Meeting Types and Tags

For example, an on-line chat room meeting to be held 9:30 PM EST Thursdays, might be support; multi-faith; multi-issue; open topic; text" meaning that the meeting is not planned for any particular faith, addiction, or compulsion. Membership might be a mixture of Wiccans, Druids, Gardnerians, whatever, with a mix of alcohol, eating disorders, and compulsive cheating issues. A meeting on another night might be tagged "support; Druidic/Celtic; drugs; means, face to face" meaning that most of the members are likely to consider themselves Druids worshiping a Celtic pantheon, with drug addiction issues (members, not Gods!) and focusing on means of healing and freeing, meeting in a real world space. A third group might be "regular business, Wiccan; multi-issue; v-audio".

The tagging of groups is not meant to exclude anyone from attending, but to provide information what the meeting focus and context. NINE STEP PAGANS is not intended to be a religious organization, and the tagging of groups is only intended to help members feel included in a community of like-minded individuals, or clarify purpose. There may well be an atmosphere of worshipfulness and spirituality in some meetings, but meetings are in no way intended to become substitute places of worship. A faith-specific meeting might use certain kinds of language, ritual, or prayer to open, close, or facilitate the support within the meeting, whereas a multi-faith meeting would use more generic language. Issue specific meetings will likely focus on one issue more than others, whereas multi-issue meetings would focus on the themes and issues common to all compulsive behaviors and addictions. People of different faiths or having different behavior/chemical issues may attend, but should be aware that the style or character of the meeting may not be what they are used to, and must be prepared to respect the behavior and discussion considered normal and polite by that group of people.

In addition, meetings may be open topic, focused around one of the nine steps, one of the means to freedom and health, themes and feelings outlined in the premise of commonality, or on a topic chosen by the members in the previous meeting, e.g. "NSP-multi-faith, eating disorders, step", or NSP-Gaian, multi-issue, open topic"

function:	support
faith:	multi-faith	faith type	specific tradition	non-religious	?
issue	general addiction	general behavioral	specific addiction	specific behavior	multi-issue
topic type	open topic	step	means	meeting-chosen	?
space type	internet:	face to face	(internet) text	audio	visual audio

UNMODERATED MEETING OF MISRULE

"UMM"s are meetings without moderation beyond whatever the natural sensibilities of the people at the meeting informally determine. They proceed without the rules or safeguards of more formal meetings, other than confidentiality; people can loosen up, be opinionated, strange, hyper or laid-back as the particular combination of people in the room will allow. Every adult who enters a meeting of misrule should remember that normal NSP conventions may not apply, and they are responsible for taking care of themselves ( unless targeted by practitioners of certain types of nasty harassment, not allowed in any semi-civilized gathering of people, no matter how unconventional.) There is no fixed format or topic, and meetings can be highly productive or a total waste of time, as determined by those present.

OPEN ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING

"OOM"s are open meetings of people concerned with how Nine Step Pagans can function effectively in it's mission of providing places for Pagan and Pagan-friendly adults to give and receive support in winning and keeping health and freedom from addictions, compulsive behaviors, or both. They may range from free-ranging brainstorm sessions to tightly focused working sessions with specific goals regarding practical challenges faced by NSP.