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CHANGE BULLETIN NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE GENERAL SERVICE OFFICE
December 1962
Vol. 7 Ho. 10 • 305 East 45th Street, New York 17 • Mail address: Box 459, Grand Central Station, New York 17 •
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INDIVIDUAL SUBSCRIPTION $1 A YEAR
1/lherever you ore.••alone… f1/e3Wla’ our love
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. •. or in a group…
a6, 1
~ancl- best -wishes for a A4tYry CJJdstmB~ and a-+lappy -#41¥ Year \
HOW ABOUT OUR “RESPONSIBILITIES OF SERVICF’? Step Four talks about “a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves,” We all know how important this is to our personal sobriety – but how does this work for an A. A. group – or for A. A. as a whole – in checking over its responsibilities of service? There are many aspects of A.A. service – from empty ing ashtrays to taking part in the General Service Conference- from volunteering for committee work to sponsoring another alcoholic into our Fellowship. One kind of service is as important as another, we agree. The only true measurement is how well it succeeds in carrying the message —
— to the still s uffering alcoholic, a message of recovery, and — to all A. A.’s a message of a sobriety so rich and meaningful that it never ceases to be wanted and cherished. The responsibilities of service of the movement and the central office and the group and the individual are
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A HAPPY REVERSAL
A recent visitor to G.S.O. shared this happy thought with us: Someone had spoken of “bleeding deacons,” This gal, a newcomer, had never heard the term. She said, “I don’t think that’s an accurate description, I think of the old-timer as a ‘beacon,’ not a ‘deacon.'” Bless her,
many ~ We
have in fact identified 75 different types of servi ~eL andyou will be hearing about them in the months ahead. These are areas in which we at G. S. 0. want your
guidant:e- and we will not hesitate to ask for it through your Delegate, General Service Committee and G. S. R. Jn brief, it’s inventory time.
GRA Tl TUDE IH ACTION Cliff B.’s First Bant Group in the Transvaal, South Africa, writes :
“If we are truly grateful there must be some ‘action’ which manifests or proves this true and rea/ gratitude in orde.r to overcome the hurnon wea.kness of having to see before believing and — that although we hove in our thoughts been grateful to G. S. 0. for having very kindly printed without charge our lsixhosa and South-Sotho translations of A. A. literature, we must now go into ACTION and do something about this gratitude which we profess to have. “The enclosed 16 dollars is the ACTION part of our gratitude. It would, indeed, be rewarding if we knew that this small donation would perhaps in some small way be of assistance in carrying the wonderful A.A. message to even only one still suffering alcoholic. We hope to be able, in the near future, to send you further installments of our ‘GRATITUDE IN ACTION.”‘
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A VERY HARD-WORKING GUY TRUSTEE NOMINEES In response to the request for the names of candidates to the General Service Board (Trustees), five names have been submitted so far. Three of them have been received from the Pacific Area and two from the Southwest area. We are sti II waiting for the first names from the East Central Region. (See September Bulletin for Reg ional Map.)
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SPREADING THE MESSAGE IN CALIFORNIA
Paul G., a former Delegate to the General Service Conference shares experience in Public Information: “Two years ago- in Marin County -two A.A. members, one doctor and one minister appeared on a local radio station KTIM on a program called Marin Sounding Board in a one hour discussion of the problem of alcoholism. A tape of this show ultimately went on to win a gold medal first prize at the California State Fair as the most outstanding public service program for that year in the State.” “Thisyear.Same station. The same program ran another hour on the same subject, titled, “l·s Marin County making any progress with the problem of alcoholism?” We were told by the management as we were leaving the studio that they had never had such a volume of calls as this hour produced.”
