Page 12 of ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS GENERAL SERVICE CONFERENCE: A SERVICE HANDBOOK FOR IRELAND Published by AA General Service Conference of Ireland states:
“The Big Book Study Movement is outside of the Structure of Alcoholics Anonymous In Ireland.”
In a ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS GENERAL SERVICE CONFERENCE OF IRELAND News Sheet Dec 2008/Jan 2009 stated:
The Committee was surprised at the proliferation of the Big Book Study Movement Groups being created and providing misleading and inaccurate Information in order to gain entry to our directory, with total disregard of our Conference decision (September 1995), that the Big Book Study Movement Is outside of the Structure of Alcoholics Anonymous In Ireland’. Our Committee was disturbed by some of the practices, conditions, contracts and rules attached to these meetings. (Appendix 1)
Alcoholics Anonymous is a programme of self diagnosis, self motivation, self action and the use of study guides, courses, classes, or interpretations are. therefore, not appropriate. No group or Individual should deem themselves an authority on how-to interpret the Big Book on behalf of others. The steps are suggested and experienced sponsors are wise enough not to give newcomers hard and fast directives. There are no authorities in AA and even self appointed teachers, have “feet of clay”.
In 1977, faced with a rising number of requests, from AA members, to reprint excerpts of the Big Book and other materials in Study Guides, the Directors of AA World Services appointed a Committee, to explore the question. Members of the Committee. unanimously recommended that the Board not grant permission, to use excerpts or our literature in Study guides, and that AA itself should not publish Study Guides and have declined to provide any interpretative material, they chose to let our literature stand alone. Our knowledge of recovery has been received In the Fellowship through the experience of one Alcoholic sharing with another Alcoholic and it was not received on an instructive basis or in a classroom atmosphere.
One Member (bbfreeaa – I wonder if the means big book free aa?) posted on http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSOwatch/message/6839:
“Before everyone on this site gets their panties in a wad, they might want to investigate what we are really dealing with…and it ain’t AA!
I am sick and tired as well of these self appointed messiahs we have here in Texas at the PPG and other Groups that have teachers, gurus, WORKBOOKS (DAMNED WORKBOOKS) which are nothing more than tools to gain money and prestige under the guise of Carrying the AA Message. It is a cancer in AA and creates some of the worst arrogant, self-serving, sober monsters I have ever encountered.
Take a peek at the website below. Since when do we do classrooms? Who among us has the right to write our own workbooks…the height of selfish arrogance? Who is so above the simple message found in the BB of AA that they feel compelled (ego-starved) to add to what has been a gift from God?
http://www.ppgaadallas.org/foundation_meeting.htm
http://www.ppgaadallas.org/study_guide.htm
I could go on for hours since I have years of experience dealing with the self-serving clowns. The final product is usually a 1 1/2 to 2 year sober arrogant know-it-all self-righteous, angry cretins that annoy the hell out of everyone and ends up in a very short time drunk again. I lost count of how many I have seen end up that way. I sponsor 4 guys that are refugees from their cult and they have lots of sobriety now and are active in working with others.
I just heard about one of there little monsters with three years sobriety in far N. Dallas area that, when asked to speak at a group, announced to the group that he needed 2 months of speaking dates at the group to convey the full message he has to offer. What a tool.
It’s late, I’m tired. I have all sorts of other links and attachments to send you about these clowns later. Good for the GSO in Ireland.
This bunch really needs to read the long version of Tradition 3 where it states “Any two or three alcoholic gathered for sobriety may call themselves an AA Group provided that as a group, they have no other affiliation.” Affiliation oozes out of their pores. They just need to start their own ego driven program and leave AA alone!”
In Ed Webster’s book “Our devilish alcoholic personalities”, he states that he was fortunate to become a part of a squad of desperate last gaspers, to whom the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, had become their only authority for the recovery from alcoholism. Each member knew that drink again meant a slow alcoholic death, but that drinking could be averted by study of the book Alcoholics Anonymous to learn the working mechanics of the 12 steps. Fundamental instructions relative to the application of the 12 steps became necessary as her membership increased.
Ed got sober in 1941…
So you see this perspective (resentment) that you have against groups who study the mechanics most likely needs inventory my friend. I am not a part of a PPG but I am a part of a home group that focuses on the steps and traditions and has many good members who take new folks through the book with good proper mechanics
I have a dual perspective on this.
I hit bottom in sobriety. I had exhausted the 123, and what had worked at the start – meetings, sharing with rigorous honesty, fellowship.. Was no longer working to keep me sane. I was stuck in the old thinking but didn’t know it.
This was where I reached the “jumping off point”.
