Service workshop at the Fellowship of the Spirit Conference in Queens, NY

Hi, my name is Bart and I'm a recovered alcoholic

and I want to thank Bill and Brenda. They're going to do a service workshop for us for about an hour, but before we start, every year when we get the registrations, there's always at least one letter that I enjoy getting with the registrations, and this one was interesting. Dear Sir, I look forward to attending this day retreat. It was 31 years ago that I struggled into the rooms on the 4th, 5th or 6th of August

and therefore considering this to be my special anniversary gift to myself. And with that, I want to bring up Wallace W for his 31 year coin.

Is he here? Oh, there he is. He's walking in now.

Wallace, you got a coin.

There's also two more anniversaries this weekend.

Bill C with 25 years

and Michelle from the Whitestone Group, two years.

Good afternoon. My name is Bill. I'm an alcoholic.

I'm a member of the Baldwin Group in Nassau County. And I also, among the other things that some of the other things I do in Alcoholics Anonymous, I'm the currently seated delegate to the General Service Conference of the US and Canada for the local general service area that we're in here, which is called Southeast New York. And,

and Brenda. Hi everyone. My name is Brenda. I'm an alcoholic and I'm a member of the Wright Police Group in Westbury, Nassau County. And I have a general service position and that is chair of the National General Service Group of Alcoholics Anonymous.

OK, Thank you, Brenda. I was going to tell you I was Tom, but I figured that you wouldn't, you wouldn't fall for that.

This is a little interlude here in, in the course of the Fellowship of the Spirit weekend. I want to thank the committee for inviting us to come and do this. What I'm going to do is talk a little bit about service a as third legacy and in the course of things, hopefully I'll be clear. But if not, I certainly invite you to raise your hand and, and ask questions. And

we do have time within the hour that's allotted to us for some QA and from for some discussion. And I, I think obviously that'll probably, you know, break things up a little bit and, and make the whole thing a little more interesting.

Writing, writing about service, a legacy of service. Bill Wilson in what's called the a service manual suggests that our 12 step carrying the message is the basic service that the AA Fellowship gives. This is our principal aim and the main reason for our existence.

Therefore AAA is more than a set of principles, it is a Society of Alcoholics in action. We must carry the message, else we ourselves can wither and those who haven't been given the truth may die. Hanson AA service is anything whatever that helps us to reach a fellow sufferer, ranging all the way from the 12th step itself to a 10 cent phone call. This was written a while ago

and a cup of coffee, which probably also cost less than and and to a as general service office for national and international action. The sum total of all these services is our third legacy of service

services include meeting places, hospital cooperation and intergroup offices. They mean pamphlets, books and good publicity of almost every description. They call for committees, delegates, trustees and conferences. And not to be forgotten, they need voluntary money contributions from within the fellowship. So that was written back in 1951 when

a A was still young

in the early years of the fellowship, the 1st 15 years of the fellowship to be precise,

the practical and the spiritual leadership was provided in the East by Bill Wilson and in the Midwest by Doctor Bob Smith. And when things came up, these these two Co founders were available face to face to the membership. You could go to go to Bill's house in Brooklyn or up in up in Westchester

later on and you could speak to the man. You could say this is happening in my group. What should we do? And members often did you could go to Doctor Bob and say this is going on. We're not sure which way to turn on this. And he would be available. A lot of the early stuff that went on in a a obviously, you know, there was an element of divine intervention there, but there was also an element of trial and error. And we learned through

the wisdom and the leadership of these two men in particular, and of many of the other early members and, you know, through through our struggles as a fellowship, you know how how to bring this thing off.

Bill was obviously not naive about things and recognized that he and Bob were not always going to be available to us as a fellowship doctor. Bob died late in 1950 and Bill Wilson died early in 1971.

