ON-LINE OLGA Meeting Format and Agenda
Welcome to On-Line Gamers Anonymous.
Chairperson introduction: "Hi my name is ______________, I am an gaming addict." Everyone say hi!
Each person introuduces themself.
Is this anyone's first meeting? Welcome.
We are here to offer support to each other. We suggest that you attend at least 6 meetings to give yourself a fair chance to decide if this group is appropriate for you. Meeting makers make it.
The meeting consists of several readings and then we go into sharing or discussing a topic.
Before meeting starts, we need volunteers to read each section.
These are the sections:
1) Mission Statement
2) Why are We Here? (Optional)
3) Who is an Addict? (Optonal)
4) How it Works
5) 12 Traditions
6) Thought for the Day
7) 12 Rewards
The chairperson may ask participants to see if they would like to do a reading.
Thank you.
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1) SERENITY PRAYER
Let's all read the Serenity Prayer: (Long or short version - chairperson decides...)
GOD, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living ONE DAY AT A TIME;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
and supremely happy with God forever in the next.
2) OUR MISSION STATEMENT:
Who would like to read Our Mission Statement?
On-Line Gamers Anonymous is a fellowship of people sharing their experience, strength and hope to help each other recover and heal from the problems resulting from excessive game playing.
The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop gaming.
Our primary purpose is to abstain from gaming and to help others find freedom from gaming addiction.
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3) WHY ARE WE HERE? (Optional)
Before coming to the Fellowship of OLGA, we could not manage our own lives. We could not live and enjoy real life as other people do. We had to have something different. We thought we found it in video games. We placed gaming ahead of the welfare of our families, our wives, husbands, our children and most importantly above our own real life. We had to keep gaming at all costs. We did many people great harm but most of all, we harmed ourselves. Through our inability to accept personal responsibilities we were actually creating our own problems. We seemed to be incapable of facing our real life on its own terms.
Most of us realized that in our addiction, in our real lives, we were slowly dying by neglect. Addiction is such a cunning enemy of life that we had lost power to do anything about it. Many of us ended up isolated or forcing someone else to be responsible for us. Compulsive game playing can interrupt a person’s ability to connect positively with others and have healthy relationships, maintain responsibilities at work and make choices that support their physical and mental health (e.g., eating regularly or healthfully, going to the doctor, excercise, etc.). We had no real life left. We became violent and threatening if someone tried to remove our games from us. Those who don’t get help may end up completely isolating themselves from the real world, losing their ability to function, be with family, and achieve any goals outside of the video game world. Our disease continued to progress until in desperation we sought help from each other in On-Line Gamers Anonymous.
After coming to OLGA, we realized we were sick people. We suffered from a disease from which there is no known cure. It can, however be arrested at some point and recovery is then possible. (Adapted from the NA “Why Are We Here”).
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4) WHO IS AN ADDICT? (Optional)
As addicts, we are people whose use of any mind-altering, mood changing substance or activity (playing video games) causes a problem in any area of life. Addiction is a disease that involves more than the use of video games. Some of us believe that our disease was present long before the first time we played. (Basic Text, pg 3 with modifications).
The only alternatives to recovery are jails, institutions, self-neglect and death. Unfortunately, our disease make us deny our addiction. If you are an addict, you can find a new way of life through the OLGA Program. We have become very grateful in the course of our recovery. Through abstinence and thorough working of the Twelve Steps of On-Line Gamers Anonymous®, our real lives have become useful.
We realize that we are never cured, and that we carry the disease within us for the rest of our lives. We have a disease, but we can recover.
Choosing recovery requires a change within us. Change is good, yet it is rarely easy or pleasant. Our brain is most interested in pursuing the "comfortable" way. It prefers the road most frequently traveled (our addiction). Everything within us scrambles to stay on trails ALREADY blazed by the use of our "drug of choice" (playing video games). In recovery we learn to take care of ourself and create a better life without our drug, We are blazing a new pathway we have not been on before. God often leads us down unknown paths (recovery) filled with narrow passages and surprising turns (real life). It can be scary at time, yet in the long run our real life becomes fulfilling as we keep ourself safe by making healthy choices. As we choose our recovery path rather than the addiction path, it becomes the road most traveled.
Recovery becomes our choice. Each day we are given another chance. We are convinced that there is only one way for us to live, and that is the OLGA way. Basic Text, pg 8 with modifications).
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5) HOW IT WORKS
Who would like to read "How it Works"?
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.
Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.
There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average.
There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders,
but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened,
and what we are like now.
If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it then you are ready to take certain steps.
At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way.
But we could not.
With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely. Remember that we deal with obsessive gaming – cunning, baffling and powerful! Without help it is too much for us.
But there is One who has all power – that one is God. May you find God now!
Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point.
We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.
Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:
Step 1. We admitted we were powerless over gaming, and that our lives have become unmanageable.
Principles - Honesty and Acceptance
Step 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Principle - Hope
Step 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.
Principle - Faith
Step 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Principles - Action and Courage
Step 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Principle - Integrity
Step 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Principle - Willingness
Step 7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
Principle - Humility
Step 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Principle - Brotherly love
Step 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure, them or others.
