Billy N. at the Twelve Concepts Workshop – 2016

When I think about service and why we do all this, there is a piece of writing that is in our service manual by Bernard D. Smith, right? That talks about why we need a conference and it's a beautiful piece of literature, right, so, and that pretty much sums it up and I've asked Jeff B., you know, our area chair right now to read that. I have it right here. Thank you. Thank you Jim and thanks to the district for hosting this event right why do we need a conference it's on page s20 in the in the service manual the late bernard b smith non-alcoholic then chairperson of the board of trustees and one of the architects of the conference structure answered that question superbly in his opening talk at the 50 1954 meeting we may not need a General Service Conference to ensure our own recovery. We do not need it to ensure the recovery of the alcoholic who still stumbles in the darkness one short block from this room. We needed to ensure the recovery of a child being born tonight destined for alcoholism. We need it to provide, in keeping with our 12th step, a permanent haven for alcoholics who in the ages ahead can find in AA that rebirth that brought us back to life. We need it because we, more than all others, are conscious of the devastating effect of the human urge for power and prestige which we must ensure can never invade AA. We needed to ensure AA against government while insulating it against anarchy. We needed it to protect AA against disintegration while preventing overintegration. We need it so that Alcoholics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous alone is the ultimate repository of its 12 steps, its 12 traditions, and all of its services. We needed to ensure that changes within AA come only as a response to the need and the wants of all AA and not of any few. We needed it to ensure the doors of the halls of AA never have locks on them so that all people for all time who have an alcoholic problem may enter these halls unasked and feel welcome. We needed to ensure that Alcoholics Anonymous never asks of anyone who needs us what his or her race is, what his are her creed is, what his or her social position is. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. OK. Also, there are This Day magazines floating around up at the table. If you didn't grab one, grab one. And the agenda for today's event is on the back cover of that, okay? I wanted to let you know that. So, you know, this morning I was actually, as I was driving up here, I was just thinking quickly like how the concepts actually have affected my life. And I've been in Alcoholics Anonymous for a little while, you know. And this morning, you Know, it takes being involved in service in an event like this for me to really start to consider something like that, you Now. And as I said before, You Know, we all show up at our first meeting, You Now. Hopefully we get a sponsor who takes us through the 12 steps and eventually we'll learn about the traditions through being a member of a home group, Right? But today I was thinking about, well, what about the concepts? Like how have they affected my life? And you know, so there are these spiritual principles, right, that GSO and AA World Services and Grapevine Inc., you know follow in their, the way that they conduct business with the world, right. And I was think again like back to the committees that are in the back of the room, right? And I really only realized it this morning. But the concepts have actually been part of my life even before the steps and traditions because it was the actual concepts through that – it's almost like an anonymous function. I look at AA World Services and Grapevine and GSO. They're like that home group member that's quietly putting the chairs away in the background. You know what I mean? Like you don't even notice they're there until you notice they'RE there, you know? And the bottom line is if that service structure hadn't been put in place and if we didn't have these spiritual concepts, there's a good chance I would have never found out about Alcoholics Anonymous. You know what I mean? But I just don't even realize that, you know. I don't realize that unless I'm involved. So anyway, so they're important. They're important, you Know. They're kind of anonymous. And, you know, AA service chugs along. You know, they're always looking for volunteers and help, you know, but it kind of moves along there quietly and it absolutely is as a result of these 12 spiritual concepts, you know. So, you know, with that, I'm going to get down and what I'd really like to do is introduce Billy N., who's a general service trustee AWS director panel 2049 delegate out of Chicago to give us the history of the concepts and also speak on concepts one and two thank you thanks good morning I'm Billy I'm an alcoholic and it's good to be here sobriety dates January the 5th of 1990 I'm currently privileged to serve as a general service trustee and AWS director and very impressed that this many people anywhere in the world is up on a Saturday morning to go to a concepts workshop I mean if we didn't have a little rule about me taking your picture I would obviously be taking a picture but I I did already text to a couple of people the outdoor parking lot signs I was making a little joke about a group in California, I was like, I'll leave their name aside, but I was saying it's very interesting to see a chairperson with a reflective vest at a concepts workshop on a Saturday morning. You know, it's incredible. So this subject we're going to talk about today is not the most exciting for some people. I admit that fully. And for others, you know, I Was talking to John before the meeting and probably the most difficult part of being any kind of leader in AA service is there are some people, when I travel around the country, they have read every single possible AA document. They have read our latest financials. They've looked at our pension, our revenue fund, and they could talk for six hours about one paragraph of that and not run out of questions. But there are other people where those details are not that important, but the overall mission is super important. And so how do you find a balance of trying to let people know about these while trying to keep both of those audiences in an AA both? All five of those audience, you know? are different versions of each. But I did want to start with just a couple of things. First, I'm going to say I'm probably knowing my own self and my memory. I'm gonna refer to documents quickly. Some that are in books, some that are not. My email address is wbnewnan at hotmail.com. If I refer to something that you would like, just email me over the next week. because I am going to probably refer to some documents. I won't be able to help myself because they've helped me understand whether it was Bill or Bernard Smith or Dr. Bob, somebody's intention. The other thing I want to say is I'm not a big believer in giving people answers when they call with questions. I'm a bigger believer of telling people where to look and to find their own answers. I think that's what really you know as my friend Bob from Minnesota says about the big book the big books not the treasure it's the treasure map same with the service manual same with AA comes of age same with Dr. Bob and the good old timers that's the map to get you to your own group conscience that you bring to your group conscience it does no good to have a bunch of robots running around who just want to believe what they've been told for the sake of somebody said it I would much rather tell people to find their own truth so why are we