In the late 50s,

the late 40s rather,

they were thinking, well, what are we going to do? What are we going to try and put in place that

will serve the needs of the fellowship going forward in the days when you and I are not here? And the thing that they came up with was, and at that time there was already

an A, a so-called a, a headquarters. And there was a certain amount of structure. There were people who were considered trustees and friends of the fellowship who were active in service to the fellowship. But to bring about something that really would provide a broad

basis for participation, they came up with a thing called the General Service Conference. In the general service structure,

this was to design expressly to kind of take the place of these early members and in particular the cofounders as the fellowship matured. And

the conference was a concept, largely Bill's concept, but also supported by a number of others. And they structured it in the late 40s. And in 1951 the conference met for the first time.

It was going to meet on a trial basis for four years. And in the fifth year, 1955, we would take stock and see where we stood as a fellowship and whether this would be

something that would be enduring or whether it was something that was seemed like a good idea at the time but isn't really going to work. Brenda is going to share with us a speech that Bill offered in 1954. The conference has met now for four years at that point. And this is this is some of Bill's reflection on on where he thinks we stand at that point as a a is coming of age.

This piece is actually taken from an unpublished 1954 talk

by Bill W, courtesy of and with permission from Alcoholics Anonymous, World Services General Service Office Archives.

So there was a long discussion in which I had a sad falling out with a good many of my friends, some of whom had been trustees. And it was quite a bitter and harrowing chapter in our affairs which none of you know about. The struggle to see whether this movement will always be headed by a self perpetuating hierarchy of Alzheimer's

or whether these affairs so vital to the welfare of AA all over the world

should be turned over to you.

And finally, after six years of hassling about it, I finally got the consent of the Board of Trustees to come out to you and to say, here is a means which an experimental form we have pushed in a pamphlet marked The third legacy.

Here is a means by which you can get some delegates and state committee men and send folks up to New York

to take charge and to take over what is now your business.

And so why don't you come up here, up there and look the steel over. And the trustees will agree to make themselves responsible to you instead of to nobody. And you look it over and see what you think about it. And if at the end of four years you like the way that this temporarily laid out, then we'll drive a plug in this thing. Then we all time is up there, including yours truly will say, look folks, these vital services are yours to have and to hold.

This conference of delegates shall hereafter be the custodians and the guardians of our traditions. This is yours. This is the remainder of your third legacy. Will you accept it?

So since 1951, we have been holding these yearly conferences to see whether this movement was interested enough, was responsible enough, felt those services were worthwhile enough to maintain so long as God will need this society. And I think it's the conclusion of every delegate who has been there that yes, we should take these things over.

So in 1955 we purpose to hold an International Convention,

at which time, on behalf of the old timers and of Smithy and me, we shall say to you, here is the remainder of your third legacy. The Conference shall become our successor. To you we hand the last torch. Carry on, face your destiny with surety and courage, and God love you.

Sounds a little different when you hear it in the voice of Bill Wilson, as I did at the conference, but

we'll take the New Zealand accent anyway. If you didn't peg that.

These are the words of Bill Wilson speaking to a group somewhere in the United States or Canada in 1954. He's looking back on four years of a trial of this experiment called the General Service Conference, and he's looking back with some satisfaction, but at the same time some sadness. Nothing in a a came about without a birthing without birthing pains and Bill talks about

having a falling out with some of his early friends

over trying to push this idea forward.

Bill was certainly a driver and I guess, you know, he maybe drove over a few people along the way, but he he's he's looking at it with some satisfaction, he thinks. So we have something that works. And the title of the book a a comes of age is from this is of this period. It talks about the book talks about that 15 year period from 35 to 55 where the fellowship is really finding its legs. Many of the things that you and I take for granted today, including the

traditions and

most if not all of our literature, comes into being in essence in this period and to some extent under the watchful eye of this young general service conference. What I'm here to really do is to kind of give you a little feel for what that conference is about, how what it looks like. It is your conference. This is not something that happens over there.

This is ours. This is mine. This is yours. This is something that has an intimate touch on the shape of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous as we have come to know it. And it is something that you can. It's something that you have a right to participate in. Perhaps you'll even see that you have an obligation to participate. I'll leave you to draw that conclusion for yourselves,

but there is a way of this thing. I'm going to try and kind of explain a little bit of that today

and hopefully try and use some examples of things that have gone on or through the conference that might be a particular interest to this group.

