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Source: 1985 Montreal International Convention – Multi Speakers – Carring the Message thru the Media PI CARRYING THE MESSAGE THRU THE MEDIA – RS 06306.mp3 File: 1985-montreal-international-convention-multi-speakers-carring-the-message-thru-the-media-pi-carrying-the-message-thru-the-media-rs-06306.mp3 Duration: 01:22:54
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The Courage to Change the Things I Can, and the Wisdom to Know the Difference. There may be some here who are not familiar with our tradition of personal anonymity at the public level. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion. We need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV, and films. Thus, we respectfully ask that no AA speaker, or indeed any AA member, be identified by full name or photograph, in published or broadcast reports of our meeting.
The assurance of anonymity is essential in our effort to help other problem drinkers who may wish to share our recovery with us. And our tradition of anonymity reminds us that AA principles come before personalities. The tapes of this meeting will be available at the Tape Sales booth in the Convention Center. And I think that's it on the announcements. I wanted to say a few words before I introduced our first speaker.
I've had an absolutely delightful almost two years of serving the fellowship in the capacity of sitting at the PI desk. When I came on board, I was terrified because I thought you had to have all the answers. I've always thought you had to have all the answers. That was the problem in the first place. But anyway, it's really been wonderful. It's been many, many lessons for me in not having the answers, but knowing that if you're still and quiet, the answers come if your house is in order.
The last year has been absolutely amazing and filled with joy for me. One of my high points recently was to work with the producer from the NBC special segment, the Tom Brokaw show, and to get to work with him and tell him I was going to nail his skin on the wall if he put any faces on that screen. And it was wonderful to see what happened. For those of you, how many saw this special segment? When I saw it, I was so thrilled. I didn't really do much of anything to tell you the truth.
I was a middleman like we all are in carrying the message of love and God's will in our life. That was one thing that happened. Another little short quip I wanted to share with you is something that happened only a week ago. I laugh a lot on the assignment. I mean, there's so many requests that come in, hundreds of calls from the press, from columnists, from special writers, magazines, and of course, ever-present TV and independent TV stations where we have just literally pumped out AA and Inside View, complimentary copies, three-quarter-inch videos.
In any event, in the middle of all of this, what I thought was important stuff, there was a phone call. There was a man in the outer office to see me, and he was from the Guiding Light. And I won't say what network it was, except that it was one of the major networks. And he came in, and he had his work clothes on, and he was an AA member, and he was warm, and he was good old sound AA. And he sat down in my office, and he said, I had to come to see you.
He says, I'm the lighting director from my network, and he said, nothing goes unless I okay it. And he said they had the nerve to have us on the set today. He said they were doing an AA scene, and he said it wasn't right. And he said I told them they weren't going to get any lights on that set until I went to GSO to check to see what you do. So God seems to be ever-present in all of our work, and I think, especially if I ask for it, he's always there.
There are many, many stories to tell, but I am moderating this meeting, and my speakers are here. And I'm going to turn the meeting over to my dear good friend Jim O from California. Thank you, Lila. I'm Jim O from California, from San Fernando Valley, in fact. I'm a grateful alcoholic, grateful to God and folks like you for my sobriety today. The first thing I want to do is thank Lila and the committee for allowing me to participate in this great 50th anniversary of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Now, I don't know about the other speakers, but I didn't do too much research. If you knew where I come from, you'd wonder how I got here, and you probably will when I finish. From that little tobacco field down in Kentucky to this podium is a hell of a long way. I was born, I'm going to tell you a little bit, I'm going to identify, then I'll tell you some about our topic. I was born in Kentucky with bright red hair, big ears and freckles, and from there it got worse.
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My mother was Catholic and my father was Protestant. If I went to the Catholic church, my father would cuss. If I went to the Protestant church, my mother would cry. So consequently I didn't go to church too much. But I had a terrible ego and an inferiority complex, and when I would go down the street in that little town Saturday night in those towns back there, it was like a festival. Everybody went.
And by now I'm looking at the girls, and I'd go down the street and I'd speak to a group of girls that I knew, and they'd look at me and they'd say, look at old Jim, he looks like a cab coming down the street with both doors open. The next group of girls I would speak to would say, look at old Jim, he looks like he's been falling too close behind the cow that's eating bran. But this time I'm ready to go home for Saturday night.
I give up this week. I started going to jail when I was about 14 years old, and I went to many of them. I joined the Navy when I was quite young, and I was in jails and brigs from New London, Connecticut, to Perth, Australia, and many points in between. By the time that I got to Alcoholics Anonymous, I had one friend, and that was my mother. I, about this time is when I first ran into what our topic's all about.
She was quite a reader. She read all about Alcoholics Anonymous, everything she could get her hands on, and still does, incidentally. One of the first things that she ever talked to me about was the Jack Alexander story. It didn't impress me too much because I wasn't ready to quit drinking. But I did read it. And then, shortly after that, she sent me an article. And I have the original copy that she took out of a Lexington, Kentucky newspaper, Alcoholics Anonymous and God.
And it did impress me. I just happened to have a copy of it, and I'm not going to read it. But that is what it looked like, and that was in 1950. And then, shortly after this, the articles started coming out on the media, in the movies, like I'll Cry Tomorrow. It's a good thing I made notes. Wine and Roses. Lost Weekend. And Too Much Too Soon. And most of you, of course, know some of the stories that were behind those.
A lot of the people that wrote and acted in those died drunk. Now, that brings to mind another story that I just read some time ago. Now, that brings to mind another story that I just read since I got this assignment. There was a baseball player in Cleveland. His name was Raleigh Helmsley. And he was a catcher for Bobby Fuller, who at that time was one of the greatest of all pitchers in baseball. And Raleigh had a terrible time with booze.
And he went to Dr. Bob, and Dr. Bob helped get him sober. He did get sober, and he went back to playing ball. And the people in the Cleveland press asked him how he got sober, what was responsible for it. And he shouted from the rooftops at Alcoholics Anonymous, which was breaking one of our traditions.