I’d come into AA with a lot of yets, fairly high bottom.
I didn’t want to drink. But I’d stayed sober through extreme grief, huge change and intense loneliness with meetings and prayer. I was beginning to have panic attacks every 15 minutes.
I was finally ready to surrender and my sponsor had a very strict process to go through the steps. For the first time, I began to understand. My fourth step was a revelation.
I began to feel that most people in AA were dry drunks. Then there was this almost cult like group that seemed to have something similar to what my sponsor had done with me. Some of them were very sober.
But some of them weren’t. They were high on their new obsession.
Hey, look, if that kept some off drink, who was I to judge? My instincts said they also weren’t really well, however, yet it seemed like there were two camps – the ones who weren’t willing to go far enough, and the ones who’d made it an evangelical religion.
If the AA I’d met coming in the door was like that, I’d probably be dead now.
Yet, if ivgabt had the hardcore approach my sponsor took a few years in, I’d also probably be dead now.
What we all really need to remember is that alcoholism is an addiction. We are addict personalities and we are going to crave anything we can binge on. Most of us are drawn to drama and big book cults provide that. They provide the illusion that there’s always a simple answer to, but life on life’s terms can be messy. We “trudge the road”.. Sometimes we get to feel like it’s an easy road or that we are well able for it, sometimes we are climbing Mount Everest.
I guess what I’m trying to say is it is up to each of us to take our own inventory, to mind our side of the street. I have seen both big book thumpers and group therapy advocates fail to do this.
The issue isn’t this approach, it’s our commitment to rigorous honesty, personal inventory, and humility.
However, as a group of millions of members, we need our group conscience and we need to make sure AA is safe for the newcomer.
But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. The zealous approach helped me immensely, WHEN I WAS READY.
Bottom line, if it works for you, excellent. Mind that you don’t decide it’s best for everyone, mind that you avoid falling into the trap of judging other’s if they have a gentler way.
Our home group uses the “Little Red Book” in conjunction with the Big Book for our step meetings with great success. The clarity it brings to the newcomers is at once very evident.Not conference approved, but endorsed by Dr. Bob.
The Little Red Book is an Accompaniment to the Big Book.
In 1946, after a strong experience with beginners meetings and The Tablemate, The Little Red Book was published by Ed Webster and Barry Collins. Dr. Bob helped to edit it and was consulted for the text. He is known to have passed Little Red Books out. This was AA’s first step book. It is written as an accompaniment to the Big Book, just like the Twelve and Twelve. The Little Red Book and the Akron guides and pamphlets are fantastic insights into how Dr Bob was working the steps and taking others through them. There are a few things that might be outdated today, that are in the LRB but it’s still extremely useful and really ought to continue to be used in meetings the way it once was. People just seem to have gotten confused about “conference approved literature” which is a darn shame since these books are super cool.
Bill spoke highly of the Little Red Book but declined to publish it because the trustees wanted a book the society could own. The Twelve and Twelve was published in 1952 just 6 years after the LRB and 2 years after Dr. Bob died. The Twelve and Twelve eventually dwarfed the LRB in AA, primarily because groups stopped selling the LRB.
Alcoholics Anonymous wasn’t “owned” until Bill Wilson died.
Maybe he wouldn’t let the LRB be published because it might have dug into his royalties. Well that was fixed when he got Tom Powers to help him write the 12 and 12 and took full ownership of that!
The Hyannis format saved my life.
“Just don’t drink and go to meetings” almost took my life.
I agree with you Tom,
“More sobriety brought about by
the admission of alcoholism and by attendance at a few
[don’t drink and go to] meetings is very good indeed, but it is bound to be a far cry from permanent sobriety and a contented, useful life.”
12 & 12 pg. 39
The most comical thing that any alki can do is judge another. The structure of AA in Ireland has always been against Big Book Study Groups. There are In my opinion many reasons for this , like the impact of the minnesota model of treatment that developed in 1967. AA is not group therapy, and also the culture within Ireland itself. The structure in Ireland of AA has a top heavy hierarchy element to it. its not so much the individuals fault, its more to do with the culture and mentality of the country itself in relation to structures in settings like AA. Even though our traditions state that AA is not an organization in the conventional sense, the problem still exists. The dilemma that all real alcoholics face is a lack of power and the constant re attachment of the ego. I would imagine that being part of the structure in AA in Ireland is a difficult role to practice especially if you are part of the service structure and still as angry as you were when you came in first. I have encountered many old timers in AA that have this problem and as mentioned above there ego has reattached to this identity. Where and how can they then justify their position.
