I NoTES ON ALcoHoLics ANONYMOUS WoRLDWIDE

Volume

7

Published by General Service Office of A.A., P. 0. Box 459, Grand Central Station, New York 17 INDIVIDUAl SUBSCRIPTION

Number 2

$1 A YEAR

February, 1962

THE G. S. R.

What is the General Service Representative’s job? How does the G. S. R. serve an A.A. group? Thanks to more than six hundred G .S.R.’ s, who replied to our recent questionnaire, we will soon have a Fact File based upon their experience.

AREA COMMITTEE MEETING

We thank those who replied and also the General Service Conference Delegates and Area Committee Members who helped distribute the questionnaires. The response to this survey was the best we’ve ever had and we appreciate the cooperation. The Exchange Bulletin will announce when this material is ready for distribution.

1961 WORLD DIRECTORY SOLD OUT There are no more copies of the 11 1961 World Directory. 11 Group orders will now have to wait until April 15th when the 1962 Directory will be ready for distribution. If the Secretary, or G. S. R., doesn’t have your group’s 1961

Directory, you might check with the 1nember who received your group’s mail last May. If it doesn’t turn up, and a member wants to contact A. A. in another city, let us know and we’ll gladly send the address and phone number if it is listed with G. S. 0.

REVIEW OF WORLD DIRECTORY POLICY Four policy questions about the A. A. World Directory will be on the Agenda for discussion when the General Service Conference meets in New York City this coming April 25th through 29th. These questions have been sent to all Area Delegates with the request that Area Committee Members and G. S. R.’ s obtain the opinions of the groups in their areas. Your Delegate has extra copies of the questions if your group wants to discuss them. If you don’t know how to contact your Delegate write G. S. 0. and Hazel R., 1962 Conference Secretary, will send you the address.

1962 DIRECTORIES FOR A. A. GROUPS IN PRISONS AND HOSPITALS This year, our two institutional Directories – one of A. A. groups in Hospitals, the other of groups in Correctional Facilities – will not be distributed until August. Cards will be mailed in due course ta these groups asking Secretaries to give G. S. 0. up-to-date information. The Exchange Bulletin will announce this mailing. In the meantime, both of the 1961 Directories for institutional groups are still available from G. S. 0. Beth K., Staff Member in charge of this service, reminds A. A.’s who are interested in working with institutions that the following material is available from G. S. 0.: “Suggestions for Starting an A. A. Group in Prison”; “Suggestions for Institutional Committees”; “Memo for Starting an A. A. Sponsorship Program in a General HospitaL”

1962 GENERAL SERVICE CONFERENCE NEWS – We welcome the following new Delegates who have been elected to serve during 1962 – 1963: ARIZONA – Bennie G. , Phoenix CALIFORNIA/ SAN DIEGO Fritz H. , San Diego CALIFORNIA/S. COASTALJoe B., Redondo Beach GEORGIA – Gene C., Macon MAINE – Richard S., Cape Elizabeth MICHIGAN/WESTERNAustin D., Kalamazoo NEBRASKA – Robert M. , Superior NEW YORK/HUDSON-MOHAWKBERKSHIRE – Ivar J., Schenectady

OHIO/N. W. & S. E. MICHIGAN Roy Da V. , Toledo OHIO/S. & S. E. – Harold R., West Carrollton RHODE ISLAND- Irving F., Providence SOUT:E-I DAKOTA – Vern D., Rapid City TENNESSEE – Dennis M., Chattanooga TEXAS/N. W. – Tom H., Lubbock VERMONT – Edward D., Winooski WYOMING – Mrs. Kay L., Cheyenne MANITOBA (CANADA) Bill C. , Winnipeg

A TOT OF WINE Do you know? … In Cape Province, South Africa, the Tot System gives the working man a tot of wine as additional, or part payment for his toil. An A. A. friend, in Paarl, writes: “One of our rich South African farmers had been paying his labourers their tot with the result that many of them became alcoholics. He decided to rescue them and asked me to talk to them about A. A. which, of course, I was happy to do. Now the farmer has asked me to address the labourers on his brother’s farm. This is a real big push for tbe future.” >:<->:<->:<-ATTENTION GRAPEVINE READERS! ! The March Grapevine will carry three articles of outstanding interest to A. A. members. “Acceptance, 11 by Bill W., covers an area that has often troubled us all. “The ‘Celebrity’ Problem” is an article by the wife of a well-known entertainer. She explores the difficulties of the “name” speaker at A. A. meetings, particularly at the public level. The third, “How A. A. Helps in Prison,” is an eloquent testimonial to the value of institutional A. A. , by a non-A. A. official, Henry Max Heilig, of the Avon Park Correctional Institution in Florida. CALLING ~A.: RADIO HAMS From Luke H., on the S. S. Achilles: “My call letters for my amateur radio station are W4ClA/MM and for anyone who wants a contact, I am usually around 21318 KC from 2000 to 2100 Greenwich Mean time and on 7028 KC CW from 0400 to 0500 Greenwich Mean time. If you want to publish my call that will be swell with me.”

