Published by the Antelopevalley Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous

Published by the AntelopeValley Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous

WHAT’S INSIDE

FEATURES

Fellowship Submissionsp. 1

Group Inventoryp. 1/2

Step Fourp. 2/3

Tradition Fourp. 3

Concept Fourp. 3

Scoop Word Findp. 4

Quotable Quotesp. 4

Birthday’sp. 6

Office Manager’s Reportp. 5

Donationsp. 5

Calendar of Eventsp. 6

You Are Alcoholics Anonymous! Submissions

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Christmas Tree

Holidays they say

are hard for people like me.

I’d sing, drink & dance

Fall into the Christmas tree

But those days are gone

Thanks to God & A.A.

No more do I drink or use &

Fall into the Christmas tree

One day at a time, you’d say

Simple as can be –

Enjoy the season, family & friends

Enjoy the Christmas tree.

Happy Holidays

CindyB.

Many of us Thought we were Special

“A.A. won’t work for me, I’m too far gone.” “It’s nice for those people, but I’m president of the P.T.A. “ I’m too old, Too young. Not religious enough. I’m gay. Or Jewish. A professional person. A member of the clergy. Too smart. Or too uneducated.

At this moment, people all over the world are thinking that A.A. probably won’t work in their case for one or several of these reasons. Perhaps you are one of these people.

We in A.A. believe alcoholism is a disease that is no respecter of age, sex, creed, race, wealth, occupation, or education. It strikes at random. Our experience seems to show that anyone can be an alcoholic. And, beyond question, anyone who wants to stop drinking is welcome in A.A.

Our founder, Bill W., in telling about A.A.’s earliest days, wrote:

“In the beginning, it was four whole years before A.A. brought permanent sobriety to even one alcoholic woman. Like the ‘high bottoms,’ the women said they were different; A.A. couldn’t be for them. But as the communication was perfected, mostly by the women themselves, the picture changed.

This process of identification and transmission has gone on and on. The skid-rower said he was different. Even more loudly, the socialite (or Park Avenue stumblebum) said the same. So did the artists and the professional people, the rich, the poor, the religious, the agnostic, the Indians and the Eskimos, the veterans and the prisoners.

But nowadays all of these, and legions more, soberly talk about how very much alike all of us alcoholics are when we admit that the chips are finally down.”

A.A. Pamphlet – Do You Think You’re Different?

Has Your Group Looked in the Mirror Lately?

The idea of taking personal inventory is as old as A.A. itself. In the Big Book (p. 64), published in 1939, A.A. co-founder Bill

W. and a handful of earlytimers likened the process to the vital task of maintaining a small business, noting that the one that “takes no regular inventory usually goes broke. . . This fact-finding process is an effort to discover the truth about the stock-in-trade. . .to disclose damaged or unsalable goods, to get rid of them promptly and without regret. . . We (in A.A.) did exactly the same thing with out lives.” This process of individual inventory-taking, familiarly known as Step Four, had its group counterpoint in Tradition Two, which states, “For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as he may express Himself in our group conscience.”

Continued on Page 2

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It is through the lens of inventory meetings, as well as sharing sessions and business meetings, that group members become familiar with the concept of the “group conscience” as the deciding factor in any situation that arises, and with the need at all times to place “principles above personalities,” as detailed in the Twelfth Step.

Additionally, many A.A.s say that the process of arriving at a group conscious offers a view of the world in microcosm. Learning to function as part of a group – to cope with its ongoing challenges, joys and interrelationships – often gives them the first crucial tools for learning to function sober at home, at work, everywhere.

In the April 1956 issue of the A.A. Grapevine, Pennsylvanian M.J.G. suggested that “even in the most circumspect groups all is not always well. Just as it occasionally happens in the country club, the church choir and the college faculty, a lone wolf will howl and a Red Ridinghood will simper invitingly.”

Among other instances of disharmony that she felt could be resolved by taking a group conscious, M.J.G. said, “These days we see some of the founders of groups ‘retiring’ sulkily from A.A. after many useful productive years. Often this ‘retirement’ is precipitated by disagreements with new members over group affairs. Sometimes there have been shattering battles for power. If we all remember, as Tradition Two reminds us, that ‘our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern,’ we may not mount our high horses and go riding off into Never-Never Land when our own turn comes.”

