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Source: Unidentified Historical Recording – Fellowship Review Recording 853 – Date Unknown.mp3 File: steve-h-twelve-traditions-and-concepts-workshop-ca-1994-archive-853.mp3 Duration: 01:31:17
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I'm Steve H., alcoholic. This is Aiden. Welcome to the workshop on the Twelve Traditions of Cocaine Anonymous. Um, to start this off, I'd like to get someone to read the Twelve Traditions, and then we can launch off into some discussions and something else if you'd like to volunteer. Okay. And you're going to need to be up at the, there's a microphone up there. Hi Carl, this is Aiden. Hi Carl. Okay.
Okay. Okay. Thanks. Also, this is not a meeting of Cocaine Anonymous. The opinions expressed in this workshop are those of the speaker and are not necessarily of Cocaine Anonymous as a whole. What I'd like to do, so that you guys are kind of aware that we've got a little bit of background up here, I'd like us to introduce ourselves and give a little brief rundown of our service history. So, Mike, do you want to?
Yeah, I'm Mike P.. I'm an alcoholic and addict. And for those that don't know me, I am the Pacific North trustee. And I have almost 10 years in this program. And from the day that I started in recovery, I started in service. Most of my service was on a local group level. And it ranged from, you know, means to actually district or group and district and then to an area level, then into the world service level.
I've probably been in every aspect of service that's thinkable. Everything that comes down to is in the service is due to traditions. You know, I always look at that the traditions are basically for yourself, for the group and for service. And, you know, I feel that service is the biggest part of my sobriety and recovery. You know, the extent of the extent has been quite involved. I mean, without the service of this program, I wouldn't be here today.
I can't express. I can't go into detail of the amount of service that I've been involved with. It has shown me a new way of life and a way of recovery. And the main purpose of my service is to help the suffering person. And through all the service is I've gone through every ultimate level of available in the program. As I said, I really I feel quite of accomplishment myself. As I've reached the plateau in service that I cannot go any higher, but I can still continue.
And I will always continue, you know, is the main source of my sobriety. That's where I'm at today. I'm Steve M., addict alcoholic.
[00:04:59]
In my nearly 12 years of recovery, I like Mike, I started early on.
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First thing I did out of a treatment program was got assigned as a coffee person for a meeting. And found out that having that commitment to be there made a difference. And through the years, I served on different Alcoholics Anonymous intergroup committees. Through Cocaine Anonymous, Los Angeles area, doing conventions, answering the phones. And then as the Los Angeles area grew, helping organize and get San Fernando Valley started.
Serving on the board of directors for a couple of times and being active in public information, HNI, helpline. And just always being of service. And I'm like Mike, you know, it's the thing that really keeps me here. You know, one of the lines in the big book talks about that our very lives as ex-problem drinkers is based on our constant thought of others and how we may meet their needs. And to me, that's the description of service.
You know, it's like getting outside myself so that I'm not just sitting here thinking about who I am and what's going on. You know, as a result, I've gotten to work in a couple of different areas throughout California and now in Oregon. And it's real exciting to see how things happen. So that's pretty much a history of my service. One of the things I wanted to move into next is how the Twelve Traditions came to be.
And I brought a few reference books here for you guys, not to read today, but so that in the future if you're ever wanting to know more about it, maybe we've given you an appetite for what this is about. There's some books that were written through Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A. Comes of Age, Bill Wilson's story, Pass It On. There's another book, The Best of the Grapevine. And then Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers are all histories.
Then one that I recently came across were a lot of writings that Lois gave to the Grapevine so they could compile a book was a lot of Bill's writings on the steps and the traditions called Language of the Heart. I was digging through Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A. Comes of Age to find out when the traditions got started. And they were started in 1955. They were adopted at the St. Louis Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous.
But in the early days, there was a lot of growth taking place. Bill and Bob had a lot of discussions along with other early members and they finally had grown to the point where they needed to write something, a cohesive set of things to keep the fellowship alive. In 1946, Bill had penned a thing that he called The Twelve Points to Assure Our Future, which eventually became The Twelve Traditions. And it's interesting, I don't know right now that I want to go in and actually read the parallel between the steps, between these twelve points and how they became The Twelve Traditions, but that's a point you can look as in Language of the Heart.
There's an article that Bill wrote in 1946. So that kind of gives you an idea of some important dates and what was going on with that. And then what I want to do is I'm going to turn it back to Mike. He was talking about the different aspects of it, the personal group and then the service aspect. So we can get a little more into that. Yeah, there's this little caption here that was printed in the grapevine in March of 1982.
So, using traditions as guides to spiritual progress, we begin to know that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves, and the sense of humility is enhanced. So although the twelve traditions are designed to further group survival and harmony, and those are most important, a closer examination shows that another ultimate object is the welfare of individual membership, truly an extension of the twelve steps of recovery.
A lot of people, Rashad said it very good last night, most people do not look at the traditions with the steps. And in early recovery, I really think that they are in conjunction with each other.
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They need to be known and they need to be worked. I look at it that the steps and traditions are for ourself, for the group, and for service. And those aspects really need to be looked at. As well as the traditions being worked with the steps, they work along also with the principles. And the first step of unity goes along with knowing the powerlessness and the invincibility that we have. Rashad was talking about the sponsorship, and to yield to our sponsor the way we are feeling what's going on, and then to the group, and finally to the principle, and the principle of honesty.