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Well, but it was much to the delight of Alcoholics Anonymous at that time. Even Bill was thrilled to hear about it. So Bill decided that he would go on the road and make speeches on Alcoholics Anonymous and have his picture taken, which he did. He went all over the country, and he would make a pitch to the newspaper when he went into the city, and he would have his pictures taken. Well, he did this for about eight months, and he went into one of the worst depressions he ever had, and almost drank.
As I read the story, at about this time, Dr. Sam Shoemaker came to call on him, who was a minister. And he asked Sam what was responsible for this. They talked about it, and he told him what he could do about it. What he could do about it, in other words, he told him he should go back to doing whatever he had been doing and forget the talking and so on and so forth. Well, this was one of the biggest examples of our anonymity break.
I want to go back to the Jack Alexander story, which was one of the first news items that was ever written about Alcoholics Anonymous. At the time that was written, the article came out in 1941. And from 1935 to 1941, this fellowship was growing at a rate of about 300 members per year. And after the story came out, it grew to about 5,500 by the end of 1941, or 500 members per month. In fact, from 2 members in 1935 to over 1,250,000 today, 50 years later.
Now, I do a lot of reading, and I read one person in particular. I'm going to give a lot of credit here today, and I know a lot of you read, especially the women. It's Miss Ann Landers. I think she writes at least twice a month articles about Alcoholics Anonymous. And she sends more people to AA than anybody that I know of in the news media, be it radio, television, or whatever. I've never heard her break our traditions, or read where she had broken our traditions.
And she specifies in there about what our traditions are about the anonymity. She does just one hell of a job, I think. Now, I don't know how much time I've got, but since I see all you people out there, and this is a gratitude thing. I hadn't planned to tell you this. It's a little off of the record, but it's a good chance, opportunity, for me to thank all of you for something that you'll enjoy. Something that you'll understand when I finish.
A year ago, February, I lost a baby sister with cancer of the colon, and it went to her liver. A year ago, my wife and I separated 18 years of marriage. January the 8th of this year, or around January the 7th, I went in for a physical. I was bleeding, and discovered that I had cancer. And, of course, I didn't let it go too long because I had lost this sister with it. And I think her death saved my life.
I went in for the operation, and all of you are scared to death of cancer, don't tell me you're not. I thought, well, I'm going to die. I thought, well, I'm going to die. I was just sure I would. And then I says, I've had
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fourteen beautiful years, and I was ready to die when I came in here, that Alcoholics Anonymous gave me. And all I could think about was how grateful I was to you all. I must have gotten six hundred letters, flowers, phone calls, everything that's imaginable. I've had two operations since then, but they weren't cancer, but they were related. I'm clear of the cancer. But this was a golden opportunity, I was sitting here thinking, for me to tell you how grateful I am to this program and to you people. Every night of my life I get on my knees and I used to say, thank you, God, for all you've given me, thank you, God, for all you've taken from me, and thank you for all you've left me. Now I include Alcoholics Anonymous in that statement, because you have given me everything I have, everything I will have or will be, and I appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jim. I didn't mention when I introduced Jim that he handled P.I. in his area for quite some time, and it's when I first got to know him was as a person working in public information. At the beginning of the meeting, I forgot to read this to you, because we have quite a few people in here. In accordance with the Municipal By-law, the security service of this place, I can't read French very well, would like to draw your attention to the evacuation procedures for this hall. Staircases marked with the word sortie are located at the end of the corridors outside each conference hall. Thank you. While Jim was talking, and especially when he mentioned Ann Landers, I couldn't help but think about how my life has touched hers in the past two years.
Part of the assignment, part of the public information assignment is reviewing close to 700 news clippings per month and writing where appropriate. Back in the early days, Bill used to write to absolutely everyone who even mentioned AA, and that's the way they come to us from the evaluators, so you can imagine what it's like to sort through and pull out the ones who now do a little more than mention AA. And of course, I always get a packet from Ann Landers and dear Abby and the people who are so wonderful and supportive of AA, and there are more than two a month, I can assure you, there's a stack of them. And unfortunately, we thought she would be one of our speakers this week, but she couldn't come the last minute. But there are so many wonderful people out there supporting Alcoholics Anonymous and helping to carry the message. Out of the clippings, another interesting thing that happens are the anonymity breaks, and I wanted to, because I care deeply like everyone does here, I'm sure, I wanted to say a few words about my concern and a big portion of the fellowship's concerns about our spiritual tradition of anonymity. It seems, according to my clippings, it seems like there were more anonymity breaks of late, and in other words, it went from maybe 10, a couple of years ago, 10 per month to 25. And yet, I was reminded that our fellowship has grown also, that isn't very many breaks. Usually out of the 25 breaks, and this is where someone's name is identified in full, or their face, out of those, usually about, I would say, from experience of long, hard hours, that at least 75% of them happen because the press chooses to do so. And of course, because our traditions were not written for the press, they were written for us to be responsible for. There's not a lot that we can do about that. There have been a few, one big influencing factor, I think, was a book that was written where the statement was made that this was up to the individual AA member. Well, as you know, and I'm saying this to you so you can repeat it, we're all responsible, and no one has changed the traditions, and nobody speaks for AA as a whole, and no, we haven't changed that tradition at all. It isn't up to the individual AA member. It's up to all of us to protect the anonymity. And I guess I just had to say that because when I see things happen,
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serving you as middlemen, and I just, I like that term because that's how I feel we are, I am concerned often when people break anonymity because I've heard a lot of people of late say to me, oh, I thought it was up to the individual AA member now, and well, that's news. Anyway, that's part of the clipping service. Another part that I enjoy doing, we get clips from the TV studios. I did over 30 last week of interviews across the country. They send us the scripts, and I read through, and out of these 30, there was one with a break, and that isn't bad, on major networks, and then newspaper clippings. I must have sent about 40 thank yous to local PI committees, and one of the PI committees that is very, very active, and I'm sure that you've received one of the letters from GSO, goes to Texas, and the lady on my left who is a very, very hard worker in public information, and with that, I'm going to introduce Joni to you.
