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Source: DICOBE-00230 – Cecil C – GOPHER STATE RNDP III – 1976-06-15.mp3 File: dicobe-00230-cecil-c-gopher-state-rndp-iii-1976-06-15.mp3 Duration: 00:33:29
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My name is C.C. Cargill and I am an alcoholic. And I've been coming to the Gopher State Roundup. I haven't missed one Gopher State Roundup. And I want you to know this is a real privilege for me this morning because this is the first time I've been privileged to speak in the big room. I've been in the furnace room and tonight I'm over at the other place as a chairperson. And they've invited me here. I don't know why, but it gives a guy a feeling of inadequacy.
I know when they invite me every year, pay my expenses, and don't let me do anything. And this is just really tremendous this morning to have a half hour, believe me. And one year they just invited me to say grace at the banquet and I didn't have a banquet. So I'm just tremendously impressed this morning just to be here. As a matter of fact, I'm tremendously impressed and happy to be anywhere. But my job is to talk about the General Service Conference.
And I want you to know that the General Service Conference is held in the city of New York. And our General Service Office happens to be in the city of New York. Not because New York is any different or anything, but people talk about New York and you shouldn't talk about New York. You should talk about the General Service Conference. You shouldn't call your delegate a New York delegate. You should call him the delegate to the General Service Conference, which happens to be in New York.
And the reason it happens to be in New York, and I figured this out all by myself, and I'm not too bright. But I figured it out because it so happens that that's where Bill Wilson came from. And he was the first guy, and if I was the first guy, I'd want it in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. And so I don't think there's anything wrong with having people want it elsewhere, but I think it should be there.
Because after all, that's where he came from. And General Service Conference, I attended my first one in 1958 as a delegate. And a delegate to the General Service Conference, and I was very, very impressed with what they did there. And it's something that a lot of people think that the delegates go to New York to have a good time, and I guess we do. But if having a good time is getting up at 7.30 in the morning and working until 10 o'clock at night, I don't even do that in my own business.
And here I have to go and work for you people for free. And the reason I became a delegate to the General Service Conference was because I had a car when I was sober about two months. And I had a company expense account, and they made me a General Service representative. Not because I was smart or anything else, but just because I could afford to go to a meeting that was, you know, 300 or 400 miles away.
And I did that for three years as a General Service representative. And I don't say GSR because I didn't know people would say GSR, and I didn't know what they were talking about, and I was too proud to ask. So I like to say General Service representative. I like to say, I never said DCM because for four years I thought that was some electrical device we had. It was a district committeeman. So I hope that people don't abbreviate and confuse you people.
But I still have resentment about this, and I've been sober 27 years, and I haven't been rid of this resentment because I had this car. And finally I learned at these meetings that the group was supposed to pay my expenses. And I went back and I talked the group into paying my expenses, and they fired me and got a new GSR. You know, so I didn't have a good start in this outfit. And I got to be this, then I think I drove him and paid his expenses as well.
But I became a delegate to the General Service Conference. And I went to the General Service Conference and I found out that I went there and some people said to me, now you straighten those people out in New York. That was my instructions. No other instructions, just to straighten them up. They didn't know what for, but just to get them straightened up. After all, I was from a little town way back in the woods in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and I was supposed to straighten those birds out in New York.
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But I found out that that wasn't what the General Service Conference was all about. And I have a box 459, and that's something to do with Alcoholics Anonymous, and if ever you get one you should read it. It makes a lot of sense. And it tells you exactly what we did at the General Service Conference this year. And it's pretty good reading. And I want you to know that you, right from this area, had a pretty good delegate in the name of Bob.
And he's, I don't know what he's… Applause And I know, I don't know what his initials are, but his last name's Bizant. Laughter But he's very immature. Laughter Because he came there well informed. He'd read every book that there was to read, including a few that aren't conference approved. Laughter And he arrived there, and the second night, I just want you to know, he was going to take all of his books and go home.
Laughter Because he thought this thing wasn't classy enough for him. And they were talking about things that he was well informed in. And I just want you to know that two Canadian trustees had to sit him down and have a little chat with him. And we're entirely responsible for keeping him there for the rest of the conference. Laughter And I understand he came back and gave a great report. And he didn't even mention about wanting to leave on Tuesday nights, and he'd learned everything.