here and I'll let me finish that the service manual Dr. Bob and a good Alzheimer's AA comes of age pass it on I'm not afraid to mention Not God even though it's not our book Not God has helped me tremendously as far as understanding the early history of AA and and you know when we talk about the history of these concepts in AA we tend to say especially because Bob passed away Bill was left he was the final answer on everything almost and a lot of times we have this AA friendly story where we say Bill did the right thing and gave AA back to the groups that's kind of true but not a hundred percent true being the final answer was killing Bill there's also a book out there called the soul of sponsorship about father Ed Dowling's relationship with Bill Wilson and and Ed Dowing appearing in the clubhouse in New York and and starting a relationship with bill and what you'll realize is we all know Bill he had his own personal demons and suffered from depression but one of the things that Father Dowling really got him to understand was until he became a member he would never ever understand the benefits of really this great program. That if he was the end-all be-all on every single thing it was killing him and so Bill reached that point you know this book where does it get us I'll just throw out a couple of facts in case you've not heard them so that at least in the beginning you know why do we have this structure and why do We Have These 36 Spiritual Principles and especially the 12 we're going to talk about today is this year AA groups will make 1,500 requests about archive information. This year, GSO will distribute 8 million books, pamphlets and audio materials. This year GSO Will deal with 85,000 individual envelopes that come in with contributions ranging from a nickel to a couple of thousand dollars and treat every one of those with the same spiritual dignity regardless of the amount of money inside it it doesn't matter if it's the maximum with $3,000 or it's an index card with a couple of nickels and quarters taped to it that all that group had it gets the same spiritual dignity so that's one of the reasons that we hear in this book this year staff members will respond to 90 000 emails 90 000. emails for hate help will come in to gso now regardless of our digital society i would tell anybody especially because i'm going to guess there's a couple of people here who go to new york city every once in a while so i would challenge anyone when you're walking down by grand central Walk down to Lexington as you're walking east. And as you pass Grand Central, when you get to Lexinton, make a left and go basically a block and a half in and you will come to the Grand Central Post Office Annex. It says the sign is right there. Grand Central Station Post Office Annix. Walk inside that building about 30 feet and make an immediate right. It's the first row of old P.O. boxes. When you make that right, if you kept walking and you walk right into the wall, you will see right there P.O. Box 459. The same old mailbox that's been there forever. The same Old Mailbox that has saved millions of lives. Now, there's always an archivist or two in the crowd. I don't know the combination of the lock. I'm trying to find out. I don't know if we still have the key, because it has a key. I don' t know if somebody still has that. I've asked. They say no. The mail does get forwarded up. But I want to tell you that even today's digital age, here's a recent letter. Hi, my name is Tara and I'm currently incarcerated. I'm currenty awaiting sentencing on a charge I caught during a relapse. I finally found a big book and a pile of random novels, but that's the only resource available to me in the reference in this program I would like to be doing step work and daily reflections with the other girls in my living unit if anything could be sent to me it would be greatly appreciated she's sitting in a correctional facility in Texas so while I know we have a lot of semicolons and commas to debate today and a lot of individual interpretation of our principles I do want to make clear that at the end of the day, we're really, the service structure exists for those not here yet. It's nice for us here because God knows we're alcoholic and getting us to accomplish anything together is a miracle. And that's nice, but it's not the real reason we have our service structure. The real reason we have out service structure is that there are people not here yet today. And the people that are here have a responsibility that AA should remain the same. That the people coming in today deserve the same AA that was here when I got here. Now, it would be easy, it wood be very easy for me to just give you my interpretation of the history. But I'm not a big fan of that. I would much rather give you the history tell you where to look I will tell you another document that is really in the back of my mind is the original service manual it's called the third legacy manual was handed out in 1955 before that international convention I have a PDF of that manual if you want one be my guest, but in the front of that manual I just want to read what it says. Hence an AA service is anything whatever that helps us to reach a fellow sufferer ranging all the way from the 12-step itself to 10 cent phone call and a cup of coffee to AA's general service headquarters for national international action. The sum total of all these services is our third legacy. Services include meeting places, hospital cooperation, intergroup offices. That's interesting. I've been at general service events where I've heard people say intergroups aren't part of AA so let me read that last sentence again. Services include all meeting places hospitals cooperations intergroup officers. That is from the original manual but if you'd like a copy of that I'd be glad to send it to you but as far as the history in 1960 you know listen Bill Wilson was his out there a thinker just think of the person in your home group that annoys you the most at a business meeting and that is Bill Wilson a guy who is so out there and so liberal and such a big out-of-the-box thinker, that today I doubt he could get elected alternate GSR in all fairness. In all fairness! You know people want to talk about that AA has been so rigid and so dogmatic and it's this way or the highway and Bill was not a this way of the highway kind of guy. Now he fought hard for certain things but at the 10th General Service Conference he gave a a presentation and that presentation was called the 12 Concepts of World Service and that was to let the delegates know where they came from what really drove creating these and I have a transcript of Bill's talk and I thought it would be much better for you to hear the history of the concepts from Bill he says, I always approach this hour with mixed feelings As the time has passed, each year succeeding itself, I've found increasingly gratitude beyond measure because of the increasing success that A.A. is at least safe so long as he may wish this society to endure. So I stand here among you and feel as you do a sense of security and gratitude such as we have never known before. There is not a little regret too that the other side of this coin that we cannot turn back the clock and renew these hours. Soon they will become part of our history. The three legacies of AA, recovery, unity, and service, in a sense represent three utter impossibilities that we now know became possible and possibilities that have been born this unbelievable fruit. Old Fitz Mayhew, one of our early AAs I visited, has since become a great friend of AA and he said, I wish you well. Even the sobriety of such a