Hi, everybody. My name is Joni, and I am an alcoholic. I was brought to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous October 25, 1975, over nine years ago, through no initiative effort of my own, but since that time, I have not only learned how not to drink and no longer have a desire to drink, but I've regained over the years the desire to live that I lost while drinking. I'm not going to go very far into my personal story at all. With my understanding, I'm to try to share with you the experience of the Southeast Texas Area Assembly. I am a member of that assembly, also a member of the LaBranche Street Group, which is my home group where I learned how to stay sober, members like you. I serve as, at the present time, as corresponding secretary.
Our particular public information committee was formed on a temporary basis January of 1983. We then, six months later, the assembly backed us unanimously to become a permanent committee. I'll tell you at this time that I was not at all anxious to have anything to do with this committee. It went entirely against my brain to have anything to do with what sounded like public relations to me. I've since learned that it's those things I do in life and in Alcoholics Anonymous that I don't want to do that bring me the most, whether I like it or not. So I am deeply involved, like Lila said, and I think I want to say right now that I believe were all our committee members here present today, they would tell you that we absolutely could not do without the support and counsel of general service office staff. Lila, of course, is most important because she at present has that desk. But we've bobbled, we've tripped, we've made errors, and she always calls us, tells us just like it is, and we, I think, improved as a result. Just to give you some basics about the workings of our committee, we work through an answering service that we've worked very closely with. They answer the phone by saying public information, all calls come directly to a member of Alcoholics Anonymous who is on our committee and are responded to at once, usually within an hour or two. There's several of us that respond to the answering service. The committee at present is a little over 70 members, approximately 30 or 35 are very active. We, of course, respond to calls from churches, schools, when I say schools, all the way from the fourth grade, which down in our area in Houston is, would be youngsters 10 years of age. We have spoken to them several times, all the way up to postgraduate folks, folks going on beyond university. Businesses, treatment centers.
We recently were asked, I'd say about four months ago, to speak to a very large worldwide treatment center group in Houston, who apparently has never had a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in their place. They run a very tight ship, and they get a lot of folks who have had trouble with the law,
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and these people have an alternative offered to them. As a result of our gathering with them and visiting with them, sharing the same as you all share, we have been asked to come back and begin a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous on a weekly basis. Now, of course, that's not a function of public information, but some of us as individuals are going to do that. That's the kind of reward that, you know, it's instant. It's not always that way, but I wanted to mention that. We do work with the media, and I'll get into that in detail in a minute. We also staff and have staffed numerous health fairs, again with the cooperation of general service officers. We probably couldn't pull that off without them. Just by way of numbers, in 1985 and this year so far, we have carried the message of Alcoholics Anonymous to a little over 2,000 people. We've distributed literature, which is, of course, conference-approved literature, a little over 5,000 pieces of literature. This has to be a rough guess, obviously. Now, our experience in carrying the message through the media, I wanted to give you just a few of our basic principles as regards this particular area, PI. The first and foremost is the anonymity that Lila was talking about. Individually, we believe we have nothing to communicate. We have nothing to say other than that based on the AA principles of recovery. So we try to stick to that, which means that individually we, of course, don't use our last name ever. We do not allow any pictures whatsoever that could possibly disclose anyone's particular identity. We also try to communicate in writing with the media. Now, this is not always possible when it's a last-minute thing, but we try to communicate in writing to avoid misunderstanding.
Also, when we send out a letter to anybody as part of the Public Information Committee, we enclose our own copy of the anonymity statement and then in the body of the letter call attention to it. You know, in other words, we sort of underscore it. We put it into other language. We also use the AA at a glance with a label that has our phone number on it and the number for help for someone in trouble or information. That goes out with every letter. We try to, and I think have been fairly successful on avoiding opinions on any outside issue whatsoever.
We simply, we get a lot of questions about, is there a genetic factor in alcoholism? What about this treatment program? It's better than the other. We just say alcoholism has no opinion on that. Therefore, we have none, at least that day. We get questions about MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. We don't have an opinion. We stress always how to get help, whether it's information for yourself or a friend. Where do you go to get help? And we always supply the number of our intergroup, which I imagine like most of yours has a 24-hour answering service.
We attempt, and I think have been pretty successful in expressing our appreciation to those that do carry an appropriate story that fits with the AA principles. We do this generally in writing and in lots of cases we kind of stay in contact with some of these media people. I'd like to give you some of the examples of, and Lila, if I go over time now, you'll tell me, okay? I want to tell you how our first contacts with the media came about and what transpired there. This is the only way I have of knowing that probably God is working through this committee. Our first call came from a lady reporter in Bay City, which is about 150 miles from Houston. It's a long ways, but it is in our area. And she wanted to come and talk that day about Alcoholics Anonymous. And I'm nervous and I don't know what I'm doing. And our committee has a policy whereby we study the guidelines, speaking at non-AA meetings, and understanding anonymity.
Each of us studies that for five months and we discuss it in meetings. We did that initially before we did anything. We absolutely wouldn't take part in anything. So this, our five months was just about coming to a close, but I was nervous about this. to a close. But I was nervous about this. She insisted on coming. She came that day. She brought her husband and son with her and insisted they stay outside. She wouldn't let me
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invite them in. It was an odd interview, let's just say that. Ended up, and I'm not able to tell you why, I gave her a big book. Out of a couple of three hours visit, we got no story. Months and months and months went by, and I got a letter. And this lady was one of us. She had joined the program. She sent a check for the big book, which of course we returned. And I don't have her letter with me. I wish I'd been thoughtful enough. But it, it absolutely swept me away. By that time, we'd had our second call, which was from an humble Texas newspaper. And I don't know the result of that other than we got no story. But I had the feeling I was talking to one of us who was trying to surrender, trying to get ready. So those were our first two experiences, and I thought, God, are we just going to be intergroup junior, you know, for a while? I, I couldn't tell. Our next one was another lady reporter at the Sun, which is a suburban newspaper north of Houston. And over a year ago, they decided to do a story. It was quite a large story on Alcoholics Anonymous and point towards One Year Hints, which is this international that we're all, you know, enjoying today and experiencing. So that was, that was our first story. Thereafter, we cooperated, which proved to be quite a lot for us to be doing. We began to get quite busy. We cooperated with the Southeast Texas Area Conference in putting on the annual conference. As a result, we had one media person come to the conference after being drilled on anonymity, and we had a good article out of that. We also cooperated with a panel that was on the ABC station there. This panel, however, was no, there were no alcoholics involved. It was professionals involved with alcoholism, and we simply aided them in getting this together. The PBS station, Channel 8, we have communicated with on several occasions. We have had nothing there as yet. Channel 11, which is CBS, called us after they had done a story, which announced that this new treatment center had come to town and it was sponsored by Alcoholics Anonymous. So we had a lengthy chat and have started some correspondence with them. They, you know, I'm sure they're not alcoholics, but their defenses go up, you know, when they're not right, and so we've had to slowly kind of gently move them along.
