News and Notes From the General Service Office ofA .A.~

VOL. 43, No.6/ HOLIDAY ISSUE 1997

Each of us in AA has received the gift of sobriety. All of us have found a new usefulness and most of us have found great happiness. This adds up to the gift of life itselfa new life of wondrous possibility . … This is the finest gift of all. May the New Year … be the greatest time

of giving and of receiving that we in AA have ever known. Bill W., December 1955

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Deadline for Directory Information-March 2, 1998 Box 4-5-9 IS published bimonthly by the General Sen-ice Office of Alcoholics Anonymous, 475 Riverside Dtive, New York, NY 10115, ©Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1997

Mail address: P.O. Box 459, Grand Central Station New York, NY 10163

Subscrlpiions: Individual, $3.50 per year; group, $6.00 for each w1it of10 per year. Check- made payable to AA.W.S.,

Inc.–6hould accompany order.

A reminder for area delegates: If you haven’t a lready r eturned your g roup information printouts, please remember that the fi nal deadline for inclusion in the dlrectories is March .2, 1998. Printouts corrected to sh ow up-to-date group information and returned to G.S.O. by the areas, will be used to produce the 1998-99 A.A. Directories: Eastern U.S., Western U.S., and CaJ}adian. These confidential dlrectories Hst groups and contacts; delegates and trustees; central offices,lintergroups/answering services; an d specia l intemanonal contacts.

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Another A.A. Miracle

I 1998 Regional Foru.ms

A.A. doesn’t promise miracles. What it prorruses is sobri-

ety “if you ‘have a desire to stop dnnking,’ use the tools of the program, are willing to go to any lengths to have what we have”-words newcomers hear in meeting rooms all over A.A. Still, there are miracles in the Fellowship. Like the one that happened for Herb C. of VIsta, California. “At age 29,” Herb writes, “I got sober by n o choice of my own. Something grabbed me, and to this day I don’t know what. Then I was asked to read at meetings and could not; I couldn’t even read my children’s secondgrade homework. The humiliation would start me drinlung agam, harder, and to strike out at my children and wife.” Somehow, he recalls, he kept coming back to A.A. “and was told to look up every word I did not know. I did, and pretty soon I leamed about serenity and began to know peace-even though I’d retumed to high school and failed time after time.” To this day, Herb says, “I don’t know what God is up to. It’s hard w ork. I have gone back into the dark where the pam of my past was and cleaned house. I’ve not only earned my GED, but 16 years after high school I was presented with a diploma dated June 1978. And in june ’97 I graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in behavioral scteuce. I’d resisted going Lime and again, but my sponsor kept tellmg me that this was all about normal livmg. His wife always said, ‘Herb, I know you can do it.’ She was right.” Herb still fmds the events of his life “beyond comprehension.” He “did not want to stop drinking” he recalls vividly. “I just wanted the pain and humiliation to go away .. . . Yet today I do not w ant to drink. And, of all crazy things, I want to keep learning about life and A.A. I cannot take credit for God’s work, but I give thanks to His helpers in A.A. for this miracle of life.”

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Regional Forums strengthen the Fellowship’s Three LegaclCs of Recovery, Unity and Setvice, by providmg au opportunity for A.A. group and area representatives, as w ell as any interes ted individual A.A.s in a particular region, to share eAperience, strength and hope with representatives of the General Service Board and G.S.O. and Grapevine staff members. These weekend sharing sessions enhance and widen communication, and help spark new ideas in better canying the message tiU”ough service work. Mailings regarding each Regional Forum will be sent to G.S.Rs, area committee members, delegates, and central offices and iutergl’oups, approximately three months ahead of time. The fmal Forum in 1997 will be Southwest, December 5-7, Houston Marriott North, Houston, Texas. In 1998 Regional Forums are planned as follows:

• Western Canada–June 12-14: VIscount Gort Hotel, Winnipeg, Manitoba • Pacific-July 10-12: Red L10n Hotel, Sacr amento, California • West Central (Special Forum}-August 15-16: !-!elena an d Miles City, Montana • Eastern Canada-September 25-27: Airport Plaza Hotel, St. Jolm’s, Newfoundland • Southeast-December 4-6: Rama da Resort Oceanfront, Daytona Beach, Florida

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I Please post Twelve Tips on Keeping Your Holidn.y Season Sober and]oyous (page 10) on your group bulle11n board.

