Bill W.’s Vision for AA

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0:00

Moderator Welcome to the Tuesday Night Recovery Speakers History Workshop. Thank you everyone for joining us. My name is Tim and tonight's presentation will be led by Scott J. from Minnesota and Scott will be presenting on Bill Wilson's vision, The Three Legacies. We meet here every Tuesday night at the same time using the same Zoom ID and next week we will have a presentation led by Paul C.

0:34

Scott from California and that will be a documentary history of young people in Alcoholics Anonymous, 1935-1960, so the early days of young people. This meeting is being recorded and all past audio presentations are available at recoveryspeakers.com. We are not affiliated with any 12-step organization, though our focus is on the history of AA and other 12-step fellowships. Recoveryspeakers.com is a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to preserving and sharing the audio history of AA and the 12-step movement for today and for future generations. We send a daily email featuring a different speaker talk every day, including in the emails the recordings of these meetings and flyers for upcoming presentations.

1:28

Moderator If you'd like to subscribe, you can use the link that I am sharing in the chat or you can send me a message at info at recoveryspeakers.com and I will get you added to our email list. And if you are able to support our work, contributions are greatly appreciated and you can use the donate link in the chat to look at the different ways to make contributions to Recovery Speakers. And now, tonight, we have Scott presenting and we should have some time for questions at the end. So, if anyone has questions throughout the presentation, please be ready to ask your questions at the end of the meeting. And I will also close the chat during the meeting.

2:29

Scott I will open that back up once the presentation has concluded. And now, I'm going to invite Scott to unmute and share his screen. And again, this is Bill Wilson's vision on the three legacies and I hope you all enjoy. And I hope I unmuted the right Scott here. I think so.

2:56

Scott Perfect. There we go. All right. Yeah, the screen looks good. Thank you so much, Scott.

3:04

Moderator All right. Thank you very much, Tim. Thank you for the invitation to be here again. I've been here for a while. It's nice to always be back, especially on St.

3:20

Moderator Patrick's Day. And Tim's all dressed for it, ready to go. I love it. My name's Scott and I'm an alcoholic. My dry date's March 1st, 1976.

3:35

Scott And my home group is Aurora, Minnesota Big Book Group. And I am just a student of this Here Deal and I am not a very proficient PowerPoint. This will be more of a slideshow than one of those fancy, proficient PowerPoint things. But this is about Bill Wilson's vision of Alcoholics Anonymous, which actually turns out to be our three legacies of recovery, unity, and service. And I don't remember exactly when we put this together.

4:13

Scott It's been a couple of years. And the problem with me doing with these PowerPoints is if I do it more than once, I'm always trying to improve it, which means I'm always making it longer. And so, you know, I have to learn how to stop doing that and just enjoy it as it is. So I hope it doesn't get too long tonight. So what is Bill Wilson's vision?

4:50

Scott You know, I think for me, it starts here, after he gets sober, after a bunch of them get together and get sober. And Bill's thinking is about having this literature and putting together a book, making sure that the message of Alcoholics Anonymous doesn't get garbled, making sure that this message can be carried not only from New York City and Akron, but around the world. And you know, there was a lot of fighting went on, a lot, everybody agreed with Bill, and not everybody agreed with what should be in the book. But thank God the book eventually came to fruition, it was published April 10th, 1939. And you know what?

5:47

Scott It gives us continuity of the message that when somebody in Edmonton, Alberta, or somebody in the Key West, Florida, gets the book Alcoholics Anonymous, we have the same message. We've got the same recipe for recovery. And that, I think, brings Alcoholics Anonymous together. I think it's the first sign of continuity of the message and of the fellowship throughout the U.S. and Canada.

6:20

Scott Thank God they did that. It brings a oneness to the message. It gives us one message. And it's beautiful. And the story of the big book is a whole different story to be told.

6:37

Moderator And we don't have time for that tonight. But I do want to say this is the first place where we start to see Bill Wilson's vision. And we see his vision here on page 14 and 15 in the big book. If you look, it says, while I lay in the hospital, the thought came that there were thousands of hopeless alcoholics who might be glad to have what I had been so freely given. Perhaps I could help some of them.

7:18

Scott They in turn might work with others. The vision. On page 15, it says, my wife and I abandoned ourselves with enthusiasm to the idea of helping other alcoholics to a solution of their problems. The action. And you'll find that always with Bill's vision, it is followed by actions.

7:43

Scott Because you see, a vision isn't really very important if it's not followed by actions. And of course, we have a whole chapter entitled A Vision for You in the book. And I love that chapter. The longer I stay sober, the more I love that chapter. Because it tells the story of Alcoholics Anonymous.

8:11

Scott And it tells how simple it is to duplicate what has happened to those early members. And I'll read a little bit more about that as we go along in here. Don't look at page 177 yet, because we're not going to get to that for a couple minutes. But on page 153 in A Vision for You, Bill writes, our hope is that when this chip of a book is launched on the world tide of alcoholism, defeated drinkers will cease upon it to follow its suggestions. Many we are sure will rise to their feet and march on.