Our first really big article in a major newspaper was last year in the Houston Chronicle, a reporter called and wanted to do a story on the young people. So we gathered together about eight folks, some of whom, for instance, one sobered up at age 15 is now sober five years, and she visited with them. We didn't even use, because it was a local and a major daily, we didn't use correct names. We used like Jane M., you know, for someone. That turned out well.
I don't think we had any problem with that. We also began to write and correspond with people who had written any articles that we came across mentioning Alcoholics Anonymous that abided by our traditions, that did it well. We just simply sent a letter of thanks. Usually these letters are done on an individual basis and not for the PI committee, so they may end up getting four or five letters. At just about the time we had this wonderful article in the Houston Chronicle, I turned to the back page where they have the police reports, and they had a really too big article, any size would have been too big, on a man that they announced by name, we'll call him John Doe. They said he was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and he'd murdered another alcoholic and was charged with murder. And they went on and on. You know, from my vantage point, it looked like every other line was Alcoholics Anonymous. So, frankly, we backed off for a couple of days because several of us needed to pray about that before we, you know, did what they did and attacked. So, but we did. We began a correspondence. We, frankly, were unable to find out initially who the reporter was, but we now know and we have a good rapport with them. They
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felt that it was not a reflection and, you know, we simply stood on the anonymity principle that no matter how they saw it, they broke the anonymity of this poor gentleman. Then we come to what probably is one of the high points. We had a call from Channel 26, which is the Metro Media television station there, and they were having, taking part in a national program, April of this year, and they wanted a young member of Alcoholics Anonymous to appear on a panel. Now, after some discussion, it was agreed this member would appear in shadow with a voice change, which she did.
This followed 30 minutes of what they call the national alcoholism test, and then they had the panel with three other people and this young lady who did very well, and at the end they showed the number, the intergroup number, where you can call for help on the television screen. That same month, that station, I think because things worked out so well, had three other members of Alcoholics Anonymous in shadow with a voice change interviewed on a noontime program. We did not know going in that the noontime program was moderated by a man in recovery in this program, so those turned out beautifully. One person was an AA member who also is an attorney. Another was a physician who is recovering in Alcoholics Anonymous, and another was a lady who's been in service many, many years and one of our past delegates from our area. Those turned out beautifully. Then we get down to one of these last minute harem scarem things where the higher power really did have to take over. Late, late on the 7th of June, I got a call from the secretary of our assembly that Channel 13 was wanting to do a story right away the next day on the 50th anniversary. We had no reporter's name, I didn't know who to call. Our chairman of our committee was out of town for a week, so I called and one thing led to another, got in touch with him. As events evolved, now this is on a weekend, this is on a Friday, and they want to show it Sunday. They turned out they showed it Sunday and Monday, but as it turned out, I was able to get hold of a gentleman who speaks well and is able to communicate even in shadow, which was absolutely necessary. They wanted to have a member tell a part of their story on television from their home. We decided to use someone else's home rather than his and to use John Doe as his name, which we use John D as a matter of fact.
So we did that and then we gathered together about 20 of us at last minute at one of our regular meeting places. They wanted to shoot a meeting from the rear, which they did. They showed the leader from here down and showed some of our literature. And I have to tell you, I get goosebumps now because I remember I was tense about if they were going to overstep any of the boundaries, any of our traditions. But when I saw how hard that reporter and cameraman worked to abide by our traditions, it was really touching. I felt so grateful because I was frankly uptight about it.
Now that brings us up to now. I, in closing, want to say one thing. Five years ago this month at the urging of my sponsor, I went to my very first international convention in New Orleans. I walked into that big superdome with another lady who was sober in the program and I've not ever had a feeling like that since in my life. I, before I came here today, I stuffed my purse full of Kleenex, not because I thought I'd cry in this meeting, but I don't think I'll have time to change before the big meeting tonight where I'm sure I'll see all of you all. It is absolutely an experience that, well, right now I'm getting the goosebumps. It is, there's nothing like it to be with you all, whether I can speak your language or not. We all understand the language of the heart and I thank you very much. Thank you, Joni.
I earlier mentioned a little bit about this special segment that they did on NBC and if you haven't seen this, I was able to get it copied from the NBC tape onto a VHS and
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it is available, as far as I know, over at the Meridian where the films are being shown, if you'd like to see it. It's a lovely picture of Lois where she shakes her finger and she says, Bill always said it would change the world and it's the part that that particular month I'd been going through a great deal of difficulty in my own private life and I think when I saw that and realized that we all have a purpose in AA, especially if we're involved in service work at all and I realized that it was all worth it, whatever goes on, as long as the message is carried to the public through the media and I was just, well, things happen, I think, many times far greater than we ever expect them to and this was one of those instances. Another thing that happened that I want to share with you, there's been a, whenever there's a demand from the press and I relate that to my PI committee, the trustees committee, which is just loaded with talent and one of the requests of the past year has been for young people material. Of course, they always want statistics and the answer is we're not in the education business, we're in the business of carrying the message and we leave that up to the treatment people. Nonetheless, I took this request to the PI committee, oh, half a year ago and the committee began, had begun to work on radio PSAs, new ones for young people and from that, I wanted to mention about the press stories. We do have, for those of you who are involved or who would like to be involved or want a way to the press, we have 12 press feature stories, a complete package and we have a new one on young people that's just out and how to use those if you're in a place that isn't doing PI work, take them to the press when you're having your roundup or your convention and let them pick what they want to write from the, from the selection along with the local information, but with the young people, when, when members of this committee went out on the streets of New York City and taped young people to get, to find out what they, they wanted a message and they didn't really know what to, what to, how to write this script. The most beautiful phrase came out of this, I mean, it's very simple, but one of the young people said alcoholism is a disease, not an age, and this has become the byline on the new tapes which will be coming out very soon now for radio. That's the line at the end of each 20, 30, 60 second spot, this line that came right, right from the members. I'm going to go ahead now and introduce to you our last speaker from British Columbia, Marty.
