Box 4o45#9

NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE GENERAL SERVICE OFFICE OF A.A.

Vol. 25, No. 6

Holiday 1980

Money and Spirituality Can Minglein A.A. Giving A longtime member recently took stock of her A.A. giving: “You know, as I was planning my Christmas shopping this year, I realized how much more I spend on gifts now than I did when I came into A.A., more than 20 years ago. I compared that with what I put in the basket at meetings, and I still give the same dollar bill only today it’s worth less. That was quite a revelation to me, and now I’ve begun putting at least two dollars in the hat at every meeting.” In these days of galloping inflation, with most groups paying high rents (and coffee prices), it’s easy to lose sight of the impulse to give. Yet many A.A.’s are tossing more

into the hat, and at the holiday season, groups often make a point of showing their gratitude by extra gifts of money, as well as time and service. November and December business meetings frequently discuss additional contributions in gratitude to service entities such as intergroups, area committees, and G.S.O. Special thank-you checks also go to non-A.A.’s who help by setting up meeting rooms, making coffee, or performing other services in churches and other meeting places. And holiday parties are part of the season’s giving, though members usually make special donations

of food, time, or money – rather than taking funds from group treasuries for social events. One New York City group holds an annual Thanksgiving Day buffet for A.A.’s who are alone on that day. And all over North America, group Christmas and New Year parties help members, new and old, get through the often-difficult holiday blues. The holidays, though, are only one special time for giving. In reality, it’s what we do all year round. Increasingly, A.A. ’s are realizing that money is not a dirty word. Money and spirituality do mix, and gifts of money are one of our most (continued on /’. 5)

Sponsorship Today What’s Your Experience? True or false? 1. Sponsorship is not needed as much these days. T__ 2. Newcomers suffer most from lack of sponsorship. T F 3. The “voice of the group conscience” of A.A. (the General Service Conference) is not concerned with personal sponsorship. F Ask our G.S.O. visitors. Look at our mail from you. Check the Cizference Reports of the past several years. You’ll find resounding “False!” answers to all three. And you’ll find an overwhelming consensus that I. Sponsorship is needed now more than ever, because treatment centers, industry programs, and others are now sending so many ready prospects to A.A. (continued on p. 2)

The Christmas message of lope and peace that surrounds the world fills its with joy, as a great and loping miracle is celebrated, Each day, we A.A. ’s experience the miracle of sobriety, sustained only because it is shared. And because we have this wonderful gift, we are privileged to participate in the peace and happiness of this holiday season. At this time, we who once lived in the fear and isolation of alcoholism are especially reminded how truly blessed we are. Bill W. wrote that ’the joy of good living is the theme of A.A. ’s Twelfth Step. ” All of us at your G.S. 0. send our warmest wishes for your every happiness as you share this message, now and during the coming year. i1’Iay you and all you hold dear be graced with the joy of Christmas and the peace of love freely given.

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Box 4-5-9 is published bimonthly by the General Service Office ofAlcoholics A nonymous, 468 Park Avenue South, New York, N. Y.

SEASON STIRS MEMORIES OF OUR CO-FOUNDERS

Good news! Your central offices and intergroups are now able to order A.A. literature and have it delivered within three to five days from a new warehouse distribution center, located in Rexdale, Ont. Be sure to encourage your C.O. or intergroup to take advantage of this service, so that you can order directly from your local office, saying both time and possible customhouse aggravation.

Recent showings of “Markings on the Journey,” our filmstrip depicting 45 years of A.A. history, have generated new interest in facts about A.A.’s co-founders. This season marks two significant A.A. dates concerning them. Dr. Bob, who was born August 8, 1979, died November 16, 1950: and Bill W., born November 26, 1895, died January 24, 1971. Their stories appear in the Big Book and “A.A. Comes of Age”; “Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers” recalls their first meeting, while drawing a full-length portrait of the co-founder who left us just three decades ago. Our pamphlet “The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous” (20) gives their last major talks as well as brief biographies. The Grapevine’s memorial issues (January 1951 and March 1971) are now available as a packet ($2).

