Category: Service

Request District 8 Email Account

  By

In keeping with our tradition of anonymity at the public level, full names and personal email addresses are never used on our District website. Each committee chair is set up with an email address committeename@centralalaa.org (e.g., cpc@centralalaa.org). We then set up a blind email forward through our hosting company. Emails can be delivered to your regular email address, or can be accessed as webmail on our host’s website.

To request a District 8 email account for district work,  contact the webservant.

Letter to a Professional…

  By

Dear Friend in the Professional Community:

This letter comes to you from Alcoholics Anonymous, not as a request for anything, but as an offer of A.A. services through you to your patients, clients, students, congregation members or any other person who may have an alcohol problem with whom you come in contact through your work. Because of your involvement, you are in a unique position to have contact with what we call the “still-suffering alcoholic.”

The purpose of our A.A. Committee for Cooperation with the Professional Community is to be “friendly with our friends” in all walks of life, so that the A.A. message of personal recovery can reach more of those who need and desire our help.

Simply stated, Alcoholics Anonymous is a worldwide fellowship of more than two million men and women who help each other maintain sobriety and who offer to share their recovery experience with others. Anyone who thinks he or she has a drinking problem is welcome at an A.A. meeting.

Much more information about A.A. is available in A.A. literature. In addition, there are many resources available on this site, as well as at http://www.aa.org, the official website of Alcoholics Anonymous in the United States and Canada.

You can also contact our CPC Committee by email. We would be happy to speak with you or to your organization about the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and how we work to help alcoholics, to accompany you or members of your organization to an Open Meeting* of Alcoholics Anonymous, or to provide you with additional A.A. literature, including A.A. meeting information you may provide to any potential alcoholic you might come in contact with.

We welcome the opportunity to speak with you and, if possible, work with you to reach alcoholics who might benefit from our program of recovery.

Sincerely,

 

CPC Committee,
District 8, Area 1
Alcoholics Anonymous

Ensuring Our Future Through Solid Leadership

  By

No matter how carefully we design our service structure of principles and relationships, no matter how well we apportion authority and responsibility, the operating results of our structure can be no better than the personal performance of those who must man it and make it work. Good leadership cannot function well in a poorly designed structure. But weak leadership can hardly function at all, even in the best of structures. But once we have created a basically sound structure, that job is finished, except for occasional refinements.

 

With leadership we shall have a continuous problem. Good leadership can be here today and gone tomorrow. Furnishing our service structure with able and willing workers has to be a continuous activity. It is therefore a problem that in its very nature cannot be permanently solved. We must continuously find the right people for our many service tasks. Since our future effectiveness must thus depend upon ever-new generations of leaders, it seems desirable that we now proceed to define what a good service leader should be; that we carefully indicate in each level of service, especially in our Board of Trustees, what special skills will always be required; and that we review our present methods of finding and choosing that leadership.

“A.A. Service Manual Combined With Twelve Concepts for World Service, 2015-2016 Edition,” p. 34. A.A.W.S. All rights reserved.

 

It’s election time in Area 1 and, therefore, in District 8. As members of the “odd” panels, we hold our elections every two years, and those panels of trusted servants serve in the odd, then in the even year. Groups may hold elections for group servants at different intervals, but we encourage positions of general service (General Service Representatives (GSR) and Alternates (AGSR), District Committee Members (DCM) and their alternates (ADCM), along with those members who chair subcommittees of the District (Corrections, PI, CPC, etc.) be elected to serve concurrently with our Area Officers (Delegate, Alternate Delegate, Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary and Registrar) and Area committee chairs.

For information on the upcoming election assembly at Area 1, CLICK HERE to visit the Area 1 page of our website.

District 8 elections will be held during the regular District meeting October 1, 2016. In keeping with our informed group conscience at the district meeting, we will use the Third Legacy Procedure to elect a new DCM and ADCM. We will then use majority vote to elect a District Secretary, and to fill the chair position of our service committees. To understand the responsibilities and suggested experience needed to serve in any of these positions, consult the A.A. Service Manual, available HERE.

Third Legacy Procedure

  By

A.A.’s Third Legacy Procedure is a special type of electoral procedure, used primarily for the election of delegates and regional and at-large trustees. It is considered to be unique to A.A., and at first glance, appears to introduce a strong element of chance into a matter that should depend solely on the judgment of the majority. In practice, however, it has proved highly successful in eliminating the influence of factions or parties that seem to thrive on most political scenes. The railroading of a candidate for election is made difficult, if not impossible, since voters have a wide selection of candidates to choose from. More importantly, a second-place candidate who may be extremely well qualified but without early popular support is encouraged to stay in the balloting rather than withdraw.

Third Legacy Procedure is as follows:

  1. The names of eligible candidates are posted on a board. All voting members (of the area or Conference body) cast written ballots, one choice to a ballot. The tally for each candidate is posted on the board.
    • The first candidate to receive two-thirds of the total vote is elected.
  2. Withdrawals start after the second ballot. If any candidate has less than one-fifth of the total vote, his or her name is automatically withdrawn — except that the top two candidates must remain. (In case of ties for second place, the top candidate and all tied runners-up remain as candidates.)
  3. After the third ballot, candidates with less than one-third of the total vote will be withdrawn automatically, except the two top candidates remain. (In case there are ties for second place, the top candidate and all tied runners-up remain as candidates.)
  4. After the fourth ballot, if no candidate has two-thirds of the total vote, the candidate with the smallest total is automatically withdrawn, except that the top two candidates remain. In case there are ties for second place, the top candidate and all tied second-place candidates remain.
    • At this point, the chairperson asks for a motion, second, and a simple majority of hands on conducting a fifth and final ballot.
    • If this motion is defeated, balloting is over and the choice is made by lot—“going to the hat”—immediately.
    • If the motion carries, a fifth and final ballot is conducted.
  5. If after the fifth ballot no election occurs, the chairperson announces that the choice will be made by lot (from the hat). At this point, the top two candidates remain. In case there are ties for first place, all tied first place candidates remain. In case there are no ties for first place, the top candidate and any tied second-place candidates remain.
  6. Lots are then drawn by the teller, and the first one “out of the hat” is the delegate (or trustee or other officer).

