Soberpotamus

I've been talking with a few people about starting a freethinker/secular group here. I'm just a year sober and have no experience leading a group so it's a bit daunting at this point. I'm reading the AA pamphlets and consulting with some others I met on one of the AA agnostic sites. Not sure what's going to happen. But I understand there are a few hoops to be jumped through in order to be approved at the Intergroup level and GSO.

CousinA

You know the old joke, all you need to start a meeting is a resentment, a couple of alcoholics and maybe a coffee pot. There is a lot of collected wisdom and experience available to help you start and keep the meeting going. There are some good resources for agnostics groups. See the PM I sent you.

Getting listed with GSO shouldn't be a problem. They list plenty of agnostic groups. Getting listed locally depends on your local intergroup. Some are less receptive than others.

-allan

Boleo

Having started a couple of eccentric (off center) AA meetings myself, I can tell you that can not get away with modifying the 12 steps. That would interfere with AA as a whole and clearly violate tradition 4.

You can however get away with writing your own Preamble if it does not contradict anything in AA literature. Get to know tradition 4 Long Form forwards and backwards so that you can use it to defend your group from any District or Area reps who question your methods.

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.

Soberpotamus

Does this mean we can't use books that contain various interpretations of the steps? Or handouts? Because I use a few of those books on my own. That is what is helping me work the Steps. But I have no intention and never had any intention of attempting to "change" the original steps. Hope this makes sense. The way I see it... everyone inevitably interprets the steps through their own lens of experience anyway.

Soberpotamus

Thanks Allan

Boleo

You can use non-approved literature and interpret the steps pretty much anyway you want so long as you don't rewrite the steps.

I must admit I never tried using any literature that contained a different version of the steps. That is something you will need run by "trustees of the General Service Board" as mentioned in tradition 4 long form.

I'm curious to know what books you intend to use. I am a Taoist so I'm not sure where I fit in on the theist-atheist scale. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Soberpotamus

Is this what you mean by the Traditions Long Form: http://www.aa.org/twelveandtwelve/en...n_longform.pdf ?

So basically, I need to confer with GSO on just about anything and everything, according to Tradition 4? And to confer with neighboring groups regarding anything that might affect them? That's what it seems to be saying.

Soberpotamus

Not sure about the books yet, Boleo. I'd probably use the original BB, 12x12, and approved literature along with any additional literature. I'm not planning on being exclusive. In fact, even though I'm structuring this group as a Freethinker group, it would include and welcome any AA. Because I believe that AA must welcome believers and nonbelievers alike if it is to survive and thrive in the future.

As for Taoism, it sounds pantheistic.

Boleo

You only need to confer with GSO where you are planing on covering new ground.

Mentium

I suspect things are different here in the UK. There is no religious or spiritual pressure to speak of and the 'surrender to god' meme does not crop up that often. Some members do trot that out now and again and that is fair enough given the history of AA but I would say that there is an overall sense of agnosticism in many meetings - as there is in the country at large here. As an atheist I am finding I can live with that, though I wasn't at all sure I could to begin with especially as all the traditional materials and literature are used. I need peer support and it is the only game in this particular town.

As an aside the thing I get from peer support is listening to other people's stories. I listen intently, almost hypnotised sometimes and when I hear about people whose lived have crashed in far worse ways than mine and yet have managed to get and stay sober I find that inspirational.

Soberpotamus

That is what I valued the most in meetings. It's just been a challenge for me to learn tolerance (for members who don't seem to show tolerance) as I have always had a live and let live attitude. The live and let live was just a given for me, even before finding the program. I guess I took it for granted in academia, that it was the reasonable angle to take. The rest of the population just doesn't always see it that way.

Mentium

I have an informal sort of sponsor - a very wise and sold guy. When I shared my concerns recently about my own position he just reminded me that the only requirement for membership of AA is the desire to stop drinking. Everything else is 'suggested'. That maybe a bit ingenuous given the pressure some people come under to 'do the program' etc. but it is a fact and one I hold on to.

Coldfusion

This meeting continues to be successful a year and a half later, and nobody seems to have any objections to the re-written versions of the steps. As long as we do not represent these to be the original version of the 12 Steps, there should be no problem.