District 24 Newsletter September - October, 2019

By The Way…

by The Way...

DCM’s Report:
Hello, my name is Wade M. and I have the pleasure to be serving as your District 24 District Committee Member or DCM. I started my rotation (a 2-year commitment) in January of 2019. I ran for this position because I became convinced that General Service is how we preserve A.A. for future generations and I’d like to do my part in seeing that happen
Early in our two year rotation, we decided that our main objectives would be to increase awareness of what District 24 does and to ask for help in doing it. We, the District Committee members will do this by visiting every Group Meeting in our District. We have started this objective by dividing up the meetings within our District and visiting each individual meeting.
We also put together a flyer and during the meetings that we visited, we spoke about what the District is in general and that our District is in need of GSR’s (the Group’s General Services ) and we make literature related to the GSR’s role is, other positions available and why that is important to A.A. as a whole. Since the recruitment phase began, we have seen an increase in GSR’s attending the district meeting and are hopeful that this will continue.
District 24 is also pleased to announce that we put together a spring workshop in conjunction with Districts 7 and 19. This workshop was entitled “A.A. and the Internet”. It was held in April and was well attended.
By the time you read this, you will have missed our July 1st District Meeting which was very different than our usual meeting. It was an opportunity to hear from our Area 36 Delegate, who represented us, the 29 Districts of Southern Minnesota, at the General Service Conference in New York. We have devoted some of this issue to describe some of what came out of that meeting. Also included in this issue are the minutes from our June Meeting. Take some time to look at what’s in this issue and please know that you are invited to attend our August 5th District Meeting, 7PM at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Shakopee — as a representative of your Group or just as a visitor. See you there.

Inside this issue
A.A.Dictionary 2
A.A.History (BB Review) 2
A.A.History (Sponsorship) 3
Book Review 3
June Meeting Minutes……….4-5
Area Delegate Report 5
69th GSC Report………….5,6,7,8
Calaender of events 6
Picnic/Speaker Flyer 9

BIG BOOK
DICTIONARY
(dik shun air ee)
Disheveled (dis shev ul’d) :
pg 388 - sloppy / not
combed / rude / disorderly
Insanely (in sane lee) : pg 21 ,
37, 120 - extremely / stupidly /
irrationally / wildly
Lolls (lalz / lawz [like ‘dolls’]) :
pg 61- lounges / loafs / spends
time in idleness
Musty (muss tee) : pg 11- old /
out of date / stale / worn-out /
obsolete
Nadir (nay dear) or (nay dur) :
pg 155 - lowest point /
bottom / place and time of
deepest depression
Omnipotence ( om nip uh
tents / om neh puh tunt):
pg 133- unlimited power/
having unlimited power,
authority, or force
Have a word from
the Big Book?
Let us know!
you want on defined ?
Let us know!

