INDIVIDUAL SUBSCRIPTION $1 A YEAR BULK ORDER: $2.50 annually for 10 copies of each issue.

BOX 4-5-9 NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE GENERAL SERVICE OFFICE OF A. A.

Vol. 13 No. I

FebruaryMarch 1968

305 East 45th Street, New York Mail address: Box 459, Grand Central Post Office N. Y. 10017

New Year – New Faces at G.S.O. New faces are always a joy here at G.S.O. and it’s our pleasure to welcome with the New Year a new General Manager, a new G.S. Trustee, a new director of A.A.W.S. (our publishing unit) and a new director of the Grapevine’s Corporate Board.

Yale) Summer School of Alcohol Studies, New Brunswick, N.J., is the newest member of the Grapevine’s corporate board.

New Wave of Growth

Robert (Bob) H. has already begun some of his duties as the incoming Chairman and General Manager of General Services (Herb Al. retires April 1). Bayard P., New York, replaces Bob on the G.S. Board. Charles M., New York (formerly of Dallas and Winston-Salem), is the new member of the A. A. W. S. Board, and Professor Milton Maxwell, Ph.D., nonalcoholic director of the Rutgers University (formerly

Herb M. reports that there is evidence at G.S.O. that the Fellowship is riding a new wave of growth as 1968 gets under way: More than 1500 new groups were started last year. Demand for “The A.A. Way of Life,” Bill’s newest book, exceeded all expectations, forcing a second printing and

ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR GROUP MEETINGS AS OF JANUARY 1, BOB H. ASSUMED SOME DUTIES as new Chairman, General Manager of G.S.O. You can read about him and other new G.S.O. faces right here in Box 4-5-9. Herb M. retires April 1. FOR EASY ORDERING OF NEW A.A. PAMPHLETS AND BOOKS, an order form is enclosed with this bulletin, to help us keep literature racks freshly supplied. S

BEAUTIFUL NEW GIFT EDITION OF “12 & 12” now available. (Description, p. 3.) S S S

1968 CONFERENCE AGENDA NOW IN THE WORKS. All groups are asked to discuss and submit suggestions through their Delegates. (See p. 2.)

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PERKED-UP A.A.LIFE IS ONE RESULT OF A GROUP INVENTORY. To 10th Step our group, see story on p. 3. Also p. 34 in pamphlet, “The A.A. Group.” S

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STILL LEFT OUT? “THE A.A. WAY OF LIFE,” Bill W.’s newest book, has already hit the 23,000-copy distribution mark . . . an all-time quick popularity record for A.A. books. It must fill a great need for most of us. See Secretary or G.S.R. to get copies for self, sponsor, and newcomers.

23,000 copies had been shipped by New Year’s Day. “What Happened to Joe,” the first A.A. try at carrying the message in a new color-comic format, seems equally successful. Shipments had totaled 150,000 copies by the end of the year – a new record.

A Historic Year The last of the Conferences presided over by Herb was a milestone, too. The 1967 meeting saw election of five new regional A.A. Trustees to the General Service Board. All in all, Herb’s last full year as the General Manager was quite a historic one. It’s no wonder his successor, Bob, said: “As I look ahead those size 10 shoes of Herb’s look more like 14’s to me!” The new Chairman, Bob, also added, “Please accept my very best wishes for the coming year. With your help, and that of all the wonderful people here at G.S.O., I’ll hope to grow into my new responsibilities quickly.” Bob has been sober 20 years, a trustee since 1966 and an A.A.W.S. director since 1964. Back in the ’SO’s he was the last volunteer chairman of General Services. He has served on the Trustees’ Nominating, Literature, and Public Information Committees, and was once Chairman of N.Y. Intergroup. In business life he has been an executive in an advertising agency. He and his wife, Elaine, and two children, Tommy, 12 and Ann, 10 live in Rockville Centre, Long Island. Bayard P., his successor on the G.S. Board, also serves on the board of A.A. World Services, Inc., the corporate arm of G.S.O. responsible for publishing and for the operation of G.S.O. – and on the Board’s P.I. Nominating and Literature

(turn to P. 4)

Topics for ’68 Conference All local A.A. groups and committees of every kind are invited to discuss in depth the questions slated for study during the 18th meeting of the General Service Conference of A.A. in North America, Apr. 22-27, at the Hotel Roosevelt, N.Y.C.

OLD PROBLEMS NEW SOLUTIONS New proof that A.A. members, groups, and offices can get along with alcoholism agencies without misunderstandings and difficulty is found in the new revised edition of our pamphlet “Cooperation but not Affiliation.” Using experience of groups and members throughout the world, this new tool details how A.A. ’s have learned to work harmoniously with governmental and private agencies, mental health clinics, researchers, alcoholism information centers, judicial and correctional agencies, rest homes and rehab centers, hospitals, business firms, churches, and labor unions.