To be able to understand that and know that and to work that is essential. They work in conjunction with each other. And it's a necessity, at least in my society. I'm talking for myself. In the second tradition, an ultimate authority. The coming to believe. And this is what I think comes to about where, when we develop a home group, and that we attend this home group, and the group conscience that we have within that home group, and the sharing, the trust as a trusted servant, the trusting of other people, the peace of mind that we get when we can do this, which comes to the second principle of hope.
Just all the different aspects of actually the three of these things, working in conjunction together, is building a better foundation for our recovery. And three, stop using. And to turn our will on our life, we'll take care of a higher power. The self-worth that we develop. Get rid of the guilt. No questions can be asked that we can't feel comfortable talking about. The self-respect, the productivity, the rejoining to society as a whole, as a real person.
And it comes down to the principle of having faith within yourself, and of a higher power, as we are understanding. And the fourth one, autonomous. That's taking the moral inventory of yourself. Getting rid of the self-centeredness, the selfishness, the self-run riot. No action harmful to others. You're taking your own inventory. You're being autonomous of yourself. You're looking at the consequences to yourself of what you might say of somebody else.
Nothing is really good unless others are considered. You have to think of others. And the principle behind that is the courage that you build within yourself to be able to work on these aspects. And the fifth one, the primary purpose. To carry the message. Accepting matters that will bother you, the things that are wrong, giving it away and
[00:15:01]
sharing with others of yourself, like joining in and becoming part of, being a better individual This is the principle of integrity. And the sixth, Endorse and Finance. You know, it goes along with the step of removing the defects of character. You know, the singleness of purpose. Why are we here? What are we doing? Helping and not to hinder. Keeping it very simple. Live and let live. And it comes down to the principle of willingness. Seven, Fully self-supporting. Not being selfish. Removing that shortcoming. The freedom of thought and action.
Not bound by that other thought. It's money versus spirituality. They don't mix. And the principle to that is humility. We have to put ourselves in that role. You know, eight and nine kind of runs together. Eight, you know, being non-professional. And, you know, that's like making our amends, you know, that we're not professional. We don't need special training. You know, that's kind of a relief, but we always thought we had to do something special or have something to give.
You know, that's not important today. Just giving of yourself. The reassuring. The principle behind that is love. You know, we, most of us have so much love that we've had pinned up inside of us that we've never shared. We can give that freely. You know, nine, we never have to be organized. We can make our amends and just very freely be aware, you know, of our pride and our ambition. To lend our true identity, you know, and our concept of our higher power. To be forgiving. Have forgiveness.
Ten, no opinions on outside issues. You know, our certain, our disciplines, obligations, responsibilities. As a whole, I could speak out as an individual, but as a member, I have to operate within certain limits. You know, the program, we really have to be cautious about, you know, what is being said that we, in public controversy. And to engage our, to engage our mind before our mouth. Be careful what we say, what we do.
You know, and the principle behind that is discipline. You have to look at our discipline. We, in most cases, never had any discipline or never disciplined ourselves. You know, and the eleventh one is attraction rather than promotion. Maintain our personal anonymity. You know, I identify myself by my first and last name in a group conscious of CA because I feel comfortable here that I have nothing to hide.
If I was at a speaker meeting, I wouldn't identify myself because I don't know exactly who is out there. But that's my own personal preference. You know, press radio and film. A lot of people can run with a lot of things and they know exactly who the person is out there and it could cause a problem. You know, it's walking with your car.
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And it's a necessity to blow, it's not a necessity to blow your own horn. You know, you don't have to break your arm and pat yourself on the back. You don't have to take personal credit, you know, for things that you've done. You know, a lot of people have done it throughout the years before you. It's probably the most rewarding thing I've ever seen or had done is doing something for somebody and then not knowing anything about it.
The satisfaction, the joy that they receive, you know, that's enough reward for me to see what goes on with them. You know, ego and personal ambition has no place in this program. And a lot of people's pride gets in the way. The principle behind this is the awareness. You learn the awareness behind what you're doing when you develop that. On twelve, you know, principles before personalities. And what that comes down to is carrying a message.
The way you present yourself is the message you're throwing out there to the program. The principles expressed, not the person expressing it. A lot of times the attitude's getting in the way and the personality's getting in the way. And especially to the newcomer, you know, who sees it the wrong way. And you don't need to seek praise. It's not necessary within the fellowship. There's a lot of self-rewards.
Simple jobs will speak for themselves. And the principle behind that is service. And the more involved you get, the better it is. You know, those are just some of the things that I look at for the traditions themselves that work for me and the things that I need to look at. There's a pile of paper up there. There's a pile of paper up there, which is a traditions checklist that you're more than welcome to have.
And it's more on the concept of a group inventory and what the group needs to do. And as we get along on this thing, if everybody's interested, we can go through this. We can do a little poll. We can take a little survey. The whole idea behind this is trying to get the concept of what the traditions mean in relationship with the steps in this program. You know, I can't emphasize enough upon myself that these traditions are as important as the steps.
You know, it is, they were created in the program to make the program work. And they've worked for many years. And the better, the more knowledge, the better concept that you have of how the traditions can work as a step in your daily life, in your group and service work. The higher they do it, the better recovery you have. So, I'll turn it back over to Steve now. I'm not sure exactly what direction we're going here with this.
We're kind of leaving it kind of a preformed, you know, passing it back and forth. What I wanted to do is sometimes there's a lot of words in here that can get misinterpreted. And so I brought a dictionary so in case we get some of those words, we can look them up and identify a little bit more of what the true meaning is. Sometimes over the course of the fellowship, some of the words get interpreted and passed along where they don't necessarily mean.