Laughter So we do a lot of things that people don't know about at the General Service Conference. That wasn't on the agenda. I want you to know that. We finished work at ten o'clock one night and then spent until two in the morning talking Bob to stay the rest of the week. And I know that he's pretty swift in his business, and he does everything and finds out things real fast. But he hadn't found out everything that he should know to come back and give you a report in those two days.
But I'm very grateful that he stayed for the rest of the time. And the first thing that we had to do that I was so interested in at the General Service Conference this year is the new Philip. And the reason that I was so interested in it is that I come from a little town of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada, and 31,000 people. We have a little roundup there that gets about 3,000 people. And that's pretty good when you compare it to, I don't know what the population is here, but it's a little bit more than 60,000.
I know that, and you should be more than double what we have. My God, if we had a million people in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, we'd have a bigger roundup than 6,000 people, I'll tell you that. But I noticed in this Philip that most of it is taken at the roundup in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. And they don't mention the Gopher State at all. And I was very interested in this Philip, and I want it to be seen worldwide.
And when we saw it, I want you to know that I didn't think of anything wrong with it at all. I just saw that they had two pictures of my store with me standing in front of it. And I've always wanted it to be worldwide, and so there it is. I got it just because I sobered up. But there were a lot of delegates that were told and instructed by people who had never seen a Philip, any kind of a Philip. And they were instructed to come there and stop that Philip.
And they saw it on the Tuesday night or the Monday night or something, and all week long the Philip was discussed. And they expected the trustees, and this is a divinely guided conference. They expected the trustees to argue with them. I would say that I had 50 delegates come up to me and talk to me about this Philip. And, you know, I was able to keep my big mouth shut, even if it was filmed mostly in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.
And with my enthusiasm, I was able to keep my big mouth shut and let a group conscience go to work. And that's difficult for me to do, I want you to know that. But I don't know, I didn't intend to do it, it just happened. So God works right throughout this conference. And come Friday, without any help from me, without any help from the rest of the trustees who were all in favor of this Philip, the Philip was passed and this year you will be seeing the new Philip of Alcoholics Anonymous that will be shown to the public.
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And it is a beautiful Philip and I hope that you people will enjoy it. That was one of the things that we did at the conference this year, was the passing of that Philip. So you see, that Philip was all passed as far as the trustees were concerned. But we can't pass it until it goes to this general service conference, where you let these idiots like Bob come in that figures he can go two days and go home and get everything straightened out.
But, you know, so we are not so great, the fact that we're trustees. But, you know, there's one thing that I figured out one night, that I don't care whether I'm great or not or whether people think I'm great, but I figured it out that when we're bragging about Alcoholics Anonymous, we say there's probably two million people in it today, sober through this beautiful fellowship, and there's fourteen alcoholic trustees, and by golly I happen to be one of them.
And I feel pretty good about that, because I didn't do too much to get to be a trustee, I just did what I was asked to do for this beautiful fellowship, did what I was required to do to keep my sobriety and my contented sobriety, and I became a trustee. And next year I'll be finished as a trustee, and my last official job as a trustee, I'm the trustee chairman at the International Conference that'll be held at New Orleans.
And I certainly hope that you people, every one of you will be there, because it is going to be a big change, I'll tell you. Since I've come to Alcoholics Anonymous, I was in Long Beach, California, to the International Conference, I was to Toronto to the International Conference, I was to Florida to the International Conference, I was to Denver to the International Conference, and God willing, I'll be in New Orleans.
And this is going to be the biggest one we have ever had. We hope to have thirty-five thousand people. And for a little fella to come from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada, way back in the bush, and to be flying to New Orleans several times more to work on the International Conference, they didn't tell me that those things were going to happen to me the night that I first went to Alcoholics Anonymous.
I went to Alcoholics Anonymous, and a little guy put his arm around me and said, cease, we want you and we need you. And I didn't know what they needed me for. But the fact that I was able to stay sober, and the fact that I was able to stay active, one day they asked me to be chairman of an International Conference. And to me, that is just unbelievable. They didn't tell me that I'd be here. They didn't tell me anything about microphones.