The conference met for its 56th year this year. It met for the first time in 1951. That was the year I was born. And there's an interesting piece in the service manual talking about why we need a conference. And it talks about,

uh, sure, the, the role of the conference in assuring that AA is there for the child born today destined to alcoholism. I was that child born the year that the conference first sat. So that has a special poignance for me some 55, almost 55 years later, for me to sit in that conference, to be in that hall, to listen to those words that Brenda read in Bill's own voice as he delivered them

so many years ago.

It was one of several moments during the conference week this year where, you know, I came close to tears. And I'm not, I'm not the tearful sort. Exactly. For those who know me, it was, it was very moving to to hear this man to whom I owe so much

talking about this thing that I had been privileged to become a part of. But I want to. What I want to emphasize is not so much my part in that, but our part in that.

The

I mentioned that we're in, I'm the delegate from the local general service area. The conference includes all a A in the United States and Canada and there are similar conferences in most other countries where A A is also present and they are autonomous of this conference, but modeled on the conference here in the US and Canada.

The conference has nine, currently 93, what are called delegate areas.

This local delegate area which I have represented for two years now is called Area 49. They're given numbers and they also have names. We're called Southeastern New York, Orsini for short, because we like our acronyms. And each of those areas is entitled to select A representative to come to New York for what is essentially a week long business meeting. Now I don't know how many of you here look forward to perhaps sitting in on a week long business meeting.

I know in my Home group we, we had a rule until a year or so ago where the business meeting would not run more than 20 minutes. And to sum that seemed excessive. So to, to think about sitting in a meeting that is going to run from, you know, you, you, you get up early in the morning. It starts out with an early bird meet, AA meeting, and then you're in session by 9:00 and you know you're going to be in session until four o'clock 5:00 in the afternoon.

Naturally, we had coffee breaks and broke broke for meals. They fed us very nicely, thank you.

But you know, it's a, it's a very busy week, a very demanding week.

So each, each of these 93 areas Alexa representative sends it to this sends them to this business meeting. And what happens at this business meeting?

Most of you are probably familiar with some of our service committees, things like public information, cooperation with the professional community, literature, Grapevine, correctional facilities, treatment facilities, and so on. There are thirteen of these committees represented at the conference.

Ideas and concerns that come from you, the membership are sent to the general service office, usually through the local general service area, and through a process of sort of filtering, they end up on an agenda for these thirteen one of these 13 committees. We heard Tom talk earlier about

participating as a general service Rep in his local area with trying to push the idea that we should

get the doctor's opinion back on page. Arabic one in the in the big book where it is not now it was in the 1st edition, but it is no longer. Now it's it's floating in the in the Roman numerals. That's an example of an idea out there in the fellowship that one particular one didn't make it to the conference because apparently it didn't make it out of the local area.

But there are many ideas out there that members talk about,

discussed, debate,

push for, and some of them do make it to the general service office. And of the some of those, some of those do make it onto agenda. That's a process which I described as filtering, I guess, and I'll come back to that in a little bit. Each year the conference has an agenda of items. Many, as I've said, many of them came from you, the members one way or another. And

the

this year at the conference, I think there was some almost 60 different items that these 13 committees considered.

The committee's look at these agenda items over the course of the week that they meet and we'll make recommendations then to the full body on these agenda items. Some things the committees will say, well, you know, that's interesting, but you know, maybe not this year. And I'll share with you some examples of of of that. Others, they will say, yeah, that's a good idea, let's offer it to the full group.

Literature

this year, for instance, considered a second AAA history book. That was an idea that that came from within the within the fellowship and made it onto the literature agenda. The literature committee looked at that and did not think that that was something that we needed at this time and said thank you, but no, we're not going to recommend that to the full body. So that didn't really go anywhere.

There were other ideas, such as a book pamphlet rather

on AA, religion and spirituality. An idea for a pamphlet like that has been out there in the Fellowship for a number of years that also then went to the literature committee. But yet again, this was an idea that they didn't think

it's was necessary at this time. So they didn't pass that through.

