• Call meeting to Order.

• Begin with Serenity Prayer.

• Open with reading the complete 12 Traditions.

• Approve minutes from previous meeting.

• Take Roll of who may want to participate so everyone may be called on.

(Let people know they do not have to share and may pass when it’s their

turn.)

• Call for agenda items or additional agenda items if agenda went out in

advance.

• Begin with first agenda item. (If secretary created item, secretary brings up the item; if another put it forward, the secretary calls on that person and asks them to state the item and rationales for the item. Person is given 30 seconds.

• Allow each member on the roll to comment for up to 30 seconds on the

agenda item. At end of roll, give others a chance who may not have

checked in the opportunity to comment.

If an item seems to have support, ask for someone to put forth a

motion.

If item discussion seems to take too long, or there is too much

disagreement, or it seems like people want to share multiple times

on the agenda item, ask for a tabling motion and second and the

item can be taken up again at the next business meeting.

• State the motion and ask for a second.

• Next go to vote. (If your meeting is large, and there are a lot of items to

address, once half of the members have voted, say the motion carries and feel free to suspend the vote at that point. If there aren’t a lot of members, you may want to take a complete roll. If people have difficulty with expediency at a business meeting, put the manner of vote taking into a motion and take a vote on it.)

• Announce outcome.

• Continue through until meeting is finished.

• Have secretary or volunteer agree to put together minutes and send them out to everyone at the meeting.

• Set date for next meeting.

• Adjourn.

A Few Notes About Business Meetings

Your meeting may want to require that the person putting forward an agenda item be present or the item may not be discussed. (The idea here is that if a person feels strongly about an item it’s good to show up in support of it.)

You may want to make this announcement at your meeting because Business Meetings can by triggering for survivors:

A gentle reminder to everyone. Business Meetings can be

triggering to survivors. People may speak strongly or at times become unable to listen. We ask that you try to remember that we are having this meeting for the good of the entire group and that you remember to reassure your inner children if you or they become upset. Triggers happen easily but there’s very little that happens that’s so important that we treat one another with anything other than the utmost respect.

You may want to limit your business meetings to a set amount of time. (For instance a half hour if they occur monthly and your meeting only occurs once a week, or an hour if your business meeting occurs once every three months).

Please note too, if there is an important issue that occurs and cannot wait to be dealt with until the next Business Meeting, a “Group Conscience” meeting can be called. Please note though, that it’s ideal to announce such meetings a minimum of a week in advance so that everyone who wants to attend may do so. This does not mean that a group conscience meeting cannot occur on the same day as a meeting, but if this occurs it should only be done under the direst of emergencies.

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