A.A.’S MEET THROUGH INTERNATIONALISTS BULLETIN Captain Jack, the founder of our seaman’s correspondence Group, the Internationalists, wrote recently: “Who says that the A.A. Bulletin for the Internationalists doesn’t get around? A few months ago there was a letter in the Bulletin from a Domingo C., a seaman aboard the tanker Petro Emperor. The name of the ship clickedas one of many which discharges here for the Canadian pipeline. I dropped Domingo a line, said I lived here and would meet him. “The next trip to Portland, Bill H., retired chief steward and former shipmate, was visiting me so we went down to the ship and met Domingo. It was too late for a meeting so we brought him up to the house and the three of us had a meeting in our rumpus room and Phylis (Jack’s wife) served coffee.”
This is AI of our Shipping Department. Non-alcoholic AI and his crew of eight put in many long hours of overtime to get your books and pamphlets shipped out to you as promptly as possible. Considering the number of orders they have to process, we think they make remarkably few errors and we are grateful to them for their understanding that sometimes a book or a pamphlet arriving on time can mean the difference between sobriety and another drunk for a waiting alcoholic. Our Christmas party is made the merrier because of AI. He is our Santa Claus. Every year, Santa has some words of wisdom to share with us about the state of the world and A.A. The Conference Report for 1962 noted that the Shipping Department sent out a total of 899,930 pamphlets, 232,466 miscellaneous items and 40,7 42 books in 7961. That’s a lot of books and pamphlets!
DATELINE—GUANTANAMO BAY CUBA John F. from the little A.A. group at Guantanomo Bay, writes: “I indeed felt odd trying to fill out the Group Information and Census cards received in today’s mail. As of today there are two of us left with extended sobriety ••• so you see the program goes on in its unfathomable way. Dom and I had the choice of evacuating with the wives and children as we are civilians, but individually decided to stay. So far the main crisis is over and we are fairly “normal,” if anything in this situation cGJn be called normal. “It is something like the program; no shooting today and thank God for that along with the day’s sobriety.”
John goes on to tell us about a new pigeon:
If any of you know of a seaman in A.A., or one who is just starting on the program, won’t you let us know so that we can add his name to our mailing list?
“The pigeon showed. He came on his own ••• says he has had it, and is serious about the program. I attempted
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to carry the message ••• He wi II be leaving soon for Ca 1ifornia, and I am going to give him some contacts there from the ‘World Directory.’ “So the Census card was filled out wrong the first time. The Gtmo group now has three members ••• Just got a phone call from Frank M., an Internationalist on the S.S. African Glen.,, ten months sober. Have not met him yet, Will pick him up at the pier at 11:30 A.M. for lunch. Hope to get the new pigeon and Dom, our ten-month member together for lunch, So TODAY there are four of us in Gtmo.”
NEW VERSION OF “·THE ALCOHOLIC EMPLOYEE” The pamphlet, “The Alcoholic Employee,” has been in the process of revision and updating. Therevised pamphlet is to be co lied “A.A. and the Alcoholic Employee – Questions and Answers for Employers.” It will be fifteen cents, the same price as the old version, and is now available. You’ll find it on the enclosed new order blank. We hope that this new descriptive blank will help you in your selection of books, pamphlets and service material.
1963 WORLD Dl RECTORY and
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CENSUS CARD
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By the time you are reading this, you should have received a letter from G. S. 0. with a 1963 Directory and Census card to be fi lied out and returned to G.S.O. not Iater than January 1, 1963. If the card is not returned, we will not be able to include accurate information about your group in the World Directory. More importantly, if we do not have up-to-date information for our own records, this can mean that an alcoholic will not be getting the help he needs from A.A. When we receive inquiries from alcoholics, we use the group information that we have available. If this information is inaccurate, it may mean that the guy or gal will miss the opportunity to recover in A.A. So PLEASE do return the cards as promptly as you can. Thank you for your help.
NEW- THE GRAPEVINE INDEX
For the first time in its history, “The Grapevine” is printing a year-end index of articles and stories which have appeared in 1962. See the December issue!
Young People and A. A.
