The 9th tradition at the New Horizon group in Bend, OR

OK, the format of this meeting is as follows. The 1st 15 minutes will be a presentation of the tradition from our literature. We will then have about 20 minutes of share time for those who would like to share a personal experience with a tradition being studied. There will be an opportunity at the end of the Q&A

for Q&A. Excuse me. So at the end of the meeting, we'll have Q&A. Please feel free to ask your question in the chat

at anytime during the meeting. The question will be answered by AA literature reference only rather than opinion. I have asked Mike to read the 1st 3 paragraphs of appendix one from the back of the Big Book.

Thank you Pete, my name is Mike and I am an alcoholic.

On page 561. The AA tradition to those now in its fold, Alcoholics Anonymous has made the difference between misery and sobriety, and often the difference between life and death. A A can of course mean just as much to uncounted Alcoholics not yet reached. Therefore, therefore, no Society of men and women ever had a more urgent need for

continuance

and permanent unity. We Alcoholics see that we must work together and hang together, else most of us will finally die alone. The 12 traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous are we a as believe the best answers that our experience has yet given to these ever urgent questions. How can a A best function and how can a A best stay whole and so survive?

Thank you Mike, I will now say a prayer for open mindedness to get us started. God please help me set aside everything I think I know about AA and our three legacies. Please allow me to keep an open mind and the ability to learn something new through the literature today so they may have a whole new experience with both the fellowship as well as those 36 spiritual principles.

Amen. I'm going to now turn the floor over to Craig W, who has agreed to be our presenter today. Craig, take it away.

Thank you, Pete. Hello, everybody. I'm an alcoholic and my name is Craig. Grateful to be here today.

Friday day is 11/28/98. Home group to Tuesday night group have a sponsor and a service sponsor and have the privilege to sponsor and service sponsor. Very grateful to be able to share for a few about my experience, strength and hope. With Tradition 9. I'll probably be referencing languages of heart, a comes of age. A service manual could also find the long form of the traditions in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous in the back.

Nice little paragraph on Unity as well. I think like 561 something of that sort.

Just real quick. Came in the rooms at 19, got involved with my Home group

very early on participate in service at the Home group, the business meeting got involved with intergroup, got involved with the district, got involved with the area. And you know, since early on sobriety, I've been happy to, to participate in service both inside the Home group and outside. And, and the general service structure to me, tradition 9, it's, it's, it's funny because when I was brand, brand new, I got really hung up on the word organized. And as intelligent as I am,

that's in quotes in case you can't see me.

I, I really thought that we weren't supposed to be organized in any capacity. Like the minute anybody mentioned any kind of organization, I'm sorry, organizational skills such as a secretary taking good minutes and filing things and archivists making sure things were in a nice neat place that they could bring out for the meeting, the literature act, etcetera, etcetera. I didn't say it out loud because I was too cold for school. I didn't want anyone to know that I didn't know what I was talking about. But in my mind I was like, this is crazy. Can't they see what it says on the wall? We're not supposed to be this.

And obviously through sponsorship and going through the steps and asking for help and saying I don't know and stuff, I learned that Tradition 9 is a much, much broader perspective than just whether or not we can have anything that is organized, organized. In fact, we do create service boards or committees that are directly responsible to those they serve. The spiritual side of Tradition 9 for me is whenever I'm in a discussion at A at a group business meeting

the district or area or or even at another level

doubt further down the triangle. Are we making decisions really considering those we serve?

So let's just take New Horizons, for example, let's name your Home group. So if I'm, if I'm participating in the New Horizons business meeting, when I'm deciding on the route I want to vote or something I want to bring up where a motion I want to make. Am I considering how I'm going to best serve that a, a member, you know, within district, whatever within Area 58, within those that come in and out, whether it's virtual or brick and mortar,

does that, does that cross through my, my filter? Am I communicating that with my service sponsor or or during the business meeting,

the concepts 12 concepts, which is for another day, But but my service sponsor and I agree that tradition two and nine are kind of what allowed the concepts to come to be right. And and that idea of an informed group conscience, It speaks in a comes of age, much like it does in the 12 and 12, just in two different traditions about the bleeding Deacon as well as the elder statesman. Another misconception I had early on was if you sat in the business meeting very quietly

and you sat there and you were up and your leg was crossed and you perceived to be humble,

that that was the elder statesman. I learned later on that that is absolutely not the elder statesman.

