Tradition 9 and Rotating Leadership – 12 Steps/12 Traditions Workshop – Part 4 of 7 – Chris R.

Thanks. I'm Billy. I am an alcoholic. Set my watch for 20 minutes. Tradition 9, I'm going to read the long form. This is a long one. I'll read through it once entirely and then maybe we can take it a couple of lines at a time. Oh, you know what? I'm just going to give a plug for what Chris just said. if there was ever an organization that the IRS would give like a lifetime achievement award to it would be Alcoholics Anonymous okay if there's a lifetime achievement award that they're giving out it would be to our organization I will tell you that my experience was the same as Chris described and I found out that my experience was much like many others letters in the mail didn't do it I went to work one day, and I didn't get a paycheck. Well, I got a paycheck, but there was no money in it. There was just a note on the other side that said there was something called a garnishment. I found out a lot of people in AA have a lot of experience with this. But I did find out that when I sat down with the IRS and I told them my plans were to pay this back, they happily embraced me. So, Tradition 9. Each AA group needs the least possible organization Rotating leadership is the best The small group may elect its secretary The large group its rotating committee And the groups of a large metropolitan area Their central or intergroup committee Which often employs a full-time secretary The trustees of the General Service Board Are in effect our General Service Committee They are the custodians of our AA tradition And the receivers of the voluntary AA contributions by which we maintain our AA General Service Office at New York. They are authorized by the groups to handle our overall public relations, and they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the AA Grapevine. All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service. The true leaders in AA are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles. They do not govern. Universal respect is the key to their usefulness. The short form, which AA as such should never be organized, but we may create service boards, committees are directly responsible for those they serve. So like many things else in AA, looks like we have a few paradoxes here. So in the short form I can't emphasize enough the importance of that comma after AA. AA comma as such I get service on a really low in the triangle upside down triangle and it's easy for that to sound complicated okay it is in 2017 my last year at the bottom of the triangle I was chair of the AA World Services Board a class trustee i was on the nominating committee the compensation committee the audit committee the finance and budget committee and the legal affairs committee that sounds pretty complicated aa comma as such we're really talking about the spiritual front lines of alcoholics anonymous we're not talking about the sometimes complicated service structure that we have because we have to operate in the legal world so um i want to just go quickly to page 28 of the aa group pamphlet i have this pamphet in front of me the second paragraph to step up out of an aa office you love can be hard i loved being a trustee i did if you've been doing a good job if you honestly don't see anyone else around willing qualified with all the time to do it and if your friends agree it's especially tough so what is that saying if you're doing a good job and you honestly don'T see anyone ELSE willing or qualified or that has the time to do IT and if YOUR FRIENDS AGREE IT'S ESPECIALLY TOUGH in other words you should still do it but it can be a real step forward in growth a step in the humility that is for some people the spiritual essence of anonymity let me take you back to a old spiritual kind of principle you cannot fill a filled position this is easiest to describe with the person who opens the door at a meeting or a coffee and cookie person. If no one volunteers to be the person who opens up wherever you meet, I can guarantee you if the same person keeps doing it, no one's going to step up. But what I can do is I can't guarantee you more is if no one steps up and you're all sitting in the parking lot locked out the next week or the week after, someone will step up. Okay? Someone will step up if it's a needed service. Same with maybe your person who opens up the facility does show up. If your coffee and cookie person doesn't show up for two weeks, I'm just telling you, someone's going to step up but if someone else thinks they should do it they're not going to step up and by the way i'll add something to this little spiritual principle if you can't fill the filled position if two months go by and your group is doing just fine without this position served well maybe you have too many positions maybe you are uncomplicated maybe you've become too organized but the most damaging thing and let me just talk about this from two points of view there's no doubt about it it's damaging for the group or the committee to have the same person serve over and over again but we don't realize the spiritual harm we do to other people if we keep having them serve keep putting them on a pedestal keep thinking that we can't do it unless they're the treasurer unless they are the chairperson that's why the long form says you know rotating leadership is best the small group may elect its secretary the large group its rotating committee and then it goes on to say a couple of things that aren't emphasized enough the trustees of the general service board are in effect our general service committee they are the custodians of our aa tradition and the receivers of voluntary contributions by which we maintain our aa general service office in new york what does that mean well it means even if you think you're sending your checks to gso gso is just the name of a location it's an office where people work the general service office there's no such thing as gso incorporated contributions go to the general services board in fact all our literature says to make those checks out to the central service board if you buy literature you make a check out to world services there's an easy way to see this little spiritual kind of conundrum if you were to go to the aa.org website and you were going to go to the place to make an electronic contribution and you used your debit or credit card instantaneously in whatever app you use for your bank or credit card you would see a pending transaction from the general service board however if you left that section of the website and went to the online catalog for publishing department if you bought some literature your receipt would say aa world services inc you see your money for literature can go directly to the corporation that prints and edits and publishes the literature but contributions are sacred It is