AA Literature

AA conference approved literature section has been added to the site

Articles section

We are progressively adding articles to this section of the site.  Some (the longer ones) are in pdf format (and do take a little while to download).  Others are in html format (webpage format) which are accessible almost instantly. In the longer term we hope to make all available in both formats

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

Just in case you hadn't noticed......

Yep we've shifted our main website domain name to the blog. So if you click on "aacultwatch" you'll be getting the blog from now on.

Reasons why you ask?

1) Sloth - the blog format is a natural for our Stop Press section - we've only just noticed! The more static sections of the site can be placed on pages appended to the blog so no changes there ... so less work!
2) Greed - the blog costs nothing and the domain name is cheapo cheapo! Website hosting costs via Microsoft were about to go up by a large percentage... they've already got quite enough money!
3) Anger - we had a big argument and decided to make the move
4) Gluttony - we wanted more of less.....
5) Envy - we suffer from low self-esteem and we just had to have a proper blog all to ourselves - well why shouldn't we ......eh eh eh!
6) Pride - well we are pretty damn good when we come to think about it!
7) Lust - ooooh - what a sexy blog you are!!

Not bad eh? The full set!

Plus we couldn't really see the point in so much unnecessary duplication

As for the almost unmentionably cack-handed way we went about it ..... now you see us now you don't...... let's just put it down to sheer amateurishness - plus we didn't ask our sponsors before we went and gone and done it! Wellll.. what do you expect?

But seriously we'll be making some changes to layouts and so on and so forth - plus revising dead links, downloads, moving sections, adding stuff, subtracting stuff etc etc. We'll also be taking the opportunity to make the blog as user friendly as possible. So bear with us for the new few days.... weeks.... months.... years...... All will be revealed

Ciao

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

PS If you get any resentments because of all of this you know what to do don't you??

The Minority report ends up in Australia!

“Hi there,

After writing the below I notice Wayne B gets a mention in your "A Minority report to conference 2012."

I went to his workshop last year, more than a few were on the verge of relapse after it. This group has become increasingly noticeable in Perth, Australia. Headed by Wayne Butler from the USA, his company through which this runs is The Last Mile Foundation …... Locally they brand themselves as having "Emotional Sobriety."

They breach lots of the traditions, and they have grow through local members not knowing or turning a blind eye to it.

They have their own "big book" and "12 step guide", known as the Step n' Ahead Workbook. They have a pyramid type sponsorship structure. All follow the same directions, HP is my sponsor and you're either willing or not. Never question your sponsor, no medication, no other therapists. They are told they have to have 5 sponsee's and actively recruit and target newcomers. Its very much an ego, personality type group that sees itself as the true AA. Most original members are those who were in AA, didn't work the program were about to leave/drink, then found this extreme version.

I personally have no issue if a member wants to go the extreme route, but it is the targeting of the newcomer that is the concern. The slanting and twisting of the big book, and the controlling cult like behaviour that goes on outside the rooms. ….......

many thanks”

An AA convention? We think not!

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

(Our thanks to our reporter in Perth)

Akron AA Intergroup leads members away from Traditions

News Special!

Akron AA Intergroup Leads Members Away From Traditions (AA’s officially going Religious Big Business)

Shop online for all your pre-tradition goodies at https://shop.akronaa.org/ -- Your friendly online 12 step store. Note the Absolute absence of any AA Conference approved literature, not one item, absolutely zilch. But then you wouldn’t expect an AA intergroup to muddle up outside products with conference approved literature in the same shop and then call the shop AA would you? Now that would be against tradition six and one hell of a hodgepodge wouldn’t it?

· Audio · Bookmarks & Souveniers · Coins · Gift Certificate

· Historical Pamphlets · Postcards · Prayers & Cards · Reproductions

· Video

Handles & Hodge Podge $1.25 Four Absolutes (Asian) $ 1.50 Bill & Bob Coin $2.25 Camel Story $2.25 Evening Prayer Magnet $2.00 My Quiet Time $0.20 The Four Absolutes $0.50 If God Spoke To AA $0.20 Gallery Prints: Box $10.00 Gift Certificate $5.00 to $50.00

Gift Certificates from $5.00 to $50.00 can be purchased for friends, sponsors, or sponsees.

Best sellers: Postcard Man On Bed $ 0.75 (Postcard of the stained glass window of The Man on the Bed at the Akron Intergroup Office) Founders' Day Postcard $0.50 (This 4″x6″ postcard contains a collection of photographs from the 75th Anniversary Founders' Day held in June of 2010)

And much much more….

Shipping Policy We ship most in-stock items within 48 hours (Monday - Saturday, excluding holidays), and on occasions when we can't, we'll let you know.

Shipping Fees Our shipping charges are based on standard UPS or U.S. Mail rates (where applicable), which are based on package weight, size, and distance.