And in its Sept.-Oct. 1964 issue, Box 4-5-9’s forerunner, the A.A. Exchange Bulletin, ran a lead story asking, “How Healthy Is Your Group?” It informed the reader that “the most popular form for taking a group inventory has been the set of questions shared by the Three Legacies Group of Spokane, Washington, in a 1960 issue of the Exchange Bulletin.” Because of the volume of requests, the Bulletin noted, it was running a recent version with the hope that it “may revitalize group health.”

That venerable WashingtonState inventory model greatly resembles the suggested guidelines for inventory-taking that are set forth in “The A.A. Group” pamphlet. Also, many groups and districts across the U.S./Canada have developed similar formats that work well for them. Any thorough inventory of course bears the distinct mark of the group involved. For shared experience you may contact the General Service Office.

Says Georgia P., past chair of the Committee on Cooperation With the Professional Community for the Tacoma, Lakewood and Pullyallup districts: “In my experience, so many group problems, from refreshment hassles to anonymity breaks, can be resolved through the mechanisms of the group conscious. Several years ago, when I was the general service representative (G.S.R.) for Tacoma’s Fern Hill Group, we decided to inventory ourselves to see if we were working within the Traditions of A.A., just as we do with the

Steps in taking out personal inventories. We asked two of our Area officers, Andy A. and Debbie C., to act as facilitators. They took their questions right from ‘The A.A. Group’ pamphlet and another G.S.O. service piece.”

Geogia recalls that the facilitators “questioned us as a group, we responded as a group, and it worked. The other districts I’ve been connected with have handled inventory meetings pretty much the same way. In fact, the greater Tacoma district right now is putting together an inventory night. Our District Committee Member Scott G. has asked Western Washington past delegate Dick D. (Panel 55) to facilitate the meeting, with the date and time as yet to be set.”

Also, Georgia says, “I know of groups in Tacoma that hold an inventory every year to make sure they are meeting the needs of the group and attracting the newcomer. These group conscious meetings don’t just clear the air. They teach home group members and the district how to be of service not only as sponsors, one-on-one, but to A.A. as a whole – to be available to work on service committees in treatment, corrections, public information and more, so that the A.A. message is carried to as many alcoholics as possible.”

In 1990 Michael Alexander, the Class A (nonalcoholic) chairman of the General Service Board, saw inventory-taking as a must for all of A.A. In the Holiday issue of Box 4-5-9, he said that “in order to fulfill our expanding service role abroad, we must lead from a position of unity and support at home. From each individual member on through our groups, intergroups, districts, area assemblies and the General Service Conference, our Fellowship is only as strong as its weakest link.”

Accordingly, he urged, “let us take inventory of our weaknesses and strengths in some vital areas” – including self-support, newcomers, minorities and other groups of people underrepresented in A.A., and international services. Mike saw inventory-taking as a bulwark of A.A. unity. “I am confident,” he said, “that our collective conscience will elad us in the right direction.”

Box 4-5-9, Vol. 54, No. 2/April – May 2008

“Concept Four: Throughout our Conference structure, we ought to maintain at all responsible levels a traditional ‘Right to Participation,’ taking care that each classification or group of our world servants shall be allowed a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.”

“Made a searching and fearless moral

inventory ofourselves.”

STEP 4 — “Make a searching and fearless moral inventory ofourselves.”

The intent and purpose of this step is plain. All alcoholics have a definite need for a good self-analysis — a sort of self-appraisal. Other people have certainly analyzed us, appraised us, criticized us and even judged us. It might be a good idea to judge ourselves, calmly and honestly. We need inventory because —

1. Either our faults, weaknesses, defects of character — are the cause of our drinking OR

2. Our drinking has weakened our character and let us into all kinds of wrong action, wrong attitudes, wrong viewpoints. In either event we obviously need an inventory and the only kind of inventory to make is a GOOD one.

Moreover, the job is up to US. WE created or WE let develop all the anti-social actions that got US in wrong. So WE have got to work it out. WE must make out a list of our faults and then WE must do something about it.