few is almost a miracle. The government knows this is one of the greatest health problems we have, one ofthe greatest moral problems, one ofthegreatest spiritual problems. But we have considered recovery of alcoholics so impossible that we have given up and have instead concluded that rehabilitation of narcotics addicts would be an easier job to tackle. That was said by the Surgeon General. Now what has been brought to bear upon this impossibility that has become possible? First, the grace of him who presides over us all. Next, the cruel lash of John Bollycorn who said, this you must do or die. Next, the intervention of God through friends at first a few and now a legion who opened up to us, who in the early days were uncommitted, the whole field of human ideas, morality, religion from which we could choose. There have been the wellspring of forces and ideas and emotions and spirit which have been fused into our 12 steps for recovery and some of us got well but no sooner had a few of us gotten sober than the old forces began to come into play in us rather frail people we were fearsome the old horses the drives the money the acclaim the prestige and it reminds me of what Bill says in A.A. Comes of Age we must confess that the fellowship has its sins much like its members so Bill was the greatest documenter of this yellow brick road that everything was perfect right from the start is a total fantasy the twelve traditions are the twelve biggest mistakes made between 1935 and 1945 that's what they are he says so out of experience the need to apply the spirit of our steps to our lives of working and living together these were the forces that generated the traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous now how big a believer was Bill I've asked myself a lot our question here in the old days was is the group conscience for the trustees and the founders or Or are they to be the parents of Alcoholics Anonymous forever? There is something a little repugnant, you know. They got it through us, why can't we go on telling them? So the great problem, could the group conscience function at world levels? That's what Bill asks and tells the General Service Conference in 1960. That's the whole reason for the concepts. Could the group conscious function at a world level? it can and it does today we are still in this process of definition of and refinement in this matter of functioning unlike the 12 steps and 12 traditions which will no doubt and i think this is important because god knows i've heard different unlike the12stepsand12traditions which will be undisturbed from here there will always be room in the functional area for for refinement, improvement, and adaptation. For God's sake, let us never freeze these things. On the other hand, let's look at yesterday and today at our experience, now just as it was vital to codify the 12 steps, the spiritual side of our program, to codifier in the 12 traditional principles the forces and ideas which would make for unity and discourage unity. So may it now be necessary to codified those principles and relationships which are world services function rests from the group's rise on down. So Bill was clear. The traditions and the steps, I don't think he ever wanted to see changed and I don' t think it' s my job to opinionate on that from here but he writes clearly that what was put in the essays of the traditions were simply how world services were run at that time. I've heard people say the service manual isn't a procedure document. I've heard that. It's not a policy document. It's nicht what Bill said. Our third legacy manual is largely a document of procedure. That's very clear to me, that sentence, period, end of sentence, largely a document of procedure The concepts are no attempt to freeze our operation against needed change. They only describe the present situation, the forces and principles that have molded it it is to be remembered that in most respects the conference charter can be readily amended this interpretation of the past and present however can have a high value for the future every oncoming generation of service workers will be eager to change and improve our structure and operations this is good no doubt change will be needed perhaps unforeseen flaws will emerge. They will have to be remedied. Bill says those things all super clearly. Therefore, unless you must most carefully protect the minority, large or small, make sure that the minority opinions are voiced. Make sure that minorities have unusual rights. Your democracy is never going to work and its spirit will die. Another thing Bill said, He was a die-hard believer in the minority opinion. He says this at the end. This will give you an idea of what's cooking in the 12 Concepts for World Service. The last one, which I haven't done deals with, the conference, Article 12 of the Conference Charter. And as you who recall it know, this is several things. First of all, it's the substance of the contract. He uses that word, the contract, the groups made with the board of trustees at the time of St. Louis and this contract decrees that this body shall never be a government it decrees that we shall be prudent financially it decries that we shall be the keepers of AA tradition and so on so that this is part of the spiritual document and impart a contract and God willing because it is both spiritual and contract let it for all times existence be evidence of a sanctified contract so Bill Wilson says clearly and that's the other thing I'll refer to in this manual but you don't need to email it you can get a service manual there is the original conference charter and the new conference charter or the current conference charter since amended and so it would be impossible to talk about the history bill wanted a framework together but it all starts with that it's it's like the in it's like the declaration of independence for the groups basically i hate to say it in those drastic terms but before that declaration of independents the founders and the trustees made all the decisions all the divisions i couldn't even imagine that today but at that time they did the conference charter is a spiritual handshake between the groups and the general service board today we know that general service board means 14 alcoholic trustees like myself and 7 class A non-alcoholic trustees at that time it was a spiritual handshake between the opposite majority non- alcoholic minority alcoholic so you have to remember the times 1955 we didn't go to majority alcoholic until 1966 and why was that well in the beginning it was as simply that they were afraid if all the alcoholics drank they wouldn't be able to have a quorum that's the truth you know they had more non-alcoholics you know we talk about the early founders of aa like they were the end all be all But the truth is, everyone was, you know, there was a lot of nervousness about would they stay sober. So that spiritual handshake exists today. One of the things that drives me crazy is that a lot of people look at this general service conference as the end of the conference year. In other words, in our AA service year, the trustees meet in July they meet in October they meet in January and at that same time AAWS and the grapevine meet in June July, September October, December January, March and then the general service conference happens the way I read the concepts and look at the service manual is completely opposite it. The General Service Conference, what's talked about in the early concepts and in the charter is the start of the service year to me. That is the beginning. It is where the conference gets together the 93 delegates from around