The Basic Story 4

[dalin]

Chapter Seven

1979 WORLD SERVICE CONFERENCE

The writing continued but the politics began.

A local member named Chuck was very instrumental in helping N.A. get its start in Atlanta. He cultivated a young newcomer from the methadone clinic into first the development of the local area service committee (ASC) then world services.

Tommy B. worked at Delta so it was easy for him to fly to Los Angeles. He believed in N.A. and was working hard to achieve and maintain his recovery. Like all newcomers, he found something unique and special in the quiet and anonymous ways of the members, groups and activities of N.A. He too had been progressively on the outside of life looking at the world go by while his addiction had been eating away at his personal involvement with it.

He had a liking and a flair for politics. What addict doesn't feel the call of power? Under his sponsor, Chuck, he was trained and groomed for world services.

Chuck was an addict also and had lived a difficult life. Always getting up his hopes. Always tripping himself up before his real dreams could come true. Addiction eats people. It places visions in our faces and then destroys our capacity to grow into the possibilities life holds for us. As an extremely skilled salesman, and full of knowledge about Alcoholics Anonymous history, recovery and politics, he made Tommy into a most effective N.A. service politician.

Through the miracle of recovery, all the games and strategies fell away in time. The changes brought about by Chuck and Tommy went beyond their wildest dreams and the young Fellowship grew.

Tommy knew Greg, Jimmy K. and the rest of the oldtimers in L.A. He was supportive of Bo's work on the book and was genuinely supportive throughout the effort. He and Bo had flown to the World Convention in San Francisco together. Tommy had been elected as vice-chair of the World Service Conference in May of 1978.

In the early part of 1979, he and Bo were talking, probably after a meeting of the Atlanta Area Service Committee (ASC) in Marietta. Tommy stated that if Bo wanted to help with the book, he should be at the next annual World Service Conference (WSC) in Los Angeles. It would be held around the first of May in L.A.

As usual, Bo was slow on the upswing. He said he was doing more writing and he would send his stuff in to be considered by the group conscience.

The WSC had a literature sub-committee and Bo honestly expected the committee to work on his input. Tommy told him that the committee was more concerned about rewriting existing material and it might take time. Why not go to the Conference and see for yourself?

Realizing that he was dealing with a quick minded resolute type, Tommy asked if it would be OK for him to make air plane reservations? If he couldn't make it, they could be canceled without cost. Bo agreed to this and thanked Tommy for the help.

The rest of the winter passed and some time was spent in committee sessions to prepare for the upcoming World Convention to be held in Atlanta. The Committee met monthly for the first nine months and weekly just before the convention.

Bo had been the chair of the bid committee for the 1978 World Convention and was now the chair of the convention committee itself. He exposed some of his ability to deal with coordinated group efforts in some early committee sessions much to the chagrin of those who had elected him for his symbolic leadership abilities. He asked for the sub-committees of the Convention Committee to submit estimated budgets of their expected expenses that could be compared with expected income from attending members. The committee was very slow to do this and there were some peculiar problems within the committee itself of the sort which generally plague spontaneous group efforts. This experience helped Bo to transfer what he had learned in college, marching against the war in Viet Nam and as president of the non-profit corporation on the Strip to the service world of N.A. By the time the WSC rolled around, he was ready for his first adventure into 'big time' service!

Greg picked him up at LAX in Los Angeles with an addict from Detroit named Kurt. Kurt was a big guy in a black leather motorcycle jacket and looked rough as hell. As a fellow member, he gave Bo the usual hug in greeting. The three rode to Greg's house in North Hollywood.

The hills rolled by the car and Bo could see the curious landscape that is an unsettling mixture of desert and tropical plants. Unsettling because right beside landscapes thrown together from sharp spiny plants that can withstand the desert's sun without water you find gorgeous showcase exotics that rarely grow anywhere but in florist shops and Miami. The people in L.A. are like that too.

