Administering the Greater New York Regional Meeting List

This guide is presented in a simple format for easy printing and reading.

Before we start, we need to establish a few basic rules:

Basic Rules and Principles

An accurate meeting list is a life-and-death matter. Addicts die when they can't make meetings. We need to take this Service very seriously.
The printed meeting list is made directly from this online list. Changes that you make here will be reflected in the list that is printed after they have been made. That means that the online list may be more accurate than the printed list; but only temporarily.
We have a very strict privacy policy. It is absolutely essential that we not put any personal information (including home addresses) into the Web site. This means that meetings that gather in people's homes cannot be listed. We can't put phone numbers or names in the list.
It is a very bad idea to have contacts for individual meetings. People come and go, and today's friendly contact might be tomorrow's nodding nabob. Sorry, but that's life in N.A.
All meetings must be legitimate N.A. meetings. Even though we may want to support other fellowships, we cannot list their meetings here. Every meeting should be associated with an ASC or a metro area. That may not be required for them to be a legitimate meeting, but we need them to be associated with a service structure in order for us to list them. They don't need to actively participate in their ASC, but they need to rely on their ASC for their listing.
We need to maintain decorum. There may be some controversy about things like meeting names and/or formats. The final arbiter of the matter must be the Greater New York Region, as they operate this list on behalf of all of their constituent ASCs, and are responsible for its content.
That being said, we should not allow the use of the meeting list as an enforcement mechanism. Addicts die when they can't make meetings.
All meetings should have a zip code. If you can't find the zip code for a meeting, then you can find the address in Google Maps, and record the zip code from there. The zip code is required for the distance search. If the meeting does not have a zip code, then it will not be included in the distance search or in the clickable maps.
You should test each meeting's map link to ensure that the address information makes an accurate map. Google Maps can sometimes be a little odd in interpreting addresses (i.e. it may prefer "Rd", as opposed to "Road").
The five boroughs of New York City are not towns. The "town" is New York. The "County" popup menu actually has the boroughs in it. Selecting one there will automatically establish New York as the town.
If the meeting is also listed in the NAWS meeting list, then it should have a World ID. You need to get these from NAWS.
DO NOT administer the site from a public computer, such as a library computer, or Internet Café computer! There are far too many security risks involved!

Logging Into the System

When you want to administer the list, you get to it from the "Administration" page. To get there, you first select the "Service Bodies" tab at the top of the page:

After you go to the "Service Bodies" page, you go over to the left navigation, and select "Admin," located just below the big N.A. logo:

This will take you to the Main Administration Login Page:

At this point, you must enter your login ID and password to proceed. We are demonstrating with the Suffolk Area Service ID here.

Once you have successfully logged in, you will be presented with three choices (Don't worry about the SASNA printed list option. That only shows up for Suffolk Area). This is referred to as the "Main Screen":

Changing Administrator Information

If you select "Change My Own User Information," you will be sent to the User Page:

Generally, the only thing you will need to change here will be your password or your email address. Your email address is never displayed in public, but you can get emails from Web site visitors that use the "Contact the Meeting List Administrator" links at the bottom of the meeting list.

If you change your password, make sure that you abide by whatever policy your ASC has developed. Remember to keep it safe. The Regional Administrator can always reset it, so you can contact us if there are problems.

The Search Form

When you click on "Administer Meeting Lists," you will be taken to a page that looks exactly like the Basic Meeting Search form:

You will use this in exactly the same manner as you do the regular one. The main difference is that only meetings in your ASC will be returned. For example, since we are using the SASNA login for this, we will not see any Simply Spiritual or Eastern Long Island meetings, even though they show up in the regular meeting list, and are in Suffolk County.

If you click on "Go to Advanced Search," you will go to a search form that looks almost exactly like the regular Advanced Search:

The one difference that you will notice is a checkbox that says "Search for meetings with no zip code." If you check that, then only meetings with no zip code will be returned. It is a good idea to not put in any other search criteria, because you want to see every meeting with no zip code. Remember that meetings with no zip code cannot be included in the distance search.

An example here might be that you have been given a meeting name, so you type that into the "Search:" box (the most common way of making changes to existing meetings). The search would return that single meeting (or more, if more than one meeting uses the same name). For our example, we'll just hit the "Find the Meetings" button without entering anything:

Editing Meetings

Each meeting has an "Edit" button at the right. If you click on the meeting name, then you just get the regular display. However, if you click on "Edit," you are taken to a special display that allows you to change the meeting:

Note the warning about anonymity. we're serious about this. Breaking anonymity on the Internet can have terrible consequences.

