6:33 Let's see. There's all these reminders that Okay, before each session start All right. Welcome to the National a technology workshop 2019. Presentation held in Bowling Green, Kentucky on Saturday at 9am. On the topic of 6:53 what do we call this technology in other countries, 6:57 technology practices and other countries. 7:01 Everybody's giving me things you guys from the background. The theme of this year's workshop is connection. All session audio is being recorded and will be made available to registered na TW members through our website behind the login. Please help us honor our tradition of anonymity by using first names only. anonymity breaks will be scrubbed during audio post processing. But you can help with that process. When you hear a full name during the session. Paul, please write down in time and the room where this occurred and share this with the tape or immediately after the session. Or even better drop it into the Slack channel so that we can scrub that audio. My name is Lois, and I am an alcoholic. 7:40 Let's start with a moment of silence to be used as you wish. 7:57 Hope you're all praying for the audio. 8:03 Alright, so So to get started with our panel and a few guys, I just so you're aware I didn't give a little bit of an intro before you came on just so people sort of know at least how we came into contact with you. And sort of, you know, all the talking. We've had to get this started. But my understanding is that Paul's first go ahead and Jeannie. 8:22 Yes, Sean, can you please mute your mic? 8:29 All right, yeah, you guys unmute. And then Paul, you're going to go ahead and start talking right. I'm gonna try to turn off my video if there's a way. Hold on, turn off my video. 8:40 You guys see that? Yeah. Does it stop? Everybody's no good. Awesome. All right. Paul, you go ahead. 8:48 Okay, good morning, Bowling Green. Um, my name is Paul SI, I'm an alcoholic. 8:59 Thank you, thank you. 9:03 At the moment, I'm sitting in, in Shanghai. But normally, I live in at coming. Now coming is in the very southwest of China. Beautiful place. I recently, I'm from the UK. And I came to China 13 years ago. Um, now I'm quickly what a while, I'd first like to say, if you can see an aura around my, that means that you are working the 12 step program wonder if you can't see it, keep coming back. You will get it. Okay. So I just like to put that one out there. And right, and I'm just going to share my experience strength and hope regarding technology. I'm okay, I came into the fellowship in 1995. I didn't have a cell phone and I didn't have a computer. And it was joining sobriety that I am I yeah, I got to where use a cell phone or computer. And just like to tell you, when I went when cellphones first came out, I said, I'm not going to go cell phone, you know, defined. Within six months, I had three cell phones. So, um, what it was is that 10 for 11 years, I, I had the safety of getting sober in the UK. Lots of meetings, you know, fellowship, service work. And then I am I got a job in China by total by accident. You know, it was one of those kind of things that some, you know, they say beyond your wildest dreams. No Ferrari. But working in China is actually be on the whitelist. So I come to China, and I landed in a place in the province of Chandon with no a whatsoever, you know what, I didn't even really consider this. When I actually took the job. I'm 11 years sober, I think I was one of those, you know, I was like, I'll never drink again. Um, so I came in then and, and I landed there. And the only time I ever got to meetings is when I am I go to Shang, hai every now and then, or Hong Kong, or I go back to the UK. So for basically, five years ago, I was didn't have a regular meeting. And you know, I would get to meetings and maybe six months gap, you know, to get to a meeting. Now, you know, when they say it's a progressive disease. During those five years, even though I didn't take a drink, I realized that what I realized now at the time, I didn't, and I was definitely experiencing this disease in in different ways. And it wasn't alive. I've been coming in 2011. And that I found a fellowship here of four of alcoholics. So we used to have a meeting. Once a week, on a Sunday, we started meeting and and you know, then and someone mentioned, and there's meetings online, on Skype. Oh, so also I thought, I'll give it a go. And, and you know, at first and the reluctance was there like, this isn't a proper meeting, it's, you know, it's like the format's not right. They're not doing it, right. But I I kind of, you know, kind of kept at it. And I was, I started attending them. Now at Skype at that time, we could get up to 25 people on the call, somebody has issues with Skype at that moment, we've been connectivity. And then in China, I found this app called WeChat. Now, this, this WeChat app, really opened the doors to the fellowship in China. And it started that we could have these kind of WeChat groups. And the best way I could describe a WeChat group, it's, it's, it's a bunch of alcoholics on that on the sub, but it's like, the the meeting after the meeting, you know, the, you may call it the car park. And, and that's what it's like, it's, it's, it was a great way to stay connected. We used to post post shares, and post the daily reflection, and an inspiring quotes. 