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Source: 1975 Denver International Convention – 1975 Denver Int, How AA cooperates with Professional, Cora Louise B, Hal M, Jo H and Tom B Part 2 of 3.mp3 File: 1975-denver-international-convention-1975-denver-int-how-aa-cooperates-with-professional-cora-louise-b-hal-m-jo-h-and-tom-b-part-2-of-3.mp3 Duration: 00:45:19
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I'm Cora Louise Belford, and I'm a very grateful alcoholic. And it's wonderful to look out here and see so many friends and to have this wonderful weekend together. And I wonder if we could take just a moment to give thanks and express our gratitude for the AA recoveries over the last 40 years. And now I wonder if all of you would join me in this serenity prayer. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Now there may be some here who are not familiar with AA's tradition of personal anonymity at the level of the public media. If so, we respectfully ask that no AA speaker or member be identified by full name or picture in published or broadcast reports of this meeting. The assurance of anonymity is essential to our efforts to help other alcoholics, and our tradition of anonymity reminds us that AA principles come before personalities.
Thank you. Now this morning we have a panel which I think is of interest to a great many people, and this crowd would certainly indicate that that's true. It comes as no surprise to anyone to mention the fact that there has been a great deal of activity in the alcoholism field outside of AA in the last several years. It also is not a surprise to anyone to know that the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past several years, and possibly some of this growth is connected with the fact that professionals who understand our program and who are friendly with us have directed many people to our program for an ongoing maintenance program for their own sobriety.
Now during the five years when all this growth has been exploding, there have been a lot of problems connected with this naturally. I think most of us feel though, and looking back over the past five years, that there really have been more opportunities for us than there have been problems. This morning we have three grand speakers who are going to share experience with us about how AA cooperates with professionals in their areas.
And this morning we're going to begin with Hal Marley from Washington, D.C. Applause Thank you, Cora Louise. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Hal Marley. I'm a very grateful alcoholic from Washington, D.C. I use my full name because I do not practice personal anonymity within the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. But you can be sure that I will respect yours. Who amazes this crowd? In fact, it makes me question your judgment.
Laughter I just figured out why I'm here. Cora Louise is a pretty good operator, and she selected two high-level participants, the brains and the charm of Canada and Alaska, top level. So in order to balance the program, you know, she had to have a little lower level representative of the federal bureaucracy from Washington. Laughter That sort of balances everything out. I'm going to talk about the professionals in terms of the professionals in the field of alcoholism and professional programs.
Tommy Green may or may not talk about other professions, I don't know. Laughter Cora Louise asked us to speak from 10 to 12 minutes, and I told Tommy Green, I said, Tommy, everybody that knows Tommy knows he can barely get his name out in 12 minutes. Laughter So I offered to give Tommy my 12 minutes, give him about 25 or half an hour.
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I thought by that he could get his name out and possibly say where he's from. But Tommy, being the very modest, humble, withdrawn introvert that he is, Laughter Right on. You see, he refused, so I'm here. First of all, I think in dealing with professionals, we should be positive in our attitude. We should present a positive approach rather than a negative approach, always placing these principles before personalities.
And I'm afraid from watching the scene over the last couple of years that there have been cases where we have broken this tradition. Unfortunately, I've seen individuals come into the AA and Washington area at a closed meeting announcing that they were sent there by a judge or ASAP or one of the programs. And certain of the group look sort of askance at this individual, as if he or she didn't belong.
Many times these dissenters, so-called, are envious or jealous. Some personalities become involved. They're jealous of the AA member that's running the local program. At any rate, they sit around and very loudly proclaim to anybody that will listen, You can't legislate sobriety. The government's wasting millions of dollars. They can't buy sobriety in such remarks. I think this is a direct contradiction of our tradition of principles before personalities.
In my opinion, there is no wrong way to join Alcoholics Anonymous. Applause Many individuals are coming to AA these days through these court programs, judges and so forth. And many of these individuals are a little hostile at first. And you might say… Laughter You might say they come to scoff. But many of them do remain to pray, believe me. You all know the official preamble of Alcoholics Anonymous.
You've heard it many times. We have a short version, a two-liner, that I think sums up the situation pretty succinctly. This two-line unofficial version of the preamble goes something like this. Alcoholics Anonymous is a very unusual, very unique, very interesting fellowship. It is composed of men and women, the majority of whom did not wish to belong. Laughter And if you think back, I think you think very few of us came into this fellowship on our own initiative.