the U.S. and Canada with the trustees, staff, and directors, and really talk about what should the General Service Board do? And when they vote, in two-thirds or better, it's considered an advisory action. And at the end of that conference, the day after, the trustees get together and we read every one of those actions into our minutes. Those are our marching orders. That's what the conference charter talked about. some years those marching orders are very easy to comply with because I like all the things that happen at the conference some years those marching order may be not so much but my job description does not give me that kind of leeway there is a contract between the board of trustees and the groups of AA when the groups speak in a voice louder than two thirds that trustees expected to carry out that mission one of the things I want to talk about in their history again I'll refer to the bylaws of the general service board which are in the service manual my favorite line in there is I talked about concepts 1 & 2 and our history is a line that I think gets missed a lot if you have a service manual this year's it's in front of you it's on s113 if you have another year it's the second page of appendix e if you go down after the 12th step there's a couple of paragraphs talking about the conference but then it says this members of the general service conference of alcoholics anonymous are hereafter referred to as conference delegates so what does that mean to me somebody who's a trustee and an aaws director that means that come every april there are a couple of different kinds of delegates there's jay he's an area delegate there are greg tobin lives in new jersey he's a general manager delegate jeff is a staff member lives in New Jersey he's a staff member delegate I'm a trustee I'm a trusty delegate I'll read it again members of the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous are hereafter referred to as conference delegates it's the great equalizer that's what it's supposed to be you know leading up to that date I get to vote at certain meetings that the delegates area delegates don't but when we go to that conference were all equal and my vote and the other trustees votes although individually are worth the same as a group are worth less I mean that's the beauty of the conference charter once you come to April to the general service conference if you add up the trustees the directors and staff it's depending on the year 30-something people. The vast majority of the General Service Conference is the area delegates. Now, the area delegates, let me tell you, they're not going to agree on something all the time either. We have regional flavors. We have different kind of group flavors. We have all different kinds at the General Surface Conference. But at the end of the day, that two-thirds has never been messed with. There has never been a time, and I'm going to give you an example on the conference charter and then just talk individually about conference one and two, but the history is so important. Up until today, there has never been a day when the board has gone against the conference. Now, as a student of history, maybe unofficially, maybe that's happened a couple of times I don't know could be debated officially there has never been an action brought to the general service board where they said this conference action is out of line because if you read the Charter it does give the board certain prerogatives to not do what it's told by the conference I will tell you this it's very rare to even be talked about it's only happened once I've been a trustee now this is my fourth year my last year I was an AWS director four years before that and I'm still in AWS director but in my life on the board it has almost happened once where a couple of board members vocally started talking that they thought one of the conference actions did not sit equally with our fiduciary responsibility and it's interesting that while we have this book that tells me how to be a trustee the New York State Attorney General's Office has another book that has just as much authority over a person like me. According to the state of New York attorney general's office I am a director of two non-profit corporations one is AA World Services Inc and the other is the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous Inc if you read the guidelines for non-profits in the state of New Yorke there is no AA clause there is not an asterisk after any of the things that say look at the bottom of the page if this is AA they don't need to do this it doesn't say that it says that we are held at a super high ethical obligation to manage and operate our non-profits the way they expect a non-profit to manage now i'll tell you just so you have some history and it'll be on tape so people hear it forever it was a translation issue that almost came to some people bringing up a vote at the floor of of the general service board as you know for the last five years the last three in particular translating our conference into french and spanish all the background material and everything has been a hot topic and debated widely and the conference has now had two different actions the recent action changed the previous action the previous action was we'll just pay to have it done don't worry about the cost last year's action changed that that were allowed to look for other alternatives but it's very interesting to me and I tell you this for a reason the trustees that were talking about perhaps being in a situation where we would have to go against the conference what they were talking about is the same exact thing the General Service Conference did last year we just waited a year before anything was done but there were some trustees who felt very strongly that our fiduciary responsibility that a command to just spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars that was not budgeted and maybe not in this in the budget did not really sit well with our responsibilities to manage our fiduciary responsibilities so it's interesting how these things come up and I'm sure John when he talks about his concepts will have some stories from when he was on the board but for me that was a real learning lesson the learning lesson for me was we were able to wait a year you know we could wait to let the conference debate it again but I'll tell you this year i chair the the trustees committee on the general service conference we're now meeting on friday nights besides saturday we have to meet the whole friday night of october because the conference gave us an order last year loud and clear that every area delegate have a role in the selection of agenda items now it doesn't matter what I feel about that. It doesn't matter what my friends feel about it. That's an advisory action. I chair the committee that is going forward with that plan. I can tell you I get many letters, I read all the background and I have to tell many people I appreciate your input but it sounds like you want to make a minority opinion and you should. But my job is to carry out the will of the conference. So while I'll appreciate that you don't agree with what the conference did last year, I would ask you to write that in and ask that there be minority opinion on this issue. But as the chair of the trustee committee that is supposed to carryout the wishes of the Conference, my job it to carry up that agenda item. And that, I think, comes from my extreme loyalty to the Conference Charter. that when the conference speaks the trustees are supposed to follow that through now I'm sure I'll say a couple of things in relation to concept one and two that will