Nov_Dec_Newsletter_Page_2

Text Box: Record of HELPLINE calls stopped in December of '04(?). The following is a record of calls since June 5th 'thru August 17th '05.
AA        AA       ALANON      NA      OCOA
INFO     HELP       INFO        INFO     INFO
149          18             8            7           1
As a result of going to The InterGroup Mtg. I have a new HELPLINE volunteer who will relieve me after September.
Peter F.

             could always turn thousands away from us to perish – a matter of life and death indeed!
            The future poses no greater problem or challenge to AA than how best to preserve a friendly and vital relation to all the world about us. Success will rest heavily upon right principles, a wise vigilance, and the deepest personal responsibility on the part of every one of us. Nothing less will do. Else our brother may again turn his face to the wall because we did not care enough.
            So the Eleventh Tradition stands sentinel over the lifelines, announcing that there is no need to self-praise, that it is better to let our friends recommend us, and that our whole public relations policy, contrary to usual customs, should be based upon the principle of attraction rather than promotion. Shot-in-the-arm methods are not for us – no press agents, no promotional devices, no big names. The hazards are too great. Immediate results will always be illusive because easy shortcuts to notoriety can generate permanent and smothering liabilities.
            More and more, therefore, we are emphasizing the principle of personal anonymity as it applies to our public relations. We ask of each other the highest degree of personal responsibility in this respect. As a movement we have been, before now, tempted to exploit the names of our well-known public characters. We have rationalized that other societies, even the best, do the same. As individuals we have sometimes believed that the public use of our names could demonstrate our personal courage in the face of stigma; so lending power and conviction to news stories and magazine articles.
            But these are not the allures they once were. Vividly, we are becoming aware that no member ought to describe himself in full view of the general public as an AA, even for the most worthy purpose, lest a perilous precedent be set which would tempt others to do likewise for purposes not so worthy.
            We see that on breaking anonymity by press, radio, or pictures, any one of us could easily transfer the valuable name of Alcoholics Anonymous over onto any enterprise or into the midst of any controversy.
            So it is becoming our code that there are things that no AA ever does, lest he divert AA from it’s sole purpose and injure our public relations. And thereby the chances of those sick ones yet to come.

The3rd Quarter WORKSHOP was a HUGE success with over 50 people attending. Thanx to The Women to Women Group for hosting & Tom "G" for facilitating on "The Basics, Steps 1,2,3".