Issue:
We, the SMR After-Meeting Ad Hoc Committee propose that our members review the report offered here and provide comment. We hope that as next steps, members will take the recommended actions of developing an after-meeting script, creating a webpage and developing and implementing a host training program. The After-Meeting Ad Hoc Committee, with the publication of this report, has completed their work.
The Report/Findings/Recommendations (Background):
Report on the SMR After-Meeting Fellowship Structure and Format
Distilled from After-meeting Ad Hoc Committee Motions (Sept 2025 – March 2026), see below.
Committee members: Sue (of the Swamp) (Chair); Angel; “Anonymous”; Jim R; Laurie C; “MM”; Nancy; Susan Q; Suzanne B
Overview
Since September 2025, the SMR After-Meeting Ad Hoc Committee has developed and approved a series of motions establishing a clear structure, purpose, and operating guidelines for the after-meeting fellowship space. These decisions reflect a consistent intent to create a safe, inclusive, member-focused environment that supports recovery through informal connection following the formal meeting.
Purpose and Access
The after-meeting has been formally recognized as an integral part of the SMR experience, providing space for continued fellowship and recovery after the newcomer session.
● The SMR Zoom account is available for general fellowship immediately following the newcomer session.
● The fellowship space is open to all ACA members, but not publicized beyond the SMR meeting.
● The space is intended to remain member-driven and community-centered, without external oversight.
Structure and Flow
The after-meeting follows a flexible but intentional format:
● A newcomer session precedes the general fellowship space.
● The general fellowship is open-ended, concluding either:
○ By group consensus among participants1, or
○ When needed to accommodate the next scheduled SMR activity (conclude up to 30 minutes prior).
● The committee recommends the development of both:
○ An opening script1 (to guide the transition into after-meeting spaces), and
○ A closing script1 (to bring closure to the fellowship time).
The committee recommends limiting shares to 5 minutes during the first hour of the after-meeting1. After the first hour, shares will be untimed, with participants asked to remain considerate of others waiting to share.
Safety and Group Norms
A strong emphasis has been placed on maintaining a safe, respectful, considerate and confidential environment within the after-meeting:
● A formal crosstalk guideline1 has been adopted:
○ Members are asked to listen without interruption.
○ Members avoid referencing others’ shares without permission.
○ These expectations apply to both verbal sharing and chat interactions.
Hosts are encouraged to be familiar with the Safety section of the meeting website, acamorning.org. For guidance on conflict resolution the host is encouraged to utilize information in The Community Safety Guidelines.3
Additionally, a dedicated section of the group website, acamorning.org is to be created to document after-meeting guidelines and structure2.
Hosting Guidelines
To support consistency and safety in the after-meeting, the following recommendations have been adopted:
● Hosts are encouraged (but not required) to be on camera whenever possible to foster connection and trust.
● Hosts should have prior experience or training3. The committee recommends that after-meeting hosts be trained or experienced in basic Zoom host skills, including:
- Lowering hands and muting participants
- Admitting members from the waiting room
- Calling on hands in the order they were raised
- Reassigning hosts and co-hosts
- Creating breakout rooms
- Removing people from the meeting if necessary
● Hosts are encouraged to manage disruptive behavior and bullying by understanding and utilizing the information in The Community Safety Guidelines.
● The committee further recommends that SMR offers training3 for after-meeting moderators in the skills listed above.
Governance and Boundaries
The committee has clarified an important boundary – that the fellowship space is self-regulated by participants, without the use of external evaluators.
Conclusion
The SMR After-Meeting Fellowship has evolved into a structured yet flexible extension of the core meeting, grounded in ACA principles of safety, inclusivity, and mutual respect. The adopted motions collectively establish a framework that:
● Encourages organic fellowship and recovery connection,
● Maintains clear behavioral and safety expectations, and
● Supports trusted, experienced facilitation without over-regulation.
Further refinement is anticipated as the fellowship continues to grow through group conscience.
Suggested Next Steps
The SMR After-Meeting Ad Hoc Committee is recommending that the following actions be explored. Members, especially those who participate in the after-meeting, are encouraged to establish or join in these explorations.
- Develop an after-meeting script.
The script would address both the Newcomer session and the subsequent general fellowship. The script would describe the crosstalk rules and guidelines. The script might direct sharing be limited to 5 minutes, during the first hour of the after-meeting. The script would also include suggestions on how to clearly close the fellowship meeting.
- Create a website page.
The website would be the perfect place to hold all the scripts, statements and training materials pertaining to hosting the after-meeting. The webpage would be a support, similar to the supportive information available to those providing service to the daily SMR meeting
- Develop and implement host training
This could be similar to the current Room Host training. Members could assist with implementation.