the 21 trustees that are custodians of the traditions and the receivers of that money. Now, what do the trustees do with that money? Well, a couple of times a year they transfer it to AA World Services because AA World Services employs the employees that do the service work. AA World Service has kind of two sides to it, the publishing and the services. But there's something else that really says important here. They are the custodian of our AA tradition. That means the 21 trustees are the custodians. I love the Spanish AA word for trustee, it's custodio, custodium. And although we always want to make something better, we always want to be the best cookie person the best coffee person right we hate when somebody does a job better than us but the two the true job of a custodian think about your favorite custodians at the high school you went to what's her or his job every night it's to restore the room into the condition it started that morning it doesn't need to have to be better it's to give something back in the manner in which it was given to you in the same condition we could talk to that about AA we have a duty that the AA that started on June 10th 1935 is the same AA we pass on today we're the custodians of that AA experience same when you have a job in AA at your home group it's just to restore it the same way it was given to you but then it goes on to say some other things they are authorized by the groups to handle our overall public relations and then a very important line sometimes people complain about the grapevine they don't like a story in it they don'T like artwork they DON'T like a picture they used sometimes we'll hear somebody sometimes a delegate say well the grape vine has editorial freedom that is true to a point they have editorial freedom but per tradition 9 it is the trustees that guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper the AA Grapevine the trustees are responsible for the grapevine and electing the directors who run the grapevine corporation and therefore those directors are the ones who hire the employees it should never be an easy way out for a delegate or a trustee to say oh the grapevine has editorial freedom not if it has to do with the integrity of our message when it comes to the integrity that's the trustee's responsibility it says all such representatives would be guided by the spirit of service for true leaders in aaa are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole they derive no real authority from their titles they do not govern universal respect is the key for their usefulness so a couple of things i want to um just point out in the traditions illustrated again if you're just joining us it has no page numbers but it does have a section on tradition nine two pages um and it says we do set up committees and boards but whether they make out coffee or help organize groups in deepest africa they only serve that's it your job is to serve and there's no king or queen of aa for a day or a year that's it your job title does not give you authority it really tells you what your job is it's kind of like a job description we don't have any royalty or titles um there is a common thing that gets brought up in this and i know i couldn't help myself yes i brought out the red book sorry i know this is on the 12 traditions but there's a very important line regarding some urban myths and alcoholics anonymous regarding ineffective service workers so in the new service manual on page 107 there is actually a section on in the title appendix e principle of rotation an active gsr dcm or trusted servant and this is what it says sometimes a trusted servant who has been elected or appointed to serve the fellowship may find that their life circumstances change or the service workload becomes unwieldy if there is an alternate for this person that person may be able to help but difficult decisions may need to be made in order to ensure continuity of the fellowship voice and in the service structure. The continuity is the most important. We already talked about that in Tradition 1. My feelings are not more important than AA running fine. It goes on to say, each service entity has autonomy regarding what constitutes an inactive trusted servant whether it be a gsr dcm or other service position experience in the fellowship suggests that trusted servant may be asked to resign if it appears they are unable to carry out their responsibilities of the position the service entity involved is then free to elect a new trusted servant to the position there is so much bad information in aa around this so we don't want to punish anyone we don'T want to kick anyone out but AA is a strange place right I don'T have the page number because I DON'T have it in front of me but there's a piece of literature that says won't all types of odd people show up well I think we know the answer to that question 87 years later right yes all kinds of odd People have showed up including myself it happens but AA is the only place where let's just say you get elected and you're the best person who's ever done that position oh my god people will have a million questions for you and why are you changing this and why aren't you doing that but let's say you don't show up for like three meetings And someone, God forbid, raises their hand and says, hey, what are we going to do? The secretary is not showing up. And what do we always hear? Let me go to the big book for a second. Frothy. Frothy emotional appeal. We hear someone say, oh my God, you can't remove them. They may drink. Well, let me go back to the very start then. If someone's spiritual condition is in such condition that unless they do or don't have an AA service position, they will drink. That is the first sign they should not be holding that service position. Okay, I just want to say that again. If their spiritual condition isn't in such bad shape that having this title would make them drink or not, They have no business holding that service position. If you believe what the big book says, which I do, it has nothing to do with whether they drink or not. What's more important is that AA continues. Sometimes I'll hear people talk about the requirements for a new GSR, but I mean this and I love the service structure of Alcoholics Anonymous. and I have nothing for respect but for everybody doing service but if you start doing that type of service before you have a foundation in Alcoholics Anonymous and your own recovery you're missing the boat we need people who do service who have already been through the big book of the 12 and 12 how can you be voting about the future of AA if you don't have an experience as a recovered alcoholic? How can you be voting about the future of AA if you do not have the grasp of the traditions? But this thing that we should be held hostage by someone who is not doing their job, that is not a