They didn't tell me anything about podiums. They didn't tell me anything about Gopher State Roundups, and great audiences of five thousand, twenty thousand people that I've been privileged to speak to. They just told me that they wanted me and they needed me. And thank God I stayed with it. And this International Conference is going to be something else. There are things going to happen there that are beyond our fondest dreams.
And I just hope that each and every one of you will make every effort to get there. Because for the opening ceremonies, it's going to be like the Mardi Gras. They're going to have, not out on the streets, but the big dance. And this is a huge dance. And they're going to have floats. And I want you to know that the regional trustee for Western Canada is going to be on the lead float in a leopard-skin bikini.
And they didn't tell me that was going to happen. I was just in New Orleans last December, and I had to speak to the host committee. And I got really enthusiastic, and I told them what we wanted of them. And it was enthusiasm we wanted from them. And when I was all finished, they told me what they wanted from me. And being in the fur business, I'll make one of the finest leopard skins. It's not really what I wanted to do.
But this deal, this thing is just going to be a fantastic thing. And I want you to know that when I had my first meeting as chairman of this committee, I wanted the theme. I wanted the theme to be feelings. I just really wanted this to be feelings. And I wrote a letter to Betty Little, who is the co-founder. Feelings. I wrote a letter to Betty Little, who's the coordinator in our General Service office.
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And I told her what I wanted, and, oh God, it was great. I'll tell you. Almost a two-page letter. And I get enthusiastic and I get overenthusiastic and the letter, you know, went something like this that, this, the theme should be feelings. We should have the, the song, feelings, the music of feelings, playing right throughout the city of New Orleans, wherever you walked in, into the hotels, that the song would be going in the background and there'd be Bill Wilson's voice coming with how it works, just so that you really had to listen, you know. No matter, no matter where you went, you'd have this feeling, you know. And what I didn't know is that at the General Service office, Betty doesn't open her own mail. Other people do. And they discussed it before Betty got a hold of it. And this first meeting I chair, as confident as I seem to be, I, I, all of a sudden I'm surrounded by everybody. You know, usually at these meetings there's, there's just the committee, but there are the people that are allowed to come. I mean, like the, the, the guy that's the manager of our office, Bob, who was here last year. And Bob is a pretty enthusiastic guy too. And he, he hoodwinked me. That's the only thing I can see, say. And he's, you know, he was a public relations man for Shell Oil and, and, and I didn't realize, I thought he was just coming as an observer. And all of a sudden he came up with this great idea that they should have the theme, the joy of living. And he came on real strong after I'd given my pitch. And, and, and he, he out-thought me. And the theme is going to be the joy of living. But I still think somewhere along the line, if it's gotta be, if it's gotta be in my own hotel room, I'm gonna have that song, Felix. I want you to all to visit me.
And, and so I know you'll all be there. Everybody will be there, the general, at the, at this great international conference. And, and if you're, if you're mute and you can't hear or see or talk, we're even going to have people, special rooms for you. And I know you can't hear that this morning, what I'm telling you, if you happen to be that way. But if somebody happens to be sitting beside somebody that is that way, please tell them. And there's going to be, be many, many, many things happen at that, at that roundup. But it, it is, it is no use telling you all this, because it is right here. And I find, you know, that, that sometimes we speak a lot of things to try to save you people, and you people are mentally lazy. And so it's all right in that box four, five, nine. Take it and read it. New Orleans beckons, forms, and second round. And there, it's all there. So get that and read it, and it's signed at the bottom, C.C. Chairperson. And that is really why I want you to read it. Start at the bottom and read up.
But we did, we did a lot of things at that, at the, at the general service conference, and it's a little ridiculous to come back, come over here and, and, you know, tell you things that Bob has already told you. And if you haven't heard it from Bob as yet, he's going to be talking all this year, telling you about that general service conference. That is his job. That is not the trustee's job. That is his job, and your job is to be there to listen to it. Because you are the people that run the general service conference. If you want to stop the general service conference, just stop giving money. And if everybody does that, if every member of Alcoholics Anonymous does that, there will be no general service conference.
