The General Service Conference: Sharing the Topics With Your Group
One of my fall-back traits is contempt prior to investigation (CPtI). Ray C brought this quote, attributed to Voltaire or Shakespeare, to our March 2025 (Issue 75.02) attention in his story, The Artist’s Concept, from the first edition. He led off his story with the quote, which
was later included at the end of the Spiritual Experience, Appendix III, pg 166, in the Plain Language Big Book. Ray designed the red and yellow cover for the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. His story is also collected in the book Experience, Strength and Hope. Due to my CPtI, I tended to “dislike new ideas before [I] knew anything about them.” I could barely listen in my early sobriety to
trusted servants as they shared the topics for the General Service Conference.
I’ll take full responsibility for my slow arc in service, becoming GSR and then DCM ten years into sobriety. That slow arc gave me time to trust another alcoholic or two. A recent A.A. Grapevine Daily Quote reminded me how my sponsor would talk me through my CPtI about service topics, much like they would when I was in my early days of sobriety. “Empathy, not sympathy or pity, is the most useful quality a sponsor can cultivate.” (from District 34, Bellevue January 1975, “Need a
sponsor? Who? Me?” reposted on AA GV app February 11, 2025).
My sponsor fortunately had more time and patience than I did. By his example, I attended business
meetings, even when I wasn’t mentally present. My sponsor is invaluable for discussing the topics themselves, how to talk about them, their background, so that I can be better engaged in the process. As I gathered the courage to ask questions about the process, my sponsor explained, listened, and endeavored to take personalities out
of the equation. In general, he helped me ease past my CPtI.
At the recent Grapevine/Literature Quarterly, a member asked for background on changes to literature. I was personally vested in changes to language in the Twelve Steps and
Twelve Traditions a few years back, and enjoyed being able to dive deep into the machinations A.A. went through to publish and then to not un-publish the book. The GSC preconference material our Delegate makes available has a wealth of information. When I find even one topic that catches my interest enough, I can then talk about the process, where the topic came from, what kind
of input our Delegate is seeking. Read over what our Delegate provides. If a topic piques my interest, and I do more research, then it might be an engaging topic for someone
else. The upside down triangle might begin to make sense. Leading up to the GV/Lit Quarterly, I focused intently on information about the Grapevine, only to be gobsmacked
when a rep asked about the Literature Handbook. “What? There’s a literature handbook as well as a
Grapevine Handbook?!” We are all volunteers, and we are teaching each other. Empathetically, we helped each other stay sober one day at a time; now in service, I learn how to be useful one day at a time, with empathy, not sympathy or pity.
Jack J
grapevine@area72aa.org
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