How Many Meetings Do I Need?

Abraham Lincoln was once asked how long a man’s legs should be. The classic answer was, “Long enough to reach the ground.”

AA members don’t have to attend any set number of meetings in a given period. It is purely a matter of individual preference (and need). Most members arrange to attend at least one meeting a week, they feel that this is enough to satisfy their personal need for contact with the AA program through a local group. Others attend a meeting nearly every night, in areas where such opportunities are available (as is the case here in the Cleveland area).

The friendly injunction, “Keep coming to meetings” so frequently heard by the newcomer, is based on the experience of the great majority of AAs, who find that the quality of their sobriety suffers when they stay away from meetings too long.

Many know from experience that if they are regular in attendance they seem to have no trouble staying sober. Newcomers particularly seem to benefit from exposure to a relatively large number of meetings, (or other AA contacts) during their first weeks and months in a group.

By multiplying their opportunities to meet and hear other AAs whose drinking experience parallel their own, they seem to be able to strengthen their own understanding of the program and what it can give them. Nearly every alcoholic, at one time or another has tried to stay sober “on his own”. For most, the experience has not been particularly enjoyable—or successful.

By: Chit Chat, Robesonia, PA, 1966