The inventory must be four things —

1. It must be HONEST. Why waste time fooling ourselves with a phony list. We have fooled ourselves for years. We tried to fool others and now is a good time to look ourselves squarely in the eye.

2. It must be SEARCHING. Why skip over a vital matter lightly and quickly. Our trouble is a grave mental disease, confused by screwy thinking. Therefore, we must SEARCH diligently and fearlessly to get at the TRUTH of what is wrong with us — just dig in and SEARCH.

3. It must be FEARLESS. We must not be afraid we might find things in our heart, mind and soul that we will hate to discover. If we do find such things they may be the ROOT of our trouble.

4. It must be a MORAL inventory. Some, in error, think the inventory is a lot of unpaid debts, plus a list of unmade apologies. Our trouble goes much deeper. We will find the root of our trouble lies in —Resentments — False Pride — Envy — Jealousy — Selfishness and many other things. Laziness is an important one. In other words we are making an inventory of our character — our attitude toward others — our very way of living. We are not preparing a financial statement. We will pay out bills all right, because we cannot even begin to practice A.A. without HONESTY.

Interpretations of the 12 Steps – Sept 1944 AA World Services

“Each group should be autonomous except

in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as

a whole.”

AUTONOMY is a ten-dollar word. But in relation to us,it means very simply that every A.A. group can manage itsaffairs exactly as it pleases, except when A.A. as a whole isthreatened. Comes now the same question raised in TraditionOne. Isn't such liberty foolishly dangerous?

Over the years, every conceivable deviation from our

Twelve Steps and Traditions has been tried. That was sureto be, since we are so largely a band of ego-driven individualists.Children of chaos, we have defiantly played withevery brand of fire, only to emerge unharmed and, wethink, wiser. These very deviations created a vast process oftrial and error which, under the grace of God, has broughtus to where we stand today.

When A.A.'s Traditions were first published, in 1946,we had become sure that an A.A. group could stand almostany amount of battering. We saw that the group, exactlylike the individual, must eventually conform to whatevertested principles would guarantee survival. We had discoveredthat there was perfect safety in the process of trial anderror. So confident of this had we become that the originalstatement of A.A. tradition carried this significant sentence:“Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobrietymay call themselves an A.A. group provided that as a groupthey have no other affiliation.”

This meant, of course, that we had been given thecourage to declare each A.A. group an individual entity,strictly reliant on its own conscience as a guide to action. Incharting this enormous expanse of freedom, we found itnecessary to post only two storm signals: A group ought notdo anything which would greatly injure A.A. as a whole,nor ought it affiliate itself with anything or anybody else.

There would be real danger should we commence to callsome groups “wet,” others “dry,” still others “Republican”or “Communist,” and yet others “Catholic” or “Protestant”The A.A. group would have to stick to its course or behopelessly lost. Sobriety had to be its sole objective. In allother respects there was perfect freedom of will and action.Every group had the right to be wrong.

From the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Do you have a story, cartoon, poetry or another type of AA related article you’d like to submit for inclusion in the Scoop? How about just input or suggestions? This is YOUR Scoop!

Send it in to:

ANGERJEALOUSY
AUTONOMOUSLAZINESS
CAUSESMALADY
CONDITIONSMORAL
DEFECTSPERSONS
ENVYPRINCIPLE
FACT-FACINGRESENTMENTS
FACT-FINDINGSEARCHING
FAULTSSEX
FEARSPIRITUAL

