The first 78 members of AA at a workshop called Kitchen Table AA in New Orleans, LA

OK, so you know, it says in our fifth tradition that every AA group ought to be a spiritual entity. So let's let's spend 3 minutes in in silence and just to bring us all back to together

God Grammy, the serenity to accept the things that cannot change,

the courage to change things they can. And the Wisdoms know the defense.

So

my name is Jay Stennett and I am a

historian

of the spiritual antecedents of this movement that we call Alcoholics Anonymous and also a biographer,

Bill Wilson.

Current thing that I'm working on is

a spiritual biography

and of him and it'll be

it's really been an amazing process and how many people here have said

well, it really wasn't a hundred, it was only 78.

OK, the topic that we've got here, excuse me, could you ask me the

our our schedule says how the 1st 78 came to be.

OK, as in the first there were by inference, there really weren't 100, there was only 78 when the big book came out.

And that's one of those pieces for some folks that are rather interesting. It's

part of this thing about, well, Bill was a promoter. He wasn't really, you know, he was, he was fudging the numbers to make things, to make things work. And one of the reasons why I'm doing the biography that I'm doing is that

I, I feel that he's pigeonholed into about a three to five year period being sober three to five years. And that's the only credit and run that he really gets. And OK, go ahead. OK, this is from the forward to the 1st edition. Evidently there's a lot of people aren't familiar with this, but it says we have Alcoholics Anonymous are more than 100 men and women

who recovered from the seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. It's the very first line and the preface of the 1st edition.

So the argument here is argument is that there really were not 100. Bill Wilson rounded it up by about 1/3 from 75 or so to 100. I think that this topic is not of that much interest to the group.

So we may make this really, really quick. OK, since it's on here, we'll just say that this was general weirdness by the folks who put this thing together and we'll go to go to go to some other topics. But

one of the things that I've been fortunate enough to do is I created with my friend Bill Shaver from

Fairfield, CT, the symposium on a a history. And starting in 2014, we, we annually get together with people that are doing primary research into the history of Alcoholics Anonymous. So we're not stuck with, well, my sponsor told me that when blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

we're working with people that are using primary documents and doing primary research. And by that

it's only you need two pieces of evidence that say exactly the same thing that are verifiable at the time, OK. And so anyway, a couple years ago, we had our friend John Barton come out from New Jersey as an archivist in New Jersey. And he actually went through and collated all the data and lo and behold,

it was much more than what it was that, you know, there was at least 100 people.

I've got the names. I've got their sobriety dates. They come from three, three separate lists of people. Doesn't seem to be something that's this big of a deal to this group. But you know, with the sobriety idiots, with all the different back and forth, they were able to verify by name.

By name, not

numbers. By name. The 1st 100 people that over 61 of them stayed sober from the gate and another 13 after having a few drinks here and there

did indeed stay sober after that. So two out of three. And so just just to let you know that those numbers are indeed

there was one thing that was another interesting thing that he said. And one of the documents that he uses is that Bill Wilson had a first edition book

that he wrote the person's name and their sobriety dating and also on the Backpage other people that came in and he listed them as ones twos and threes. One is people that came and stayed sober. Two is people that came and had a couple of slips along the way. And three was what they called failure. So like Hank Parker's the unbeliever in the in the first book, who was really the driving force behind

the the writing of the book. I mean he was a Co founder of a a straightforward but he drank in 1939 and never sobered again.

So he was a failure. But in this

bill says that

he says I've placed here as failures 5 who attended three or four meetings at most. So I have this 100 people, he's counting his failures, people who only attended a few meetings.

These men, I feel were exposed to her idea, did not take the treatment. If we leave those out, who really? If we include only those who really tried the program

for three months or more,

our percentage of success climbs to 72.2%.

Two out of three? Three out of four. Excuse me

Now

the thing that's interesting to me about that statement,

what does he say is really trying

90 days of going to meetings? Is that where 90 meetings and going to 90 meetings and 90 days started?

No, because they didn't have 90 meetings. But 90 days being a shot at really being exposed to the thing for 90 days was really trying. Not having a sponsor, working the step, blah, blah. You know, all the wonderful things that I've said at different times. This is what really trying means. But anyway, so that's a little thing on the 1st

78.