spiritual principle. I do want to point out that inside the AA group pamphlet, again, if it was up to me, I think it should be handed out with every big book. I just want to go to another page. Page 17, how an AA group functions. I already heard somebody say last night the owner's manual. You know what this is? you ever bought a new or a used car and someday you have to change the tire and you go to change the tire well and what do you find there but some velcroed book of the owner's manual now you've been the owner for like three years but you've never read that manual it's just been sitting in the tire well you would read everything else except the owner'S manual That's what the AA group pamphlet is in AA. It's the owner's manual. And it talks about all these great things. It talks about how to start a group, naming a group. What do group members do? What do trusted servants do? Why have a steering committee? How can newcomers be reached? a lot of groups have business meetings or group consciences depending on where you live in the world I'm not going to say they're different or they're the same take a lesson from me I've moved a few times for my job don't show up and tell everybody they're doing it the wrong way in some areas of the country it's called a business meeting and that's where they have their group conscience in other areas ofthe country they call it their group conscious meeting and that's where they do the business of the group. In still other places, they have regular monthly business meetings for regular business, and once or twice a year, they have a group conscience for difficult topics. All of that is perfectly okay. None of it is wrong. Some groups have a steering committee, and that steering committee meets every month. Now, the pitfalls of the steering committee that I've seen are when people get elected to steering committees and never have an expired term. I know some groups believe in that, but I've seeing it cause some trouble. But again, that choice between a business meeting and a steering committee is for your group and what works best for your Group. But I really don't know how someone can really be an effective group member without having the AA group pamphlet. It's what it's there for, so that's it. I'm on minute 19. Thanks very much. Thank you, Billy. Now back to Chris for the next 30 minutes speaking on step 10. There you go. I am back in there. Welcome, welcome. That was some good stuff, Billy, yeah. Lesson learned the hard way sometimes. The step 10 is on page 84 and 85. This is one of my favorites. I'm going to read just a little bit there, 84. This thought brings us to step 10, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commence this way of living as we cleaned up the past. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to over the years that says, buddy, what step are you on? They always end up saying the same stuff around that. Well, I'm not at step 10 yet. Buddy, listen, if you're out here making amends or you're not here bebopping along and you step on somebody, clean it up. That's all Bill Wilson's trying to say. We entered the world of the spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for a lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed someone, anyone. Then we resolutely turned our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code. Yeah. Now, folks, I don't know. I can't think of any time in the last 35 years where I've intentionally tried to hurt anyone. But I do it all the time. One of the cool things about getting sober and you get good and detoxed and you start doing this work and all of a sudden you develop this thing called a consciousness. We talked about it earlier yesterday. Like, you know, all of a sudden stuff that I used to get away with over here and not be bothered by it now bother the daylights out of me. Thank God that we can – I know. Thank God. Thank Godthat we can feel that. I mean, people that can't feel – that have no conscience, guys, are called psychopaths. And we had some of y'all in AA. Okay, welcome. And, guys., I don't want to play that game. I just, yeah, I don't remember ever standing out and do something. But I managed to do it on a really regular basis. And I'll tell you again, I said it yesterday when we were talking about four-step stuff. You kick up the universe, it kicks back. You know, I'm putting some bad stuff out there. I'm going to tell you, it's going to come back and bite me in the butt. And so if I'm bebopping along and I finally become realized that I've done something stupid, I get the opportunity to clean it up. Now, real quick, Doug, go back online and Google, like when you were getting your night step amend script that you were going to read, yeah, stop that, okay? But if you Google author, Google 10th step or 11th step stuff, and you will get a whole bunch of stuff out there too, okay, the 10th Step Nightly Review. 10th Stepp is not a nightly review, right? The instructions we just read, you're free to disagree, the instructions we read are real clear. As I go throughout my day and I step on somebody, I get to go clean it up. Nightly reviews or nightly reviews, we want to do that, 11-step stuff. But if you go online, they'll always end up seeming to put it with 10. I could show you the app on my phone right now, 10-step app, and they talk about it. Guys, as we go through the day, it's just been a blessing since somebody finally slowed down and showed me this. Had a board member that met with me. I mean, I've known him forever. He's been a part of our little recovery club, little nonprofit that we started in the Hill Country. We wanted a place to go meet where all the little groups in town could meet that were all big book groups and literature-based groups. And we had outposts, and we just – you know, he's been on that board forever. And coming home one night after the meeting, and мы're fixing to get ready for the group conscience, and he comes up and asks me something about something that was going on in the bathroom, and I snapped his head off, you know. I'm trying to get busy and trying to take care of some business or whatever, and I said, yeah, I'll take careof it, blah, blah. Anyway, he got his little feelings hurt, I guarantee you, and I should have. Two days later, he turned in his resignation, you know, and I happened to work with a guy and I went down and talked to him and he just let me know that he didn't appreciate being talked to the way I talked to Him. He's a friend, folks. I didn't know that I'd stepped on Him. but this guy explained that he didn't like the tone i used he was with the sponsee at the time and and you know i made him feel little like by talking to him like that had no right to do that and i cleaned it up as fast as i could and he's still on the board y'all understand but i'm not sitting up there trying to rationalize