FEARLESSSPONSOR
HARMSTRUTH
HONESTWEAKNESSES
INSTITUTIONS

WRITTEN
INVENTORYWRONG

Find all 30 of the words listed above in the puzzle below

D / C / M / P / T / J / Z / E / S / S / E / N / I / Z / A / L / L / S / M / F
S / L / F / I / S / N / K / F / I / G / C / Y / I / Z / Y / X / R / F / Y / A
D / M / K / L / E / X / E / C / H / R / K / X / H / T / T / G / A / N / A / U
G / E / R / F / N / T / Z / F / P / G / C / H / S / R / N / H / E / V / U / L
F / Q / S / A / O / F / G / N / I / C / A / F / - / T / C / A / F / X / R / T
Y / G / N / I / H / C / R / A / E / S / V / R / E / G / N / A / E / A / Q / S
H / K / V / T / P / S / N / O / I / T / I / D / N / O / C / A / U / S / E / S
B / N / M / Y / G / V / G / H / M / N / C / B / Z / T / R / U / T / H / I / Z
D / E / Y / Y / S / U / O / L / A / E / J / H / - / M / S / V / N / M / M / B
R / T / S / C / Y / D / A / L / A / M / D / F / E / A / R / L / E / S / S / D
S / T / O / L / Y / R / Z / G / F / T / I / N / V / E / N / T / O / R / Y / B
Z / I / B / A / J / U / X / S / W / N / M / A / M / P / B / D / O / S / X / O
W / R / M / U / V / Z / N / Q / D / E / F / E / C / T / S / Z / N / T / E / L
Y / W / C / T / B / O / W / I / N / S / T / I / T / U / T / I / O / N / S / W
Y / Z / J / I / S / O / N / P / W / E / A / K / N / E / S / S / E / S / P / F
K / I / O / R / N / G / B / O / K / R / N / M / T / L / Q / X / H / B / O / E
K / P / E / I / Y / B / Y / P / N / X / D / V / A / O / U / O / F / F / N / O
F / P / E / P / R / I / N / C / I / P / L / E / Y / W / R / O / N / G / S / A
R / R / X / S / U / O / M / O / N / O / T / U / A / T / T / H / H / F / O / R
L / A / R / O / M / Z / D / T / A / E / C / R / Y / U / F / G / B / B / R / P

• “An excuse is a lie with a thin skin of reason around it.”
• “If I’m sitting on my Fourth Step, I might be sitting on my last step!”
• “In the old days I had trouble going forth without a fifth.”
• “I’ve created a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.” Dave C.
• “The difference between a great day and a lousy day is my opinion.” Mike A.

• “Just the very act of giving is a verification that I had it to give to begin with.” Gerry K.
• “I’d rather be in A.A. by mistake than out there by mistake.” The Brewmeister
• “In A.A. you get to give and give to get.”
• “I don’t have a problem if I’m workin’ on yours.”
• “Don’t make me come down there!”God
• “Life is a coin; you can spend it any way you want, but you can only spend it once.”
• “If you’re not living your inventory on paper, you might be living it in your life.”
• “Our soul will be shaped by the things we do day by day.”D.P.
• “We need to talk!”God

New The B.W. Hall Meetings
Non-Smoking Non-Smoking
44751 Beech Avenue # 1, Lancaster
Day / Time / Type / Group
Mon / 8:30:00 AM - 9:30 AM / Open / Participation / Morning Wake-Up Meeting
Mon / 12:00:00 PM - 1:00 PM / Open / Participation / Out To Lunch Group
Mon / 6:30:00 PM - 7:30 PM / Open / Book Study / Living Sober - Beginners
Mon / 8:00:00 PM - 9:00 PM / Closed / Book Study / The 12 & 12 Book Study
Tues / 6:30:00 PM - 7:30 PM / Closed / Book Study / I Am Big Book
Tues / 8:00:00 PM - 9:30 PM / Open / Young People / Young People Meeting
Wed / 6:30:00 PM - 7:30 PM / Open / Book Study / 12 Steps - Little Red Book
Wed / 8:00:00 PM - 9:00 PM / Open / Participation / Principals Over Personalities
Thurs / 12:00:00 PM - 1:00 PM / Open / Participation / Out To Lunch Bunch
Thurs / 6:30:00 PM - 7:30 PM / Closed / Book Study / As Bill Sees It
Fri / 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM / Closed / Women's / Friday Women's Meeting
Fri / 6:30:00 PM - 7:30 PM / Open / Participation / Ice Cream Social & Birthday
Sat / 9:00:00 AM-10:00 AM / Closed / Men's Stag / Saturday Morning Men's Stag
Sat / 4:00:00 PM - 5:30 PM / Closed / Women's / Singleness of Purpose Women
Sat / 6:00:00 PM - 7:00 PM / Open / Old Timers / Old Timers / 10 years Share
Sun / 9:30: AM - 11:00 AM / Open / Participation / Spiritual Recovery Meeting
Sun / 6:00:00 PM - 7:30 PM / Closed / Men's Stag / Just Da Facts