At Greg's home they got settled in and Bo asked Greg to explain what would happen at the WSC. Greg told them they would call to order, hear reports from the sub-committees and break up into sessions to plan motions to be dealt with by the main voting body. After this there would be elections a general session and then planning sessions for the year to come. The conference would close with a final report from the new officers of the sub-committees who had participated in the planning sessions but became chairs only at the end of the conference.

This seemed simple enough.

Bo was asking about the Literature Committee. He had asked Jimmy K. for the name, address and phone number of the lit committee. Jimmy told him that the committee was a bunch of revisionists. He had called Greg and been told much the same thing. He couldn't get their address. He was in no position to be pushy and trusted Greg's spirit, experience and judgment totally. Still, if the lit committee was working on literature, how could they be a 'wolf pack' of revisionists?

All he could find out was that they were concentrating on changing the small existing body of material so they didn't seem too smart to Bo. What N.A. needed was a book.

They visited the WSO and said hello to Jimmy. There had been some problems getting a literature order filled for the Atlanta Literature Committee in the past year.

The WSO was staffed by volunteers and everybody tried to be supportive because they were grateful and knew that it was hard to keep track of everybody's orders. No one was going to say anything against the Office but the orders did still have to be filled eventually. Bo could tell from his own visits that the work at the Office was incredibly demanding. He tried to handle the matter as quietly as possible. Showing a canceled check for the amount of the order was enough.

*** *** *** ***

The 1979 World Service Conference opened with a call to order by Chuck G. followed by the Serenity Prayer:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept

the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can

And the wisdom to know the difference."

In the course of the reports, elections, motions and planning, Bo learned a lot about World Services. He was elected to Chair the World Literature Committee. He was uncomfortable voting because he wasn't an elected representative but he had been elected to Lit chair that entitled him to a vote. He tried to abstain on matters that didn't seem clear to him or his conscience. Still, he knew enough about policy to know that it was a sensitive matter. It was obvious that the structure was new and that the voting privileges had been extended to as many as possible to encourage the growth of the service body. It was true that the lit committee had been working on revisions but they had a lot to do with the service structure, not the recovery literature. A few on the IP's (Informational Pamphlets) seemed to relate to outside issues and that did seem to go against Traditions. They weren't disinterested in the material Bo had been working on. They had just been unaware of it. Final changes of editing done in the planning sessions were written down as they went. Bo was given the task of taking the material to the WSO before going home. WSO would then print and distribute the material to the Fellowship to be considered for approval at the next year's Conference.

After the WSC, Bo had a chance to visit Mark, the past year's chair of World Lit. He also met a guy named Rick and a lady name Pat who had done most of the work in the committee during the past year. Mark lived in a romantic little cottage in Venice Beach near the Pacific Ocean. They spent an evening together going over files and different pieces of material. Bo gave them a copy of the new stuff he had been working on. He admired their energy and the idea that it was OK for him to be the chair passed to him. He learned from them that it was right and proper for the committee to consider itself THE World Literature Committee (WLC).

The WLC considers and takes action through reports, recommendations and workshops. Their guidelines were to collect, compile and review materials prior to presentation to the Fellowship at the WSC. The strange sense of wonder melted away a little inside Bo and his feet settled to the earth again.

This was the first time Bo got to observe different groups of members who did not see eye to eye with one another. It taught him to look deeper and ask more questions before he believed anything bad of anyone. Many times, he was to witness difference groups of members apparently at odds with one another from a position that allowed him to see where the roles they played were complementary. While peace in the valley might be a grand ideal, reality seemed to dictate that members routinely became so caught in what they were doing that they couldn't conceive of sincerity in others. Opposition was taken very personally. The idea that the phrase from the Twelfth Tradition, "to place principles before personalities", meant our own personality had not yet become widespread in the young Fellowship. It was usually taken to be tolerant and exhibit some openness when we really thought someone else must be insane. The arrogance and pride of this position was not yet well known.