well i would have said this if you hadn't done that stop didn't have to have a reason if you step on somebody go clean it up i'll tell you one one uh quick little story i um because 10-step is not all that complicated guys it just it gives us some real good instructions about what to do and um i uh favorite story about that i'm coming through the airport. I travel a lot. I get a chance to speak a lot of places, and I live in airports. I'm heading to Florida next weekend, and anyway, this was a few years ago. I am going through TSA, and if y'all ever notice my watch that I wear like that, this is a beautiful watch. It's called a Timex Expedition. It's $35. Y'all understand? Yeah. Some of you guys are wearing watches more than I make in a half a year. I understand, but no. I wear these specifically so it doesn't set off all the bells and whistles going through security in airports. It's just – I don't think there's any metal on it. It's an inexpensive watch. And I'm going through the airport, PSA. I'm running a little late for a change. You know, I'm busy as I can be. I've always got something going on and phones ringing and I'm going through TSA and this nice guy goes through it and the bell rings off and God, I look at him like, like what? And he said, yeah, I was going to do a secondary screening on you, sir. Please step over this direction. I believe it's your watch. And I said, it's a stupid Timex. It can't be the watch. I do this all the time. It never comes off like that. And I unload on this guy. Y'all follow? It's like I got used to secondary screenings after 9-11. When I'm walking through TSA with a black eyepatch, I mean, guys, I'm being profiled. I look like a terrorist. I give you – okay. That's not what the guy said. He said it's my watch, and I'm going to start arguing with him about this watch. We take it off. Sure enough, that's what it was. I grabbed it. Man, now listen. Some of us have got stuff to do, and we don't deserve to be treated like this. I can't believe the stuff that was coming out of my mouth. You know, it was just stupid. I'm in a hurry, stressed out, grabbed the watch out of his hand a little too quick, you know, got in my bag and started heading off to the gate. I got about halfway to this gate, and I heard my phone ring, and I reached down and grabbed hold of it, and it was a guy that I sponsored in Dallas. And I immediately didn't even give this guy a chance to start talking about why he called me. I just unloaded on telling you about these people, these absolute fools, the TSA guys and the way they treated me. And, you know, God dang it, you're just so stupid that I have to stop because Vince was my buddy. And he looked at me and said, my, my. Sounds like somebody needs to go and do a 10-step. I stopped dead in the middle of the track. I said, mine, mine. Sounds like someone needs to find a new sponsor. Like that hung up on him. You know, I mean, it was just my sponsee called me on this stuff like a big dog. And I was like, oh, man. And I'm stopped right in the middle of the walkway, which I hate people do that in an airport. Move over, for Christ's sake. People are in a hurry. And I stop right there like that and I stick out with men. And I pivot around and I head back towards the TSA section, security. And this guy sees me coming. I'm walking at him. I mean, I'm going at a pretty good pace. And one of the things you learn when you are wearing a black eyepatch, you don't approach anybody quickly, very slowly, especially if you're in a dark parking lot. You don't do this. Make some noise. Coming up on your boss. Coming up with this thing that will scare him. I'm walking up like this, and this guy starts backing up. He puts his hand up like that and starts backing off because he thinks I'm gonna continue my tirade that I left him with. i said buddy if you give me 10 seconds i want to apologize for for uh acting a fool like i did with you a second ago and he said oh don't worry about it i said i know but i'd like the opportunity if i could he says i'm fixing to go on break if you got a minute and i did have a minute and i got back off to the side and waited for him and he kept looking over at me thinking i was going to go away and i didn't and he got went on break i saw him talk to his supervisor he got on break like that walked up to me like that introduced himself and i introduced myself and i said listen let me just tell you i was completely preoccupied and all this stuff going on it's just nuts no matter what was going on in my life i had absolutely no right to talk to you that way you're a servant here you've been i mean buddy i see you in here every time i come through i i absolutely apologize for speaking to you that way and he looked at me like i had three heads i said well we don't hear that very often i says i know i can't imagine the crap you take from the public but but i needed you to know that i appreciate what you're doing i thought he was going to cry all right i shook his hand and he shook mine y'all understand? Yeah. And I headed off back to the gate. I'm going to say this, Jill, you all understand exactly what I'm talking about. I'm heading off to the game. My walk to the gait this time was completely different than my walk to gait the first time. I've not grinded my teeth, matted. You all understand? I'm just sitting there, just all in the weight lock. Guys, we're all going to make mistakes. Today, I will guarantee you that I will make mistakes. One of my favorite steps in the whole wide world is this 10th step because it allows me to clean up this stuff every time I, when I make the mistake. Every time I go through the airport, I guarantee whenever you see him in there, he'll see me over there and he'll wave. You know, I got me a new friend in TSA. Y'all understand? And I got to tell you, I'm going to zip straight. There were good times that I lost something in Tsa. I picked up something wrong, the wrong bag, wrong my little computer one time and i had to go back to him and he was right there but i said wait can you help me he stopped what he was doing and come over and help me all because i cleaned up the wreckage of my past he looked this oh man we got it i got it right over here let me get it for you bam he's a good egg and he thinks i'm a good eg and that's what counts because i am so i want you to look at one thing real quick it's a short step it's not going to take long bottom paragraph these things called the Tenth Step Promises. Now, I'm going to read these, and while I'm reading them, ask yourself why we don't have these on every AA group wall in the world. You go into any AA group, and the Ninth Step Promiser is always there. Ninth step promises are cool. Let me just say my opinion. Be free to disagree. Tenth step promises make the ninth step promises looks just pale by comparison. Ten-step promises are awesome, and