They did pass through a couple of other things. They discontinued the pamphlet Letter to a woman Alcoholic, for instance. That was an interesting discussion on the floor. There were men and women who got up and said, this is a vital pamphlet. How can we trash this? This is what I got sober on. This is what helped me come into a a. This was my entry point to the fellowship and others who got up and said, this thing is so archaic. It is so

insulting to modern women that how can we possibly publish it? And that range of opinion got played out on the conference floor by your representatives.

And in the end the conference did decide that that pamphlet would would be discontinued. So this is just a couple of examples of some things that that were out there

at the

by the end of the conference week, a number of these decisions had been made and a lot of ideas had been set aside. And what you'll see at the end of the conference is a very detailed conference report.

It comes out in a very, very preliminary form in what's called Box 459. For those of you who have been involved with General Service, this is a periodical that the General Service office puts out from every roughly every other month. 6 * a year, I think

summarize some of the activities of the conference. The final report, this is last year's final report is due out like any moment now, like when I get home, they might be sitting on my doorstep awaiting distribution. This gives you a very detailed statement of what what went down at the conference. One of the things I think that's important in here also is that it gives you a very detailed Finance Report.

A A is always looking for money right,

at various levels. Well, you ever wonder where the money actually goes? Well, in terms of the money that goes to the so-called headquarters, the general service office, they tell you exactly where the money goes in here. And I think it's useful to, to look at some of that to know where, where the money is going.

So that's that, that's, you know, pretty much that conference week, it's the week is kind of punctuated with other things going on.

But basically, you know, it's, it's a big business meeting.

The parallel process that kind of takes place in support of the conference is a trustees process. And you heard Bill and his piece about getting the conference going talking about the trustees.

And you also heard him talk about that in the, in the little piece I read talk about trustees and the piece I read out of the service manual

in tandem with these service committees at conference, our trustees level service committees. And this is where the filtering that I mentioned takes place.

The best way to get the conference to look at something that you think is important is to get it to come through your local general service area.

Tom wasn't able to do that with the doctor's opinion, but many other things do come through the local general service area. And what that says to the General Service office is that there's not just an A member out there who thinks this

or a group out there that thinks this, but there's a whole area that supports this idea, maybe not unanimously, but substantially.

And we should look at that. The trustees receive a whole bunch of these things and what they do is then they kind of go through them and make some decisions on our behalf as to which should be then passed on to the conference for the conferences consideration. Some things have been to the trustees repeatedly and not made it to the conference. Some things have been to the trustees repeatedly made it to the conference and never made it out of the conference. It's an interesting process to watch.

It is a very thoughtful process.

It is a very slow process, but it's a process that really is designed that when

something finally comes out of it, it has broad consensus, broad support throughout the the conference that is looking at it. Those 93 delegate areas have to agree with 2/3 of the conference saying yes, that we're going to do this. This particular thing that that been recommended some things that I might be of interest to to this group that

made it as far as perhaps the trustees, but not to the conference.

More than once there has been this request that we retire living sober.

There are a there's a number of members out there in the fellowship that for some reason suggests that living sober is not consistent with our big book. Imagine that.

How could we have published something like that?

This idea has has been out there for a while is obviously something that has not made its way through this process. If obviously there's some of you who share that that that idea. If you do, and if you would like to see the retirement of living sober, you got to work through your local general service area to build a local consensus that says

in this case, Southeast New York supports the idea of retiring living sober because. And then that gets passed on to the conference. If enough areas suggest that that ends up on the agenda and it gets serious consideration and it becomes a real possibility. Something else that was suggested but didn't make it its way to the to the conference this year was the idea of

possibly having the fellowship published

a big book dictionary. I see in the

items for sale that there's a, a big book dictionary out of there. Well, the idea that was floated this year, and I, I believe it's come up before, is that perhaps we as a fellowship should do that. Then maybe that would be a useful

tool. That idea did not make its way through, but you know it's out there in the firmament and it has the possibility

of having serious consideration before the conference if you, the membership, tell the conference through your representatives that that's something that you would like to see.