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AA History: An Early Review Propels A.A.’s Big Book
When it was first published in 1939, the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, was called a lot of things — including “strange” by the New York Times and “curious” by the Journal of the American Medical Association — in book reviews appearing in October of that year. Yet, a number of people, many of whom worked directly with alcoholics in their respective professions, also recognized the sea change inherent in A.A.’s approach to alcoholism and offered their support to the group just beginning to find its way.
One such professional was Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, the well-known minister of Riverside Church in New York City, who wrote a glowing review of the book and heartily endorsed its methods. His early support was a boon to the Fellowship and lent credibility to the groundbreaking approach outlined in A.A.’s basic text. A nonalcoholic friend of A.A., Dr. Fosdick had profound faith in the process and procedures of A.A., and realized what a help it could be to members of the clergy and to others who struggled to help and understand the many alcoholics they came into contact with on a day-to-day basis. In his review, published just months after the book’s release in 1939, he wrote, “This extraordinary book deserves the careful attention of anyone interested in the problem of alcoholism. Whether as victims, friends of victims, physicians, clergymen, psychiatrists or social workers … this book will give them, as no other treatise known to this reviewer will, an inside view of the problem which the alcoholic faces.” (A.A. Comes of Age, p. 322.)
In his review, Dr. Fosdick made the case for the fledgling group and its roadmap to recovery. “This book represents the pooled experience of one hundred men and women who have been victims of alcoholism — many of them declared hopeless by the experts — and who have won their freedom and recovered their sanity and self-control. Their stories are detailed and circumstantial, packed with human interest. In America today the disease of alcoholism is increasing. Liquor has been an easy escape from depression. As an English officer in India, reproved for his excessive drinking, lifted his glass and said, ‘This is the swiftest road out of India,’ so many Americans have been using hard liquor as a means of flight from their troubles until to their dismay they discover that, free to begin, they are not free to stop....
“The book is not in the least sensational. It is notable for its sanity, restraint, and freedom from over-emphasis and fanaticism. It is a sober, careful, tolerant, sympathetic treatment of the alcoholic’s problem and of the successful techniques by which its co-authors have won their freedom.”
Having expressed his strong support for the Big Book, Dr. Fosdick also acknowledged that working with alcoholics could be a daunting challenge for members of the clergy and others who see the effects of alcoholism close up. “Every minister who is also a personal counselor has to deal with cases of alcoholism,” he wrote later. “For years I have dreaded that. Almost any kind of abnormality I would welcome rather than face a case of alcoholism.”
But, “Alcoholics Anonymous … is a godsend to us ministers,” he wrote in his autobiography, The Living of These Days.
“How can we understand an alcoholic — his compulsive desire for liquor, the hopeless captivity against which he futilely contends, one determined decision after another to stop drinking ending in collapse? When we talk to an alcoholic, he knows that never having been in his place we cannot understand his plight. But when an ex-alcoholic, who has been in the depths himself and has taken the Twelve Steps to freedom, talks to an alcoholic, amazing results can follow….”
Bill W. often acknowledged the role played by A.A.’s many early supporters and by the clergy, in particular, in helping to shape the spiritual tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous and increasing its exposure to those in need. He wrote in a September 1957 Grapevine article, “It is with the deepest feeling that I cast up A.A.’s debt to the clergy. Without their works for us, A.A. could never have been born; nearly every principle that we use came from them. Their example, their faith, and their beliefs in some part, we have appropriated and made our own. Almost literally, we A.A.s owe them our lives, our fortunes, and such salvation as each of us has found.”

Jim Burwell

A Brief History of Sponsorship
The idea of sponsorship was born in Alcoholics Anonymous, the original Twelve Step Fellowship. Living Sober, an AA publication, describes how the term “sponsor” came about:
In the earliest days of A.A., the term “sponsor” was not in the A.A. jargon.
Then a few hospitals in Akron, Ohio, and New York began to accept alcoholics (under that diagnosis) as patients—if a sober A.A. member would agree to “sponsor” the sick man or woman.
The sponsor took the patient to the hospital, visited him or her regularly, was present when the patient was discharged, and took the patient home and then to an A.A. meeting.
At the meeting, the sponsor introduced the newcomer to other happily nondrinking alcoholics.
All through the early months of recovery, the sponsor stood by, ready to answer questions or to listen whenever needed.
Sponsorship turned out to be such a good way to help people get established in A.A. that it has become a custom followed throughout the A.A. world, even when hospitalization is not necessary.
Sponsorship, as you may or may not know, has become one of the foundations of the recovery programs of more than one hundred Twelve Step Fellowships and one of the greatest blessings of membership.
Nowadays...AA defines sponsorship in this way: “An alcoholic who has made some progress in the recovery program shares that experience on a continuous, individual basis with another alcoholic who is attempting to attain or maintain sobriety through A.A.”