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Have You Checked Your Home Group’s Vital Signs Lately? ‘”Vital signs’-words dear to the medical professionconsist of numerical readings and observa tions that indicate if stress or illness is increasing or subsiding, if the subject is in fit condition or in need of certain health restoratives.” And, declared Montana delegate Robbie S., “I can do the same with a home group. 1 don’t come up with numerical readings, but I do have clear indicators of the group’s fit spilitual condition .” Speaking at the West Central Regional Forum in St. Paul, Minnesota, in September, Robbie sh.rred her own experience in chec.kmg the vital signs of a home group. ”Blood Pressure. Or, in A.A., the state of the first of our Three Legacies. At the very core, pumping life into ea ch m ember should be the Legacy of Recovery. Do 1 hear solutions? Are refeJ’CilCCS made to the uniform literature of A.A.? Are members shruing their own experience, strength and hope? I might see a few ‘bleeding deacons’ with hypertensiOn and some members with what appears to be awfully low blood pressure, sometimes called apathy. The measure of health is the extent to which the membership addresses r ecovCiy through active shanng, one alcoholic to ru1other, stressing sponsorship, anonymity, meetings on the Twelve Traditions, shanng sessions and group invClltorying. “‘Temperature. The group’s temperature, or Unity, is only as vital as the warmth of the members: Are all newcomers welcomed? Is every effort extCllded to carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffers? “Alertness. Much as a patient might be asked, ‘Do you !mow your name . . . what day this is?’ I can ask questions that test the alertness of the group: ‘Who’s the General Service Representative?’ ‘How often does the group hold busmess m eetings .. . and sharing sessions in which it seeks to reach a group conscience?’ ‘Is the Seventh Tradition of self-support utilized fully?’ Healthy home groups are filled with members who have learned tha t it’s the responsibility of the group to link to A.A. as a whole. The uninvolved group can get evCiy bit as sick as the individual member going it alone. ”Heartbeat. Is the Legacy of Service beating loud and clear? Are folks happy and free as they give away the sobliety that was so freely given to them, and that they can keep only if they give it away? Is the pulse of service stronger because the plinctple of rotation stays ill force? And is the rhytlun of the group’s heru·tbeat grounded ill Tradition Two, which states, ‘For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority-a loving God as He may express Hunself in our group consciCllce. Our leaders are but trusted serva11ts; they do not govern.’ “

Robbie r eminded her fellow A.A.s that “vital signs are ongoing. WhCll the doctor checks yours, he doesn’t want to know what your temperature and pulse registered yesterday. He’s interested in what’s happening nght now. So it’s important to check your group on a ret,ftllar basis.” Then she announced with a srrule, “I am a m ember of the Flathead Valley Ser enity Gr oup in Whitefish, Montana . It is one of the two best home groups in the world. If you are not a member of the other one, see me later and we’ll visit about how you can fmd a group like mine.”

Frank M. and Pat R. Leave G.S.O. Richer For Their Presence “It is hard to leave this job I love,” says Pat R. “Yet for evCiy trusted AA servant, whether in a group, on a ser-

vice committee or as a staff member at the General SeJvice Office, there comes a m oment-and it’s different for each of us-when one knows it’s time to go.” A.A. archivist Frank M. who, like Pat, retires this December, agrees wholeheartedly. “But remember,” he hastCllS to add, “that we’re retiring from our A.A. jobs, not from A.A. I think we both identifY with what our cofounder Bill W. wrote when he stepped down from active service: ‘Like evCiy AA. member I have a definite responsibility to become a citizen of the world around me; .. . and [am] exploring certain areas of outside activity in which I may be able to make a helpful, and possibly a meaningful, contribution.’ ” (The Language of the Heart, p. 327) Pat-a Texas transplant born and raised in New York and New Jersey, which e>.’J>lains why she doesn’t “talk Texan”-is ending her nine-year stay a t G.S.O. on the same a ssignment she started with: Correctional Fa<.:ilities. «Every two years, whCll I’ve just rotated out of an assignment, that one’s my fav01ite,” she says with a smile. “Always, though, it’s the people. Wherever I’ve been-at a Forum in Canada’s Northwest Tenitories, a gathering of Native North Am ericans in Seattle, a General Service Conference in Manhattan or a meeting of Primary Purpose, my home group in Jersey City-I have connected with the A.A.s. We may speak in different tongues, but that needn’t be a banier; and we hear each other’s hearts, so strongly are we joined in our recovery from the devastating illness of alcoholism.” Pat, who star ted to drink as a child of 12, lived with the devastation firsthand for years. “I now realize,” she explains, “that I was using alcohol as a solution, one that quickly turned a gainst me.” Nonetheless, she 3