14:00 But unfortunately, not everyone used to 14:07 post inspiring things. And so 14:12 it became a little messy, and what really is handy. And even what they can do nowadays with the WeChat is that we can actually have meetings on there. But the the drawback is you can only have nine people at a time. Now, what's happened is on WeChat. And I actually have got involved in a big book study, and that just a few of us on a Friday morning now. And we do a big book study on the WeChat app. And there's a guy from America, and the rest of us are from China. And so that's how we I'm using WeChat. And then maybe it was I don't know, maybe two half free. No wasn't for you, maybe two and a half years ago. And I came across this global speakers meeting. And and I've got to admit, the first time I went there, I hated it. honest, I just like this is not for me, right? I don't know why a second time, six months later, I went back, and it was like, boom, you know, it's like, wow, this is wonderful. Now, I think what happened is, is that? Well, I don't know. But I started seeing there was people from the United States with long term sobriety that we're sharing on this meeting. And the meeting was really well structured. Now the beauty I believe, of the, of the global speakers group, which is on the the we are on the WebEx is this, it's only audio, it's it's not this visual. And for me, that really keeps I don't know, it keeps me kind of centered. And so I really enjoy, enjoy them. In fact, who meetings I go to one on a Tuesday, one on a Sunday, and I class those as my home group. At the moment in incoming. And there are, let's say three of us, three of us, one has just come out of the woodwork. And I met a guy quite recently. And he's been in coming for something like 15 years. I don't know how long it's been sober, but a long time. But he's only just made Himself known to myself. And you know, so that means there's three of us that will have a meeting on a Sunday afternoon, face to face. But I still class, the global speakers group, as my home group. And it is it's just fun. me It's such a strong meeting. It's It's, it's, it keeps me really centered. And I've got to thank the the long term sober people from America mainly, and other parts of of the world, but certainly the ones that get up at like 330 and four o'clock am to come and attend to these meetings. Now. Now these people don't have to come to the online meetings, they've got plenty of face to face meetings to go through. But their surface, you know, they've, I don't know, they've been inspired to come online, I'm really thankful for them. 17:40 And then not too long ago, zoom. 17:45 Was was a platform that we could use. And it was great. 17:52 And, unfortunately, and it was only a couple of weeks ago, 17:57 China and then said, oh, we're going blocked zoom. 18:02 So in order to actually like like, now I need to have a VPN. And to to get on this, this meeting. And and so can be problematic. And sometimes we lose a little bit of them of connection. But some people have chosen not to use a VPN. So they, they can't use zoom. But I, I you know, I do, because I'm a defining alcoholic who, you know, to be honest, I don't know what you know, the repercussions of me using a VPN on zoom, and I don't think it's going to be so great. So I'm quite willing to take the consequences for that. And there's also a, for the, the Chinese people, or the or the Chinese members, I should say, and a majority of Chinese members, and actually have meetings on what we call the YY platform. And it's a bit like the WeChat probably bit like zoom, but they can get up to 150 members, and on the call at one time. And there's one particular meeting on a Friday night, where they will get between like 120 to 150 members. And on that call. So it's it's it's ready the the way that most Chinese members are having their meetings, and there's not that many face to face, in fact, incoming. And there's rather a large contingent of of Chinese members, there's about 15. And that's a lot in, in China. And they do have to face to face meetings and once on a Friday and on a on a Monday, and I used to be able to attend. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to attend as often as I'd like to. But, you know, technology, they can use the YYN. And most of them do. Also, what I do now is my sponsor is in America. And, and how I I speak to my sponsor is that every week at a certain time, and I will call it on WeChat. And we will talk for anything from you know, 40 minutes, hour and a half. And but I do this on a regular basis. So and nowadays, what I do is I sponsor and you know, use sponsorship using the the WeChat app, I have, you know sponsors, and I arrange and we have a certain time each week that we we talk. So we chat has been really helpful in in sponsor and the sponsor relationship. And anything else I need to wear? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I just like to mention faces book. And I don't do Facebook any longer. But um, I know, I'd like to share I have a member I know. And now this member is one member in a in a in a city, probably with maybe 5 million people. And he's the only sober member in that city. And he's got no other face to face meeting. So he does all his meetings online. And when he decided that he wanted to get sober again, he's a retired his he says, He says he went on to Facebook, and he could not kind of get a connection with the with the A's on Facebook. But then he met one lady who actually directed him towards the WebEx platform. And I'm not I just like to say that I'm really thankful for that lady who again, went on Facebook, and was able to kind of 12 step or certainly help this member get into a fellowship, because he was struggling, trying to do this on Facebook, or trying to even get members on Facebook to kind of connect with So again, it's like people are proactive, and looking for people who who want to get sober using using technology. And then, as I say, when I first used technology, I was totally against it. You know, and first of all doing the doing the in the, like the video, like we are now it's it was like oh, scary. So vain, I'm bloody so vain. You know what I mean? I stay on the video side. Really? 