----- Original Message -----

From: Maryann Willis

To: gsowatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 6:51 AM

Subject: RE: [GSOwatch] Re: Charges of Corruption at Top of "AA Service Structure"

In

----- Original Message -----

From: Kohl

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:45 AM

Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Re: Charges of Corruption at Top of "AA Service Structure"

http://gsowatch.aamo.info/archive/002+003_gif_reproduction.pdf Tom & Seccion Mexico

 

http://gsowatch.aamo.info/tri/tri010.gif

http://gsowatch.aamo.info/tri/tri011.gif } To Tom Jasper

http://gsowatch.aamo.info/tri/tri012.gif

 

http://gsowatch.aamo.info/tri/tri013.gif

http://gsowatch.aamo.info/tri/tri014.gif } From Tom Jasper

http://gsowatch.aamo.info/tri/tri015.gif

 

http://gsowatch.aamo.info/archive/027_gif_reproduction.pdf Letter complaining about a Tom J letter regarding Seccion Mexico

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Maryann Willis

To: gsowatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:51 AM

Subject: RE: [GSOwatch] Re: Charges of Corruption at Top of "AA Service Structure"

In '91 we had a motion to take the "Merit Pay" out of the Service Manual.  He made the remark that they couldn't even pay payroll if we did.  Like the only thing permitting payroll was a line in the Service Manual?  When the group in Mexico wanted to pull away from the origional group, the first think he said was, "Sue the bastards".  This was his general attitude.  He was disliked by nearly all that I knew.  Personally, I wouldn't have trusted him with my pet frog.
 
Maryann
 

---

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com
From: bbfreeaa@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:38:09 +0000
Subject: [GSOwatch] Re: Charges of Corruption at Top of "AA Service Structure"

Jasper was noisy at times but he ran nothing. I have never heard anyone up there refer to him as honorable...just the opposite. All I knew about him before 2 years ago was anecdotal and none of it was good. The title he held was dissolved after he left because it was not a necessary position anyway...only a "holding pen", so to speak, to keep him away from the other stock.

B

--- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "johng12fellow" <johng12fellow@...> wrote:
>
> "One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally and what it cost us to "buy him out". If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would have barely made it in the black. This guy is nothing more than a whore and has stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques".....
>
> Bill, Tom Jasper ran the show for a long, long time.... this is the first that I have heard that he was anything but honorable.... please share your knowledge with us.
>
> Its fairly obvious that something has been very wrong for a very long time. The Delegates could do the obvious...... vote to get AAWS out of the publishing business. There is ample hard proof that others can do the job better, and at less than 1/3 the price. This has been true since 1992.
>
> The problem is not so much related to personalities as it is to principles..... GSBofAA et al Incorporated -- has no need to be in the business of publishing - never has. Just give it up. Place all the copyrights into the public domain.... one thing we know for sure is that GSBofAA has proved itself to be a bad custodian of what they possess, and has not only failed to safeguard the Big Book - it has in fact been the only publisher to change the book.
>
> Your charges of theft at the top add to reports of non-Jasper criminal activity at the top. Problems of money and power conflict with our Traditions --- we will all be better off if we follow them.
>
> Change starts with the actions of a single honest Delegate.
>
> John G.
>
>
> --- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "bbfreeaa" <bbfreeaa@> wrote:
> >
> > Hey Greg,
> >
> > The number one reason is the Pension Fund took a hit with the stock market collapse and they are mandated by law to keep it at certain levels. Contributions are up slightly but no where near enough to offset that mess.
> >
> > Also, Grapevine and, especially, La Vina continues to bleed AAWS dry. We talked here about the recently. They piss on the Traditions, sales go down and we keep feeding the "cancer".
> >
> > One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally and what it cost us to "buy him out". If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would have barely made it in the black. This guy is nothing more than a whore and has stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques that kept him from being fired. I could go on for hours about this cat. I don't know how people like him sleep at night.
> >
> > B
> >
> >
> > --- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "letslookattherecord" <Greg@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Group,
> > >
> > > I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will be increasing another $2.00. Has anyone got any more information?
> > >
> > > Greg
> > >
> >
>

---

Rediscover Hotmail®: Get quick friend updates right in your inbox. Check it out.

-----Original Message-----
From:

 Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 10:01 PM
To:  

 Subject: [GSOwatch] Inez Memorial revisited.

Hi Sherry:

    As is often the case, I've been working on the various websites we have an interest in.  Recently I've been working on the old OPPF newsletters -- making sure that they are converted to web format.  I just finished on that was highly focused on Inez.  I think you might like it.  http://oppf.aamo.info/oppf0905.html.

 

    The whole work in progress is at http://oppf.aamo.info but it still has a lot of fixes and additions to go yet.  I just received a whole bunch of back OPPF info that I'm going to have to go through...

 

Bless,

Norm

----- Original Message -----

From: hartsell

To:

Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 10:44 PM

Subject: RE:Thoughts for our delegates in mid-week of the Conference

Thank you Norm, my friend is missed by me---and BY many i'm certain.

sherry

 

.

