Committee No. 1
Question
2:
“Would
the Fellowship ask itself the question: “Are there too many
meetings and not enough groups?”
Background
Pamphlet
‘The AA Group’
The
Home Group: Heartbeat of AA
Consider
the contribution to the carrying of the message, financial and
practical implications when deliberating each question.”
Extracts
“With
regard to the above posts, I have the following suggestions:
Suggestion
(1)
Make
a greater public awareness, particularly to those working in the
medical profession, and a greater awareness within the fellowship,
that related facilities and outside enterprises, such as private
foundations and nonprofit organizations are money making businesses.
Their surplus profits are used to further their mission. History
records that when run by alcoholics or drug addicts, these might not
always be the legitimate charitable organisations that they appear to
be. The leader of one such organization, which became a notorious
cult in the USA during the 1960s and 1970s was interviewed by a
national magazine in 1976 and quoted as saying: “Our tax-exempt
privilege gives us the right, really, to hustle goods and services."
Two years later in 1978, he was arrested and the Internal Revenue
Service sued for $17 million in back taxes. (Some information on this
organization can be found in the AA minority report 2012 mentioned in
the above post.)
I
have a number of step guides, workbooks, sponsorship guides, AA
meeting guides, produced by a number of non profit organizations,
some with a 501(c)(3) status. All these guides have the apparently
fraudulent claim to have permission from AA World Services to reprint
copyrighted material. One claims permission from AA Grapevine Inc.
This does give the books a phoney respectability to innocent or
vulnerable readers who are about to be duped further. All were
published after the announcement by AA World Services that it does
not give such permission, as stated in these extracts from “Big Book Study Guides Reviewing a Position Paper” by A.A. World
Services:
“In
1977, faced with a rising number of requests from non-AA sources and
some AA members to reprint portions of the Big Book and other
material in study guides, the directors of AA World Services, Inc.
took a hard look at the subject and appointed a committee to explore
the question. Members of the committee unanimously recommended that
the board not grant permission to outside entities to use excerpts
from our literature in study guides, and that AA itself should not
publish study guides.”
“The
AA World Services Board of Directors feels strongly that permission
should not be granted to outside publishers or other parties to
reprint AA literature for the purpose of study guides or interpretive
or explanatory texts, etc. If such interpretive or study guides are
to be prepared, they should be published by AA World Services, Inc.”
(Box 459, Vol. 51, No. 6, December 2005.) (AA Service News 127, Summer
2006)
Suggestion
(2)
Possible
action at board levels:
I
understand that one of the legal requirements to qualify as a
nonprofit organization is that it must be of benefit to the public.
This may be an avenue to explore by the General Service Boards (GB)
and AA World Services with the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.)
(USA) and Inland Revenue Service (GB). Information could be given, or
complaints filed with the I.R.S. against nonprofit organizations
which are fraudulently merging their business activities within AA.
These could be filed on the basis that the fraudulent practices of a
nonprofit organization cannot be considered to be beneficial to the
public; especially when such practices subvert another organization
and cause it to be misrepresented in the public eye. And, moreover,
that these fraudulent practices cause confusion and possibly death to
some vulnerable alcoholics. If sufficient evidence was supplied,
legal action would be taken by the I.R.S.
Suggestion
(3)
The
General Service boards (GB) and AA World Services (USA) could
consider co-operating with internet communications providers to shut
down websites and other entries on internet communication channels
which misuse or misrepresent the copyrights “A.A.” and
“Alcoholics Anonymous.” And any other A.A. copyright material.
Such
action can apparently be quite successful. It has recently been taken
by a multi-national conglomerate based in Japan. The link to a video
on page 15 of the “Minority report 2012” which promotes the
treatment centers organization referred to by “Border Collie Mix”
in the above post, is now blocked because of a copyright claim by the
Japanese conglomerate.
In
terms of Traditions and Concepts, such action if taken by the General
Service Board (GB) and AA World Service could hardly be construed as
aggressive or personally punitive but protective of our common
welfare.
“We
cannot lend the AA name, even indirectly, to other activities,
however worthy. If we do so we shall become hopelessly compromised
and divided. We think that AA should offer its experience to the
whole world for whatever use can be made of it. But not its name.
Nothing could be more certain." (Bill W. AA Grapevine 1948, The
Language of the Heart page 80).”
Cheerio
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