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graduated fr o m Music and Art High School in Manhattan, then earned a B.S. degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo; she later received a Master of Fine Arts from East Texas State University. Pat has taught art and English at every school level from elementary to college, and in 1971 she helped to introduce an alcoholism unit at Houston’s St. joseph Hospital, while serving as a counselor. Speaking of her experience, in early sobriety, of raising three daughters-Linda, Donna and Cynthia- she says, “I look back at that time with a sense of joy and gratitude-! was growing up with them! ” In April 1966, Pat sobered up in A.A. “My sponsor took me to intergroup meetmgs and conventions,” she remembers. “I served in va rious ways in the group, w orked at intergroup in Houston and, after nine yean; of sobriety, was a G.S.R., then Northeast Texas Area D.C.M., delegate and chairperson. Service has offered me an enormous sense of A.A. worldwide.” Over the years, she adds, “G.S.O. has served as a focal point for AA. unity and service around the world. It has b een an incredible privilege fo r m e to serve the Fellowslup that saved my llfe. The late (nonalcoholic) trustee Bernard B. Smith said, ‘We will continue to owe to the generations yet unborn a solemn obligation to insure that this way of life is available to them, as it has been to us.’ ” (A.A. Comes of Age, p. 282) In lea ving, Pat says, “I pray for the ability to assinulatc the wealth of experience and friendship I’ve gained here into my life in retirement.” Her path take:. her back to Texas and old friends, her sister and family, her daughters and their fanulies, including six grandchildren, and a n ew home group to find and join. She wtll continue to partlcipate in her on line A.A. group (RedRose), and r elishes the thought of having more time in which to draw and paint and know thej oys of teaclung once more. For Frank, who came to G.S.O. in 1976 and was named A.A. archivist in ’82, the years have flown with dizzying speed. “So much has happened,” he says, pointing out that in 1980 there were hardly any area archives, while the latest count shows that 63 of 92 U.SJCanada areas have an a ctive archivist. Several areas have published detailed local histories documenting A.A.’s b eginnmgs and growth, he notes. j udit Santon, the expenenced non alcoholic assistant archivi::;l who will succeed Frank, has made great progress on the neverendmg process of scannmg archival matenal for computer access-with the goal of cutting futw·e response time, making a larger body of material available and preventing physical damage to the many fragile 01i ginal documents in the collection. In his work, Frank opens windows on A.A.’s past, usually with ease born of experience and joy. Looking back on his own past, he recalls that he drank from age 13 on. From 1959-61 Frank served as a biologist in the 4

Army. “I drank all the laboratory alcohol I could get,” he says, “and graciously served a s a barten der at the Officers Club .” Once discharged (honorably) from the Army, he became director of advertising for a drug company. “I worked all over-Palo Alto, Tokyo, you name it-and of course had easy a ccess to all kinds of drugs. Everywhere I went, I drank and chewed on every tablet I could get my hands on to mask the results of drinking too much. Then in]tme 1970 I suJTendered to A.A. and have been in custody ever since.” As archivist, Frank says, he feels privileged to have kept his hand on the pulse of A.A. history. “In these pa st 21 years at G.S.O.,” he marvels, “I have served as a General Service Conference member.with five G.S.O. general managers, dozens of staff members, more than 80 trustees and about a thousand delegates-what a gift! There is no state, no area that I haven’t visited. And the people I meet, the local archivists and members of the archive committees- they are wonderfully warm, and I leave knowing that we are lmked not only in our common recovery from alcoholism but in our destre to preserve A.A.’s rich history, to mal<e the past relevant to the present and the future of the Fellowship. A careful study of our history- of the mistakes and the triumphs–transla tes into powerful tools for swvlVal.” In retirem ent, Fra nk is opting for the b est of all worlds: seven months of the year in Vero Beach, Florida, as a member of the Hibiscus Group, and five back in Manhattan, where he will return to his Oxford home group and many friends at G.S.O. He is relieved, he says, that his cocker bpaniel, Timothy, at 13 more gray than buff, has consented to humor him and go along.

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1Feliz Navidad!And Gracias, A.A. “Hoping your Holiday Season is full of blessings, I also want you to know that I am a newcomer in this fabulous prot.tram and, thnnks to your help, am staying sober 24 hours at a time.” Wr iting in Spanish from his ship th e NV A von , anchored off the coast of Cabo Verde, Africa, this gratenil SCan)an named Iva n then thanks the Spanish Servict:S desk of the General Service Office, New York City, for h aving p ut h im in touch with the Central Mexicana G.S.O., in Mexico City. “After my Higher Power,” he says, “you are at the top of my gratitude list- ! h ave come to understand fully what is meant when we say, ‘I want the hand of A.A. to be there.’ For A.A. was th ere for me when I ftrst wrote to you for help, and you continue to be there.”

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Generally, Ivan notes, “I travel in the waters aronnd Africa- the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Mediterranean Sea-but no matter where I am, I want to stay sober. I pray to God that He will grant you His blessings for the correspondence and other serviees you provide for nte and the ma.1y other alcoholics who are far away from our home groups. I wish all of you Feliz Navidad, with a heart full ofgratitude.”

