Welcome to AA Member Zone
This section contains information and updates intended for AA members.
Available Service Positions
- Intergroup Secretary
- Saturday’s Greeter
- Friday’s Greeter
- Thursday’s Greeter
- Wednesday’s Greeter
Sobriety counter
Daily Reflections
Big Book
WAR FEVER ran high in the New England town to which we new, young officers from Plattsburg were assigned, and we were flattered when the first citizens took us to their homes, making us feel heroic. Here was love, applause, war; moments sublime with intervals hilarious. I was part of life at last, and in the midst of the excitement I discovered liquor. forgot the strong warnings and the prejudices of my people concerning drink. In time we sailed for “Over There.’’ I was very lonely and again turned to alcohol.
We landed in England. I visited Winchester Cathedral. Much moved, I wandered outside. My attention was caught by a doggerel on an old tombstone: “Here lies a Hampshire Grenadier Who caught his death Drinking cold small beer.
A good soldier is ne’er forgot Whether he dieth by musket Or by pot.” Ominous warning—which I failed to heed.
Twenty-two, and a veteran of foreign wars, I went home at last. I fancied myself a leader, for had not the men of my battery given me a special token of appreciation? My talent for leadership, I imagined, would place me at the head of vast enterprises which I would manage with the utmost assurance.
The Language of the Heart
In the summer of 1944, Alcoholics Anonymous was experiencing phenomenal growth. AA’s leadership still lay primarily in the hands of its founding members, and from one tiny office in New York City, Bill W. and a few others sought to keep up with a nearly overwhelming surge in membership. The Jack Alexander article, published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1941, had caused AA’s numbers to grow from 2,000 to 8,000 by the end of that year. By 1950, the membership would swell to more than 96,000, and the number of groups would jump from about 500 in 1944 to 3,500 in 1950. In tandem with this upsurge within the Fellowship, many nonalcoholics in medicine, religion, and the media were becoming aware of AA as a solution for seemingly hopeless alcoholics, and were clamoring for information and answers about AA’s policies.
The flood of letters pouring into AA’s small Headquarters office, along with the experience gleaned from visits to groups all over North America, clarified for Bill and the other founding members the principles that seemed to enhance group unity, as well as those that often led to conflict. Faced with growth and challenges from within and without, Bill was fully aware that the new Fellowship could easily founder under the