we've ceased fighting anything or anyone, even alcohol. Man. Yeah. For by this time, sanity will have returned. We are seldom interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it like a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this happens automatically we will remember to look at our gorski relapse prevention workbook grid and check our triggers list and make sure is that no i'm sorry that's not in here it says we will find that this happens automatically we will see that our new attitude towards liquor has been given to us without any thought or effort on our part it just comes exclamation point that's the miracle of it we are not fighting it neither are we avoiding temptation dang we feel as though we've been placed in a position of neutrality safe and protected we have not even sworn off instead the problem has been removed it does not exist for us we are neither cocky nor we afraid this is how we uh that is how our that is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition. Oh my, I was talking from a podium one time, mentioned that Patty and I, every Thanksgiving for years, I spoke at an AA conference in Las Vegas one time. And I spoke there several times, as a matter of fact, and it was fun. But we go back every Thanksgiving, you know, it's that Thanksgiving weekend, and we go back to Vegas, and I'm not a big gambler, but I am a buffet whore. I'm just saying. I, I'm okay. We're all amongst friends. I'll just go ahead and say it, and we don't hurt them, and, uh, I said it from the podium that I was talking about. Patty and I, and we, last year, we took a bunch of our AA friends, a couple folks we sponsored, and we all went down there together. We had a great time with, walked the streets, just shop, and just haven't had a super time. And it's just like, guys, we've been doing that forever. And I had a lady come up afterwards and said, you know, I really think it's inappropriate that you shared that from the podium. You need to understand that that can really trigger some people. See, but you got to understand one of the things that we don't do sometimes is paint this accurate picture of what sobriety looks like if if an adequate picture of your sobriete is after a period of time having to stay away from temptations and slippery places and slippery things and all this other stuff then you are not experiencing the same miracle i'm experiencing this sense of freedom that we could get when we can go and come as we please i don't have to worry about it patty and i go we're traveling we're in a crowded uh uh airport the only place to sit is at a bar and rest you know in a you know to eat lunch we're gonna eat we're going to eat who cares the problem has been removed we cease fighting anything or anyone i mean that's it bam i don't have to hide from it i can come and go as i please and that's in this world and man that's a hope if anything we can do when we're talking about these steps guys for the newcomer and i know we've got a bunch of newcomers on here. Guys, the hope is that your life doesn't have to be painted because you're an alcoholic. Right now, today, you can go out there and live life to the fullest. Work the steps, guys. Have a spiritual experience. And I got to tell you, what happens is you get taken to that position of neutrality. And then you can do whatever the heck you want to go do. This picture that we're going to walk on eggshells and tiptoe the rest of our life worrying about that obsession to come back. It won't. You do the things that we're asking you to do, guys, and I got to tell you, it will not come back, and that's what it's about. On through the day, guys. If you're coming across something, you say something to somebody that's stupid, put something in an email that doesn't, your conscience is going to let you know that you screwed up. You know, I'll be talking to patty sometimes her desk is right next to mine i'll be talking i says uh i think i owe this guy an amen she never stops typing she said you do bam no i'm gonna and i gotta go clean it up that's what we got to do guys can you believe it at 35 years old 35 years sober i still make mistakes hard to believe i know almost perfect like i am i still do so thank you all so much i finished a little bit early as you there you go guys thanks thank you chris and now speaking on tradition 10 for the next 30 minutes once again i give you billy thanks billy alcoholic thanks chris um i'm going to read the long form no a group or member should ever in such a way as to implicate a express any opinion on outside controversial issues particularly those of politics alcohol reform or sectarian religion the alcoholics anonymous group supposed no one concerning such matters they can express no views whatever the short form alcoholics synonymous has no opinion on outside issues hence the a name would never be drawn into public controversy and what i just wanted before i go on just why is the long form important because sometimes when people read the short form, all they think is that AA has no opinion. When the long form is very clear, no AA group or member should ever in such a way as to implicate AA express any opinion on outside controversial issues, particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. So I have a little question here. I would just ask everybody to consider this in your daily AA life. And the question is yours to answer, not mine. And really the question for me is how important is it your effectiveness as an AA member? Like how important is that to you? If it's real important you might have to give up a little individual freedom and liberty. if it's not important well then maybe you have more latitude than some others you can tell tradition 10 is important because it's the only one in the traditions illustrated that has no narrative just pictures it's like hey we know some of these people will never read this so we're going to make this one all pictures you know as a picture of a guy at a podium and so thanks to a i've maintained a happy sobriety for 10 years i thank you but and then it has but before i leave let me say these couple of things and then across it it says i know i speak for all of aa when i protest the current legislation before congress i refer to that infamous piece of rubbish known as house bill whatever what i want to tell people is if you're behind an aa podium or you're chairing a meeting i hate to break it to you uh you could say all you want you're not speaking for aa but if you say controversial things yeah the newcomer in the audience yeah they think that you're the king of aa or the president of aa o the queen of aa that's just how it appears inside uh aa comes of age um there's some great great paragraphs maybe one of my favorites is on page 125 i'm even going out of order but i'm going to follow chris's lead uh we don't got to be so