Most of us were brought here by some kind of crisis. And as I say it, these court programs, judges and so forth, are merely creating the crisis for these individuals that bring them to AA and make them face, hopefully, that moment of truth. Again, let me repeat, in my opinion, there is no wrong way to stay sober and there is no wrong way to join Alcoholics Anonymous. I know for a fact in the Washington area, many individuals who were sent into the program and who have a significant time of continuous sobriety.
Apropos of this cooperation with professionals, at the 25th General Service Conference there was a presentation on is sponsorship slipping or only changing? In my opinion, it is slipping in some cases and it is certainly changing. Ten years ago in the Washington area there was only one alcoholic treatment center and that was a very expensive one. Only the affluent alcoholic could afford it. Today there are detoxification centers for both men and women.
There are residential treatment centers for both men and women and all of these are free to the individual concerned. There are also inpatient programs at various hospitals which are paid for by hospitalization insurance. In addition, we have a medium-priced and a relatively high-priced private treatment centers. So with all these facilities available, it is very easy to understand that in some cases 12-step work has changed somewhat from the old days of sitting up all night with a drunk, feeding him honey, carob syrup, what have you, holding his hand and trying to give him some hope.
Today it is much easier to cart that drunk off to a detox center for two to five days
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and then on to a 28-day treatment center. In many cases this is done, at least in the Washington area. However, it is not true across the board. In one federal program of which I am knowledgeable, less than 25 percent were necessary to send for detoxification and 28-day treatment. And 75 percent were introduced to AA through the old-fashioned way of sponsorship with no detox or treatment center necessary.
Hire with these graduates from the treatment centers, usually four to six weeks. They need sponsorship just as much as the newcomer, but it is a different kind of sponsorship. His sponsorship needs to begin at a different point in his recovery as compared to the newcomer. He needs a sponsor who can meet him where he is at. The graduate from the treatment center is different from the newcomer. Number one, he is sober. He feels physically well.
Don't have to sit out the shakes with him. He knows something about the disease of alcoholism. In most cases he has had briefing and orientation about the AA program and in most cases he has been introduced to the 12 steps. I want to qualify this. I would say walked through the first five steps. He hasn't taken them, but he has been walked through the first five steps. So when he comes into this first day meeting after treatment, he does know something about the program.
Thus the sponsor's job in this case is not one of introducing him to AA and sticking close to him during the crisis, but rather one of guiding him into the AA way of life. What he needs now is emphasis on staying sober through sharing at AA meetings, continued work on the steps at greater depth with other members of AA, and learning to live by the AA program one day at a time. When I came into this fellowship, I was told that everything I needed to know to solve any problem as long as I live was contained in a big book called Alcoholics Anonymous.
Today I would only revise that statement to include the big book and all conference-approved literature, because ladies and gentlemen, for me the answers are there. All we have to do is follow directions. So in closing I would like to quote from a G.S.O. pamphlet. It's up here on the platform for distribution, which states that there are eight basic ideas concerning cooperation which should be kept in mind at all times.
Number one, there are no hard and fast rules to be laid down in advance about exactly where the line is drawn between cooperation and affiliation. Circumstances vary between one instance and another. Good judgment is needed on each individual case. Two, the alcoholism scene is constantly changing. In many countries the picture is changing rapidly. Even in AA the picture changes from day to day. Three, AA is in competition with no one.
Our ability to help other alcoholics is not based on scientific or professional expertise. As AAs we are limited to sharing our own first-hand knowledge of the suffering alcoholic and of recovery. Non-AA agencies and professionals are under no obligation whatsoever to abide by AA's traditions. Traditions, as you know, are stricter for the guidance of AA. After thinking about it, most of us are relieved that non-AA outfits are not bound by our traditions.
If they did apply, these outside agencies could not perform their own vital functions. Number five, two-hatters, AA members employed in the field of alcoholism, need to make it very clear which hat they are wearing. In my opinion, if a two-hatter wears his AA hat properly, wearing the second hat presents no problem. Six AAs can be good volunteers in non-AA programs as long as it is clear they do not represent alcoholics anonymous.
Many AA members, lay people as well as professionals, also help alcoholics in numerous non-AA ways in the field of alcoholism. But we do so as private citizens concerned about the health problem of alcoholism, not as AA members and not as representatives of any AA body or of AA as a whole. Seven, we cannot discriminate against any prospective AA member, even if he or she comes to us under pressure from a court, employer, or any other agencies.
