[livenletlive]

I agree with cook. In my mind, even if you have one more day of sobriety than a newcomer, you can help impart whatever knowledge you have to the person who just walked into a meeting for the first time. I think a year is mentioned so that a newcomer won't get pressured to feel he/she has to help others right out of the gate. Take the year to work on your recovery and later, when steps have been worked and practiced with a sponsor, a person is more equipt to take on a sponsee. I think a year is a rough timeframe and relatively short period of time. It could be more or less depending on a persons recovery progress though. Bottom line, year one is about getting yourself situated in recovery and feeling better.