Thank you, Madam Chairman. My name is Marty Manson and I'm an alcoholic. It's a real pleasure for me to be here today with you because this is my fifth convention and I'm getting up in years now, you know, this keeps up. My initials are Marty M and in 1955 I attended a conference in, or a convention in Ottawa, which is just 108 miles down the road here for those of you who are not acquainted. And the guest speaker at that convention was a lady who also had the same name, Marty, and I was standing at the back of the hall and she, and also she had along with her on that trip from New York, she had Lois, whom you all heard this morning, I hope, yes, and so when she got up close to me she said, oh Lois, look, and she came over to see that my identification card had Marty M on it, so we became kind of friends with her. What I'm going to talk about is what the theme is, the carrying the message through the medium, because I, when I came into public information in the late 60s, or the early 60s actually, I started, this seemed to be the trend to go. I don't know how you people got to know about AA, but we have come a long ways in AA with that carrying the message.
I got to know about AA through a crew member, A crusader who was sober, and I wasn't, going home in a streetcar one night, and I was flaked
[00:45:02]
out and drunk, whatever, and this person left a calling card in my pocket, and on the card for the Ottawa citizen, and I said to him, you know, I said, I can't remember meeting this person last night, I said I was befuddled, what I was looking for was how much money I had left from the night before, but he said, he took a look at the card and he said, you know Marty, this is a religious organization called Alcoholics Anonymous, and they're looking for recruits.
But you're not ready yet. However, I want to make the point that that is, that was the seed that was sown at that time that ultimately got me into AA, and here I am talking to you in 1985, and that happened during the summer of 1947. Now I didn't get into AA for real in earnest until 1957, but nevertheless, it just gives you an idea that once the seed is sown, that's the thing, so if you are in a position, and I know that you are, when you see an opportunity to carry the message, don't worry about the results.
The higher power will take care of that. I started working in public information, well, I'll tell you what, I'll just tell you that my early attempts at getting a committee started in western Canada, where I come from, the western Canada region, was a disaster. Because I was surrounded by a lot of old timers who didn't believe that we needed to carry the message at all, that we would do it all very well by the word of mouth, and that's not the way that I came into AA and so on.
So my early attempts at getting a committee was difficult because I tried to introduce this motion at the assembly in the first year, and I couldn't get anyone to second it, to give you an idea of how important this was. And all my efforts were being goaded on by the people at GSO, you know, the secretaries down there were telling me, go ahead, don't worry about those old guys. However, the following year, we finally did get someone to second it, and they must have thought, well, if that's what GSO wants, and we don't want it, but I guess it's okay.
So in any case, we got a motion passed, and we got a committee started. I started using, ultimately, using film clips on television and radio, of course, and I talked to the newspapers, as you'll see as I go along here. I talked to them, and I let them know that this is important because the general public doesn't know very much about AA. The other day, a gentleman talked to me, and I've known for many years, and he said to me, I've been wanting to ask you a question for a long time.
How do you get your funding for AA? And I said, you've got to be kidding. I thought maybe he knew, and I said, well, we don't get funding from anybody. I said, there's two things that have brought us along to 50 years, two concepts, and that's the anonymity concept and the concept of the fact that we are self-supporting through our own contribution. I think you agree to that. But in any case, getting on to this business of carrying the message through television, I started to get these film clips out, and I was sitting around wondering if it was going to be successful.
I had some doubts myself. I never heard or never seen anyone, and no one ever told me that they had heard about someone that actually got the message through the media. And then one night, I was up in the northern part of our area on business, and I went to an AA meeting, and I was sitting in the back, and a gentleman got up, who introduced himself as a salesman, and he started to tell his story about how he used to drink excessively, and he was traveling all the time, and some weekends he didn't go home.
[00:50:06]
Naughty boy. And in any case, he didn't do this, and this weekend, he was watching TV and drinking, and this film clip came on the air, saying to him, if alcohol is causing you a problem, call Alcoholics Anonymous. You will find us in your telephone directory. And he did that, and he told us that night that he had never looked back since, and I thought, boy, this is great. I'm sure happy about this, because that gave me the encouragement and the incentive to want to work harder at doing this job.
Now, years later, attending conventions, I attended the 35th anniversary international convention in Miami Beach, and got back to Vancouver. That's my home base. Got back to Vancouver, and I was beginning to wonder had the media picked up, because I was always monitoring TV sets and radio and news to see what's going on, and also noticing tongue-in-cheek about all these anonymity breaks that you see from time to time.
It used to make me curious at one time, but it doesn't now, because I know that Lila's down there looking after it, you know. Aren't you? In any case, I found that this announcement had been on the network, you know, had been on the wire service, and that the Metropolitan newspapers hadn't picked it up. So I took it upon myself to go and make a visit to the managing editor of the Vancouver Sun. And I went in to see him, and so I told him why I was there, and that I was a little bit disenchanted that he had not followed through with this announcement, because I thought it was newsworthy.
And he said, well, he said, we have a lot of AA members who are our employees. And he said, they tell us that you don't need advertising anymore. And I said, that's a bunch of hogwash. So I started to tell this gentleman, as you've already heard today, about the Jack Alexander story. And I told it to him in detail, and told him that it was a turning point in Alcoholics Anonymous, because up until that time there hadn't been the feedback that they wanted.