We have no right to withhold the AA message from anyone, no matter who sent that person to us or what his or her attitude is at first. Who made the referral to A is not what AA is interested in. It is the problem drinker who is our concern. It is the problem drinker who is our concern.
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Finally, as we mature in AA, we generally become less fearful and rigid. Those of us blessed with recovery in AA need to remember that modesty will win more friends for us than smugness, arrogance, or a know-it-all attitude. Saying, we know the only way to recovery is an egotistical luxury we can no more afford than we can afford resentments. Thank you all very much for listening, and may God bless you.
Thank you, Hal. Hal mentioned the fact that we have some literature up here on the table. We have the guidelines for AA members employed in the field of alcoholism. We have the guidelines for court and ASAP programs. We have the little pamphlet called If You Are a Professional, and the pamphlet called How AA Cooperates with Others in the Field of Alcoholism. Any of you who are interested, you're welcome to them as long as they last.
And now we have another speaker from the opposite ends of the country who's going to share some of her experience with us, Johadju from Alaska. Can you hear me? Oh, yes. Carl Louise asked if it would be all right to introduce me by my full name, and I told her sure, and it has now occurred to me that she doesn't know my full name. My name is Esther. It is Esther Catherine Teresa Basinger Bridgers O'Lachlan Hadu.
They call me Johadju, and I am an alcoholic. I've used a few other names on occasion, too, and it seemed expedient for one reason or another, but those are the ones that have been legal. Now, you know, we get all of these names just the same way that we get so many other things that we share. I don't need to tell you how I got all of those names. You know pretty well how it was. With our cooperation with the professional community, when I was asked to take this assignment, I was a little fearful because I'm from a very small community, and I really don't know how you do these things out there in the great wide world.
All I really know is how it has worked for me. This has been my whole story, how it has worked for me, how the program has worked for me in my personal sobriety, how it has worked for me in trying to form and keep groups, trying to have first a territorial assembly, and then finally a state assembly when Alaska became a state, and it has all been an enormous challenge, a long period of growth, a period of growth that I pray will continue.
I came to Kodiak in 1956. I had come to Alcoholics Anonymous just a few months earlier in Jacksonville, Florida. I was 30 years old. The doctors had told me I wasn't going to get to be 31. I wasn't going to get to be 30 and a half as a matter of fact. My mind was almost completely gone. I had a great deal of central nervous system damage from a combination of barbiturates and alcohol. I was unemployable.
I was on the verge of losing a third family. I had already lost two. Life was hopeless, and my goal, my prayer was that somehow I could be taken out of it. That was all I wanted was to be taken out of it, and I wasn't granted that wish. I made several attempts at suicide, and this is how I gained my experience in mental institutions, but I just didn't seem to be able to get out of it, and so all I had left was to find some way where I could live, where I could live comfortably.
Hal said that very few of us get here voluntarily. We're pushed here one way or another. I was pushed here by my fear of insanity, by my inability to cope. I hope you can hear me. They call me She Who Whispers at home. But anyway, I did get here. Now, I got to Kodiak, Alaska, and I'd been given the directory by my group in Jacksonville, and there was no group listed, no group at all, and I still had not been able to get a job or do anything of my own.
I had been told what to do and when to do it for several months. I'd been taking two meetings because I'd lost my driver's license.
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I had no way of doing things for myself. I had lost that ability. My husband went up a couple of months ahead of me. He was military, and found an ad in the newspaper, a gentleman named Fred A., asking that anyone who was interested in farming in the A group to please contact him at such and such a number, and my husband did. So when I got there, we had located this A.A. contact. Now, Fred had about the same amount of sobriety that I had.
I think we had a grand total between Fred and his wife and myself of maybe nine months of sobriety. No group, and we had to have one in order to survive. So we did whatever it occurred to us to do. One of the first things that we did was to contact the chief of police and ask him to help us find some drunks. We knew he'd know some. And he was puzzled as to what we might want and highly suspicious, and I'm sure he was convinced that we were too newcomers to the community that it would be well to watch, and you did.
And he watched us grow, and he watched our sobriety become stronger, and he watched us become functioning members of this small community, and he was impressed, and he cooperated. So some of our first meetings were held in the jail in Kodiak, and some of our first members came from the jail. We also visited the one doctor that they had in the city and the doctor that they had out on the Neva Station.