22:51 Really. 22:52 So that's I think that's why I prefer the WebEx. It's It's It's, it's it just centers me more. And because there is no video. Um, so I think that is basically my experience tenfold at this moment in time of using technology. Oh, let's just get in perspective. I do one face to face meeting on a Sunday. Usually, when I'm when I'm in when I'm incoming. And but I do probably 56788 online meetings per week. And so it really is it's kind of changed my it's changed my sobriety. It's enhanced my sobriety know, and I'm able to do service, and you know, get to meetings. And so I'm really grateful for this technology. And yeah, it's it's, it's really helped me stay sober. It's also helping me carry the message, you know, to the still suffering alcoholic. And of course, that's what we're here for. So I think that's enough for me. And thank you very much for being here. So I will now now mute my microphone, and let someone else have a go. 24:23 Hello, everybody. My name is Nick Genie. And I'm Naka Holic. And I hope you can see me 24:30 my sobriety date is September 12 1997. And I would like to thank Lewis and the committee for making this event possible. As you can see, I'm so excited to be here. This is a truly awesome experience, I believe it's the opportunity of a lifetime. And as Paul shared I actually in a small village in the north of Sweden near the Arctic Circle. And for those who are interested, the local time is quarter past four in the afternoon. And hello, everyone there. And the reason I'm, I'm in touch with technology, I have to say that for the past 12 years, my husband Thomas, who's also an a member, and I run a web shop, and we're connected to the rest of the world via technology. And our way of life is possible, because we use intensive use of technology. So this was also close to my mind, my heart. So a little bit background. And so I was born in 1968, on a small island in the Indian Ocean called Mauritius, but grew up in different parts of the world, my family, I come from a Hindu background, and I started drinking at a young age. I was educated in England and have a background in economics and an MBA in strategic management. And unfortunately for my drinking, my life became unmanageable. And so it's a bit of a joke. I somehow managed to sober up in London in 1997, as my sobriety date indicates, and that was my second attempt. At that time, I was told to make sure I carry a 10 pence coin with me in case I have to call my sponsor, or another a member from a phone booth before I pick up that first drink. That was high tech and that time. off just after a year, I moved to the heart of Europe, which was Vienna, in Austria. And then I joined the English speaking at a community a very small community. In the beginning until my German was adequate enough for me to attend the German speaking meetings. I must say I was touched when the members from my first home group in London, called me even at great expense to make sure that I was all right in the transition from one community to another. I remember getting eventually getting my first cell phone running around town with a small blue Alex on and it became my higher power, although it was expensive to text and everything else but I had some security. And I also remember going to internet cafes and typing profusely in 15 minutes painful internet to send emails to friends is particularly a friends around and have the emails already and so forth. But finally I was able to get a PC. And I first joined lead lighters, that email group, which I had read about in the grapevine. And I also joined a few French and German speaking email groups. At the same time, I remained very active in our small community in Vienna. Then in 2002, I joined the voice meetings on Paul Paul talk, which took my recovery to another level. You know, at that time in 2002, we had meetings around the clock with members from all over the world. And everyone would was really enthusiastic and Welcome sir, and keeping within the traditions. And once a month, we had a unit two meetings of all the groups, we made sure that no one overlap and compete. That's the main thing with carrying the message and all kinds of groups that there will be groups to suit all the time zone, and so forth. And we would have a unit unity meeting of all the groups once a month. Of course, not all the members could attend every month because of a time difference. I was also elected the online group representative for the women's meeting and attended the online service conference via emails. It was trade off to my father's death. And at that time I was in Mauritius, helping my mother out. And I was so grateful although there was a small local community here that was very supportive. I was very grateful for the extra help and support I got from the online community during my time of grieving. And that was you got me through that time, being active and service. And online as well. We had members passing of longtime members and many of our members also for one reason or another could not get to face to face meetings, and we're just able, so now then we would have memorial services after they passed away and online with people joining. And it was an incredible experience, you could feel the emotions across to a worldwide net as we honor these members who have been helping all of us. 29:32 However, as part of a group more popular, we start to get a few problems. Some people who relax, start to hide under pseudo names, and we're disrupting the meetings. We