Perhaps its best to share my experience in relation to this as opinions are like arseholes, everyone has got one. I came to AA 18 years ago, battered, beaten, confused, hurt, guilty and active. My first meeting a good experience as I was made feel welcome and met friendly people. I thought that this was it, I had finally found people who understood me and to an extent this was and is true. After a period of time when the initial honeymoon period wore off, I was worse internally, both mentally and emotionally as alcohol had been my solution. Now I wasn’t drinking and fear became my master. I relapsed and ended up in rehab. Left rehab and started aftercare. The solution that I tried to work was go to as many meetings as possible, don’t take the first drink and keep coming back. If I had the power not to take the first drink I wouldn’t need to be in AA. I sensed that my soul was empty and asked some people to help me. Unfortunately they had given me the message that they had already and It wasn’t working as my family would tell you. I was worse without a drink and came to learn that I was in fact untreated.
Dont do anything for 2 years, don’t get a sponsor until your ready, stay away from the steps , do some service instead. I nearly died from this message and I watched many die as well.
I was then lucky enough to hear a man speak who was sober and carrying the message within the big book. This showed me that not everyone in AA is alcoholic and that only a real one will hear and be wiling to follow the directions in the book as the gift of desperation manifests itself in the rooms of AA.
My friends and I then started a big book study group which is going strong today and carrying the message of AA to the still suffering alcoholic. I then as a result of trying to stay alive had to go through, exclusion in aa, being ignored at meetings, everybody at a certain meeting being asked to share and skipping me, getting phone calls of people from the structure asking me why our big book group had a certain name, getting visits to our group from structure members to check us out., and many more attempts to undermine and intimidate our group members.
However, having had a spiritual experience as a result of these steps and having began a relationship with a higher power there was a much bigger plan in place for our group and AA itself.
AA is not a monopoly on the treatment of alcoholism and the book is suggestive, however in Ireland the opinion of the structure and their lack of practice of the traditions is in fact killing people. The ultimate authority in AA is the group conscence. Its very sad that we have had to on many occasions move away from the structure as our GSR’s were treated very badly because of the group they came from. there is no middle of the road solution even though plenty live there in Ireland. The hardest place to BE SOBER in Ireland is not the pub, the wedding, the party, it is in fact within AA itself
I can relate to the controversy and experienced it first hand .I got recovered but authentic love and compassion were missing. I ended up abusing myself with my defects and didntt even know it until ACA made it click for me. But I am Passionate about PP.. Having recovery from a Primary Purpose method has been life saving for me walking me thru Sanon, trauma, depression, incest recovery and adult child of alochokics. AS BB does work for all of us..if we trulynwork it..and thenrelief is immediate and continues to occur. The spirit of the program and how meanings become deeper HPnreveals more and more as we grow etc. Findings similarities.I brought the defects from other programs into my PP 10th…it is Miraculous…Bcause it is HP at work IN us THAT WORKS. The method is miraculous..getting us reliably connectedn to God ..but I have experienced those same situations of arrogance and superiority being berated with the book and downright abuse. It is what I needed at the time. Those who claim recovery but then dont actually live, model or lead by example are the ones giving the method a bad reputatation..its why anonymity protects AA or any other fellowship. Those whom disregard the traditions and concepts (which are truly fruits of recovery) I have witnessed group think, oppression, governance, violation of traditions and concepts., himan solution of cross talk, blocking etc..all co trary to what program teaches. I firmly believe the program being misused and not authentic recovery.
Because that method and the BB truky give us everything we need for profound recovery and the sunlight of the spirit..the FRUIT of the recovery seems to be missing in some. THAT is pride and self will and selish ness run rampant. True recovery brings a profound humility an openeess to learn grow change..to hear and discern. My group was booted from WSO..leaving me homeless but passionate about the PP..and I have no place to live my 12th now..and share the wonderous graces. I suffer for it and really need a place to work my 12th..I have so much to share and give. My happy joyous free fled when I had no group to work with.
Please do not judge the method by some negative groups and bad apples. We must assime they are doing their best and not interpret their motives. Problem is they have not allowed a 4th step invetiry in the groups to bring HP in and allow group conscience. MYbrecovery teaches me to enterninto those uncomfortsble situation fearlessle..because if I am doing his will surrendered to him…I obey and let go of outcomes and stop trying to manage and control.
Please help those of us who know the PP method works a chance to redeem and stay sober with 12ths? I beg mercy, tolerance, patiemce and pity..we are not all like that.
If someone would give me a chance to start a PP group..and be found, by being under some WSO..I would humbly oblige and be grateful for the opportunity to let HP and PP shine as it was intended.
Rant: “Who is so above the simple message found in the BB of AA that they feel compelled (ego-starved) to add to what has been a gift from God?”