I don't think we need any more than that. Anybody got any questions? Yeah. Was it really 78 or was there a hundred? There was a hundred. You want the names? They're right here.

No, I mean that's it. There were there were 100 and

and if anybody's got a, a, a history question, I don't mean to seem irritated about that, but it's just one of those things that that I'm sorry if if we're not using the time to be more, more helpful to to more people, but it

is what part in in history did

is there like more women start going in and more people that weren't that

1st.

Well, the explosion. So the, the question was when did Alcoholics Anonymous start to grow demographically?

I would say that we could probably say about 1945 to 1948, Nineteen 48 after the Second World War. Well, actually, the, the, the, the most precise answer would be the movement only starts to grow after Jack Alexander's article in the Saturday Evening Post. And that blew the thing up nationwide and it changed everything about the about the movement. But after the Second World War,

you've got a huge because a lot of people that were in the Army, they've gone back home.

And then Alcoholics Anonymous is still getting into one or two major magazines a year. People are hearing more about it. The movie comes out. I, I don't know when that I don't, I don't think the last weekend comes out till about 55 or 58 with Ray Milan. But but anyway, so the, but I'd say after the Second World War is when it really blew up. We're from an area in Southern California

where

in 1948 there's probably 200 meetings just in a small area around Los Angeles. I think the other thing you got to consider to you when you talk about when did it open up and it was more than just gutter drunks. The guys that founded this thing were not gutter drunks,

you know. They were mostly white, middle class professional guys

that had drank their souls, drank their souls away. But you're not talking about guys off the Bowery, You know, it was very middle class is very white. And they had a real struggle of letting other people in. You know, there's a, we could get into some stories, I think my, my esteemed historian friend here maybe maybe the difference between Akron and New York and that is quite different

and the folks that are coming in. But yes, Sir.

That 100 that you mentioned.

Really like about Doctor Bob.

Crossing racial barriers?

So out of curiosity, out of that 100 that you mentioned, how many were Afro Americans or women

in this first hundred? I don't, I think we've got maybe three or four women. I don't know. There isn't any. There isn't any notation about any beauty being African American. But given the fact that it's 1939,

I I doubt that we've got any African American members coming in yet. How many people here ever listen to XA radio? Do I mean XA speakers.org? There's a website itscalledxaml-a-speakers.com org.

There is a great treasure called on there. There's a guy by the name of Barry L

The talks in Montreal in 1980

and it's to the first gay and lesbian meeting in an International Convention. And in it he tells the story because he was the guy at the door when Veronica,

which is they called him Veronica 'cause he was wearing the blonde wig. The African American transsexual or not transsexual but but cross dressing junkie alcoholic shows up and he's there and he tells the story about what that whole thing and how it came down. And it's a lovely story

and that, but the punchline in it is

they call Bill up and he goes to his lit, you know, guy and he's like, and Bill says, is he alcoholic? And the guy says clearly, he says that's the only question we can ask.

Well, then that's, that's the beauty of the traditions, right? And Bill pushed very hard for the traditions and they didn't really weren't welcome because it was changing or, but if you think about how we're all here today, because the only requirement for a A is a desire to stop drinking. You don't even have to stop drinking to be a member of Alcoholics Anonymous or a lot of us wouldn't be here because it took a while. But that came from forged wisdom based on many mistakes,

like much of the traditions. If you read why they're there, it's 'cause they tried the opposite and it didn't work. I'm sorry,

there's a great story too, but Wilson went to a prison and out of that prison, he, there's a couple of guy black guys there that he invited to the meeting. They show up and the rest of the guys in the meeting didn't want him in there and they took a vote and voted not to have them be in the meeting. So Wilson, in his brilliance,

goes back into the room. He takes the guys out, puts them in the kitchen, goes back in the room, and he says, let's take another vote. Whether

black people should have the program, should they have the program like we do? And they all voted well, of course. And he goes, great, I'm going to bring them in as observers so they can carry it to their community. And he brought him in. I think I love that story. That's Wilson.

Yes, Sir,

it talks about

somebody.

I've heard different versions. I've heard that it was maybe Marty Mann.