even had a member sending viruses to other members through text messages. Others take the shares of the people and put it on YouTube without the consent. In the women's meeting, we had men would take female nicknames. And five join the meeting and be disruptive. A one when we tried to ask everyone to these were voice meeting. So we asked everyone to identify and would they would fake a woman voice and so forth. And it was it was terrible. So the atmosphere with this atmosphere of distrust and confusion, many meetings closed down, and members stop coming. And quite a few members passed away as well. That around the same time, I met my husband Thomas on part. And I moved to Sweden, and we got married and have been married for 15 years, how long I've lived in Sweden. And at the time when I left, ya know, I told my sponsors to find other sponsors, because I thought I was doing them justice. And I couldn't see how we could sponsor, you know, online and so forth it. But they have problems finding sponsors in the community since we're a small community. And many of them asked me after a while if we could continue to do the work reluctantly agreed, at a time as I couldn't find others to work with where I was living. But I've benefited so much from the experience through emails and talks. It kept me sober through my period of transition, I must say. And as a result of that on stage in a and I became elected service delegate for my area in Sweden. And once again, thanks to technology, I was able to be in touch with other mothers, trusted servants in other countries, including a service delegate from the States, who helped me put forth a motion to remove the word TV from the Swedish translation of tradition 11 that was glad to say in 2006, the motion was paused to remove a word TV at the Swedish service conference. In 2011, we had the opportunity to visit GSO in New York, which was an attend a meeting there. And as we were it was on July the fourth, that's why I contacted you. So to make sure they were open on that day. And by chance we happen to meet the GSB manager. And she was very gracious and took us impromptu to her office. And there we could talk candidly about online, a community and the problems we were facing with traditions being broken and people not aware of how to the problems of trying to carry the message online. So despite that, for sentimental reasons towards no continue to support the media on our talk, and made such close friends that we went all the way to Australia to meet them. And what we did was we took a plane all the way from Sweden travel to Australia, to Adelaide, on the east coast of the west coast by geography. And we turned up at their home group there and to surprise them. 32:54 And so that was our idea of a prank. And they were shot. 33:00 I was asked to speak, because at the same time there was the Australian National Convention. And the topic was on love and service. And I shared which was a bit brave at the time, because the face to face community were very suspicious of the online community. But I had to share that the only reason I was in Australia is because we had good friends here and we wanted to meet them up, and so forth. And the response was model to say the least the next year, again, with the help of our online friends, we ended up at the International Convention in Atlanta when I heard where I heard that something called national a technology workshop existed, which we're really excited to find out about because it's relevant to our lives. And I met up a dear friend I have met through Paul talk, who lives in Arkansas, and she drove from Arkansas to Atlanta, we had another old timer from London, who we knew that flew in and other friends. And I met my friend from Arkansas for the first time after 12 years. So it was very emotional. And we've spent time together. And that was an experience of a lifetime. The whole convention was my first international convention. The next year, we went to the Australian National Convention decided to have the convention in Fiji. And the whole reasoning behind it is that would be a public information exercise to help to carry the message. The what was decided at that convention was to help. They have many islands and small communities that having meetings on Skype would help that those schools Catholic communities on a regular basis to keep in touch and one way to help the fellowship grow there. So that was another way where technology and unfortunately, we were not able to help the Skype meetings because of time difference, it will be two o'clock three o'clock in the morning here. And we also have work. And another point in thing was one of our close friends online, found a way to make it to Fiji, to say goodbye to some of us. And the minute his plane landed back in Australia. Within a week or so he passed away. So this is the kind of connections my husband and I have found through online communities. Another example I'd like to give you about how technology has transformed my life in recovery is one year we went to a wedding and Jordan and and decided as we're everywhere we travel will always connect contact through the websites and emails and and so forth. The community if there's a community there, and there was a community in the capital in Amman, and we contacted them, and we were given instructions to get to the meeting. And I believe we can contact them via WhatsApp. But what we do realize that the members they're making should they contact each other, that the doors will be open for us because it was during the Ramadan time, and many members had to break their false. So that was another example of how, you know technology carries far and beyond. And