They don't have the meaning sometimes that was intended. So, what I want to do is I want to open it up. Are there any questions that anybody has about traditions or how traditions are affecting them or not affecting them and their groups? Is there… And if you have questions, they've asked that to be on tape, you need to step up to the podium.
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Oh, yeah. All right, Howard. All right, Howard. All right, Howard. I looked up the word autonomous and it has a different meaning than the way I had been thinking for several years now that I've been in the program. But that's so funny to me that you can look it up and tell how it really sounds. It sounds… Independent, self-contained, independent of the laws of other state or government, self-governing, ever pertaining to autonomy, autonomic.
So, in essence, what this is talking about is that each group is responsible of and to itself. And that's something that sometimes groups have trouble understanding is that that group right there is its own unity. That night, that hour or hour and a half, that the people in that room make up the whole of that group for that time. And that just because that group was there that night doesn't mean that everything it does that night is responsible even for the next week.
And that's… It gives that independence and a lot of people don't understand that. And I think that's the hard thing is people understanding what a group's function is, you know. I mean, we talked about that our common welfare should come first. Because personal recovery depends on that unity. It's like… I'm gonna switch back off on autonomy, but… If that group isn't there, then I'm alone. You know, and what Bill and Bob found out is that they tried all alone and couldn't recover.
And that it required two or more people for recovery to work. And that that's probably why they put that first is that it requires more than me to have personal recovery. And that if I don't put that first, then I'm not gonna get anywhere. There's another word that I was gonna look up that's interesting, which is anonymity. One of the things I'll say on autonomy is, you know, on this little handout here.
It says, each group should be autonomous except in the matter affecting another group or CA as a whole. Autonomy means separate. And, you know, do I insist that there are only a few right ways to do things? Do I and my group always consider the welfare of other groups? Do I make an effort to know the other groups and communicate to them? Do I put down other people's behavior when it's different than mine?
Do I always bear in mind to those outside of who know I am in CA? May I represent to some extent other entire fellowship? Am I willing to help a newcomer go to any lengths? Do I share my knowledge of CA tools with others who may not have heard of them? It's the sharing of what's going on. Like I said,
[00:30:00]
This is a matter affecting other groups as the CA as a whole. So anyway, anonymity was another word that I wanted to bring up because it's used a couple of times. And the word anonymity is the quality or state of being anonymous. One that is anonymous. So I've got to look up the word anonymous after that. Having an unknown or unacknowledgeable name. Having an unknown or withheld authorship or agency. Nameless, without. So what this is, is that it's this impersonal, that something is unrecognizable. And to me, like in the Twelve Tradition, when it says anonymity is a spiritual foundation of all our traditions.
Another word that I wanted to look up in accordance with anonymity is humility. Because I think the essence of the anonymity that Bill was talking about is there's a true humility based on spirituality. Humility is a quality or condition of being humble, lack of pride. And I think that's what it talks about. Because in the one before that, it talks about our public relations policy is based on attraction. And of course, you know, Rashad brought that up last night. You know, that a lot of us, it's like, we'll look at this pretty girl walking around or some of the girls look at the cute guys walking around. Whoa, it's a program of attraction. You know, but that's not the attraction that they're talking about here. You know, because for me, when I walked in, the attraction was these people who truly said hello and welcome, you know, keep coming back. They had a smile on her face. They weren't belligerent and argumentative. You know, and that was the attraction that got me. But then, like I said, in the anonymity part, and this is the humility, the lack of pride, it's getting myself out of the way. And then, you know, principles before personalities, part of this is that the biggest set of personalities that I have trouble working this program, the principles of this program in front of is my own. You know, it's not yours. You know, most of yours I can walk away from, you know, but it's, it's my personality that I can't walk away from. I have to sit down and work the steps to deal with it. And when I start looking about this anonymity, this, this, and humility, stepping back from that, that that's when it's like, I understand the traditions, because the traditions asked me, like Mike was talking about, so much of that self-centeredness has to get pushed away for the traditions to work. Because the traditions is about learning responsibility for the other people around me, for the other things in my life, self-supporting through our own contributions. I mean, that's, that was one that was, you know, for me to put into my personal life, as much as into the group, because what that meant was that I had to show up every day for work, you know, that I had to take care of that financial responsibility, and not seeking for someone else to do it for me. And then the declining outside contributions, along with that, you know, like I said, it was like, learning how not to have to have everyone else take care of that for me. It's been interesting. I, you know, it's like, for my recovery, and it
[00:35:01]
was, I guess, through my using, I was never able to get any credit back when I was using. But even in recovery, one of the things that's real important is that I, that I have a credit record, but it's like, I don't have any credit cards. You know, it's like, I really like paying cash for what I do, because I don't like having that, that thing hanging over my head. And just recently, I went out and bought another vehicle. And the hardest thing was to sit down and sign that loan. Because it's like, I don't, I don't like that anymore. I like that independence, you know, that what I have is paid for, and it's mine. And I don't have to answer to anyone else on it. Maybe that's a real independent streak in me. But, but it's, it's the thing that I was, that I started having to learn was to really take care of me and be responsible for me.