This ones in Akron, also this ones in Akron. Veronica is in New York. The reason I mentioned Veronica is, is that we've got a guy that was there telling the story about this type of thing. The story that's in the 12 and 12 is from Akron,

and that's the one where Bob says, and again, it's he's a sex Stevie

homosexual,

not one that could pass. I mean, it's that bad. And so,

well, no, I mean, there's this whole thing and there's, there's, there's a whole we just this past

it'll be available on

it'll, it'll be available for you to download the whole conference, the 2016 conference for 20 bucks. But we had a woman give a, a talk on the 1st

LBTQ

members of Alcoholics Anonymous and she tells, you know, that she told she went through this very weird thing with her weird thing where they're talking about how

the whole thing in those days was being able to pass.

That's the only way you could survive. But there were some people that just were they couldn't,

they couldn't pass. And this guy that showed up in Akron was somebody that couldn't pass.

And and he said, Bob, I'm a sex deviant. Not only that, I got that. I'm a drug addict. And, you know, and and so they went through this thing and, you know, they're going to have the vote. And Bob says after everybody, it's really clear that they're going to boot this guy out. And then Bob lays the line on him. What would the master do? And everybody goes let him in, Of course. You know. So that's the.

Yeah. Well, isn't it true they didn't want women in originally because the men would sleep with them? Well, no. That was Bob. Bob. Bob Smith is the guy who said behind every skirt there's a slip. Yeah. And. And yeah, he didn't, He didn't he. He was not interested in it being open to women. And we all know that the truth is the men aren't safe because now there's women in here.

It's my experience.

If you would tell the story,

I have a question that I've always wanted to ask.

I've read somewhere that Bill had gone to Ohio and.

He wanted to see why the program seemed to be they more people seem to be staying sober in Ohio than were staying sober in New York. And what I read was that Claire Snyder said to Bill, it's because in Ohio the program is trust God clean house, help others. And in New York, the program was don't drink and go to meetings. And I have personal experience with a lot of no drinks.

It didn't work so well. And I always wanted to know what that was true. You know, I, I, I think that really the,

if you take a look at it,

everybody that comes in in Akron just about is going through a hospital with a doctor.

It gives an entirely different credence than the guys that are doing stuff at Clinton St. It's an entirely different thing. They, they came up with a medical protocol. People are coming from all over for that. It's a medical deal in New York. They don't have that. And that's why the skew. I mean, the Prince of the 12 steppers, they showed up in his work for Christ sake. You know, I mean,

we can get into all that structure of the meeting with what that had to do with,

but I don't, I don't the the primary documents that I have

about the structure of the meetings of what they were doing with people in New York in 19381939. They're getting them down on their knees there too, you know? But it's not that that's not part of the popular thing. You know, it's this

Doctor Bob's been hijacked by a bunch of people that had an agenda

and he was a much more open minded person than than than he's giving credit for. But I think it's I think it's really medical protocol more than anything. We had a patient man waiting here. Go ahead.

This is an honest question. Is a still growing

track. The public estimate,

General Service office of the inventories of 90s

numbers were flat for at least 10 or 10 years, or 2 million.

Yeah. And I wondered. Yeah. OK, so the answer is absolutely. You, Sir, appear to be part of a generation

of people that came through. They had three generations of Alcoholics that if they had insurance, all got swept into a A simultaneously. It's a tsunami that will never ever happen again. You will never have that kind of a peak. You won't have it #1

#2 Personally, my experiences, especially internationally, the Cocaine Anonymous is incredibly effective. The people that would have been that were coming to AA in the early mid 80s, they've got their own separate fellowship now. So I mean, yeah, it's flat, but you've got another 15 maybe anonymous groups that have started up In our Home group, the Monday Night Men Stagger, Hermosa Beach. When I joined the Home group, the median age was

what, 40 maybe? Or 35? And it was 100 people roughly. Since I joined, a couple of groups have taken big chunks out of the meeting out of resentment, which we find perfectly fine and we will discuss later. But they go start their own meetings and now the median age is in the 20s, easy because we have teenagers. So that's how things grow, right? The youth

and there was, you know, there's there's a lot of reasons that happen, but these guys are carrying the message like nobody's business, you know. And

you met one of them. If you met Josh when he was out here before he came in very young and came to our group with that influx of youth and they took over our damn meeting.