And with Jack Alexander's Saturday Evening Post circulation, the response came back greatly. And I said, we needed you then, in 1941, and we need you now. So the old gentleman, he turned around in his swivel chair and looked outside on the street below, and then he turned around and back to me and he said, what would you like us to do? And I said, oh boy, I like to hear that, what would you like us to do?
And I said, we would like you to cover our area convention we have that in November. And he said, okay, I'll make the arrangements and you contact the city editor and so and so. So that year, in 1970, we had a guest speaker who happened to be one of our gals from GSO, God love them all. And in any case, I don't know, is Cora Louise here today? She's here, but not here. She's not, and this is where she should be. I don't have to talk to her about that.
In any case, she was there, and one of the reporters interviewed her. And he said to her, aren't you a little bit worried about having all these drunks in one hotel at the one time? And she said, well, no, I'm not really worried about that at all. Because, she says, we just drink coffee and we don't break the furniture. So, that's the cooperation that we have. I don't know how many of you people are actually involved in public information now or thinking about it, but you should.
You should think about it. There's one guy right there, he's interested in it. I think you should. Because in the 30th Anniversary International Convention at Toronto, we all took the pledge to carry the message. I am responsible when anyone anywhere reaches out for help. I want the hand of AA always to be there, and for that, I am responsible.
[00:55:04]
So, you know, this is it. And I think that you should think about getting involved in this. I spent 22 years of my AA life in general service. And I think it's done the job for me. I may not have made it otherwise, I don't know. Because I was pretty squirrely when I got into this thing, and my sponsor used to say to me, why don't you get active? Sweep the floor. Empty the ashtrays. And I said, well, I don't smoke.
And he said, get busy with the broom and help make the coffee and get inside the circle. And that opened up some doors for me. I started to think, yeah, you know, I am outside the circle. I don't really feel like I belong here, you know. But today, coming into your meeting here with all of you, I feel at home. This is where I belong. So that makes a difference. Because once you get that feeling, then you can carry the message.
And it's important. And like Bill W., our beloved co-founder, said many years ago, we have to stay abreast of this fast-moving world in which we live. And we have to. So this is the kind of thing we are going to get into today. Just thinking about prime time on television. One October I was sitting down watching the baseball World Series, which I love to watch. I like to see even the games now, but I like the World Series because it's exciting.
And one of my dear friends, whether he or she were AA members or just wanted to support AA during this prime time in the break between the innings, on came one of our clips. So, you know, don't get frustrated if you don't get results right away, but if you hang in there, sooner or later it's going to come. So that was a break that we got that we probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Something that I picked up along the way that helped me.
Maybe it'll help somebody here. Maybe you can translate that into something else for someone else. There are times in service jobs when we have times of testing, just like I've mentioned, when we get a little frustrated about things. Say, I'm going to quit this job. I'm going to get into something else. My wheels seem to be spinning. I'm not going anywhere. Now, there is a quote from a writer that wrote a story in a book that I was reading one time, picking up some philosophy along the way.
And I want a quote from this author. It is how we bear ourselves at such times that determines our real worth and use. Whether we have stamina, backbone, courage, real character, and if at such times we can stand unfaltering, uncomplaining, desirous of neither sympathy nor pity, but resolute and doing today what reveals to be done and so ready for tomorrow when it comes. I thought this guy must be an AA member.
There can be but one outcome. The higher powers of the universe stand back of such a life. They uphold it. They sustain it. They stamp it with success. They crown it with adoration and honor. End of quote. By Ralph Waldo Trine, the author of Wayfarer of the Road. Therefore, you have nothing to fear. So throw out the fear and meet the future with joy and gladness. God love you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Marty.
Incidentally, the Saturday Evening Post has done it again. And for those of you who are not aware, it's on the newsstands. And it's certainly a copy. I had a dozen given to me to give you an idea how popular it is. And I hid it. I didn't quite get it. I put it on a shelf in my office. And I gave out about two of them. And I went home and came back the next day. And they were nice enough to leave me one copy.
And I promptly wrote P.I.D.E.F. across the top of it. So if you have the opportunity, pick one up. I think that this meeting is supposed to be opened up for questions and answers now. I see there's a microphone there. And I'm going to turn it over to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[01:00:05]
Oh, boy. Hello. My name's Art, and I'm an alcoholic from Baltimore. Hi. Just briefly, a question. You all mentioned that when an AA member appears, particularly on camera, in the auspices of being an AA member, it's generally in shadow and with the voice perhaps changed. Is there an attempt, any of you could answer this, is there an attempt made in that to explain in the context of the program that the person is appearing in shadow because of our tradition of anonymity, as opposed to the fact that they're just bloody ashamed of what they've been doing? So, is that put into the context of the program?
This was done on the Today Show. You may have seen a man by the name of Bob T., and a woman by the name of Onyx. You saw the shadow, and what's his name, Brian Gumbel, explained. That's an example. Usually, they do. Joni, have you had any? Yes, absolutely. It's explained. In fact, usually the person, the AA member in shadow, is asked the question first, why do you choose to appear this way? And then we answer, based on the anonymity and the principles for personality, and also to protect the newcomer and encourage them.
Hi. My name is Rich. I'm an alcoholic from Ithaca, New York. Hi, Rich. I'm a filmmaker and also an alcoholic, as you can tell. My question, I don't know who directed to it, I guess the whole panel. I'm interested in making films about the process of recovery. After the past year that I've had of sobriety, I know how much it's meant to me. When I saw the idea of carrying the message through the media, I said, oh, great. I'd like to make a film about the program, but I can't necessarily, how do I work the anonymity issue?
There are many AA members presently in the U.S. and Canada who are working on documentaries and so forth because they love AA like you do and like I do. If they were to call the general service office, the thing that we do offer and that you all know that we have available is AA and Inside View. This is a film designed for the public, and we encourage folks who do receive this to use footage because it is an excellent film, and it's the best thing that we have, and incorporate it with their films.