thanks to recovery again. I wish I had for a long time, I was able to go and spend a night in the desert with the Bedouins. And so the magical place Petra, all this would not have been possible if I wasn't sober. And they were not on my bucket list believing other things on my bucket list when I got sober. And once again, another in 2017. That was the we went to a you might ask why go on about Australian National Convention. Well, just because I got sober doesn't mean I love life. I've always loved to party. My euphemism for my drinking days was I like to party. And now the Australian conventions. They really know how to party their 36:59 places. So I reckon commanded, it's about on the dance floor. It's loads of food, sushi everywhere. And I just couldn't resist and we have dear friends. So we couldn't resist with this, I have to admit not only to meet your friends, but I handicap as I am, got to swim at the Great Barrier Reef with my husband pushing me along. And again, you know, and it was a very emotional. So one of the reasons is that toys and I also belong to the Lois international meeting, which we can get on emails as well, not the Australian edition, not the American edition. And there we were able to meet you friends of ours, a husband and wife team both in a who's who we Skype separately as part of a couple at therapy thing once a week for the past three years. And they are similar situation as us with a family disease live in a remote part of the world. Around Us same age gap of the yc question is same time around as I in recovery and same time, around the same age as well in our 50s. And we've gone very close to them. And it was wonderful to meet them and spend time with them at the convention and they had to travel as well to get to the convention convention. They also do a tag along to get there and stop at small towns and UPI work. And also another reason we went to Brisbane was tumors were had been part of a men's big book study for nine months out of Australia. And he had gone quite close to quite a few of the men there. And he wanted to see them. So another friend who had visited us in Sweden, and we stayed at his place when we're in Brisbane, we drove all the way to a town called Uber to meet these men and had lunch and their families. And it was just so far out. I mean, only in a you hear stories like this. And another story as well back again for another friend, we joined a group at the outskirts of Brisbane called the new under group. And this small group with about 20 people have have a trusted servant who has a vision. I don't know why the Austrians have very adventurous when it comes to carry the message. And he decided that he would you got the group conscious to agree to open the meeting for Skype participation. Initially, he thought you might get a few other remote people in remote areas to log in. Little did he know that he managed to get he managed to get people from all over the world. So we were able to go to that meeting. And to get they gave us a signed copy of the Australian big book which has stories from Australia rather than stories from the other big book published by English by the states. So and then we also came across the mixer, which is an Australian, the Australian service board, financial financial support a national magazine online and the story here is that we get it also by PDF, and you can print it and spread it out. And according to the edge of their website had 1500 visitors from over 40 countries and 5300 views in the space of two last year. So this model is working in Australia, it could be fruitful for for other parts of the world as well. I see my time is up, I have so much more I would like to share with you. Needless to say, I have the same experiences Paul has shared about the WeChat community, especially finding global speakers where we get help from old timers, you know, for those of us who need help on online, on the online community. And what else can I say we I also attend a weekly close video meeting on to where we go through the steps, traditions and concepts. And it was very excited for the first time online to go with a group for the concepts to have you proved appropriate tool online to be able to carry the message. And I also have a little YY story, the app YY although I don't understand Chinese, I was invited to share their and my spawn See, thanks to just with the phone and screenshots got me in. And I shared there for over 100 people. And they were so 41:36 so enthusiastic, I was asked to come and share again. And my sponsor will translate simultaneously from Chinese to English. And this happened this year. In Europe, we're getting more organized because of technology. Many of the countries are having international conventions, we've just come back from Berlin and we're off to Slovenia, who will be which will be celebrating its 30th anniversary in a couple of weeks. Because now with technology, they can have simultaneous translation from English to the local languages. Now, I will end with with the reason this convention, again, the opportunity to speak here means a lot to me is that four weeks ago, my father in law passed away and once again, being of service has helped me go through the grieving process. And I saw the online community towards my work completely taken back how the online community where they are in our our grief, including, you know, including poll here and other of our friends who you know, stay very close to us in these days. And and of course everyone I know online being a promoter at heart knows I'm here and knows about the national a technology workshop. And they're all excited I couldn't put this year together and I'll have to