AA and Resentment.
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AA and Resentment.
In my country there is a split of sorts in AA.
It goes back some 25 years and seems to relate strongly to egoism and resentment.
As things stand the N.S.W GSO has refused to provide Victoria with AA literature for over four years. In a way we are seen as not to to exist.............
AA has never claimed to be perfect, and it is a shame that hard line ideologists at the top level can't seem to get their act together. A bit of compromise by both factions would certainly be welcome.
It goes back some 25 years and seems to relate strongly to egoism and resentment.
As things stand the N.S.W GSO has refused to provide Victoria with AA literature for over four years. In a way we are seen as not to to exist.............
AA has never claimed to be perfect, and it is a shame that hard line ideologists at the top level can't seem to get their act together. A bit of compromise by both factions would certainly be welcome.
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Originally Posted by Bubovski 
As things stand the N.S.W GSO has refused to provide Victoria with AA literature for over four years.
do they state a good reason for the refusal ?
M-Bob
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Originally Posted by Bubovski
In my country there is a split of sorts in AA.
It goes back some 25 years and seems to relate strongly to egoism and resentment.
As things stand the N.S.W GSO has refused to provide Victoria with AA literature for over four years. In a way we are seen as not to to exist.............
AA has never claimed to be perfect, and it is a shame that hard line ideologists at the top level can't seem to get their act together. A bit of compromise by both factions would certainly be welcome.
It goes back some 25 years and seems to relate strongly to egoism and resentment.
As things stand the N.S.W GSO has refused to provide Victoria with AA literature for over four years. In a way we are seen as not to to exist.............
AA has never claimed to be perfect, and it is a shame that hard line ideologists at the top level can't seem to get their act together. A bit of compromise by both factions would certainly be welcome.
(o:
NoelleR
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It's hard t get all the details.
The original issue, I think, was about a non authorized donation.
I am not into all the administrative stuff........
Keeping out of it largely; seems odd given AAs stance re resentment.
The original issue, I think, was about a non authorized donation.
I am not into all the administrative stuff........
Keeping out of it largely; seems odd given AAs stance re resentment.
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Originally Posted by Bubovski
It's hard t get all the details.
The original issue, I think, was about a non authorized donation.
I am not into all the administrative stuff........
Keeping out of it largely; seems odd given AAs stance re resentment.
The original issue, I think, was about a non authorized donation.
I am not into all the administrative stuff........
Keeping out of it largely; seems odd given AAs stance re resentment.
but i do agree with other posters who suggest just getting you own literature, maybe a word with world wide gso saying your own gso is withholding the literature might also be a good idea ?
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Originally Posted by desypete
why keep out of it ? its your aa just as much as anyone else s
but i do agree with other posters who suggest just getting you own literature, maybe a word with world wide gso saying your own gso is withholding the literature might also be a good idea ?
but i do agree with other posters who suggest just getting you own literature, maybe a word with world wide gso saying your own gso is withholding the literature might also be a good idea ?
A splinter group has evolved and they are in opposition.
This makes it very confusing for newcomers.
I don't keep out of it all together; I look to consensus rather than conflict though.
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Hi. Many reasons for such decisions are related to what is called the AA traditions of which many don’t understand. Without them AA will disintegrate. People are supposed to follow the traditions to the best of our ability and if it’s beyond fixing it can be taken to World Service in New York for finalization.
If I recall there is a limited amount of money AA can be given by an individual or business. Money can create chaos especially among alcoholics so there are limits.
BE WELL
If I recall there is a limited amount of money AA can be given by an individual or business. Money can create chaos especially among alcoholics so there are limits.
BE WELL
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Irish
Posts: 552
Simple...Follow the Preamble.......Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop drinking . AA has no dues or fees. It is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution. Does not wish to engage in any controversy. Neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.
Long Form AA Traditions...follow those
Our A.A. experience has taught us that:
1.Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.
2,For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
3,Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.
4,With respect to its own affairs, each A.A. group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience. But when its plans concern the welfare of neighboring groups also, those groups ought to be consulted. And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board. On such issues our common welfare is paramount.
5,Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose—that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6,Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to A.A. should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. An A.A. group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to A.A., such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the A.A. name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, A.A. managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside A.A.—and medically supervised. While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. An A.A. group can bind itself to no one.