Tapings ofjoy Light Up Roads For Homebound A.A.s The GO-minute audiotape leads off with a medley of Nat Kmg Cole Christmas carols, then hwitches to Krih Kristofferson singing “One Day at a Time.” The warm voice of Diane Y., of Madison, Wisconsin, breaks in at the end. “Good morning, Mary,” she says with an almost imperceptible yawn. “I don’t know what your weather in Dublin is doing, but here it’s raining up a storm and the old joints are creakmg along with it. My fatigue level is on the ceiling-you know how that isbut as we say in A.A., it gets better. So let’s start the meeting, after a short commercial break for God. We’re on Step Eight. .. . ” Recording messages and meetings is practically a daily occurrence for Diane., who delights in being one dlllong approximately 30 Tapeworms, as she has dubbed them-especially at Holiday time, when she shares her favmite Christmas music with housebound A.As as close as Arizona, as far away as Indo,1esia, Australia and Sweden-“and they do the same,” she says. For meetings on tape, Diane points out, “it takes just two drunl<S sharing our experience, strength and hope, like Bill W. and Dr. Bob did in the beginning. Some like to start with the A.A. Preamble, others with the opening paragraphs of Chapter five in the Big Book. The one big difference between a tape and a letter is that on the tape I can hear the emotion, all the shades of feeling that come through. My friends and I may be thousands of miles apart, but with this kmd of sharing we get close as peas in a pod.” Here she notes that she exchanges letters with a number of people who don’t have access to taping equipment, as is sometimes the case in developing conntries, and fmds “these relationships rewarding as well.” How did Diane become a Tapeworm? “Back in 1988, at the end of my first year in A.A.,” she relates, “it became apparent that rheumatoid arthritis was makmg it increasingly difficult for me 1o keep up with my regular ‘live’ meetings. So I joined LIM. (the international

correspondence service for Loners, seagoing AA.s and the housebound that is coordinated by the General Selvice Office). That worked for awhile, but after a couple more years I was fmding it harder and harder to write, and often my energy level wa~ zerominus. “My husband, Carl, in Al-Anon since I sobered up in August ’87, and my now-85-year-old father will testey to the fact that I was no dreamboat to live with. But then I received a taped letter from a blind mend who wanted to show me another way to get to meetings besides going in person or by letter. So I began my journey as a Tapeworm, and my outlook on life spun around from thinking about what I didn’t have to wondering what I had to share. As for Carl, he was not only relieved, he began to tape with me sometimes-other Tapeworms get a kick out of hearing both our voices occasionally.” It’s a journey that has been “both frustrating and fantastic,” Diane observes. “The obvious frustration is my not alwaya having the energy to flnish a 60- or 90minute tape in one day, but I’ve learned to listen to my body and spread a taping over several days, or a week if need be; and it’s fun because I get to talk from a lot of viewpoints, dependmg upon my mood at the time. At first I was shy about taping. I had to learn to share even when there was no visible person to share with. I was microphone shy for many months but have gotten over that. A day at a time, those of us who rely on our mall for meetings have found the taped Jetter to be an absolute joy. When I start talkmg on a tape, I might be 5

feeling down and depressed, but communicating out loud works miracles. Before I know it, I’ve talked myself from nothmg but problems to all kinds of solutions.” And inspiration. “I have one friend who’s a quadriplegic,” she says. “But nothing keeps him down. He bought a van, a PC, and with his \o\rife is traveling in Australia. He gets to live meetings there too. This fellow and others I’m in touch with are living and breathing the A.A. program; they’re always reaching out to life. I have a fiiend in Wales who sets out to learn somethmg new every year- weaving, flower arranging, you name it. And do they love music! I tape to Marcia, an A.A. in Texas, who can’t get enough ofPavarotti Another loves Bing Crosby’s ‘Christmas in Killarney’ around the Holidays and, of course, his jingle Bells’ and ‘White

Chnstmas.'” Whether it’s music or simply one-on-one sharing between two alcoholics, Diane says, “a most important ingredient is humor. You know, what we do in A.A. is deadly serious; for us, to drink is to die. But just as meetings arc our medicine-and sponsorship and Twelfth Stepping and the Steps and Traditions-so is laughter. When we start losing the ability to laugh, with others and at ourselves, that’s when we go downhill. So when I brag on tape that T’m the world’s best cook ‘because I can burn water’ … or advise, ‘Now don’t drive faster than your guardian angel can fly,’ it’s mamly to hear’em laugh. That’s music to my ears, the best in the world.” D1ane is eager “to let people in A.A. know about the Tapeworms, especially those of us with special needs. A.A. saved this alcoholic’s life, and whatever works to pay the debt of gratitude I owe for my sobriety, I am willing to do. I pray that anyone interested in taping letters will contact me and enjoy as much pleasure and shared experience in recovery as I do. And 1 wish a beautiful Holiday season to all my fellow AA. members who, in Bill W.’s words ‘have trudged the Road of Happy Destiny.'”