And there are some things that, that's what I hear from you, where it affects who they are as a whole. You know, I understand a lot of that, where, and it's like, you know, you need to get out there and say like, this is the best possible way to keep it at our meeting. You know, I understand that, because that's what it's actually doing as a whole. But it's just some of the things that I get really confused with. And how do I reach this message that these other people believe that in order to work out is how to do that in life? I think that's my question as well, is like, you know, I don't think I'm alone in that. It's, it's easy to understand that there's a lot of problems. You know, it's, it's certainly needed, but I think that there are only a few right now that are doing things as well. And on one hand, I think that there is, and on the other hand, I don't think so. You know, so it gets very confusing. You know, and I think that we're, I think we need to move from there, so that the groups tie into the districts, and then the districts tie into the area.
And that's where, one of the reasons that I'm here is to help myself become clearer on working on that. And so my question actually, I guess, is how does that, how does the group maintain the interactions of the area and the district? I would say that first as an individual, and then as a group, as you take your own group inventory, and the concept of the matters that are affecting your group, or yourself and the group, and then as CA. And, you know, it's, as this comes down to, it gives you some suggestions of things to look at and to think about, to analyze with yourself and with your other, with other people in your group and your fellowship, and try to come to an understanding of where you're going, what's going on within that particular group, that you can share on a district level. I mean, it's, who has the right answer? Who knows what's, you know, your opinion is, and what's going on? What should you share that?
And I guess it's more of the exposure from within and to express those feelings, that what's going to be best for you and your group, as you carry that up to your district. And hopefully that you can express those feelings to have your district understand what's going on, that what the needs are, what needs to be met, to be able to have that carried on through the area. And I think all the growth
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of where this fellowship goes, you know, starts with the individual, and how that individual develops it within the group, and how that group develops it within the district, and how the district develops it within the area. As the AASM goes, and there's a sort of pyramid, and the group that's the most important, and it works faster. You know, the communication of what is right and what is wrong. It's, who has that right answer?
Well, I don't believe anybody does. You know, everything is a suggestion, and it's developing the suggestions that an individual has to better the fellowship itself. That's really answering your question, but, you know, it's a process. And I know I never processed anything before. I didn't share my opinions, the way I felt, or the way I did it. And I didn't take that opinion or suggestion from anybody else, or put anything together with what anybody else had to say. And today, you know, yes, I have an opinion, and not necessarily it's right, but I can listen to somebody else, and what they had to say, and maybe together, we can come up with an idea that's going to develop into something that somebody else can share, put something together with, that we can develop that into making the fellowship better.
And for anybody that came in a little bit later through this, is what we're doing is just kind of leaving it open to the group. If you see something that you'd like to talk about, or don't understand, or have a problem with a word that we can define to try to explore, you know, feel free to get up to the speaker and say your question. You know, this little group inventory sheet was put out by the grapevine also in 69.
And everything that's said here, everything that is read here is a suggestion, and is an opinion. And if all we're looking to do is try to help you in some way to have a better concept of what can be done, and what will help you as an individual and as a group in the recovery. And as it was pointed out to me, I guess I didn't read very clearly, but I didn't realize this was a traditions and a concept workshop. I thought it was just a traditions workshop.
But if anybody really wants to go into the concepts, I'd also be more than happy to get on that topic too. The other thing I'd like to kind of throw out to you guys, because it's always interested me, and just to get it kind of into an open forum, but the tradition that Lorraine had brought up and said each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting other groups or CA as a whole. And I've always been curious, what are the matters that affect other groups?
What kind of matters can we get into? Maybe some of you guys can like think through maybe some things that have happened in your groups or in groups in your area, that you look at and you go, oh man, I can't believe they're doing that. Or, I mean, just to throw some things out, because it's like, what matters could affect other groups. And going along with that is, if you don't share the way you feel, it's not going to be considered.
And if you have the problems and matters that are going on, you know, you don't have to be selfish. You don't have to be self-centered. It's saying the way you feel.
[00:45:01]
And this is, this is the way it is. How do you define what a good game is to you as a whole? How do you go back on TV or try to create a message, you know, get the message out there, you know, how we present ourselves, we need to, we need to let people know that we are there, you know, as such, the anonymity part comes down to it, you know, we're not giving specifics of who is in this program, but we're saying Cocaine Anonymous is here and what we're about, it's just like our storybook is a promotion of Cocaine Anonymous and individuals that have come to this program in recovery, you know, exactly who that individual is, we're not, that's where your anonymity comes in there, you know, it's the attraction of the availability of recovery, you know, there are a lot of 12-step programs out there and if we do not show the public that we are here in some way, then the fellowships will not grow, they will die, you know, so there's a fine line there and to interpret that is really hard, but not to exploit it.
One of the biggest growth factors in early alcoholics anonymous was an article that came out in Life Magazine and it kept the people anonymous, but it talked about what the organization was and how it did it, so that that necessarily wasn't promotional, it was more informational and what it did was cut it out to a broad scope and I think that's what you're going to see with a lot of the bus banners and the billboards is as much as our phone number is in the phone books and that the help line, you know, when you call information and say I want cocaine anonymous, they have cocaine anonymous number there, that it's more informational and you find that when you get into different aspects, it's like a lot of that falls under the category of public information, so that it falls as an informational tool rather than a promotional tool because we're not going out there and saying, I mean if we're putting billboards up that says come to a meeting and get this for free, then we would be promotional, but when we say if you have a problem, here's a number, call it, that's not promotional and I think that's what they're talking about is not going out and soliciting that if you do this, you'll get this in return, that just we're here and we can help you and that was what that article that came out in that Life magazine was about, here's this group of people and here's the results they've gotten and here's how to get hold of them.
