Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people who come together to solve their drinking problem.  

It doesn’t cost anything to attend A.A. meetings. Most meetings will pass a basket for "7th tradition donations, however, there is never any requirement that you contribute, and your participation is welcomed regardless of whether or not you are able to contribute. 

There are no age or education requirements to participate. AA does not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, or any other characteristics. However, some meetings are described as either open (allow non-AA guests to attend) or closed (allow only AA members to attend), Women, Mens, Queer, etc. for the purpose of creating spaces where individuals feel more comfortable sharing what is on their hearts and minds. 

A.A.’s primary purpose is to help alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

We strongly recommend that if you want to recover from alcoholism, you: 

Go to Meetings: The more meetings you go to in early sobriety, the better as it helps to fortify it as part of your routine, and provides protection as you switch your routine away from  drinking.  It is often recommended that you go to a meeting a day for at least the first 90 days. You will sometimes hear this referred to as 90 in 90. When you go to more meetings you will start to get a feel for where you feel most comfortable as different groups have different formats and cultures.

Get a home-group: A home-group is a meeting you commit to going to on a regular basis and one that you offer to do service work to ensure the meeting happens. Service opportunities vary by group, and often include, greeting people, making coffee, setting up, or cleanup after the meeting. 

Get a Sponsor: A sponsor is someone who has gone through what you are going through, they have taken the twelve steps and they have recovered and are now prepared to take you through the steps as a guide. Sometimes you will pick a sponsor and sometimes a sponsor will pick you. If you are unsure talk to people you meet in meetings, they can help guide you to someone. 

Do the steps: "Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path." (pg. 58 of Alcoholics Anonymous) We have found through many years of experience and many different people, of different genders, cultures, religions, orientations, all across the world, that people who are able to be honest, open-minded, and willing to do the steps of this program, do recover. While we say they are suggested. They are the foundation of our program, and the basis of a way of life that leads to experiences beyond your imagining. "We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. " (pg 83-84 of Alcoholics Anonymous)