THE MESSAGE IS HEARD ON A.A. TAPE CASSETTES

(continued from /). 1)

A letter from Madison, Wis., prompted the thought that a listing of taped materials would be useful. The writer says: “Thank you so much forgetting the Big Book on tape. I have trouble with my reading, and have been trying for three years to read the Big Book. Most of what I have gotten from it has come through meetings Sand marathons. Thank God for people who can and do read and in turn go and speak of it to others like me. Please send me one set of tapes of the Big Book.” Should you, too, want tapes of A.A. materials, for yourself or a friend, cassettes now available from G.S.O. are: ’Three Legacies, by Bill” ($3.50); “Voices of Our CoFounders” ($3.50); “Bill Discusses the Twelve Traditions” ($3.50); and “Alcoholics Anonymous” (first 11 chapters, first two stories$25). All are listed on the Fall 1980 Literature Order Form.

2. The sober members not sponsoring newcomers are the people in most danger of losingboth one of the greatest protections against slips, and the great rewards of Twelfth Step work. 3. At our Conference for some years now, the question of “declining sponsorship” has been seriously discussed at length under various headings, its reports show. Those who feel uneasy are not just some bleeding-deacon oldtimers bleating that the “good old days” were better. On our A.A. trips, we at G.S.O. hear the same concern voiced by A.A.’s in various places, in several ways. It is sad to report that some professionals working with alcoholics raised the same subject. None of us in A.A. has any business criticizing other A.A.’s, of course. But we may be hearing one of the most serious criticisms ever aimed at our beloved Fellowship when a doctor

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Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980

Mail address: P.O. Box 459, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163. Subscriptions: Individual, $1.50 per year group, $3.50 for each unit of 10 per yr Check – made payable to A.A. WS., Inc – should accompany order.

TO ALL GROUPS IN CANADA

SPONSORSHIP TODAY

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in a clinic or rehab center asks, “Why can’t we get local A.A.’s to help our patients?” We have been told that newcomers are not welcome in a few meetings if the prospects are known to come from a hospital alcoholism unit. Perhaps some members are not aware of the early A.A. experiences in Akron City Hospital, Towns Hospital, and others. At one of the summer schools on alcoholism, a counselor said that when she asked A.A.’s to sponsor clients from her agency, the answer was: “You do it. After all, that’s what you’re paid to do.” That counselor is not paid to take A.A.’s Twelfth Step (or Third, Fifth, Ninth, or any of the others). We do not know whether or not she is in A.A. But if she is, she takes the Steps for her own recovery, as all the rest of us donot because anybody pays her to do so. A.A. is nonprofessional, of course but treatment agencies are not. So what can we do to provide our unique help and guidance to the thousands of prospective new A.A.’s, detoxed and ready to learn, referred to our groups each year? Do we still remember what Bill W. discovered when he wanted a drink in the Mayflower Hotel in Akron that Saturday in May 1935? He remembered the effect on him when he had visited patients at Towns Hospital, although none of them had seemed ready to sober upyet. That effect was crucial in his own recovery. “The only way to keep it is to give it away,” as we have all heard many times. Do we remember how Dr. Bob repeatedly “treated” himself when he got edgy and felt he wanted a bit o’ grog? One member we know recommends to all newcomers that they read especially Chapter Seven in the Big Book. (It begins, “Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity against drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics.”) Later, he gives them copies of our pamphlets

“How A.A. Members Cooperate” and “A.A. in Treatment Centers.” Any A.A. who has ever visited a bedridden alcoholic and seen that first timid shine of hope in a scared sick person’s eyes, cannot forget it. If you have ever felt tears coming suddenly when you saw that same sick person clean, grinning, and chatting at a meeting a short while later Or felt that shiver of pleasure we get when a new person we have sponsored first leads or speaks at a meeting You probably have many good experiences to share with the rest of us about sponsorship, so please write us about them soon. Nobody repeat, nobody in A.A. can tell anyone else in A.A. what to do. No conference, no committee, no office, nor anyone else. And we at G.S.O. would not have it any other way. But experiences can be sharedright? Ask your group. Ask all your A.A. friends. Do you think sponsorship in A.A. is important? What can be done to maintain or improve it?

