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Opportunity abounds for Eastern Massachusetts AA members who are interested in participating in service activity beyond their home group. The General Service Committee of Eastern Massachusetts, Area 30, supports the work of several varied committees, some whose reports can be read below. A complete list of Conference and Standing committees, with a brief description of the purpose of each, is located on the CONTACTS page of this website. Please consider making yourself available to help out where you can. All members of Alcoholics Anonymous are welcome.
The Delegate works closely with the Alternate Delegate and Area Chairperson, oftentimes attending the same events (including the Committee meetings, Area Assemblies, Northeast Regional AA Service Assembly, Northeast Regional Delegates Meeting, Massachusetts State Convention, and Northeast Regional Forum). Within Eastern Massachusetts, the Delegate is a voting member on the Area 30 Finance Committee. As a voting member of the General Service Conference (GSC), the Delegate brings to its deliberations the experiences and viewpoints of Eastern Massachusetts. Yet the Delegate is not a representative of Area 30 in the usual political sense; after hearing all points of view and becoming fully informed during GSC discussion, the Delegate votes in the best interests of AA as a whole. More Info Following the GSC, the respective Delegates report back to their Areas on actions taken and recommendations offered. Thus, the Delegate serves primarily as a conduit between Area 30 and AA as a whole. Notwithstanding, the Delegate keeps the Alternate Delegate fully informed and active, so that the Alternate can succeed the Delegate, if warranted.
Contact: delegate@aaemass.org
Alternate Delegate The Alternate Delegate works closely with the Area Delegate, oftentimes attending the same events as the Area Delegate (including the Northeast Regional AA Service Assembly, Northeast Regional Delegates Meeting, Massachusetts State Convention, and Northeast Regional Forum) with the exception of the General Service Conference, and is prepared to serve as Delegate, if necessary. The Alternate Delegate also serves on the Massachusetts State Convention Planning Committee as the Program Co-Chair in their first year and as Program Chair in their second year. In addition, the Alternate Delegate may perform some special functions of the Area Committee. In recent years, the Alternate Delegate has planned and organized a self-supporting bus trip to the General Service Office in New York.
Otherwise, the
Alternate Delegate serves Area 30 as a voting member of the
Finance Committee, and as liaison to other AA entities upon
request. Contact: altdelegate@aaemass.org. Archives Whenever a society or civilization perishes there is always one condition present; they forgot where they came from. – Carl Sandburg
The Archives Committee is charged with collecting, preserving, and presenting materials of historical interest to Alcoholics Anonymous. We invite you to join us as we continue our efforts to uncover and celebrate the history of AA in Eastern Massachusetts.
A preliminary list of the responsibilities ahead includes:
Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, we invite men and women who have lived our History to share it with us so that future members might benefit from your considerable Experience, Strength, & Hope. We’ll be happy to make mutually agreeable arrangements to meet. The Area 30 Archives Committee meets at 7:30pm on the 3rd Thursday of every month at St. John’s Church, 80 Mt. Auburn St., Watertown. There are lots of old & new ideas for us to discuss; some of them will be implemented. All AA members are needed & welcome.
Watch this page for reports on progress and plans for the future!
Contact: archives@aaemass.org Area Secretary The Secretary is responsible for taking the minutes at the monthly area committee meetings, the area assemblies, and the area finance committee meetings and for distributing those minutes to the area officers, committee chairs, DCMs and the assembly attendees who choose to receive a copy of them. The Area Registrar maintains a list of the recipients. Minutes are emailed to those who provide an email address, as per the Area group conscience. The Secretary also serves as a conduit for information to and from the area officers and committee chairs. The Alternate Secretary is responsible for gathering reports from conference and standing committees, for sending a copy of the minutes to anyone without email access, and for assisting the Secretary in his duties. The Alternate stands ready to step in for the Secretary should the need arise. Contact secretary@aaemass.org for further information. Corrections
We are currently asking AA’s who are interested in being included on a 12-step call list to serve as contact points for those getting out of prison to contact Boston Central Service for particulars. It is our hope that we will be able to develop a program similar to the “Bridging the Gap” program currently managed by the Treatment Facilities committee. If you or your
group is currently carrying the message into a correctional facility,
please contact us if you have a chance. We hope to be able to
accurately estimate the population we are reaching. Contact: cf@aaemass.org. Cooperation
with the Professional Community Adopt a Doctor Program Want more information about what we do and how you can help? Write us at cpc@aaemass.org (type “CPC Efforts” in the subject heading).Contact: CPC@aaemass.org Grapevine Contact: grapevine@aaemass.org. Joint Treatment Facilities The Joint* Treatment Facilities Committee continues its outreach to the Spanish-speaking community and hopes to add a Spanish language, toll-free Bridging the Gap telephone number, which will be facilitated by a sought-after Spanish-speaking coordinator. Three committee members recently attended the Southern New Jersey, Area 45 Annual Corrections/Treatment workshop, from which they brought shared experiences and new ideas for our committee. Our annual inventory is scheduled for the December meeting; we plan to set goals for 2007. We continue to be available to outreach to Districts to inform them about our work and the Bridging the Gap program, a means of “bridging the gap” from a treatment facility to an A.A. group in the individual’s community. Due