Rush Delivery At this time, 2-Day Express Delivery and Overnight Express Delivery options are only available for phone orders.

International Delivery Akron Intergroup does not currently offer international shipping directly from our online store. Please call 1.330.253.8181 to place an order outside the United States.
(Shipments outside the U.S. are subject to extra shipping, handling charges, and fees. Each order is processed individually. Duties and value-added taxes may be required and are the responsibility of the customer.)

Return and Exchange Policy All sales are final.

Conditions of Use All items in our store are subject to copyright... They are intended for personal use only and may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the copyright holder. Call or email Akron Intergroup for more information.

How to Send Gift Certificates

To send a Gift Certificate you need to go to our Send Gift Certificate Page. You can find the link to this page in the Shopping Cart Box in the right hand column of each page. When you send a Gift Certificate, you need to specify the following. The name of the person you are sending the Gift Certificate to. The email address of the person you are sending the Gift Certificate to. The amount you want to send. (Note you don't have to send the full amount that is in your Gift Certificate Account.) A short message which will appear in the email. Please ensure that you have entered all of the information correctly, although you will be given the opportunity to change this as much as you want before the email is actually sent.

Comment: For once our jaws have dropped, we’re absolutely speechless. Whatever happened to Tradition Six? Note the absence of promotional gimmicks at New York intergroup: http://www.nyintergroup.org/ ….Not the first time New York’s shown the Akron boys the AA way is it? Remember 1937?

Our usual thanks to the AA member for bringing this enterprising, traditions deviant intergroup to our attention. Were sure they’ll appreciate the extra promotion. More on Akron Sentimental Gimmicks Inc. coming soon… Once we get past their Christmas specials, we can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2012.

Cheers,

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

So whatever happened to the Midtown (Washington DC area) cult groups – still in business?

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2007/07/midtown_group_aa_group_leads_m.html
July 2007

“Midtown Group: AA Group Leads Members Away from Traditions

When Kristen was 17 and drinking out of control, her psychologist referred her to an Alcoholics Anonymous group that specialized in helping the youngest drinkers. In the Midtown Group, members and outsiders agree, young people could find new friends, constant fellowship, daily meetings, summer-long beach parties, and a charismatic leader who would steer them through sobriety.

But according to more than a dozen young people who structured their lives around the group, the unusual adaptation of AA that Michael Quinones created from his home in Bethesda became a confusing blend of comfort and crisis. They described a rigidly insular world of group homes and socializing, in which older men had sex with teenage girls, ties to family and friends were severed or strained, and the most vulnerable of alcoholics, some suffering from emotional problems, were encouraged to stop taking prescribed medications.

Kristen, now 26, said that for eight years, she was "passed along" from one middle-aged male leader of Midtown to another. She said her sponsor urged her to have sex with Quinones -- widely known as Mike Q. -- as a way to solidify her sobriety and spiritual revival. Kristen, who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used in keeping with AA traditions, also recalled helping to persuade other teenage girls to sleep with older men in the group.

"I pimped my sponsees out to sponsors," she said, referring to the AA members who agree to watch over a fellow member's sobriety. "I encouraged them to sleep with their sponsors because I really believed that this would help with their sobriety."

Rianne McNair, who left Midtown in 2005 after three years in the group, said, "Several of my friends had sex with Mike Q. One of my friends went to the beach house, and her sponsor assigned her to Mike Q.'s bedroom. The younger girls looked up to these guys; Mike is idolized, like, 'I got invited to Mike Q.'s house for dinner tonight. Can you believe it?' "

Midtown, also known as the Q Group after its leader, has expanded steadily to about 400 members since Quinones assumed leadership in the 1980s, but appears to be reaching a turning point. Quinones, a 63-year-old real estate agent who grew up in Baltimore and served in the Army in Vietnam, is fighting an advanced case of prostate cancer, according to group members, friends and relatives. He did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In response to questions raised by some parents, therapists and churches where Midtown held meetings, the group this spring issued a statement denying improper acts. "We cannot be all things to all people . . . " the statement said. "We do not condone underage sex. While we are not the arbiter of other people's sex conduct, underage sex is illegal and our experience shows that it can endanger your sobriety.

"We cannot tell you what to do with regard to taking medications such as anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, etc. While we have no opinion of medication in general, based on our personal experience, many members of the Midtown Group do not sponsor people who take mood-altering medication."

Outside Quinones's house, young Midtown members who often hang out around the front steps declined to talk to a reporter. A senior member of the group, who is close to Quinones and who spoke on condition he not be named because of AA's tradition of anonymity, said, "Anyone who has anything positive to say about the group is going to respect AA's policy of dignified silence in the media."