The Big Book itself is preserved in the form that you see it because of the action of the conference. The conference. While there are some differences between first, second, third, and 4th editions of the Big Book, they are more on the order of page numbering rather than actual changes to the text.

When the 4th edition of The Big Book was approved in I think it was 2000,

what's called the Publications Department at a World Service thought it was a nice idea to maybe clean up some of the punctuation.

People who, you know, look closely at the Big Book notice that it wasn't the same in the 4th edition. Now that first 164 pages in fact, had been changed, even though we said we would not change it. And there's a problem with that. Well, in the conference of

I think it was 2004

that was had made its way through this process and it came back to the literature committee. The literature committee did not think that the changes in punctuation needed to be addressed,

and they did not recommend that to the conference. As I recall, I wasn't at that conference. I'm kind of giving you a secondhand view of this

on the floor of the conference. However,

delegates from various areas felt strongly enough that when we said we're not going to change the Big Book, that that means we're not going to change the Big Book. It doesn't mean we're not going to change it, but it means we're not going to change it. And that discussion and argument played out on the floor of the conference. And in subsequent printings of the 4th edition of the Big Book, you'll find that the punctuation has been restored

to the original.

So these are some things that play out through this thing called the conference. And I guess the thing that I'm here to really encourage as much as possible is that you recognize that this is your conference and your process, that

as such you have a right to participate

and that there are definitely ways that you can do that. You can't show up at the conference

and say I'd like to be heard. It doesn't quite work that way. That would be obviously chaotic. But you certainly do have the opportunity to, through your general service representatives, through your district structure, through your county and area service structures, bring ideas forward.

And if those ideas kind of make their way through, they become part of the fabric of a A

as we know it going forward. So those are just a couple of things that, you know, I think are of some interest and of some value.

There's no questions or comments so far, right? Or are there?

OK, then I'll rattle on.

I want to speak personally for for a few minutes. You know what? Why bother with all this stuff? And this is politics, isn't it? You know, why should I, why should I get involved in this? One thing that I, you know, I found that in my a experience is that along the way opportunities have presented themselves to me

to further my recovery. You heard, I forget whether it was last night or earlier today.

You know, any jerk can be sober in a vacuum. Any, anyone can practice these principles. Well, when we don't actually have to interact with other people. It's it's when I actually have to go out there and deal with my fellow human being that that's the that's kind of the test of whether or not I've been wasting my time

and wasting my sponsors time on some of this stuff. One of the things that I've experienced in service is that whether it was as coffee maker or as

group secretary or as an intergroup representative or as a county officer in general service or as a public information committee chair or as a treasurer or as an area chair or now as delegate.

These service experiences have really offered me kind of a workshop.

A workshop in a safe place where I can kind of test bills capacity with those 12 steps to see whether in fact

to see whether in fact, you know, I'm growing, whether I'm in fact recovering or whether I'm just the same jerk who walked in here a few years ago. And, you know, sometimes the answer is that on the jerk. And sometimes the answer is that that I am in fact growing. But you've given me a place to to try that,

to practice these principles so that I can kind of be a better person, a more adequate person, a more whole human being when I get out there with my family and on the job and in my neighborhood. I mean, you know, I came into Alcoholics Anonymous. I was a guy who had all sorts of education, but I didn't know a damn thing about living well. I knew nothing about getting along with my fellow human being.

You know, my idea of settling an argument might be to throw a chair.

I mean, it could be very decisive, but you know, that kind of wears thin after a while. And in here, you, you taught me that there were other ways that I could tolerate

someone not sharing my opinion. My God, you don't think as I do. You know, what's that about?