maybe be problematic for some people and that's okay but I really think in Alcoholics Anonymous today and maybe I'll be alive in 20 years and I'll get to see what happens but is there a breakdown? So concept one says the final responsibility and the ultimate authority for AA World Services should always reside in the collective conscience of our fellowship. That's a pretty strong statement that means that our 80 employees the 21 trustees, the 6 directors, the 12 staff members, the general manager and the executive editor and publisher of The Grapevine that our final responsibility and ultimate authority is your groups. That's what it says. And if you want to understand that, then you could believe the status quo, which is you'll hear people say, well, I'll give an easy one. Only 40% of the AA groups contribute to the General Service Board. has anyone else ever heard that by the way i'm just curious okay i don't believe that i don' t believe that for a second i know that in our system and hopefully it'll change if you want to start a new meeting and i'll i'm not going to pick on area 44 45 49 i'm just going to say anywhere in the country there are a lot of inner groups and central offices that handle listing meetings that will only list you in a book if you have a gso number a group number i don't know why that's their rule but that's the rule now you may start a meeting at lunch time and say you know what we all get here five minutes before the meeting we leave right after the meeting we don't have a gsr we don t have a central intergroup representative we don do anything in between meetings together we're really just a meeting and i have nothing against meetings like that i think they serve a very valid purpose but at At GSO we only have one way to list them, as a group. Look at the group information form. So it says the final responsibility and ultimate authority for AA World Services should always reside in the collective conscience of our old fellowship. To me they're talking about AA groups that are connected to the middle of AA, that have a GSR, that participate. I think way more of those groups contribute than 40 percent. But again, concept one is very clear and I just want to read one line out of it, therefore we believe that we see in our fellowship a spiritualized society characterized by enough enlightenment, enough responsibility, and enough love of man and God to ensure that our democracy of world service will work under all conditions. I don't think that's a mistake that it says democracy of world service. We are confident that we can reply upon Tradition II, our group conscience and its trusted servants. Hence it's with a great sense of security that we the old timers now fully vested in AA's General Service Conference the authority for giving shape through the labors of its chosen delegates, trustees and service workers to that destiny that we trust in his or her wisdom is holding in store for all of us. I think about now rotating as a trustee. I will only vote in three more General Service Board meetings, October, January and after the conference. I will vote to remove myself. And John, I think is the only one in the room who has done that. I will to vote to move myself from that board because that's what the conference has asked for. They have rotation. And in that room, and I'll just tell you how important we take concept one at the General Service Board when the groups are in charge. When that meeting on Saturday morning, the rotating trustees give a talk, then there's a break. Then the board goes into a room and the room is divided in two. The board goes to the next room. The current board sits at the table. go through the actions of the General Service Conference and then they vote on who are the new slate of trustees at which point John raised his hand and voted to remove himself. At that point in April I will get up from the table and I will move from the board section to the visitors section along with the other trustees that would just voted off and then the new board of trustees will vote on anything else that needs to be done and close the meeting that's and they'll give me some nice leather bound big book or something and then they'll tell me to get out of the room that's how we deal with rotation and thank God but I can tell you when I look at concept one especially the end of that sentence there it is so important that the groups remain in charge will I miss having a vote? I'm sure I will will I see a vote and think I can't believe they did that? I have no doubt in my mind I'd do that now I leave there now and can't believe some of the things we've done but there's a reason and I think about the founders and I thing about the alcoholic foundation how was it for them to be the end all be all with no general service conference and they just gave this thing to the fellowship just gave it to a couple of people who were going to come in by train and God knows what else to New York City and be their new bosses but it works you know concept two when in 1955 the AA groups confirmed that the permanent charter for their general service conference they thereby delegated to the conference and I just want to stress this word complete authority for the active maintenance of our world services and thereby made the conference accepting for any changes in the 12 traditions or an article 12 of the conference charter the actual vote and the effective conscience of our whole society now I will tell you right now it's I love that paragraph because how important really were the traditions and how important was Article 12 the 12th concept so important that the General Service Conference didn't have the authority to change them from the beginning that's how important that you would have to have changed to the conference charter to make a change to any of that but it says delegated to the Conference complete authority so we have a big operation the AA Grapevine has some 70,000 subscribers a website books audio cassettes AA World Services every day 80 employees basically a 9 million dollar a year budget 15 if you include our publishing operations every day people write and ask for help the concepts make clear our job is not to do 12 step work it's to facilitate 12 step work. It's our job to facilitate and help groups and members carry out 12 stepwork but the conference has complete authority and I think about this all the time because I was there when they voted for the fourth edition of the big book now a common question i get all the time now is when is the fifth edition coming so i get that all the time now my answer is i don't know and i haven't seen one official request for it not one and i pretty much read everything that comes in the last time it was done uh 2001 and two i was a delegate in 99 and 2000 but i can tell you um so i want to know how many third edition alcoholics are in the room. That would be people who got sober before 2001. Oh yeah, quite a lot. So I'm in that group. For those of us, God, we've seen magnets with 449 and acceptance and topics of page 449, and God knows what else. And I remember being in a meeting in 2003 and hearing a guy say I can't believe they moved that off that page and how about this I can'T believe they changed the name of that story today it's called acceptance is the answer in the third edition it was called Dr. Alcoholic Addict so oh my god which was worse they removed the word addict from it or or it's not on 449 now and my magnet is no longer up to date, you know. But I can tell you is we're very slow to do things in AA. We're usually not too quick for a lot of reasons. But in 98 or 