It presented some complications because Fred and I had both come into A.A. in groups that said no pills, absolutely no pills, and we decided that we had to carry this message to the doctor, and we hadn't been around very long and didn't understand the difference between no pills because you want to take pills and no pills for a medically indicated disease, and we had our problems. But once again, we had a doctor who cared and who wanted to learn and who wanted to cooperate.
So it was not at all long before we were getting referrals from the clinic and from the hospital. Our hospital was and continues to be run by the Gray Nuns, and I think that I probably reserve my greatest praise for those sisters. They were tremendous. Kodiak had the first hospital in the state of Alaska that admitted alcoholics with a diagnosis of alcoholism and into the regular treatment wards, not in special facilities.
We very early entered into an arrangement with the hospital where A.A. members agreed to sit with alcoholics regardless of whether or not they were interested in A.A. We did this in order to keep people from being put into restraints. And out of my own personal experiences again, when I had been institutionalized, I was put into a straight jacket. I was shackled. My wrists and my ankles were bound in heavy leather straps, and I was chained to a bed, and I did not want this to happen to anyone else.
So in exchange for this sort of service, we once again derived these enormous benefits of having the referrals into Alcoholics Anonymous. So it never was a difficulty for us. It was something we had to do in order to survive. We had to have a group, so we had to go to the places where we might get some drunks. And as a result of this very early cooperation, we have in this very small community, my town is the fifth largest in Alaska, but it is a community of less than 10,000.
We don't have very big cities in Alaska, just lots of caribou and bears and open country. We do have one of the largest alcoholism problems in the nation, however. We probably have the highest per capita rate of consumption in the world, and Kodiak has the highest per capita rate of consumption in the state of Alaska.
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But because of these early cooperative efforts, it just is the way we have always done it. And because it's the way we have always done it, and because we also realized as we had been around for a while that AA does not have all of the answers for all alcoholics. Some people won't come to us. Some people come and either cannot or will not grasp what we have to offer. They're no less sick than those of us who come and make it, and they need help, and we need to get it to them in any way that we can, or at least this is what we think.
So we were interested in assisting with programs that might develop other answers. What our experience with this has been is that the vast majority of the alcoholics who either could not or would not come to AA come into the other treatment programs, and we wind up getting them anyway. They come a little indirectly, but as far as I know, we still have the only practical answer for long-term maintenance of person's sobriety, and these other programs have served a truly worthwhile purpose.
Alcoholics no longer need to be chained. They're no longer dying in our jails, or at least not as many. There are places that can help and will help, and I'm ever so grateful to them. I'm not interested in any kind of argument with them. If I can help, I want to, and this attitude on our part has brought about a corresponding attitude on theirs, and I am grateful that it's so. In the state of Alaska, no state money is given to any alcoholism program where there is not a cooperative effort with Alcoholics Anonymous because the government of the state and the legislature is so convinced that an alcoholism program without that cooperation will not work, that it must be there.
It is statewide and has been pretty successful. It has been successful enough in my community, as I started to say, that despite its very small size, there are presently treatment facilities that include a 30-day rehabilitation program, detoxification shelter, medical detoxification through the Kodiak Island Hospital, a cooperative arrangement with the mental health center, a very flourishing halfway house, and we're going into long-term rehabilitation as well.
It came about only because we had cooperation. I just so completely agree that we have no reason to feel threatened. What we can't do, other people do so well, and what we can do, we do better than anybody I know. Thank you very much. Thank you, Joe. And now we'll hear from our friend from Western Canada, Modest, shy Tommy B. I'm glad that Marley finally got on the program and is getting honest. I am modest, introverted, and shy, and my name is Tom Breen, and I'm an alcoholic.
Hi. And I am very delighted to be here. I was home free in this convention until a month ago, and then Mrs. Belford found out something, and I'm here. I was just going to run around all weekend and criticize and take inventories and say it ain't like it used to be. I think sometimes in this business, we forget that the word we're talking about is cooperation. about is cooperation. And we confuse cooperation and affiliation. We are under the impression,
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some of us, that to even say that we agree that somebody should be helping alcoholics other than we at Alcoholics Anonymous is a heresy. And we get a little arrogant and eager and arrogant and upset about it. I've heard people not long ago, I live in a province when I'm there, which is rarely, which is why they're doing so well, I think. And, well, alcoholism is not a recorded disease. You can't die from alcoholism in Manitoba. I don't suggest you move there to, because, by God, they're dying like flies, but not from alcoholism.
