We
quote:
“Fellas,
….......
I went to
an AA meeting the other night. There was a “newcomer” in
attendance. What passes for greeting of the newcomer these days is
that we pass around a “Welcome Wallet” sometimes referred to as a
“Beginners Packet”. These are little blue folders that are
produced by New York and have a copy of “How it Works” and some
other conference approved literature. Our local groups generally add
a local meetings list. The back of the folder has a place for current
members to place their name and phone number. The Newcomer is then
advised to call if they are about to drink.
So far so good I guess. This particular night I took it
upon myself to open the folder and see exactly what was in it. Right
there on top, the first thing to greet the newcomer was a one
page/two sided General Service Conference-approved piece of
literature titled “A.A. at a Glance”.
http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/pdf/products/f-1_AAataGlance.pdf
All of
this seems pretty standard and even somewhat positive, right? Well it
is until you consider that approximately 98% of our local “newcomers”
are “Court Mandated Attendees”. In that case, the reading of the
above referenced pamphlet takes on a new meaning. It is my opinion
that at no time is a prospective new member more on guard for reasons
to reject the program of AA than they are in their first meeting. I
further believe that the easiest way to reject a group, a person or a
concept is to find them to be untruthful or worse to have the
untruthfulness take the form of hypocrisy.
The first
section of “A.A.at a Glance” is titled “What is A.A.” The
first line of that section is and I quote “Alcoholics Anonymous is
a voluntary,
worldwide fellowship of men and women from
all walks of life who meet together to attain and maintain sobriety”.
In the unlikely event that the “newcomer’s” mind is not slammed
shut by this blatant lie, they might make it to the backside of the
document where other inaccuracies such as:
1-That
Closed Discussion groups are for alcoholics only. This is simply not
true once a Closed Meeting Group makes the decision to sign court
slips. I would say “have a group conscience to sign court slips”
but few groups have bothered to follow that protocol.
2-Under
“What A.A. Does Not Do” is the statement “That A.A. Does not
solicit members” does not stand up to scrutiny when you read the
New York GSO Guideline “Cooperating with the Court, DWI and
Similar Programs” http://www.aa.org/en_pdfs/mg-05_coopwithcourt.pdf
with anything other than the most patronizing mind.
3-Also
under “What A.A. Does Not Do” is the statement “keep attendance
records” once again, the the newly Court Mandated Attendee with his
soon to be grubby and wrinkled court sheet in his hand will be quick
to call hogwash at this statement.
We proudly
read “How it Works” and talk about the honesty of the Program and
yet the newly forced attendee of our meetings is lied to, literally
right from the start.
Once
again, feel free to use at your discretion,”
We
would be interested to hear from other AA members with regard to
their own experience and/or observations of the CMA ('chit') system
(good or bad). We can be contacted at our email address here.
Confidentiality assured
Cheers
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
PS
Our thanks to this member for their contribution to the debate
PPS
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