Glad they let me still come. Yeah, we have to send it money sometimes underwrite is I lost the war.

You know, the other thing that you have to consider when you're looking at the statistics that come out of New York, you really have to look at how the census is compiled, you know, structurally, how do they actually do it? One of the things, and there's a great report, you know, the recovery statistics that I'd be happy to send you if you if you really that interested, you can pour over it and it's very enlightening. It's hard to get through because it's statistics. You know

what they did twice is they changed the basis for gathering the numbers. Well, as you know, as anybody that went to school knows, if you've changed it, you just start over now because you've changed how it's compiled and they've done that twice. If you take that and you combine it with the number of 12 step programs, dependent upon what list you look at,

it's 100 and 5200, maybe even 300 different 12 step programs. Now

you look at cocaine Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, you know, there's heroin anonymous now that's very big in Phoenix. You know, I, I, I spoke at their first, their fundraiser for their first International Convention. They filled this hall. Remember that they, I, I couldn't believe it. And the, and the reason for it is, is a couple of guys from a, a started this thing because they go into prisons. They say the A a meetings here and nobody would come.

So one of them got a bright idea

being creative as we are. You know, he walks in, he goes, we're heroin anonymous. They filled the room and these guys were 60 years old and started this over 3035 years sober. Jan Black's husband and another guy and they just, I mean it just so they started having meetings on the outside for when these guys get out. They could come to meetings, right. And then you're not talking about the old line heroin addict, the guy that sleeve tattooed from head to toe

biker and he's a gangster. These are kids. These are children, you know, Yeah, fun loving criminals with tattoos. And, you know, but it's not it's not the same kind of heroin addict that I grew up with, you know? So we've addressed the marketplace. Now. There would have been a time where all of these guys would be trying to assimilate into Alcoholics Anonymous. So I think if you want to see the growth in recovery

from addictive diseases, you have to look at the entire thing. If you look at the entire thing, it's gone through them

roof

the number of people that are in recovery. Well, and I don't want to open this can of worms too wide, but you know, there's been some articles lately in psychology magazines about the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous. And, you know, I work in medicine and I work in clinical trials. I study clinical trials for my job. And the only thing I have to say about those articles is, first of all, they're written with the person who has the agenda.

The therapy's more successful than a A and secondly, how many people have been to a therapist only once and didn't do anything they said?

So I wonder if they lump them into the statistical group. Right. So if we took went around in the street and said, have you been to an AA meeting? Lots and lots of people might say yes and they go, are you still sober? No, okay, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. A doesn't work. Hey, well, did you stay for three months and get a sponsor and work all 12 steps? That's a different statistical analysis then. Do they include every single person that went to one therapy session didn't do anything they said? I doubt it.

I think they include somebody who went through that. So I think we don't get into that controversy.

The proof that a A works is right here.

Another thing on this, just because I have experience,

one of the things I do is I go to the international. When I go to the international, one of the things I do is I go to different meetings that have different things. And one of medicine and A, A is always a fascinating, fascinating one. And at this latest one in Atlanta, they had Doctor Leonard Blumenthal give a presentation on the match study. And the match study has been going on now for 25 years,

statistically double-blind thing. And they have proven the 12 step recovery is superior to any other form of

therapy, therapy, whatever in that. And we're talking about the high-priced analysis that only a few people can get. So I mean, we've got the numbers, but as a membership, we're not aware of that. We just hear the stuff from the outside. Thank you. They have no idea how many meetings there are, much less how many people are in a A. I'm telling you they have no idea when you study how they compile the census.

I'm sorry

like

unless I read it wrong somewhere it never said OK work step step one for a certain amount of days or?

Interesting question. The question is, is there any, any data that in the old days that people work steps more quickly or or any any any prescribed thing? No, not only that the guy who wrote the steps said the steps are only to be taken in whatever order

and how ever many

is between that man and his God.