This early learning as World Lit Chair taught Bo to study situations and at least try to make sure that all parties had the same information to head off needless conflicts.

Sunday, after the Conference, Greg dropped Bo off at the Office and he spent the afternoon with Jimmy and Betty talking about the history of N.A. and the copies that needed to be sent out by the Office for WSC. There was only one set of originals and no copies. He felt it would be OK to leave the originals and let the Office typeset the finals for the items to be sent out for approval.

Jimmy and Betty gave him a ride from Sun Valley to the airport when time for his flight came near. They sat and talked of N.A. There was much charm and friendliness in the air. Betty went to a vending machine and bought some candy bars that they ate at Delta Gate 68.

Bo was very impressed by the encouragement that he was getting. He kept trying to share his ideas because he couldn't tell which ones might turn out to be needed and which were faulty. The only way he had of screening them was to talk to these people. There were no precedents for what they were doing.

This was one of the last times they spent together in the closeness that recovery brings. Jimmy represented the safety and certainty that had built up in the past few years. Coming growth and unprecedented changes were to set them in different camps but the affection beneath the surface never went away.



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[dalin]

Chapter Eight

WORLD LITERATURE CHAIR

On the flight home, Bo took stock of the events and people he had encountered. It was a lot to absorb.

It seems more than ever that the plan Greg and he had envi- sioned for the Basic Text was working. He had succeeded in initiating some writing. He was comfortable with the growing number of men and women involved with the growth of N.A. There seemed to be no intrusion to the field from outside forces.

They were on their own. The material he had read in the service manual, The N.A. Tree had been accurate including the statement at the end stating that it was visionary and that the structure outlined did not yet exist.

This year's Conference had seen representatives from the East and Mid-West in addition to the West Coast where N.A. had been in existence the longest.

The groups of personalities were simply arrayed into three groups. Some were directly connected with the operation of the WSO. Others were the Conference people who chaired and participated in the various committees. These came from the different states which now had N.A. meetings. The third group was composed of the California old-timers, many of whom were on the Board of Trustees. The reason all the Trustees were from California was that there weren't members with sufficient clean time much less service experience to serve on the Board.

Everyone was supportive of the Book effort. The Office was pleased to have the emphasis off revision of the existing literature. The Conference itself had chosen a site for a conference to be held somewhere to work on plans for the writing of literature particularly the Basic Text. They had chosen among San Francisco, Philadelphia and Wichita. They chose Wichita because in the Midwest it would be most convenient to members who wished to attend from either coast and there was a lot of energy and new blood in the Midwest who also would be there.

Bo was delighted not only with their choice but also the internal mechanism that was his enemy. He had not once even felt a preference for any one of the proposed locations. In his first act as Chair, he had not imposed his will on others but only made sure they knew their real options and let them make the choice. If he had felt an internal drive to predetermine a location and maneuver them into affirming that decision, his internal alarms would have all gone off. He knew it would take a real selflessness to pursue this goal to its conclusion. His selflessness made him more secure that he could serve.

The planned conference would allow attending members the chance to sit down together and go over all the options. After sharing, they could develop some sort of plan that would be supportable by the Fellowship. This in turn would encourage and allow addicts from all over to submit material and come together to process the writing in workshops.

Bo was excited only to see what they would come up with as a group. The upcoming conference would make the effort more real and he expected to be able to get more input based on the growing reality of the effort.

Word of the work had gotten out to the Fellowship earlier in the year. Greg had asked Bo to write a letter to the Fellowship that would be sent out from the World Service Office. This letter had the support of the Board of Trustees as well as the Office Staff.

Bo had objected to writing the letter on the basis that he was not in an elected position. Since he was neither on the Board nor with the Office, it felt funny. Jimmy solved this by telling him in one of their phone conversations that he was on the WSO literature committee and also the Board of Trustees lit committee. Bo asked him if there had been an election or if his position were informal? Jimmy told him he was on both committees because of the material he had written. At any rate he would write the letter. Of course, Bo said yes and he did. The letter went out with the literature and the mailings to all the groups in the world at the time. This went out several months before the Conference.