Book Review: The Soul of Sponsorship—reviewed by Craig S.
This quote from the back of the book, says it all for me: “The Soul of Sponsorship explores the relationship of Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and his “spiritual advisor” and friend, Father Ed Dowling, an Irish Catholic Jesuit who limped with a cane a New York A.A. Clubhouse on one sleet-filled night in 1940. Bill’s relationship with Father Ed had a profound, positive on his life and his writings in A.A.
It was through Father Ed that Bill learned to listen to his desires, be aware of his inner dynamics, and tune in to the action of God within. These two “fellow travelors” blessed each other with perhaps the greatest gift that friends can give one another: calling on each other to know who he is — before God.”
James E. Royce, SJ, PHD and author of Alcohol problems and Alcoholism said “seldom do we get a look into the souls of two great men as revealed in their correspondence for over twenty years. Bill Wilson once wrote, “He was the greatest and most gentle soul to walk this planet. I was closer to him tha to any other human being on earth.” Reading this book will show why Bill felt that way”

29th Annual Heartland Roundup
September 6, 7, & 8
20033 County I Park Rapids, MN 56470
Study and Action Group
September 8, 7PM-*:30PM
Southern Minnesota Round-up Septermber 20@ 8AM TO September 22 @ 5pm
18th Annual Empty Chair Men’s Retreat
Aug. 16 @ 5:30 pm - Aug. 18 @ 12:00 pm
Camp Knutson
11169 Whitefish Avenue Cross Lake, MN 56442
Call Adam at 652-260-1131

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One would expect that Jim B. would likely be happy to hear that A. A. now publishes “The God Word“

Alcoholics Anonymous has also published a new book titled “Our Great Responsibility”. A selection of Bill W.’s General Service Conference talks, 1951 – 1970. Timeless and timely, these 16 selected talks give fresh perspectives on the A.A. Fellowship in our co-founder’s own words.

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ATTENTION PLEASE !
Look for District 24 to sponsor an event before the end 2019.

District 24 Monthly Meeting Minutes – June 3, 2019
Attendees: Wade M, Dan P, Bill H, Craig S, Jane M, Bill H, Dan P, Angie, Cole K., Mary T, Jacqueline, Judy
Dan called the meeting to order with the Serenity Prayer
Jacqueline - read Declaration of Unity
Linda - read GSR preamble
Greg – presented Concept 6
Bill volunteered to present Concept 7 in July
Officers Reports:
DCM – Wade M: Attended all Area 36 events responded to DCM emails.
Alt DCM – Dan P: Dan completed turning over the Treasury duties to Bill H
Secretary – Greg J: Brought minutes from the May meeting. Wade motioned to approve, and Craig seconded, motion passed.
Treasurer – Bill H: Bill presented the May Treasurer Report. Annette still needs to submit workshop expenses. Greg motioned to approve Treasurer Report, Jacqueline 2nd’d. Motion passed
Old Business:
Outreach: Jake (our Outreach Chari) was not in attendance so any discussion regarding outreach was tabled for now.
New Business:
We discussed 7/1/19 Potluck at 6, a sign-up sheet was circulated. Annette to do flyer. Wade to follow up with Annette and Delegate.
District Newsletter - Craig will be asking for contributions and help to produce our Newsletter.
Adopt a hotel – Discussed but hold till Jason is back.
Workshop – Jane agreed to take the lead on a Fall Workshop with Greg’s help. GSR’s were asked to come back with suggested topics. Topics mentioned at meeting were 1) Emotional Sobriety 2) Came to Believe 3) Prayer and Meditation 4) Sponsorship
A suggestion was made for a District Golf Outing and speaker event at Clearly Lake Park and Pavilion.
Delegates report is 7/1/19 at 7pm, Potluck is at 6 (signup sheet was circulated.)
GSR Updates
Dan H. is the GSR for Candlelight AA which meets Tuesdays at 6:00 PM at Chaska’s Moravian Church. There are usually about 15 to 20 people in attendance. Meeting is open, handicap accessible big books study and discussion. Service: Scott Cty. Jail meeting.
Jane M. is the GSR for Lakers Friday night at 6:30 PM. 40 to 50 attend per week. Meeting format is Step/tradition then open topic. The meeting starts as a large group, then breaks up for smaller discussions. They hold 1st steps meeting for newcomers and about half the group goes out for dinner and socialize afterwards. They take a meeting to Hastings New Way Treatment on the 3rd Saturday of Monday. They would like more women to do this. Third Saturday of month speaker meeting with potluck.