ly in conjunction with the birthday of one of our older members who spearheaded it. Half the birthday cake was dedicated and decorated for the beginners, and half for the ’older guy.’ To share a birthday cake, no matter how many hours of sobriety, was a great event to both the newcomers and the older members. We carried the birthday cake, all lit with the appropriate number of candles, from our room to theirs next door. Their surprised happiness was a joy to all of us,

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BEGINNERS MEETINGS ROUSE READER ENTHUSIASM The article on beginners meetings in the April-May issue sparked a good deal of interest and response. A sampling of letters includes notes on a beginners group that recently celebrated a first birthday, and another that has an especially wellorganized approach we want to share. From Vero Beach, Fla., Jean R. tells us: “It is a rough jolt to find out about living a life without alcohol or mood-changing drugs, and the newcomer needs warmth and love in the beginning. We opened our beginners meeting on this premise, offering sponsorship and a monthly leader who, we feel, can carry the message in a warm and joyous manner. It has worked! “We celebrated the first birthday of our beginners group recent-

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sponsors and those sponsored.” Caswell S. of Westport, Conn., writes about a beginners group for men there that has been running successfully for more than 14 years: “We have an average attendance every week of 55. At his first meeting, every newcomer is given a literature kit, which contains the following material: our ’Newcomer’s Booklet’ (compiled from questions actually asked at meetings over the years); a telephone list (with numbers of about 50 men with one year or more sobriety); a medical information sheet (listing doctors knowledgeable about alcoholism, and recommending that the new person have a physical exam); the pamphlets ’This Is A.A.,’ ’44

Questions,’ ’Is A.A. for You?,’ ’The A.A. Group,’ ’Understanding Anonymity,’ and ’Questions and Answers on Sponsorship,’ the excerpt ’How It Works,’ the A.A. wallet card, and a list of all meetings held at the group’s meeting room each week. “The meeting urges getting a sponsor (or two or three) as soon as possible. We have a complete display of A.A. literature at each meeting, and the literature chairman is called on to talk about the value of literature. “If we were asked to estimate the success of our meeting, we’d use the telephone list as one measure. We’ve never had to remove a name because someone got drunk!”

G.S.R. Corner

Trustee Corner

SOME TIPS TO PERK UP SHARING

’CATCH MEDICAL STUDENTS EARLY’

Guest speakers have made for lively interest at district sharing sessions, according to Frank and Lejeune D., both district committee members (D.C.M.’s). Presentations were made by past delegates, area officers, and D.C.M.’s from outside the area who had not been heard locally before. Gifts of Grapevine subscriptions (when the Grapevine representative was discussed) and coffee breaks also helped. One session was “Become an Informed Group Secretary,” with presentations on A.A. structure and, especially, the G.S.R. This was set up particularly for members whose experience has been mostly limited to group affairs. Among materials distributed were local items prepared especially for group secretaries, the leaflets “Circles of Love and Service,” “G.S.R.,” and “Self-Supporting? The 60-30-10 Plan,” and the pamphlet “The A.A. Group.”

New nonalcoholic trustee William Flynn, M.D., got to know A.A. when he was developing courses in alcoholism at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., where he is currently assistant professor of psychiatry. With the cooperation of many A.A.’s, he began a program in which members “sponsored” medical students one-to-onetaking them to meetings, answering questions, giving ample information on A.A. “If you catch medical students early,” he says, “before their attitudes are settled, they’re very open to the A.A. experience. A high percentage of medical students have alcoholism problems in their families, and go back and steer family members to A.A. or Al-Anon. Many, too, keep coming to meetings on their own, and learn to use the principles of the program in their own lives.” Bill Flynn’s first experience as a trustee came at the 45th Anniversary Convention in New Orleans, where he was “impressed with the openness, the spirit, and the vitality of A.A. I was made to feel welcome, very much a part of it.” And to that, we say: You are!