January 1979

Dear Members:

Several N.A. members and groups around the country have begun the work that we hope will result in the creation of our definitive text. We need an original book combining the basics of our program with 50 to 100 stories of recovery in Narcotics Anonymous. We need a book that tells in detail what we have learned over the years about the problems faced both by newcomers and oldtimers. Of course there is a wealth of resource material available from other programs, but it will always be there and we really need some of our own. Articles relating the experience of recovery, how we successfully face our problems in everyday living, and how we actually work our steps will contribute directly to the development of our book. We have only to tell it like it is.

If this sounds like a big deal, it is. Our newcomers and groups in isolated areas just don't know what to do in many cases; and too many have floundered and died out. If we can combine our love and strength in this effort, we can give them many of the answers we have found for ourselves and our groups.

Many addicts are reluctant to write, but in practically every area where there are N.A. meetings there are some who can help if encouraged to do so by fellow members. Without encouragement they often hold back from fear of ego, or simply because they don't know the need. We want our book to be as complete as possible, and truly representative of N.A. as a whole. This means we need input from you, and your help encouraging and supporting others.

Those who have begun this work have found that fear of self drops away quickly. We have found that our higher power once more does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We need only offer ourselves and we will be used in this service. We realize that some will be skeptical about this effort, but we're really not doing this for selfish reasons. People who could be helped are dying every day from our disease. A book telling the story of recovery in Narcotics Anonymous would make our program more available to them.

A few of us can't do this alone; we need your help. Please send your stories, articles and other input to:

World Service Office Literature Committee

391 Cranfill Street

Marietta, Georgia 30060

In this way all input can be made available to the various members and groups working on this project. If you also wish to make your name and address available to those working on literature development please notify us by mail. Rest assured that a working manuscript based on your experience and the experience of others who contribute will be circulated within the fellowship prior to publication.

Bo S.

Atlanta, Georgia

This letter attracted some early input and created interest.

Now other letters could be sent out. As World Lit Chair, he could put to work some of his ideas. He would contact all those who were interested in the project to make sure he was acting on all the best ideas available and publish them through the Office in another letter. He knew his limitations and sure as hell didn't want this project to fall short because of his personal inadequacies. The World Service Conference set the date for the Literature Conference in the Fall of the year, one month after the World Convention in Atlanta.

Thinking about the letter some more, he realized how hard it had been for him to gather the basic information about N.A. literature in the beginning. He put himself in the position of an average member. Now he knew that any member anywhere was welcome to submit material. He was the Chair of World Lit! Let's see now... Out of all the members in the world there had to be a few who were like he was and wanted to help. They either assumed that someone else was doing it, believed that addicts in recovery couldn't write or faced an impossible set of obstacles if they wanted to know what was going on. Aha! He would put out a monthly letter to everyone who was either interested or in a service position with a mailing address!

There had been a form in his preconference packet that he had filled out for the lit committee. It had a place on it that allowed you to state your preference and your qualifications to serve in a particular capacity. Aha! He could put out forms at the World Convention and increase the mail list that way. Also, he could announce in his letters that any member was welcome. The more forms the quicker a coherent group of informed members would come together. Since all would receive the monthly letter, and all would be welcome to input to the letter it would become a communication system. He finally fell to sleep on the plane exhausted but hopeful. He prayed that the dream was real and that in time all the good dreams N.A. had brought him would come true - for himself and the many the others like him.

*** *** *** ***

Back home he hugged his wife and shared with her the great news. He had been put in a position where he could help others as Greg had helped him. The scale was Fellowship wide which meant world wide. There weren't that many members and groups overseas but there were a few and all would truly be welcomed to participate in the work. It exhilarated him even to think of it. The reality was overwhelming.

