Questions and Answers on Sponsorship (contd)

The AA (General Service conference approved) booklet: Questions and Answers on Sponsorship)

Extract:

“How can a sponsor work with a newcomer who rejects help?

In such cases, there is little a sponsor can do except assure the newcomer of willingness to help, when and if needed. Occasionally, it may be wise to introduce the newcomer to an A.A. member who shares more of the newcomer’s background and interests. Sponsorship is a flexible venture, and good sponsors are themselves flexible in working with new people. It is just as much a mistake to thrust unwanted help upon a newcomer as it is to refuse help when a newcomer asks for it.”

(our emphases)

Comment: Well, for starters, respect their wishes! Pretty bloody obvious isn't it! Cult 'sponsors' (so-called! We've got another name for them! Bullies!) take note. The cult 'factory farming' of sponsees is well known. 'Assembly line' techniques hardly suffice when dealing with people new to AA (or for that matter anybody!). Here's a rough rule of thumb – if your prospective sponsor is already sponsoring more than two or three people then maybe think again! It's not altruism that drives them. It's ego.

Again it is clear to see why the cult really dislike this particular piece of AA (conference approved) literature as well as avoid like the plague any reference to Chapter 7, Working With Others, in the Big Book. Thrusting unwanted help (?) upon newcomers is pretty much what they're all about!

But remember: a sponsor is NOT ESSENTIAL to recovery. And NO sponsorship is better by far than BAD sponsorship!

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

(to be continued)