NEW RECOGNITION OF ALTERNATES Although often unseen and rarely heard, alternates for all service jobs are more and more recognized as being importanteven essential. Often, when a delegate or area committee chairperson has suddenly become ill, a good alternate who was working with the incumbent has stepped right in and kept service activities moving smoothly. General service representatives, district committee members, and others sometimes have to move away or resign for other reasons, so it helps when they, too, have knowledgeable, experienced standbys. Reflecting increased appreciation of the vital roles alternates can play, the 1980 Conference recommended new material on them for the 1 98 0-8 1 edition of “The A.A. Service Manual” (to become available by the end of this year). Additions in four places will advise that “alternates should be encouraged to assist, participate, and share in responsibilities” of each job concerned, “where feasible, depending on local needs.” (On pp. 48-49 of the 1980 Final Conference Report, Advisory Actions 55 through 59 give the complete wording of added or changed material.) Local autonomy, of course, determines whether alternates become voting members at committee and area business meetings. But has your area explored all the possibilities of utilizing alternates?

Delegate Corner

DOES YOUR COMMUNITY NEED A C.O.? If you’ve ever wondered how a new central office (CO.) gets started, the experience of the Worcester (Mass.) Intergroup should help. George Y. talked about it in a workshop at the 1980 Convention: “Worcester and surrounding towns represent nearly 400,000 people, and had been served by the Boston Intergroup. Many alcoholics did not call, because it was an expensive toll call. In summer 1972, we discussed the possibility of our own central office. We called G.S.O. and received encouragement and help, including the central office Guidelines and suggestions from the Traditions and Concepts. “We held a meeting, with all groups invited to send a delegate and alternate. Asked whether there was a need, they responded with a resounding yes. “A meeting was set up with the Boston Central Service Committee; problems were discussed and (continued on next page)

Central Office Corner

CENTRAL OFFICE CORNER (continued) tentative boundaries set up. We secured an answering service, and delegates brought in names for a Twelfth Step list. “Groups pledged contributions; an office location committee was formed; officers and committees were elected; bylaws were put together; and purposes were stated. The location committee leased space, and with donations of time and talent from members, the office was ready by December 1974. “The office is now staffed with one paid full-time worker, and the original 40 or 50 calls per month have grown to well over 500. Elections are held yearly for trusted servants, and there are several functioning committees. “We can’t recommend enough the importance of communication with G.S.O., the use of Guidelines, and the principles of unity, responsibility, sharing, and rotation.”

to all groups as an insert with the Area service committees are minutes of monthly intergroup adopting a similar approach. From meetings. Northern Illinois, Myrtle E. writes “Both the W.A.I.A. and the about a letter sent to all groups, Washington area assembly have realong with a copy of the 60-30ported healthy increases in contri10” pamphlet. She tells us that the butions since we have been using letter outlines some of the services the forms. We believe that G.S.O. performed by the area committee, is benefiting proportionately, too. and it goes on to say: Two other intergroups, in St. Paul, “While adequate funds for these Minn., and Wilmington, Del., have services are necessary, it is even been using the same form.” more vital that members contribute Quarterly acknowledgments their own time and effort to carry (clearly stating, “This is not a bill”) the message. Please be sure your go to each group, listing its contrigroup’s members who are willing to do such service work are listed with butions for the past four years. If the group has not contributed, the their service committees. Rememacknowledgment includes an offer ber, our gift is unique! No one else to attend a group meeting and discan carry our message as effectivecuss whether the intergroup is givly as we can.” ing adequate service. (continued on p. 6) CONTRIBUTING ACCORDING TO TRADITIONS To support A.A.’s essential services, the General Service Conference recommends that groups follow the “60.30.10” plan. It works like this: First, take care of basic group (10111, refresh

A.A.

literature),

Divide remaining funds as follows

Date____________

TOTAL AMOUNT TO BE CONTRIBUTED …….$

_______________

60% TO INTERGROUP ……. …………… $________________ 30%TO GENERAL SERVICE OFFICE ………. $________________ 10 0/0 TO GENERAL SERVICE ASSEMBLY …… $___________________ IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE SEVENTH TRADITION . . . A.A. accepts no outside contributions at any level. Likewise, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE SIXTH TRADITION, A.A. makes no contributions to any outside organizatuon or cause, no matter how worthy. (Keep this slip for your records)

A.A. GIVING (continued from p. 1) important expressions of gratitude and responsibility. Responding to this growing awareness of financial responsibility, service workers are making an effort to see that members are aware of the needs. The Washington Area Intergroup Association has found an effective way to help groups make decisions about contributions. Office manager Jim M. writes: “About a year ago, the W.A.I.A. put together a form for group contributions. Because of the nature of our illness, many of us who have been elected treasurer of a group never had a bank account while drinking. For nearly all of us, management of money was a mess. The purpose of this form is to simplify the treasurer’s job. It also provides a simple, convenient form for his or her records. Distribution is made

WASHINGTON AREA INTERGROUP ASSOCIATION

.I iu/ to your Intergroup or Central Office.

