Hello fellow trusted servants – it is a great month to be a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous. I am happy with the work being done in our district by our committee chairs, GSR and district elected. We are trying our best to make meaningful contributions to AA in the Snoqualmie Valley, support our great groups, and have fun. We invited Derek N to our April District meeting and he gave a great presentation on the 7th tradition and how our group contributions are used by Area and GSO. He answered questions from the floor, and we all appreciate Derek taking the time to come to beautiful Fall City for the District meeting. We ended the meeting talking about our open Chair positions. We still would like to fill positions for Accessibility, CPC/PI, Treatment/BTG, 3rd Legacy, and Alternate DCM. I talked about the importance of the work the district does for these areas and my concern that we are could be missing out on opportunities. This kicked off a lively discussion about 3rd Legacy and how we can reach out to members about general service. Some ideas: make a fun presentation on general service, get a captive audience (picnic or gratitude dinner), go to groups with 3rd Legacy presentation, and figure out how to simplify our explanation on what we do for general service. I was amazed and impressed by the numerous people that had the same concern as me and how good the ideas were. Each time I believe that I am the only concerned about an issue facing our district I am quickly disabused of that by the many people who are willing and ready to help.
I attended a new to me District 36 meeting recently and was invited to sit on their business meeting. First off, the meeting was fantastic with meaningful solution-based AA sharing. I was impressed (as a I always am) with the quality and depth of shares at our meetings. I always hear just what I need and love the candid, honest, and heartful stories from members. There was a new person who said they only had a few days of sobriety. During a share, another person turned to them and told them they are the most important person in the room and my heart melted. I am so glad that there was a chair for that alcoholic just like there was a chair for me 18 years ago when I stumbled into my first AA meeting. Hurt, confused, and scared, I didn’t know there were people who cared about me and would help me just because I told them I was an alcoholic. One of the topics of their business meeting was that they were currently low on Big Books (they gave one to the new person along with a schedule and list of phone numbers). They had to get more to keep in the sturdy plastic tub in the main room. I immediately thought “what a great problem to have – we are running out of Big Books because we keep giving them away.” I left knowing I had another great treatment for my disease and that AA outside my regular meetings is alive and well. Thank you, Snoqualmie Friday Night!
Yours in Service,
Mike L.