They're dying from heart failure and shortage of breath and things like that. But nobody dies in my place from alcoholism, and they're spending a million dollars a year, nearly, which isn't easy up there, to treat a disease that doesn't exist, which I find intriguing. But we have had an excellent program, and I think it's good to know that I don't know of any, and I'm sure Cora Louise or Hal or Joe or Eve doesn't, here I see, who I love very much, and those of you who've been around a while, I don't know of anything in the field of alcoholism today, anywhere, that did not have its beginnings with the discovery forty years ago that alcoholics could get sober and stay sober and be restored to their families and their communities and their jobs by Alcoholics Anonymous. I guess every alcoholism program that is going today was originally motivated, be it an information program or a treatment thing, was originally motivated by sober members of Alcoholics Anonymous in cooperation with people in the community. Now, I'll agree that sometimes we have created a bloody monster, but we've got some dingies up there. You know, it seems to that, there's one of them right there. That's old Joe, and he's not well yet.
I think also sometimes we concentrate and think that our cooperation today, because there's so much activity in the field of alcoholism, has only to do with agencies in the field of alcoholism. You see, brother, this is a great fallacy. Most physicians, most medical people, clergy, people in the social sciences, whoever it is, law enforcement, people are not actively involved in an alcoholism agency. We just blew a fuse there. They are practicing themselves. They're in another agency. They're not in the alcoholism business. And sometimes when we think about cooperation with professionals, we only think of those professionals who are in the alcoholism business. And many years ago, Bill came out with a phrase, and I still agree with it, let's be friendly with our friends. And I don't think that cooperation necessarily means approval. God knows I don't approve of some of the things that are going on. They're trying to teach us to drink, for heaven's sake. God, I never needed any instruction in the first place. I would not be good members of Alcoholics Anonymous if we were not concerned about this, because you and I have to bury them. Those who don't learn. We know this.
And I think we just have to keep us strong. I agree with everything that Hal said, and that's not normal. And I most certainly agree with Joe. But I've also heard people say, and this is not a disagreement, honey. I think we're talking about the same thing. That people say Alcoholics Anonymous will not work for everybody. I do not believe it. I believe very deeply that Alcoholics Anonymous will work for everybody who works it.
I believe very deeply in this, and of course Joe said this. Many times these people today
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are going to have to go through other treatment facilities, and they'll come to us, but how are we when we get, when they get there? What kind of sponsorship are you and I providing when they get to us? I think the guy or the gal that says, and we have them, you know, well never mind, he came from a treatment center, she came from a treatment center, they were sent to us by the courts, you know. If I say to myself that I will not spend time with this alcoholic in Alcoholics Anonymous because they came to us in another way than I came, then I don't know how the hell I came. What I am really saying is that I am making a judgment. I am deciding who, by the way they got here, is worthy of our answer. And I think that's a judgment that you and I can't afford to make spiritually.
Saying, well I'm not going to sponsor you because you were sent here by a court program, or you found your AA somewhere else. I would like to find out how many alcoholics in Alcoholics Anonymous in this room today were sent here by their doctor, by their preacher, by the social agency, by an alcoholism agency, or by their employer. How many got to Alcoholics Anonymous that way? Well how about that? Now I wonder where you'd be if we hadn't cooperated with somebody. I know where the hell you'd be. So I think, you know, what we need is hoarse sense and reason. Is hoarse sense and reason. I know, I think that you and I also have a right to, if we don't like what's going on somewhere, if I don't like the way the facility in my community is operating, I have a right as a citizen, and also as a concerned member of Alcoholics Anonymous working with a new drunk, to try and get that person into the way I feel. If I know that if he goes somewhere else, if he goes to this facility, or that, that he's never going to hear about Alcoholics Anonymous, then by God I don't think I'm going to take him there. And I agree with Al, I think we're dumping people. I really do. God, I've done it myself. I've gone to go and pick up a drunk. I don't know what his name is. I don't even know where he lives, you know. I don't know how sick he is, and I'm wondering if I can get him in the treatment center. And probably he doesn't need to go.
