PART 21 - The Opinion of AA World Services, Inc
I came across some copies of letters I had been sending these past two years and as I sat down to read them I thought to myself, "My God, my recovery was really messed up." I realised that the person who was writing those letters was upset, they were angry and also they were desperate. They were trying to resolve something that was important to them and they weren't getting anywhere.
I had been sending letters to AA World Services, Inc in New York. For some reason, they actually replied to my letters, sometimes going to considerable effort (3-4 pages of text) to answer my queries. That did impress me. (By way of contrast I had received a 3 line letter from Al-Anon WSO regarding my Concept V appeal and after that all my letters were ignored.) But even AA has its limits. I had no quarrel with AA (as such) and some of my letters were trying to find out how AA would have handled the situation. Ultimately, I now realise that the situation would never arise for the simple reason that nobody can be expelled from the AA fellowship.
Anyway, I received a letter from the Services Director of AA World Services, Inc dated February 26, 2001. The EXACT text is as follows:-
"I am the Services director at the General Service Office (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.), and, in that capacity, I manage the A.A. staff, including Ms. --- ------- who is currently assigned to the International Desk.
"Ms. ------- has made me aware of the extraordinary volume of correspondence that she receives from you concerning matters that are completely beyond the scope of our mission here. Without expressing any opinions regarding your apparently continuing difficulties with Al-Anon, as viewed from your perspective, there is clearly no service that A.A.W.S. can provide to you, and the time taken to respond to, or even to read, your correspondence, is the time all of us here must devote the to the still-suffering alcoholic who we are charged with serving. Consequently, neither --- nor anyone else here will be able to spend any more time communicating with you. Accordingly, I would ask that you discontinue copying us with the correspondence you send to Al-Anon, and discontinue any direct correspondence to anyone here, concerning you're Al-Anon difficulties. It is essential that we limit our activities to providing service to those who, directly or indirectly, carry the A.A.'s message of recovery to the still-suffering alcoholic - that's our primary purpose. I'm sure you will agree that any continued involvement of this office in the matters you have thus far brought to our attention, would constitute an unacceptable diversion from that primary purpose. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
Yours in Service
--- ------
Services Director
cc: Executive Director, Al-Anon Family Groups, USA
Associate Director, Al-Anon Family Groups, USA
General Secretary, Al-Anon Family Groups,
London"
That is the verbatim text. I highlighted in bold two mistakes in the letter. The phrase "must devote the to the still-suffering alcoholic" has the word "the" in it too many times. In addition the word "you're" is used in a grammatically incorrect manner - it should be "your". I mmerely point these out to show that the letter wasn't proof-read and the person's grasp of the English language was not perfect. This was symbolic of the fact that they also failed to grasp my problems with Al-Anon.
I have spoken to other AA members about my ban from Al-Anon and they said to try and find a group where I was welcome. The point is the Al-Anon groups are wrong and I cannot rest until this matter is sorted out. I mean, if Al-Anon groups can do what they like and they don't have to adhere to The Traditions then that is out of order - they do not enable recovery, all the groups do is carry the disease instead of the message. I suppose it depends on what you are prepared to put up with. If you are the sort of person who is happy being sloppy and allowing crap to happen, that is your choice. I'm not that sort of person.
Re-reading the AA letter I could also hear some stupid Al-Anon members say "a-ha! - so you've been banned from AA World Services Inc too!" Sigh... No, I haven't. The letter merely pointed out that they were not involved in my dispute with Al-Anon and they did not see how sending them correspondence about it was relevant. They had a good point. The letter also stated "in the matters you have thus far brought to our attention". By saying "thus far" the Services Director implied that unless I had something relevant to contact the International Desk of AA about, there was little point in communicating with them about Al-Anon. That was a fair point too.
The problem with Al-Anon WSO is that I have a Concept V appeal at the moment and I was trying to find out from the staff how to carry out my appeal and the Executive Director banned all communication. That was out of line. What was he afraid of anyway?...