and committeemen of scores of local central services, the so-called Intergroup Associations, exposed their many problems for each other’s inspection and advice, always seeking to remedy the functional weaknesses of the many newer service bodies just trying to get under way.
In another meeting the whole subject of money in A.A. got a most healthy kicking around. A.A.’s principle of “no compulsory fees or dues” can be construed and rationalized into “no voluntary group or individual responsibility at all,” and this fallacy was exploded with a bang. There was complete unanimity that through voluntary contributions the legitimate bills of groups, areas, and A.A. as a whole must be paid or we could not properly carry our message. It was agreed that no A.A. treasury ought to get overstuffed or rich. Nevertheless, it was emphasized that the notion of keeping A.A. “simple” and “spiritual” by eliminating vital services that happened to cost a little time, trouble, and money was risky and absurd. It was the opinion of the meeting that oversimplification, which might lead us to muff our Twelfth Step work, area-wide and world-wide, could not be called either really simple or really spiritual.
Then there was a very moving get-together of lone A.A. members who had come in from the far reaches and isolated outposts to share the unusual view of our fellowship that St. Louis afforded. To no others could the Convention mean so much. They got a fresh sense of belonging, and they realized that their isolation was never so complete as they had sometimes felt it to be. They knew, as few did, how greatly A.A.’s literature and world services could help, for their sobriety had depended heavily upon the Big Book and upon those constant letters that came to them from Headquarters and fellow loners. They had developed all sorts of gimmicks and disciplines to bulwark themselves and to perfect their conscious contact with God, who, they had joyfully discovered, could just as well be felt and heard whether one dwelt in a ship crossing the equator or next door to the polar icecap.
Typical of the loner stories was that of the Australian sheepman who lived 2,000 miles from the nearest town where yearly he sold his wool. In order to be paid the best prices he had to go to town during a certain month. But when he heard that a big regional A.A. meeting was to be held at a later date when wool prices would have fallen, he had gladly taken a heavy money loss in order to make his journey then. That’s how much an A.A. meeting could mean to him. This was something that every loner at St. Louis could well understand.
At another interesting gathering the founders of many groups assembled to swap information on how best to get going in a new locality. Since more than 7,00011 A.A. groups with a total membership of over 200,000 had already been spawned over the years and new ones were taking shape somewhere in the world almost every day, there were plenty of experiences to share.
In still another section of the Convention there was much to be learned about A.A.’s Grapevine, our magazine of more than 40,00012monthly circulation and our biggest and best means of communicating current A.A. thought and experience in staying sober, in hanging together, and in serving. Among members of the Grapevine’s staff on hand were editor Don, three editorial assistants, a photographer, and a number of artists and magazine experts. By talks and exhibits they showed how the Grapevine’s well-illustrated pages could be a lively and convincing means of introducing A.A. to the new or potential member, and how its articles could provide solid material for closed meetings and discussion. The Grapevine was seen as the monthly mirror of A.A. in action, always the same principle yet ever growing and ever finding better ways of doing and thinking on new fronts of our exciting adventure in living and working together.
Then there was a session called “Presenting the Headquarters Staff.” The staff was headed by manager Hank G., and it included fellow workers with talents in finance, public relations, and the like, and five capable A.A. women staff members. There was an extensive set of exhibits showing the wide range of activities of our top services. To the onlookers the World Headquarters of Alcoholics Anonymous was no longer the source of dry statistics about tons of literature, thousands of calls for help and letters in reply, and hundreds of problems of groups and of public information, or just the source of pleas for voluntary contributions. Here were the flesh-and-blood folks who were actually doing these things, and a well-trained, eager, and dedicated group they were, just like the Grapevine gang.
Countless A.A.’s at the Convention got to know our Trustees, those faithful alcoholic and nonalcoholic friends who had served us so long. Many a grass-rooter talked with Archie Roosevelt and learned that this exuberant and genial man had recently joined the Board and had taken on the sometimes thankless and always time-consuming job of being its treasurer. Grass-rooters and city people alike began to say, “Well, if our new nonalcoholic friend Archie can spend years looking after A.A.’s general finances, then we guess that we can certainly spare the minute it takes twice yearly to reach into our pockets for those two dollars that Archie needs to balance A.A.’s budget.”
Right up front among the biggest eye-openers of the Convention were Al-Anon Family Group meetings, which bore the titles: “Meet the Staff,” “The Children of Alcoholics,” “Adjustment Between Husbands and Wives,” and “The Twelve Steps.” In St. Louis many a skeptical A.A. had his first look at this movement within a movement and learned with astonishment that the Family Groups had jumped from 70 to 700 in only three years and that right now a brand-new one was popping up in the world about every day. Lois and speakers from many areas told us that the Family Groups had a world clearinghouse much like A.A.’s Headquarters and that already there was literature, the beginning of a magazine, and even a new book.
Many A.A.’s had wondered what these Family Groups were all about. Were they gossip clubs, commiseration societies? Were they coffee and cake auxiliaries? Did they divert A.A. from its single purpose of sobriety? The Family Group meetings provided the answers: These new groups were not also-rans to A.A., nor were they gossip factories. The families of alcoholics—wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, and children—were pointing A.A.’s principles right straight at themselves and at nobody else.
The Family Group speakers asked and answered plenty of questions like these: “Weren’t we just as powerless over alcohol as the alcoholics themselves? Sure we were.” “And when we found that out, weren’t we often filled with just as much bitterness and self-pity as the alcoholic ever had been? Yes, that was sometimes a fact.” “After the first tremendous relief and happiness which resulted when A.A. came along, hadn’t we often slipped back into secret and deep hurt that A.A. had done the job and we hadn’t? For many of us, that was certainly so.” “Not realizing that alcoholism is an illness, hadn’t we taken sides with the kids against the drinking member? Yes, we had often done that, to their damage. No wonder, then, that when sobriety came, the emotional benders in our homes often went right on and sometimes got worse.”
As the A.A.’s listened, the Family Group speakers continued: “Could we find an answer for all of this? At first, no. The A.A. meetings sometimes helped us, but not enough. We got a better understanding of the alcoholic problem but not enough of our own condition. We thought A.A.’s Twelve Steps were wonderful for alcoholics, but didn’t think we had to take them too seriously. After all, we had been doing our best. There was nothing much wrong with us. So we reasoned, and so we complained when things continued to go badly at home. Or often, if things went well, we turned complacent or maybe rather jealous of all the time our partners thought they had to spend on A.A.
“But when the Family Groups were formed, these notions and attitudes began to change, and the change was mainly in us. The transformation really set in when we began to practice A.A.’s Twelve Steps in daily living, in all our affairs, and in the company of those who were able to understand our problems as no alcoholic partner could.
“In the Family Groups we see men and women, even those with active alcoholics on their hands, shake off their miseries and begin to live serenely, without blame or recrimination. We have seen many a partner, whose mate was sober in A.A. but still hard to live with, completely alter his or her thinking. Finally we have seen badly bent children straighten around and begin to respect and love their
