Hello D20 leaders,
First, thank you for your service to AA.
I found that you have created a District 20 webpage and have discussed this page with our Area Officers. I have always been a huge proponent of Districts, andeven groups, creating their own webpages to help carry AAs message. Think of the digital footprint we would have if even half our groups in Area 11 followed thispath. This said, when we create these webpages, we must be reminded that we are doing so in service to Alcoholics Anonymous and should follow AA Traditionswhen building these pages. These webpages are both inward and outward facing service tools for us and we should always keep our principles in mind. I have anumber of concerns on the current D20 page; these concerns include but are not limited to:
– The pictures on the home page of individual faces are inappropriate. We must protect our members anonymity and make it known to our members what isappropriate by setting the example. I understand that these pictures may not be from actual AA meetings however the important point is that we don’t publicize theindividual members of AA. It is the collective message of AA which we use to attract new members.
– Linking to AA speakers. Again, we seem to be putting an emphasis on individual members, and not the groups. I loved listening to speaker tapes when I was newand understand there are resources to find these messages. However, we shouldn’t be posting circuit speakers on our District pages and in some instances listingtheir full names.
-Addiction and Recovery songs. Again, this is inappropriate for an AA group to link to. These are not AA approved and the full names of the artists are included.
-Guided meditations. See above.
-Linking to non-AA literature. Our 5th Tradition talks about singleness of purpose and our 6th Tradition clarifies that
While an A.A. group may cooperate withanyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied.
The information provided on our websites should stick to AAapproved resources.
The 7th Tradition Contribution link reads: How to Donate. To be clear we do not accept donations from outside entities. We are self-supporting through the contributions of our members. There is an important, although, subtle difference between asking for donations vs contributions.
– This same contributions page lists what appears to be a full name of an AA member’s Venmo Acct. This should be removed immediately as we don’t use FullNames in public forums.
– 4thStep Inventory Suggestions in the Resource section. I’m not sure what this is from however this is not AA approved. It appears to be one member’s directions. And to be clear this is fine for an individual sponsor to have guidelines and helpful tools they use with their sponsees. However, this is not something weshould post on our District pages.
Cross Talk section – Same comment from above.
I could go on with some more examples however hopefully this helps.
For now, I am going to have this D20 webpage removed from CT-AA.org until the web page is a better representation of AAs principals.
I encourage District 20 to work together to develop a page which is helpful to AA members in our rooms along with those who have not found us yet. We also need to understand that these pages are used by professionals who may be looking to get an understandingof our program.
I would be happy to discuss on a phone call. You can call/text me with any questions or if you’d like to chat.
Thanks again for your service.
Chairperson
Area 11 General Service Committee
860-608-3365
www.ct-aa.org
D20 Reply:
Mon 6/10/2024 11:58 PM
Our website is the result of an exhaustive study of our primary purpose and the A.A. principals, traditions and Service Manual. You may agree that the traditions and principles are not mathematical formulas and as such are subject to interpretation. I have been to literally hundreds of meetings on anonymity and no one has ever been told his opinion on the topic was wrong. Area 11 obviously has different interpretations of the A.A. principles and traditions than District 20 and we respect that.
- Pictures of individuals on the home page: These pictures are stock pictures. The photographers used models, so there has been no violation of A.A. members’ anonymity. We have added an explanation of that to the website so there is no confusion.
- The speaker tapes: Speakers at conferences are individuals who regularly tell their stories to large audiences in open meetings. Some publicly use their names.
- Linking to non-AA approved songs, meditations and literature: Using the Twenty- Four Hours A Day book in A.A. meetings has been controversial as long as I have been in A.A. A.A., in SMF-29, says “The term “Conference-approved” describes written or audiovisual material approved by the Conference for publication by G.S.O.” The conference never reads books to approve or disapprove them for use by A.A. local groups. When putting together the Daily Readings page, we did further research on this and found the following, which is posted on our website: https://d20a11.org/the-24-hours-a-day-book-is-aa-approved/
- For Area 11, the songs and meditations violate A.A.’s principle of anonymity. For District 20, the singers have all described their addictions and/or recovery in their songs, choosing for themselves to go public. Furthermore, none of them mention A.A., an important point. There are no names or references to A.A. used in the meditations. We included the songs and meditations in the spirit of attraction rather than promotion, hoping prospective members will get a glimpse of the joy many of us get from A.A. daily.
- You also mention that our treasurer has used her full name in her Venmo account. As is her right, she made the decision to use her name and is comfortable with that.
- The 4th Step Inventory Suggestions and cross-talk pages are both clearly suggestions; not A.A. policy or doctrine.
- A.A. uses the word “contributions” instead of “donations”, so, we have made that change.