GROUP

DATE

SENT BY

Make check payable to: W.A.I.A. Mail to: WAIA Central Office Room 110 4530 Connecticut Ave., NW Washington, D.C. 20008

ADD CITY

STATE

TEL. OF SENDER

ZtP AMOUNT

GENERAL SERVICE OFFICE

%J %./

to your General Service Office.

GROUP

DATE______________

SENT BY

Check payable to: General Fund Mail to: General Service Office Box 459 Grand Central Station New York, N.Y. 101e3

ADDI CITY

STATE

GROUP SERVICE NO.

1C ’c’ I

’i.i/ to your Area Committee.

ZIP__________ AMOUNT___________

GENERAL SERVICE ASSEMBLY GROUP –

DATE

SENT BY.

Make checks payable to: G.S.A. Mail to: General Service Assembly Box 5673 Friendship Station Washington, D.C. 20016

ADDRESS CITY TELEPHONE

STATE

ZIP AMOUNT

A.A. GIVING (continued from p. 5) At the Sixth World Service Meeting in June 1980, delegates from all over the A.A. world heard presentations on finance, and problems that came up were reminiscent of those that prevailed in A.A.’s early days in North America. A European delegate, for example, told the W.S.M.: “We assume that there are considerable sums from individual cities, regions, or intergroups that are lying dormant in cigar boxes, coffee cups, cupboards, or savings accounts. The willingness of groups to finance the central funds is diminishing. They argue for an increasing preoccupation with ’local activities.’ “In addition, there is an information deficit. The groups are not clear as to the reasons for payments to the central funds. It will certainly be a long time until the arguments explaining the Fellowship overheads reach the individual A.A. members by way of the delegates. “However, I don’t want to tell you my tale of woe. Apart from some indisputable bottlenecks, our financial situation is healthy. It is healthy because our real capital is a spiritual program. This form of capital is not affected by exchange rates or inflation. We take in interest each day, richly, through hundreds of meetings.”

WORLDWIDE NEWS FROM G.S.O.’S MAILBAG A first in Great Britain An A.A. group for deaf alcoholics has been started in Glasgow, Scotland, David P. of London, England, writes us. He says a visit to G.S.O. in New York inspired him to equip himself for offering help to any such groups that might start in England. He took a crash course in signing at Oxford as soon as he got home, then enrolled for a long course in

London after encouragement from officials of royal societies concerned with the deaf and from a nonalcoholic social worker. David has asked U.S. and Canadian groups for the deaf to share experience with him.

Warm hearts, we knowbut who has the coldest hands? We’ve learned of three more A.A. groups that may be the farthest north on earth. In our April-May issue (“Cold feet, warm hearts”), we said Irish C. wondered if the Prudhoe Bay “Polar Bears” was the northernmost A.A. group. Hans F; has written from Norway’s G.S.O. in Oslo about the Kirkenes and TromsO groups, where there is midnight sun all summer long. John D. dropped a note about the Top of the World Group in Canada’s Northwest Territories, only 400 miles from the North Pole. Ice cubes, anyone?

