April 26 in A.A. History

1939: Bill and Lois W. were forced to leave their home at 182 Clinton Street [right, c. 1940] in Brooklyn, where they had lived since May 1933, when Lois’s father remarried and moved out following her mother’s death. The bank held a mortgage but, preferring to have the property occupied rather than empty, had allowed them to stay on a month-to-month basis for a “nominal” payment of $20 [~$508 in 2026]. With the Great Depression loosening its grip, however, foreclosure restrictions had eased, allowing the bank to foreclose and sell the building. This was a difficult blow for Lois, who had lived there her whole life.
    With no place to keep their belongings, most went into storage. As Bill later remarked, “There wasn’t enough money to even get our goods into storage. We had to go on the cuff [on credit] with the drayman [wagon driver].”
    With nowhere to live, Bill and Lois moved in with Hank and Kathleen P. in Montclair, New Jersey. Lois's terse diary entry simply reads, “Left 182 for good. Went to P―― [sic].” This would be just the first of over 50 temporary homes in which they would live over the next two years.
    In her memoir, Lois Remembers, Lois noted that “soon after we left Clinton Street, Hank and Kathleen started holding Sunday meetings at their new home.” This was a clear sign that the A.A. movement was still alive and growing, even though Bill remarked of their ouster, “So climaxed four years of Alcoholics Anonymous,” suggesting a difficult turning point.
    A few days later, Bill and Lois moved again, this time to a remote bungalow in rural Green Pond, New Jersey. Lois’s diary entries, many of which are included in her memoir, suggest that this stay was one of her happiest times during Bill’s first five years of sobriety.

1958: The first International Convention of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (ICYPAA—which defined “young people” as individuals under 40 — opened at the Hotel Niagara [left, c. 1930s] in Niagara Falls, New York. The A.A. Exchange Bulletin (precursor to Box 4-5-9) explained that its purpose was…  

to provide delegates with a thorough rundown of the application of our A.A. program to the individual difficulties encountered by young people in dealing not only with alcoholism but also with the other problems peculiar to their generation.

1959: This Week magazine published “Don’t Tell Me I’m Not an Alcoholic” [near right: cover; far right: first 2 pages] by John Boit M., as told to Arthur Gordon.

1986: Bob P. [left], General Manager of the Alcoholics Anonymous’ General Service Office (GSO), delivered his farewell address at the closing brunch of the 36th General Service Conference at the Hotel Roosevelt in New York City. This was his final conference before retirement, making the occasion particularly significant. The Final Report described his address as “a powerful and inspiring closing talk titled 'Our greatest danger: rigidity.'” His best-known comment from this talk was the following.

    If you were to ask me what is the greatest danger facing A.A. today, I would have to answer: the growing rigidity… And in this trend toward rigidity, we are drifting farther and farther away from our co-founders. Bill, in particular, must be spinning in his grave, for he was perhaps the most permissive person I ever met. One of his favorite sayings was, “Every group has the right to be wrong.” He was maddeningly tolerant of his critics…

Today in A.A. History—April 26–May 2

1981: The 31st General Service Conference was held at the Roosevelt Hotel [right, 2008] in New York City. Advisory Actions included:

• All future events such as the International Convention not be planned to operate on a deficit basis, and it was also recommended that all future events of this type be self-supporting.
• The suggestion to publish a pamphlet for the homosexual alcoholic be tabled [to] 1982.
• A footnote be added to Tradition Eight in the book “Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,” page 169, to update the job description of present-day G.S.O. staff members. The suggested footnote to read: [Their work has no counterpart in commercial organizations.]
• [That] The AA. Service Manual and Twelve Concepts for World Service be combined.

1987: The 37th General Service Conference was held at the Roosevelt Hotel [above right] in New York City. There were two significant sets of presentations addressing internal concerns that had arisen out of the 36th GSC, with discussion following.
     The first set of presentations was titled “Right of Decision”:

1. “The Right of Decision Makes Effective Leadership Possible (Concept III),” which said, in part: 
       At last year’s Conference there seemed to be some doubt or feeling of unrest about… the trustee's report on the… Conference Committee. The scope of the Conference… Committee is to review and approve the agenda… make recommendations to the Conference for approval, disapproval, or amendment…
2. “The Principle of Mutual Trust (Tradition Two),” which said, in part:
       [Let us] reflect upon why we… have presentations at Conference after Conference questioning the trust or lack of trust between the different levels of A.A. service… It may… suggest that we are all to quick to become guarded or to doubt. Both… contribute to mistrust. Perhaps it is time for us… to be open with one another…
       The second set presentations, “The Use of Surveys in Making Conference Decisions,” included three talks, two by Area delegates and the third by a Class B trustee:
1. “PRO—Don't Surveys Help Take the Pulse of the FeIlowship?,”
2. “CON—Surveys Don’t Help in Making Conference Decisions,” and
3. “How Can Survey's be Utilized?”

    These grew out of criticism that the Conference may be avoiding its responsibility by recommending surveys of the membership to determine whether or not we should, for example, publish a soft-cover format of the Big Book or a daily reflections book.

2009: The 59th General Service Conference was held at the Crowne Plaza [left] Times Square in New York City. Advisory Actions included:

• the revised draft pamphlet, “For the Native North American,” be approved;
• the trustees' Literature Committee undertake a through review of the pamphlet, “Questions  and Answers on Sponsorship,” and eliminate or revise outmoded ethnic. cultural and vocational references;
• the title of the pamphlet, “44 Questions,” be changed to “Frequently Asked Questions About A.A.;”
• the General Service Board develop a procedure for the submission of Concept V minority appeals to the General Service Conference; and
• we develop Conference-approved literature that focuses on spirituality and includes stories from atheists and agnostics who are successfully sober in Alcoholics Anonymous.