The Birthday Plan-

Icing on the Gratitude Cake Down in Broward County, Florida, some A.A.s have reinvented the Birthday Plan, which since the 1950s has provided a way for members to celebrate therr mdtvidual and group anniversaries by settmg aside a dollar or more for each year of their sobriety and sending it off to the General Se1vice Office for A.A.’s services worldwide. Last spring at the General Service Conference in New York, relates South Florida delegate j ohn K., “there was talk about how effective the Birthday Plan u:.ed to be, how it’s another place in the A.A. hat where ‘spirituality and money can mix,’ as our co-founder Bill W. put itand how maybe we need to remind our members, especially the newer ones, about using the Plan to say, ‘Thanks, A.A.'” Later, john did some thmkmg. “Once back home,” he recalls, “I did the smart thmg; I turned it all over to my local higher power”-his wife of 39 yeru”S, joyce, herself an A.A. who in August celebrated 20 years of sobriety. “And she ran with it.”

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New from G.S.O. • A.A. Service Manualf l’welve Cor.cepts for World Se1Vlce, 1997!1998 edition. A history and explanation of A.A. services. (BM-31) $1.55. Spanish edition, (SS-42) $1.55. • 1997 Final Conference Repor1:. Detailed report of the annual General Service Conference. Confidential; for A.A. member’S only. (M-23) $2.00. • AA Guidelines on Archives. Shared experience on topics of concern for area and local archives. (MG-17) 15¢ each.

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Barely three mon ths later, on a sultry J uly day, Joyce and several m embers of the area’s newly created ad hoc committee for the Birthday Plan, set up a boo th at the quarterly A.A. assem bly m Sarasota . On display were candy, birthday hats and whistles, and blue and yellow balloons flying- real-life versions of the balloons pictured on nearby mounds of “givmg” envelopes addressed to G.S.O. For m any A.A.s walking by, the booth was a magnet.

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“We eJ..plained that the Birthday Plan is a real beauty because it gives us a chance to express personal gratitude and at the same time support the AA support system,” Joyce says. “After all, A.A. is self-supporting through its own contributors- and that’s us.” By day’s end, she reports, “we w ere amazed to fmd that we’d distributed Bir1hday Plan envelope::; to about 1,500 members, mamly district chat!’)Jerf:lons, D.C.M.s (district committee member~) and G.S.R.s (general seiVice representatives).” Several weeks later, she adds, “we had a booth at the 26th anniversary meeting of our Coral Spnngs home group, and again were met with enthusiasm. With the help of Bill B., an alternate committee member, we did a repeat in October at Dic;tricl 9’s service fair in Fort Lauderdale, and we’re not about to stop. “In several of our area groups,” Joyce points out, “a member celebrating an anniversary is presented with a medallion, and a Birthday Plan envelope along with it.” As for the envelopes, they can be had for the askmg fromG.S.O.

Vrewpoint Do Rituals and Rules Dilute the Message? Are we in A.A. confusing the message with the massage of rules, rituals and psychobabble? Former delegate (Panel 28) Annette F., of Fresno, definitely thinks so. Speaking at a Central Northern Interior Caltfonua Area Assembly, she said, “I don’t know how a lot of this stuff begins, but in my opiruon it’s sophomoric, immature. My biggest problem is pumping our clasped hands up and down after saying the Lord’s Prayer while reciting this mantra: ‘Keep coming back, it works.’ Each year something new is added to the litany, most recently, ‘. . . it really works if you work it, so work it.’ I hy to picture our co-founders Dr. Bob and Bill W. as part of this scenatio but cannot.” In A.A. meetings, Annette continues, “certain statements are made with such authority, you’d tlunk they came straight out of the Big Book. For instance, the question often asked at meetings, ‘Are U1ere any newcomers here?’ followed by the explanation that ‘newcomers are those sober under 30 days,’ Who says so? I was a daily dnnker. To me, a week without a drink was a miracle; I certainly didn’t feel like a newcomer. I know people who’ve gone to meetings and didn’t identify themselves as newcomers; they waited till they had 30 days’ sobriety, then said so. And some are slippees who have relapsed numerous times-for sure, they don’t feel like newcomers. How then did this get started?

“Also, we are told to go to 90 meetmgs in 90 days. I don’t see that in our literature. Some towns may have just one or at most a fe\o\’ meetings a week and are many miles from other meetmg places. “Some may have to work at the time meetings nearby are held; or, perhaps some woman alcoholic, say, ecm’t afford to pay for a babysitter 90 days in a row. Where do such decrees come fi·om? One A.A. said back in the ’70s that our program was being diluted; I agree that it has happened. “As my friend Jolm W. commented recently, ‘Aren’t we letting the practice of ri tua.ls become more important than the practice of A.A.’s principles?'” It appears, Annette says “that we want recognition instead of being willing to grow along spiritual lines. I believe that it’s time we start scraping a Jot of these barnacles off the bottom of the good ship A.A. so it can sail more smoothly. Think about it.”

