From Silkworth.net;

Tradition Eleven: Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.

• Do I sometimes promote AA so fanatically that I make it seem unattractive?
• Am I always careful to keep the confidences reposed in me as an AA member?
• Am I careful about throwing AA names around – even within the Fellowship?
• Am I ashamed of being a recovered, or recovering, alcoholic?
• What would AA be like if we were not guided by the ideas in Tradition Eleven? Where would I be?
• Is my sobriety attractive enough that a sick drunk would want such a quality for himself?

Hmmmmm???

Post from: Blisstree

Tradition Eleven Checklist

What Does ‘Crosstalk’ Have to Do with Our Primary Purpose?

[Reprinted From Box 459 - published bi-monthly by General Services Office of Alcoholics Anonymous]

Just what is this thing called “crosstalk”? Why are concerned A.A.s writing to the General Service Office for clarification about it? And, bottom line, what does it have to do with our primary purpose: “to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety”?

The word has been with us at least since 1887. Webster’s 10th Edition defines crosstalk as “unwanted signals in a communication channel caused by transference of energy from another circuit”- as when, for instance, two members sitting side by side at an A.A. meeting carry on a private, yet not so quiet, conversation or when one member interrupts another rudely or inappropriately. But this is not the kind of crosstalk that members are asking about; specifically, it is traceable to a list of guidelines for behavior at AA meetings — erroneously attributed to “World Service” that appears in 1992 in a central office newsletter and has since been reprinted and circulated more widely.

The guidelines state, in part, that “Any comments, negative or positive, about another’s share, experience, life, program or remarks are crosstalk–that is interference.”…”The only appropriate comment about anyone else’s share–a speaker’s or another member’s — is ‘Thank you for your share.’” “A member may talk about his or her own experience as it relates directly or indirectly to another’s share, but should not refer to that person’s share. Even comments such as ‘When you talk about… it reminded me of my own experience…’ are possibly inappropriate.”

The so-called guidelines did not emanate from the General Service Office. What random investigation reveals is that they may have filtered into some A.A. groups through members who also attend other Twelve Step recovery groups. For example:

(1) In its literature, one fellowship includes a boxed item head, “Suggested Announcement Regarding Crosstalk & Feedback (adopted (1/13/87).” It reads: “In sharing during meetings, we proceed in an orderly, respectful manner. The chairperson (or speaker) will call on people to share. We do not interrupt one another or engage in discussion – this is called ‘crosstalk.’ While we encourage expressions of identification with a speaker and appreciation for speakers, we also do not judge or comment on what people say or tell them what to do – this is called ‘feedback.’”

(2) Another anonymous organization, in its “Suggested Meeting Format,” asks attendees “to please not interrupt someone else’s sharing, not to make comments about other people’s statements… and to talk only about yourself.”

Although many self-help groups emulate A.A.’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, their practices often differ from ours in other respects. As they may have discovered in adapting the A.A. program to their own needs, what’s sauce for the goose may be poison for the gander. Says Anne T., of Rome, New York, who belongs to AA. and also attends meetings of a different fellowship: “From the very beginning, one drunk talking to another has made the A.A. program go round. But in meetings (of the other fellowship), I feel, it makes sense to refrain from crosstalk. People are trying to free themselves from extraordinary shame. When someone shares in response to something I’ve said, that’s okay, but only so long as there’s not even a hint of censure, belittlement, scolding or preaching, all under the guise of sharing. Knowing there’s no risk of judgment makes me feel safe.”

Looking at the subject from an AA’s point of view, a G.S.O. staff member says, “Comparing notes, many of us realized that nonjudgmental suggestions we had received in meetings in response to something we had shared, was very beneficial to our recovery. It is how we learn, and that’s what ’sharing experience, strength and hope’ is all about. Also, there is a thin line between guidelines and rules; and experience suggests that in A.A.’s ‘benign anarchy,’ rules, rigidity and attempts to control don’t work very well.” Whether an individual A.A. group chooses to include the crosstalk ‘guidelines’ in its meeting format is entirely up to its group conscience to determine, of course. But please do not say that such guidelines came from the General Service Office.“

Post from: Blisstree

What Do You Mean No Crosstalk?

The Language of the Heart: Bill W’s Grapevine Writings

Feels important enough to continue to pass on with the hope that the passing on will continue…

“We, who are the older members of A.A., bequeath to you who are younger, these three Legacies – the Twelve Steps of recovery, the Twelve Traditions, and now the general services of Alcoholics Anonymous. Two of these Legacies have long been in your keeping. By the Twelve Steps we have recovered from alcoholism; by the Twelve Traditions we are achieving a fine unity.

