Cross-talk in meetings.

Question: Does AA have an official description of what exactly constitutes cross-talk?

Answer: No. There is no rule in A.A. against "cross talk" though it avoided as a matter of strong custom in many areas.

Typically "cross talk" refers to people speaking out of turn, interrupting someone while they are speaking or giving direct advice to someone in a meeting. There is a custom in many areas to speak only from one's own experience and to avoid giving direct advice or lecturing a group or individual.

How it is accepted and dealt with varies from group to group and region to region. In some groups members frequently interrupt one another for joking comments, in other places you might be asked to be quiet or leave for doing the same. In many places outside The USA the idea of "cross talk" being detrimental doesn't exist.

The ultimate arbiter of the subject is the individual group which is free to follow it's own customs. What is considered quite proper in one meeting may cause quite a stir in another, but there is no rulebook for it.

The Big Book describes the earliest meetings as "informal" get togethers. The idea of "cross talk" being discouraged is not evident in the book but something that started later.

Prohibition of "cross talk" is a common practice in clinical group therapy and this has perhaps become an influence on A.A. Many people first encounter this custom in a rehab setting and often have no reason to consider that it might be different in A.A. which is not intended to be form of group therapy.