You know, so, and it was through these service experiences that I started to learn small lessons that, you know, kind of started to collect and became a new way of life. Ultimately, I remember when I was first learning to make coffee, which was my, my first service job in a A and I took great pride in, in my coffee set up and I was very naturally compulsive about it. And, you know, I had to set the cookies out

way and the napkins had to be over here and I needed a little bowl for the empty sugar packets to be thrown in and the stars. And I would, you know, you never notice how like the coffee pot is always too low to get the cup under the spout. Have you ever noticed that? So, you know, I would take a baking tin and I'd turn it upside down. I put the coffee pot up there. I was very proud of my 100 cup pot of coffee and my, my coffee, my cookie set up and all that. And what would happen the first first drunk

walk in and and throw the throw the sugar over there and spill the coffee over here and knock the cookies on the floor,

you know, But I was learning something

in learning to tolerate that, you know, I had shown up. It was my responsibility to show up and and make you the make you coffee tonight. I did that. I did it with some care and some thought

and that was my offering. And then I would step back and let that go. And it was like little lessons like that. Along the way. Every service position I have taken had presented me with those kinds of opportunities to learn and to grow and to, as we say, to practice these principles and right through right through sitting at conference.

I mean, you know, I like to think of myself as as a sober minded person at this point. I, you know,

you saw me get a 25 year coin a few minutes ago, so hopefully I've got something to show for that.

And I was just sharing with a friend how, how I was sitting in a meeting and I was screaming at our area chairperson, you know, over some stupid thing just a couple of weeks ago. So, you know, where's that at? Well, you know, it's an opportunity to go practice that 10th step and to, you know, kind of take a look at why I, why, you know, I was so irritated that I had to yell and so on and to just set that right

and to find another way of working out whatever my issues were with this person,

a better way. So, you know, the opportunities present and

I just have to have the willingness to to grow through them. And that, that's part of what you've given me. This current thing with being a delegate.

I'm the, I guess I'm the 56th. No, that's not right on the it's a two year term. So on the 23rd

to the MATH 2528, on the 28th, delegate from my area,

one of 28 out of hundreds of thousands of members who have come through the doors of Alcoholics Anonymous. Why is that? I mean, it's not because I'm especially worthy, I assure you of that. But you know, somehow Providence brought me here and allowed me this. I am immensely appreciative to those of you who have,

you know, participated in allowing me to have that experience.

The payback

has been immense. Even just to be able to sit there and listen to Bill Wilson.

I'm one of like, you know, maybe 200 people who have heard that out of a fellowship of 2 million,

that's rare. You know, you'll all have access to the text of that. If you're interested, it'll be in the conference report. It's also in my area report. So it's, it's on our website. For those of you who are interested or intrigued or peeled with anything I've shared. We do have some of our area newsletters.

We put out a 10 * a year, a newsletter and it has phone numbers and e-mail addresses for various people who are serving with the local area committee and assembly.

As I say, I do represent many of the people in this room or have represented many of the people in this room at, at that thing called the General Service Conference. It's been a remarkable, remarkable kind of thing for me personally. And

one of the other nice things about it is that I have met some truly fantastic people.

Uas are really special. When you look, think about where we came from to where we are.

We we really clean up pretty nice

and I've met some really interesting and wonderful people. Not that I always agreed

with everyone I met, but there was always a collegiality, a respect, a courtesy

that has been shown.

Part of this whole service structure thing also involves, we've mentioned, I mentioned trustees. We have two kinds of trustees that serve Alcoholics Anonymous trustees who are from among the membership of the Fellowship of A, A, their recovered Alcoholics, and those are referred to as Class B trustees. And then there are Class A trustees. These are the friends

of AA people like, you know, in the old days it would be Doctor Silkworth and Harry Taibo and and, you know, some of the early friends.

Bernard Smith and so on. Some of those names hopefully ring a bell.

You know, we have them with us today.

There are only seven of them, but they too are remarkable group of men and women.

They're drawn from

a variety of backgrounds. Some come out of the faith community. Currently, Ward Ewing, an Episcopal priest, is a Class A trustee and he's currently chairing the public information committee for the for the trustees.

We have Alan Alt, who's coming out of Corrections and he's going to be rotating out next year, but he's prominent in that community and he serves Alcoholics Anonymous.

There have been always the friends of AA from the very beginning.

You know, it was the friends of a A even before there was an A A that made it possible for Bill to meet Bob. And

I guess, you know, I'll try and and draw this to a close.