Reference Material
The following motions have been distilled from the minutes from the Adhoc Committee meetings which began in August of 2025. More complete information may be found on our website under Business (Business meetings/Committees/ +After Meeting)
March 9, 2026
Timed Shares in After-Meeting
Motion by Suzanne B: The committee recommends limiting shares to 5 minutes during the first hour of the after-meeting. After the first hour, shares will be untimed, with participants asked to remain considerate of others waiting to share.
2nd by: Laurie. Result: Passed unanimously (all members voted in favor)
Host Training
Motion by Susan: The committee recommends that after-meeting hosts be trained or experienced in basic Zoom host skills, including:
● Lowering hands
● Muting participants
● Admitting from the waiting room
● Calling on hands in the order they were raised
● Removing people from the meeting if necessary
● Reassigning hosts and co-hosts
● Managing disruptive behavior and bullying
● Understanding ACA Safety Guidelines
The committee further recommends that SMR offers training for after-meeting moderators in the skills listed above.
2nd by: Suzanne B. Result: Passed unanimously (all members voted in favor)
February 9, 2026
Crosstalk
Motion by Laurie: “Motion to adopt the statement: “During the after meeting, we maintain a safe, respectful space by listening without interruption and by avoiding references to others’ shares without their permission. This applies to both our sharing and our chats.” 2nd by: MM. Result: Passed unanimously (all hands raised in favor)
December 1, 2025
Create an After-Meeting Section on the acamorning.org Website
Motion by Suzanne: “Motion to have a specific section on ACAMorning.org dedicated to the after-meeting; to have general guidelines within that section on how the meeting is being conducted” Result: Passed unanimously
Aftermeeting Fellowship Space Open to All ACA Members
Motion by Jim: “We move that the fellowship space be open to all ACA members and that it NOT be publicized beyond the SMR meeting” Result: Passed unanimously (with one member abstaining)
Opening Script Development
Motion by Jim: “Motion that the after-meeting members develop an opening script for the newcomer session and fellowship space to be read after the conclusion of the SMR meeting” Result: Passed unanimously
Closing Script Development
Motion by Sue: “Motion that the after-meeting members develop a closing script for the fellowship space to be read at the conclusion of the general fellowship time.” Result: Passed unanimously
November 3, 2025
Host Safety Guidelines Recommendation
Jim proposed that the committee recommend fellowship space hosts read and understand the ACA Community Safety Guidelines (modified from Suzanne’s original proposal by removing “before serving”) Result: Passed unanimously (8 in favor, 0 opposed)
October 6, 2025
Host Qualification Requirements
Motion: The committee voted on making the recommendation that “SMR members who host the SMR After Meeting Fellowship be qualified with either training or prior experience” Result: Passed unanimously
Camera Requirements for Hosts
Motion: The committee voted on making the recommendation that “We encourage but don’t require after-meeting hosts to be on camera during their hosting when possible” Result: Passed unanimously
This motion evolved from Jim’s original proposal and went through several amendments during discussion. The final language was crafted to address concerns about practicality and accessibility while still encouraging camera use for building trust and connection.
September 25, 2025
After-Meeting Fellowship Statement
Motion: to adopt Committee statement that “As an integral part of the SMR experience, members can use the SMR Zoom account for general fellowship and recovery following the newcomer session” Result: Passed unanimously
Open-Ended After-Meeting Policy
Motion: to adopt the statement: “The after-meeting general fellowship space be open-ended and conclude at the time decided by those who are in attendance or 30 minutes before another scheduled SMR meeting needs the room” Result: Passed 7-2
September 11, 2025
SMR Members Right to Zoom Space
Motion that “SMR members that attend the after meeting may use the SMR zoom account for general fellowship immediately after the newcomer session” Result: Passed unanimously (8-0)
The following motions were either struck or tabled for further discussion and resolution at a later date.
January 19, 2026
A Statement on Timed Shares, Vote to Table
Motion by Susan: “Motion to table the committee finding a statement on timed shares and revisit at a later time.” 2nd: Macy. Result: Passed unanimously (no opposition or abstentions)
November 3, 2025
Host Training Discussion, Vote to Table
Anon moved to table the topic of SMR Fellowship Hosts Training for a later time Result: Passed unanimously
Host Accountability Discussion, Vote to Table
Laurie moved to table the host accountability topic Result: Passed unanimously
Dec 1, 2025
After-meeting Assessment Observer, Motion to Strike
Motion by Jim: “Motion to strike the issue of ‘outside observers for a month to assess fellowship health’ from any list of recommendations” Result: Passed 5-1 with 1 abstention
16 thoughts on “Motion 26-5: Findings of the After-meeting Study”
Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful words and work.
