GRASS Group Service Roles

Each GRASS group can decide for itself what service roles are needed in the group and individual meetings. Each group should designate one role to be responsible for keeping track of service commitments and ensuring meetings have adequate coverage. 

Groups should clearly define the responsibilities for each role, which may vary from group to group. New or smaller meetings may choose to combine the duties of certain roles. Larger or daily meetings may see a need for additional roles not listed here. 

Group IG Rep: This position serves as a bridge between individual GRASS groups and Intergroup. They attend IG meetings, bring back news and motions to vote on, and represent the group at the monthly IG meeting. 

Secretary: This position keeps track of meeting service roles, group rules, the meeting script, and any decisions made during the Group Conscience meeting. The Group Secretary duties can be rolled into the Group Rep position or a separate role. 

Zoom Host: Every meeting should have a designated Zoom Host. The host should arrive before the meeting to turn the waiting room on and assign Co-hosts. 

Meeting Lead: The Meeting Lead (sometimes called Chair or Chairperson) facilitates the GRASS meeting in accordance with the group rules. 

Meeting Co-hosts: Help behind the scenes during the meeting, let people in from the waiting room, and post announcements in the chat. A Co-host can fill additional roles as needed, such as Greeter, Timekeeper, or Screen Sharer. 

Greeter: Greeters arrive prior to the meeting and say hello to people as they enter the room. If people arrive after the meeting introductions, the Greeter can send them a welcome message in the chat and let them know the topic. 

Timekeeper: GRASS meetings that have decided by group conscience to put time limits on shares may wish to designate a timekeeper in advance. 

Speaker Seeker(s): Meetings that follow a speaker format should designate one or more individuals who are responsible for booking speakers for the meeting. 

Screen Sharer: Meetings that use specific literature or video formats may wish to designate someone as the official Screen Sharer. For literature meetings, this person shares the reading material and turns the page. 

Note: Free recovery literature is widely available online. However, the screen sharer may need to buy a digital copy of some books. Groups can decide on their own what literature to use and how to handle purchasing books.

Service Commitments

Taking a service commitment is helpful for maintaining personal recovery. A commitment can help individuals develop a consistent routine of meeting attendance. Service helps us to grow in recovery. It can provide a sense of belonging, purpose, and usefulness. 

Each meeting can decide for itself how to define the length of service commitments. In some meetings, one person fills a particular role in each meeting for a set amount of time. Other meetings may choose to fill a position on a meeting-by-meeting basis. 

Whatever way your group decides to fill service commitments, it is a good practice to create a plan for who will fill each service role at each meeting for a full month. Groups that designate a different Lead each meeting could benefit from setting up a reminder system.  

Rotation of Service

GRASS recommends rotating service positions. Individual meetings can decide how long to make each service commitment and how many different positions are needed.

In new or smaller meetings, individuals may fill multiple roles at once. Groups should aim to have at least three people involved in service at all times. 

Whenever possible, GRASS recommends changing out service roles from time to time. Ideally, an individual should not lead the same meeting for longer than three months. 

This allows others the opportunity to serve in the group and prevents the meeting from being seen as one individual’s meeting as opposed to the group’s meeting. This can also help prevent a service member from feeling burned out.  

Expectations of Service Members

GRASSmates in group service are expected to uphold the GRASS Guiding Principles, GRASS Code of Ethics, and individual group rules. 

Note: This is the third article in a series of GRASS explainers. READ NEXT: What Is a GRASS Group Rep?