9:00

Scott They will approach still other sick ones. And fellowships of Alcoholics Anonymous may spring up in each city and hamlet, havens for those who must find a way out. This vision and how it came true, it just always amazes me. And it came true. This vision comes true because of this book.

9:26

Scott The power of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. It started AA all over the US and Canada. Usually I'll read the page here eventually. But on page 162, it says, someday we hope that every alcoholic who journeys will find a fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination. And there's a vision that has come true.

9:53

Scott No matter where you go in the US and Canada, pretty much all around most of the world, you can find a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous today. Thus we grow, and so can you, though you be but—now, page 177, this is out of a first edition, but page 177 is really page 163 in a vision for you. And it says, so can you, though you be but one man with this book in your hand, we believe and hope it contains all you will need to begin. We know that what you are thinking, you are saying to yourselves, I am jittery and alone. I can't do that, but you can.

10:48

Moderator You forget that you have just now tapped a source of power much greater than yourself. To duplicate with such backing what we have accomplished is only a matter of willingness, patience, and labor. You be but one person with this book in your hand. You can recreate what happened in 1935, and it has been recreated so many times. The power of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, the message of the book, when we put the principles into action, has been life-changing for me, for millions of us, and I think we have also helped change the world just a little bit with all the other fellowships who have taken up the 12 steps, with all of the people that we have influenced in our lives through our recovery.

11:50

Scott Alcoholics Anonymous, the book, and the fellowship are definitely life-changing. So you know, we get the book published, it takes them a few years before they can actually sell any of them because they really lost their whole marketing plan when the Reader's Digest thing fell apart. But eventually the Saturday Evening Post publishes the article in September 1, 1939, and it goes out throughout the U.S. and Canada and changes the face of AA. I mean, AA, if you look in any of the history that you can find, you'll see that many of the groups started in March or April or May of 1941, after the Post article came out, and then AA grew by leaps and bounds, and as somebody was saying something about Gary was here last week and Bobby B., and you know, all of that correspondence that went on, there was so much growth going on all over.

13:05

Scott And as AA grew, you remember, all we have is the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. We have no other set of principles to guide us, no guides on how to start a group, how to run a group, what a group should look like. And pretty soon we run into this, Bill's starting to get letters, Bill and Bobby are starting to get letters telling him, you know, things aren't so sweet out here always, you know, the group is getting started, and it's folding up, and they've got rules, and, you know, the founder, up here, the founder, he gets drunk, he gets drunk, but he doesn't leave the meeting. He just stays there and keeps running the meeting, and, you know, they have some real quarrels going on in the group, and finally they split, but finally they come back together again. I mean, this is going on all over the U.S.

14:23

Scott and Canada. We have all kinds of things going on. You can see references required, status, connections, requirements for membership, initiations, lots of rules. And this is just a couple of examples of places, and these, it's not just these, there are many of them. At Little Rock, Arkansas, the NCLG group in Minneapolis, they have, they have basically clearing committees, and you've got to meet their standards, or they won't even allow you in, and God forbid if you drink again.

15:04

Moderator The one in, I think, the NCLG group, you weren't allowed, you had to pass the steering committee, and if you did that, then you only went to the NCLG group. You didn't go, you weren't supposed to go to any other outside groups, and if you did, you could be expelled, and nobody from the other outside groups were allowed to come in. You know, really exclusive. And then you see what we got here with the Colorado Springs one, you know, this is a little bit later, but it's, I've got this thing in the bottom, I think it's 1946, where they, where they ask our friend there, I'm trying to see if I can find it in my notes, but they ask him, Mr. Burton, if he will, he's been asked to leave, but his, I'm trying to see where that is on there, and I can't find it on my notes, let's see, anyway, they ask him to not come back, and they're basically expelling him, and Irma, this is 1941, and I think Drew's going to cover this in a talk in the future, not very far off, where she is also asked to not come back, to not return, she is no longer welcome in the AA group.