Also the thing about the stories in the big book and the reading that I've done from why they put it there was, it was like a meeting in a pocket, you know, it was because so many people were spread across the country
[00:50:01]
that they didn't have other people to have a meeting with and so what it did was it gave them somebody else's story so they could start reading it to identify with because there was no one else there who knew how to open themselves up, you know, and that's what I see our storybook is finally coming out to where there's people who have had the cocaine experience who have opened it up so it's like all of a sudden we can hand that to somebody and there's a multitude of experiences to draw from there.
I'm trying to think, Alcoholics Anonymous big book has 37 personal stories in it now and I mean so that's quite a few months of speakers meetings to go to, you know, right there and that's the way that our storybook is going to be, you know, it's a bunch of speakers meetings right there in a book, you know, in a book rather than on paper. So I don't see the, essentially the storybook as being promotional but it's definitely something that's attraction because it gets our message out there in a form that we can identify with it.
We're looking at the attraction of drawing more individuals in to the fellowship for its growth and what better way to do that than to have somebody able to relate to a problem. Some people have problems especially when they read the big book at first because it doesn't relate to them, they don't look at those similarities, you know, and just the word cocaine, no matter how, you know, it's prevented if you have a problem with cocaine, you know, it's an attraction.
We have to promote it in a way that, you know, it's not a financial promotion, you know, it's a recovery promotion and we're looking at that aspect of what we can do for the suffering animals. But part of that program of attraction, and I can speak because I've got a little more history, was I got sober before Cocaine Anonymous got started and I got into Alcoholics Anonymous and I found a bunch of people that were open-minded enough to work with me and didn't say you need to go to another program.
There were a few of them that tried to send me over to Narcotics Anonymous and I didn't find the attraction that I wanted there. I mean, it was like you almost had to fit into a certain mold to fit into NA and I think that that's one of the areas that we need to look at as a group when we talk about matters affecting other groups, is how are we representing ourselves as a recovery fellowship? Because what I found when I got to those first Cocaine Anonymous meetings, I was about a little over two and a half years sober when I got to my first Cocaine Anonymous meeting and when I walked in there was this freedom, it was like I could talk about using a needle again, I could talk about, you know, near overdoses, I could talk about some of the paranoia, I could talk about wanting to go faster and faster and faster and it was like when I started talking like that in Narcotics Anonymous meetings, all it did was it turned the meeting into a controversy about why I shouldn't be there, why I shouldn't be saying that stuff.
And the attraction for me was when I walked in there was I told these other people like, oh yeah, that used to happen to me too and all of a sudden there was this freedom, some of the stuff that I felt uncomfortable letting go of, I was able to let go of, you know, and I think that's the thing that we need to look at in some of that attraction, is are we creating an environment to where people can come in and identify, can they fit in?
I know for a long time, in my early days in Cocaine Anonymous, I had a lot of friends who were in Alcoholics Anonymous who didn't want anything to do with it and they kept saying, you know, it's like it's so immature and it's this and it's that and what I did is with the foundation I had is that I came in and it's like, well, then I'll be like this, you know, primary care, or not primary care, but just like the emergency center, you know, it's like, well, we'll get these people in here to Cocaine Anonymous because that's where they identify, you know, and we'll help them understand what the foundation of recovery is and then we'll go sit them over here in these AA meetings so they can hear these long-timers speak,
[00:55:01]
you know, to find out what the real balance is and we almost had to really just like say, okay, here's what to don't say in an AA meeting, you know, it's like you just, here's the rules in an AA meeting and I think that was the thing that was the biggest attraction for me and I don't mean to downgrade Alcoholics Anonymous because I've talked with a lot of people and I understand their primary purpose, you know, but what was nice to me was that coming into Cocaine Anonymous it seemed like there was just a lot more openness in areas that I could talk about that I hadn't been able to and it was just another freedom and another aspect where I was able to grow where I had felt encumbered and, you know, but not that I stayed within the guidelines of Alcoholics Anonymous, I was one of those early renegades that needed to get underneath the gold-plated skin because I talked about anything and everything.
I think that what was more of an attraction than anything else to me was, you know, our Commonwealth of Chicago personal recovery depends on the unity, you know, and my unity was that I used everything and that I came into a fellowship that people that had done the same thing, you know, they weren't just drug addicts, you know, they just weren't alcoholics, you know, and I could talk about anything that I wanted to talk about because I used it all.
Cocaine was my bottom, but the people accepted me for what I did, you know, and they did the same thing. I could really relate. I didn't have any restriction. Hello. Hi, Bud. Hi, Bud. I guess my understanding is that the difference between the three divisions, the group, the district, and the area at the level that it moves up in terms of each individual, anything by the group, in terms of, you know, their autonomy, their preferences, and their ability to get messages and to use information, what they're doing in terms of communication, that's one, there's some guidelines for communication to move up to a smaller level than the area, and the vast communication has gone up to the area, and it's pretty much bigger.
I'm a big fan of people doing all kinds of things throughout a larger area. Basically, my question is, can you clarify for myself that the Cocaine Autonomous Service is based on these people having areas, districts, groups, as opposed to having a group in the area? Because right now, it just seems like there's just too many people involved. It's the same thing with alcoholism. It's the same kind of fear.
You don't want to make a lot of sense without hearing those phones, listening to the communication going to a group. And it's basically, and then in the area, if the group already communicates and there's some meetings, some things are going on with them, trying to get an idea of what the group may be suggesting, to go to the area with, to the area with, or to ask the area for help. It's just not useful.
