I regret to inform you that this site is no longer in operation. After two years of running AAOM I have taken the hard decision to withdraw from administering this service. This site is the work, from the very start, of a single individual, and it is my decision alone. This I have taken for a number of reasons.
I started this site at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when all face-to-face meetings were asked to close down. Nobody knew how long this would go on for, and many members - who need access to AA meetings - were in a panic. Myself amongst them. As the Irish government and their medical advisors have now lifted most restricions on large gatherings, the actual purpose of this site has been fulfilled, and its usefulness now is over.
I started this site, and have maintained it, updated it, and answered many emails on a daily basis. An important principle in AA is the “Principle of Rotation”. No service in AA should ever depend upon a single person. We take on a service position for a period of time, and we then leave it. No one in AA should be (or is) indispensable. I need AA, but no part of AA depends upon me. Because of where I am in my own recovery, I think two years of running this site on a daily basis is enough. I am not passing it on to any other person or group because AA provides the same service of listing online meetings.
For those unable to attend AA meetings due to COVID, there are online meetings listed on the official Irish AA website. I would encourage all groups to register their online meetings with the alcoholicsanonymous.ie website. Please ask your GSR or Area Secretary about this. AAOM, from the very start, has made it clear that this is a private site, in no way endorsed by the AA Conference of Ireland, or the GSB of Ireland. It was never my intention to set up an ‘alternative’ to the only official AA Ireland website. I fully endorse their decisions and work, as our elected representatives. I apologise to those who may be inconvenienced by the suddenness of my decision, but I would ask them to turn to their local GSR, home group, or AA friends to make plans for their meeting attendance.
On a personal note, I have received many thanks from members. That’s always nice, but I set up and ran this site to provide a simple service, that was not - at the time - available anywhere else. There was never any advertisement banners, donation buttons, or my personal details put on the site. I refused all offers of financial assistance. I never made any financial gain from this project whatsoever. The site cost about 20 euro a month to run, so with 2.5 million individual hits, was pretty good value for money.
As I am now fully rotated out of the position of running this site, I will not be answering any more emails or enquiries in relation to running online meetings (zoom etc). I am just another guy in AA, and that’s all I want to be. There is a fine service structure in Ireland, and a GSO whose task it is to maintain the official AA website. I know many of them personally, and I thank them for their service.
I shall leave this message up for about a month, and then aaom.ie shall be taken down completely. The email address is also being disabled. Some of my fellow members have my personal details and I would ask them to not share them with others in relation to AAOM.ie in the spirit of anonymity.
In fellowship
MK