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A.A.s en Espanol Hold Fifth Birthday Party in Atlanta

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The theme “Everything Is Possible With Love” was confmned in the smilmg faces of more than 300 members who gathered in Atlanta last sp1ing to celebrate the fifth anniversary of A.A. en Espanol. They came from as near as Charlotte, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C., from as far as SanJuan, Puerto Rico. In Atlanta, just a handful of people came together for the fu-st meeting ofSpanish-speaking A.A. in 1992, in the apartment of a local A.A. member. Today lhi\Te are six vibrant groups in the metropolitan area; importantly they are attracting young newcomers on a daily basis. The newspaper La voz del Pueblo ran a front-page story about the anniversary celebration. Mter giving a thumbnail introduction to A.A. Traditions and how groups live by them, reporter Winston A. Garcia, a good friend to A.A., wrote that he had expected to see many elderly people “with white hair” at the roundup, with faces denoting extreme suffering, Instead, he said, he found laughter and plenty of young people there, a number of them on 1he “southern hospitality” committee that went to any lengths to make visitors feel at home. “I was impressed,” Garcla wrote, “at what they call in A.A. the sobriety countdown-when I saw people with one day of sobriety all the way to 33 years, and everyone applauding and laughmg and crying with happiness. To someone like me it was an eye-opener to see flrsthand how the Fellowship of A.A. works, not only in our own lovely city of Atlanta but around the world.” 7

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CoiTectional Facilities The Tortoise Trimnphs Again In the fabled race between the tortoise and hare, patience and fortitude won over haste. As the experience of Tony B. , a member of the Southern New Jersey Correctionai/I’reatment Facilities Committee, shows, dogged persistence works in A.A. too. When he accepted a commitment to a prerelease program last spring. Tony says, “I thought it would be a piece of cake: All I had to do was match soon-to-be released inmates with willing A.A. contacts on the outside. But there were roadblocks from the get-go. For starters, when I sought my home group’s approval to list the names, addresses and phone numbers of volunteer contacts, a number of members at the business meeting expressed concern about possible conflicts with anonymity and confidentiality. Explainmg that only I would have access to the list, I further stressed that mmate information would be given to the outside contact, not the other way around. Fmally, after considerable discussion, the group agreed to the plan.” All systems go? No way, says Tony, who is his group’s general service representative. After making an announcement at the group’s regular meetmg, be circulated a form to be ~>tgned by volunteer contacts. “Out of the more than 50 people present,” he notes, “maybe 10 listed their names, and several of them left out their addrer:.ses. Not to be clliscouraged, I repeated the process at the next few meetings and came up with just two more names. A real surprise, since my home group IS known for being strong on service.” Soon after, Tony received his first request for help, just two days prior to the inmate’s relea~>e, Unable to reach anyone on his thin volunteer list, he decided to fill the gap himself: “As we’d prearranged by phone, I pickcd]olm up at his house, just hours after his release, and took him to a meeting of my group. About halfway through, he raised his hand, identified himself as an alcoholic and shared that he had been released from prison tha t day. He said he was grateful that someone was there to take him to his first meeting outside because he didn’t think he cou ld have gone on his own.” Then, relates Tony, “a group member- the one who had been most resistant-told us how pleased he was that John had come, and that it made him appreciate the value of the prerelease program. That fellow wound up not only contributing to our LIP Oiterature in pris8

ons) can but putting his john Hancock on my contact list. Other members followed suit.” Since that rught, Tony reports, he has had “no problem” finding contacts for newly released A.A .s. Importantly, he adds, “I have talked to John and am glad to say he’s sober and attendmg meetings close to his home.” Looktng back, Tony observes, “I understand that patience and tolerance, even in the face of defeat, arc necessary if I am to be of service to my fellows. From my sponsor I heard early in recovei)’ that sezyice is the rent w e pay for our seat in A.A., that gratitude is an action word-‘Don’t tell me, show me.’ It is amaz-ing what can happen in A.A. if we have faith in the experience of those who came before us and offer our services to those who want it. I must remember that ‘I am responsible for . . . the hand of A.A. to always be there.'”

PI ‘Was That an A.A. Conunercial I Saw on TV?’ No way, Kay, Kevin-and others who have made smular inquiry. That 30-second television spot you saw that ended with a votce saying, “A.A., it works. Look us up in the phone book,” was a public service announcement (p.s.a.), not to be confused with a commercial The creation and circulation of TV and radio p.s.a.s was approved by an Advtsory Action of the General Service Conference as far back as 1966. They are designed not to promote A.A. but to provide information about who we are and how to find us; and it is estimated that they have been instrumental in helping thousands of alcoholics a nd their families to become aware of the Fellowship as a resource for recovery. Before making any decision concerning A.A.’s public relations, the Conference weighs every aspect in tenns of Tradition Eleven, which states, “Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.” Indeed, in 1956, when the Public Information Committee of the General Service Board was formed, the Conference established a clear over-all policy. “In all public relationships,” it stated, “A.A.’s sole objective is to help the still-suffering alcoholic. Always mindful of the importance of personal anonymity, we believe this can be done by making [ow· expenence] known to alcoholics and to those who may be interested in their problem.”