It's not meant to be. Well, I'm just, I want, I know people don't know about most services because I think, I should say, I don't know, but I would like to know what their opinion is on the things, on the areas that are going on. Some are somehow, our area has developed this, You know, it's World Services doesn't direct you to have to do anything. Okay? The whole
[01:00:02]
thing comes down to is you take Idaho, Twin Falls, their group is their area. You know, they are so small, that they don't have that availability, you know, BC, you know, it's the same way, there isn't enough groups to make a district, nor really an area, so it's, the idea behind it is, if there's enough groups, that can get together to form a district, or form an area, it's better for World Services to be able to communicate with an individual than several individuals. World Services office isn't that big, there's only, you know, one person that really runs it, with a couple of assistants, you know, so it's trying to communicate as much information to one area, or to one World Services office as possible.
Like in Utah, you know, districts don't work, and you know, so the group comes to the area, what's best for your area, that's what it comes down to, and there is no basic, you must or you should do anything, you know, what best works for you. We want to see the fellowship grow, and to be able to communicate. As the trustee for the region, I try to communicate as much as I can with certain individuals in each area. Hopefully that they will give me the information that's happening in their district, if they have a district, or with their groups, or what's going on. I take all that information to the trustees meeting and put out a report. In turn, I also put out a report back to these individuals. If there's anybody that wants this information, that wants to get involved, they can just talk to the World Services office, or they can contact me directly, you know, to help you develop what is going on in your district, your area, or your group. And like I said, you know, with DC, with Idaho, they're so small, I talk to people that are just involved in groups, you know, that they don't have that luxury or exposure of a district or a region. But it's just, you know, it's filtering the information to one place, so that information can be given to World Service to helpfully help them out in any way they can. And that's basically the service representative. And, you know, I work with myself as the trustee, trying to give that exposure, trying to give out the information on an individual basis, on a group level. I'm more than happy to come to any place that I can come to. You know, I'm really looking forward to this year to go to some of the areas that I haven't been. I haven't been to British Columbia. I haven't been to Alberta. I haven't been to Alaska. You know, and the World Service office gives us that privilege to be able to travel to some of these places when we can. And, you know, it's on my time. So, I'm available. If there's any questions, if there's any problems, and if there's anything that we can do. I don't have all the answers, but I can surely give them. You know, right now cocaine anonymous is going through growing pains, you know, and it's a learning process.
We don't have all the answers, but, you know, I talk, I have several people that I talk to that have been in AA for many years to find out what's going on with them. And, you know, every three to four months the trustees get together and we share what's going on throughout the world and what's happening in those different regions so we can, you know, help our own region. So, it's just a policy of to try to better the public. So, if you have any problems, if you need any more answers, if you need more communication, I'd be more than glad to help you.
But one of the things that regards that that we haven't really touched on today that in the original discussion of a workshop was the 12 concepts. And the 12 concepts deal with a lot of that communication from the group to the district or whatever the structure is. It deals with the communication, how it works, how the responsibilities are
[01:05:00]
and how they take place. So, I mean, it's like if we just focus on what we look at, how the traditions affect it, then we're missing that other piece of the puzzle that helps us solve the communication problem. And so much of the time, I mean, and that was kind of originally when I talked to Jerry about touching on that, was getting into this was to address some of those issues, not specifically for this area, but just to get people aware of that the tradition, the concepts are there and they're probably one of the most overlooked aspects of a communication tool that the Fellowship has for dealing with other groups, you know, our neighbor groups and our area and our neighbor areas with each other and how we interact and how the overall service organization works for for different areas.
I have a question, and I don't really know how much you spoke to the traditions, but it's something that I've been hearing over and over in my head for a long time. What, generally speaking, what would be the key factor or factors that would say that this is unnecessary rather than just having an area that we need to get to? What would be the key factors? I would say probably the amount of meeting in a certain district. Sometimes the meetings outgrow the ability for people to go to an area need and would be better to be condensed in a district.
When I go to the World Service Conference or the Fellowship in Biloxi, we talk about district 10. I'm in a little bit of a different perspective. What I've heard in our discussions with this may be not just the number of meetings, which make it difficult to run an area need, but distances. It's also a major factor, particularly in some of our western states. We've gone in Nepal. Distance is a factor. Now, we've had a large growth in the Maldives part of our state. We've talked about distance, but what we saw in looking at the experience of COVID-19 was that in some areas, whether it's in a district, the area sort of fell apart in a lot of moments. For the work that we've done, as far as I can put it now, we've scheduled some hotlines in the Maldives district. And then we had an area, I think it was in California, that had 10 districts, and maybe six or eight of them were closed. And a couple of them were barely functioning. And so that was another motivating factor for us in Utah to not disperse it, because we didn't want to leave the rest of the people out. Even though it's difficult with distance, we're still not big enough in numbers to become a big enough area. It's been a long time since we've dispersed.
Yeah. Having worked in the Los Angeles area myself, probably one of the biggest districted areas, or maybe an area with some of the biggest districts, it's interesting because part of their division lines had to do with geographics more than it had to do with number of people. Because there were some districts in Los Angeles that had as much as 160 meetings in one district, and then there was another district that had 10. So it didn't have to do with dividing specifics to making sure that every district had the same amount of people in it, and same amount of meetings, but it had to do with the geographic lines rather than just numbers.
Okay. I'll read them. So the concept, number one, the final responsibility and ultimate authority of Cocaine Anonymous World Services should always reside in the collective contents of our whole fellowship.