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001, and 2, we talked about the big book. there was a special fourth edition committee together how is it possible that your group would not hear about it and that's what I see the biggest breakdown in AA today there will be a fifth tradition I have no doubt about it when it comes is none of my business but I know there will been one I know that there are certain stories that you want to stay in that book. I know that there are certain groups that want no pages, changes to the original 164 pages including the punctuation. After the changes in 2001 somebody changed some punctuation that wasn't conference approved and it had to get moved back to the improper punctuation that book is under the microscope but if there's any reason to be connected to Alcoholics Anonymous is that conference, as a result of Concept 2 has complete authority and there will come a time when they will tell the General Service Board hey, we need another edition it's time for another edition don't you want your group to be part of that there are all kinds of interesting conversations going on and I think I wouldn't say AA is at a difficult time but I would say we're in changing times we're definitely in a changing time as well as communication you know I met a trustee back in early 2000's who told me he said Billy if Bill Wilson was alive we would have been on the cover of Wired magazine 10 years ago He said, Bill would have never let us be so slow on digital. Ever. Now I wouldn't say we're slow, but we're methodical, I think. The traditions don't make it easy to do certain things and there's certain things we shouldn't do. But this fellowship is on its way the next ten years to make some really important decisions. digital media social media I would tell you that in the outside recovery world there's never been a greater attack on anonymity than it has the last five years and that's my personal opinion we've almost become like an 11 tradition program we observe press radio and film as far as saying we're an AA member but it seems the 12th tradition, the humility that comes with being an AA member or being sober, the 12t tradition not being talked about as much. But I think those are all going to be important conference topics that the conference is going to have to look at. We know today, just so you have the right number, I don't want to give any false number, but just so you have an idea of how important this whole digital thing is again I would go back to anyone who got sober the third edition alcoholics that are in the room maybe some second edition alcoholics I'd be curious anyone in the room who got sober who when they were getting sober looked at AA on a website either a local AA website or a general AA website anybody when they came to AA? Anyone go to a website? Anyone find a phone number as a result of going on the web in the room? So it's interesting that where are people learning about AA because not a lot of hands go up, right? Now I hear a young girl in Texas when I'm at a regional forum say she typed in a Google search I'm a young girl in high school and I can't stop drinking now unfortunately and she talked about it what happened the first eight things that came up that said they were AA were not AA they were a phone call where the person asked do you have insurance and so how important is it going to be for us to want to be number one on that search bar or number two you know when we created the aa website in 95 does anyone remember the major reason we created the website that's talked about in most of the background back then the reason it was created was there were so many websites that said they were us we needed one that really was us that's what i mean back in 95 the web was a new frontier but I just want to let you know that as far as the web goes currently 22,000 people a month select get help with a drinking problem a month 22,00 on the a org website that's just our website not intergroups not central offices currently over 50% of the people who visit our website are doing so on smartphones currently we have over 150 different countries regularly using our website going to our website for help so I only bring that up in a subject the concept, too, is that complete authority. The General Service Conference gives the General Service Board its marching orders. And then the General Service Board gives its marching order to the Grapevine and AAWS. Now I will mention for anybody that is a super service geek there are some other documents out there. There's the bylaws of AA World Services. there's the bylaws of the a grapevine some people say all the time it's a footnote in this book so it's not really clearly defined it says complete authority but the general service board of which i am both a director and a member what's a member mean well a member in new york state means that basically for four years I own 121st legally. Not spiritually, but legally I own 120 first of this thing we call the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous. And I'm also a member of AAWS and The Grapevine. 121th to them as well. Because the General Services Board does not own The Gravevine and AAWS. A lot of people think they do. In the old world, when it was a stock corporation, if there was an org chart, you would see the General Service Board, then the AA Grapevine, then AWS. That was changed. The 21 individual people who are trustees own AWS. The 21 individuals who are trustees own the AA grapevine. Now I know why that was done. They were very smart back when they did that. They wanted to separate the reserve fund as far as they could. But the General Service Board doesn't have the authority to tell AWS what to do. Now, spiritually, yes, they do. Just want to make that clear. And later on in the concepts we'll talk about it. But again, I go to concept two, complete authority over world services. I don't know how I could do my job as a trustee and director without the concepts. It becomes very difficult sometimes. I will tell you that it's been the greatest honor in the world to serve, but I don't always agree with some of our decisions. I walk out of those rooms sometimes and shake my head, but I'll go home and read A.A. Comes of Age. And A.А. Comes Of Age makes it very clear. The group always, not sometimes. You know, in Bill's story, in the big book, there's a spot that says only through work and self-sacrifice can you avoid the certain trials and low spots ahead. It doesn't say some of us have trials and Low Spots. It doesn'T say a few of us. It basically tells whether it's bad news or not. For all of us that are in AA, you're going to have a few Low Spts in life. That's what it says. The group conscience in AA Comes of Age says the same thing. The group always knows better. It knows better than the smartest old-timer or the newest newcomer. And so I leave that room, and sometimes I'm on the right side of a vote, and sometimes it's the other way around. Sometimes I'm wrong. And I'll quote Jim Estelle, a great Class A past trustee of the General Service Board, who said, if you really want to not whether you're a GSR or a DCM or active in your home group or your district listen, the 8th step into 12 and 12 talks about defective relations with other human beings I always say, even in my company I joke around when somebody says oh, go handle this meeting, it's going to be really brutal and I always joke around and say I leave some of those business meetings and say to myself, it wasn't as bad as the June assembly you know it wasn't as bad as the convention meeting you know it wasn' t as bad as I mean if you can get something done in AA you can do it you