“Murky going's on in Derbyshire” etc etc

Well the murk gets thicker and thicker and with not a sign of daylight anywhere!

But:

“Dear Fellas

As a previous regular attendee of the Derby City Meetings, the suggestion that “personal abuse, interference with prescribed medication, and that the Derby City group promotes itself to the detriment of other groups in the area” are absolutely and completely true.

At just about every meeting they describe other meetings in the area as being “knitting circle”, “god bothering” and/or “useless” and always claimed that they had “the only decent and sustained sobriety for at least a 25 mile radius”. I was personally told by a member of the meeting who was sponsoring me at the time that if I took a specific medication prescribed by my GP for anxiety (Citalopram) I could “find a new sponsor” and would “no-longer be tolerated at the meetings”. I was told that the meeting would not tolerate attendees taking any “mind altering substances” including those prescribed by doctors.

I hope this helps.

…....”

(our edit)

However – and to summarise (and moreover demonstrably):

Derbyshire Intergroup website (still semi-detached from the official AA website) continues to carry a Step Four template derived (so we are informed) from a “Back to Basics” source (a nonprofit outside organisation) and in contravention of the guidelines.

For their part the Derby City meetings have set up their own website (under a Midland Region header) where it is claimed:

“Derby City Centre Alcoholics Anonymous meetings offer people wanting to get and stay sober a proven success story.

Derby AA's focussed groups will provide the best help possible - our meetings are far and away the most successful in the East Midlands.”

This clearly constitutes an attempt to “promote” the group in competition with other groups in the East Midlands area - and for which “success” no evidence is provided. This too constitutes a fundamental breach of AA guidelines.

Finally the Derby City groups appear in a listing entitled “Worldwide Agnostic A.A. Meetings” thereby breaching yet another tradition relating to non-affiliation.


Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

PS Our thanks to our correspondents