FAQ: Home Group Speaker Swap

Home group sign up form:
https://capitalareancna.com/hgss-signup

Flier download:
CASC-Home-Group-Speaker-Swap-flier-FINAL.pdf
(black-and-white, 2-sided, 4-per-page)

What is the Home Group Speaker Swap?

The Home Group Speaker Swap is a way for Capital Area NA home groups to connect, get to know themselves and each other better, and carry the NA message – all at the same time! As discussed and agreed to by Group Service Representatives (GSR) at our monthly CASC meeting, CASC facilitates the Home Group Speaker Swap based on methods that have worked in other NA areas.

Participating is simple and completely voluntary:

  • Sign up to participate
  • Coordinate a swap with another participating home group
  • Take turns speaking at each other’s meeting

Step-by-step guidance

  1. Choose some possible date(s) that your home group can a) host a speaker meeting, and b) travel to another meeting to speak. This could be done at the home group monthly business meeting, in anticipation of having a swap the following month. Either way, consider that it may take a couple of weeks or so after signing up to coordinate and confirm a swap.
  2. Sign up using the Home Group Speaker Swap sign up page. Home groups can sign up as often as they choose, for each date that home group is willing to host. Home groups that want to participate on an ongoing basis should sign up regularly, such as month to month.
  3. Coordinate a swap with another participating home group. After each sign up, participating home groups will receive swap information about the other home groups that signed up too. Use it to reach out to one or more participating home groups to coordinate a swap.
    Helpful suggestions
    • If your first choice for a home group to swap with doesn’t work out, don’t give up! Go back to the list of participating home groups and try again. Even better, arrange a swap with two or more participating home groups. If none of that works, sign up again and try again.
    • If a home group on the list has offered a date and time that doesn’t work for your home group to travel, don’t give up! Try contacting them anyway and see if they can offer a different date.
    • Consider swapping with a home group on the other side of town…or in another town all together. Plan it like a field trip, including getting some refreshments before or after with the home group you’re swapping with. Either way, arrive early and stay late so you have some time to fellowship before and after the meeting on swap-days.
  4. Notify CASC via the Contact Us page when you have confirmed a swap with another home group, so the swap list can be updated and re-sent. Ask to have your swap announced (optional) on our Announcements page, by email, and/or on the Capital Area Serenity Facebook page.

When two home groups have agreed to a date, time, and location for when they travel and host, the swap is confirmed and ready to go!

Some additional suggestions/ideas to consider

  • Meeting format
    • Plan for multiple speakers. Traveling home groups: Plan on having multiple home group members speak, if possible. Hosting home groups: Divide up the speaker time, so that all the speakers in the traveling home group get to speak. For example, if there’s 45 minutes to speak and 5 speakers, then each speaker speaks for about 9 minutes each. Also, if your meeting format is not normally for a speaker meeting, think ahead about how the format needs to change on nights when your home group hosts a swap. Click here for some additional suggestions to consider when planning a speaker swap.
    • Pick a topic…or just let it flow. When coordinating a swap, discuss whether or not there will be a suggested topic for speakers. This could be requested by the hosting home group, or suggested by the traveling home group. And this might be particularly helpful if there are a lot of speakers.
  • Fellowship, fellowship, fellowship!
    Make fellowshipping a big part of your plan. When traveling to another home group arrive early and stay late. Stop for dinner together on the way (but don’t be late!), or plan dinner for both home groups afterwards. Invite others to come along, and contact us to have your swap announced on our Announcements page, the Capital Area Serenity Facebook page, and by email.
  • Suggested clean time for speakers
    In some NA areas it is suggested that NA speakers have 90 days clean or more. Regardless, it’s a good idea for participating home groups to communicate their expectations about this. Whatever your home group decides, speaker swapping can still be a great experience for anyone that wants to go along.

Questions?

If you have questions, need assistance, or have suggestions for improving Home Group Speaker Swap, then please contact us.