7,The A.A. groups themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members. We think that each group should soon achieve this ideal; that any public solicitation of funds using the name of Alcoholics Anonymous is highly dangerous, whether by groups, clubs, hospitals, or other outside agencies; that acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever, is unwise. Then too, we view with much concern those A.A. treasuries which continue, beyond prudent reserves, to accumulate funds for no stated A.A. purpose. Experience has often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority.
8,Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional. We define professionalism as the occupation of counseling alcoholics for fees or hire. But we may employ alcoholics where they are going to perform those services for which we may otherwise have to engage nonalcoholics. Such special services may be well recompensed. But our usual A.A. "12 Step" work is never to be paid for.
9,Each A.A. group needs the least possible organization. Rotating leadership is the best. The small group may elect its secretary, the large group its rotating committee, and the groups of a large metropolitan area their central or intergroup committee, which often employs a full-time secretary. The trustees of the General Service Board are, in effect, our A.A. General Service Committee. They are the custodians of our A.A. Tradition and the receivers of voluntary A.A. contributions by which we maintain our A.A. General Service Office at New York. They are authorized by the groups to handle our over-all public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the A.A. Grapevine. All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles; they do not govern. Universal respect is the key to their usefulness.
10,No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues—particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever.
11,Our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think A.A. ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as A.A. members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us.
12,And finally, we of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the principle of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all.
Long Form AA Traditions...follow those
Our A.A. experience has taught us that:
1.Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.
2,For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
3,Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.
4,With respect to its own affairs, each A.A. group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience. But when its plans concern the welfare of neighboring groups also, those groups ought to be consulted. And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board. On such issues our common welfare is paramount.
5,Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose—that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6,Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to A.A. should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. An A.A. group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to A.A., such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the A.A. name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, A.A. managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside A.A.—and medically supervised. While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. An A.A. group can bind itself to no one.
7,The A.A. groups themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members. We think that each group should soon achieve this ideal; that any public solicitation of funds using the name of Alcoholics Anonymous is highly dangerous, whether by groups, clubs, hospitals, or other outside agencies; that acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever, is unwise. Then too, we view with much concern those A.A. treasuries which continue, beyond prudent reserves, to accumulate funds for no stated A.A. purpose. Experience has often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority.
8,Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional. We define professionalism as the occupation of counseling alcoholics for fees or hire. But we may employ alcoholics where they are going to perform those services for which we may otherwise have to engage nonalcoholics. Such special services may be well recompensed. But our usual A.A. "12 Step" work is never to be paid for.
9,Each A.A. group needs the least possible organization. Rotating leadership is the best. The small group may elect its secretary, the large group its rotating committee, and the groups of a large metropolitan area their central or intergroup committee, which often employs a full-time secretary. The trustees of the General Service Board are, in effect, our A.A. General Service Committee. They are the custodians of our A.A. Tradition and the receivers of voluntary A.A. contributions by which we maintain our A.A. General Service Office at New York. They are authorized by the groups to handle our over-all public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the A.A. Grapevine. All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles; they do not govern. Universal respect is the key to their usefulness.
10,No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues—particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever.
11,Our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think A.A. ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as A.A. members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us.
12,And finally, we of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the principle of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all.
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Location: Melbourne Australia.
Posts: 3,748
Originally Posted by RumHound
What is the name of the splinter group?
Irrespective of which group is 'right', in their interpretations, this causes confusion.
It is a shame some general consensus has not been reached.
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 158
Originally Posted by Bubovski
The splinter group is made up of a minority of Victorian groups supported by the GSO which is located in another Australian state.
Irrespective of which group is 'right', in their interpretations, this causes confusion.
It is a shame some general consensus has not been reached.
Irrespective of which group is 'right', in their interpretations, this causes confusion.
It is a shame some general consensus has not been reached.
In the OP it was stated that the NSW GSO declined to provide AA literature to Victoria.
But there is a listing for an AA Central Service Office in Prahran, Victoria. Can your group not get AA literature from that CSO?
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This is the 'Johnny come lately' C.S.O. that is supplied and supported by the Sydney G.S.O.
The original Victorian CSO has existed since 1947 while the Prahran group has been around less than 20 years. The new is attempting to replace the old, supported by the GSO in another state (N.S.W.).
The original Victorian CSO has existed since 1947 while the Prahran group has been around less than 20 years. The new is attempting to replace the old, supported by the GSO in another state (N.S.W.).
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