----- Original Message -----

From: Maryann Willis

To: gsowatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:51 AM

Subject: RE: [GSOwatch] Re: Charges of Corruption at Top of "AA Service Structure"

In '91 we had a motion to take the "Merit Pay" out of the Service Manual.  He made the remark that they couldn't even pay payroll if we did.  Like the only thing permitting payroll was a line in the Service Manual?  When the group in Mexico wanted to pull away from the origional group, the first think he said was, "Sue the bastards".  This was his general attitude.  He was disliked by nearly all that I knew.  Personally, I wouldn't have trusted him with my pet frog.
 
Maryann
 

---

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com
From: bbfreeaa@...
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:38:09 +0000
Subject: [GSOwatch] Re: Charges of Corruption at Top of "AA Service Structure"

Jasper was noisy at times but he ran nothing. I have never heard anyone up there refer to him as honorable...just the opposite. All I knew about him before 2 years ago was anecdotal and none of it was good. The title he held was dissolved after he left because it was not a necessary position anyway...only a "holding pen", so to speak, to keep him away from the other stock.

B

--- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "johng12fellow" <johng12fellow@...> wrote:
>
> "One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally and what it cost us to "buy him out". If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would have barely made it in the black. This guy is nothing more than a whore and has stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques".....
>
> Bill, Tom Jasper ran the show for a long, long time.... this is the first that I have heard that he was anything but honorable.... please share your knowledge with us.
>
> Its fairly obvious that something has been very wrong for a very long time. The Delegates could do the obvious...... vote to get AAWS out of the publishing business. There is ample hard proof that others can do the job better, and at less than 1/3 the price. This has been true since 1992.
>
> The problem is not so much related to personalities as it is to principles..... GSBofAA et al Incorporated -- has no need to be in the business of publishing - never has. Just give it up. Place all the copyrights into the public domain.... one thing we know for sure is that GSBofAA has proved itself to be a bad custodian of what they possess, and has not only failed to safeguard the Big Book - it has in fact been the only publisher to change the book.
>
> Your charges of theft at the top add to reports of non-Jasper criminal activity at the top. Problems of money and power conflict with our Traditions --- we will all be better off if we follow them.
>
> Change starts with the actions of a single honest Delegate.
>
> John G.
>
>
> --- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "bbfreeaa" <bbfreeaa@> wrote:
> >
> > Hey Greg,
> >
> > The number one reason is the Pension Fund took a hit with the stock market collapse and they are mandated by law to keep it at certain levels. Contributions are up slightly but no where near enough to offset that mess.
> >
> > Also, Grapevine and, especially, La Vina continues to bleed AAWS dry. We talked here about the recently. They piss on the Traditions, sales go down and we keep feeding the "cancer".
> >
> > One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally and what it cost us to "buy him out". If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would have barely made it in the black. This guy is nothing more than a whore and has stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques that kept him from being fired. I could go on for hours about this cat. I don't know how people like him sleep at night.
> >
> > B
> >
> >
> > --- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "letslookattherecord" <Greg@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Group,
> > >
> > > I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will be increasing another $2.00. Has anyone got any more information?
> > >
> > > Greg
> > >
> >
>

---

Rediscover Hotmail®: Get quick friend updates right in your inbox. Check it out.

Jasper was noisy at times but he ran nothing.  I have never heard anyone up
there refer to him as honorable...just the opposite.  All I knew about him
before 2 years ago was anecdotal and none of it was good.  The title he held was
dissolved after he left because it was not a necessary position anyway...only a
"holding pen", so to speak, to keep him away from the other stock.

B


--- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "johng12fellow" <johng12fellow@...> wrote:
>
> "One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally
and what it cost us to "buy him out".  If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would
have barely made it in the black.  This guy is nothing more than a whore and has
stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques".....
>
> Bill, Tom Jasper ran the show for a long, long time.... this is the first that
I have heard that he was anything but honorable.... please share your knowledge
with us.
>
> Its fairly obvious that something has been very wrong for a very long time.
The Delegates could do the obvious...... vote to get AAWS out of the publishing
business. There is ample hard proof that others can do the job better, and at
less than 1/3 the price. This has been true since 1992.
>
> The problem is not so much related to personalities as it is to
principles..... GSBofAA et al Incorporated -- has no need to be in the business
of publishing - never has. Just give it up. Place all the copyrights into the
public domain.... one thing we know for sure is that GSBofAA has proved  itself
to be a bad custodian of what they possess, and has not only failed to safeguard
the Big Book - it has in fact been the only publisher to change the book.
>
> Your charges of theft at the top add to reports of non-Jasper criminal
activity at the top. Problems of money and power conflict with our Traditions
--- we will all be better off if we follow them.
>
> Change starts with the actions of a single honest Delegate.
>
> John G.
>
>
> --- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "bbfreeaa" <bbfreeaa@> wrote:
> >
> > Hey Greg,
> >
> > The number one reason is the Pension Fund took a hit with the stock market
collapse and they are mandated by law to keep it at certain levels. 
Contributions are up slightly but no where near enough to offset that mess.
> >
> > Also, Grapevine and, especially, La Vina continues to bleed AAWS dry.  We
talked here about the recently.  They piss on the Traditions, sales go down and
we keep feeding the "cancer".
> >
> > One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally
and what it cost us to "buy him out".  If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would
have barely made it in the black.  This guy is nothing more than a whore and has
stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques that kept him from
being fired.  I could go on for hours about this cat.  I don't know how people
like him sleep at night.
> >
> > B
> >
> >
> > --- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "letslookattherecord" <Greg@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Group,
> > >
> > >  I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will
be increasing another $2.00.  Has anyone got any more information?
> > >
> > > Greg
> > >
> >
>