Bill H., GRS for Tuesday noon’s Mulligan meeting. It meets in the Hazelden office in the Hazelden building in Chaska. Usually there are about10 people who attend. The group has a lot of new people coming and going. The format is a new step each week. They then have a business meeting and have new trusted servants for the next 12 weeks. No current service commitment.
Craig S. is GSR for High Noon A.A. which meets at the Tiowakan Spiritual Center in Prior Lake on Wednesdays at noon. He stated that aprosimately 18 to 20 usually attend. It is a Mixed/Open meeting with an Open topic format. Some members take a monthly meeting to Scott County jail. They have an ASL interpreter and they offer Free recovery literature to anyone who attend.
Cole K. is the GSR for Wednesday Lakers – Meeting starts at 6:30. Attendance is down some but attendance is 25 plus. Many go out for dinner afterwards
Jacqueline is GSr for I’ll Quit Monday- Meets at the house next to Trinity Methodist Church in Prior Lake, Monday morning at 9:30. 12 to 20 attendees, 60% women. Handicap Accessible. Format is Big Book first 164 pages including Dr. Bob. They are interested in exploring to bring meetings to Assisted Living Centers.
Intergroup Report: Linda M. (Greater Minneapolis Intergroup Rep.)
Gopher State was busy. Currently doing outreach and verifying meeting information. They have a service opportunity for a group to answer phones the 1st Friday of the month from 4pm to 8pm. Grapevine is looking for articles for My Spiritual Awakening by 7/20 and Getting Through the Tough Times 8/20.
Committee Reports
Website: Dan described the progress and brought a computer and monitor to show current state and some ideas after the meeting
Corrections: We are about ½ way through vetting the volunteer list at Scott County and is in the process of reaching out to Keith at Carver County. Is progressing through the Scott County volunteer process.
Announcements: Upcoming Area 36 Events open to all!
6/15/19: Area Assembly
7/1/19 Our next meeting will include our Delegate’s report and Q and A.
8/3/19 Area Committee Meeting -
Meeting adjourned at 8:30 PM with the Responsibility Declaration.

The 69th General Service Conference Convenes
“Our Big Book — 80 Years, 71 Languages” was the theme of the recently concluded 69th General Service Conference, held in New York City May 19–25. As the Fellowship’s original “oldtimer in print” — also available digitally and as an audio disc — Alcoholics Anonymous, our basic text, has sold over 40 million copies, is available in 71 languages, and has helped carry the A.A. message in more than 180 countries around the world.
Working closely with Dr. Bob and the Fellowship’s earliest members, Bill W. recognized that in order to keep the program from getting “garbled” or misinterpreted, it would be necessary to put the process down on paper — to make clear what the first 100 members did to achieve and maintain their sobriety. The process was not without difficulty, of course, with many disagreements over what should be in the book. Nevertheless, together, those early A.A.s constructed a pathway to sobriety that was broad, enduring and inclusive.

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There are more than 40 meetings in our District.
For a complete list of meetings in District 24, go to our new web site :
aadist24m.org