As A.A. co-founder Bill W. observed in an October 1957 Grapevine essay, “While word of mouth and personal contact have brought in many a newcomer, we can never forget that most of us are able to trace our chance for recovery back to our friends in communications -we read, or maybe we heard, or we saw.” (The Lan~e ofthe Heart, p. 181) Bill frequently pointed out that public information takes many forms : a simple “A.A. tonight” sign outside a meetmg place, a listmg in the local phone book and information provided in newspapers and the electronic media. A variety of 30- and GO-second 1V and radio p.s.a.s are available from the General Service Ofi1ce. Some are dose-captioned for the heanng impaired; others can be had in Spanish and French as well as English. One multi-reellV tape, for example contains five 30-second spots: “‘First Meeting,” in whlch members describe their feelin~ upon first coming to A.A.; “Calling Intergroup,” in which A.A. volunteers answer calls for help at an intergroup/central office; “E.G.’s Advice,” in which a woman tells of her lonely dnnkmg life and new happiness in A.A.; and “Picking Up the Telephone,” in which a man, after much hesitation, calls Alcoholics Anonymous. Last spring the General Service Conference recommended, in an Advisory Action, that “a m irumum of three television p.s.a.s emphasizing membership of young people and minorities, and generic A.A. information, be produced-the first stage of a plan to study and update, where necessary, all TV and radio p.s.a.s, including cultural references and their availability in French and Spanish and in formats compatible with current technology.”

C.P.C. jersey Med Students Lemn There’s Hope For Alcoholics in A.A. “What do we tell our patients if we think they have a dnnking problem?” This was the question senior medical students most frequently asked at orientation sessions offered by Northern New jersey’s District 20 Committee on Cooperation With the Professional Community. “Tell them,” urged alternate district committee member Bill L., “that there is a solution, that in A.A. we carry the message of hope.” By c:ombining the C.P.

orientations with open-discussion beginners meetings, be says, “we were able to give future doctors a look at alcoholics with a lot of years, months or days coming together for the sole purpose of helping the alcoholic newcomer. All with one thing in common: trying not to drink,just for today.” Writing in the Area 44 newsletter, Bill relates lliat he had been alternate D.C.M. for less than a week when he learned a local university medical school- the only one in the area, he says, that makes attendance at an A.A. meeting a mandatory requirement for graduationneeded help in steering seniors to an AA meetmg. “The school didn’t want the students attending a speaker meeting,” he explains. “Past experience, it seems, showed they hadn’t learned much about how Alcoholics Anonymous works from open speaker meetin~.” Since there was no district C.P.C. representative at the time, Bill jumped in to fill the void: “I called on our district Public Wormation chairman for help, and he suggested taking the students to the open beginners discussion meeting he attended regularly.” Arrangments were made, thanks to the cooperation of the group and the P.l. chair. “We recommended,” Bill notes, “that the students com e 10 minutes early for a brief rundown on A.A. and what to ~ect at the meeting. We asked that they introduce themselves as guests when we went around the room, not contribute to the basket smce A.A. is self-supporting, and sit back, relax and listen but refrain from joining in the discussion. “After the meeting we were availa ble to answer whatever questions the students had. We also offered explanations of some of the terms they had heard- 90 meetings in 90 days, sponsor, home group and more. We saw 36 medical students in eight weeks, and I was pleasantly surprised by their genuine interest in A.A. They arrived early and, despite their busy schedules, stayed for the Q~A session after the meeting.” On the whole, Bill says, “the students were amazed when told that there are more tha.ll 1,200 A.A. meetin~ every week in Nor·thern New Jersey alone and that we have a 24-hour-a-day BOO number alcoholics can call for help. They were pleased to see firsthand how the newcomer is welcomed with a cup of coffee, listened to, given a meeting book, phone numbers and told to ‘keep coming back’ I spoke with the doctors-to-be as if they couldn’t understand what it was to be an alcoholic; then several of thtm mentioned that they knew other medical students who might have a problem. One student, who l<ept askmg about ways to get someone to that first A.A. meetmg, finally a dmitted he was wonied about a brother who had vowed to drink lumself to death. His face really brightened when he heard that while a lcoholism can’t be cured, it can be arrested.”

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Twelve Tips on Keeping Your Holiday Season Sober and joyous 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.

given by groups in your area, and go. If

9t.aYFJ ~~ (;

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~~’::Ullid, rnke someone newcr than ~4 ~~~ ~ \II~ Line up ertra AA. activities for the holiday season. Arrange to take newe::omer~; to meetings, answer the phones at a clubhouse or central office, speak, help with ctishes, or visit the alcoholic ward at a hospital.

Don’t sit around broodmg. Catch up on those books, museums, walks, a n d letters.

Skip any drinking occasion you are nervous about. Remember how clever you were at excuses when drinking? Now put the talent to good usc. No office party is as Important as saving your life. Don’t start now getting worked up about all those holiday temptations. Remember- “one day at a time.”

Be host to AA fiumds, especially new-

comers. Ifyou don’t have a place where you can throw a formal party, take one person to a diner and spring for the coffee.