This is the top of a typical meeting editor. Here, you enter the meeting name, which day of the week it meets (our system is only meant for meetings that gather regularly on a specific day of the week, every week).

The times are all military time. That means that afternoon and evening meetings must be entered in numbers greater than 12. They will be displayed as regular English Time, so that means that if you select "3 00" as the time, it will be displayed as "3 AM." The "Midnight" checkbox should be checked if it is a midnight meeting. Midnight is a special time, because it is officially tomorrow, but the meeting is always considered to be tonight. We cheat a bit, and hack the system. If it's a midnight meeting, check this box.

If you know how long the meeting lasts, then give it a duration, like "1 hours and 30 minutes." This is useful for people that get rides to meetings and need to be picked up.

Below all this, you will see a box that allows comments, but be very sparing. Everything in this box gets displayed on the printed meeting list, and can cause confusion or extra pages.

Rule of thumb: Keep comments to less than twenty words, like "Last meeting of the month is a Tradition meeting. We use the It Works: How and Why book."

Next, we have the World ID:

This is the ID number given by NAWS, when a meeting is added to their worldwide database. It helps to connect your meeting to NAWS. If your meeting is in the NAWS database, then it should have this number. You may have to get it from NAWS.

After that, we have the location information for the meeting:

The first field is a basic description of the location, like a church name, or a building name.

The next fields are important, as they combine to make a Google Map URL, and you may need to adjust them slightly.

The Address field is the street address. You can have either a numerical address, such as "154 Christopher Street," or a corner, such as "Christopher Street and Greenwich Street." It must be a corner or a numerical address. You should not put in something like "Christopher Street, between Greenwich and Washington Street." Google doesn't like that. If you absolutely can't get an address, then just the street is OK, but it may not point to an accurate location.

If you don't have an address, but you do have a building name, then you can often find the address by "Googling" the building, and any information you have. For example, in the above address, you could Google "New Jerusalem" and "Brentwood, NY." That might give you some links that would help you to find the church. You could also use a site such as Verizon SuperPages. Basically, you may need to do a bit of detective work. You may also want to contact the person who submitted the change request to get more information.

The "Location Info" text item is to add stuff like "Behind Main Building," or "Btwn Greenwich and Washington," or "@Greenwich." It should be very short and concise. When you submit, you will be presented with a very awkwardly-phrased alert that will ask you to verify that the location information is correct. If it is, then just hit "OK." The reason for the alert is that, when meetings move, the administrator often forgets to correct the location info.

The "Town" field is based upon the "County" popup menu. You need to select a county (or New York City Borough) before you can select a town.

In some cases, you may need to add a town that is not already in the list. In that case, you click on the "Add a Town not Available in the Popup Menu" button. It will put up an alert that will allow you to enter a new town.

VERY IMPORTANT: New York City Boroughs are not towns! Select a borough using the County popup, and the town will automatically be set to "New York." When adding towns, make sure of the spelling and capitalization. Also make sure that you have the correct county selected. New York City neighborhoods (like Bed-Stuy or Greenwich Village) are not to be entered here!

The state should always be NY (for now).

The Neighborhood text item is where you enter things like "East Village," or "Fordham." NOTE: This should NOT be the same as the town! It is to help people who know the basic area to figure out the location in a general manner.

After you have entered the location information, you should select the meeting format:

You should check all formats that apply. It is very important to choose either "Open" or "Closed"! This is because we don't want to send addicts or interested parties to meetings from which they may be turned away. Many addicts don't want to go to closed meetings because they are not yet ready to declare themselves as addicts. For this reason, we consider a meeting closed unless it is specifically open.

After you have completed the meeting information, you should select the "Confirm Changes" button.

Deleting Meetings

If you just want to delete the meeting, then skip all of the above, and just click on "Delete This Meeting":

Confirming Changes

If you have changed the location information (Street Address, Town, County, etc.), and there was something in the Location Info Field, you will be presented with this awkwardly-phrased alert:

The reason for the weird phrasing is because we don't have much control over where the browser puts its buttons, or what it calls them.

What you do here is make sure that the change of address was also accompanied by any changes necessary for location information. If it is OK to leave the Location Info the same, then just hit OK. Otherwise, hit Cancel, and go back and change the Location Info.

When you click on "Confirm Changes," the meeting information is presented to you the way it would appear to a regular site visitor.