dogmatic i love this line when it describes a lot of us page 125 third paragraph second full paragraph considering how most of us have really loved controversy that's quite a line right considering how many of you have ever read most of those have really love controversy this denial of the privilege of attacking something or somebody in public is no small achievement for the naturally aggressive people that we are I mean, what a great line that is, you know? I mean what a wake-up call that is to a lot of us. And by the way, if you're a type B passively aggressive people, I think you could read it the same way. No small achievement for the naturally passive aggressive people that we are. So whichever you are aggressively aggressive or passively aggressive, it's aggressive nonetheless. In the beginning, on page 123 of A.A. Comes of Age, in the third full paragraph, it says, as by some deep instinct we have known from the very beginning that no matter what – hold on while I just set something here – While no matter what the provocation, we must never publicly take sides as AA in any fight, even a worthy one. So I want to read that again. We have known from the very beginning that no matter what the provocation we must never publicly take sides as AA's in any fight even a worthy one. i can't tell you i i had the you know a great privilege i served for 12 years at the bottom of the triangle four years as an appointed committee member four years is a director on the world services board and four years As a trustee and still a director of a world service i got to know the people working the public information desk very well and it would always amaze me because you work that desk two years at a time and the person working the desk would tell me that the same reporter who called three weeks ago who said hey I understand so and so celebrity just got arrested but they say they're a member of AA and trying to get better do you have a comment no we don't comment three weeks later that same reporter calls and says hey so-and-so university just put out a study on binge drinking and dwis and the correlation between the two to does aa have a comment and no in the last two weeks we haven't changed our policy we just don't comment on outside issues uh but you know feel free to call us anytime you need information about alcoholics Anonymous. On page 124 in the first full paragraph, it says, but when it comes to AA as a whole, that's a different matter. As AAs, we don't enter into public controversy because we know that our fellowship will perish if we do. We conceive the survival and spread of Alcoholics Anonymous to be something of greater importance than any weight we could collectively throw back on the back of other causes. Recovery from alcoholism is life itself to us, and we wish to preserve in full strength our means of survival. You know, and let me just say there, you know, there was a little question yesterday about why is this going on? And, you know. Chris is here talking about the big book and the steps in the big book and I hear about the traditions but truthfully if you take the time to get to know somebody and let's say they're really heavy in the big book side of things or let's say they are really heavy in the service and traditions kind of thing if they would open up their minds and read the literature on the supposed other side of the triangle they would see how much of it comes together that we're really all talking about the same thing in all the literature. It's only when people become too stuck on one side of the triangle that they kind of view the other one or two sides as kind of like the enemy but I'm telling you there is gold in AA Comes of Age, there is Gold in the AA Group pamphlet there is gold in language of the heart as much as there is gold in the big book if you're one of the people here who probably might know the big book better than I do I will assure you read through it one more time with one assignment extract every time you see one of 12 traditions and that book was written I don't know 17 years before the big book was written i'm sorry eight years before the big book was written seven years they might not be called the 12 traditions in the first edition of the big books but you read through those first 164 pages or at that time you know it's funny i'll mention that this whole thing of us and them drives me crazy you know how many times i've ran into somebody especially when i was a trustee and i would hear things like well you people are trying to end aa we like what people are trying to hand a i would really love if they're from the chris r camp right because then they tend to be kind of animated you know and uh you know and they'd be like i'd be like listen i hate that the doctor's opinion is roman numerals i've wanted the doctor'S opinion to go to page one forever like i i am a big fan of when don p used to say let's all start reading out of page one and the whole audience would be saying war fever ran high except for him he'd be reading the first lines of the doctor's opinion and he'd say that's what's wrong with a8 today it's a textbook but we don't start on page one but my the reason i'm saying this is If you take the time to talk to people, what's being said in AA comes of age in the 12 and 12 is no different than what's being said In the big book. And you know, this line that I just read, but when it comes to a as a whole, there is no different matter. We conceive the survival and spread of Alcoholics Anonymous to be something of greater importance than any weight we could collectively throw behind any causes recovery from alcoholism is life itself to us and we wish to preserve it in full strength our means of survival so now we're in 2022 now we have social media all over the place email text messages and let's face it the outside world When AA was first started, the biggest outside issue probably was the WTCU, the WCTU, the Women's Christian Temperance Movement. And remember, prohibition just ended when AA started. Even drinking of alcohol was an outside issue. But what a way to mention, like Chris just mentioned, the 10-step promises. We're not anti-alcohol. We don't have an opinion on alcohol. We're just people who can't drink. Other people seem to be able to drink just fine. I can't think of anything else. I can drink just find. But now we're in the current day. and a lot of you are from the united states some are from canada i see some other countries i see people from auckland and new zealand and australia london um but i'm sure even you all heard uh that our country has been ripped apart by politics it seems the last eight or ten years more than ever before now that's not an outside issue that's acknowledgement of the world that I live in. The world I live in seems to be very extreme one side or the other. And again, I want to read that question