Much like in Tradition 2 where it talks about all points being heard, all facts discussed, everybody has the opportunity to speak, you know, minority opinion, etcetera, etcetera. In Tradition 9, after we have the opportunity to fulfill our responsibility as either group member, district member, area member, etcetera, and after we express our experience based on the topic at hand, then we can sit back with our legs crossed and you know, upright and let the group conscience kind of form

and let it come to the position it needs to be. And that's my experience with the elder statesman.

I have the confidence and the courage to speak up. I have the wisdom based on my experience of steps, traditions and concepts, which I can bring into the discussion. But then I can also let others participate in that process. And, and if further information is sought out by me or any other person in the group, then, then that would be, or if they would like to hear more about what I or you have to say, they, they will ask us a bleeding Deacon, although nobody really likes to be called that

for me is quite simple,

Someone that's campaigning behind the scenes. And I go, I'm a pretty rigid individual,

pretty rigid individual. It's also besides the campaigning behind the scenes, it's what I call diner talk. If I'm going to go at the diner, you know, back when we weren't doing as much virtual, but whatever, telephone, e-mail, diner and talk about decisions that are being made. And I'm not saying I can't sit with some members of the group and talk a little bit or I can't share my spots, what's going on. But if I'm going to sit there and talk about everything that I don't like, everything that's problematic, everything that's an issue. But then I don't communicate at the group.

To me, that's a bleeding Deacon and that's not something I strive to be. I grew up in alcohols where we don't know how to communicate. The truth is far from what's sold. And everything that's in front of you that looks real is told otherwise. I don't want to do that in my a group. I don't want to do that in our general service structure. I want to communicate, you know, with you and I want to hear what you have to say. And I like the process. I mean, to be quite frank, even if we weren't doing tradition, I like a process. I want to hear what you have to say. I want to know what I have to say. I want to hash it out a little bit and then hopefully

best idea can can come out of it. So each one of these 12 points, as Pete mentioned, each one of these a traditions in my opinion is a spiritual side. The practical side of tradition 9, especially if you look at the long form of my experience is we make contributions to the general service board, not the general service office. Now I understand why is he talking about contributions. This does have to do with tradition 9, not just tradition 7. It is a general service board where these voluntary contributions go to not, not the general service office, but

services from the office are carried out as such. But what I want to talk about too is I participated in many young people's committees throughout my sobriety and I noticed and again, some concepts and traditions are married and you know, we talk about right to participate, which is concept 4IN the a service manual. And this applies to a group or a district as well. When anyone shows up, they automatically have a vote.

And I'm not going to tell a group whether that's true or not or they can do that or not. But but in in my experience,

it's best for me to have a discussion, to have guidelines, to have bylaws to understand, which is also concept 10 NDA service manual, but to have a clear description of the responsibility and the authority and how do these meet and have a clear understanding of what my job duty is and to have a clear understanding of what our group or districts by laws are. So you know, what if I'm chairing the meeting or Peach chairing the meeting and he says, I'm sorry, we're not going to discuss this at this time. It's not because Craig or Pete is a jerk.

Those are the bylaws according to our business procedures. We don't discuss this until over here. And then there's a group conscience for when Pete or I rotate or carry or Biddy or whoever. The other thing is in young people's, and again, I'm not saying they're doing it wrong, just in my experience, you know, we talked about being responsible to those they serve. I think we have to try just a little bit harder

in the young people's community to consider who we're serving because there's not a direct structure.