explain lack of time for all their help and support of what they wanted to communicate to the National Technology workshop. And afterwards and this includes my sponsor and sponsors who are scattered all over the world. And personally we all look forward in been talking about it to the first international online a technology workshop with participants from all over the world. How about that? Right? I'd like to finish on a personal note, I hope in my lifetime to attend a meeting so I can stall once with holograms. Of course it will be closed meetings with password to protect our anonymity and I think this is the suitable place to express my wish. And last but not least, I would like to take this time and liberty to wish my husband Thomas Happy birthday he is 16 years sober today. And if you would mind I'll drag him in here thank you 44:08 All right, I'm Sean alcoholic 44:13 and yeah, thanks for asking me to do this I'm 44:19 in all of this I seem to always get pulled into these cool fit these cool things without really know what's going on. So but I will I wanted to read something here out of the forward to the fourth edition, which says the end of the for the fourth edition says a members of computers can participate in meetings online sharing with fellow alcoholics across the country around the world in any meeting anywhere a share experiences strength and hope with each other in order to stay sober and help other alcoholics modem to modem or face to face a speak the language of the heart and all its power and simplicity. And like wow, what a what a prophetic that was and when I when I am when I first got sober I remember reading this and I was like that is so stupid, like modem to modem like I would never you can do a on the computer and what you know, where I got sober and with my sponsor and the group of people I got sober round, it was like, I don't really know how else to say I was a bit hardcore and like, very structured, very, very serious bunch of people, we had a really good time, and everyone was really into service work. And I wouldn't change it a thing about it. But um, yeah, I was, you know, pretty anxious individual when I came into a so I got very set in my ways about things. And I 45:47 grew up most of my life in North Carolina. But I yeah, I've spent a lot of my life now in Asia, and I got sober in Singapore, where there's a lot of me, like, there's just a lot of meetings, and there's a lot of great a meetings and some more. But I was used to that. And from a very, you know, from very early on my sponsor, he basically said to me, like, you can do whatever you want, Sean like, you can go on vacations, you can travel the world, but you have to go to meetings, you have to go to at least three meetings a week. And that was that was like, hard for me to conceptualize was like, Well, what if I'm, what if I'm in the jungle, and my Mr. Which is something I was planning to do at time is like, you got to go to three meetings. It's like Mark, this is 90 meetings is like you got to go to three meetings. So that was where I first sort of got a taste of online a trying to connect to Skype meetings, from places with no connection and just suffering through these choppy things that were a meetings and you know, I guess the discipline of getting to those meetings is beneficial for me because I did it right and but, you know, spent a little more time sober. And after I had about, I think a year and a half sober I am. I graduated from university and I decided to move back to China where I had lived for quite a few years before and same thing and I talked to Mark and I said like, Hey, I'm you know, decided, I think I'm going to go back to China, I'm going to be going to this place called when Joe and his. And there's no meetings, but I've got this plan. I'm going to take a bus up to Shanghai a few times a month, and I'll hit a bunch of meetings in a row. And I'll get involved in online meetings. He's like, like, Yeah, man, it sounds great. It's like you gotta go three meetings a week, I was like, yeah, here we go again. So. So I did, I wrote that bus, like, two to three weeks a month, up, you know, like, anyway, long bus rides, and I hit a bunch of meetings in a row. But I still wouldn't be able to get these three weeks. So I would attend the Skype meetings. And again, I was pretty set in my ways. I hated those meetings, I swear to you like, It drove me insane. I just the connection was bad. And people would share absolutely, in my opinion, nonsense. Like, they would interrupt each other and talk about their cats. And the connection would bust all the time. And it was just, it just wasn't a to me. And it became this like running resentment for me that I think I have to attend these horrible meetings every week. And, you know, poor me. And, again, my sponsor said you need to, you need to stop complaining and create the fellowship you crave. And I was like all mark, I mean, I'm here alone in this big city, you know, there's no other eight members. And he's like, we got to do something, you got to start online meeting. So yeah, I mean, for me, like maybe those weren't, like the most benevolent of reasons to start a meeting. But I had another, another friend with a resentment in another city and China. And we were going to going to start this online meeting. So we started on Skype, had the same connectivity issues. And it was usually me and him, and a few of my sponsors, other sponsors, and like one or two people, we could drag into it at the same few people over and over again. But it was structured, and it started to pick up steam when other people started joining. that weren't like, me and my group of buddies. And, but that I became