Pamphlet Helpful Local groups, Central Offices and Public Information Committees will find that if they distribute this 16-page pamphlet widely to A.A.’s and to non-A.A. professionals, it will produce much greater understanding and appreciation of A.A. It answers the 20 most common questions that arise. One example: Should A.A. Groups Accept Financial Help From Outside Sources? For Example: Literature, Free Rent or Other Financial help from a Non-member, Government Commission on Alcoholism, or any other outside Agency?

OPEN HOUSE

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G.S.O.

Thursday, March 14th, at 5-8 p.m., G.S.R.’s and allA.A.’s are coordially invited to come see us, 305 East 45th Street – 18th Floor.

The 89 Delegates (Panels 17 and 18) from U.S. and Canadian groups need to know what local members think so they can share this knowledge with members of the General Service Board and its committees, G.S.O. and Grapevine staffs, GV directors and observers during the six days and five nights of Conference sessions. Conference Theme Theme this year is: “Personal Recovery Depends on A.A. Unity,” and it is hoped this will spark a fresh exploration of A.A.’s Traditions and their applications to the Fellowship’s worldwide problems and opportunities. Some questions tentatively scheduled concern “Unity Within Groups”such as: Are business meetings important? How do we find and use the group conscience? What about the oldtimer who won’t let go his office? How can a group solve the problem of cliques?of money? What are the advantages of open speaker-type meetings?open discussion?closed discussion?beginners? How can meetings be made more attractive to professional people? newcomers ?young pe ople?oldtimers? What about the disruptive drunk at meetings? “Unity Between Groups” may include such topics as: How are problems that affect other groups in the area best handled? What is the role of a Central Office or Intergroup committee in encouraging unity among groups? How are local services, such as answering service, 12th-Step calls, public information, institutions handled with most harmony? Other questions involve “Unity in the Area,” “Harmony With the Non-A. A. Community,” and the World Directory as a unifying tool, such as: Is anonymity a P.I. problem? Do local groups cooperate with court programs?-.rehab centers? Are

A.A.’s STAFF PROFESSIONAL EXHIBIT A.A.’s professional exhibit for national meetings was manned by local A. A. ’s at sessions of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, National Council on Alcoholism, American Public Health Association, National League for Nursing, American Hospital Federation, and the North American Association of Alcoholism Programs. One volunteer says: “My experience in handling P.I. Exhibits at National Convention’s leads me to believe that, next to personal example, this is one of the best

ways to carry our message to interested professionals. It is rewarding and interesting work and I heartily recommend that, if the chance comes, A.A.’s volunteer for this service.” To give some idea of the interested professionals reached: Atlantic City, N.J., June 1 5th-l8th inclusive, American Nurses Convention. Visitors to Exhibit – 4,000. Registrants requesting literature be mailed (every state and 15 Foreign countries) 1,207. Literature distributed -. 3,700.

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public meetings useful? How can the G.S. Delegate serve local service units? What purposes do Area Assemblies and district meetings serve?How are they run?What is discussed? Do they increase understanding of worldwide A.A.?How do Regional Trustees serve the Fellowship as a whole?their regions?local service units? What improves cooperation between G.S. committee and local offices?

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ROTATION Names of Panel 16 G.S. Conference Delegates went onto G.S.O.’s ex-Delegates’ mailing list as of Jan. 1. Panel 18 members joined Panel 17 on the active Delegates’ roster, and Panel 18 members of Conference Committees replaced Panel 16. Please be sure your area is up-to-date on G.S.O.’s mailing lists!

If you don’t already have one, better hurry to get the Jan. ’68 Grapevine. It contains original Dr. Carl JungBill W. correspondence published nowhere else. February Issue

Review of a controversial movie; role of the volunteer in alcoholism; two spiritual stories; a coincidence (?) that warded off a slip; staying sober on a vacation; a frequent slipper’s tale; a Florida man’s visit to 19th anniversary of a group he helped start in South Africa, and many more.

How One Group Sees Itself

A.A. CALENDAR For better Calendar Service, we want to carry a separate page with dates in March and September. Please send all dates and info soon as possible.

FEBRUARY 17-18

4th All Women’s Conf., Hilton Inn, 7th & Washington. Kansas City, Missouri. 23-25 – Jamboree Fiesta, Roadway Inn, 6201 Gateway Wert, El Paso, Texas. Write: Secy., Box 6589, Ft. Bliss, El Paso. 23-25 – 17th Annual Kentucky State A.A. Conf., Louisville. Write: Host Comm., Box 13152, Louisville. Northern Alberta Roundup, Legion 24-25 Hall, Fairview. Alta. Write: Chm., Box 672, Fairview, Alta., Can. – Second St. Lawrence Area Conf., 25 St. Columbian’s Parish Center, 40 Fifth St. West, Cornwall, Can. Write: Chm., Box 158, Prescott, Ont., Can.