16:54

Moderator So we have alcoholics judging alcoholics on whether or not they are suitable to be in their AA groups, it's rather was a kind of a bad thing to happen, but Bill's starting to see this, how we are starting to be exclusive instead of inclusive, because alcoholics should be inclusive to all alcoholics. So anyway, we're, that's why I'm on the wrong page, I'm not keeping up with my text, that's why I can't find that, okay, so yeah, the NICLA group has got the screening, no outsiders are allowed, you're not allowed to go to any other meetings, okay, and Burton, Mr. Burton was terminated, that's what he was, yeah, I can't imagine being terminated from AA, but he was terminated, and Irma, her attendance was no longer required, oh yeah, some pretty nasty stuff. So Bill sees that this vision of his, of alcoholics, this chain of alcoholics going all around the world, is now starting to have some very serious issues, and he's also at this, about the same time, been introduced to the Washingtonian movement from the 1840s, a movement of alcoholics, for alcoholics, that grew leaps and bounds in 1840 to hundreds of thousands of members to like 1844, being pretty much non-existent, and what happened to them, and what were all of their mistakes, he's being introduced to this, he's seeing how AA is starting to fall apart in different places, and how it is still growing in other places, so Bill, lucky for us, this comes out about the same time, Bill's starting to formulate these traditions in his mind, starting to put these ideas on paper, and if you went through the Bobbie Bee book, you can see in her correspondence that the traditions are starting to show up in her correspondence, but the grapevine shows up in 1944, in June 1944, and Bill sees this as a communication tool for him to talk to the AA members in groups across the U.S. and Canada, and he uses it very efficiently, he actually, I think, wrote 150 plus articles in the grapevine between 1944 and his death in 1971, and that does not include memoriams and those kinds of things, Christmas messages and things, so he was a prolific writer and he was using this as his method of communicating with you and I, and he used it right away in 1945, the grapevine publishes a couple of articles on the Washingtonians, in 1946, Bill starts to introduce the AA traditions to the AA fellowship through the grapevine, the 12, and eventually we start to see these kinds of things showing up, and I love some of the original names, the 12 points of AA tradition, but I love the other one even more, the 12 points to assure our future, do you see some vision in that?

20:49

Moderator He sees that we need to have something to hold us together, or we will certainly blow ourselves apart, and in 1947, the AA tradition pamphlet comes out. Now, you got to remember that the AA traditions were not accepted by the fellowship yet at this point in time, but here Bill is putting them out in the grapevine, he's putting out a pamphlet on the traditions in 1947, and these things come out as part of the pamphlet, and also, if you want to read those, all you got to do is pick up a copy of AA tradition, how they developed, and all of these things are in that pamphlet, and then he comes up with the original form of the 12 traditions, or what we today call the long form. These are the original traditions, and they are exact, precise, and specific, just like the directions in the big book, you know. The first tradition tells us what our problem is, that we can't remain unified. The second tradition talks about the solution, that we need to have this ultimate authority in our group conscience.

22:20

Moderator We need to have a group conscience that is guided by an ultimate authority. And later on, we add that our leaders are trusted servants. They are servants. We all serve one another. And three through 11 talk about the sacrifices that you and I need to make for the good of Alcoholics Anonymous.

22:46

Scott We got to quit making membership rules. We got to stop excluding alcoholics. We need to include alcoholics. We need to be self-governing without harming other groups or AA as a whole. We need to keep one primary purpose and only one primary purpose.

23:07

Scott And basically that one purpose is the carrying of the message of Alcoholics Anonymous. There's no secondary purpose. We sacrifice all of those other things that we think we could save the world and just focus on carrying the message to the still suffering alcoholic. Exactly what the big book is about. Six tells us to not get diverted by shiny things, because it's easy.

23:40

Scott I still get diverted by shiny things, you know, a little more money, a better car, whatever, you know, I get diverted. And AA, we can get diverted by things like that. Seven talks about we need to throw some money in the basket to support all of the services and pay our rent and take care of Alcoholics Anonymous. And eight talks about that we are non-professional. None of us are getting paid to sit here tonight.

24:18

Scott There's no professional AA speakers. There's no professional AA anything, except that a few intergroup offices where we pay managers and secretaries and those types of things. Nine talks about we have no authority in AA. It talks about the least possible organization or that we don't need any organization. And when they're talking about that, that means that there's nobody in authority here.

24:52

Scott There's no police force. There's no cops showing up. You know, I like to put on a badge once in a while, but you know, I'm ineffective anyway when I do it. It's my big fat ego getting going. And it also, in nine, talks about universal respect, that our servants should receive universal respect.

25:21

Scott And of course, they need to also earn and be trusted when they're put into those positions. Ten talks about we leave all of these outside opinions as politics, religion, and he says alcohol reform. But perhaps in our world, it might be maybe treatment, the treatment industry. We leave those things outside. And we just carry the message to still suffering alcoholic.

25:52

Scott When I go to the meeting in my home group, everything that I am, I leave outside. I walk into the door of Alcoholics Anonymous as an alcoholic who needs help and is there to give help. And 11 talks about we need to remain anonymous. And that, I think, not only in the media, the papers, the magazines, the television, or whatever. Also, I think we need to start looking at taking care of this one better on social media.

26:31

Scott Just give it some thought. And 12 is the result of making the sacrifices that we as individual members, we as individual groups, and we as a fellowship at this point should be making sacrifices and becoming a little bit more humble as trusted servants for the whole. There we go. All right. So, I'm not sure if everybody has seen this one or not.

27:03

Scott This is the Bill's gives, puts this paper out in 1947. It's called the AA, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, The Alcoholic Foundation. And I'm just going to read some highlights out of the third part. But the first part talks about the original foundation and how it existed and how it came about in 1938 and how it was made up of, I think it was three non-alcoholics and two alcoholics. And part two talks about how it exists in 1947.

