'Shenanigans' in the South West

Quote:　
　
"In my mind there is a bit of shenanigans going on in AA as to how to get certain conventions accepted into the Share magazine listed events and this is one of them. Let me try to explain without getting too tied up.

If a convention wants to be official AA it needs to be sponsored by an Intergroup or Region ( see the AA guideline 15 on Conventions). Some time ago the annual Bristol reunion folk ( now tied in very closely with RTR and assorted types) realised that they could not get the convention into Share as they were not Intergroup sponsored. The way to get around this has become that the people involved within Bristol ( Avon north and south Intergroups) get some of their members serving on Intergroup and lean on the Intergroup to accept a second Convention to be sponsored by Intergroup within the year's business of the area. Thus nowadays in the Bristol Area there are the old established Avon north and south mini conventions - plus the Bristol Reunion advertised in Share. As you are probably aware, the Bristol reunion is put on by the newcomers group and has been going for more than 20 years, always inviting Americans and charging a healthy fee – money always to the same address at Sally's flat in Bristol. The last time I looked the RTR and 1 other group were down on paper as sponsoring events in the area along with the Newcomers group. So you see the Intergroups have had their integrity compromised by these 3 groups.

Now K.... from Ringwood [AA] group used to live in Winchester, he still attends a lunchtime meeting on Tuesdays I think as he works in the town. He and others started this Winchester convention, which has American speaker worship as its guiding principle and £20 a go to get in. He has been cute enough to follow the Bristol lead. This year, for instance, the Northdown Intergroup sponsored (sic) the Winchester convention, a 3 day event, whilst also sponsoring the traditional mini in Basingstoke 3 months later. I noticed that the Winchester convention was highly publicised and tickets were being flogged at south coast meetings - alas the real Northdown mini convention in Basingstoke was quietly enjoyed by the sober AAs in the area without a ticket being offered anywhere. Both conventions were advertised in Share.

Just as in Bristol the Northdown Intergroup is in my opinion compromised by these crafty members messing about with the service structure for their own gain.

By the way, the Northdown mini was on 5th sept. The following day the Solent Intergroup Convention in Southampton was starring the great Clancy I, tickets were bountiful once again at south coast meetings and Wayne and his cohorts from Plymouth were in attendance. K.... has put several of his sponsees into Solent intergroup. thus compromising that one also. Guess what? RTR started the new meeting in Southampton around that time.

The linkage is fascinating."

(our thanks to the AA member who sent in this contribution)