatment.gov lists licensed programs. If you need a clinic, use those. If you need the meeting list, use Find A.A. Near You or Meeting Guide.

NIDA describes mutual-help groups as peer-led, not led by healthcare professionals, and not a substitute for treatment. The secretary at an intergroup is a special worker a service center may employ. That person does not become your detox. You can still sit in a meeting and only listen. There are no dues. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

Tonight

Open Find A.A. Near You or Meeting Guide and get the local contact before you do anything else with a blog. If nobody picks up, pick a meeting from the local list or from Meeting Guide and go, in person or online. You can listen. You do not have to explain yourself to a website first. If the drinking is the medical problem, skip the directory and get care.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• A.A.: Find A.A. Near You
• A.A.: Meeting Guide app
• A.A.: The Twelve Traditions
• A.A.: What to Expect at an A.A. Meeting
• A.A.: Need help with a drinking problem?
• NIDA: Treatment, including mutual-help groups
• NIAAA Core Resource: Alcohol Use Disorder, From Risk to Diagnosis to Recovery
• SAMHSA National Helpline
• SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
• SmarterRecovery meetings page (public meeting search; listings are not verified)
• SmarterRecovery about page (calling is free to the caller)

Common Questions