27:42

Scott And it really hadn't changed too much. They had added a couple of trustees, and I think they had changed their scope and narrowed their scope down a little bit. But part three is where Bill is starting to introduce, and we'll come back to the traditions later, but Bill is starting to introduce in part three, the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous. And this is in 1947. And again, Bill has been fighting with the fellowship over the traditions, and now he's throwing this other bone out there, the General Service Conference.

28:29

Scott And he's getting more and more resistance. All of Bill's visions were hard to implement. And I think it was good because we all needed to discuss these things. We needed to have a group conscience on these. But Bill never lost his focus.

28:51

Scott He was very persistent on having these things, because he seemed to be able to see better than we what was good for us and what we needed. We didn't seem to understand that we needed these traditions. They were not rules. They are sacrifices. They're principles that will unite us.

29:17

Scott And of course, we didn't understand this third legacy business. We looked at that as government and politics. And many still do in AA, but it's unfortunate. I'll read this first section here. This is of the General Service Conference.

29:38

Moderator This is Bill's vision. Knowing that we are not prophets, although he sometimes seems like it, and that great decisions about our future ought to be taken in meditations of many hearts rather than a few, the trustees, Dr. Bob and I would like to share the following reflections and proposals with every member. Alcoholics Anonymous, we think, will always need a world center, some point of reference on this globe, where our few but important universal services can focus and then radiate to all who wish to be informed or help. And then he goes on to list a few things that they do at the center.

30:31

Scott Overall public relations, answer inquiries, foster new groups and distribute literature. We shall always be a place where you can come for advice and mediation. And also, this is a safe repository for our funds. And then I'll jump towards the end here a little bit. On page three, he talks about his solution to the problem that we currently have with the General Service Board.

31:04

Scott Perhaps the best suggestion for closing the gap between our Alcoholic Foundation, that's the Board of Trustees, and the AA groups is the idea of creating what we call the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous. This is Bill's vision. Though this might be the work of several years and the result of much experimental trial and error, I would now like to indicate what some of us now think such service conference could be and how it might be started. So he already is putting out the plan that maybe we could try this as an experiment. And we'll see it later that that is exactly what he does.

31:59

Moderator And in the last part, if anybody's listening to any of Bill Wilson's talks on recovery speakers, you've probably heard him talk about the cathedral and the spire and the three sides of the spire. And then here he closes with that same talk. In times of imaginative reflection, Alcoholics Anonymous seems to be, to me, as a cathedral of infinite dimensions and process of building. Like the cathedrals of graceful line and stone, our structure of truthful principles will never be quite finished. There will probably be, as we better apprehend the truth for us, certain additions, refinements, and perhaps, who knows, marked changes.

32:52

Scott Yet to us, thousands who stand in peace on its vast floor, whereon is inscribed our 12 points of recovery and gaze at the walls and vaulted roof, now so well buttressed by our AA traditions and seemingly so secure against the storms without and subtle perils within, we wonder what we have come so far without mishap. But it is more to the beckoning spire that some of us now are looking. It outlines, seem clearly there, workmen are upon its scaffolds. We may not surely rest secure until we know that it is firmly anchored, that its symbolic finger points straight upward toward God. And he's talking about this continued work being this third legacy needing to be added to the three legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous.

33:55

Scott And let's see, where am I at here? I would better jump a page, I think. Okay, and we're going to jump. Some of this is out of, seems like it's out of context, but I'm trying to keep it in the years also. This is a letter that Bill wrote to a man that's on the General Service Board, his name is Royal Shepherd, and this is put out in 1946.

34:32

Scott And this is about Bill's vision for the grapevine. And this is a rather lengthy letter, and I won't read all of it. I'm just going to read a couple of the points. Bill says, one, the grapevine should become the voice of AA as a whole. Two, the grapevine staff should be primarily responsive to AA group opinion and tradition.

35:03

Scott And to jump over to nine, though never to be operated for the profit of any individual, the grapevine ought to be financially self-supporting to ensure its own continuity, and the grapevine will need to maintain an office staff and eventually a paid editor. And he goes on about those things. And then in Article 12, he talks about, but it will be traditionally, perhaps legally, prohibited from taking sides directly or indirectly on controversial issues which do not concern AA as a whole. It will take no advertising, will engage in no propaganda for any cause, however good. And it goes on to say, like Alcoholics Anonymous movement, it is to mirror, there will be, some of the wording is a little tough, there will be but one central purpose.

36:06

Scott The grapevine will try to carry the AA message to alcoholics and to practice AA principles in all its affairs. And let's see if I got the last page of this. I think there was something on it. Yes, he closes it off in the last paragraph. Alcoholics Anonymous faces a coming trial, the trial of great prosperity and success.

36:36

Moderator This is something that Bill talks about frequently, that we, are we ready for the trials of success and prosperity? Where will our egos go as a fellowship? It will be the greatest test of all. Can we weather that? The ravages of time may never affect us.

37:00

Moderator Our destiny will be secure. And so that was Bill's thoughts on the grapevine in 1946. We'll move here. And then we have, here was Bill talking about the General Service Conference. And if we were to have the time, you could see where he's talking about some of these things that develop into concepts and the warranties and the conference charter, this kind of stuff.

