The following is another presentation of the 67th General Service Conference. This one, in its entirety, was by our Delegate, Vikki R.

Safety — An Important Consideration

My name is Vikki, and I am an alcoholic. I currently have the honor to serve as delegate of the California Northern Interior Area, Panel 66. I would like to thank Mary Clare and Rick for the loving invitation to speak today.

I thought it was interesting at the General Service Conference last year that the original presentation topic was   “Safety in A.A. — Our Responsibility.” Then, one of my favorite Class A trustees, Judge Ivan Lemelle, came to the mike and expressed concern about the public’s perception of what “our responsibility” really means and that perhaps it could be a liability issue. The Conference presentation idea was changed to its current form.

That got me thinking. What is the public’s and professional communities’ perception of Alcoholics Anonymous? Specifically, do they think Alcoholics Anonymous is a safe place to be, and, if not, how did they arrive at that perception?

We all know there are many ways A.A. meetings can be unsafe. There are physical dangers that include, but are not limited to, misinformation about medications and treatment programs, bullying, sexual harassment and inappropriate touching. There are liability dangers and the potential for vandalism of one’s property. There may be financial predators lurking in the rooms looking for victims, and, of course, there are members with behavioral health problems.

How do we handle potential danger or safety issues? Fortunately for us, the Traditions have already been put in place to guide us. Tradition One tells us we have an obligation to our common welfare. Tradition Three states, in part, we have only one requirement in Alcoholics Anonymous. Tradition Five reminds us about our primary purpose. Tradition Ten states we should not be drawn into public controversy. Tradition Eleven reminds us that our public relations policy is based on attraction, not promotion, and Tradition Twelve tells us to place principles before personalities.

Besides the Traditions, there are many ways to increase safety in meetings. Good sponsorship is another tool we can use to increase safety. We can start by talking about potential dangers and potentially dangerous people. It doesn’t have to be a secret. If there is an individual who is known to the group as a predator, let the new person be aware. Predators are like cockroaches: the only way to get rid of them is to shine the light on them.

Also, it is important to select good leadership in our groups, districts and areas. Good leaders should know the proper procedures in case of an emergency situation and know how to stay calm but firm when potential dangers arise. A good leader should make awareness of the safety issues a priority by organizing presentations and workshops.

There are no “A.A. police.” The General Service Office has no authority, legal or otherwise, to control or direct the behavior of A.A. members and groups. So, who has the responsibility? We all do! Collectively and individually, it is up to us.

Develop a plan or course of action in your home group’s business or group conscience meeting. Decide what to do if a situation requires police involvement and who should call the police. Just because A.A. is considered a safe haven from drinking doesn’t mean it is a safe haven from violence. If your group conscience dictates, don’t be afraid to ask disruptive members to leave the meeting. Remember, our common welfare comes first. If one person is preventing other members from hearing the message of Alcoholics Anonymous, it is okay if one or two members take that individual outside to talk. If the disruptive behavior continues, a member can be invited not to attend that group for a while. We do not kick people out of A.A., but if behavior warrants, we can ask them to attend a different meeting.

It is important to our future to make sure our Fellowship is attractive to the alcoholics still out there suffering. Nobody wants to attend a meeting they hear is unsafe. Does our Fellowship seem attractive? In order to answer that question, we can review the current Feasibility Study. This study clearly states our membership numbers continue to remain flat. Why is that? I believe part of the answer is our lack of Public Information/Cooperation with the Professional Community (P.I./C.P.C.) efforts.

Did you know there are members of Alcoholics Anonymous across the United States and Canada who aren’t even aware we have P.I./C.P.C. committees? Back when Bill W. was around, we had the support of many doctors, lawyers, clergymen, etc. Newspapers were flooded with wonderful stories about our Fellowship and our members. Today, most of the A.A. coverage in public media that I see is negative in nature. As a Fellowship, we cannot stand idly by and let others define us. It is time for us to have a more visible presence on the Internet so that misinformation does not go unchallenged. We cannot give one message about A.A. to the public and ignore educating our own members about how our behavior affects A.A. as a whole.

In the March 1958 Grapevine, Bill W. wrote, “Millions are still sick and other millions soon will be.… Why haven’t these millions come to us?” Responding to his own question with a solution, he wrote, “The answer seems to be in education — education in schoolrooms, in medical colleges, among clergy and employers, in families, and in the public at large.… Sound education on alcoholism, and far more of it at all levels, will clearly pay off.”

Remember that we have found a way out from a terrible illness. Our own survival lies in our ability to carry this message of hope to fellow sufferers. Let us not squander this responsibility.

Vikki R., California Northern Interior

The following excerpt is from the Presentations section of the 67th General Service Conference Final Report. The sub-title Communication — Today and Tomorrow is under the Growth heading.

With the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, A.A. has adapted by adding the use of the Internet to its own methods of communication and by developing guidelines to mark our presence on the web and to define ways in which our members can make use of social media. Yes, the times have changed, and, yes, our movement has kept on top of these changes and has adapted to them with caution. Social media in particular has opened new frontiers to explore and utilize to efficiently extend the hand of A.A. to the alcoholic who still suffers.

Bill and the pioneers of A.A. would probably be shocked by Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and Skype, and without a doubt by the phenomenon of the universality of the smartphone. At the same time, they would have surely seen the huge potential of assuring, and possibly increasing, the importance and recognition of our association. And so, based on our past experience, they would have been the first to encourage a thoughtful approach.

Over the years, different aspects of our movement have faced turning points in regard to all of these new channels of communication and the behaviors they have generated.

The ways in which people get informed and communicate have changed. The number of options — instant messaging, texting and email, constant searching online — has made us talk less and less in person and amongst ourselves. We “like” and we “poke” and we text from one room to another, or from one end of the world to the other. Amongst us, within our own structure, we are seeing symptoms of communication that leave much to be desired. There is a large gap between the General Service Conference and the individual members of A.A. Is there a breakdown in communication between groups, G.S.R.s, D.C.M.s and the area steering committees?

How do we remedy this? And what can we say about the distance between the Conference and the alcoholic still suffering on the street corner?

We can surely say that the 21st century is well underway, and that we must jump into all of the modern and current modes of communication at our disposal to carry the message and make people aware of A.A. But, most importantly, our thoughts and this jump into modern times should be done through the structure that has served us so well until now: the inverted triangle.

—end of excerpt—

Thomas G., Southwest Québec

For continuation of this, and other complete presentations, see your GSR. Every Group should have a single Hard Copy of the Final Report. They should be available for pick-up at the October District 11 meeting.
Online Continuations are planned to become available as they are uploaded. Note that the Online Versions are ‘Anonymity Protected’ and are permissible for Online use.