However, if you haven't started to give money, it's impossible to stop something you're not doing. So I hope I haven't made anybody feel guilty. I just thought I'd throw that out there. And you may wonder why we need a general service conference. And a little later on I'll tell you why. But right now I want to tell you a little bit about that famous little magazine, Grapevine. And I happen to be on the Grapevine board. And all it means to be on the Grapevine board is the fact that I have to go in early. I have to be
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there for a Friday night meeting instead of starting on Saturday. And so I have to go in early for this meeting. And at this meeting we have the people that work for the Grapevine. And we have the people that are on the Grapevine board, some trustees and other people, as Max says, that work for their expertise. And the first job that I had to do on the Grapevine board was Chuck H., who just retired as a trustee. Chuck H. was the chairman of the Grapevine board. Chuck grabbed me the moment that I arrived at the Roosevelt Hotel and he said, We have a very tough thing to do. And I said, What? And he said, We have to fire the editor. And I said, I thought she's doing a good job. Why do we have to fire the editor? And he said, She got drunk. And apparently they don't want an editor that's drinking to be the editor of the Grapevine. And that's fairly self-explanatory. Fortunately, just before I had to go with Chuck to fire her, she resigned. And then a strange thing happened at our first meeting. One of the people who works in labor relations happens to be on the Grapevine board. And he came up with the brilliant idea that we were the people that said that alcoholism is an illness. And why, how can we fire somebody that's sick? And finally we found out that one of the requirements to be an editor of the Grapevine is at least five years sobriety. And so we were able to get around it that way. I'm pleased to report that she is now sober. She took treatment and she's back on the beam. But we do have a new editor. But those things happen in Alcoholics Anonymous. People, it seems, sometimes get drunk, regardless of who they may be or what their chore may be. And I've enjoyed the Grapevine.
At that little old roundup in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and I didn't notice it happening here when I registered, we ordered 3,000 Grapevines. And we gave a Grapevine to everybody that attended that roundup. And then we had a Grapevine committee set up where we sold subscriptions. And people said, we already have a subscription. And we said, how about your doctor? How about your lawyer? How about your mother-in-law? How about anybody? And we sold a lot of Grapevine subscriptions to people to send to people. And I think this is something we should consider because in my office I have a Grapevine for every month since I stopped drinking in 1952. And it's a great thing because I read the Grapevines starting way back in 52. And if you read the Grapevines starting back then and start reading them up to now, you find out in those Grapevines that every problem that we ever had is a way back there and then you find out how they were looked after. And it is just beautiful because it's like reading the history of Alcoholics Anonymous in A.A. Comes of Age. And I certainly hope that everybody here today has a Grapevine subscription or that everybody buys a Grapevine at the group level. And if you haven't got one, when you go back or when you go back to your own home group, ask them how come we do not get the Grapevine? How do we get a subscription? And make sure that other people get subscriptions too and get active as far as the Grapevine is concerned because it's just a tremendous little magazine.
And it helps keep a lot of people sober. And sometimes when you go on a 12-step call, you can give somebody a Grapevine and I'm sure that it will help them. Going back to why do we need a General Service Conference? Bernard Smith, who was a chairman of the General Service Board when I was a delegate. Bernard Smith was a man, a very, very fine lawyer that worked for a large corporation. And the reason I remember Bernard Smith so well is when I was delegate in the city of New York for the first time, awestruck by everything that was happening and looking around
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at those high buildings. And then sitting in that conference and seeing as Mac saw and the Mac talked about, I felt we were looking after Alcoholics Anonymous worldwide. And it was, it was just the most fantastic experience I've ever had. And Bernard Smith was on his way to London, England and he had to leave early. And he was giving us a talk. And it was a beautiful talk, and I realized that here was a man that was serving us absolutely free, giving of his time, giving of his time for you and I, that we may be sober and we may have a General Service Conference plan to keep us and to keep this thing intact for the rest of our lives. And he got a phone call, and the girl came in the back of the room and she had a big sign up, long-distance telephone call for Bernard Smith. And Bernard Smith was talking. And he said, where is it from? And the girl said, from London, England. And he says, tell him to call back, I'm busy. And he was busy with your affairs and my affairs. And I'm sure that the long-distance phone call from London, England was probably very, a very important business affair. But he didn't take the call.