Being someday perishable, Dr. Bob and I now wish to deliver to the members of AA their Third Legacy. Since 1938 we and our friends have been holding it in trust. This legacy is the general Headquarters services of Alcoholics Anonymous – the Alcoholic Foundation, the AA Book, the AA Grapevine, and the AA General Office. These are the principal services which have enabled our society to function and to grow.

Acting on behalf of all, Dr. Bob and I ask that you – the members of AA – now assume guidance of these services and guard them well. The future growth, indeed the very survival, of Alcoholics Anonymous may one day depend on how prudently these arms of service are administered in years to come.”

Post from: Blisstree

“Your Third Legacy”

What A.A. Does Not Do

Tradition Ten: Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

1. Recruit members or furnish initial motivation for alcoholics to recover.
2. Keep membership records or case histories.
3. Follow up or try to control its members.
4. Make medical or psychological diagnoses or prognoses.
5. Provide hospitalization, drugs, or medical or psychiatric treatment.
6. Provide housing, food, clothing, jobs, money or other such services.
7. Provide domestic or vocational counseling.
8. Engage in or sponsor research.
9. Affiliate with social agencies (though many members and service offices do cooperate with them).
10. Offer religious services.
11. Engage in any controversy about alcohol or other matters.
12. Accept money for its services or contributions from non-A.A. sources.
13. Provide letters of reference to parole boards, attorneys, court officials, schools, businesses, social agencies, or any other organization or institution.

Post from: Blisstree

What A.A. Does Not Do

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
Post Office Box 607
Hollywood Station
Hollywood, California

December Fifth 1941

Irma Livoni
939 S. Gramercy Place
Los Angeles, California

Dear Mrs. Livoni:

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, held Dec. 4th, 1941, it was decided that your attendance at group meetings was no longer desired until certain explanations and plans for the future were made to the satisfaction of this committee. This action has been taken for reasons which should be most apparent to yourself. It was decided that, should you so desire, you may appear before members of this committee and state your attitude. This opportunity will be afforded you between now and December 15th, 1941. You may communicate with us at the above address by that date.

In case you do not wish to appear, we shall consider the matter closed and that your membership is terminated.

Alcoholics Anonymous, Los Angeles Group
Mortimer, Frank, Edmund, Fay D., Pete, Al

There’s soooo much wrong with this I don’t know where to start… thank God this type of insanity didn’t last long in AA!

Post from: Blisstree

Imagine Alcoholics Anonymous Without The Twelve Traditions?

The Language of the Heart: Bill W’s Grapevine Writings

“We, who are the older members of AA, bequeath to you who are younger, these three Legacies – the Twelve Steps of recovery, the Twelve Traditions, and now the general services of Alcoholics Anonymous. Two of these Legacies have long been in your keeping. By the Twelve Steps we have recovered from alcoholism; by the Twelve Traditions we are achieving a fine unity.

Being someday perishable, Dr. Bob and I now wish to deliver to the members of AA their Third Legacy. Since 1938 we and our friends have been holding it in trust. This legacy is the general Headquarters services of Alcoholics Anonymous – the Alcoholic Foundation, the AA Book, the AA Grapevine, and the AA General Office. These are the principal services which have enabled our Society to function and to grow.

Acting on behalf of all, Dr. Bob and I ask that you – the members of AA – now assume guidance of these services and guard them well. The future growth, indeed the very survival, of Alcoholics Anonymous may one day depend on how prudently these arms of service are administered in years to come.”

Post from: Blisstree

Your Third Legacy

The first paragraph of the A.A. Service Manual says about the Second Concept;

“It is self-evident that the thousands of A.A. groups and the many thousands of A.A. members , scattered as they are all over the globe, cannot of themselves actually manage and conduct our manifold world services.”

Now, even I could have seen that coming

“The group conscience is out there among them, and so are the needed funds. The power of the groups and members to alter their world service structure and to criticize its operation is virtually supreme. They have all of the final responsibility and authority that there is. The operation is really theirs; they really own it. This has been true ever since the groups took over from the founders and old-timers at St. Louis in 1955.”

The Clear Implication Of A.A.’s Tradition Two

“But an ultimate authority and responsibility in the A.A. groups for world services – if that is all there were to it – could not amount to anything. Nothing could be accomplished on that basis alone. In order to get effective action, the groups must delegate the actual operational authority to chosen service representatives who are fully empowered to speak and act for them. The group conscience of A.A. could not be heard unless a properly chosen Conference were fully trusted to speak for it respecting most matters of world service. Hence the principle of amply delegated authority and responsibility to ‘trusted servants’ must be implicit from the top to the bottom of our active structure of service. This is the clear implication of A.A.’s Tradition Two.”

Please pardon the alcoholic thinking – but this also feels as if it could be A.A.’s Achilles Heel, in my mind… based on some things I’ve already experienced.

Damn right we have been given a legacy! And, for sobriety’s sake – constant vigilance will always remain the watchword!

Post from: Blisstree

Concept II