37:33

Scott And this is dated London, England, June 20th, 1950. This is just before the Cleveland International Convention. And in it, it is an amazing document that his vision is still there. And he's laying out the plans for our future. Again, it's his vision, the vision of Alcoholics Anonymous.

37:57

Scott And this is before the conference. And then we go to the International Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. And the dates of that I think were July 28th, 29th, and 30th. And you can see the program up there. And if you look at the little program, it says July 29th, Saturday, 2 p.m., Music Hall, the AA Conference Meeting, Discussion and Definition of the AA Traditions and Other Matters of Movement-Wide Policy.

38:32

Scott So this is actually the first conference meeting, although there was no official conference. But it was here in Cleveland that by acclamation, our 12 traditions were accepted, along with a lot of other things. I think it was not only our first actual group conscience, I think it brought together even more unity by bringing the groups from around the U.S. and Canada together, so they could all look at each other and match up things and see what's going on in Los Angeles, what's going on in Toronto, what's going on in New York City, and see that they're all on the same playing field, that we're all doing the same deal, that we're no different. We aren't taking up sides.

39:36

Scott And that's where we accepted the traditions. And of course, the thing that we all remember, I think, from this convention is the fact that this is where Dr. Bob's last major talk was given. And if you ever get a chance to read that or to listen to him give that, it will bring you to tears, the simplicity of Dr. Bob's message and the accuracy of how we should behave and how we should treat alcoholics anonymous.

40:16

Scott And our brother, Alcoholics, is phenomenal. And he does it in about six or seven minutes. So what have we got here? Then we move on to the third legacy pamphlet. This comes out in November of 1950, and it's signed by Bill and Dr.

40:38

Scott Bob. And in it contains the details of the proposed third legacy, how to set up areas, how to set up districts, how to set up the conference, and how we all relate to one another. This comes out in 1950. And Dr. Bob, before his death, Bill and he sat down and had a discussion.

41:05

Scott And Dr. Bob agreed with the third legacy. He agreed with the General Service Conference. But he agreed in this respect that he thought that the AA group should make the decision and that we should hold this conference, just like Bill had indicated earlier, on an experimental basis. And after an experimental basis, let the groups decide whether they want this third legacy.

41:36

Moderator And this is the man who helped pull a lot of this fight together. His name is non-alcoholic Chairman of the Board, Bernard Smith. And Bernard Smith is fantastic. He helped bring things together always. Bill would be on one side and the trustees or the AAs would be, you know, and they'd be fighting and sometimes had some tremendous fights.

42:06

Scott In fact, over the third legacy, some of the trustees even resigned. And they had, you know, so they tried to bring this all back together. And it was Bernard Smith who brought it back together. And if you really want to read some good stuff, get AA Comes of Age. And in the back of it, you can read why we need a conference.

42:38

Scott And you can also read his writing on a true fellowship. True fellowship is a fantastic writing. That's in the back of AA Comes of Age. So he brings us back together. And it's your third legacy.

42:57

Scott Will you accept it? And again, you'll notice that this is by Bill and Dr. Bob. This is the Grapevine, December 1950. Dr.

43:08

Scott Bob has passed already, the end of November. But this Grapevine article was put together before that and published and came out in 1950. And Bill wrote a tremendous article in the November issue also about us taking responsibility for us. And here we go. This is after the first General Service Conference.

43:33

Scott We have the Call to Service by Bill. That comes out in May in 1951. And you can see the final conference report. The first conference was held at the Hotel Commodore in New York City, April 2021 and 22, 1951. And I think that document might be available even online.

43:56

Scott I'm not sure. And then you can see in 1952, the Alcoholic Foundation newsletter. Bill is asking for more support, financial support, for the General Service Conference that has been approved to do as an experiment. And your role in the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous. This little pamphlet comes out in 1953.

44:22

Scott And then we get to this point. This is the International Convention, St. Louis, Missouri, the Keele Auditorium. And this is held on, I believe, July 1, 2, and 3, 1955. And you can see the bottom, the top picture is the convention.

44:41

Scott The lower picture is the general service conference meeting at the convention. And if you can see, I don't know if you can see on your screens or not, but not behind the podium, but sitting next to the guy at the podium is Bill. He always was a participant in the conferences up till the day he died. And these are some of the things that came out during the convention. The third legacy manual was put out and distributed amongst the delegates and others, I believe.

45:25

Scott That is now what we call the service manual. And the second edition big book came out with that little white wrap around it, only for those, I think, at the convention. And they had daily bulletins. And this is the last bulletin. This is the bulletin from Sunday, July 3.

45:49

Moderator And on it, if you look, the movement to be asked to accept the third legacy. And Bill to offer a key resolution. And actually, this newsletter contained the resolution in detail. So this is going to be the 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon meeting that AA Comes of Age spends a great deal of time building up to. I have lost track of where I was in my notes.

46:23

Scott But let's see. So we're at this in, OK, we're in St. Louis. We've got some more pictures of St. Louis, I think, and different things.