Montgomery County police said they are looking into allegations of underage sexual relations. But they said the women who have come forward have told of relationships that took place when they were 16 or 17; Maryland law considers women 15 and younger to be underage. Many of the allegations were aired in Montgomery County District Court in a domestic relations civil suit involving a member of the group.

"We interviewed 15 to 20 people, and they all said he's doing it. But it was all, 'It wasn't me,' " said Montgomery police Sgt. Ron Collins of the department's pedophile section. "Nobody's come forward with anything we could charge him with. The girls can be 16 or 17, and it's legal."


Controlled by Leaders

Over eight decades, Alcoholics Anonymous, a pioneer in the support-group model of treatment, has grown to attract about 2 million members in more than 100,000 groups.

Despite a stellar reputation and worldwide brand, it has never been more than a set of bedrock traditions. It has no firm hierarchy, no official regulations, and exercises no oversight of individual groups. Disgruntled former Midtown members discovered this in recent months when they tried to get the central AA office in New York to condemn Midtown's tactics and departures from the traditions, including a highly unusual practice of assigning older men to sponsor young women.

"The assumption since our founding was that groups that did not follow the traditions and concepts would fall away," said a staff member at AA's General Service Office, who spoke on condition of anonymity "because we are all alcoholics, and that is our policy."

The main office does offer "strong suggestions" for how groups should operate, including how to pair each member with a sponsor who shares confidences and helps the member stay sober. AA recommends that "it's best if a man sponsors a man and a woman sponsors a woman, so that there are not outside distractions," the staffer said.

In Midtown, Quinones and several friends, who are also long-time AA members, have taken on leadership roles that go well beyond the typical part played by organizers of meetings, according to local therapists, ministers and AA members. AA tradition suggests that "our leaders are but trusted servants," the New York staffer said. "They do not govern."

Quinones and other senior members have not only run two dozen weekly meetings across the Washington region but also organized ski trips and summer beach parties, helped young members find jobs at stores such as Nordstrom and the old Hecht's, and encouraged young members to live together in group houses in Gaithersburg, Rockville and Bethesda, members and ex-members said.

"It's like a prepackaged community," said David, 26, a former Midtown member who initially adored the group but now is highly critical of it. "You're thinking, okay, maybe I can stay sober for the rest of my life, but how do I have fun? I went to a different group, and it was 50-year-old men who went bowling on Tuesdays. That wasn't going to do it for me. At Midtown, everything is there for you. Here are your women, here are your dances every weekend, ski trip every March."

But some former members describe the Midtown life as overwhelmingly controlling. McNair said she was pressured to pay $950 for a share in a three-bedroom summer house in which 20 Midtown members slept, most of them on air mattresses on the floor. Kristen described being pressed to pay $1,200 for a summer house share in which she slept on the floor.

Some therapists who used to refer young people to Midtown and some pastors whose churches have hosted Midtown meetings say they have heard of too many disturbing practices to maintain a relationship with the group.

Ellen Dye, a clinical psychologist in Rockville, said two of her clients "suffered significant harm as a result of their involvement with Mike Q. and his followers." One young woman said she was assigned a boyfriend and encouraged to go off her antidepressants and cut off contact with Dye, the psychologist said.

Without her medication, the woman became acutely suicidal and was hospitalized, Dye said. When Midtown members learned that the woman was back on medication, she was ostracized and "was considered to have relapsed," Dye said.

That young woman told The Washington Post that her sponsor in Midtown refused to continue as her adviser if the woman kept taking prescription medications. The sponsor also directed her to stop seeing a therapist " 'because you need one clear voice -- your sponsor's,' " the woman said.

"These are very needy people -- they're young people who can be looking for a parent figure," Dye said. "Mike Q. plays that role. Midtown is doctrinaire and controlling. It's totally against the 'Big Book,' " the written traditions that guide AA groups. Now, Dye said, she warns clients and colleagues about Midtown and even has become reluctant to refer clients to any AA group.

After hearing about sexual relationships inside Midtown, Clancy Imislund, managing director of Midnight Mission, a Los Angeles non-profit group that serves the homeless, said he asked senior Midtown members about the allegations and found that "there probably have been some excesses, but they have helped more sober alcoholics in Washington than any other group by far."

Imislund, who speaks frequently to AA groups across the country, said he concluded that if sexual relations between older men and young girls "ever did take place, it's not taking place now. It had been an issue, but wherever you have a lot of young, neurotic people, they're going to cling to each other."

Although Imislund portrayed parents of young people in Midtown as "immensely grateful that this group has managed to get their children sober when no one else could," other parents said they were appalled to see the group draw children away from their families.