A.A. CA LENDAR
1963 JANUARY 26
-SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY BANQUET Golden Triangle Hotel Norfolk, Virginia
FEBRUARY 1-3
Ret~ised Edition Some of you may not know that we have a very good pamphlet, “Young People and A.A.,” designed to help the younger alcoholic who is coming into A.A. more and more frequently these days. As more is known about the illness of alcoholism, many young people who hove not had to go “all the way down” are finding that A.A. can help them to a lasting sobriety.
-SOUTH TEXAS JAMBOREE Hotel Robert Driscoll
P. I. COMMITTEE – G.S.O. STAFF- N.A.A.A.P.
Corpus Christi, Texas Address: P.O. Box 1294
On December 11, members of the Staff at G.S.O. and members of the Trustees’ Public Information Committee will be sitting down with members of the Executive Committee of the North American Association of Alcoholism Programs (NAAAP). Such a meeting was held last year to the mutual benefit of all participating. Areas of disagreement are explored, as well as ways to further agreeable cooperation between A.A. and alcoholism programs. Our aims ore the same: to help the sick alcoholic to recovery.
CONTRtBUTIONS TO G.S.O. from A.A. MEETIN>GS & A.A. COMMITTEES
TRAVELING TO SHARE The Staff Members at G.S.O. and some Directors of A.A.W.S., as well as some Trustees of the General Service Board, have been doing a lot of traveling since the 1962 General Service Conference in April. All have come back with a deep sense of gratitude at having been asked to take part in these happy A.A. doings, and an additional feeling that all A.A.’s are truly partners in this business of sharing experience, strength and hope. The following listing will give you an idea of where we have been:
u.s. Connecticut Delaware Georgia Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Massachusetts Minnesota Mississippi North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma
Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Texas Virginia Washington Wisconsin
CANADA Alberta British Columbia Ontario Quebec Saskatchewan
NEW JERSEY 2nd Panel Activity, •• , •• ,. , . , , , •• , , , • , , , • , .$ 15.00 NEW YORK Rochester Area Picnic Committee , • , • , , •• , , • , , , .$135.00
OLD EDITION OF BIG BOOK FOR INSTITUTIONS There is a small inventory of the old edition of the Big Book which is available for groups in institutions only at a special price of three books for five dollars. The old edition is the same as the present revised edition except for the personal story section. If you want to order some of this edition for a group in an institution, please indicate where you want to have the books sent. Or if you want them sent directly to you, indicate the name of the institution for which they are in tended. Only in this way can we keep track of which groups have not received books. Thank you. The SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN A.A. will be held next May 31. For further information about it write to: Planning Committee, Drawer X, Tryon, North Carolina. And meanwhile if you have a young “pigeon” or “baby,” the pamphlet, “Young People and A.A.,” may help. It’s avai Iable from G.S.O. at fifteen cents per copy.
A REMINDER – CONTRIBUTIONS TO G.S.O.
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If you would like your contribution to G.S.O. to appear in the 1963 Directory, it must be received on or before December 31, 1962. Otherwise, acknowledgement in the Directory will have to be held over till1964.
PENNSYLVANIA Western Pennsylvania Area Committee , , , , •• , , , , , .$100.00 SOUTH DAKOTA South Dakota Fall Conference • • •• , • , , , •••• •• • •• $101.64 VIRGINIA Blackstone Special Meeting • • , , •••••••• • . ••• , .$200.00 WYOMING Wyoming Fall Conference. , , •••• , • , , , •• , • , , , , .$ 50.00
ATTENTION! VISITORS TO JAPAN Anyone who may be visiting Tokyo soon can attendA.A.meeting on Tuesday at 8 P.M. at St. Alban’s Church. The address is: No. 10 Sakae-cho, Shiba, Minato-ku (opposite the Masonic Building and Tokyo Tower). The phone number is 431-8534, O~r nice correspondent, Judy, notes: “Almost all Tokyo taxi drivers understand Tokyo Tower.”
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