The 69th Conference was made up of 93 delegates, 27 trustees and corporate directors from A.A.W.S. and Grapevine, along with 15 General Service Office, Grapevine and La Viña staff members.
Following a warm welcome Sunday morning from Michele Grinberg, Class A (nonalcoholic) chairperson of the General Service Board, and the official roll call by G.S.O.’s general manager Greg T., Anthony F. of South Dakota, delegate chair of the Conference, referenced the Conference theme: “Seventy-one languages — I have to admit, I wonder how translators do it. Additionally, Anthony contemplated one of the many issues slated to come before the Conference, noting, “In 1939, when the book was first published, I’m guessing none of them imagined we would be here deciding on a possible fifth edition.”
Delayed temporarily by bad weather that disrupted her travel plans, the Conference keynote address was delivered on Monday by Yoli F., Southwest regional trustee. In her talk, Yoli shared an anecdote about the Big Book from her early sobriety: “My first awakening of the value of the Big Book and translations came from a story by Fran P. in the July 1990 Grapevine titled ‘Grupa Una,’ about a woman in Romania named Juliet who was in search of recovery from alcoholism during the oppressive years of 1984–85. Fran writes, ‘Their faith in A.A. regularly moved me to tears. The first weekend Juliet had the literature, for example, she stayed at home. On Monday, I noticed she seemed quite tired. When asked why, she said she had been sitting up copying the Big Book by hand. Shocked, I told her that I was giving her my copy to keep forever, that she didn’t need to copy a single word.’”
Beginning on Sunday afternoon and running through to Saturday, Conference week is long and often arduous, punctuated by board and committee reports, presentations and discussions, area service highlights, workshops, sharing sessions and a visit to G.S.O. Additionally, the trustee elections, which took place on Wednesday, allowed Tom A. and Lucien J., the trustees’ and Conference committee chairs respectively, to sharpen their comic deliveries as they filled some of the silence between votes with a selection of jokes from the new Grapevine book Take Me to Your Sponsor. Also providing a little comic relief to the week-long proceedings was a performance by the 475 Riverside Players, a rag-tag thespian ensemble (comprised of G.S.O. and La Viña staff), who provided a homegrown production of “Dorothy Goes to the International Convention,” based on the all-time classic, “The Wizard of Oz.”
The main focus of each Conference, however, is on the deliberations of each of the 13 Conference committees, and it is during committee meetings that the major work of the Conference is done. With comprehensive background provided for each agenda item (made available for advance distribution to the Fellowship in English, French and Spanish), Conference committees discuss numerous issues of interest to the Fellowship as a whole and come up with recommendations, some of which result in Conference Advisory Actions.

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Insanity is not doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results; insanity is doing the same thing over and over again knowing full well what the result will be.

Addressing some difficult issues — issues of trust, growth and unity as a Fellowship in the digital age — the 69th Conference worked its way through agenda items, slowly and carefully formulating a path forward for the Fellowship. Not all Conference discussions resulted in Advisory Actions, though; many of the important matters addressed at the Conference were articulated in the “additional considerations” of each committee — more informal suggestions and guidance on how best to carry the message.
By Friday evening, with discussion and voting on committee agendas and floor actions finally complete, as has become the custom at each Conference, rotating Panel 68 delegates lined up around the room for emotional two-minute farewells, often recounting their gratitude and expressing confidence in the remaining delegates to carry on the meaningful work of the Conference and the Fellowship. On that poignant note, the 2019 General Service Conference officially concluded with the Serenity Prayer in three languages, led by Marge M. (English), Eric P. (French) and Jesus O. (Spanish). Reconvening briefly on Saturday morning for a final brunch featuring emotional talks by rotating trustees, Conference members bid each other a fond farewell and began to turn their attention toward next year’s Conference with its theme, “2020: A Clear Vision for You.”
2019 Conference Advisory Actions Conference
Advisory Actions represent recommendations put forward by the standing committees of the General Service Conference that have been discussed, voted on and approved by the Conference body as a whole during general sessions. A number of Advisory Actions from the 2019 General Service Conference appear below in condensed form. A complete list of Advisory Actions will be published in the Conference Final Report (available from G.S.O. in late summer).
Floor Actions — The proposed floor action that “A draft Fourth Edition of the Spanish Big Book, Alcohólicos Anonimos, be developed and a progress report be brought to the 2020 General Service Conference” be committed to the trustees’ Literature Committee; the proposed floor action that “The pamphlet ‘A.A. for the Black and African-American Alcoholic’ be updated and a progress report and/or a draft be presented to the 2020 General Service Conference” be committed to the trustees’ Literature Committee; the “A.A.W.S. Policy on Publication of Literature: Updating Pamphlets and Other A.A. Materials” be recommitted to the trustees’ Literature Committee with an updated policy to be brought back to the 70th General Service Conference.
Floor Actions — The proposed floor action that “A draft Fourth Edition of the Spanish Big Book, Alcohólicos Anonimos, be developed and a progress report be brought to the 2020 General Service Conference” be

