Author Archives: admin

Sobriety Chips

Sobriety Chips -‘Chips’ for short,  are awarded by any group tagged with ‘Chips’.

If a member wishes,  chips are awarded  from a newcomer’s first 24 hours and then  for each sober year therafter from 1 Year to 60 Years.

Finding Your Meeting Registration Number (UID)

The DCIG Website List UIDs for Most Meetings

Use the Tag Box and select your meeting day and check for the UID after the Postcode or Zoom link.

You can then check your UID against the current GSO information via this  PDF link:  aa-meetings-all-2025-10-25

Using the link  ‘Download Meeting List. You will have a table 7 rows by 3 columns with the UID at the foot of the meeting block.  UIDs are 3 or 4 digits except for Online Meetings which begin with ‘ON’ then 3 digits.

Please note that the meeting list is in alphabetic order so not in the WTF Day-of-the-Week order. There are presently 40 meetings on this list.  The Exeter Saturday evening meeting closed on 26th July 2025 and the Thursday Polish Meeting is on a separate Intergroup for Polish speaking meetings, making a total of 39 meetings.

GSO Reports, Service News, Flyers & Literature Order Form

Annual Report

For the 2024 Annual Report of the General Service Board please click here:

Latest Service News

AA Service News, Autumn 2025, please click here:
PI Newsletter, Autumn 2025, please click here:
YP Newsletter, Autumn 2025, please click here:

Handbooks

AA Service Handbook 2024, please click here:  

AA Structure Handbook 2024, please click here:  

Flyers

Young Persons Online Workshops 2025, please click here:  

Literature Order Form

AA Literature Order Form:  

Responders Needed for Our Local Help Line

The AA Telephone Helpline is always answered by a recovering alcoholic, usually from the Devon and Cornwall region.

The helpline is available to all and serves a variety of needs, but its primary purpose is to carry AA’s message of recovery to those still suffering from active alcoholism.

Additionally it can provide help, support and information in the following areas;

      • Someone who needs help with an alcohol problem
      • A relative or friend of someone with an alcohol problem
      • An employer with an employee with an alcohol problem
      • General enquiries such as Website Feedback

The AA Helpline always requires people who are willing to be telephone responders. The Helpline is covered by 4 Intergroup areas, Devon Central, South Devon, Plymouth and Cornwall.

The telephone shifts are either a morning, 8.30am-1pm, afternoon, 1pm-6pm or evening,6pm-10pm once every 3 weeks. The requirements for a prospective responder are as follow:

      • 12 months continuous sobriety
      • Home Group
      • Sponsor
      • Telephone landline or mobile number
      • Internet access

 

If you would like to volunteer for a shift or would like further information, then please feel free to contact Rich at the following email address, telephones.devonc@aamail.org .

Print your own WTF (meeting finder)

The up-to-date anonymous version of the WTF (Where-To-Find a meeting) is available now as a pdf download.  The latest revision date is given underneath the Quarter Months. Besides printing in colour it also looks very nice in Black and White.  So, if you have double sided printer, you can print off small batches of foldable WTFs on a single A4 page. Don’t worry if your printer does not do double sided printing.  You can still print the WTF on two pages. 

How to Print

  1. Select Print – then:
  2. Select double sided if you plan to do this.
  3. Try Black and White. (It’s very decent and useable and won’t eat up your colour cartridge.)
  4. And select Flip on Short Edge (so you have the front and back pages running across the print page)
  5. Select number of copies and Print

 

AND if you don’t have a printer

Just download the PDF to your phone.  The file is in zoomable directly on your phone and in colour.  It’s what I do, and it works well.

Our Website

News

About the site

As many will know, the old site was launched in May 2011 and after 10 years plus, it was much in need of a refresh both in ‘look and feel’ and technically.  Consequently, on March 10, 2022  we launched an all-new site which addresses both issues.  The new site is  much  newer technology which improves the  adding  and managing of content as well as keeping the site up to date and secure. We believe that most pages will be familiar but also updated with current links and up to date information wherever necessary. All of this ‘slow changing information’ is held in pages, accessed from the menu at the top of each page.  This also gives easy discovery for new visitors and new members. More frequent visitors, primarily engaged AA members, should find navigation, using the Tag Blocks, will give quicker and easier access to fast changing information on meetings and local AA news.

TAGS and Tag Blocks

This is a newer and highly effective way to navigate the site. Most pages will have a Tags Block  as you can see on the right (or below if you are using a phone or tablet).  All the meetings are accessible from the Days Tags at the start of the Tag Block.  These run form ‘1 Sun’ to ‘7 Sat’ and give you complete and fast access to all our meetings on any given day. The tags and categories which they hold will allow  you to find Meetings and News items with ease. So if you are looking for a traditional ( F2F) meeting you just click on the ‘Traditional’  tag and  wherever you are, you will end up on the Meetings and News page with a list of Traditional Meetings (including,  currently 2 Hybrids).  Now entering November 2023 most meetings have reverted to our traditional F2F meeting  but we still have 5 Zooms and 2 Hybrids.  The ‘online’ tag will find the 5 Zooms plus the 2 Hybrids. If you need the latest WTF just click the ‘help’ Tag and then click the link on the WTF post. The same approach will work for Questions for Conference ( QfC) etc. There are tags for the days of the week Sunday to Saturday. These will give you all the meetings for the respective day.  Just have a play and see what you can find and one last thing: for visitors checking for wheelchair access, please use the ‘access tag’ in the Tags Block on the right or at the bottom if using a phone.