Reply: Totally missing the point. IF the rest of Planet Recovery still did exactly what the book says there would be no need for a BiG BooK approach that attempts to b ring BACK the fundamentals “we” as a fellowship began to lose track of… as we turned the First Approach over to the professionals that could never reach us, even before the book was written. The only people who have ever gotten so irritated @ this that they have to write a long rant are the middle-of-the-roaders who don’t want their apple cart upset – never the real drunks. Who, But for the Grace of God (that has woken up a few here and there) would be dying even more than they are if none re-embrace the actual book content. Especially in regard to: Working with others.
I am so grateful for the Big Book. I find it particularly odd that those who know the book best want to control other groups that have identified excempary ways to sponsor from the big book. Even Bill W himself contributed new information to the Grapevine regularly. Knowing the book must remain the standard. For me, it has new meaning each time I read depending on my spirit or who I’m helping at the time or the challenges I’m facing at the time. I want to share my experience with the Big Book. It is easiest to do with those who already know and love its content and precise instruction. I was prompted to take the steps when I attended primary purpose group in Dallas.
We were encouraged to greet the newcomer, find a sponsor, work the steps. If you are dying from alcoholism and need a real solution that will in turn bring joy and freedom from this oppressive disease, PPG is a group that is true to the first 164 pages. Best wishes in your pursuit of healthy happiness.
The irony of all this is that people are reading less and less. More video and instant gratification. If it were not for Big Book Meetings within the structures of AA, many would stay sober and never recover from self. There is certainly a place for Big Book Study Meetings as long as conference approved literature is being used. Common sense says that any one book from outsides AA opens the gate to thousands of other suggestions of literature that could be used. The Who will be the judge of what is right and what is wrong? You might suggest that the Group Conscience would. Then what happens when one group approves a book and the other does not. Can you see? Keep it simple. Just use the Big Book.
What saddens me is this….we HAVE a process for change AND a process for introducing new literature in AA. A couple of years ago I attended the North Florida Area Assembly here in Florida. Being very interested in our “conference approved” literature, I attended the “Literature Workshop”. At it, the facilitator presented attendees with a draft copy of a workbook to accompany the BB 4th step process. It was donated to AA by an anonymous member whose hope was that it could be used as a sample for the trustees committee on literature to consider. Quite a few GSRs and DCMs saw it as a valuable tool but nothing ever came of it. This member had no interest in their own glory. He/she only wanted to serve AA. Unfortunately- as they were only one person, there wasn’t much weight behind the idea. So many people and groups have developed study guides, workbooks, etc. Have any of them considered getting their Districts or Areas to support their ideas? Have any of them turned over their manuscripts to their Area delegate to be brought to the GSC? Have any of them considered mailing these manuscripts directly to the trustees committee on literature at GSO to have it considered and brought to the conference? The General Service Conference and the General Service Conference alone is the ultimate authority in AA and the effective voice of AA. There is obviously a NEED for something like a workbook or study guide. Perhaps it’s because there is a lack of good sponsors. I do not know the reason. But in my 32+ years as a conscientious member of AA, I have seen or heard of more individual’s new great method for studying the BB or taking the steps. To the best of my knowledge, none of the proceeds of their publications goes to AA world services. They can’t. They are all published by other companies. There are only 2 sources of income for our GSO headquarters and our publishing companies, AA World Services, Inc and The Grapevine, Inc. That is through basket contributions and the sale of AA published literature. By promoting the sale of other publications, we are helping to destroy AA from within. I want to believe that these authors have the best of intentions but as Bill W said “The good is often the enemy of the best”
The reason there isn’t a workbook, is because it needs to be sent up the chain from the group, to the District, to the Area, to the General Service Conference. It can take YEARS for it to make it through the chain. I know California tried to get the “Not God” Pamphlet written for well over 15 YEARS, before it finally got approved. It you want it done, Get involved in Service, and start working to get it done.
I want to inform this site that the author of the rant above “bbfreeaa” (and it IS a “rant”) was kicked off of the GSO WATCH website years ago due to his constant harassment and flaming of members there.
Also, for full context, I’d strongly advise people of interest to read the YEARS long logs of chats to get more of a feel and appreciation for the true AA heroes who valiantly fought to keep OUR MESSAGE, our message.
I was a participating member on that site for years, and have met many of them in person. I love them all, and am sorry that TIME, as it does, has marched on for them and the site isn’t updated currently. But it still holds a genuine treasure trove of info and evidence that we are using today.
http://silkworth.net/gsowatch/
Peace,
M.