Third Legacy Screenshot

Website Committee

  By ,

Chair: David H

The Website Committee, a standing committee of District 8, focuses on helping carry A.A.’s message through the internet to members and future members of Alcoholics Anonymous, professionals who may be willing to cooperate with us, and the general public.

You don’t need to have any experience or expertise in websites or computers — just an honest desire to help carry the message through this information channel.  We’re always looking for members with opinions, ideas, and enthusiasm. If you believe decisions in A.A. should be based on an informed group conscience rather than the well-meaning ideas and designs of an individual, PLEASE encourage participation in this committee.

 
Email Webchair

Corrections Committee

  By ,

Chair: Jeremy T

The purpose of a corrections committee is to coordinate the work of individual A.A. members and groups who are interested in carrying our message of recovery to alcoholics behind the walls, and to set up means of smoothing the way from the facility to the larger A.A. community through prerelease contacts.

A corrections committee may function within the structure of a General Service Conference area committee or an intergroup/central office. In A.A.’s early years, prison Twelfth Step work was usually done by an individual group or an individual member. As A.A. has grown, however, it seems that a committee formed within the A.A. service structure works more effectively.

Grapevine Committee

  By ,

Chair: Marsha H

The Grapevine Committee serves the A.A. fellowship in District 8 by making sure information about Grapevine and La Viña is available to them and to the groups. They also perform a service for Grapevine, linking the magazine to members of the Fellowship who otherwise might not read it or even know that A.A. has a journal at all.

The Grapevine Committee is engaged in practical, hands-on work. Their basic job is to make Grapevine information and the magazine available to the groups, and to encourage A.A.s to read it, subscribe to it, write for it, and use it in Twelfth Step work.

[half][button link=”mailto:grapevine@centralalaa.org”]Email the Grapevine Chair[/button][/half] [half][button link=”https://centralalaa.orgwp-content/uploads/Manual.Grapevine Rep.pdf”]
Email Grapevine

Archives Committee

  By ,

Chair: James B

SERVICE THROUGH ARCHIVES

Whenever a society or civilization perishes there is always one condition present; they forgot where they came from.

—Carl Sandburg

Like any other A.A. service, the primary purpose of those involved in archival work is to carry the message of Alcoholics Anonymous. Archives service work is more than mere custodial activity; it is the means by which we collect, preserve, and share the rich and meaningful heritage of our Fellowship. It is by the collection and sharing of these important historical elements that our collective gratitude for Alcoholics Anonymous is deepened.

A.A. members have a responsibility to gather and care for the Fellowship’s historical documents and memorabilia. Correspondence, records, minutes, reports, photographs, newspaper and magazine articles from the past and the present should be collected, preserved, and made available for the guidance and research of A.A. members and others (researchers, historians, and scholars from various disciplines)—for now and for generations to come.

The District 8 archives collection is stored in a climate-controlled unit in Montgomery.  A constantly-changing sampling of the collection is on display at The Happy Hour Group. This can be seen whenever the building is open for fellowship before and after meetings, or by appointment with the Archives chair.

Email Archives
Archives Committee Guidelines

Public Information Committee

  By ,

Chair: Nick P

Like all of A.A., the primary purpose of members involved with public information service is to carry the A.A. message to the alcoholic who still suffers. Working together, members of local Public Information committees convey A.A. information to the general public, including the media.

In all public relationships, A.A.’s sole objective is to help the still-suffering alcoholic. Always mindful of the importance of personal anonymity, we believe this can be done by making known to the still-suffering alcoholics, and to those who may be interested in their problem, our own experience as individuals and as a fellowship in learning to live without alcohol.

We believe that our experience should be made available freely to all who express sincere interest. We believe further that all efforts in this field should always reflect our gratitude for the gift of sobriety and our awareness that many outside of A.A. are equally concerned with the serious problem of alcoholism.

We recognize that our competence to speak about alcoholism is limited in subject matter to Alcoholics Anonymous and its recovery program.

 
Email PI Chair
PI Guidelines

Literature Committee

  By ,

Chair: Open Position

Today, as in the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous, the A.A. message of recovery from alcoholism is carried by one alcoholic talking to another. However, since the publication of the first edition of the Big Book in 1939, literature has played an important role in spreading the A.A. message and imparting information about the A.A. Twelve Step program of recovery.

A.A. co-founder Bill W., who often called the influence of A.A. literature “incalculable,” wrote in the May 1964 issue of the Grapevine, “Suppose, for instance, that during the last twenty-five years A.A. had never published any standard literature…no books, no pamphlets. We need little imagination to see that by now our message would be hopelessly garbled. Our relations with medicine and religion would have become a shambles. To alcoholics generally we would today be a joke and the public would have thought us a riddle. Without its literature, A.A. would certainly have bogged down in a welter of controversy and disunity.” (The Language of the Heart, p. 348) Bill’s words ring just as true today.

The newcomer, walking into an A.A. group for the first time, may be given a meeting list, basic recovery pamphlets and, depending on the individual group conscience, perhaps a copy of Living Sober or the Big Book. In 1992, the Conference Literature Committee suggested that the trustees’ Literature Committee develop literature committee guidelines comprised of shared experience from the Fellowship.

 
Email Literature
Literature Committee Guidelines