Henrietta S. — AA Meeting (Unknown)

RS-G076 · CLASSIC ERA · AA · UNKNOWN

Henrietta S.

AA Meeting · Unknown
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SpeakerHenrietta S.
EventAA Meeting
LocationUnknown
YearUnknown
EraClassic Era
FellowshipAA
Duration21:18
RS NumberRS-G076
Full Transcript

Transcript

Our next speaker is one who is making Al-Anon her life work. It gives me pleasure to present Henrietta, the General Secretary of Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters. I have no clue whether it's going to be my life work, but for this 24 hours it is my primary interest in life. Just about five years ago this time, or possibly a little more than that, I first came to the Al-Anon Clearing House that was then known as a volunteer. At that time, we were all volunteers, and our office, or what was called our office, was the second floor of the 24th Street Clubhouse, which Margaret Dougherty called the lowest sweat shop. It really was that in the summer, and it was equally as frigid many, many times in the winter. At that time, mail was only picked up one day a week. We only worked on Tuesdays, because that was all we could afford to rent the space for. And if we had 25 letters coming in, that was a really busy day. The next following January, in January of 54, I was asked to become the first paid part-time worker at Al-Anon. And I started there three days a week, and the work grew in volume. And the really big increase in our work occurred just before and a little bit after the 1955 convention in St. Louis, where we had some Al-Anon sessions. And shortly thereafter, two more volunteers were recruited to become members of the paid staff. Since then, we now have a staff of four, and Margaret Arthur, a medician. Then another big move in our headquarters, which has now come to be known, was our move from the 24th Street Clubhouse to our present quarters at 125 East 23rd Street. This move was made with a great deal of trepidation. We didn't know whether we could afford to take the big steps. And there have been many such instances in my association with headquarters where we didn't know whether we were moving ahead too quickly, but somehow it always has worked out beautifully. And a year and a half ago we made this move, and just two months ago we've had to add an additional room to our office space. Now I, too, was a little uncertain as to what one should discuss at a workhouse. I've never attended one, much less taken…

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