P.I. SPEAKING BRINGS ’HIGH OF REACHING OUT’ “When I left that school that morning to go back to my job, I felt reaffirmed and worthwhile, bounding along with the high of reaching out to others.” That’s what Jack L. wrote to the Philadelphia A.A. Intergroup newsletter after he fulfilled a speaking commitment for the local Public Information (P.1.) Committee. “It is an adventure,” he continued, “for those of us who choose the healthy excitement of carrying the message.” Almost all A.A.’s who have done such P.I. work agree. Their eyes sparkle; then, they look serious as

they tell you about one or two students who waited to get them alone, to ask “a very personal question.” As Jack pointed out, “Our goal, of course, is that the students will in turn reach out to problem drinkers they may knowperhaps in their own homes.” Thousands of requests for such P.I. speakers come to A.A. central or intergroup offices (C.O.’s) in the U.S. and Canada every year. Qualified new members tojoin the speaking teams are always welcome. Howeverwe do not suggest you dash out right now to get yourself booked into a school auditorium. We all need to know, first, what A.A. experience has taught for over 40 years about this kind of message-carrying. Tips in our pamphlet “Speaking at Non-A.A. Meetings” are drawn directly from that long experience. We can also learn from the mistakes and successes of others by contacting the local P.I. committee. (If you live near a large C.O. or intergroup office, call it. In some places, P.1. work is handled through the area general service committee.) Assignments are usually rotated, and most P.I. committees, we believe, get their panels of speakers together periodically to share experience. They tell each other how they have learned to handle tricky questions, what subjects to avoid, and how to stay within the A.A. Traditions of anonymity, primary purpose, nonprofessionalism, nonendorsement, nonaffiliation (and nonopp osition!), self-support, and avoidance of public controversy. Among the latest tools your P.I. committee can furnish you is the new leaflet “A Message to Teenagers.” A.A.’s General Service Conference recommended this after it was suggested by the Conference P.I. Committee as an item needed for free distribution to P.I. speakers and to teenagers themselves. The leaflet uses drawings from our pamphlet “Too Young?” Answers to its 12 simple questions may tell when drinking is becoming a problem.

QQL – )

THE BULLETIN BOARD Holiday 1980

ITEMS AND IDEAS ON AREA GATHERINGS FOR A.A.’S – VIA G.S.O.

Twelve Tips on Keeping Your Holiday Season Sober and Joyous

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Holiday parties without liquid spirits may still seem a dreary prospect to new A.A.’s. But many of US have enjoyed the happiest holidays of our lives sober – an idea we would never have dreamed of, wanted, or believed possible when drinking. Here are some tips for having an all-round ball without a drop of alcohol. 1. Line up extra A.A. activities for the holiday season. Arrange to take newcomers to meetings, answer the phones at a clubhouse or central office, speak, help with dishes, or visit the alcoholic ward at a hospital. 2. Be host to A.A. friends, especially newcomers. If you don’t

have a place where you can throw a formal party, take one person to a diner and spring for the coffee. 3. Keep your A.A. telephone list with you all the time. If a drinking urge or panic comes – postpone everything else until you’ve called an A.A. 4. Find out about the special holiday parties, meetings, or other celebrations given by groups in your area, and go. If you’re timid, take someone newer than you are. 5. Skip any drinking occasion you are nervous about. Remember how clever you were at excuses when drinking? Now put the talent to good use. No office party is as important as saving your life. 6. If you have to go to a drinking

party and can’t take an A.A. with you, keep some candy handy. 7. Don’t think you have to stay late. Plan in advance an “important date” you have to keep. 8. Go to church. Any church. 9. Don’t sit around brooding. Catch up on those books, museums, walks, and letters. 10. Don’t start now getting worked up about all those holiday temptations. Remember – “one day at a time.” 11. Enjoy the true beauty of holiday love and joy. Maybe you canbut this not give material gifts year, you can give love. 12. “Having had a ….. No need to spell out the Twelfth Step here, since you already know it.

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A.A. DIRECTORIES ARE MORE THAN TRAVELERS’ AIDS If your name is listed as a group contact in one of the directories, you have a special opportunity, not only to be of service to traveling members, but also to do a different kind of Twelfth Step work. These days, more and more treatment centers are eager to cooperate with A.A., and to make sure alcoholics have a definite A.A. contact on release from treatment. Many facilities get in touch with local A.A.’s and ask them to arrange temporary sponsorship for new people. But what about, say, the woman from a small town in Vermont who goes to the Midwest for treatment? When such a person leaves treatment, the facility will sometimes turn to the directories for help. A Vermont A.A. could well receive a letter or phone call ask-

ing his or her help in making sure that the new person gets to meetings right away. Occasionally, we receive letters here at G.S.O. from members who ask whether this practice is a misuse of the directories. Well, not so. Whenever a treatment center requests a copy of the directory, the request is relayed to the area delegate for approval, which is usually given, in the traditional A.A. spirit of cooperation with professional friends. A new group wishing to be listed in the directory fills out a form that asks whether the group wishes to be listed as a Twelfth Step contact. Any group, or individual contact, can choose not to be listed. But the great majority do choose to be included, as a means of carrying the message.