I think he should be fired. Kick him out right now. You're killing Alcoholics. You say that I got the letter,

but that's always brings up whenever I hear somebody at an AA meeting say why work the steps? I could do a lot of jail and prison work now, right? Because I was trying to get connected. I worked Ed past tense the steps. I immediately discount whatever comes out of their mouth next because I've read this literature and it cost and throughout the steps. This is a lifetime job. This is goes on forever. This is not like you work the steps. The steps is a dynamic thing. You know, we're still sitting here. I'm going to do a fifth step with him on May 16th,

right? It's in the books and we we did it. These steps are if you want to evolve spiritually, you don't stop, you know, following the map. So I that, that's the, that's just my two cents about that. I was getting kind of turned off by that.

No, no, no. It was somebody that had left the meetings and they knew was drinking.

OK, so there's one. One was still sober. We know where they are. Two was

after a few slips had come back and stuck. Three was what they called a failure and also lumped in the failure of the of the 100 people, there were 17 that were missing.

So they counted them as a failure because they weren't connected

any other. Brent,

78.

I've got three different lists, one from Bill Wilson, one from Akron and Doctor Bob's Hand and the other one from Chicago,

the pre 1940 that shows the names of the sobriety dates of the people. He just wondering where the myth of the 78 came from.

Certain a historians have been known to say it. Yeah, yeah. This is, this is called making amends at a public level.

No, it's true. I mean, I, I can't, I can't tell you how much over the years that as I've gone further and further into the primary documents,

I found out that some of the things that I was most vociferous about,

you know, and that I, I was, I was very, very clear about from the data that I could collect. None of which, though, was primary document.

Then I

there's another one that that's this thing about Bill being a womanizer.

It's it's a canard.

There's nothing to it.

The man had a mistress.

Do you know what a mistress is?

I didn't know because I'm a feminist. I always thought it was a bad word.

It's a long term love affair with somebody other than your spouse that is known by all parties.

This idea that when Bill went out there was a old timers watch that watched him. It's, it comes from one guy

and you can, you can follow the evidence to find out where it came from.

And it's, it's, it's just not true. Part of where the 78 came from is Bill and Bob sat down and made a list, a handwritten list

of people that they knew that were sober, questionable or the one twos and threes, and they came up with 45 names. And they got really excited by that. Like, this thing is working now. This is early on 1936. Yeah. And so from the 78th that you're asking the question, where did that come from? Well, a lot of people knew about that list.

I think probably just added a few more as time had gone on because they wrote that preface

in 39, deferred to the 1st edition, you know. So when he says that there was a hundred, that just automatically took exception to that. Somebody came up, said there weren't 100. I've heard 78, I've heard 72, you know. But I repeated it too, for a long time. You know, I made kind of a joke out of it. The Bill was a promoter, you know. And when I heard that, I was there at that presentation too, and I talked to the guy for a long time afterwards. He actually found that handwritten list by Bill

in a box in somebody's attic.

You know, he found the original list. You should have seen how thrilled when he told the story. He was like a little kid in the candy story. He pulls out, he goes, Oh my God, here it is, You know, and then he didn't tell the guy whose box it was 'cause he said, oh, this is interesting. Can I have a copy?

So, you know, I mean it just, it came out of somebody pulled it out of their butt.

Yes, Sir,

broad question. But I guess I, I've always gotten the sense from people I've talked to that a, the program has changed a lot.

But I also hear from different people that people

very quickly or all in the day

tend to get a sense that there used to be this very pure program and then we're ruining it every day

now. So we have not grown in effectiveness and understanding since Clarence Snyder quit working with people in Cleveland.

He's kidding.

How real is that? Obviously, but

has how people work the program change in the last? Well, that's what I'm sorry. That's that's what this whole thing is about is about the difference in the way that we have we were given the program and how we've gone about more in a unified way sharing it, but we each with our own flavor. But this is I'm very much at a third edition guy.

I'm I was I was given the program before the hospital programs were telling us

Alcoholics Anonymous was I was there with the reaction to that when we're in meeting stance over and a guy comes in and says I've been in this hospital and they told me I got five years worth of sobriety information of sobriety and that that's what they were. They were they were they were sent out into the meetings. But, but back to the, the

people have worked the steps in the day.