can go to AA and you can get something done almost anywhere but what Jim Estelle said is when you're on the long side of a vote you know take a little bit of um you know just concede that AA is the greatest self-correcting organization in the world that's what Jim Estalle used to say about Alcoholics Anonymous now I'll tell you this there's another book out there I can't send it to you because it's not digital I don't know why there's actually an agenda item now to make it digital but the history of all our conference reports so there's the individual conference reports and then there's a history of the advisory actions if you don't believe a is self-correcting don't even go back to 1955 just go back ten years go back 10 years to 2006 and every year put a check next to something that was talked about the previous year or you've already read and then after you're done with that see how many checks you have and you will see that we are the greatest self- correcting organization in the world we carry out the group conscience but the groups may change their mind and and when we have generational differences in Alcoholics Anonymous which happens in 1999 a past delegate said to me the internet is going to be the downfall of AlcoholicsAnonymous it's a slippery slope it's going to be the downfall recently while traveling as a trustee i asked the guy's age so i'm not judging him but i asked him i said i have to ask you just so i get and put this in perspective a 78 year old man stood up in the back of the room at a regional forum pointed at me and he said you people in new york are not helping me period end of sentence so of course that begs me to ask what aren't we doing and he said listen I watch my grandkids games on Facebook if I miss a little league game my daughter posts pictures he's like I read my daily reflections in the morning on my tablet because I don't need to buy you know big print books anymore because I can adjust the font now that's in 15 years a paradigm of somebody telling me the internet's going to kill aa to now somebody the same age telling me we're not helping them and so we have a lot of generational issues to deal with the message remains the same but how we communicate it there's a lot of questions about that and that's why I'm stressing this during talking about concept two I am guaranteeing you guaranteeing this year, next year the year after that and the year after that at the very least there will be conference actions and if we look at again concept two just want to make sure that I stress that one more time final responsibility ultimate authority for a world services the next couple of years there are going to be a lot of decisions about social media online Google grants and so as I finish up I just want to encourage you to be involved to have a GSR who's involved there's lots of interesting questions to really dive into. Has anyone here ever seen a PSA on TV? Okay. An AA PSA? Okay, so those PSAs each network allots a certain amount of dollars in ad time that they give to all non-profits we take advantage of that a long ago conference action it's not a violation of the seventh tradition somebody turns on the tv maybe you know in the middle of you know i'll use myself as an example three in the morning watching the wall whatever you're doing you're out of your mind a psa comes on right i mean that's when they're on tv but i'll tell you this is there a difference between that and a Google grant? Because these TV companies are private companies. They're not non-profits. They make money. They give us free time to be on TV. They say you can have 201 and 30 seconds to 202 for free, and we take it. But what about a Google grant? What about if Google says, hey, if people search Alcoholics Anonymous in the search bar would you like AA to appear first is that different than a PSA I don't know but I can tell you there is going to be some debate about that there is and that's concept two who's going to debate that it's going to be the conference so with that I'm going to end does anyone have any questions I'd be glad to answer any questions in a second or two, or repeat the question in the mic. Yes, sir? W as in William, B as in boy, Noonan, N-O-O, NAN, at Hotmail. WBNoonanatHotmail.com Any question at all? God, there's some diehards in here. That's pretty good. Yes, Jeff? So you've given some of the reasons why the individual AA member should care about the concepts. And, you know, when Bill framed this, he said for world service, right? So you don't hear a lot about the concept talked about out in the groups because I think that AA members don't believe that the concepts are for them. So what are some of the other reasons that you would state as to why an individual AA member sitting in their groups would care about the concepts well i mean i think there are some nuggets in there that dispel urban legends so i'll give a recovery urban legend as an example so how many people have been to a big book workshop or retreat where someone says it only mentions alcohol in the first step anyone ever hear that somewhere which is such a crazy unhistoric absolute false statement in my opinion such a big urban myth because obviously if you're going to say that you've never read the big book because the steps are laid out and basically the first 106 pages give or take and anyone ever count how many of those pages apply to the first step give or take 45 percent or so so while it sounds very nice to throw out a comment like that it only mentions alcohol in the first step not really true when it comes to the book well i hear in a service events in home groups in particular we're not a business i hear where's we're just spiritual i hear some kind of like uh like it's spiritual to not pay your bills um like it somehow if you had a sponsee sitting in front of you who said they have financial problems, people in this room probably know it's usually the same problem. They spend more than they take in each month. It's usually not complicated in Alcoholics Anonymous. It is a very simple math problem. But even with groups about paying rent or why they should have a treasurer's report, because concept six says in order to reach our spiritual aim we must be an effective business operation. It doesn't say go out and jump for joy for God and all the business will work out just fine. It says in order to reach a spiritual purpose you have to be an effective Business Operation, which to me says it's not unspiritual to be good business people. And when I say good business people I don't mean unethical, I don' t mean the type of behavior that we read about in the papers i believe that we can define good business as being just as spiritual i can give you an example from work that um the right of participation i've had examples at work where people felt resentful that they weren't invited to this conference at work or they didn't get invited tothis meeting and i could tell you that it's made me look the right of participation has made me look at certain things saying hey are they like a delegate am I expecting them to have to be a stakeholder but I'm not inviting them somewhere are they part of the team but yet I'm excluding them or my division or somebody above me is excluding them so I could probably go on for days but I think there's some real good things in there I'll give you another one. Stealing from AA. The big book is very clear. Last I checked, there is no exception in the service manual that I have read no asterisk that says the big book does not apply to AA groups and service. I've not read that. My big book is very clear. You may do some things and do some actions and have