Safe Use of Money
Safe Use of Money by Bill W. Originally published in The A.A. Grapevine. Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., May 1946 In Alcoholics Anonymous, does money make the mare go or is it the root...
Category: Newsletter/Magazine Cuttings
Dangers in Linking AA To Other Projects
Dangers in Linking AA To Other Projects by Bill W. Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., March 1947 Our AA experience has been raising the following set of important, but as yet unresolved, questions. First,...
How Can A.A. Reach Out to the Elderly?
As young people in A.A. have pointed out, alcoholism is not an age; it’s a disease. But just as young A.A.s have problems unique to their time of life, so do the elderly. Most...
The Pot Belly Stove Group: The Spark of Attraction
After a lifetime of drinking in the small town of Raymond, Alberta, Canada—no easy task since it’s a “dry” town— Gordon L. got sober on May 15, 2000. The only problem was that there...
Those ‘Goof Balls’ – by Bill W.
Morphine, codeine, chloral hydrate, Luminal, Seconal, Nembutal, amytal, these and kindred drugs have killed many alcoholics. And I once nearly killed myself with choral hydrate. Nor is my own observation and experience unique, for...
The Clergy – by Bill W.
Every river has a wellspring at its source. AA is like that, too. In the beginning, there was a spring which poured out of a clergyman, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. ‘Way back in 1934 he...
The Legacy of Recovery
Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully...
Where Money and Spirituality Mix— Now (2007) and Then (1950)
Support of A.A. services, whether in the group, at local intergroup or central offices, areas, and even nationally through contributions to The General Service Board, has always been part of the spiritual foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous. As A.A....
Money and Spirituality Can Mingle in A.A. Giving
A longtime member recently took stock of her A.A. giving: “You know, as I was planning my Christmas shopping this year, I realized how much more I spend on gifts now than I did...
The Many Faces and Phases of Sponsorship
Sponsorship in A.A. has been described variously as a one-on-one meeting, a Fifth-Step partnership, Twelfth Stepping, and a godsend. It is as old as co-founders Bill W. and Dr. Bob keeping each other sober...
A.A.’s First Secretary Recalls the Highs and Lows of the Early Times
A.A. co-founders Bill W. and Dr. Bob met in Akron, Ohio, on June 10, 1935. By 1937 Bill and the New York alcoholics had left the Oxford Group (forerunner of A.A.), largely out of...
When is Breaking Your Anonymity Not an Anonymity Break?
While much has been written in A.A. literature about anonymity, including in a General Service Conference approved pamphlet called “Understanding Anonymity,” communications coming into the General Service Office from members of the Fellowship suggest...
Sponsorship: Is It Disappearing?
“Practical experience shows that nothing wlll so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics.” This opening sentence, of the chapter “Working With Others” in the Big Book, is further emphasized...
Our Common Bond ‘We’re All Different’
Does anyone coming to A.A. for the first time not think, even fleetingly, that “this may be okay for them but, for me, well, I’m different”? With this likely in mind, cofounder Bill W....
Gratitude Month Our Chance to Say `Thank You!’
“The idea is in the air that A.A. might adopt Thanks-giving week as a time for meetings and meditation on the Traditions,” A.A. co-founder Bill W. wrote in the November 1949 issue of the...
India’s ‘Jack Alexander Moment’
Many A.A.s know the story of Jack Alexander, the nonalcoholic journalist who investigated A.A. in the early 1940s and wrote a seminal article about the Fellowship for the Saturday Evening Post in March 1941....
The Dilemma of No Faith – By Bill W.
The phrase “God As We Understand Him” is perhaps the most important expression to be found in our whole AA vocabulary. Within the compass of these five significant words there can be included every...
Dr. Bob: A Tribute
Serenely remarking to his attendant, “I think this is it,” Dr. Bob passed out of our sight and hearing November 16, 1950 at noonday. So ended the consuming malady wherein he had so well...
Dr. Bob’s Last Major Talk
Although a good many of you have heard or have read about the inception of A.A., probably there are some who haven’t. From that brief story, there are things to be learned. So, even...
Slips – by the late William D. Silkworth, M.D.
Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., January 1947 Do alcoholics suffer from “Alcoholic Behavior” or are they simply victims of human nature? The mystery of slips is not as deep as it may...