One of the nice experiences that I had coming out of this conference, after all was said and done

and

we were ready to say our goodbyes, kind of, we went up to Stepping Stones, which most of you know is the Bedford Hills, Westchester home where Bill and Lois lived in their later years. And

they voted us all up on a bus and we, we went up there and

it's an interesting place. If you haven't been, I would certainly recommend you get up there because there are new, there's new management afoot at Bedford Hills. And it may be moving more in the direction of being more of a museum than the way it is right now. Right now you can kind of walk around the house at Liberty and you can, you can't, you know, you can't lay down on Bill's bed or anything like that. But that'd be a bit much perhaps. But I, you know, I got the I got to sit at the kitchen table,

had been in the house on Clinton St. in Brooklyn. And that was the table that Bill sat at when Abby came to him with the word that there might be a way out through the practice of spiritual principles. Sat at the same table that Bill sat at when Abby came to him. That was strong for me.

There's a little

side building up there called Wit's Ends, and that's where Bill did a lot of his writing.

I'm told it's called Wit's End because that was where Lois would send bills

when she was at her. Wit's Ends with him.

I'm not sure if that's true or not, but that's what I hear in that in that little building, I got to sit at the desk that Bill sat at when he wrote the 12:00 and 12:00, when he wrote those Grapevine articles that many of us are familiar with and love. I saw the cigarette burns on the desk where, you know, he would put down his cigarette and there's a scorch mark.

You know, it's, it was a rare opportunity to.

I mean, that's as close to Bill Wilson as I'm going to get.

And

you can do that. You don't have to be part of this general service thing to do that. But I'd never been, you know, I live in New York. I've never been to the Statue of Liberty. It's that kind of thing,

you know? But because, you know, you threw me into this general service conference thing or allowed me into this general service conference thing, I ended up going up to Stepping Stones and getting about as close to Bill Wilson as as I'm ever going to get. It's been

a rare experience and I hope that

you will give some thought perhaps to whether your group

is connected to the rest of the fellowship, because that's what this structure is all about. It's about connecting my Home group with your Home group with the Home group in Alberta and the Home group in Saskatoon and the Home group in Dallas and and so on. So that we have a unity as a fellowship that we have that spiritual connection to each other

as much as is possible with a fellowship with. I think we have something like

58,000 groups in the US and Canada, give or take a few, and like 1.2 million members.

I guess also for this group in particular, because you are as interested in our basic text as you are and that you look at it as closely as you do,

I think it's important that that spirit

be kept and be reinforced in what some of these other structures say and do

as much as possible. It would be nice to feel that in fact, the conference does reflect the conscience of a A,

but that's only true to the extent that you make it true through participation. So does your group have a GSR? Tom was a GSR. He mentioned that I was a GSR. There's probably others here who have been. A lot of groups don't have active GSRS. Here in New York, we have some maybe 2000 groups or meetings.

We have about 800 of those actively connected to the service system. That's less than half.

That's not so great. So there's room for growth there.

So if you take anything from this, you know, it's possibly the idea that, you know, something this guy said, you know, either made me want to go out there and make sure they don't do it or showed me that it is possible that I can encourage them to do it

and that the way to do that is through participation. So we have about

1012 minutes by that clock. There is time for some comments or questions. There is a microphone somewhere that will go around. And if you just wait for the mic right over here in the front. Ken, I also have to say I recognize a lot of you from around the area and that's kind of nice too.

My name is Ken. I'm an alcoholic. Ken, a sobriety first. First, I want to thank you for your service. You were

the first delegate I saw elected when I was not a GSR, so I sat on the side and was impressed by the spirituality and the first seeni election that I saw. Second, I'd like to have you comment on

any connection between the structure of intergroup and GSO, if any.

OK. I would say unfortunately for General Services

into groups a much better understood than General Services. I certainly felt that way when I first reached out to the Fellowship. It wasn't a General Services, it was to

through an intergroup

into groups are autonomous local entities and they basically function locally. And their job principally is to make sure that when the drunk who still suffers reaches out for help at the hand of a, a in fact is going to be there to reach back. And that's usually, you know, to set up those 12 step lists to assure those 12 step calls and to make sure that, you know, usually to publish a meeting list