to make some amends that may send you to jail. There is no asterisk that says, but if you steal from AA, keep stealing from them because we want to encourage that because the twelfth concept under the warranty says we're not punitive. That's not what it says. punitive is defined as punishing extra retribution I think for groups they have to know it's not okay to steal AA money now if a group wants to handle it the way they want to handle it, I'll respect their authority but there's nothing in any of our service manuals or any of my information that says it's okay to steel from AA and not suffer consequences so there's lots of reasons i could talk about the right of decision probably the other one that i think for the aaa member and i'm going to point at jay and use him as an example i know there'll be a mini conference in area 44. i know you'll pick some topics and you'll talk about certain things and at the end of the day everything everybody in every group had to say was important but J is the one who gets to vote NJ is the one who the service manual says is not a senator does not represent northern New Jersey northern New Jersey gets to have a delegate the group and the individual job that maybe we don't take serious enough is electing Jay. That's where the group really gets to exercise their part at the General Service Conference. No one gets to like put an earpiece in Jay and let Jay feed them, although I'm sure it's going to happen sooner or later, right? I'm Sure. Someone's going be live streaming the General Services Conference and someone's service manual sponsor is going to be telling them in their ear that's complete garbage i was at that conference but jay gets to vote and the members in northern new jersey get to vote for the delegate who they give the freedom to vote their own way if there's not any bigger place that the especially as to being an AA member the concepts apply it's voting for the right people as your chair as your treasurer as your delegate as your home group chair that it's not a personality contest we'd like it to be it's not a popularity contest that's really where the group exercises the right of decision different than my right of decision as a trustee or as AWS chair I think you're going to stop the tape which is fine because I will tell you that the worst job I've had in AA is being the chairperson of AA World Services worse than being area chair I think but I will say I will not tell you with great honor but all the problems come to you and never have I wrestled with the right of decision more because things come to me that don't come to my head that they don't write in a service manual employees that aren't performing financial problems all kinds of things and the service manual says that i was chosen to be aws chair for that year i get to make the right decision and maybe i'm wrong but i will tell you this in every level of aa service i'm not sure from the group district area everything I am not sure we put enough emphasis on electing the right people everywhere because that's where the rubber hits the road on the right of decision any other questions yes sir it's only mentioned once in the steps only once in the first step I said, how many people have been at a big book retreat or a big book workshop where somebody has pointed to the wall and said alcohol is only mentioned in the first step? That was what I asked. Okay. And people raised their hand. Alright, so okay so my, and I'm going to go back and I're going to read the book. I've read it 200 times. I'm gonna read it again tonight. Those pages that you referred to, how may times it mentions alcohol? I'm gunna suggest, I don't know definitively, but I'm going to suggest that all of those references are to that first step. No, I know that. I'm aware. But there's a big difference between being one of twelve and fifty percent of the way the steps are laid out in the Big Book. All my point is, is that the first step is very important. It's just not something, oh it's number one, go to number two. But I don't think we're here to debate the Big book so out of respect to the committee no I just wanted your point was that's all thank you my point is that drinking is important in Alcoholics Anonymous to be a member and that in order to be a remember in order to be remember you can't just have the ISM it's nice but I have over I don't know 1,500 people that work for me now and guess what they all have some kind of ISM they don't all have the compulsion after they take the first drink and worse than that the next day when they're entirely physically sober they don't all tell themselves that the only way to feel comfortable in their own skin is to start the insanity again all I'm saying is drinking is important in AA. Any other questions? Yes, all the way in the back. I think your own remarks illustrate what I'm going to say which is that your message is studded with stories and anecdotes and examples and that's what picks my ears up and I think I'm no different from anyone else stories experience strength and hope is the heart of what goes on in AA if I would change anything and not change but maybe somehow influence things I would make sure that what goes into the printed word is as far as possible full of that kind of stuff and otherwise it can be dry turgid kind of bureaucraties kind of stuff and people would be I think respond to it more if there were a little more personal aspect to it I'll end with this and I'll repeat your questioning to the mic in case it didn't pick up at the beginning basically is there a lack of enthusiasm and regarding stories. So listen, group contributions have been steadily going up for the last so many months, actually for the past year and a half. And we made a sudden switch about telling stories at GSO, both in Box 459, in thank-you letters we're sending out, in everything we're doing, we're trying to talk about carrying out the mission and not the rules and regulations. But I'll tell you this. I've recently done a little survey the last three years. It's unofficial, unscientific, but I'm going to share it with you. I go to a lot of area assemblies since being an AWS director and trustee. I've started to stopwatch certain things. I time how long the delegates report is. How long the area chair's report is? how long the treasurer's report is how long the secretary's report is then I time how much time is given to DCMs how much time is given to the corrections chair the treatment chair and what I can tell you is I'm horrified by what I see that over the last 40 years or so 30 we have made the bureaucracy more important than the mission the delegate the alternate delegate the chair i'm talking all u.s and canada it's time for them to be the smaller part of the meeting groups want to hear from their dcms the breakdown and connectivity has nothing to do i hate to say about assemblies it has to do with districts the dcm needs to return to be the most central figure in a service the district needs to return to be where all those vital services are really carried out area assemblies start have to stop getting in the way of what districts do just like you know aws the general service board doesn't dictate to us what to do no one should be doing that to districts we have to use stories more we have that we have to equate the money we have to equrate the money with the mission just asking for money will never ever help ever you know knowing that your four dollars that went in and that's all your group had allowed that woman who wrote in from texas to get a big book that's what will get people more involved not about we need another semicolon and another second