46:37

Scott Here's the grapevine. And here's, I think this was a preliminary pamphlet that came out before the convention. And you can see here is an advanced program. And on it, you'll see the same things that you saw on the other little pamphlets in the grapevine. And here's something else that happened at St.

47:06

Scott Louis. We accepted this third legacy, this circle and a triangle. And the circle and triangle lived with us from 1955 until, I think, 1993, when the General Service Conference said we no longer would use it because so many people were using it that weren't Alcoholics Anonymous. We got into a legal thing. And I mean, and eventually, we just ended up dropping this.

47:37

Moderator But I think you and I all still use this in our AA life, the third legacies. You don't see it on our pamphlets or our books anymore. That's where it was removed from. It, at one time, was our General Service Conference approval stamp for literature. And this is kind of what we accepted at 4 p.m.

48:06

Scott Sunday in St. Louis. I got to find it. I've got the copy of it here. So we've accepted the traditions.

48:18

Scott Now we're about to accept the third legacy of Alcoholics Anonymous. And the conference charter isn't the resolution. The resolution that was presented, you can find on page 226 of AA Comes of Age, and I think 227. But it just basically says, we, the members of the 20th Anniversary Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous, and it goes on to say that the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous are now considered to be entirely capable of assuming the guardianship of AA 12 traditions and of taking over full guidance and control of the world service of our society as provided by the third legacy manual. The AA General Service Conference should now become the permanent successor to the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.

49:17

Scott And it goes on to say that the General Service Conference is the guardian of AA's traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous and the voice of the group conscience of our entire fellowship. And it is understood that neither the 12 traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous nor the warranties of Article 12 of the conference charter shall ever be changed or amended by the General Service Conference except by first asking the consent of the registered AA groups of the world. And the last thing I'll read off of the resolution is this, that the conference itself will always remain democratic in thought and action. And then we get to the conference charter. This is the charter, and it basically just lays out the purpose of the charter.

50:18

Scott The General Service Conference, as I read, is the guardian of our world services and of our 12 traditions. And it is a service body only. It's not a government. It has no government powers. And it goes on to talk about the relationship between the conference and the headquarters, the conference and Alcoholics Anonymous.

50:44

Scott And it goes on to talk about how assemblies are set up and composition and jurisdiction, those types of things. And Article 12 of the conference charter has become also part of Concept 12, which we'll get into later. And I'll read it now. The general warranties of the conference in all its proceedings, the General Service Conference shall observe the spirit of the AA tradition, taking great care that the conference never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power, that sufficient operating funds plus ample reserve be its prudent financial principle, that none of the conference members shall ever be placed in a position of unqualified authority over any others, that all important decisions be reached by discussion, vote, and whenever possible, substantial unanimity, that no conference action ever be personally punitive or an incitement to serious public controversy, and that though the conference may act for the service of Alcoholics Anonymous, it shall never perform any acts of government. And that like the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous, which it serves, the conference itself will always remain democratic in thought and action.

52:14

Scott And this is what we accepted in July of 1955 at the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous. Here's a little piece of literature that has disappeared off the AA shelves. It's called AA Today 25, a special grapevine publication that came out at Long Beach in 1960. And in it, there's an article by Bill called AA Tomorrow. And I'm not going to read all of that to you either, but it is a very interesting article.

52:52

Moderator I should check my time. We're moving along. We're not too far off here. But Bill goes on in here. Again, you see his vision throughout this.

53:06

Scott Now comes the question, where do we go from here? And what is our responsibility for today and for tomorrow? I think we forget about that we have a responsibility to tomorrow. Clearly, our first duty to AA's future is to maintain in full strength what we now have. Only the most vigilant caretaking can assure this.

53:35

Scott Never should we be lulled into complacent self-satisfaction by wide acclaim and success that is everywhere ours. So again, he worries about that success. This is the subtle temptation which could stagnate us today and perchance disintegrate us tomorrow. And he goes on in the next paragraph to say, still clear vision and an ever mounting sense of responsibility can be the only answer to the questions that we have about how to continue to function. And here's the rest of the article.

54:16

Scott It's got some pretty space age kind of illustrations. But I like the last paragraph. I will read the last paragraph. Our fellowship has been permitted to achieve, though still in miniature, the one world dream of philosophers. Ours is a world in which we can hotly differ, yet never think of schism or conflict as a solution.

54:45

Moderator As a fellowship, we has nothing of wealth or power. As we better use the language of the heart, our communications grow apace. Already we find ourselves in safe passage through all those barriers of distance and language of social distinction, nationality, and creed that so divide us, so divide the world of our time. For so long as we remain sure that our one world of AA is God's gift rather than any virtue earned or created by ourselves, and for so long as our one world continues to be ever more inclusive of those in need, and for so long as we speak and try to perfect the language of love, for just so long we make count upon making whatever rendezvous with destiny that God would have us. It's such a wonderful message.