I took three weeks to to to get to get going. But it was a different time in a different era. We were busy working with drugs. We didn't have time to spend a lot of time on self reflection. This whole idea of self examination and the way we know it today was, I mean, a fifth step. I mean, one of the reasons why the Catholic Church was very, very hesitant about supporting Alcoholics Anonymous was it was people

hearing confession who were not qualified to hear it.

Now, this is pre cycle. I mean, psychology's out, but it's not stuff that you're here, you're learning about in school and the like. The people are talking about things that have never been spoken about openly in society so well. And, you know, the wisdom of the founders and the humility of this promoter we keep bagging on was we realize we know only a little more will be revealed, right? That's wisdom because they had watched what happened and knew they weren't responsible for the whole thing. And Bobby Zance answered this question.

Basically your question is has a a lost its edge, right? And we the rest that last time we were here. And if you didn't, it was seven years ago. Get the tapes. You talk a lot about that. But one of the things that he said that I think is so perfect is he said, you know, beware of orthodoxy and Alcoholics Anonymous. The thing that keeps Alcoholics Anonymous honest is alcohol.

As long as there are people dying of alcoholism, there has to be some place to go to recover. And we are all sitting in this room

a long time after this program was founded. And I can say without

unequivocally, I am in pure recovery, right? And I'm, and Josh is 20 years younger than me. He's in pure recovery. That's available because it's needed. And and if you, if you have that feeling that it's, it's losing its edge, be the change you want to see. But we don't we we go all over the world and believe me, there are strong a a soldiers everywhere.

And we can send you the statistical stuff about this. I mean, it's it's really

this guy's been. I'm sorry. Yeah, he's.

Well, that's a question and repeat the question. OK. The question is why is it that the Akron manual is not as disciplined JG is not a is not a readily available piece of literature and as as like the 12 and 12 is your wife. So how many people have heard of the Acker manual?

Oh, pull it out, big guy. I got it. OK.

Bill's going to do about

5 minutes. I'll do a little setup for you.

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous comes out.

Akron had nothing to do with the writing of the Big Book.

How's that for a little controversy? It's a New York deal, and they didn't like those. They want any part of it, any part of it. The book comes out, Bob takes a look at it that says it's not going to help the blue collared man. We need something. So he gets his friend Ernie, his fishing buddy, to write a few things. And they were called the acronym. And why don't you do that? And I'll do,

I'll do spiritual monster. OK, so this is written. This is written. This is the Akron response

to The Big Book

and you're still available. You can get it online from the accurate intergroup. You can Google it online, but give money to the Akron intergroup because they need it and they're really good people, OK. And so this is this is what they were doing as opposed to the the Big Book. One of the things people ask about sponsorship, it's not in the book

or, you know, it's because the book was designed for people that couldn't have.

19401941 something like that. OK, these are just excerpts in Iraq and men, you might get a kick out of this, but

it says here. Explain that we are not in the business of sobering up drunks merely to have them go on another Bender. Explain that our aim is total and permanent sobriety.

There's never any mention of one day at a time in this thing.

Definition of an Alcoholic Anonymous. An Alcoholic Anonymous is an alcoholic who, through application of an adherence to the rules

laid down by the organization, has completely forceworn the use of any and all alcoholic beverages. The moment he wittingly takes a drink so much as a drop of beer, wine, spirits, or any other alcoholic drink, he automatically loses all status as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. What about kombucha

A. A is not A. A is not interested in sobering up drunks who are not sincere in their desire to ring completely sober at all time

to the newcomer. It is your life, It is your choice. If you are not completely convinced to your own satisfaction that you are an alcoholic, that your life has become unmanageable,

if you are not ready to part with alcohol forever. It would be better for all concerned if you discontinue reading this and give up the idea becoming a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

You're out, loser.

You'll love this ladies

to the ladies

which are very separate from the God. Different kinds of Alcoholics. Evidently. If we seem to slight you in this booklet, it is not intentional. We merely use the masculine pronouns he and him for convenience. We fully realize that alcohol shows no partiality. It does not respect age, sex, nor estate. The millionaire drunk on the best Scotch and the poor man drunk on the cheapest rock gut look like twin brothers when they are in a hospital bed or the gutter.