He said, tell him to call back that he was busy. And he wrote somewhere, and some people have probably read it, why do we need a General Service Conference plan? And I don't know everything that he wrote, but find it and read it, because it is beautiful. But the thing that he did say, he said, we do not need a General Service Conference plan to help the suffering drunk that is roaming around two blocks from this room tonight. But we need it for the child that has been born today that may become an alcoholic. And I think that that is true. And I think that that's something that we should think about. The fact that we've been given the opportunity, and the late King George once said that the greatest opportunity that any person could ever have was the opportunity to serve his fellow man. And that is the opportunity that we have at Alcoholics Anonymous. And that's the opportunity that we have if we ever get the opportunity to serve. And we get the opportunity to serve the moment that we join this beautiful fellowship.
Because we don't have to necessarily serve as a General Service representative, or a district committee man, or as a delegate to our General Service Conference, or as a secretary, or as a chairman, or as a trustee. But we can serve by doing many little things that are big things that keeps this fellowship intact. And I certainly hope that each and every person is taking their opportunity to serve. And by participating, and Mack talks about this a lot, by participation, every one of us learns what our responsibility is. We learn how important it is to belong to a group. We learn how important it is to be part of a conference like this. And we learn all of these things by participation. And by participation, and Mack has taught me this, Mack says by participation, and by us participating in everything that we are allowed to participate in, we will start to contribute what we are privileged to contribute. And that is maybe six or seven dollars a year, whichever way you want to figure it out. For each and every person has this opportunity to contribute this amount of money. But let me tell you one thing. If you don't contribute, you are still entitled to everything the General Service Office has to offer. But do we really want to be freeloaders the rest of our lives? Or do we want to contribute? If you belong to a group, ask them how you can participate, and ask them how you can contribute. And in closing, I would like to close with a story that I told when I was a General Service delegate to the conference in New York. It's a story about a young member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and an old member.
And one day this young member said to the old member, he said, I am going to quit. And the old member said to him, well, why are you going to quit? Well, he said, they told me when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous. Well, he says, they told me when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous, do we want to contribute? If you belong to a group, ask them how you can participate and ask them how you can contribute.
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And in closing, I would like to close with a story that I told when I was a general service delegate to the conference in New York. It's a story about a young member of Alcoholics Anonymous and an old member. And one day this young member said to the old member, he said, I am going to quit. And the old member said to him, well, why are you going to quit? Well, he says, they told me when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous that it wasn't going to cost me any money and it wasn't going to cost me any time.
They said, all you have to do is go to some meetings. And he said, now it's costing me a lot of money. He said, they want me to send money to the general service office. They want me to send money to my state assembly. They want me to give money to my group to keep the group operating. They need extra money for birth departments. And he said, they've taken a lot of my time. They want me to go and sit in hospitals for some person that's sick.
They want me to go to a prison to visit people who are in prison. They want me to go to roundups and they want me to go to big conventions. And he said, it's costing me money and it's costing me time. And he said, I'm going to quit. And the old member sat back for a moment and then in his easy does it way, he says, you know, son, I don't blame you a bit. Because he says, your story reminds me of the story of my life.
He says, when my wife and I were very young, we were blessed with a bouncing baby boy. And he said, somebody told us that three could live as cheap as two. But the moment that child was born, he started to cost me money. He said, I had to leave the mother in the hospital because she had some complications after the child was born. I had to take the boy home. I had to hire somebody to look after the boy and I had to hire extra nurses to look after the boy's mother.
Every time I went downtown, they told me to get something for this new boy. He started to creep around and he needed toys. Finally, he started to walk and they wanted a tricycle for him. Finally, the tricycle was too small and they wanted a bicycle and I bought a good bicycle. Finally, he went into public school and there he really started to cost me money. The bicycle wasn't good enough, he wanted a bigger bicycle.
He needed extra money for this and extra money for that. And then he went into high school and he really started to cost me money. And I was like you, I was getting sick and tired of it and I felt like quitting. He said he needed money to go away to summer camp. The bicycle wasn't big enough, he wanted a motorcycle and I bought him a motorcycle. Then he needed an old car. Then he needed extra money to take the girls out.
And then he needed extra money for sporting goods equipment. And he said, I was like you, I was getting sick and tired of it. But then he said in the final year of high school, that boy of ours died and he hasn't cost us a penny since. Do what you like with that story, folks, but let's keep Alcoholics Anonymous alive. Thank you and God bless you. Alcoholics Anonymous