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Notes from the DCM |
As this year ends and 2025 comes roaring in, let me take a moment to say thank you and welcome to all incoming GSRs, AGSRs, Committee Chairs, and our DCM and ADCM. Welcome to each of you. I know in this spirit of rotation our district will continue to thrive and grow with new ideas and suggestions coming with each of you.
Thank you to all committee chairs. Each of you represented and took part in your committee with the utmost respect and desire to flourish in our commitment of attraction rather than promotion. Each of you allowed me to share enthusiastically during assemblies and area events. You are all awesome and encouraging people.
Thank you to our groups GSRs and AGSRs. It was all of you who showed up that first Monday of each month with excitement to share your group’s activities and events. I am grateful for being part of your group’s wealth of knowledge. It was refreshing. I will say that district was never boring. Each of you brought a view and perspective, lighting up what sometimes looked like darkness. Thank you and I am grateful for each of you.
Hugs to our incoming DCM and ADCM. I know the road before you and I believe both of you are prepared for the adventure ahead. I know you are both ready and able to serve our district, honestly and humbly. Enjoy this part of the journey.
As DCM the past two years, I hope that I too have grown in my sobriety. As a member of this fellowship, it has been my honor to work with and represent Area 1 District 15. I appreciate the opportunities the groups offered me, whether it was participating in a group inventory, speaking at business meetings, attending someone’s home group, or showing up at a workshop preparation meeting. I cherish each of these things, and I am encouraged and ready for whatever is next. I am a better member of this fellowship and a more understanding person having served with each of you.
Having said all that, I love you all. Peace on earth begins with us.
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Happy, joyous, and free!
Jo |
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Significant December Dates in AA History |
Dec 11, 1934 - Bill admitted
to Towns Hosp 4th/last time |
Dec 1934 - Bill & Lois start
attending Oxford Group meetings. |
Dec 12, 1937 - Bill meets
with Rockefeller Foundation and tries to get
money |
Dec 13, 1937 - Rockland State
Mental Hospital takes patients to meeting in New
Jersey. |
Dec 1938 - Twelve Steps
written. |
Dec 6, 1939 - Bert the Tailor
lends Works Publishing $1000. |
Dec 20, 1945 - Rowland Hazard
dies (he carried the Oxford Group message to
Ebby). |
Dec 1948 - Dr. Bob's last
major talk. |
Dec 1950 - Grapevine article
signed by both Bill and Dr Bob recommend
establishing AA General Service Conference. |
Dec 1955 - 'Man on the Bed'
painting (originally called 'Came
to Believe'.) by Robert M. first appeared
in Grapevine. |
Dec 1982 - Nell Wing retires
from GSO after 35 years of service. |
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More About Alcoholism
MOST OF us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.
We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.
We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals—usually brief—were inevitably followedby still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.
We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn’t done so yet.
Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right- about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people!
Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums—we could increase the list ad infinitum.
p.30-31, Alcoholics Anonymous, Reprinted with permission of AA World Services
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