We always caution them to please, if they're going to talk about the disease, alcoholism, and or a treatment center, to not imply an affiliation, and usually we ask to see how they're going to use the script, if they take something from AA and Inside View. Now, if you have anything to add to that, Jim, or Marty, Joan? Hi, I'm an alcoholic from San Francisco. My name is Blair. Hi, Blair. There's a radio meeting in San Francisco that's been going on for about a year. It's opened up with a moment of silence, followed by the serenity prayer. First names only. It's an open meeting, and it's an hour long, and the first half an hour of it's usually a long one.
The first half an hour of it's usually somebody calls in and reads the traditions, and somebody calls in and reads the portion of the fifth chapter. Pretty much a standard meeting. My question is, in the panel or in anybody else in the room, have you heard of any other meetings, and what's being done at the general service office level about that? There's been a great deal done in the East by Fred F. Same type of thing where there's just a regular AA meeting that meets on television or on the radio, and there's no anonymity break. It's just carrying the message.
It's just another way of carrying the message. It's a little different. I must admit I was surprised the first time I heard about it, but it's getting the message to people who wouldn't otherwise receive it, and that's carrying the message through the media. If you want to add to that. I'm Mary Pate from Annapolis, Maryland. I'm very new to general service. I really don't know what I'm doing is the truth of the matter, but I was wondering about joining the committee that sounded so efficient, 75 people and so forth.
Under whose aegis is this, the state or local intergroup? I also got a little confused about how intergroup and the state work together, so I would like to know how your committee works, and could I write to you or anything? Thanks for the question. I failed to say a couple of things, and first of all, let me tell you, when I was first into service, which is service work, which is about six and a half years ago, I was the longest time getting straight districts from areas from states.
[01:05:17]
We have four areas in Texas, and this is the southeast Texas area assembly, comprised of nine districts plus. Our budget comes from them. We were formed by unanimous vote of the assembly. Intergroup is separate, and I failed to say that we received marvelous cooperation from them. Now, if I haven't answered your question. One other thing. Do you all take turns, your 75 people, you just recruit them, and they take turns answering the phone?
No. Now, I said there are over 70 members, about 30 or 35 that are consistently active. There are four of us at a time that handle the phone. It's for the sake, you said we were efficient, and I felt myself get a little tense, because I used to be Miss Efficiency before I got drunk, and I went back to that. I don't care to be that rigid, but I probably portrayed that again, because I'm a little more honest than I used to be.
You all are volunteers? Oh, absolutely. We have no paid people on the committee. Okay, I'll let you go. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, I'm Rosemary, San Francisco alcoholic. Hi, Rosemary. I'm part of the Spanish-speaking community in San Francisco, and we've had some strange problems, but we'll get away from that. We're starting a public information committee, and we're going through the studying of all the guidelines and all of this stuff.
One thing that has been functioning for a long time is a radio program that the Spanish-speaking central office pays, and it's a 15-minute thing. We're now beginning to cooperate with one another, and what I'd like to know is how far can you go on the radio as far as, you know, they actually have histories. I mean, people talk like that, and then they get into a question and answer type thing. But, you know, the mediator talks. One AA is talking to another one, actually.
But I was just wondering if that's, you know, still okay, or what do I have to do? Where in the guidelines, where in the literature can I find, you know, what it is that if they're doing something wrong so we can help each other to get over, you know, those humps and do our public information properly? Your best guidelines are going to be your traditions, and if you ask me this in a letter, I would ask you to please tell me exactly what it was you wanted to have clarified, and I would pass it along to Vicente, who is our Spanish-speaking staff member.
But as long as the traditions are being upheld, there should be no problem. Well, we've discussed it and discussed it and discussed it, and we go through a yes, we've broken this tradition, and no, we haven't, you know. And it's only our own opinions, right, right there, and it's getting to be real closed and narrow. And we're having a little problem with communication, whether they won't let me communicate with GSO is what it is.
It's not that they won't let me, it's just that, you know, the committee has gotten to that point. And we're getting new people, so hopefully we'll be able to communicate with you more. We have Spanish guidelines also. Yeah. And we have a lot of material in Spanish. All the films are in Spanish now, all the PSAs. Oh, they are? Oh, good. Okay, thank you. Because that might help us a lot more. I appreciate you.
Thank you. Nobody can give you the right to be a ghost. I'm Ole Krista from Norway, and I am an alcoholic. Hi, Ole. Thank you. And I'm working in a newspaper back home, and I just wanted to ask you about, we had this national conference in Norway, where alcoholic anonymous from all the country came, and there was also the press. There came over these two cute little girls from the second biggest newspaper in Norway.
And this is, well, some sort of scandal newspaper, but everybody reads it. I do. And what they did was that they went into a meeting, stayed there for a quarter, get out, interview a couple of people, and went back and made a story.
[01:10:09]
And the whole article ended up by saying that for either the drinking, we call it red spirit. Do you have it here? That's to clean things with, like people on the street, when they don't have nothing else to drink, drink. It's really bad. I mean, it's not, but it have alcohol. For either the drinking, red spirit, or she was regal. They have something in common. They are alcoholics. So that means that the whole article and the whole thing that is become wrong.
And my question is, what should we do then? Should we take up a polemic? Is that the word? Polemic, or a discussion by telling what's right to the newspaper, or should we just let it stay there? I mean, this was wrong information. This was totally wrong. We don't have any chance to correct these people because they use the usual journalist trick. They say that if we don't mention you, especially a lot, we don't phone you up.
If we do, we phone you up. You mentioned that. This is a topic that deeply concerns me always. And because there are no spokespeople for AA, we at GSL, for instance, if we were to receive an article from your newspaper that had misinformation, and we all see misinformation, one of the things that you can do as a citizen, as a private citizen and AA member, you can certainly write to the editor with proper information.
We have a sheet which is free. You can get as many as you want from the office called Information on AA, What We Do and What We Do Not Do. That's a wonderful piece to send. We have several other pieces. But you know, some of the best letters I have ever seen are from AA members writing as private citizens saying this information was not correct. My favorite one is a lady who wrote and she said, and she explained that the information in the Thus and So article was not correct.