When we talk about Tradition 9, it's obvious, at least to me, the general service board, the AWS board, the Grapevine board, we understand we're serving all of the A members and Alcoholics. And we understand, you know, whether it's the Grapevine side or the AWS publishing side, what materials they're going to be reading or purchasing or the literature we're going to be producing. And we have to consider who's reading that. And you know that all that stuff comes into mind when we talk plain language and regular big book and got yada yada at the area level when we're talking about decisions

taking regarding the convention or something of that sort. But when we do, when we deal with young people in a A, sometimes it's complicated because there's not a direct structure. We may know where some local young people's meetings are, but we don't necessarily have a direct channel, at least in my experience, to really hear and consider what the people were serving are saying and doing. So I'm not saying, you know, again, anybody's doing anything wrong, but it's just I think we have to work that much harder in young people in a A to consider that. So we really understand,

you know, about the member we're serving. I, I also like the idea of going into a group and let's just think about a decision we're going to make with regards to, let's say it's a redistricting situation and we have a new committee and we're going to discuss whether or not we should have ACPC committee. That's an easy one, right? Of course we should cooperate with professionals. Of course we should get the workbook. Of course we should communicate and, and lay out some, some guidelines to create this position. But really, again, having that discussion

and considering the members we serve allows us all to get educated, allows all of us to hear what the process is. If you look at just the first, I don't know, page 5 to 11 or 12 in the CPC workbook, it will tell you things like singleness of purpose. It will tell you about a tradition. It will tell you about a lot of stuff besides what the purpose of CPC is and what the introduction of CPC is. And all of this, in my opinion, has to do with Tradition 9

and has to do with considering thank you, has to do with considering who we serve.

If we're going into a Correctional Facility and we're on a corrections committee,

we can easily make decisions about who is going to come. But how about creating a volunteer form which asks, do you have a sponsor? Are you working the 12 steps? Are you informed of the 12 traditions? If not, are you willing to to learn them? And I've always been taught by my sponsor, a problem without the solution is not the language of the heart. So we can ask people. And sometimes people are a little upset.

When creating a form, we ask if they have a sponsor and if they're involved in the steps or the traditions

because we feel like where they're excluding them. However, that is considering AA and that is considering those we serve because these individuals who will speak at the corrections facilities, will be meeting individuals in public, will be meeting professionals. And we want to make sure they understand what a is and what it isn't. They want to make sure they understand what our traditions are and how we, you know, cooperate and we function. So to have that in the form to me is a practical,

useful tool that came out of a committee considering those that they serve both the, A, a member, the person in custody, a, a member

in the facility, as well as the, a member not inside the facility. And also on top of that, obviously I'm speaking from experience. This was a committee I was a part of. Besides just saying, hey, do you know the traditions? And if you don't, well, then you're not allowed to be here. No problem. Why don't you come to our committee meeting for the first three months and we'll read some traditions with you while you participate in our meeting. So you can learn what the corrections committee is and we can learn traditions. So we're not just being so rigid to say, well, you don't do it our way, hit the road.

We're saying this is this is how we see things based on the workbook and the a structure. But also come on down, Let's talk about the traditions. Let's learn a little bit. If you don't have a service sponsor, let's go ahead and get you one. You know, the same thing we would do at the Home group, we would say, welcome, how you doing? Do you need some numbers? While we do the same thing at the District, the area

committee work as well. Again, these are me breaking my experience down in simplicity. With respect to Tradition 9. We're considering those they serve if we're going to make a major decision

about changing maybe where the area meeting is or something of that sort. I think while we're discussing it, it shouldn't just be about how long I'm going to have to travel

or, or about, you know, how much rent, you know, it's going to be at a particular part of the state. But we should be considering again, the A groups, the districts, the remote communities that we serve. In my opinion, and in my experience, if we haven't brought those things up, if we haven't discussed those things, then we're not really implementing Tradition 9. If we're not considering the bigger picture. And sometimes that means we have to table and we have to go back and consult, whether that DCM consults with that district or that GSR consults with that group.

You take your pick without the structure. I was adding information day yesterday in Toronto and I don't think we'll ever get it perfect. We strive for it. And, and I almost cried. It was so beautiful to hear the accessibility committee talk about reaching out to the alcoholic with Down syndrome and talk about reaching into the community, the community professionals that work with the a member whose Down syndrome. If you don't know me, I've been very active in a A for a long time

and I've worked with the blind, the Hispanic, the French, you name it. And I'm just a member, but I'm saying I've done a lot of work and I've never worked and it's never even really been like crossed my mind. And This is why we all need to participate. This is why we need to share. This is why we communicate. There's just so many people to reach people we haven't even thought of. And it was just, it was beautiful to hear that. And, and I certainly hope that the A, a group, wherever it is in Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut is prepared for any

who walks through the door, which is why I think also Tradition 9 might be making sure a newcomer package is prepared. If I'm a woman's group or a men's group, I have that autonomy to maybe only have men, men come or women come. But maybe I should also have a packet in case a woman visits the men's group and they genuinely are from out of town. They had no idea and they need a meeting. I have a list of phone numbers for them. I have a place for them to go and I don't have to tell them to wait outside while we take a vote, whether or not they're good enough to join us. In that particular case, we would already understand.