MEETING FOR BETTER RELATIONS

On January 12, 1962, members of the General Service Boards Public Information Committee, the G,S,O. Staff and. Bill met with the Executive Committee of the North American Association of Alcoholism Programs. Problems involving relations between A.A. and state agencies were frankly discussed. A better understanding of our respective positions was achieved and it was agreed that we should meet again next year.

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NEWS FROM INMATE GROUPS, AROUND THE WORLD

The General Service Representative of the BAR-LESS GROUP in MICHIGAN CITY, INDIANA, writes, I am being allowed to travel out in free society with our A.A. Coordinator and talk to groups outside about Institutional A.A. I feel wonderful about this and hope it will give other A.A. ’s an idea of what we, as inmates, are trying to do about our particular problems.’ without the kind of From. the SUNDIAL GROUP in NEW MEXICO, support we have received from our outside A.A. groups, we would not be operative today. “.

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The members of the KAI ORA EDEN GROUP in AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, have put the Serenity Prayer into Maori and are presently translating the Twelve Steps, An A. A. member of the H. 0. W. GROUP in H. M. PRISON, BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, writes, “My entry into this wonderful Fellowship was very inglorious but, by the Grace of God, lam growing daily stronger in A. A. and am honestly trying to remake my life into something clean and solid. About six months ago I was in our yard when an officer opened the gate and shouted,”Anyone for A.A. Being at a loss as to what to do with myself, I decided to go along just for laughs. ?”

“The first meeting really boosted my ego for I could sit there and listen to the stories of others and imagine that I could certainly handle alcohol. Well, this continued for a month or two until came the day when I was really in for a shock. One of the speakers told his story and it was, to me, as if he was reading my own life story. I can laugh it off now but when it happened I was really shocked. So you can see from the above, I came to realize that the word ’alcoholic’ belongs to me as much as to anyone else, So I launched myself into my inventory and the result to inc is something of a miracle, This I owe to A. A. and those life.-saving words, “Anyone for A.A. ?’

AL ANON FAMILY GROUP CONFERENCE The second Al-Anon World Service r&nfe_r ~nce will be held again in New York Cit y during April 1962. At the first Conference last year, Panel I had one delegate from each of the twelve states and provinces containing the largest number of Al-Anon groups. These twelve delegates will meet again this year with Panel II, the delegates from the twelve areas with the second largest number of Al-Anon groups. (From the “Al-Anon Family Group –

Forum,’ published by the Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, P. 0. Box 182., Madison Square Station, New York 10, N.Y., U.S.A.)

A. A, “SOUTH OF THE BORDER”

An A. A. “population explosion” is taking place in our neighbor countries to the south. An occasional seed was planted here and there in Central and South America some ten years ago, but whether or not any took root we rarely learned. Today, we hear of rocketing growth in the Spanish-speaking groups that has taken place during the last two or three years, We listen with joy to some of their stories and to reports from American A. A. friends who are helping with letters and literature. In Honduras, for example, two years ago we were in touch with two Loners in Tegucigalpa: Paul, an American, and Saul, a Honduran. No news from either one last year made us think that we had lost touch with them all together. We were about to deactivate A. A. in Honduras when letters arrived from both telling us of seven active groups with more than 200 members.

In 1955 El Salvador got its first A. A. visitor. Eddie, from Boston and San Francisco A. A., moved there on business. Today, seven years later, there are some 1, 200 members in 35 groups. In Colombia, to name another country, there are now almost 600 members and an A. A. Conference is held twice a year, each time in a different city.

LETIN Publicrrdo por Genercd Serl’ice Office of A.A., P 0. Box 459

G. S. 0. is in constant communication with some 150 Spanish- speaking groups and Loners “South of the Border. 11 Now, for the past year, we have been sending to all of them a monthly Spanish Bulletin. This shares with them our collective A. A. experience and that of the fastgrowing Spanish-speaking groups themselves.

Eve M., G. S. 0. Staff member assigned to our overseas service, reports, “Spanish literature was the first necessity. Thanks to translations made by A. A. ‘s in Puerto Rico, Buenos Aires and Mexico City, G. S. 0. has been able to provide more Spanish literature to help in twelfth step work. We now have an abridged edition of the Big Book in Spanish and eleven pamphlets. This literature is listed on a special order blank that has been sent to all Spanish-speaking groups and Loners and is available to anyone who writes for it. “Many of the Spanish- speaking groups are now in touch with one another. We are deeply impressed with their understanding of A. A. Tradition which is so evident in all their correspondence with us. There have been no anonymity breaks in any of their recent A. A. publicity. Again, we are reminded that no matter what the distance or the language barrier, A. A.’s language of the heart always gets through.”