Remember during the holiday season, we need not “avoid a place where there is drinking, if we have a legitimate reason to be there.” page 101, Working with Others, The Big Book
Step 11
Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God and we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Questions adapted from Page 86-87 of the Big Book:
Have I paused to consider the 24 hours ahead and clear my motives?
Am I asking for freedom for self-pity, dishonesty, or self-seeking motives before making my plans?
Am I carefully avoiding praying for my own selfish ends?
Am I remembering to pray only for knowledge of God’s will and the power to carry it out?
When faced with indecision, did I remember to pause and ask for an intuitive thought or decision rather than struggle?
Deeper reflections:
How has my understanding of a Higher Power changed since the first time I did Step 2?
What is the practical difference between a religious path and a spiritual one for me?
What specific blocks or barriers keep me from praying or meditating regularly?
What usually happens when I try to run the show on my own self-will versus when I surrender to a higher plan?
What does “conscious contact” feel like to me in my daily life?
Meeting Notes and News
Meeting ended: Eye Closers, Mondays at 6:30PM has ended. The space is available for another meeting.
New Meeting: First Step Group, Thursdays at noon, Galieian Lutheran Church, 3404 Hwy 51., LaPlace, 70068
Little Red Book Study still exists despite disappearing from the website for a little while. It is Thursdays at 5:30PM, Carrollton United Methodist Church, 921 S. Carrollton Ave., New Orleans.
New Meeting in Norco: Norco Noon, Mondays at Noon, First Baptist Church, 626 5th St., Norco, LA.
Imagine Recovery has moved to 1476 Magazine St.
132 Group & Up & At ‘Em moved to new Imagine Recovery Location.
Open on Sundays & BYOB have moved to St. Francis of Assis, 631 State St.
Tradition 11
Short Form: Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need aways maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
Long Form: Our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think AA ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as AA members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us.
Tradition Check list from the Grapevine:
Do I sometimes promote AA so fanatically that I might make it seem unattractive?
Am I always careful to keep the confidences shared with me as an AA member?
Am I careful about throwing AA members’ names around - even within the Fellowship?
Am I ashamed of being a recovered, or recovering alcoholic?
What would AA be like if we were not guided by the ideas in Tradition Eleven? Where would I be?
Am I careful not to identify myself or others as members of AA when I post certain things on social media?
Is my AA sobriety attractive enough that a sick drunk would want such a quality for himself?
If my group has its own website, have we considered this Tradition when we designed it, how accessible it is, and the type of content that it offers?
Service Board Notes - October
Service Board of Trustees Resigns
The Service Board Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer, read a prepared statement, resigned, and exited the meeting. The AltChair stepped in to run the meeting. We are having meetings to replace those positions Monday, November 30. Please come and bring a friend.
Office Manager
A motion was made and approved that the office manager’s salary be raised from $17 to the previously approved position salary of $19, with the possibility of back pay being added to the agenda for the next meeting.
Committee Information
Pi/CPC meets the first Monday of the month on the Service Board zoom account at 6PM.
Structures and Procedures Committee meets the first Thursday of the month on the Service Board zoom account at 6PM.
Convention and Committee News
Big Deep South 2027 committee meets the first Wednesday of the month at 6200 Camphor St. In November they will be choosing the art work that will accompany the theme, “from steerage to captain’s table” (page 17 of the Big Book). Anyone may submit art but only committee members can vote on what will be chosen.
Committee Chair positions currently open are: entertainment, marathon meetings, raffle/auction, and scholarships.
dAAy in the Park’s event was was a smashing success despite light rain during part of it.
Thanksgiving Day Trivia
Trivia for the month of Thanksgiving:
What is a male turkey called? A female turkey?
Which state produces the most cranberries?
What is the proper name for a pilgrim hat?
How long is the Marcy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
What is the proper name for the “horn of plenty” often associated with Thanksgiving Day?
Answers provided in next month’s bulletin.
Answers from last month’s Trivia Questions:
What is the Celtic Festival that Halloween is based on? How was it celebrated? Samhain was a Celtic tradition that celebrated the end of summer and the harvest season, marking the transition from the light half of the year to the dark half of the year. Thought exactly how remains lost to history, it is recorded in the earliest known Irish literature, from the 9th Century, and was connected to great gatherings, feasting, and bonfires.
What was the original purpose of the jack ‘o’ lantern? The use of a hallowed out gourd to carry home part of the bonfire of Samhain was both practical; it lit the way home, and spiritual, as all the fires in the house would be lit from this fire to carry part of the blessing of the bonfire into the dark part of the year. Pumpkins are native to North and Central America, and so would not have been used in classic Celtic ceremonies since they had not been discovered by Europeans yet.
What is the average number of seeds in a pumpkin? The average pumpkin has an average number of 500 seeds.
Who was the original “scream queen” in the first Halloween movie? Jamie Lee Curtis plays Laurie Strode, a high school student and babysitter in the original film. The character is considered a influential example of a “final girl” or “survivor girl”.
Concept 11
Short Form: The trustees should always have the best possible committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants. Composition, qualification, induction procedures, and rights and duties will always be matters of serious concern.
Long Form: While the Trustees hold final responsibility for AA’s world service administration, they should always have the assistance of the best possible standing committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants. Therefore the composition of these underlying committees and service boards, the personal qualifications of their members the manner of their induction into service, the systems of their rotation, the way in which they are related to each other, the special rights and duties of our executives, staffs, and consultants, together with a proper basis for the financial compensation of these special workers, will always be matters for series care and concern.
Concepts Questions, part of Service Material from the General Service Office, Concepts Checklist:
Do we understand how the roles of non-trustee directors and non-trustee appointed committee members help serve and strengthen the committee system?
How do we encourage our special paid workers to exercise their traditional “Right to Participate”?
Do we practice rotation in all our service positions?
Central Office Report
Central Office hasn’t burned down yet. The bills are being paid and literature is being bought.
Volunteers Needed: We need volunteers for many shifts, mostly afternoon shifts from 2pm-5pm. If you are interested please email us at office@AANewOrleans.org or call us during business hours at 504.836.0507. Thanks for thinking about taking action.
New Item: We have the new Service Manuals. They are on sale for $8 here at Central Office. Come and get one today. We have launched the newcomer Big Book bundle. It contains a soft cover Big Book, bookmarks, stickers, and other items. It sells for $20 starting in November. The item launched at dAAy in the Park.
Amends: We realized that some meetings were not getting credit for their donations. We eventually found where these donations were recorded and sent out a special apology email listing all the meetings and thanking them. If your meeting was included on this list thank you for your patience as we worked through the problem.
Website Progress
The website is up and running successfully. There are a few technical glitches when the Meeting App (a.k.a. the Chair App) scrubs our data, and we are working to communicate with the app managers about it. It is primarily for new Speaker meetings and Meditation meetings. Because of the first two letters, sometimes they are getting listed as Spanish meetings and Men’s meetings respectively.
OPP Application: We have added the Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) application to enter the prison to our website. It can be found under the service tab Corrections, at the very bottom of the page.