Principle - Justice
Step 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Principle - Perseverance
Step 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.
Principle - Spirituality.
Step 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other compulsive gamers and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Principle - Service
Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.”
Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not Saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress.
We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
Our description of the obsessive gamer,
and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
(a) That we were obsessive gamers and could not manage our own lives.
(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our obsessive gaming.
(c) That God could and would, if God were sought.
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6) 12 TRADITIONS
Who would like to read the 12 Traditions?
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon OLGA unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as God may express God in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for OLGA membership is a desire to stop excessive game playing.
4. The group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or OLGA as a whole.
5. The group has but one primary purpose-to carry its message to the obsessive gamer who still suffers.
6. The OLGA group ought never endorse, finance or lend the OLGA name to any related facility or outside enterprise,
lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. The OLGA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. On-Line Gamers Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional,
but we may employ special workers as needed.
9. OLGA, as such, ought never be organized;
but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. On-Line Gamers Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues;
hence the OLGA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion;
we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions,
ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
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Chairperson selects and reads the "Thought for the Day"?
(Until the book is published, print one out from the Inspirational Reading Forum on our website - forums/readings-recovery)
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MEETING FORMAT: ( Chiarperson - Please read)
The meeting format is as follows:
A person introduces themself, everyone greets them.
A person discusses their thoughts on the selected topic for the meeting.
No cross-talk, please! Allow member to finish talking before sharing or commenting. Please follow this format so the person doing the sharing does not lose their train of thought while they is sharing.
When the person sharing is done, They says, "done'.
Others thank them,
Now others can share their experience, comment or ask questions.
The next person then shares their thoughts on the subject, using the format above.
This meeting lasts for one hour.
Thank you.
(If there is a new comer, decide if you want to make this a new comer's or a first-step meeting.)
SHARING
Does anyone have any issues they need to discuss that are important?
If anyone has any issues they can talk about them….
if not, have a topic ready to discuss –
this could be something from the reading,
or pick a step and principle to talk about.
For step meetings. here is information about each step and principle, that can be read and then discussed. They can be found here Twelve Step Program.
(Remember, each person speaks in turn, with limited comments and no cross-talk while the member is sharing.)
Discussion may follow each speaker's sharing.
A member can volunteer to go next, or you can go around the room and let each member share. (It is best to set the ground rules first.)
PASS THE VIRTUAL BASKET
Since there are no dues or fees for OLGA membership, those members attending this meeting are asked to make a voluntary contribution to help cover OLGA's expenses and to support the website and other services provided. We cannot keep our doors open without financial support.
We are now going to pass the basket around the room by sharing a link that will take you to the OLGA donation page. Please help to keep the doors of OLGA open. Every donation helps, no matter how small. https://www.olganon.org/donate. Wait for everyone to donate.
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7) 12 REWARDS
Who would like to read the 12 rewards?
By following the 12-steps in our real lives, we receive the 12 Rewards:
1. Hope instead of desperation.
2. Faith instead of despair.
3. Courage instead of fear.
4. Peace of mind instead of confusion.
5. Self-respect instead of self-contempt.
6. Self-confidence instead of helplessness.
7. The respect of others instead of their pity and contempt.
8. A clean conscience instead of a sense of guilt.
9. Real friendships instead of fake friendships with make-believe pixels.
10. A clean pattern of life instead of a purposeless existence.
11. The love and understanding of our families instead of their doubts and fears.
12. The freedom of a happy life instead of the bondage of gaming obsession.
CLOSING THE MEETING:
Thank you all for being here and helping me stay sober one more day!
For more support, you are welcome to share emails or phone numbers so you can contact each other in between meetings.
We have a special way of closing.
Let us have a moment of silence for those who are still lost, in and outside these rooms.
(silence)
Those who would like, please join us in saying the Closing Prayer:
1) Third Step Prayer
God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help with Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life. May I do Thy will always!
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2) Alternative Prayer (Closing)
Higher Power, help me to stay free. For this next twenty-four-hour period, take from me any urge to game. With Your help, I'll be free. Action for the Day: Today, I'll think about my obsessive gaming. Only in my reliance on a Higher Power will I find my own transformation.
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3) Just For Today
Just for today my thoughts will be on my recovery, living and enjoying life without the use of gaming.
Just For Today (Refrain)
Just for today I will have faith in someone in OLGA who believes in me and wants to help me in my recovery.
Just For Today
Just for today I will have a program. I will try to follow it to the best of my ability.
Just For Today
Just for today through OLGA I will try to get a better perspective on my life.
Just For Today
Just for today I will be unafraid, my thoughts will be on my new associations, people who are not gaming and who have found a new way of life. So long as I follow that way, I have nothing to fear.
Just For Today
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Thank you for being here and helping me stay off of the games.
REMEMBER: WHAT YOU SAY HERE,
WHO YOU SEE HERE,
WHEN YOU LEAVE HERE,
LET IT STAY HERE!
Keep coming back. It works, if you work it and work it cause your worth it!