AA Book Club

  AA literature and history together - Read Bill W.'s 1948 Grapevine article on Tradition Seven: Tradition Seven Our growth continuing, the combined income of Alcoholics Anonymous members will soon reach the astounding total of a quarter of a billion dollars yearly. This is the direct result of AA membership. Sober we now have it; drunk we would not.    By contrast, our overall AA expenses are trifling.     For instance, the  AA General Service Office now costs us $1.50  per member a year. As a fact, the New York office asks the groups  for this sum twice a year because not all of them contribute. Even so,  the sum per member is exceedingly small. If an AA happens to live in  a large metropolitan center where an intergroup office is absolutely  essential to handle heavy inquiries and hospital arrangements, he  contributes (or probably should contribute) about $5.00 annually. To  pay the rent of his own group m...

  Big Book topics for study, meditation or use with a sponsee (from our online AA literature study guide at AABookClub.org ): The Heart's Deepest Longing But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished. That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, that he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, that he has no attitude of Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured these are the conditions we have found most effective. After such an approach many take up their beds and walk again. (Page 18-19) When, therefore, we were appro...

Throwback Thursday AA history post - The six articles published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in late 1939 led to tremendous growth in Cleveland's AA Group #3, but also got Clarence kicked out: That fall Clarence smuggled freelance reporter Elrick Davis into meetings of that first Greater Cleveland group and Mr. Davis wrote a series of articles on A.A. which were published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. This resulted in over 500 calls for help to be tended by the only 13 active members... Many members were upset by this workload and by the surreptitious manner in which it was done. So they voted Clarence out of A.A. (which was something that could be done at the time).   (aa.cle.org) Reprinted from the October 23, 1939, Cleveland Plain Dealer with permission. Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here       [Second of Six Articles] By ELRICK B. DAVIS In a previous installment, Mr. Davis outlined the plan of Alcoholics Anonymous, an  organization of form...

  Real Alcoholic 'Real alcoholic' and similar terms indicate someone who has the alcoholic mentality fully established. Such a person is unable to stop drinking on the basis of will power, self-knowledge or other human aid, unlike the Potential Alcoholic, who may be able to stop or moderate. Real alcoholics are likely prospects for Alcoholics Anonymous. Big Book: "But what of the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink." Page 21, There is a Solution "In a vague way their families and friends sense that these drinkers are abnormal, but everybody hopefully awaits the day when the sufferer will rouse himself from his lethargy and assert his power of will. "The tragic truth is that if the man be a real alcoholic, the happy day may not come. He has lost control." Page 25,...