PLANNING A FEBRUARY OR MARCH EVENT? Please be sure to send your information on February or March events for A.A.’s in time to reach G.S.O. by December 15. This is the calendar deadline for the FebruaryMarch issue of Box 4-5-9 (to be mailed January 1 5). Naturally, G.S .0. cannot check on all the information submitted. We must rely on local A.A.’s to describe the events accurately. CALENDAR OF EVENTS DECEMBER 5-7 Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Fifth Annual N. Fla./S. Ga. Gratitude Weekend. Write: Gratitude Weekend, 1201 N. First St., Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250 5-7 Del Rio, Texas. Border Conf. Write: Ch., P.O. Box 1442, Del Rio, TX 78840 12-14 – Atlanta, Georgia. S.E. Reg. Forum. Write: Reg. Forum Secy., P.O. Box 459, Grand Central Sta., New York, NY 10163 (continued)

Flip up this end of pagemore events, Grapevine topics listed on reverse side

DECEMBER

9-11 – Liberal, Kansas. 11th Annual S.W.

(continued) 23-25, 30-Jan. 1 – Belmont, California. Sixth

Kans. Conf. Write: Secy., P.O. Box 702, Ulysses, KS 67880 16-18 – Galveston, Texas. 19th Annual Area Conf. Write: Conf. Ch., 1711 24th St., Galveston, TX 77550

Annual Holiday Alkathons. Write: Ch., P.O. Box 1176, El Granada, CA 94018 25 – Toledo, Ohio. Area Gratitude Mtg. Write: Gratitude Mtg., 1711 Navarre Ave., Toledo, OH 43605 31-Jan. 1 – Detroit, Michigan. Eighth Annual Alkathon. Write: Ch., 634 Lakewood Blvd., Detroit, MI 48215 31-Jan 1 – Deer Park, New York. 24-Hour Alkatlion. Write: Ch., P.O. Box 155, Deer Park, NY 11729 JANUARY

24 – South Padre Island, Texas. Lower Rio Grande Valley Jamboree. Write: Ch., P.O. Box 3383, Brownsville, TX 78520 9-11 – Raleigh, North Carolina: 14th Annual Tar Heel Midwinter Conf. Write: Ch., P.O. Box 18412, Raleigh, NC 27619

23-25 – Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Midwinter Conf. Write: Ch., P.O. Box 3130, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928 24-26 – Bombay, India. Second Nat. Cony. Write: Ch., P.O. Box 6220, Bombay 400 010, India 30-31 – Blytheville, Arkansas. 24th Annual Tri-State Coon Supper. Write: Ch., P.O. Box 401, Blytheville, AR 72315 30-Feb. 1 – Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Second Annual Young People’s Cony. Write: Ch., P.O. Box 6744, Calgary, Alta. T2P 2E6 31 – Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Area Assy. Midwinter Banq. Write: Function Corn., P.O. Box 4253, Manchester, NH 03108

CLOSED MEETING TOPICS FROM THE GRAPEVINE December: Four articles about the holiday season suggest a gratitude meeting, to explore ways in which sharing makes our new lives more meaningful; two on Step Six can be useful in a discussion of willingness to change vs. justification of character defects; “I Thought I Was Different” can be a springboard for a meeting on our slogan “Live and Let Live.” January: Start the New Year appropriately with the leadoff article on another slogan, “First Things First”applying it to the Steps and our lives in sobriety; after reading “Traditions at Work” and “Principles of Anonymity,” discuss the importance of the Traditions in both group service and our personal lives; examine a vital element of our program from the fresh viewpoint of “Getting Honest With Ourselves,” which asks whether we really “say what we do” and “do what we say.”