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I have listed some of the highlights from this historic AA Convention.
The first A.A. International Convention was held in Cleveland July 28-30, 1950.
Bill chose Cleveland for several reasons:
It would be possible for Dr. Bob to attend, since it was not far from Akron.
It had one of the largest and earliest concentrations of sober alcoholics.
It was the home turf of Clarence Snyder (the “Home Brewmeister) who had begun claiming that he was the founder of A.A.. He based this claim on the fact that when the Cleveland members broke away from the Akron group because priests were refusing to allow Catholics to attend Oxford Group meetings, the Cleveland group was the first group that used the name Alcoholics Anonymous.
Convention planning required a lot of cooperation between Cleveland, Akron, and New York, which would help to ameliorate friction between the three groups.
“On Sunday morning the ‘Spiritual Meeting’ was held. I went much excited by the prospect that I was going to rub elbows with the real heavy hitters in the ‘God’ department. I do not remember the name of the main speaker, but his topic dealt with the idea that the alcoholic was to be the instrument that God would use to regenerate and save the world. He expounded the idea that alcoholics were God’s Chosen People and he was starting to talk about ‘The Third Covenant,’ (there are two previous covenants with the Jewish people described in the old Testament), when he was interrupted by shouted objections from the back of the room. The objector, who turned out to be a small Catholic priest, would not be hushed up.
There was chaos and embarrassment as the meeting was quickly adjourned. I was upset and in full sympathy with the poor speaker. I did not realize it at the time, but I had seen Father Pfau (Fr. Ralph Pfau of Indianapolis) in action and Father Pfau was right. I had heard the group conscience and I rejected it.”
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Please note that Bill did not actually read the Traditions verbatim-he simply summarized them! However, he received a one-hundred percent standing approval.
“Then I was asked to sum up, which I did, saying: ‘That, touching all matters affecting A.A. unity, our common welfare should come first; that A.A. has no human authority – only God as He may speak in our Group Conscience; that our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern; that any alcoholic may become an A.A. member if he says so – we exclude no one; that every A.A. Group may manage its own affairs as it likes, provided surrounding groups are not harmed thereby; that we A.A. Alcoholics have but a single aim – the carrying of our message to the alcoholic who still suffers; that in consequence we cannot finance, endorse or otherwise lend the name ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ to any other enterprise, however worthy; that A.A., as such, ought to remain poor, lest problems of property, management and money divert us from our sole aim; that we ought to be self supporting, gladly paying our small expenses ourselves; that A.A. should forever remain non-professional, ordinary 12th step work never to be paid for; that, as a Fellowship, we should never be organized but may nevertheless create responsible Service Boards or Committees to insure us better propagation and sponsorship and that these agencies may engage full time workers for special tasks; that our public relations ought to proceed upon the principle of attraction rather than promotion, it being better to let our friends recommend us; that personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and pictures ought to be strictly maintained as our best protection against the temptations of power or personal ambition; and finally, that anonymity before the general public is the spiritual key to all our traditions, ever reminding us we are always to place principles before personalities, that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all.’
“So summing up, I then inquired if those present had any objections to the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous as they stood. Hearing none, I offered our Traditions for adoption. Impressively unanimous, the crowd stood up. So ended that fine hour in which we of Alcoholics Anonymous took our destiny by the hand.
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“That afternoon we filed into the Cleveland Auditorium. The big event was the appearance of Dr. Bob. Earlier we thought he’d never make it, his illness had continued so severe. Seeing him once again was an experience we
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seven thousand shall always treasure. He spoke in a strong, sure voice for ten minutes, and he left us a great heritage, a heritage by which we A.A.’s can surely grow. It was the legacy of one who had been sober since June 10, 1935, who saw our first Group to success, and one who, in the fifteen years since, had given both medical help and vital A.A. to 4,000 of our afflicted ones at good St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, the birthplace of Alcoholics Anonymous. Simplicity, devotion, steadfastness and loyalty; these, we remembered, were the hallmarks of that character which Dr. Bob had well implanted in so many of us. I, too, could gratefully recall that in all the years of our association there had never been an angry word between us. Such were our thoughts as we looked at Dr. Bob. “In the final moments of our historic Conference it seemed fitting to read from the last chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous. These were the words we took home with us: ‘Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find, and join us. We shall be with you, in the Fellowship of The Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the road of happy destiny. May God bless you and keep you – unti
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Posted by: “Robert Stonebraker” <rstonebraker212@comcast.net>
Rep
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