Back at the end of 2019, two alcoholics in the town of Ipswich in the South East of England felt that something was missing in the local fellowship.

There were plenty of alcoholics anonymous meetings but none that focussed solely on the 12 traditions.

So, these two pioneers set about creating the fellowship they craved by arranging a traditions based meeting, this was the birth of Traditions for our future. With the new meeting still in its infancy the COVID-19 pandemic led to the meeting, along with many others taking that intrepid step in to the world of online meetings.

This didn’t seem to faze our two trailblazers and the traditions meeting soon became popular enough to attract alcoholics from around the world. Not content to have just one online meeting a week, soon the dynamic duo decided it was time to set up another meeting. Thursday night was chosen as the time, and the theme, a literature study. Over the months many of our fantastic pieces of literature were read and discussed and then the decision was made to concentrate on one particular piece of literature, The Language of the Heart.

With interest in the fledgling meetings growing. And an ethos of solution based recovery becoming more and more engraved in the discussions occurring during the meetings the service group expanded. The newly added to service team decided to create a group to overarch the existing meetings and any future gatherings that would be introduced.

Soon the group was formed and named after the final chapter in the book Alcoholics Anonymous, A Vision for you. To reflect the now global appeal of the group ‘Worldwide’ was added to the name and we had the online group; A Vision for you Worldwide (AVFYWW).

Hot on the heels of the forming of the group came the creation of the third meeting, a meeting aimed at newcomers to AA, where they could feel comfortable about asking any question they liked. Cleverly called A Newcomer Asks, this was to become our Saturday night meeting. This third meeting was soon to give up its title of being the newest A Vision For You Worldwide meeting as a step meeting followed it on a Saturday evening called ‘These are the steps we took’. After a few weeks the step meeting was moved to a Friday and the now familiar AVFYWW time of 6pm UK time.

In little more than 18 months a humble meeting in a church hall in Suffolk has grown in to a group of meetings that is attended by alcoholics from many different countries.

And by jove! We now have a website.

Addendum:

We now have a meeting every day at 6pm UK time with the addition of Three Pertinent Ideas, a main share/speaker meeting. Are you sitting comfortably? Big Book stories study and discussion and Properly Armed with Facts which is a Big Book discussion.



OUR ETHOS

The Alcoholics Anonymous Preamble:

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.

The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions.

A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes.

Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety. 

So, what does that mean?

It means that if you have a desire to stop drinking alcohol then you are welcome at any of our meetings. There are no joining fees or forms. Our number one concern is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

If you believe that you are an alcoholic then the single most important and courageous thing that you can do is to attend your first meeting. Whether you decide that will be a physical 'face to face' meeting or an online meeting it could well be your first step on your journey to recovery.

If you decide that you are going to attend an online meeting then it would be our pleasure to welcome you to one of our A Vision For You Worldwide meetings (please see below for details).

MEETINGS 

All our meetings have different topics, we would like to think that there is something for everyone within A Vision for You Worldwide.

Most meetings will start with the host/secretary welcoming everyone in to the meeting and explaining the type of meeting it is and the format the meeting will take.

There will be a moment of silence to spare a thought for alcoholics and the people that we have affected with our actions.

The host will discuss the importance of anonymity and may also mention how attendees can contribute to AA financially if they wish to (Tradition 7).

After the AA Preamble the host will run through some important meeting 'housekeeping' information. This will include, the safeguarding statement and the fact that at AVFYWW we thrive to keep our meetings on topic and focused on the solution to alcoholism.

Depending on the meeting, there will then be some readings from AA approved literature.

Then the meeting will start (see the meeting descriptions below for information about individual meetings). 

At the end of the meeting our adopted AVFYWW group reading will be read and then the meeting will be closed with the declaration of unity, a moments silence and the serenity prayer. 

It is your choice as to whether you have your camera on or if you speak in a meeting, however, if you do wish to speak, in the interests of security, we will ask that you momentarily turn your camera on.

All our meetings start at 6pm UK time and can be accessed using the 'Join Meeting' button (at the time of the meeting) or by using the Zoom code: 562-941-624