really proud of it and involved in it, because like it was service for me, it was something to do, right. And it was it was definitely keeping me sober. It was fresh. And of course, like, you know, that resentment stuff goes away. And and, and what what we were 49:52 a, 49:57 starting in January, that there would be a speaker on a step a week, every Sunday for the first 1212 for the first 12 weeks of the new year. And this wasn't too long after we started. So like, you know, we may not have had much, but we had a lot. 50:16 And sir, 50:20 getting heavy hitting speakers, right, like we tracked down, we tracked down some circuit speakers, and we tracked down my sponsor. And, you know, we like we're really keen to get the best speakers, we could. And I don't know that a ton of people join, but quite a few people joined. And some really interesting people joined and they shared a really great message of recovery. And the old timers, all those people stick around. And they got involved in the meeting. And they started a new service around the meeting. And I think me and my friend got a little bit less militant and concerned about our own stuff. And we're just like in awe of the fact that wow, like there's people from like six countries on this meeting right now. And then one day it hit like 20 people and its strength and hope and recovery. So we opened up this WeChat grew up around it called modem the modem directly from his book. And that's still going on right now we have like a hunt. Or some occasional trolling, some people don't participate. Some people participate a lot. So it's an interesting group to watch. But, you know, we had a desperate woman in that group who needed a meeting one day, and we, we said, You know what, like, let's, let's fire up this WeChat call, we're going to do a Tuesday night meeting. So one night, we did a meeting, and it went well, with four people. Then we said, we'll do it again, for another newcomer in this woman. The next week, and there was going to be five people, I don't think either of the newcomers came or something like that. But we had the meeting again, and one of the old timers was like, you know, this is great. Like, Sean, I think you need to think you need to make a Tuesday night meeting. And I was like, Oh, god, no, here we go get a new and then we started Tuesday night meeting and, and a little bit of a different form, Matt, but same thing, you know, sharing on a literature and and people just started joining again, you know, and again, it, it just sort of, I think the fact that like the people helping the meeting at this time, we're rooted in the book, I think that's been really good for our meeting. Like it's, it's on a literature, it's on experience, strength and hope, like, the format is pretty structured, maybe more similar than many meetings. Some people don't like that. But like, when I attend that meeting today, I hear awesome recovery stuff from the big buck. And I hear sober people talking about things they do to to make their lives better and to to live a sober life. And, man, I'm just in awe of it today. Like, it's totally like, it just does something like it has a steering committee have like 13 people, there's two meetings now, there's usually 20 plus people, sometimes over 30 on that call, and we had over 30 last week, from all over the world. There's many people involved in service who call their home group, people with 40 plus years of sobriety as well as 53:39 I've had experiences I've had 53:42 remotely from connections I made in that group. Those step workshops keep happening, and I've gotten, you know, again, that stuff's that's out of, right. Like I was just someone who here's everything, replace I don't know how they got today, then. Sorry. 54:03 I was telling everybody to pray because your your video was breaking up a little bit. So I was encouraging everyone to send the internet some positive energy. 54:13 Okay, now. 54:16 Can you hear me now? 54:19 Yeah, we can hear you. Some people are suggesting that if you can try to sit, I know you're very expressive with your hands, that maybe some of the movement might be I don't know if that's true, but that maybe that's taking up some bandwidth. Like your old Skype meetings, you're a little bit choppy. 54:38 Okay, I won't move my hands. 54:47 All I was trying to say is that like, it's just amazing. Like that meeting has become self supporting, it provides service positions to tons of people if they want them. And it's just like a really cool example of a meeting that started from like a resentment and a coffee pot. But it's like use technology to become like, a really powerful hunger for a lot of people. A women's a women's meeting is going to be starting out of that very soon. So I have three meetings go. 55:21 Or good service, you know, Cisco, WebEx is one of the best like online conferencing platforms. And you can get unlimited membership on it, which enables our group, the global speakers group, we now have the capacity, if they want to do a women's meeting on Wednesday, they can man like we can, we can offer that right, like as many meetings that need to come out of that can. And, you know, online payment systems have been interesting in terms of how we, we deal with the seventh tradition. For a while we were we were collecting seven tradition through alipay, which is an online payment payment platform. As well as that called PayPal, that which we've now pretty much moved only over to PayPal, because you know, we're this stuff is all new to us with the alipay system, it had to be connect to an individual members bank account, which didn't work super well, it was got a bit muddled. But yeah, like we're able, you know, we have a media we have a hat, man, the hats called alipay. Like, I mean, sorry, the hat, the hat is PayPal, people pay for that account, you know, the members pay for the meeting, excess funds are diverted into things, the members choose them to be diverted into whether that's you know, GSB, China online, inner group, our website, whatever it is, so it's just Yeah, cool example of how like, you can, you know, really like do a and it's full speed. 