Categories

If you wanted to see all News Posts then select ‘News’  from Categories dropdown.  The categories will also tell you how many Meetings, News item etc that we currently have. If you want all the Intergroup news click the ‘dcig’ Category.

Tags and Categories help us to find information which changes more frequently to that on pages.

News Ticker

Latest news and meetings changes will appear on the Latest News ‘Ticker’ on the Welcome  and the Resources pages.

And Don’t Forget to try the Search – Its awesome.

The NHS have some interesting data on the impact of Alcoholism. Just type ‘NHS’ and see where you end up!

Feedback and Fault Reporting

Any questions, suggestions or if you find something that is broken or not working please use the Contact US link either here or above on the main menu.

Devon Central Intergroup March 2022

 

Creating a New Group (GSR) Email

At the DCIG  meeting (12th Feb 2023), we had a discussion on the GSR email account transfers which accompany the change to a new GSR and the many stressful situations that often ensue. If the new GSR cannot take over the email then the only way forward is to create a new Gmail account. There was a strong argument to keep what we had from one group. However it is worth saying at the outset that if a group has not had any problems using the existing email then they simply carry on doing so but if they have problems now or in the future and cannot use the existing email then a new Group Email can be set up as discussed below. And as ever  what follows is a suggestion on a reasonable way to proceed.

Directly after intergroup, the Tiverton GSR  had the problem and  arrived at a nice  idea for a new email address which with some additional consideration  became town.day.am/pm.yymm(@gmail.com). The last bit YYMM is the year and month of the new GSR being appointed and setting up the new email.

 By way of example, have a look these emails for three Sunday Meetings in the suggested format: exe.sun.am.2201, exm.sun.pm.2108, sea.sun.pm.2004. (GSR example changes Jan 22, Aug 21 and Apr 20). And to be crystal clear the three preceding emails are examples and not real emails.

This new format allows us all to see from the email address:

    • Where the Meeting is running.
    • What day it runs on.
    • Is it in the Morning or Evening.
    • When did the GSR take on the role?

 

The combo will give us an easy unique email address. And all that has to change is the new GSR date – yymm which was the heart of  the Tiverton GSR’s design.

When the new mail account is created the recovery email and the mobile should be those of the new GSR.  When that GSR steps down the succeeding GSR will repeat the process of setting up the new email by changing the YYMM at the end of the group email (town.day.am/pm). When the email change is in place please forward the new email address to the DCIG Secretary and ECLO.

To create a new  gmail account please use the this link:

 https://accounts.google.com/signup/v2/webcreateaccount?flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=SignUp

Need Help Using Our Website ?

How to use devonaa.org.uk.  An ECLO  Guided tour

For those new to the DCIG Website or the Internet in general, the Devon Central ECLO offers a 30 minute workshop on Zoom to help introduce you to the site – both content and function. Please email dcigeclo@gmail.com for a date and time.

 

 

75 Years Of AA in Great Britain Video

For the 75th anniversary of AA in the UK, our General Service Office in York has produced a wonderful History of AA in the UK. The video opens with these words:

“For 75 Years AA GB has been working in these islands. Right from the start, they have been committed to supporting people in every walk of life, in every environment, in every place because the disease of alcoholism knows no frontiers, it knows no boundaries.  And over those 75 years AA GB has demonstrated time and time again that wherever it is needed it will go.”

Video Link

It can be accessed via the attached link:  75 Years of AA GB

 

85 Years of Helping Alcoholics

How it all began and AA.ORG

AA is a world wide movement of many tens of thousands of local groups of recovering alcoholics which began 85 years ago. In the intervening years the AA program has saved millions of alcoholic lives and prevented great damage to the lives of their families and the wider community. AA has its origins in a meeting between two old friends in New York towards the end of 1934. One was Bill W and the other was Ebby T. They both lived in New York and had been friends from school days in Vermont. They were also long time drinking partners. At that time, Bill had all but given up hope of freeing himself from alcohol when Ebby came to visit with a self evident message of hope and a sober life. Bill was amazed by his friend’s recovery story and his new sober state. Within days Bill had his last drink which was nothing short of a miracle, after years of fruitless attempts to stop. Six months later, in May of 1935 Bill was in Akron where, in order to save his hard won new sober state, he was asked to meet a fellow sufferer Dr Bob S. Thus, with that same message of hope and the prospect of a sober life, in early June of 1935 AA, got under way. The first AA group was in Akron, started by both men in 1935 . Bill W returned to New York to carry on his work in that city which is where AA’s world headquarters is based.

AA in the UK

Here in the UK our General Service Office (GSO) in York has a much fuller history of early AA and
the establishment of AA in the UK

The General Service Office and Website in New York

Today aa.org is the official website for the organisation in the US and provides a rich resource for the rest of AA around the world. For more history, information and help, just click the link: aa.org.

 

The Chit System

For website visitors and members

The chit (confirmation of attendance) system is a scheme providing members with proof of attendance at a particular AA meeting, (issued by a group officer). These can be given by the member to any agency (probation officers/offender managers, social services, health, employment, professional disciplinary bodies, courts/legal representatives or any other body) requesting proof of attendance, showing commitment to recovery.
Initially endorsed by the 1987 AA General Service Conference in co-operation with Probationary Services, the chit system was extended at the 2017 General Service Conference to include any other agency requiring confirmation of attendance. As the member voluntarily “self-reports” their attendance, group anonymity is preserved. Chits only confirm attendance and do not verify sobriety.

Chits Meetings List