Virtual Meeting Tips
- Test On-line meeting settings and features before attending
- Only use first name (or create a nickname) for your screen name
- Mute your microphone upon entry or when not speaking
- Join a few minutes early and ask questions before the start if needed
- Raise your hand to share and the Chairperson will call on you
If you are experiencing poor quality:
- Drop and rejoin the meeting or try another device
- Turn off the camera if poor connection
On-line safety:
- Always protect your personal identity
- Use a secure network connection
- Use strong passwords
- Use antivirus software
Meeting Guidelines
We’ve established a set of guidelines in order to maintain and grow our program.
- Our main objective is to be of service to the Foster Anonymous family and any person that suffers from childhood tragedies.
- This is a program of anonymity – what is said in the meeting stays in the meeting. These meetings exist to be a safe place for our Foster Anonymous family.
- We respect other people’s sharing, feelings, and thoughts.
- Foster Anonymous is free and survives from donations.
- We are quick to volunteer and be of service. We offer to chair meetings, share our story at a Speaker Meeting, or assist with meeting administration.
- We have no leaders, but we do have trusted servants.
Meeting Courtesy
- We give each person their dignity to share. Our only purpose is to be of service.
- We do not crosstalk while another person is sharing. There is time afterward to meet with others.
- We do not gossip. Remember, our program is a program of anonymity. Our main focus is recovery.
- We’re considerate of our language.
- We do not behave inappropriately or have outbursts during the meeting.
- We never criticize or belittle our fellow Foster Care family. No matter what, we always look out for one another.
- Our focus is to recover. We do not discuss politics of any kind during meetings.
- We abide by the meeting format so that everyone gets a chance to participate if they would like.
Meeting format
- The meeting consists of a chairperson who guides the meeting.
- We start the meeting on time.
- Chairperson reminds everyone to please observer the Meeting Guidelines and Meeting Courtesy and pauses if anyone has any questions.
- We begin by saying the Serenity Prayer together.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
- We read the 12-Steps of F.A. out loud together
- We first ask if anyone has a pressing issue and needs to share. If not, the Chairperson proceeds with the topic for the meeting.
- Each person has an opportunity to share in the meeting.
- We only use your first name.
- We never disclose our location.
- We limit our sharing to 3 – 5 minutes each. If someone really needs more time, they may take it. Otherwise, there are open sessions for people to gather after the meeting. They can pull someone aside and ask if they would like to meet afterward. People are more than happy to help.
- The chairperson announces, “At this time, we pass the basket (or the digital basket if online). Remember, we are fully self-supporting, and we rely on our own contributions.”
- We close the meeting by saying the “Our Father” prayer together. (We keep in mind the God of our own understanding when saying this prayer.)
The 12-Steps of Foster Anonymous*
These are the same 12-Steps followed by millions of people across the globe, which are suggested as a program of recovery:
- We admitted we were powerless over behaviors – that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and, when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and practice these principles in all our affairs.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