MARCH 16-17 – SpringRegionalConf., Ft. Collins, Colo. Write: Conf. Secy., 885 South Ogden St., Denver, Cob. 29-31 – State Conf., Sunday Breakfast Meeting. Write: Lucy Weinland, 3201 N. Meridian St., Apt. 2, Indianapolis, Indiana 46208.

APRIL 12-15 – 7th Australian A.A. Cony., Perth, Western Australia. Write: Secy., Cony. Comm., Box R1243 GPO, Perth, W. Australia.

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So many ideas for making the group better came from members of Parkside Group (Philadelphia) it took two special meetings to cover them all, Eugene C., G.S.R., writes. For their “Group Inventory” they used questions on p. 34 of the pamphlet “The A.A. Group.”

Their honest answers are so inspiring that we’re sharing some: 1. Group purpose includes making our willingness to help known to Community Services. 2. We can make more contact with physicians, hospitals, churches, courts and police. 3. We should participate in and assist Intergroup with its community meeting and general program. We are not getting a good cross section of alcoholics in our community, only a certain kind. 4. To make sponsorship more effective, we can use Newcomer’s Kit(from G.S.O.). Each member shall make it his responsibility to communicate more actively with new members at meetings, to cut down dropouts. S. More attention can be given to providing an attractive meeting place. 6. At discussions, members will try to make remarks brief, so everyone can participate. 7. Duties of new officers each are spelled out clearly, so every man can fulfill his trust faithfully. 8. Wedo our fair share of helping Intergroup, G.S.O., Grapevine, and institutions groups.

PROBLEMS OTHER THAN ALCOHOL or drugCan a nonalcoholic pill addict become an A.A. member? Can he be brought, as a visitor, to open A.A. meetings for help and inspiration? If he also has a genuine alcoholic history, can he become a member of A.A.? Can A.A.’s who have suffered both alcoholism and another addiction form special-purpose groups to help other A.A.’s who are having drug trouble? Could such a group call itself an A.A. group? Could it also include nonalcoholic drug-users? If so, should they

be led to believe they have become A. A. members? Answers to the above are now available from G.S.O. as “service material” (free) in “Problems Other Than Alcohol,” an article byA.A.’s Bill W., originally published in the Grapevine. NEW GIFT EDITION OF ’12 X 12’ Latest pocket-size gift edition of “Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions” has an elegant, formed acetate jacket over the gold-stamped deep blue binding. In addition, blue end papers and a blue silk marker ribbon make it a handsome gift for newcomers, anniversary or birthday celebrants, sponsors, or guest speakers. Price: $3.00.

Special Bulletins Meet Specific Needs Five service bulletins (besides Box 4-5–9) are issued regularly by G.S.O. to meet specialized needs of A.A.’s. They’re filled with news and sharing from all over. If you know anyone who should get them, please let us know. They are: Sailing seamen INTERNATIONALISTS’ ROUND ROBIN who carry the A.A. message to ports around the world get this “meeting in print” six times a year, made up of wonderful A.A. letters we get from these “couriers of A. A.” These letters are so adventurous, funny, touching and deeply spiritual that they are often called “the best A.A. of all.” LONERS MEETING – Isolated or shut-in members are specially served by this bimonthly bulletin, composed of excerpts from terrific A. A. letters from folks who can’t get to group meetings very often, if at all. Since our 737 correcG.S.O. INSTITUTIONS BULLETIN tional institution and 561 hospital groups have special problems, this new bulletin helps local Institutions Committee work-

rp ers and A.A. ’s behind walls share solutions, triumphs, and warnings with each other.

SERVICE BULLETIN: Sharing A.A. Intergroup and Central Office Experience All Over the World – Also new, this quarterly bulletin enables G.S.O. to help Central Offices and Intergroup Committees share experience on financial support, literature distribution, staffing, etc. INTERIM REPORT – Conference Delegates and Committee Members receive this quarterly summary of General Service Board and Trustee Committee activities.

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NEW FACES (tromp. 1)

Box 4-5-9 Goes Tr-Lingual

Pardon our pride-but Box 4-5-9 has gone -. cosmopolitan! New French and Spanish editions were j us H EL VIA mailed to groups all over the world where those languages are spoken. They replace French and Spanish newsletters. This would not have been possible without the services of our two beautiful and highly capable translators, Vera and Helvia who, working with the editor of Box 4-5-9, tur’ned out to be expert journalists! Both non-A.A.’s, they understand the A.A. language of the heart so well they can speak and write it in five languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese,

SPECIAL GIFTS TO G.S.O. j CALIFORNIA: Glendale: 16th Annual So. Calif. Cony………..$8,426.45 San Diego: Delegates’ 65.75 Report Meeting ……… 63.90 Gratitude meeting ……. D. C.: Washington: Area G.S. Assembly …………

25.00

FLORIDA: Brevard Co. Intergroup . . . . . Jacksonville: 2nd Annual No. Fla. Conference …….. West Palm Beach: Palm Beach Co. Gratitude Dinner

IDAHO: Pocatello: State of Idaho

300.00

OHIO: Newbury: Punderson Park Conf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PENNSYLVANIA: E. Penn. G.S. Comm . . . . . . Pocono Manor: E. Penna. Conf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SOUTH CAROLINA: Abbeville: S.C. State Conf..