Come on in. You're welcome. Moving forward. Just so you know, this is the men's meeting. But here are some numbers, stuff of that sort. So again, I'm not telling groups what to do, whether they're right, they're wrong. But this is what I come up with. This is my experience as we utilize the spiritual principles of the 12 traditions for so long. And I was a I was a big book thumper and I still love the big book. I love the big book and, and, and I do thump it, but I mean, I was literally hitting people over the head with it. And I've I've toned down on that, but I still, I still yell

rooftop about it because I love it. But I thought the 12 steps were the only

spiritual principles we really utilized. This is even knowing the traditions and concepts. But when I really got into those 12 traditions, when I really had to ask myself those inconvenient questions, when I really had to lay aside my ambitions and lay aside everything I think I know, like the prayer that Pete read before the the, the workshop today, the meeting, wow, it was even more painful. It was even more painful than what I thought I had already learned in my 4th, my 10th, and my 11th step. Because there's still an element, element in me that wants to control

everything. And that's how I can cause harm in AA today. Because if I'm not considering you, if I'm not considering the people we serve, especially if I'm an elected trusted servant, then then I'm causing harm. I'm not, I'm not paying attention to the spiritual process. I'm not paying attention to what it what it asks us to do. And that's what as nature is. It's for all the representatives to guide us in the spirit of service and, and to come together in, in unity. And at the end of the day, no matter how wordy the a service manual is, no matter how poetic

the Big book, the Language of the Heart is, it's all having to do with us being a spiritual entity, carrying the message to the alcohol if it still suffers,

and making sure that we're, in my opinion, prepared before that alcoholic comes in to the room that we've already thought about them. Not we'll think about them when they get here, but we've already thought about them. I think am I is that it was 15 minutes, right? Am I at a time or no 20? So you have about four minutes left if you want.

Yeah, I mean, I just, I mean, the last thing I'll just say which it says in the in the long form of tradition 9 also, which you can find in the 12 and 12, the big Book and

other conference approved materials is is it really talks about not deriving any authority from a title. And I've had some quote UN quote special titles in a a whether it's positions I've served a delegated a chair of something Advisory Board or, or others. But it's just such an insane thing to think that this alcoholic from a spiritual kindergarten who didn't know how to stop drinking, who thinks about himself all the time,

didn't even want to talk to when, when he first got here and then after he got here, did not have to talk to anybody all of a sudden is special. It's very silly. I do believe in leadership. I do believe in looking up to, to members of a A and I do believe in, in talking with some folks that are walking down the mountain. I'm walking up. I hope a couple people look up to me because hopefully that means I'm doing something right. I certainly look up to some people and and, but we don't base that in titles because it's rotating leadership.

AAA it's not self appointed leadership, it's rotating leadership and that leadership hopefully is elected through an informed group conscience. It's where two and nine kind of come together. And in my experience, I'll just end with this, which also has to do with the concepts and concept 4. Wherever you see the word authority, you should be able to replace it with the word responsibility. Those should mean the same things. That's a good barometer. In my experience with my position, for example, if I'm the chairperson, I I have the authority to

the agenda and I also have the responsibility to write the agenda. I'm a secretary, I have the authority to take the minutes in whatever fashion I see fit.

I may ask to record them and get your permission and I could do that. That's I have the authority to do that, but I also have the responsibility. So responsibility is a privilege. You know, when I first came to AA, the 10th step was a chore, the 10 steps, not a chore anymore. It's a great, great asset in my life. Service is not a chore. It's a great, great privilege. So, so authority and responsibility take take new meaning, but really I should be able to match them. So I hope I have that on my mind while I'm living Tradition 9 inside the group or or the committee process.

Great to be here. Always great to see you folks. Thanks. Thanks for having me.