to rotation, the committee currently has openings for Secretary,
Calendar Coordinator, and Alternate Treatment Facilities Committee
Chair/ Bridging the Gap Coordinator. Contact treatment@aaemass.org
for information. Contact: treatment@aaemass.org. Literature In addition to our committee’s purpose and goals listed on the CONTACTS page of this website, we use the time at our meeting to review current conference-approved and locally developed literature in order to be able to let the membership know what is available and to assure that the message is consistent with the principles of our Steps and Traditions. We answer inquiries requesting information on various topics and provide possible sources of information. Our goal is to inform the membership of the tools available for our own recovery as well as to carry the message to others. Contact: literature@aaemass.org Messenger The
Area 30 Messenger Committee publishes a newsletter, The Messenger, five
times a year. It is available at all Area Assemblies and through the
service structure at the many, varied committee meetings, schedules for
which are posted elsewhere on this site. The Messenger contains news,
stories, and special events going on in Eastern
Massachusetts.
Submissions are welcome and may be emailed to messenger@aaemass.org.
Please include your confidential contact information. Contact: messenger@aaemass.org Public Information Committee
What is Public Information work and Why Should A.A.s Do It? In all public relations, A.A.’s sole objective is to help the still suffering alcoholic. Always mindful of the importance of personal anonymity we believe this can be done by making known to him, and to those who may be interested in his problems, our own experience as individuals and as a Fellowship in learning to live without alcohol. We believe that our experience should be made available freely to all who express sincere interest. We believe further that all efforts in this field should always reflect our gratitude for the gift of sobriety and our awareness that many outside A.A. are equally concerned with the serious problem of alcoholism. As our co-founder Bill W. wrote: Public Information takes many forms – the simple sign outside a meeting place that says “A.A. meeting tonight;” listing in local phone directories; distribution of A.A. literature; and radio and television shows using sophisticated media techniques. Whatever the form, it comes down to “one drunk carrying the message to another drunk,” whether through personal contact or through the use of third parties and the media. For those A.A. members who decide to speak about A.A. at a non-A.A. meeting….you assume a serious responsibility. Even though you are careful to explain that you are not speaking for A.A. as a whole, many members of the audience will base their good or bad opinion of the Fellowship on what is said and how it is said. The reaction of nonalcoholic listeners and their consequent referring or failure to refer alcoholics to A.A. may someday mean the difference between life and death to still-suffering alcoholics. Contact: pi@aaemass.org.
Registrar
We are here to assist with the Registration process. Contact: registrar@aaemass.org.
Special Needs This committee is looking to create a meeting list of fully handicap-accessible meetings (ask us what we mean) so that disabled AA members will be able to access various meetings. We are also looking for AA members who can use American Sign Language (ASL) to translate for deaf or hard of hearing alcoholics at local meetings. Further, we would like to know who the AA members are who are willing to take a meeting to homebound or hospitalized AA's. Please feel free to contact our committee for more information and/or suggestions. Contact: specialneeds@aaemass.org.
*Joint committees: Three committees currently function as joint committees here in Eastern Massachusetts: the Joint Correctional Facilities Committee, the Joint Public Information Committee, and the Joint Treatment Facilities Committee. In the spirit of cooperation, the Boston Central Service Committee (Intergroup) and the Eastern Massachusetts General Service Committee work together to support these committees whose purposes are to carry the message hope of recovery from alcoholism to those who may be interested in Alcoholics Anonymous.
Why Service? The following excerpt is from Dr. Bob’s final message delivered at the first International Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous at Cleveland, Ohio in 1950:
Our Twelve Steps, when simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into the words ‘love’ and ‘service’. We understand what love is and we understand what service is. So let's bear those two things in mind. Reprinted from Pass It On: The story of Bill Wilson and how the A.A. message reached the world, ©1984, pp. 339-342, with permission of AA World Services, Inc.
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I get a big thrill out of
looking over a vast sea of faces like this with a feeling that possibly
some small thing I did a number of years ago played an infinitely small
part in making this meeting possible…There are two or three
things which flashed into my mind on which it would be fitting to lay a
little emphasis. One is the simplicity of our program. Let’s
not louse it up with…complexes and things
that…have very little to do with our actual A.A. work.