Originally Posted by
paulmh 
I meant we don't have great great grand sponsees (or whatever degrees of separation!) in the UK -but I see that Dave's going to make a liar of me!
Joe and Charlie are almost exotic to my ears. And around where I go to AA I meet a lot of people who're seeking out a "closer to the source" type of AA which, yes, they're taking into little groups and trying to work what's suggested rather than just being passive recipients of tapes. I haven't really encountered anyone who would give Joe and Charlie any kind of authority over the BB, but they often seem to be a "route in" to the 12 steps for people where sponsorship isn't so strong - that includes parts of the North West where I live. The likes of SR has given me huge amounts of insight into AA - far more than I got from the people I met at the 20 or so meetings which I visit around my area. Joe and Charlie seem to provide a similar point of access.
I followed up your reference to Doctor Paul and I look forward to receiving the infomration!
I got sober in the North West, the part where I got sober sponsorship is almost non existent, there is heavy emphasis on meeting attendance and fellowship, step four is mainly done as a life story, up there where I was the word sponsor interprets as agony Aunt, the brand of AA I encountered up there was nearly fatal for me.