He kissed his little son who was now four years old. He had greeted this little baby into life clean and watched him grow into a real little person who could walk and talk. The Book was like this. He knew the material would be rough at first and that there may be troublesome procedures ahead to deal with but the idea was transforming into a reality, and would grow like a child until it could take care of itself. He swung the baby into the air and hugged him tightly. He put his other arm around his wife and they settled down for his first night home. They had a simple dinner and went to the local N.A. meeting.

He shared the events of the Conference with a few of the members after the meeting. It was good to be home and so many ideas were waiting to be put into action.

The next day, he cut and coated some plywood to make signs for his customers. He loved his work and the freedom it allowed him. While the boards were drying, he made patterns for the jobs on hand, and when the wood panels were dry, began lettering them. He made good money when he worked. As much as a hundred dollars an hour. Some jobs were only thirty or forty. The trouble with the business was receiving enough work to stay busy. The down time between jobs kept his business small. While he worked, he dreamed some more good things for the Fellowship occasionally stopping to write his thoughts down so they wouldn't be lost to poor memory. There was an incredible succession of ideas coming to him. His prayers for strength and guidance seemed to be working overtime.

In the evenings following the Conference, he planned a letter announcing the progress and plans of the World Literature Committee to be published by the Office to the Fellowship. It included an announcement of the upcoming Wichita Conference.

A few weeks later a girl came up to him after the meeting and made amends to him. She said she had overheard him talking about the Book. It had infuriated her to hear him talking about doing this and doing that as if he were in charge of the project! She had gone to Tommy who now served as chairman of the World Service Conference and complained about his behavior. Tommy had told her that Bo was only doing his job. She didn't know what a 'World Literature Chair' was. The Conference was so new! Bo thanked Laura and told her he knew how she felt. He explained that he had done everything procedurally correct and would continue to do so to the best of his ability.

One thing Bo had to initiate was a local literature committee. He had served as Atlanta Lit Chair for a few years but the committee had not been writing. They had been maintaining a growing stockpile of literature to serve the growing needs of Georgia and neighboring states. Now members supported a series of local meetings to study and write new material.

As the World Convention date grew closer, members down in the city were complaining about all the committee time they were having to put in. By June, it was so dramatic that the ASC meeting was moved to Tuesday night at 6:30 with an 8:00 N.A. meeting. ASC's take several hours in the best of times and members from Marietta and other outlying groups had to drive through rush hour traffic to make the meeting. The members who had voted for the change from Sunday morning to Tuesday weren't even showing up. To make things worse, they had others attend the meetings to prevent those who did show up from voting the meeting back to the weekends. Groups were suffering in several instances and after several months of this, the Marietta groups decided to form their own Area. Those who had moved the Atlanta ASC to Tuesday night called this disunity and politics even though Bo and others continued to attend both ASC meetings. It was the energy surrounding the World Convention.

It took Bo years to realize that the service positions offered in N.A. were about the only prestigious opportunity to hold office and do something worthwhile that some members ever had. They hadn't been on TV a lot, gone to college and other things which might offset this. It took a lot of energy for them to learn the things they had to do to fulfill their service commitment. Even simple things like typing minutes and making a flyer can be scary if you've never done them. How about maintaining order in a room of fifty recovering addicts attending a service committee?

Mark M., the former lit chair, wrote Bo a nine page letter. He encouraged Bo to do whatever he could to get the Basic Text effort off the ground. He said the worse thing would be to do nothing at all. He elaborated how hard it had been over the years in California to get anything going. He enumerated the difficulties the committee had faced over the last year, especially after the Office stopped giving out their address. He left nothing to the imagination in giving every positive reason for the work to go forward. Even Bo who was used to writing, not receiving, such letters, was impressed. It touched him deeply to receive such a letter from the former chair of a committee that was described to him as a wolf pack by people he still trusted. He renewed his prayers to be worthy. All this was going on while the World Convention grew closer.



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