And at the very end she said, and oh, my ego would so like to tell you what my name is. And then she went in and told about anonymity and she just signed it. She's an AA member. So you can write, and I know that you're with the press, but you could still write as a citizen, expressing your views and giving credit if you used a piece of AA literature. But it really is a… But what I meant is that it's, I mean, it's something, I thought from the more experienced AA members in Norway, that it is some sort of tradition that AA doesn't take up discussions like this in the press.
You know, not controversy. I guess what I'm trying to say is that a letter to an editor is usually picked up, but because we don't get into controversy and nobody speaks for AA as a whole, if anyone has anything to add to this, I may be off on the wrong track. I may not understand completely what he means. I think he's talking about misinformation. And the thing is that our traditions, the press can write what they want.
They're another entity. They've been so wonderful, though. Ninety-nine percent of the time, and Bill's own words in his old letters, that we use some of his phrases, they've been so responsible in most instances for helping to carry the message, that if there's bad copy, if we can give a little good copy to erase the bad, it usually balances itself out. I always suggest also that you send, I always send a package of press stories to offer the press to use the next time around, or something positive.
I'm Warren Childress, an alcoholic from Florida. I just have the thought, when they write the letter to the editor, how about including that little square you have that says AA policy to the press, distributed on a regular basis? We send that to all the major media once a year, with outlets of, well, 50,000 and over on the circulation. Well, that's part of my job, is sending that. And so we send a copy of that also, many times.
We have about, time for about the people that are standing, hopefully. Yes, I'm Fran, an alcoholic from Florida. Yes, I'm Fran, an alcoholic from Boston. I'm a freelance writer, very interested in public information, and very interested in this particular question, which this is premised on, I believe.
[01:15:02]
One of the big factors, I'd like to address this to Joni. She said how nauseating the concept of public relations would have been when she first accepted the job. Promotion rather than attraction. This thin line of differentiation, I'd like to try to define it a little more extensively for those in the audience of us who are concerned with this and don't want to make… I mean, I know it's probably, in each particular instance, a case in and of itself, but would you elaborate on this difference between promoting and…what's the other?
Attraction and promotion, I think it's very, very important. Thank you. Well, I'll try, if it's all right, Lila. I think to begin with, to start my response, I'd like to refer to some of the material in the Public Information Guidelines, which points out that years ago, the big book was considered promotional. That's when our textbook of Alcott's Anonymous was first published. There were some members that considered that. There is a definition that I use, because it's better than my own words, for what attraction amounts to.
It says, attraction may be described as the ability to carry the message anonymously with grace at the level of press, radio, TV, and film. To specifically answer you, we, as yet, in our area, do not initiate contact. We don't feel strong enough to be able to know where the fine line is. So we, in all cases, are contacted first, at which point we feel that is attraction, not promotion. Now, that isn't to say that we don't respond to some of these articles that are off-base, or some of the articles that are particularly good that we had nothing to do with, whatsoever.
But we try to stay with letting them contact us. Now, as a result, we have been really blessed. We'll speak to one high school all day long, say, 700 students in a certain grade, and the next thing you know, we're getting a call from that teacher or that principal's friend across town. I mean, that is the way we have done. As yet, we're not initiating anything. We do get press releases from Lyla's desk, from General Service Office, send those out with a cover letter, because we only get one, and the copy looks a little bit too routine, you know, when you're sending out copies.
So we send it with a letter, and we will frequently get an answer. So in that case, we're not contacted first. We'll get a request for a talk or for a newspaper article. Does that help you? Well, I mentioned the press release, which, for instance, there have been, I can think of a couple of very significant this year. One was on this international convention, and the other is the standard anonymity that comes out every year. Yes. I would say we initiated those, you know. I don't think we initiated. We certainly did send some out on the latest survey.
We do on the healthcares, too. We make it available. One, and I had a rough time coming on the assignment, because I was the same way. It was not an assignment I wanted to serve, but there was an action on the conference floor this year from one area, I think it was your area, the country, that wanted to change, AA, it works, is at the end of each public service announcement. This particular area, because it's their right, the group conscience felt that this was promotional. But after it went through committee system, which is a real safe system of protecting our beautiful fellowship, it really is, they said, if we said, AA, it works better than, that's promotional.
That made sense to me. It took me almost two years on the assignment to feel comfortable with an answer. We have two more people, and we're going to wrap it up after that. I'll try to make this quick. Hi, I'm Rick. I'm an alcoholic from Vallejo, California. I'm involved in entertainment, and it so happens that for this 39th anniversary of the Vallejo Fellowship, I wrote a skit, and we've ended up performing this several times at the Young People's Convention in California.
[01:20:05]
The skit's called Drunk Busters, and I've been approached about making a videotape of this, and before I did anything like that or went ahead with a project like that, I wanted to know how it would go about either making this AA approved or not AA approved. The way it turns out, the skit never mentions AA in the skit. It will be an outside cause, so it wouldn't be endorsed nor approved. We're working with NBC right now on Monday Nights at the Movies. We don't approve nor endorse it, but we're there to help if you need information, and that's where we are with it. You're always welcome to use the footage from AA and Inside View.
Okay, thank you. Portion's right. Now, am I violating my anonymity in that respect? I remember. I've written to you, right? Yes. Yes, you do a lot of work in the schools. I don't see why you would be. There are a lot of people going into the schools. There's a great need with the young people, and out of the conference this year, that voice came loud and clear. There's a great need to carry the message, and we're so grateful for people like you that are doing that.
I have to give one experience. We went to what they call a school for special children in Connecticut, and they're from broken homes, and we gave a presentation on AA, nationally AA, Al-Anon, and Alateen, and these children had never heard of any of them. The questions that those kids can ask will amaze you. Don't underestimate those children. They might be in school, but they are wise. And at the end of that presentation, three of those children went and asked about Alateen meetings, and the most rewarding thing I got out of that, one little girl came up to me, and she looked me in the eyes and said, gee, I'm so glad you don't drink anymore. That's my reward. Thank you.
I want to thank all of you who took part in this. I just think it was a very good workshop, and thanks to the speakers, and thank you for being here for me and giving me the opportunity to serve you. And with that, let's stand and close this meeting with the Lord's Prayer.