[01:10:03]
Two, the CA group's delegate to the World Service Conference is the complete authority for the active maintenance of our world services and thereby make the conference accepting for any change in the 12 traditions the actual voice and effective conscience of our whole fellowship. What that means to me is that the World Service delegate, and it'll touch on that in a couple more, is basically, he doesn't have to go around and take a poll at every meeting and then take a group conscience to the conference. We have elected a World Service delegate who understands Cocaine Anonymous and the overall effect on the fellowship, and that's how he votes a conscience at that. So that's the voice he takes as a well-informed conscience of what the fellowship needs to go forward.
Number three is the traditional means of creating and maintaining a clearly defined working relationship between the group, the conference, the World Service Board of Trustees, and its Service Corporation, staffs, committees, and of thus ensuring their effective leadership, it is hereby suggested that we endow each of these elements of the World Service as a traditional right of decision. And that's more than what I was talking about. The people that we have elected to go there, we have given them the right to make a choice, that we don't necessarily determine their choice. We've given them the right to that. The whole thing comes down to is, you know, a delegate's position is to go to the World Service conference to find out the business end of what's happening in CA as a whole, and to be able to take that information back to its area or district and to present to them what is happening with CA. And this is pretty much what the concepts are more about, and which I really feel that you don't have the real participation in the fellowship of coming and doing this type of service work. You know, it is, for anybody that's been involved in it, everybody that's been to a conference, you know, it's a long and drawn out process, but the information is invaluable. It's just, you know, it's just unbelievable what happens. The unity of the gathering of the people that are there is just awesome. And, you know, you take a hundred and so many, you know, addicts getting together in one place and arguing about a topic, and the final conclusion, you know, is just overwhelming. You know, sometimes it's not favorable, and sometimes it is. But, you know, it's just, at the end of this week ordeal, it's just overwhelming. It's just really overwhelming. And, you know, I encourage, you know, anybody that's interested in anything to do with cocaine anonymous to get involved in this type of position. So, concept four. Throughout our conference structure, we have to maintain, at all responsible levels, a traditional right of participation, taking care that each classification or group of our world's servants shall be allowed a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge. Five, throughout our world service structure, a traditional right of appeal ought to prevail, thus assuring us that minority opinion will be heard and that petitions for the redress of personal grievances will be carefully reconsidered, or carefully considered. And now you're talking about a individual or two or three individuals coming from an area, representing that area as a whole, and what they're doing is they're trying to bring the group content of the area, the districts, and the groups of what's going on, and their vote can be a persuading factor of what's going to happen with World Services.
You know, and even though you are only an individual,
[01:15:00]
and maybe your concept is a little different or isn't exactly what the rest of your area or district is, you are representing them, not yourself. And to be able to bring their feelings to the floor of the World Service Conference. Sixth, on behalf of CA as a whole, our World Service Conference has the principal responsibility for the maintenance of our World Services. And it traditionally has a final decision respecting large matters of general policy and finance. But the conference also recognizes that the chief initiative and active responsibility in most of these matters should be to be exercised primarily by the trustee members of the conference when they act among themselves as the World Service Board of Cocaine Anonymous.
As a trustee, we're only trusted servants to the fellowship. And we try to do what we feel is in the best interest of the fellowship. And that's why we have these meetings on an annual basis. We have the conference to gather what is happening. And that's where the delegates come in. That's why I, as myself, try to stay in so much communication with every area as much as possible. You know, I have as much as three or four people in an area that I call and talk to, not necessarily just the delegate of that area. You know, because I want to hear the opinions.
I don't want to hear it from one person. I want to hear what's going on, what's happening in that area. So I can take that information back to the other trustees and to the conference of what's happening and what's going to be best for us. My main purpose is my region. My region is you guys. So that's why I come to these conventions. That's why I try to communicate as much as I can. You know, it's a personal thing with me. But I think as a whole, it's a trust issue that I try to make sure that the people that I talk to, that their message is something's being done with it. Some actions being taken care of. Because the conference takes up a lot of time.
A lot of times issues don't get discussed and things don't get taken care of. But when the 10 trustees sit down and talk about what's happening in their region, a lot gets accomplished. You know, and I have a good position to be able to get things taken care of. The conference recognizes that the charter and bylaws of the World Service Board are legal instruments. That the trustees are thereby fully empowered to manage and conduct all world service affairs of Cocaine Anonymous. It is further understood that the conference charter itself is not a legal document. That it relies instead upon the force and tradition, force of the tradition, and power of Cocaine Anonymous first for its final effectiveness.
Eight, the trustees of the World Service Board act in two primary capacities. One, with respect to the larger matters of overall policy and finance, they are the principal planners and administrators. They and their primary committees directly manage these affairs. Two, but with respect to our separately incorporated and constantly active services, the relationship and the relation of the trustees is mainly that of custodial oversight, which they exercise through their ability to elect all directors of these entities. Nine, good service leaders together with sound and appropriate methods of choosing them are at all levels indispensable for our future functioning and safety. Ten, every service responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority.
The scope of such authority to be always well defined, whether by tradition, by resolution, by specific job description, or by appropriate charters and bylaws. And that's what Howard was just talking about. The service manual is our bylaws. It's our manual that we try to follow as close as possible. The concept, the tradition, the steps, you know, all go along with our service manual. And that's something that
[01:20:01]
we really look to uphold. You know, the best example looking out for the fellowship and the finances is what's happening with the book right now. You know, the book was reviewed numerous times by the trustees. And just before this last time for print, that we found some errors. We got a blue line back before the book was ready for print. And we found some errors that were not acceptable to put out to the fellowship. If we would have ignored this, the cost that it would have cost the fellowship was basically the trustees' problem. And it was our responsibility to take care of it. We put the fellowship on a whole in an inconvenience.