The only difference between a female and male drunk is that the former is likely to be treated with a little more consideration and courtesy, although generally she does not deserve it.

Get in the car.

Every word in this pamphlet applies to women as well as men.

A word to the sponsor. You must fulfill all pledges you make to him, either tangible or intangible. If you cannot fulfill a promise, do not make it. You have in your hands the most valuable property in the world, the future of a fellow man. Treat his life as carefully as you would your own. You are literally responsible for his life.

That's pretty heavy.

Alcoholics Anonymous is 100% effective for those who faithfully, faithfully follow the rules.

It is those who try to cut corners who find themselves back in their old drunken state.

Before long you will have a new thrill, the thrill of helping someone else. There is no greater satisfaction in the world than watching the progress of a new Alcoholic Anonymous. No whiskey in the world can give you this thrill. Above all, remember this. Keep the rules in mind. As long as you follow them, you are on firm ground, but the least deviation and you are vulnerable.

Big about rules and structure.

As a new member, remember that you were one of the most important cogs in the machinery of a A. Without the work of the new member, A. A could not have grown as it has. You will bring into this work a fresh enthusiasm, the zeal of a crusader. You will want everyone to share with you the blessings of this new life. You will be tireless in your efforts to help others. And it is a splendid enthusiasm. Cherish it as long as you can,

for you are ready to sponsor some other poor alcoholic who is desperately in need of help, both human and divine. So God bless you and keep you.

I love this one. This next one is very, very good. You aren't very important in this world.

If you lose your job, someone better will replace you. I

If you die, your wife will mourn briefly

and then remarry.

Your children will grow up and you will be but a memory.

In the last analysis, you are the only one who benefits by your sobriety. Seek to cultivate humility. Remember that cockiness leads to a speedy fall,

so you can tell they were already having trouble with this.

Medical men will tell you that Alcoholics are all alike, at least in at least one respect. They are emotionally immature.

In other words, Alcoholics have not learned to think like adults.

At meetings, don't criticize the leader. He has his own problems and is doing his best to solve them. Help him along by standing up and saying a few words. He will appreciate your kindness and thoughtfulness.

Don't criticize the methods of others. Strangerly enough, you may change your own ideas as you become older and sobriety. Remember, there are a dozen roads from New York to Chicago, but they all land in Chicago.

How soon you will be cured of a desire to drink is another matter. That depends entirely upon how quickly you can succeed in changing your fundamental outlook on life. For as your outlook changes for the better, desirable become less pronounced until it disappears almost entirely. It may be weeks, it may be months. Your sincerity and your capacity for working with others on the a A program will determine the length of time. So they don't say working the steps, it's working with others.

That's what they were doing. They weren't working steps like we do. My father got sober in 1954 in Los Angeles, and he never wrote an inventory. He never made amends. Not like we do. That isn't what they were doing, and it wasn't what they were doing when I came in. It wasn't until around that time in the 70s, eighties, where this whole emphasis on the book started.

These groups like the Denver Young People's Group, you know, came out of Denver

and the primary purpose guys now and, and a lot of these other groups, you know, I mean, this is what it's all about. Even the Pacific group, they're not really big in steps,

you know, I mean, they do it, they do the work, but they're not thump book thumpers, you know, And what we have now is like really breaking this thing down and and working it. And I think for the most part, it's better.

The 12 Steps Alcoholics Anonymous is based on a set of laws

known as the 12 Steps. Years of experience have definitely proved that those who live up to these rules remain sober.

Those who gloss over or ignore anyone rule are in constant danger of returning to a life of drunkenness.

Thousands of words could be written on each rule. Lack of space prevents, so they are merely listed here.

It is suggested that they be explained by a sponsor. If he cannot explain them, he should provide someone who can.

That's little excerpts from the Akron Manual.

So, so these guys are like, this is not a vision for you.

You know, this is not promises. This is like

work it and if you don't, you're going to die. And we don't really care because there'll be another person in the chair.

And so this is the message that was coming from Akron. And it's but another thing along those lines is there's another,

there's another part of these the Akron pamphlets. There's five of two of them are blended here.

There's another one on how to speak at a meeting. We never use that because it says never talk over 20 minutes. So we never use that pamphlet. We've grown past that,