Probably he just needs damn good sponsorship, and damn good 12-stepping. He doesn't need to go to a treatment center. And I, you know, I think we're dumping a lot of people and denying ourselves the privilege that God gave us of sharing ourselves with other human beings in Alcoholics Anonymous. And if you do that, you can't blame the facility. What's the matter? We're no guys. I ain't doing it right. They don't have to do it right. People phone me, and phone Mac, and phone Wes, and say, what are you going to do about treatment centers?
They're not a bloody thing. Nothing. I'm going to pray like hell for the people that are in there, though, I'll tell you. You know, you and I know that every four or five years we get a new batch of geniuses who are trying to disprove theories that the people have been trying to disprove for 40 years. You know, I'm all for that electric shock. I think it would work a hell of a lot better if they could get the wire to the bar stool, though.
Well, damn, I ain't having any trouble staying sober in jail. How's my time? Not that I care. I would like you to know that I spent a great deal of time preparing this last night and this morning, and I would also like you to know that I can't read it. No, it's not my writing, it's not my eyes. It's cooperation, it's not approval. It's cooperation, it's not affiliation. I really believe this. I don't believe that you and I are going to lose anything by telling our doctor, as Bill taught us years ago, if you get sober, in the name of God, go and tell your doctor how you got sober so he will send his drunks to you. Go and tell your social
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worker, go and tell the judge, go and tell the cop, go and tell the clergyman how you got sober. And not just you went AA. I think I have a responsibility personally. Your responsibilities are yours, mine are mine. I'm not telling you, I hate, don't you hate being told you're responsible? Oh, God. Even though I know I am, I want to know that myself, I don't want you telling me. It's like those hundred spigots. I know four guys that have got drunk this weekend trying to figure out which spigot to pull to get their coffee.
My God, we can't decide if there was two. And they got a hundred spigots. Go up there and watch us. We're standing back looking at them. God, they'll drive a drunk crazy. We're not going to get drunk this weekend because we're off the program. We're going to get drunk because we're frustrated trying to figure out which coffee spigot to pull. I believe. How do we cooperate? Well, OCC are you going to hear tonight. They'll probably hear them in Salt Lake City. Started a thing up in our country called PI luncheons where we invite people in the community. We do it with a broad section of people in the community.
We also do it with professionals. With PI lunches and meetings for clergy, for doctors, for cops, for whoever we feel should know about us. I don't think it's just good enough for you and I to tell my doctor I got sober in Alcoholics Anonymous. And he says, what's Alcoholics Anonymous? Well, I can't tell you because we're anonymous. And who the hell is he going to send? You know, what a crew of dingbats that must be. I think I have an obligation to go and get my doctor and say, I'd like you to come to a meeting. I'd like you not to only know what Alcoholics Anonymous is, but I'd like you to feel what Alcoholics Anonymous is. I think it's vitally important that the people we feel should know about Alcoholics Anonymous and the people that we feel we should be cooperating with in our community, the professional people and non-professional people even. Should not only know about us by reading a pamphlet, by talking to you and I nose to nose, which is vital, but let's get them out and take them to a meeting so they can feel what we have. The greatest success that we've had in cooperation with people in Alcoholics Anonymous and our relationships with professionals are those who have come to a meeting, who have come to know us, who have come to see what we have. They don't have to agree with us. Some of the finest medical people in our town who send alcoholics to AA by the carload are atheists. They don't understand our program. They don't understand our spiritual way of life. They know it works and they know that if the alcoholic doesn't get to us, that his chances of making it on continued sobriety are very slim. Now they didn't get to know this by reading a pamphlet or talking to some dingy over the phone. They got to know this because we brought them to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. We took time to have lunch with them. We took time to say this is what we are and we are available to you. We're not a dumping place for every dingbat that you can't handle. But by God, we're here to help you help alcoholics. But before you do, we want you to know what we have. We want you to read about it. We want you to talk to us about it. But above all, we want you to come and feel what we have in Alcoholics Anonymous. That's the best way to cooperate with anybody that I know of in the business of Alcoholics Anonymous. God love you. Thank you.
Well, alright, don't leave now. We've got 45 minutes left and the panel is here and you can address your questions to anyone that you would like to address them to and I'm sure you will get good answers to any questions that you have. So let's see some hands. Yes. Yeah. Did you hear the question? What I said was that in the state of Alaska, in order for any professional alcoholism program to obtain funding, that there must be cooperation with Alcoholics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous must be…
Negative. It is policy.
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Yes. Right it is.