The fellowship put out a lot of money. They were upset. But in all, we tried to do what we thought was best for the fellowship. Hopefully you're going to get something that's going to be right. You know, and it comes down to our addictive personalities that it has to be correct, you know, and that's where it came to. And hopefully we have found these errors that's going to be beneficial for the fellowship.
11. While the trustees hold final responsibility for CAA's World Service Administration, they should always have the assistance of the best possible standing committees and service boards, staffs, and consultants. Therefore, the composition of these underlying committees and service boards, the personal qualifications of their members, the manner of their induction into service, and the system of their rotation, the way in which they are related to each other, the special rights and duties of our staffs and consultants, together with a proper basis for the financial compensation of these special workers, will always be matters of serious care and concern. And that's where it comes down to at the conference. The conference during the business is broken down into committees. There is at least one trustee, if not two, that sits on each committee to find out what is going on to filter back to when we have our trustees meetings of what is happening, what is best for the fellowship, to gather that information, no matter what it might be, if it's finance, if it's literature, if it's HNI, or conference, or convention. We gather all this information to help us to be well-informed of what's happening to be able to let the rest of the fellowship know what's going on.
And then 12 general warranties of the conference. The knowledge proceedings of the World Service Conference shall observe the spirit of cocaine anonymous tradition, taking great care that the conference never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power, that the sufficient operating funds, plus an ample reserve, be its prudent financial principle, that none of the conference members shall ever be placed in the position of unqualified authority over any of the others, that all important decisions be reached by discussion, both, and whenever possible, by substantial unanimity, that no conference action ever be personally punitive or an incitement to public controversy, that through the conference, though the conference may act for the service of cocaine anonymous, it shall never perform any acts of government, and not like the fellowship of cocaine anonymous which it serves, the conference shall always remain democratic in thought and action. You know, that's another problem that we have, that we really deal with as the trustees, is unanimity. Trying to get all 10 of us to come to an agreement that this is what's right for the fellowship. We all have different opinions, but regardless of what the situation is, whatever the vote is, that we will support our fellow trustees and what was voted on, regardless if we feel it's not right, or if it is right, that if the majority says that this is the way it's supposed to be, that we change our opinion, and that they go along with that, and that we will support it completely.
[01:25:04]
Definition coming up in the dictionary. It's a word that's not used very often. Unanimity. It's a substantial unanimity. Unanimity, doesn't that come out of the word unanimous? Yes, it does. Everyone agrees. It's just like anonymity. You come across new words when you come into the fellowship. I've never used a word like this before, but it's a process of learning. Until I read the concept, I never even heard of the word unanimity before. But today, you know, we use it quite often, and like I said, when we have our trustees' meetings, there is a lot of unanimity. How do you spell it? U-N-A-N-I-T-Y.
The condition of being unanimous. Sharing the same opinions or views, being in complete harmony or accord, based on or characterized by complete assent or agreement. And like I said, we deal as the trustees with 10 individuals. When you get to the conference floor and you have a hundred plus people and trying to come to an agreement, it really, it does, it does. It takes, sometimes it takes a long time, but like I said, you have to be there to really get the gist and the concept of what really happened. And like I said, at the end of those five days, the camaraderie, the feeling is just overwhelming. The one thing about the conference is when it's not necessarily a unanimous decision, there's still the right of the minority opinion to express its voice one more time. So that it basically allows the group, if it makes an emotional decision to think one more time, what was the other side of this? So that it's not just everybody gets behind something and railroads something through. It's like one more time you get that opposing voice that says, have we thought it through completely? And I think that's the thing that I liked about the spirit of the conference when I was there was that, you know, once the decision is made, it's not like, well, forget about the other guy's opinion. It's like, it's still valued. The minority opinion is still valued. It may not be acted upon, but at least it's heard and everybody's aware of what it is. Right. Right. Because it may completely, after a period of thinking about it, somebody may bring a motion back to say, Hey, let's think this whole thing through again. Let's talk it through.
Or maybe let's throw it back to the committee for further discussion. So it's really interesting to get involved in all the inner workings of all the levels. The thing that I see happen sometimes in this area too often is that in the level of services is that sometimes we take the newcomer to the too high of a level. And that for me, the importance in my early recovery was that the old timers saw fit that I got in service of like making coffee, setting up chairs, bringing literature. And that the time limits that they set on how long it took to be a certain service was for a reason. And now, while it's anonymous, they really stood on that, that, nope, you can't do this till you've got a year. Nope, you can't do this till you've got three You know, it's like, you know, not that it was necessarily a reward, but they just understood that, you know, that through going through that much time that you, you would have to come across a certain amount of maturity and, and understanding of how the fellowship works to be able to, uh, act responsibly, uh, in making decisions.
I think we're real close on time, we're 12 o'clock right now, um, so, I don't have anything
[01:30:05]
else. Does anybody have any questions? Then I guess we have a motion to adjourn then. very much for showing up. We unanimously agree. We unanimously agree. So, let's close the awards bar. I'm Steve, addict, alcoholic. I'm Steve. Welcome to the workshop on the Twelve Traditions, Cocaine Anonymous. To start this off, I'd like to get someone to read the Twelve Traditions, and then we can launch off into some discussion and something else, if you'd like to volunteer.
Okay. Then you're going to need to be up at the, there's a microphone up there.