56:54 It all exists there. And yeah, I'm just really grateful for it. You know, it's like, I used to hate online media. And I think, you know, probably noticed something a bit of a hyper person, which is, which is fine. But I've always found online meetings, difficult to sit through, every time I attend to global speakers meeting, I shuffle around, I'll sweep, whatever. But um, but like, it's like, it's like a joy to be a part of that meeting today. And I just like it, you know, there was a time when I said, I can't wait, you know, I live in Shanghai now is also a lot of meetings. Every day, I live 10 minutes walk from the clubhouse. Now I get to face to face meetings all the time. And I remember thinking, like, as soon as I get to Shanghai, I'm gonna stop attending these damn online meetings. And, you know, I just, I don't feel that way anymore. You know, I, I really enjoy being a part of the online groups, there's a, there's another online group called the Portland I opener that's on zoom, and that I was connected to, for quite a while they have multiple meetings every day at all hours of the day now. And I'm, I'm a II, I'm a tour guide. Basically, I travel all over China for for educational excursions and man, just like, I can't get to three face to face meetings a week, like, I just can't, they're not there. But I can still get day meetings. Like, I know how, I know, so many people with connections, I know, multiples, online listings and online a meeting, you know, I have I have those resources today. And I think like more so than ever before, it's it's not a question of like, can you get to an A meeting? Or will you because as I like, meetings are all over the place. And and, you know, like, I'm a good example of someone who like had some serious hate towards those meetings. But they've been keeping me sober, you don't have to like them to know that they're there and do them. I think, you know, the experience for most of us has been a like, if you i think i think it's you know, it's true with any agar, like, if you, if you like, put your heart and energy into one group and sort of make it your home group. That's where the, and I was bouncing from this meeting to that meeting. And, and complaining about it. It was tough, but what I've, like, you know, sort of, on a regular basis, attended one group in one meeting and gotten connected with those people involved with the service around it. That's, that's where like, to me, it's just as much as it's just as me meeting, I go to here in Shanghai, or I go to in Cincinnati when I see my dad or whatever. So yeah, I guess you know, very much for, for a lot of us, like, you know, the whole focus of technology has been like how beneficial lyst people in Alcoholics Anonymous, who are who are in simplicity, face to face a. And it's really been my experience. And I am grateful that I had that experience in that net. I have. But I also had a online community, and I'm aware of what the technology can do. And then when I travel, I'm also able to get connected there, though. Yeah, that is all for me. I am going to mute myself. Thank you for letting me share. 1:00:21 Guys, I'm, I'm wondering, here's what I'm thinking. I'm looking at all these people. And I'm thinking there's going to be tons of questions the way it's been working as people line up at a mic. But we have we have we have very little time for questions. I'm looking for a sense of the room. What do you think? Should we try it? 1:00:41 Or how can we do it? we could we could shoot these guys questions. 1:00:45 After after the session, maybe? Hey, Pauline, and Jeannie. I'm wondering, and Sean, did you guys join the Slack channel at all? 1:00:55 Yes, I'm on the Slack channel under the GNDNAGINR. So if anybody has any questions they can contact in slack. Okay, how about you, Paul? 1:01:04 Well, you know, 1:01:10 no, or Yes. Nope. Okay. All right. Well, so what I think is if you guys would be willing to maybe send me an email and tell me how, how the, the folks here can ask you all some follow up questions. That would be great. And maybe we'll figure out a way to do this online to either be an email or we could share responses in our Slack channel, if that's okay. Does that make sense to you all? 1:01:40 Yes, that's fine. That's fine. Lewis. Don't we have time for just one question from the audience? 1:01:49 We probably do. I'm afraid they're going to like wrestle each other to figure out what that is. Okay, we have one question here. Let's try it. 1:01:59 I might have to repeat it for you. This is 1:02:11 a 1:02:13 online share. And I want to 1:02:16 thank local speakers and 1:02:21 how much we appreciate your contributions. 1:02:26 Also. YY is not on 1:02:36 the United States very underserved. 1:02:42 And if anybody has contact with them, 1:02:48 ask them to get 1:02:50 a listing. So 1:02:55 that's good. That's good feedback. And and I'll, I'll remind everybody, don't forget they want to they want an international a technology workshop. I think that's a great idea. And again, the genie will close with that. And thank you all so much. Everybody, clap. 1:03:21 Thank you. I love you all. 1:03:24 Thank you so much. 1:03:29 Thanks, everybody. Night is like 10 o'clock. Transcribed by https://otter.ai