55:52

Scott And I looked up this one world business, and I found this thing called oneness. And it says in here, what does oneness mean spiritually? Oneness shows us the meaning of connection in every sense of the word. In essence, oneness is a feeling of interconnectedness, a transcendence of boundaries or dividers. It is usually experienced as an intense heart opening and awareness of the inherent goodness of all beings.

56:26

Moderator And I think that truly is what Bill was talking about. We still have a couple more parts of his vision. Oh, there I had, I'm sorry. I could put that all up there for you to read. Sometimes I'm not too coordinated here, but we get through it all.

56:52

Moderator This is the next thing, part of Bill's vision, is that the 12 concepts of Alcoholics Anonymous. And these have been bouncing around since the 40s. Bill had not called them concepts, but they started to show up at the General Service Conference sometime in the late 1950s. And again, we battled over these things. The delegates and the trustees, everybody is battling with Bill about, do we need these things?

57:26

Scott Are these just more complicated rules and whatnot? And eventually, after a lot of argument, the concepts are accepted. And as you can see, this is a copy of the delegates manuscript in 1960. And they were eventually accepted, published in 1962. And you can see the concepts.

57:49

Moderator And I know the hour is late, so I'll skip a little bit. But the 12 concepts for World Service, again, somehow we've ended up with short forms and long forms and all kinds of different forms. But I think long forms are usually the original and probably the best things to read. And it talks about the final responsibility and ultimate authority for AA World Services always reside in the collective conscience of the whole fellowship, of you and I, our home groups, our districts, our areas. We are the ones who are responsible and have the authority in Alcoholics Anonymous.

58:39

Scott And it goes on to talk about that we delegate that responsibility and authority through our groups, through the GSRs, through the DCMs, through the area delegates, and the trustees to be the voice of Alcoholics Anonymous. And then we have the rights of decision, the rights of participation, the rights of appeal throughout the concepts. And Concept 9, if you ever get a chance to read Concept 9, please do, it talks about good service leaders. And it talks about leadership, not only at the service level but what we should be, how we should be a leader in our homes, in our communities, and in Alcoholics Anonymous. Wherever we may walk, we need to be good servants to the whole.

59:37

Moderator And some of the other last battles that Bill had was the trustee ratio. The non-alcoholics up until this point in time were still the majority of the General Service Board. The numbers fluctuated from how many there were, but they were always the majority. And Bill knew that if we are to be claiming to become of age, that we needed to be the majority of the Board of Trustees. And this battle again went on for quite a few years, and I've read some of the letters, and there was some pretty nasty correspondence going on about this stuff.

60:27

Scott But eventually, eventually it all comes about, and Bill puts out this letter in 1965 at the General Service Conference about our great responsibility. Isn't that funny how our newest, our new AA book, it's called Our Great Responsibility, and this is what Bill was using in 1965. And in it, he gives credit to Dr. Jack Norris, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, non-alcoholic, for finally coming together as a group and saying, yeah, okay, we will give up our majority on the Board. So the trustee ratio was changed to now it would be exactly what it is today, 14 alcoholic trustees and seven non-alcoholic trustees.

61:19

Scott And in this next slide, this is also Bill giving Dr. Jack credit for the change of helping AA come of age, that we now are the majority of the Board of Trustees. And in 1966 at the General Service Conference reports, I looked and you see the passing of Harry Thiebaud, a trustee of Alcoholics Anonymous, close friend of Bill, the man who brought Marty Mann into Alcoholics Anonymous, Sister Ignatia, Dr. Bob's partner, Ebby, they all passed away in 1966. And then as we jump here, we will see in 1971, Bill didn't make the conference in 1971, his last conference was 1970, and you can see that he passed away and that there's some memorials to him and to Bernard Smith who passed away also in 1970.

62:21

Scott And I'm not gonna read those two things, I'm going to jump to my last, this one here I think is the one I wanna read. I've got a lot of pages on the trustee ratio thing, depends on the group you're talking to. Here we go, in memory of Bill. And this I believe is written by Dr. Jack Norris, Dr.

62:54

Scott John Norris. There was a meeting of the board a few days after Bill died. And during the discussion of one matter, there were a few points of disagreement. When it reached a certain level of intensity, I found myself waiting to hear Bill speak up and say those words that would put everything in perspective, but he didn't speak. And it was then brought forcibly home to me that we would never hear his voice again, that we could no longer count on the ever presence of his wisdom and strength.

63:39

Moderator We could never again say as we had so many times before, let's see what Bill thinks about it. And then go down a paragraph, as I see it, Bill was the good sponsor, the wise old timer, willing to let go of us before we were willing to let go of him. This was not only because he wished us all the greatest good but because he had an abiding faith in the fact that our fellowship not only could but should run without him. And I'm just gonna jump over to the one, the loss of Bernard Smith. And this is by Margaret C., area delegate.