that I wrote. How important is your effectiveness as an AA member to you? You know, I read a thing that somebody wrote, a trusted servant wrote on Facebook and it broke my heart. And it just, and by the way, I'm holding everybody guilty. I'm not picking on any one, two or three sides of the political spectrum. I've seen bad actors in AA on all sides. But I have to read on Facebook by someone that's a delegate that says if you and it's to the public not to some special friends list to everybody if you voted for that person I will never talk to you well when I read that I wonder do they really mean that that they'll never talk to anybody or in their own mind did they put kind of an invisible asterisk like I know I can be like that Chris just talked about the 10 step Sometimes I think maybe I put an invisible asterisk in things I say that I think other people see. I mean them when I say them, but it's not there. So what did that person mean when they said, I'm not going to talk to anyone that voted for that person? Did they have an invisible Asterix there that they meant to put there that said, unless I'm trying to help you in AA? Because what about the new AA GSR who shows up at that area assembly and has a question? Does that mean that GSR already knows that delegate won't talk to them because they voted for someone else? I don't know. New people are very impressionable. Going to your first AA service event can be a little nerve-wracking. like what are we really doing when we say things like that and by the way if you have a public facebook wall uh everybody else in aa that knows you're an aa member well they know you're in aa member and i'm not saying you lose your right to be an individual in your community or to support certain causes But what's really happening in our meetings today? I can share with you in a meeting that I personally attended at my old home group. It was the first day after a presidential primary debate, a debate. And the first person who shared with like 30 something years, not on topic, of course, has to raise their hand and say I don't know if anyone else watched that debate last night but no wonder this country is going into hell those people don't believe in such and such I'm not going to say what they said but you know about three people later a woman raised her hand and thank God we don't discuss that here that has nothing to do with Alcoholics Anonymous we don't take sides on political issues and you know after a couple of us shared the same but after that meeting a newcomer walked up to all of us and said you know thank you for saying what you said because i had a feeling i wasn't welcome here i thought maybe i couldn't come back to this meeting and you know words matter like i said yesterday you can be so flippant and say oh i could say something that scares someone out of an aa meeting alcohol will bring them back not always that's that's not the truth when somebody sits next to me at an aa meeting, if I'm doing what it says again to attach to the big book in working with others you know the best thing I can say is this. Helping someone in AA is like family members. You can pick your friends but you don't get to pick your family and I'm sure that a lot of us have been in that situation where we're like thank God they're related to us. Otherwise, I might not ever talk to them again, right? I think we can all say we've been at the Thanksgiving table where some discussion comes up. I mean, Tradition 10 is basically good Thanksgiving etiquette for every family in America, right. We're not going to talk about politics religion or any of these things today because we don't know how to control our tempers around it it's just the truth these are issues that are very personal to people i always tell the story in 2008 i went to my brother's my family gathered in san diego at my one brother's house. We spent all Thanksgiving Day today. It went incredibly well. The next day we went to SeaWorld. Believe it or not, that went incredibly well. We decided to order food in at my brother's home. We ordered food at my brother's house to have dinner together for a second day in a row. At that point, it seems we were pushing our luck. So we ordered food At one point, I went up to go to the bathroom. This is not an exaggeration of any kind. As I exited the bathroom into the kitchen, my one brother was throwing my other brother out of the house. My other brother was telling him that he was like our father. He better get a hold of himself and get some help. And this was all over, as you know, Thanksgiving is, you know in our country usually three or four weeks after election day not good timing and a subject came up there and this is such good practical advice but how does it show up in our meetings how does het show up at our events how does et show up when you sit next to me at meeting. Again, I want to be very careful with my words here. All of us lead busy lives. If you just came home from work, barely changed, took one of your kids to dance, the other kid to little league, the other kids to gymnastics, and now you're racing to your home group and you didn't realize what shirt you had on, great. I'm not here to pick on you. But if every time you go to a meeting or a group, you want to wear a particular political party shirt or hat, I have to question your motives. I have to question why it would be so hard for that baseball hat to just stay in your car. Why do you need to bring it into the group? Do you not want to be an effective member of AA? As some of you know, a couple of years ago, we had some contentious Supreme Court hearings going on for new justices. Why do I have to be in an AA meeting and hear someone bring that up? I almost shudder to go to meetings now the day after election day again I'll go back to what I said before somebody raises their hand and says I can't believe what happened I don't even know if I can stay sober well I'll do it again I'll just go back to what I said before if your sobriety is contingent on the outcome of a political election I think you might have more work to do you might want to sit down and start writing again you may have to re-examine exactly the spiritual kind of agreement you've made with your higher power because for my higher power if i greet you at the door or greet you you sit next to me it doesn't matter if you're pro-life or pro-choice. It doesn't matter if you're a pro-gun or anti-gun. It doesn't mater if you are a Democrat or a Republican. It does not matter what color you are, or what religion you believe in, or even if you don't believe in God. And as I always joke around, it doesn't matter if your Boston Red Sox fan. If you are there because you have trouble with alcohol and think you might need help from Alcoholics Anonymous, then my hand is supposed to extend the hand welcoming you and i am not supposed to