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CURE THAT WORKS 87.70 14.00 304.00 300.00

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70.00

144.34

VIRGINIA: Richmond: Va. State Cony.. Blackstone Retreat …….

400.00 100.00

WASHINGTON: Seattle: Union Club …….

101.00

CANADA: Ontario: Welland, Niagara Blossom Time Conf . . . . . . Sask.: Regina, Night Light Breakfast …………

53.54

34.75

LOUISIANA: Baton Rouge: La. State Cony…………….

732.31

NORTH CAROLINA: Raleigh: State Cony…….

65.00

500.00

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New York: 4th Annual N.Y. State Cony…………

VERMONT: Windsor: Vt. Round Up .

1,231.67

GEORGIA: Atlanta: 23rd S.E. Conf. 15th Ga. State Cony……

and English. Kleina, ournon-A.A. Clerical Supervisor, says of them: “They are young, VERA married and utterly charming. Vera was born in Egypt. She was educated both inEgypt and in France, and is now married to a young Spanish doctor. “Helvia, born in Cuba, is married to a young Spanish advertising executive. They have an adorable 3-year-old daughter, Laurita. “Since 18 to 20 French and Spanish letters arrive daily, the girls are understandably busy. It was a happy day when these two extraordinary people settled in’ at G.S.O.”

Committees, plus still being active in the Lenox Hill Group. Charles M., new A.A.W.S. Director, formerly served as Treasurer of N.Y. Intergroup and as Chairman of A.A. Groups in Manhattan, Dallas and Winston-Salem. He is Chairman of G.S.O.’s local Opinion Panel, a cross-section sounding board for G.S.O. ideas. Dr. Milton Maxwell is the second nonalcoholic Director of the Grapevine (Austin MacCormick is the other). Dr. Maxwell took his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Texas, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on A.A. in 1949. He was a research fellow at Yale before he became executive director of the Summer School of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers in 1965. We proudly welcome Bob, Bayard, Charlie and Dr. Maxwell to the G.S.O. “group” of A.A. servants. We hope they find as much joy in their new responsibilities as we have in greeting them. We eagerly await their inspiration.

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From Seven Hills, N.S.W., Australia “Several doctors and clergymen here are finding A.A. a helpful ally. A young fellow who went to a doctor recently couldn’t figure it out when the doctor said, ’I can’t help you, but I’ll send you to a bootmaker who can!’ “The bootmaker, of course, is an A.A. member. “In one month, 98 attended our 8th anniversary; 150, the Blacktown anniversary (next-door); and the following night, 120 attended the opening of the new Penrith Group. This is the sort of ’geographical cure’ that works, oh? Part of the latest Box 4-5-9 was quoted at Penrjth. “Thanks to A.A., I’ve had almost 12 years’ sobriety .-. grinning and winning Ian H. not boozing and losing?”

250.00

MAINE: Portland: Dist. §1 ……. MINNESOTA: Faribault: So. Minn. Conf. . .

25.00 150.00

MISSOURI: Belton: W. Missouri Conf. Area …………… NEBRASKA: Laurel: Nebr. State Comm. .

116.0 0

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Portsmouth: Breakfast Seacoast . . . . . . . . . . . . NEW JERSEY Madison: No. Jersey Panel.

12.30

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NEW YORK Glen Falls: 17th Annual Conf., Hudson-Mohawk-Berkshire Area ……………

65.00

500.00

348.35

ATTENTION: Overseas A.A.’s! CLIPPINGS: Whenever a mention of A.A. appears in any newspaper overseas, in any language, we need a copy of it! Our Clipping Service tries to furnish G.S.O. with all stories about A. A. printed in any daily Canadian or U. S. general circulation newspaper, but does not include overseas press coverage. Please help our International and Public Information Committees by

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clipping such and mailing them to G.S.O. And oh, yes – be sure to give us the name of the paper, and date of each clipping!

TRAVELERS – Here at G.S.O. we also need all the help we can get in keeping informed about A. A. overseas. So, if you are about to travel abroad, or have just returned – let us know, and we’ll send a questionnaire. If you’ll just check a few answers and return, we’ll be grateful.