VERY IMPORTANT: The meeting changes have not yet been set! If you don't click on "Submit," then the changes will not take effect.

Here is an example Confirm Page:

This is where you can test the map link. If the map doesn't work, then you may need to go back and play with the address. Sometimes Google is very literal.

If you do not have a zip code specified, you will see a warning about that here.

Once you are satisfied with the meeting, click on "Submit Changes," and the meeting will now be updated in the meeting list.

You will be presented with the following page:

"Return to Meeting Search," takes you back to the Basic Search page, and "Return to Main Screen" takes you back to the three choices.

Creating New Meetings

What about "Create A New Meeting"? you ask:

Glad you asked. This button is at the bottom of every page. If you click it, it will take you to the Edit Page, but for a "New Meeting." You need to add all the information from scratch.

New Feature: Easier Editing!

We have introduced a new feature as of June 25th, 2006. This is an administration "cookie." This is a small file that is placed on your machine that saves your login information. Normal visitors to the site do not get this file. This has a slight privacy ramification: It does leave a trail on your computer. It shows that our site was visited. No one on the Net can see this. Someone actually has to look at your machine in order to do this. In that case, they will also see your Internet History, which will show your visits in far greater detail.

In the interests of privacy, we will name the cookie. It is called "gny_admin," and is assigned to "www.newyorkna.net," or "newyorkna.net." If you are very concerned, then you can use this information to find the cookie and delete it.

A much easier way to do this is to simply go to the main Admin screen, and click on the "Logout" link at the bottom of the page. This will completely remove the cookie.

Now, the reason that we added this, was so that you do not have to keep entering your login information, and so that you can edit meetings directly from normal meeting searches.

In order to take advantage of this feature, you must have "Accept Cookies" turned on in your browser (it will work fine with these turned off, but you will not be able to take advantage of this feature, and will have to log in every time).

Even more useful, EVERY meeting search you do will allow you to edit meetings for which you are the authorized meeting list administrator. Here is an example for the Suffolk Area Meeting List Administrator:

Clicking on an "Edit" button will take you directly to the Edit Screen for that meeting. When you are done, you will be returned to the list.

Note that "Perpetual Change" does not have an "Edit" button. This is because it is an Eastern Long Island meeting, and the SAS Meeting List Administrator is not authorized to edit that meeting.

If you are looking at a meeting's details, you will also be given the opportunity to edit that meeting directly. At the bottom of the details page, there will be a button:

This will allow the meeting to be directly edited from the Details screen.

New Feature: Draggable Maps!

Another new feature (as of June, 2007) is integrated Google Maps. This allows very, very precise location of the meeting for such things as a distance search.

Here is the Google Maps User Guide. (Opens a new Window)

When you first get to the edit page, a map will appear, just like in regular searches:

The difference with this one is that the center marker is "draggable":

If you need to return the marker to the original address spot, you simply click on the "Reset the Map to the Address Location" link. When you update the address, the marker will update as you change the address. If the address is entered incorrectly, the map will have a notice displayed over it.

Even if the address is entered correctly, you may choose to move the marker. For example, you may want to move the marker to the correct parking lot or building entrance. If the address will not result in a valid map coordinate, you may want to force it to the correct location.

Once you drag the marker, it will stay where you left it, and it will become the location for that meeting.

IMPORTANT SECURITY NOTICE:

VERY, VERY IMPORTANT: IF YOU ARE DOING ADMINISTRATION FROM A PUBLIC COMPUTER (SUCH AS A LIBRARY COMPUTER), THEN YOU MUST LOG OUT! In fact, you should NEVER administer the site from a public computer, as it is quite possible for nefarious individuals to plant keyloggers or spyware on these computers.

Tab-Separated Values (TSV) Dump

We have implemented a feature to extract the "raw" meeting data for a given search by allowing you, as an administrator, to receive a tab-separated values "dump" of the search. This contains the "base" search data, before it is made "pretty" for display.

A TSV dump is an excellent starting point for your own custom meeting lists, as it can be read into applications such as Microsoft Excel or Access, and manipulated to create a printing.

If you are an administrator, you will see an additional button at the bottom of the meeting search results:

This button will download a ".tab" file to your computer. This is a basic text file that has each value separated by tabs. The following is the "schema" for the TSV file:

ROWS: Each row is one meeting. The sorting in the initial file is exactly the same as the original search. The first row is a header.

