1. Please arrive PROMPTLY. Arriving a little before the start time would be greatly appreciated. Late arrivals and early departures can be distracting so please avoid this if at all possible.

2. Any pre-meeting chat should be limited to the type of conversation you would normally engage in during a live face-to-face meeting. Please be courteous and respectful to each other, keeping in mind that many newcomers may be present and need to feel safe, comfortable, and welcome. Do not discuss things that may be offensive to others.

3. If arriving late, please refrain from openly messaging the channel with greetings or questions regarding topic, until in between shares. Limit or refrain from conversation and chatter between shares as this slows down the meeting and please be considerate when private messaging others who may be trying to focus on the meeting, especially the Meeting Host.

4. We begin with some opening statements, a review of the meeting protocol, a prayer, and the topic. The leader may share his/her thoughts on it first and then open it up for others to share.

5. During the meeting please refrain from CROSSTALK, ADVICE-GIVING, and FEEDBACK. Though denoting a smile, hug or nod is not considered inappropriate we encourage you to use these sparingly as they can be distracting. Please be respectful of peoples' shares and their feelings. Flames, open and public criticism of someone's share, disrespect, or rudeness will not be tolerated. Channel Operators are authorized to issue you a private warning if you disregard these guidelines. Any person who continually disregards these guidelines after having been warned may be removed from the meeting.

6. It happens sometimes that newcomers may not follow the established protocol or may be unfamiliar with how to share in an appropriate manner. Please do not criticize, chastise or respond to them in any way. The meeting host or a Channel Operator will take care of these situations privately.

7. If you wish to share, type * and the leader will call on people in the order their "hands" went up. It is customary to introduce yourself in the beginning of your share, ie. "Hi, I'm , a COE". In this way, the rest of the group can welcome you and thank you when you are finished.

8. When typing in your share, try to keep each line short, for the sake of those who are reading it, and end each line with "..." (minus the quotes) so that we know you are continuing. Please keep your shares reasonable in length so that others may have time to share. Also, please keep your share related to the meeting topic, and as it relates to your OA recovery, unless it is specified as Open Sharing.

9. When are are finished sharing, type "DONE" or !!!!.

10. After the sharing portion of the meeting is over we close with a prayer. You are then invited to stay around and chat at your leisure! This is a great opportunity to get to know eachother better and to ask any specific questions.

11. We ask that if you need to be away from your keyboard for any length of time, to indicate so by typing /away and hitting the return key. This tells others that you are not available at the moment to respond to them. When you return, type /away (hit return) again and you are indicated as back in the channel. If you are going to be away from the keyboard for a great length of time, we ask that you sign -off completely as this can be confusing to newcomers who try to message you.

12. Please be aware that we sometimes get "strangers" in our room that do not know the purpose of our room and our meetings. Do your best to ignore any distractions they may create. The Channel Operators will do their best to monitor these individuals. If you are being harrassed or bothered by one of these "strangers" (through DCC or private messaging), please privately notify the Channel Operator immediately so that action may be taken.