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2020 General Service Conference” be committed to the trustees’ Literature Committee; the proposed floor action that “The pamphlet ‘A.A. for the Black and African-American Alcoholic’ be updated and a progress report and/or a draft be presented to the 2020 General Service Conference” be committed to the trustees’ Literature Committee; the “A.A.W.S. Policy on Publication of Literature: Updating Pamphlets and Other A.A. Materials” be recommitted to the trustees’ Literature Committee with an updated policy to be brought back to the 70th General Service Conference.
Agenda — The theme for the 2020 General Service Conference be: “2020: A Clear Vision for You”; the following be presentation/discussion topics for the 2020 General Service Conference: Recovery — Who Is Missing in Our Rooms?, Unity — Practicing Our Principles, Service — Keeping A.A. Relevant; and that the workshop topic be: Attraction Through Action. Archives — The 1940s home movie of the co-founders and their wives be added to the Archives video “Markings on the Journey” at an estimated cost of $5,000.
Finance — The level of $5,000 for individual bequests to the General Service Board from A.A. members be raised to $10,000.
International Conventions/ Regional Forums — An anonymity-protected photograph of the flag ceremony be taken at the 2020 International Convention; an anonymity-protected Internet broadcast of the 2020 International Convention Opening Flag Ceremony be approved; anonymity-protected video footage with highlights of the 2020 International Convention be produced for maintaining archival footage of the Convention, as well as for sharing the spirit and enthusiasm of the 2020 International Convention.
Literature — The pamphlet “Questions and Answers on Sponsorship” be revised to add text regarding anonymity emphasizing the relevance and spiritual value of anonymity, both on a person-to-person basis, as well as at the public level including social media; the pamphlets “The Twelve Steps Illustrated” and “The Twelve Concepts Illustrated” be updated.
Public Information — The trustees’ Committee on Public Information develop a plan to produce video shorts based on current A.A. pamphlets that provide information about A.A. to the public and that a report be brought back to the 2020 Conference Committee on Public Information; the video PSA “My World” be discontinued; the “Policy on Actors Portraying A.A. Members or Potential A.A. Members in Videos Produced by the General Service Board or its Affiliates” be reaffirmed; two PSAs be developed at a cost not to exceed $50,000 for each PSA, and that if full-face characters are shown, to include an “actor portrayal” disclaimer on screen; text addressing anonymity and safety be included in the pamphlet “Understanding Anonymity;” a progress report on the usefulness and effectiveness of the A.A.W.S. YouTube channel be brought back to the 2020 Conference Committee on Public Information; all current video PSA titles be updated for search optimization purposes; A.A. World Services, Inc. and AA Grapevine, Inc. apply for “LegitScript” certification to qualify for Google Ad Words/Grants; A.A. World Services, Inc. apply for Google AdWords/ Grants, for the purpose of providing information about A.A. to the public; A.A. World Services, Inc. implement Google AdWords/ Grants for the purpose of providing information about A.A. to the public and that a report be brought back to the 2020 Conference Committee on Public Information.
Treatment and Accessibilities — Ashley’s story (an A.A. member who is Deaf) be added to the pamphlet “Access to A.A.: Members Share on Overcoming Barriers” and that the video version of the pamphlet be updated to reflect this change; the pamphlet “A.A. for the Older Alcoholic – Never Too Late” be updated; the trustees’ Committee on Cooperation with the Professional Community/Treatment and Accessibilities develop anonymity-protected audio interviews with military professionals about their experience with A.A. as a resource for posting online.

Reminder: “by The Way” is the newsletter of District 24. It’s your newsletter and we want it to reflect what’s going on in our district. We want it to contain announcements, meeting changes, events, news and information around the district, short articles on sobriety and recovery, humor and more. We invite any AA member to submit material for the newsletter. Contact Us at:
AA District 24 PO Box 551 Shakopee, MN 55379 or dist24@area36.org <dist24@area36.org>;
district24.org