Barred From Some Churches

Cathy McCleskey became alarmed after hearing her daughter and other young people in Midtown talk about one practice after another that would not occur in most AA groups: They described being told by Midtown's leaders to stop taking medication prescribed by a psychiatrist, being permitted to visit family only in the company of other Midtown members and regularly cleaning Mike Q.'s house, mowing his lawn and doing his laundry. Her daughter had a male sponsor.

"On one hand, she was sober for nine months, and I was so glad that I thought, whatever's happening with this group is fine by me," McCleskey said. "But then, after about a year in Midtown, I got a call that she was in a mental hospital." McCleskey said her daughter remained there for four weeks, depressed and suicidal. The daughter is now out of Midtown and faring well.

McCleskey said she tried to get AA's local coordinating body to look into allegations against Midtown but was told that each group governs itself.

Parents and former members, armed with a recent Newsweek article on the control Midtown exerts over young alcoholics, approached several area churches this summer to ask them to bar the group from meeting at their facilities. A meeting held on Sunday evenings for nearly two decades at the Church of the Pilgrims near Dupont Circle left the church this year after ex-Midtown members provided "detailed and credible allegations," said the Rev. Ashley Goff, director of Christian education at the church. Midtown leaders told pastors they were being criticized unfairly by "disgruntled people who couldn't keep their act together," Goff recalled.

Even though some church members said Midtown had saved them from addiction, church leaders concluded that "this group crossed boundaries in very strong ways," Goff said. "Clearly, they were targeting young women who were in their first rehab program -- the most vulnerable people."

Informed that the church was "about to make a decision about asking them to leave," Goff said, "Midtown came to us and said, 'Oh, our group's gotten too big, and we're going to leave.' "

Goff added: "Our fellowship hall is huge."

At St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Rockville -- the site of one of 20 or so weekly Midtown meetings across the region -- the Rev. Roy W. Howard said that after Midtown leaders refused "to give me an explanation of the allegations against them, I decided to ask them not to meet" at the church any more. St. Mark still provides facilities for six of the hundreds of Washington area AA groups not connected with Midtown.

And at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church in Northwest Washington, the Rev. Elizabeth S. McWhorter told congregants in May that although the allegations against Midtown "would have been difficult to prove or disprove," the group "will not be returning to St. Patrick's."

But at United Church of Christ in Bethesda, the Rev. Allison Smith said she concluded that "there was really no bite behind the charges," so "we've decided not to ask them to leave." After meeting with Midtown leaders, Smith said that "maybe there were some incidents of an older male taking advantage of a younger woman who was in recovery, and that's terrible. But was it a systemic policy? We really haven't found anything to back up those charges at the group that meets here."

When Kristen left Midtown, she was utterly alone. "Everyone in my cellphone was Midtown," she said. "I was 24, and I knew literally nobody. I had cut off my ties with my family at the direction of my sponsor."

"Eight years of my life was wasted," Kristen said.”

©Washington Post, By Marc Fisher July 22, 2007

Comment: Quinones is now dead.

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

PS Our thanks to our correspondent who pointed out this article

South East Region (GB) Annual General Meeting – update

 

Well the meeting came and went and the usual efforts were made to avoid the most burning issue facing AA today – the cult within our midst! The event itself got off to an uninspiring start with attendees devoting an entirely disproportionate amount of time to discussing procedural matters whilst studiously ignoring the blazing inferno going on around them (Pass us the fiddle Nero. We can feel a good tune coming on!). Eventually the matter got raised and was promptly jumped on by one of the conference delegates who seemed to have a marked aversion to the “C” word. The matter disappeared only (and rather strangely) to be resurrected by that same conference delegate a little while later. Matters deteriorated even further when the anonymity of the minority report's author (supposed) was broken in a rather feeble (and subsequently failed) attempt to “personalise” the issue. This is a standard cult tactic whereby attention to the substance of an argument is deflected by directing it rather to the proponent's alleged suspect motives and/or questionable character – something along the lines of: “they've got a resentment”, “they're a dry drunk”, “they're a case of untreated alcoholism”, “they haven't got a SPONSOR”, “they're OFF the programme” etc – fill in the blanks! It never seems to occur to these critics that the authorS (yes – authorS – plural!) might have been galvanised into action rather by their revulsion for the cult's activities both here in Great Britain and elsewhere than by any trivial and indeed ego-driven ambitions (hence the anonymity). Still the cat has now been well and truly dragged screeching and wailing out of the bag and we doubt very much that it will be returned to those confines for a very, very long time to come. The minority report is here to stay (we can guarantee this) (for copy click here). The report itself will be distributed to all the region delegates and is currently being circulated throughout both Great Britain and North America. We've got a sneaking suspicion (don't ask us how!) that it will make its way eventually to every corner of AA. Additionally our readers might like to consider this selection of Grapevine articles on the subject. (Click here to download pdf)

Happy reading 

Cheers 

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)