behave or act or say things in a way where you may think that i might not want to help you and there's all kinds of subtle ways this happens the parking lot everybody knows i think the parking Lot is one of the most spiritual places in the world. Sometimes I think it's more spiritual than where the meeting actually takes place. It's where some people's lives have been saved. That parking lot is just as much AA as the inside of that building. You don't need to wear pins on your jacket or on your purse or whatever. if it's election time just think take two seconds or how about this this is another trend i've seen whether it's a vape shop or a head shop that sells supplies or uh even now in today's world tb you know um cbd and marijuana is legalized in so many places i'll hear somebody mention in a meeting every once in a while. I have a petition that I'm asking people to sign because we don't want a store to open up in such and such place. We don't do that in Alcoholics Anonymous. We keep it far away. There's no doubt that Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Driving Drunk are outstanding organizations, but we don'T pick a side. religion can be also an issue here. Again, I know there are many people in this meeting who are better experts than me on AA history. But I know that at the first meeting, King Street, King School, I get that they used a Bible there. There was no other literature. Now, if when you're sitting in the audience section of an AA meeting, if you want to talk about how step three and the rest of the steps led you to your particular higher power, that's great. But when you are behind a podium, there could be a chance the newcomer might think that you have to believe in the same God as the speaker. Or how about this? You know, I already told you when I hear in an AA meeting, oh, you know, AA members, again, I already said, we suffer from the allergy and obsession. But it seems a lot of us have a lot of other things in common. We just do. They don't make us an alcoholic. We have them in common, but boy when we join something we're like the typical prototype of we either hate it before we tried it and we know we're gonna hate it or if we join something we are in 150 we don't know how to do anything any differently i mean how many meetings do i have to sit in where somebody you know i'll name a few people you probably ran into them the person who discovers yoga has changed their life they need to let the whole other group know that when they want second stage spirituality to a new level maybe they should go to yoga too well i'm glad yoga is helping you but stop forcing it on people in aa meetings how about another one crossfit anyone in a meeting where someone all of a sudden has become revolutionized by crossfit and they can't help but keep it out of their share that it'll save other people or how about this the new life recovery bible that yeah the 12 steps are good but if you want to take it to it i i hate to you know chris has already said about you know the two-hour fifth step and the you don't need binders of the uh fourth step you know binder upon binder we don't needs to be promising people some new level of spirituality if they want to find that they can find that outside of their aa meeting but we stick to aaa in aa and then let me go to social media I have seen some and again I'm going to talk about private AA groups here used to be called secret now they'll be called private they're only inhabited by AA members there's no anonymity issues there but i have seen some horrible things said in those meetings in those groups and what am i supposed to say oh i'm only speaking i'm billy i'm not aa well would you say that in a meeting is that how we treat other people um we also have to think about the newcomer who comes into aa we never know who's sitting in a room we never know you could say a ton of things about cops does that mean police officers don't have the right to get sober you could have a particular grudge about a particular religion And does that mean a rabbi or a priest does not deserve to get sober if they're an alcoholic? You might have a judge, you might have grudge against judges in the criminal justice system. They have just the right to get sober as we do. There might be people you don't agree with their view on certain topics in the world today. AA is the great last house on the block. We welcome everybody. And for me, I have my own political opinions. I have My Own Thoughts on the world. But for the most part, I try to keep them to myself mostly. They're My Thoughts and My Opinions. Being useful and effective in AA is way, way more important. there's also the topic of other outside issues like food addiction drug addiction sex addiction gambling addiction those are best left to the fellowships that take care of those and then let me talk about the open speaker meeting the open speaker meeting is for the public and what about conventions and what about roundups and whatever else you call them I don't care what you call them what about the people who work there at those hotels and those convention centers what about the parent who's heard their son or daughter talk about this AA convention they've been working on a committee forever and they decide they want to go to the banquet. They're so proud of their family member they're so proud of Alcoholics Anonymous and what it has given their family and then they show up at a convention and somebody is like giving graphic detailed stories from the podium that don't help tell the story but are just good for shock value that help promote you know what Alcoholics Anonymous really is to be attractive promotes probably a bad word of my we promote AA inside AA but not outside AA we want to be attractive. Is that really making AA look as attractive as possible? I really don't think so. Now, there are some issues that have come into AA lately. I don't need to talk about them. We should not be afraid to talk about anything in relation to helping an alcoholic but when it crosses the line of politics we should be very very careful extremely careful um again i want to stress the freedom that it comes in tradition one to be who you want to be to become an independent person that no money or conformity is required but then there's a flip side of being an effective AA member and carrying the message effectively and the newcomer's view of the world and the new comers view of the world is the one I am most concerned about see because if you're if you have 20 years or 10 years if I say something stupid in a meeting you just say that's Billy he says stupid things all the time right you just know that you take what I say with a grain of salt but not for the newcomer not for the new one who's not been exposed to Alcoholics Anonymous before so that's it thanks everybody I look forward to the questions later.