64:33

Scott And you went on to express gratitude for the life of Bernard Smith and a deep sense of personal loss at the passing of this beloved non-alcoholic trustee. Bernard Smith loved the spiritual oneness upon which this fellowship is based so much that he gave over 25 years of service to help create the structural oneness that will keep us strong for his life too. We are very grateful. These people, non-alcoholics like Bernard Smith and Dr. Jack and Sister Ignatia gave decades of their life to Alcoholics Anonymous because they loved what they saw, what they felt, what they saw, how the world changed because of the principles of AA.

65:26

Scott These folks are all gone now. They're all gone. The desk up there at Wits End in Steppingstone just sits empty today, unless one of those delegates is sitting at it during the conference or something, but yeah, it just sits empty. We continue on. We have our international conventions every five years.

65:53

Scott I guess Vancouver was a little smaller than usual, but there's 60,000 people showing up at some of these. And the General Service Conference continues on now, 50 some years after Bill passed away. We continue to thrive. We continue to grow, I believe. Now, I know in here, we see we have the surveys and we have the membership numbers and whatnot, and that we flattened out a little bit with our membership, but I don't think we need to worry.

66:33

Scott We just need to be more vigilant in our carrying of the message in our own community. these ourselves and not be dependent upon others sending them to us, but to be out there with our hands out and our phone numbers out and making, doing our PI work and doing our corrections work, treatment work, and carrying the message of Alcoholics Anonymous. And you know, the heart of it all is in the AA group. It says it's where it all begins, and I believe it still all begins in the AA group today. I think that it's so important to have an active, informed, three-legacy group.

67:27

Scott How can we build strong structures and good GSRs if we don't have good, strong AA groups that talk about Bill's vision of recovery, unity, and service? We can't do that with weak groups. Our structure is a communication line. We need to have participation from all. That's the key to be a part of Alcoholics Anonymous.

67:56

Scott They taught me that at my very earliest meetings, to become a part of. I think Bill's vision is still alive. I think our three legacies are still strong, but I do question how are we treating these things? Are we ignorant of them? Are we misinformed?

68:20

Scott Are we in the middle of it? Are we trying to carry the message of Alcoholics Anonymous? Do we think they're outdated? Do we think they're politics? Do we think they're rules?

68:37

Scott Or do we try to apply these things in our lives and participate? So, I don't know. I just hope apathy and indifference and ignorance, because of our success, doesn't set us back. Because Bill was worried about what will we do with our success. And I think we do with our success what we continue to do at our group.

69:08

Moderator We just keep doing the very best we can do with the three legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous. Tim, I want to thank you. I think I went over my time. Thank you so very much. Thank you so much, Scott.

69:27

Moderator Great job. And now we do have some time for questions. So, if anyone has a question, please use the raise hand function and I will invite you to unmute and ask your question. And first up is Chili Charlie. You can unmute and ask your question.

69:50

Scott Awesome, Scott. Great, great presentation. I really enjoyed that. Next to the last slide that you showed with the in-memory of Bill, that sheet, is that readily available anywhere? Where does that come from?

70:07

Scott I don't think so. I do believe that that is out of the 1971 General Service Conference report. And that might be available if you do some deep searching on the internet. Maybe on eBay? No, I don't know.

70:26

Scott Some of this stuff has managed to get into PDF form. So, it's been really wonderful that some of these things have become accessible to us without having to spend a fortune. Right, right. No, I love that. Thank you so much.

70:47

Scott That was a great, great job. Thank you for the question, Charlie. And next is Lizzie. You can unmute. Thank you so much for the beautiful presentation.

71:00

Scott I'm so disappointed because I ended up telling everybody about it and then I ended up getting caught in something. So, I caught only half. But I just wanted to thank you for your presentation. I was so looking forward to it. And also, I wanted to say that you brought something up that it was really interesting and made me think about it.

71:32

Scott It's about the actual numbers of participation and how many are missed for those that are online only. And, you know, I hope, you know, it makes me hope that those numbers will help, you know, show a true representation because I'm a homebound person. So, I'm very active in the program and with my group. So, just curious if you think that that might actually change once that started, that may be incorporated in our membership. I know that a few years ago, they were looking at how to incorporate all of that in.

72:20

Moderator But I don't know if I've seen anything in the current conference agenda items on it or not. I know at one time they're looking at it, but I'm quite sure like all things, it's a pretty big challenge. And hopefully, we walk slowly and do it correctly. Yes. Right.

72:47

Scott I don't know. I never understood why we want to be in a rush and have Alcoholics Anonymous. My philosophy is if we don't have it today, we probably don't need it tomorrow, you know. Very good. Thank you so much.

73:08

Scott Get it down the road. Yeah, I know that they had been working on that. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the question, Lizzie.

73:20

Scott And I was able to do a quick search and I found on AA in the Box 459 where the letter by John Norris was published. So, I just shared a link and you guys should be able to go on and see that one right now. And it looks like I don't see any other questions. So, I will invite everyone to unmute and thank Scott for his great presentation. And I hope everyone will join us again next week.

The following is an AI-generated transcript. Minor errors may occur. The audio is the authoritative source.

Bill W.’s Vision for AA

Bill W.’s Vision for AA

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