VolunteerCONNECTION - March 16, 2023

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Subject: VolunteerCONNECTION - March 16, 2023

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Announcements & Reminders

Coming Soon

SMART Recovery USA will be joining SMART Recovery International in walking around the globe in support of our 4-point program and its role in promoting recovery. Teams will be formed in April to raise funds for our volunteer support activities and training scholarships, and we'll be encouraging those teams to organize informal walks at the beginning of May to celebrate our community and its collective positive impact on recovery around the world. More details will be forthcoming very soon, but you can start discussing it in your meetings now!

ICYMI: New and Improved Meeting Verification System

Obtaining attendance verifications is a necessary part of recovery for many of our participants. We also recognize the time and effort so many of you put in to manually providing them after each of your meetings. Because of this we are excited to announce that on March 2, 2023 we launched a new feature in SMARTfinder that can make this easier for both you and your participants.

SMARTfinder now displays whether meetings provide attendance verifications or not, and it is your decision whether to provide them for your meeting. If your online meeting uses a Zoom license provided by SMART Recovery, then your meeting will be able to offer the Pathcheck™ Instant Verifications. If you use some other Zoom license (or run an in-person meeting), your meeting can indicate that it offers Facilitator-provided verifications.

Important information to know:

All 4-point/Standard SMART Recovery meetings defaulted to “verifications provided” when this feature launched on March 2, 2023. This can be changed by using the self-service meeting change form or emailing volunteerhq@smartrecovery.org.
If your online meeting is providing Patcheck^TMVerification, please make sure to close the meeting no later than 30 minutes after the scheduled end time for your meeting to prevent a delay for participants requesting the verification.
If you or your participants have any questions or feedback, please email verifications@smartrecovery.org.

Learn More

Guidance for Cameras in Meetings

As a facilitator it is important to be mindful that participants in your meeting can represent various personality types, life experiences, and living situations that might make them reluctant to turn their camera on in a meeting. While you may personally feel that people participate most fully when their webcams are on, please bear in mind that this is subjective and might not ring true for all.

For example, someone with social anxiety disorder might feel and focus their best, and therefore get the most out of a meeting, when not forced to stress about appearing on camera. Another participant might have a living situation that could be distracting or embarrassing and therefore would prefer not to broadcast it to those in their meeting. Requiring participants to keep their cameras on incorrectly assumes that everyone shares your own comfort level and privileges, potentially acting as a barrier to their participation in SMART.

While some facilitators of specialized meetings such as teens or women’s only might feel more comfortable enforcing a camera on policy, please note that this should be the exception rather than the rule. If you and your participants decide that a camera on policy is what works best for your meeting, please let us know by emailing volunteerhq@smartrecovery.org so we can add a note to your meeting listing.

Motivational Interviewing Refresher

Our Motivational Interviewing Refresher course will be held April 1, 2023. Registration begins Friday, March 17th. Watch your email for details!

Volunteer Opportunities

Facilitator Mentoring Program

If you have been a SMART Recovery facilitator for a year or more and are looking for a way to share what you have learned with others, check out our Facilitator Mentoring Program. Facilitator Mentors offer support and guidance for both starting and maintaining SMART Recovery meetings.

Become A Mentor

National Meetings Co-facilitators Needed

In the last quarter of 2022, SMART began a pilot listing of some Family & Friends and 4-Point meetings on SMARTfinder. Unlike SMART Recovery OnLine (SROL) meetings, no registration is required to participate in the meetings. This new way of listing removes what has been reported as a barrier to participation (the registration process itself) and aligns our work more closely with our organizational values.

We hoped to see increased meeting participation by taking this action and it has worked! Consider these examples:

Saturday 8:30 PM ET meeting saw a 147% increase in attendance.
Sunday 12:30 PM ET meeting saw a 142% increase in attendance.
Tuesday, 6:00 PM ET meeting saw a 173% increase in attendance.

Because of the increase in participation and the number of new participants in these National 4-Point meetings, we would like to have a lead facilitator and two co-facilitators at each meeting. We believe that having one co-facilitator greeting participants and answering questions while the other focuses on facilitator support and meeting management is the ideal mix of support for the lead facilitator.

So, here is our ask. If you have successfully completed any of our Facilitator trainings (GSF 201, 202, 203, or 301), have experience facilitating SMART Recovery online meetings, and are interested in becoming a co-facilitator, please let us know by filling out this form.

The reality of this growth in meeting participants means more individuals are getting help to live a Life Beyond Addiction, and it’s only because of our volunteers that this can happen.

Become A Co-Facilitator

Meetings of Interest for Volunteers