Alcoholics Anonymous Hospital and Institution Committee of Northern California The Legacy of Service By Ron Long “AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, Tradition Nine. “When Tradition Nine was first written, it said that ‘Alcoholics Anonymous needs the least possible organization.’ In years since then, we have changed our minds about that. Today, we are able to say with assurance that Alcoholics Anonymous – AA as a whole – should never be organized at all. Then, in seeming contradiction, we proceed to create special service boards and committees which in themselves are organized.” – The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 172. “Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffers.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, Tradition Five. The early years of Alcoholics Anonymous provided the Fellowship most of the experiences, some hard lessons to learn for a few, which led to the realization in later years of the need of developing the Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts for World Service of AA. The evolutionary experience of Tradition Nine began at the State of California prison in Tamal, California on the San Francisco bay. In 1942 Clinton Duffy, warden of San Quentin prison in Tamal, had realized that most of the inmates’ felony convictions were associated with individual cases of alcoholism. Warden Duffy contacted an AA member in Richmond, California, Warren T. and described the alcoholic realities at San Quentin. Warren was joined by Ricardo, an inmate, in holding the first meeting at San Quentin in 1942. The development of the Northern California Council of Alcoholics Anonymous, Hospital and Institution Committee led in June of 1946, when the Hospital and Institution Committee was invited to carry the message to incarcerated inmates at Folsom Prison. In 1947 the Northern California Council of Alcoholics Anonymous, Hospital and Institution Committee had been established. NCA communicated its purpose and structure to New York, prior to AA in New York fully establishing the General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Northern California Council of Alcoholics Anonymous, Hospital and Institution Committee during the later years of its growth formalized H&I’s Purpose very succinctly. “The only purpose of the Hospital & Institution Committee of the Northern California Council of Alcoholics Anonymous is to carry the message of Alcoholics Anonymous to the alcoholic who is confined. The activities of this Committee are based on, and governed by, the Twelve Traditions of A A.” The Northern California Council of Alcoholics Anonymous, Hospital and Institution Committee grew to the Service level today in carrying the AA message into most of the jails, prisons, psychiatric facilities, hospital programs and treatment units where the suffering alcoholic is either confined or restricted from attending meetings of AA the community. NCCAA and its Southern California panels separated in the late 1970s. The growth of the hospitals and institutions covered by H&I had become so vast throughout California that Southern California members, for certain tired of the long monthly drive to San Francisco or Stockton from such cities as San Diego and Los Angeles to attend the business meetings, joined the Southern California Alcoholics Anonymous General Service Office. NCCAA has continued to function upon its foundation, Tradition Nine. (Most of the historical details provided here are from Policy and History of Hospital and Institution Committee Service Work, NCCAA, 1972.)

PAGE 1