Wow! Thanks so very much to all of you that put so much good effort into this. Amazing work. Thorough and clear. If I had a company to run, I’d hire you all!
I really appreciate all the work the committee has done coming up with these suggestions. I agree with the suggestions. Thanks so much for the transparency.
I noticed that “crosstalk” displays a superscript 1, which suggests there may be a footnote, but I was unable to find the corresponding note.
I believe the after-meeting script is best kept as simple as possible. It could simply let people know that, after the meeting, they are welcome to use the floor to ask questions related to ACA, the meeting, or recovery.
When it comes to crosstalk, I suggest that we simply state that we maintain our crosstalk guidelines. We can do this by asking people, when responding to someone who has explicitly requested feedback, to either speak from the “I” position and share their own experience, strength, and hope in a similar situation or, if they do not have experience, strength, and hope to offer, to provide reflective or paraphrasing feedback.
For example:
After the meeting, we are welcome to use the floor to ask questions about ACA, this meeting, or recovery itself.
As we continue our conversation, we ask everyone to maintain our crosstalk guidelines.
When responding to someone who has explicitly requested feedback, we:
Speak from the “I” position by sharing our own experience, strength, and hope in a similar situation; or
If we don’t have a similar experience to share, we may offer reflective or paraphrasing feedback to help the person feel heard and understood.
For example:
“When I was in a similar situation, what helped me was…”; “This is how I went about step work…”
“What I hear you saying is… Did I understand you correctly?”
Please remember that ACA is not therapy. We avoid giving advice, trying to “fix” one another, or engaging in the “Game of Dissociation.” * (https://aca-arizona.org/wp-content/uploads/Characteristics-of-an-Integrated-Person.pdf)
To honor our Traditions, we also respect everyone’s anonymity and refrain from discussing outside issues.
The floor is now open, please remember to self-time for 5 minutes or less.
Thank you all for the service offered from a place of love.
After the conclusion of the report, 3 suggested next steps are listed. Each numbered suggestion is referenced in the report. In addition to a direct call for an opening and closing script, suggestion number 1, ‘Develop an after-meeting script,’ is also supported by the finding that we develop and communicate ‘formal crosstalk guidelines’ and information about group consensus.
Great thx
Hi Jim,
Just to clarify, the Ad Hoc Committee with work on these 3 next steps? Or do you need others to assist in this? All the information looks great to me!
1. Develop an after-meeting script.
2. Create a website page.
3. Develop and implement host training
* mean to say “will work”
I don’t want to speak for the Adhoc Committee, but I believe we saw our task as bringing the After-meeting issue to this point. We are complete.
Our final work was to bring individual motions to the group. We developed 4 motions. As members of SMR we may individually get involved with any of these motions, but as the Committee, no.
I imagine other groups will form to continue the creative work. I believe the best outcome will be achieved with greater participation.
For me, the script, with a ‘rules and guidelines’ portion would be foundational. I would be interested in working with members in developing the script.
And with that in place, perhaps fashioning a webpage.
Thank you to all who participated in this committee for your service. The after meeting for me has felt like the Wild West at times. I have experienced a lot of cross talk and at times the after meeting host taking up too much space and in my opinion acting like an authority figure. A script is much appreciated as is the cross talk policy. The timed shares are also appreciated – though 5 minutes seems really long and 3 minute with a minute to wrap up if needed might be more reasonable.
I think that after meeting boundries are needed. I personally have experienced bullying towards me during feedback given to me after a share that I needed advise and support. The host gave a reply that seemingly went along with the “bullyier” I did find my voice and stood up for myself, it was initially difficult. It seems the “bully” gets put on a pedestal by some in the after meeting be who acts like they have superior “sobriety”. The beauty and healing of 12 step recovery is we are all on equal ground.
Thank you for your work on this report to further strengthen the after meeting.
Wow, thank you very much to the After-Meeting Ad Hoc committee for this incredibly thorough report. I support all of your recommendations.
I am grateful to the committee for the time and effort put into developing this document. It provides clear guidelines for all involved. Thank you.
The report is excellent.
I appreciate the SMR group and am grateful for the trusted servants who make it safe and structured. Thank you Jim and everyone on the committee who worked on this project.
to everybody contributing to this – thank you so much for all your work and thoughts. i find this report amazing and very much appreciate the detailed transparency and the clear and profound recommendations, i love the directions they lay out
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