I think its fine when done in DAA. That’s where they are used most anyways. Obviously these books are not AA, as they are written for the “addict” too.
I think they are wonderful studys and wish we would do more like them in AA. Obviously WITHOUT using outside published workbooks written by someone from the treatment industry is making money out of.
So long as they are not using the AA name, or calling those workbooks AA, I think they are great!
“In 1977, faced with a rising number of requests, from AA members, to reprint excerpts of the Big Book and other materials in Study Guides, the Directors of AA World Services appointed a Committee, to explore the question. Members of the Committee. unanimously recommended that the Board not grant permission, to use excerpts or our literature in Study guides, and that AA itself should not publish Study Guides and have declined to provide any interpretative material, they chose to let our literature stand alone. Our knowledge of recovery has been received In the Fellowship through the experience of one Alcoholic sharing with another Alcoholic and it was not received on an instructive basis or in a classroom atmosphere.”
Very interesting, but apparently not true.
In 1997 Wally P had published “Back to Basics”, an instruction book on how to take the steps in a class room setting as the early AAs did in the 1940s. It is historical fact that AA was taught this way and the approach was highly successful.
More to the point, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc. granted permission to quote from conference approved publications with source attributions in this classroom instruction manual, giving the lie to the above claim.
There have been at least eight printings of Back to Basics, the first in 1997,through to August 2006 according to my copy.
I’m very sad to hear Irish AA is so close minded. I have become something of a Big Book thumper in recent years because I have seen how effective it is for individuals to learn what is in the Book, and how to apply it in their lives. I have a basis for comparison.
When I came to AA in 1980, we had no big book meetings or steps meetings, just discussion/therapy groups. There was a big book study around, but it was private and I was never invited to participate. All fine by me, I didn’t know any better.
15 years later and our fellwoship is smaller. All the real oldtimers have passed on, 90% of our mebership have been through the same rehab (which takes you through the first 5 steps rehab style). The meetings are therapy sessions. few people had any practical experience with the steps. Fine with me, except I did wonder why people weren’t getting well.
I started looking further at what was happening, and came across, among other things, Big Book Sponsorship. I was close to 30 years sober, sponsoring a man, and had no real idea how to take him through the steps. I had long forgeotten how my late sponsor took me through, and was working from what I heard in meetings. I was doing it all wrong and I dont mind admitting it.
I went to my Pigeon with the BBS worksheet and asked if we could go through it together. We did, and the result was amazing. We did a couple of workshops with more people and similar result.
In the mean time, others were thinking along similar lines. I started a Primary Purpose Group (nothing like the one described above) but using the dallas material. Other groups had already begun changing their formats, Big Book Studies, and steps meetings are common place now.
I think the primary purpose ideas, and those of joe and Charlie, are bearing fruit. Our fellowship is turning back to the the literature, following the simple program laid out, and it is growing again. Funnily enough, at our PPG and Irishman with 20 years sobriety is finally taking the steps.
AA or GSO or GSC in Ireland or anywhere else has no madate to try and impose its will on AA groups. Each group is autonomous and responsible to one ultimate authority, a loving God as he may express himself in our group conscience.
our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern. And each group has but one primary purpose, to carry its message to the alcoholic that still suffers.
PPG has no other affiliation that I can detect, by the way.
Further, the concept of teaching the Big Book has been around since early times. There were the beginners meetings which did exactly what irish AA is trying to prevent, and achieved great success. Even big book Sponsorship material would be banned if these close minded individuals get their way.
The reason most older hands dont like BBS, and PPG and beginners classes etc is because it makes them uncomfortable. Some have built up quite a following for their own unique wisdom, and would be extremely embarrased if their minions were to find out how little they really knew about the program. I can understand that, I was one such. I had to change for the good of the fellowship that saved my life.
I am all for BBS and PPG, but only on the basis of attraction rather than promotion. Sometimes one has to look past the people to see the principle. Dont we have a tradition about that too?
I have had dealings with Dallas PPG and found them to me nothing but helpful and considerate.
As a BB advocate…I thought the big controversies would be with the meeting-makers, counsellors and treatment centre people…BUT the biggest conflicts I get are from other BIg Book Thumpers who think their way is the only way of teaching the newcomer the secrets of the Book…I find them quite antagnostic and not very helpful in the long run because they tend to not only divide the fellowship, but reate divisive attitudes amongst the Big Book advocates themselves…Furthermore, the newcomer tends to get confused when the thumpers are too busy pontificating about their sanctimonious approach to the Big Book as "THEIR" way is the ONLY acceptable way. Bottom-line: I’d rather be friends with a "meeting-maker" than a Big Book Thumper who prides himself as always being “Big Book” righteous.