When the Holiday Meeting Moves

You drove to the usual room because it is Thursday, or Sunday, or whatever day that group has always been there. The lights were off. Maybe a paper sign was supposed to be on the door and was not. The holiday made the whole errand feel like a trick. You did the faithful thing and the building did not answer.

The group decides the time and the place. A holiday is a day when that decision often changes, because the building's schedule changes, or because the members picked a different hour. There is no national holiday schedule to guess from, including Christmas or New Year's. A grid that claims to cover every group is a guess. Confirm today with Meeting Guide or the local office.

The listing is the meeting

Members decide when, where, and how often they meet. Meetings are in person, online, or on the telephone. In-person rooms include churches, office buildings, treatment centers, community centers, clubhouses that rent space to recovery groups, and sometimes outdoors. If the landlord locked the church, that door is done for the day. Another group may be meeting in a different building. The same group may have moved the hour, cancelled, or put the meeting online. You will not know which one from the dark parking lot.

aa.org does not contain a meeting finder. Contact local A.A. for a meeting list. There is a pointer there for online meetings. The Meeting Guide app is free on iOS and Android, supported by member contributions. It lists in-person and online meetings. Search by location or by a word you remember from the group's name. The list shows time, location, and name. Open the detail view. It can show the format and the notes the group provided. That note is where a holiday time sometimes gets written, when the local people wrote it.

The app syncs with area, district, intergroup or central office, and international general service websites. Information comes from more than 500 A.A. service entities. Over 150,000 weekly meetings are listed. Listings refresh twice a day. Local entities control them and send them in voluntarily. Twice a day is not the same minute the group taped a sign to a door. If the app still shows the ordinary time and you are standing in front of a locked room, trust the locked room for that address, and check the local office before you decide the meeting vanished from the earth.

You can suggest a correction through the links in the app. Those links go to the local entity. That helps the next person. It does not open the door tonight.

The finder guide is the same toolbox without the holiday panic. Search meetings as well, and confirm whatever you find. The search on this site is not a verified directory.

An online meeting may still be there

A dark fellowship hall does not mean nobody is meeting. Some groups keep a video meeting or a phone meeting when the building is unavailable. Some video meetings show faces. Some have everyone's camera off. Some are a dial-in call. You can sit and listen. Sharing is up to you. The chair may ask if anyone new wants to say a first name. You can pass.

The online guide is worth opening if you have never tried that kind of meeting and the idea of a camera is part of why you are still in the car. The first meeting guide covers the ordinary shape of the hour, which does not change just because the calendar says a holiday. Beginners' meetings and speaker meetings are formats a group might still be holding. The beginners guide and the speaker and discussion guide explain those. Read the listing so you know which one you are joining.

You do not have to pay. There are no dues or fees. Anyone with a desire to stop drinking is welcome. If you are brand new and furious that the holiday stole the room, you are still welcome at the next confirmed one.

Do not make a medical night into a scheduling night

If you are not safe, call 911. If the disappointment is tipping into a crisis, call or text 988. Do that before you hunt a second address. If you have been drinking heavily and you stop suddenly, NIAAA says withdrawal can be life-threatening. Get medical help. The withdrawal guide is that problem. A meeting cannot manage it, on a holiday or any other day. NIDA describes mutual-help groups such as A.A. as peer-led, not led by healthcare professionals, and not a substitute for treatment.

If you need a treatment program, call (800) 653-9376. The call is free to you. Treatment providers pay for the referral. The line is not an A.A. office, and it is not SMART Recovery. SAMHSA's National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357), is a treatment referral line, free and confidential, in English and Spanish, including holidays. FindTreatment.gov lists licensed care.

Then check today's listing one more time. If an online meeting is there, confirm it and join. If the only honest line is that this group moved and you missed it, go home if home is safe. The next meeting on the corrected list is the one that counts. You did not get the day wrong. The listing changed, and now you know to read it before you drive.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• A.A.: What to Expect at an A.A. Meeting
• A.A.: Find A.A. Near You
• A.A.: Meeting Guide
• A.A.: Need help with a drinking problem?
• NIDA: Treatment
• NIAAA: Core resource on alcohol
• SAMHSA: National Helpline
• SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
• SmarterRecovery meetings search
• SmarterRecovery about page

Common Questions