COLUMNS: The following are the columns in each row:

_id

This is the ID of the event. You can use this ID in a URL to the event. Here is an example:

http://www.newyorkna.net/Events_and_Meetings/event_db.php?meeting_search_query=1&evt_id=1787

The bolded section shows you how you need to add the ID. It should be set as the "evt_id" parameter. If you are referring to a meeting, then you should also add the "meeting_search_query" parameter, set to 1.

_author

This is the user ID of the author. It is really only useful inside our database, but might be useful for tying events together.

_name

This is the name of the meeting.

_length

This is the duration of the meeting, as HH:MM:SS (standard SQL format).

_comments

This is the "comments" field for the meeting (things like format notes, etc.)

_asc_id

This is the ID of the Area Service Committee. It can be tied into a URL to access the ASC page on the GNY site. For example:

http://www.newyorkna.net/Member_ASCs/Contact.php?asc_id=1005

The bolded section shows how you need to add this value.

_format

This is the format key for the meeting. Formats are two-letter codes that are separated by commas.

This is our current format key:

C: This meeting is closed to non-addicts. You should attend only if you believe that you may have a problem with substance abuse.
O: This meeting is open to addicts and non-addicts alike. All are welcome.
B: This meeting is focused on the needs of new members of NA.
BL: This Meeting can be attended by speakers of English and another language.
BT: This meeting is focused on discussion of the Basic Text of Narcotics Anonymous.
CH: This meeting gathers in a facility that is usually closed on holidays.
CL: This meeting is held by candlelight.
CS: Well-behaved, supervised children are welcome.
D: This meeting invites participation by all attendees.
ES: This meeting can be attended by speakers of Spanish.
GL: This meeting is focused on the needs of gay and lesbian members of NA.
IL: This meeting is focused on the needs of NA members with chronic illness.
IP: This meeting is focused on discussion of one or more Informational Pamphlets.
IW: This meeting is focused on discussion of the It Works -How and Why text.
JT: This meeting is focused on discussion of the Just For Today text.
M: This meeting is meant to be attended by men only.
NC: Please do not bring children to this meeting.
Pi: This meeting has a format that consists of each person who shares picking the next person.
RF: This meeting has a format that changes for each meeting.
Rr: This meeting has a fixed sharing order (usually a circle.)
SC: This meeting is held in a facility that has surveillance cameras.
SD: This meeting is lead by a speaker, then opened for participation by attendees.
SG: This meeting is focused on discussion of the Step Working Guide text.
Sm: Smoking (of tobacco) is permitted at this meeting.
So: This meeting is a speaker-only meeting. Other attendees do not participate in the discussion.
St: This meeting is focused on discussion of the Twelve Steps of NA.
Ti: This meeting has sharing time limited by a timer.
To: This meeting is based upon a topic chosen by a speaker or by group conscience.
Tr: This meeting is focused on discussion of the Twelve Traditions of NA.
TW: This meeting engages in detailed discussion of one or more of the Twelve Traditions of N.A.
W: This meeting is meant to be attended by women only.
WC: This meeting is wheelchair accessible.
YP: This meeting is focused on the needs of younger members of NA

_location_text

This is the name of the location (Such as St. Mark's Church).

_location_street_address

This is the street address for the location (such as 123 Somewhere Lane).

_neighborhood

This is the neighborhood for the location (such as West Village, Harlem, etc.)

_location_town

This is the city/town for the location (New York is the only town for all the boroughs).

_location_county

This is the county or borough for the location. NYC boroughs (Bronx, Brooklyn etc.) are listed here.

_location_state

This is the state for the location.

_location_zip

This is the US zip code for the location.

_location_nation

This is the nation for the location (currently, onlu US or blank -which means US).

_world_id

This is the NAWS committee code for the meeting.

_location_info

This is text that helps you to find a location (such as between First and Third).

_last_modified

An SQL timestamp of when the meeting was last changed.

evt_weekday

The weekday on which the meeting gathers.

Sunday: 0
Monday: 1
Tuesday: 2
Wednesday: 3
Thursday: 4
Friday: 5
Saturday: 6

_start_time

The time the meeting starts, in military time.

Embedding the Meeting List in Your Own Web Site

If you are designing your own ASC Web site, and would like to use our meeting list and/or calendar as part of your site, we have made it possible to embed our code directly into your site, so it appears as if the meeting list/calendar is an integral part of your site.

Further details are available at this Web page.

The End

That pretty much does it for this whirlwind course on editing meetings in the Greater New York Regional Meeting List. If you have questions, please direct them to our Webmaster, via the Contact Form.