If you have to go to a d rinking party an d can’t take an A.A. with you, keep some candy handy.

Keep yow· 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.

Enjoy tlw true beauty of holiday love and joy. Maybe you cannot g1vc material gifts–but this year, you can give love. Don’t think you have to stay late. Plan in advance an “important date” you have to keep.

Find out about the special holiday par-

ties, meetings, or other celebrations

10

Go to church. Any church.

“Having had a . .. ” No need to spell out the Twelfth Step here, since you already know it.

BOX~ 415l9

BULLETIN BOARD

Items and Ideas on Area Gatherings for A.A. s- Via G.S. O.

Calendar of Events

February

Events listed here are presented solely

5-8-Harvey, Illinois. We Are Not Saints Conv. Wtite: Ch., 15651 S. 94th Ave., Ste. 382, Orland Park, lL 60462 5-8-Cleveland, Ohio. 34th Internationa l Women’s Conference. Write: Ch., Box 12730, Cleveland, OH 44112

as a service to readers, not as an endorsement by the General Service Office. For any additional information, please use the addresses provided.

December 5-7- Houston, Texas. Southwest Regional Forum. Write: Forum Coordinator, Box 459, Grand Cent ral Station, New York, NY10163 5-8- Fuenglm/a (Malaga) Spain. 10th Southern Spain Conv. Write: Ch., Apto 360, 29640 Fuengirola (Malaga) Spain. 26-28-]op~in, Mlssoul’i. Winter Holiday XVU. Wnte: Ch., Box 626, Monett, MO 65708

january 15-18-Rclle~Sh, North Carolina. 31st Tar

Heel Mid_ Winter Con f. Write: Ch., Box 18412, Raleigh, NC 27619 16- 17-Norfolk, Virginia . Virginia Area Committee Winter Meeting. Write: Ch., 3383 Whipple Court, Annandale, VA 22003

16-18-Bilru:i, MiMissippi. Mississippi Gulf Coast Round-Up . Write: Ch., 9304 Cavalier Circle, Oceat: Springs, MS 39564 16-18- Yakimn , Washington. Ninth Annual Yakima Valley Roundup. Write, Ch., Box 8206, Yakima, WA 98908 22-25-Fort Walton Beach, Flonda. Eighth Annual Emerald Coast Jamboree. Write: Ch., Box 875 fort Walton Beach, FL 32548-0875 2.3-25-Blytheville, Arkansas. 41st Annual Tri-State Coon Supper. Write: Ch., Box 675, Blythev~Ue, AR 72316

HOLIDAY ISSUE 1997

Closed Meeting Topics From the Grapevine For more detailed suggestions, sec the pages noted.

Decembet (page 43): Working the Twelfth Step

6-8-f’l·edel’tcton, New Bnmswick, Carwda. 11th Annual Mid-Winter Roundup. Write: Ch., Box 472, Sta tion A, Fredericton, NB E3B 5B4 6-8-Brawley, Califomia. Imperial Valley Roundup. Write: Ch., Box 393, El Centro,

January (page43): Making amends

CA 922.44-0393 6-8-0cean City, Maryland. Footprints in the Winter Sand. Write: Ch., Box 3772, Salisbury, MD 21602-3772 6-8-Salem, Or·egon. Soherfest. Write: Ch.,

27-March 1-.5ask.ntoon, Sasketchwan, Canada. S11skatoon Roundup. Write: Ch,, 311-220 3rd Ave. S, Saskatoon, SK S7K 1M1

Box 17403, Salem, OR97305-7403 13-14- KingstOII, Ontario, Canada. International Institutional Conf. Write: Ch., 43 Lennox St., Kingston, ON K7M4S3 13-tS-Syracru;e, New York. Salt City MidWinter Roundup. Write: Ch., Box 3588, Syracuse, NY 13.220-3588 13- 15-Tcmple, 1’c:ras. Sixth Annual Corrections Conf Write: Ch, 1207 N. 12th, Temple, TX 76501 ·

March 6-8-Boise, Idaho. PRAASA 98. Write: Ch., Box 7652, Boise,ID 83708 27-29-Bur/er, Pennsylvania . seven t h Annual Get3way Weekend. Write: Ch., 210 Mansfi el d RD ., Washington, l’A 15301-8931

Planning a Future Event? Please send your lnfonnation on December,January, february events, two days or more, in time to reach G.S.O. by October 10, the calendar deadline for the Holiday issue ofBo.• 4-5-9. For your convenience and ours – please type or prtnt the lnfomlaliOn to be listed on the Bulletin Board page, and mail to us:

Date ojevel’lt:from _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ to– – – – – – — – 19 _ _ _ Name ofevertt:

Place (city, stou

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orprov~—————————-For i.rifonnahOn, wruc: (eract mailin._~ aclclre&s)

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Con tact pfwm # (fo,. offiCe use only):

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