----- Original Message -----

From: hartsell

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 10:44 PM

Subject: RE: [GSOwatch] Thoughts for our delegates in mid-week of the Conference

Thank you Norm, my friend is missed by me---and BY many i'm certain.

sherry

-----Original Message-----
From: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com [mailto:GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Kohl
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 9:39 PM
To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [GSOwatch] Thoughts for our delegates in mid-week of the Conference

Date: 96-12-03 10:09:27 EST

 

Deteriorata

 

Go placidly amid the noise and waste and remember what comfort there
might be in owning a piece thereof.

 

Avoid quiet and passive persons, unless you are in need of sleep.

 

Rotate your tires.

 

Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself and heed well their
advice, even though they be turkeys. Know what to kiss, and when.

 

Consider that two wrongs never make a right, but that three do.

 

Wherever possible, put people on hold.

 

Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment, and
despite the changing fortunes of time, there is always a big future in
computer maintenance.

 

Remember the Pueblo.

 

Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle and mutilate.

 

Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI.

 

Exercise caution in your daily affairs, especially with those closest to
you. That lemon on your left, for instance.

 

Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get
your feet wet. Fall not in love, therefore; it will stick to your face.

 

Gracefully surrender the things of youth, birds, clean air, tuna,
Taiwan; and let not the sands of time get in your lunch.

 

Hire people with hooks.

 

For a good time, call 606-4311. Ask for Ken.

 

Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog is finally getting
enough cheese; and reflect that whatever misfortune might be your lot, it
could only be worse in Milwaukee.

 

You are a fluke of the Universe. You have no right to be here, and
whether you can hear it or not, the Universe is laughing behind your
back.

 

Therefore, make peace with your god, whatever you conceive him to be --
hairy thundered or cosmic muffin. With all its hopes, dreams, promises,
and urban renewal, the world continues to deteriorate. Give up!

 

Jude Ham (R.I.P.)

 

And may God Bless Her

Norm

-----Original Message-----
From: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com [mailto:GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Kohl
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 9:39 PM
To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [GSOwatch] Thoughts for our delegates in mid-week of the Conference

Date: 96-12-03 10:09:27 EST

 

Deteriorata

 

Go placidly amid the noise and waste and remember what comfort there
might be in owning a piece thereof.

 

Avoid quiet and passive persons, unless you are in need of sleep.

 

Rotate your tires.

 

Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself and heed well their
advice, even though they be turkeys. Know what to kiss, and when.

 

Consider that two wrongs never make a right, but that three do.

 

Wherever possible, put people on hold.

 

Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment, and
despite the changing fortunes of time, there is always a big future in
computer maintenance.

 

Remember the Pueblo.

 

Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle and mutilate.

 

Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI.

 

Exercise caution in your daily affairs, especially with those closest to
you. That lemon on your left, for instance.

 

Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get
your feet wet. Fall not in love, therefore; it will stick to your face.

 

Gracefully surrender the things of youth, birds, clean air, tuna,
Taiwan; and let not the sands of time get in your lunch.

 

Hire people with hooks.

 

For a good time, call 606-4311. Ask for Ken.

 

Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog is finally getting
enough cheese; and reflect that whatever misfortune might be your lot, it
could only be worse in Milwaukee.

 

You are a fluke of the Universe. You have no right to be here, and
whether you can hear it or not, the Universe is laughing behind your
back.

 

Therefore, make peace with your god, whatever you conceive him to be --
hairy thundered or cosmic muffin. With all its hopes, dreams, promises,
and urban renewal, the world continues to deteriorate. Give up!

 

Jude Ham (R.I.P.)

 

And may God Bless Her

Norm

----- Original Message -----

From: johng12fellow

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 6:45 PM

Subject: [GSOwatch] Charges of Corruption at Top of "AA Service Structure"

"One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally and what it cost us to "buy him out". If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would have barely made it in the black. This guy is nothing more than a whore and has stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques".....

Bill, Tom Jasper ran the show for a long, long time.... this is the first that I have heard that he was anything but honorable.... please share your knowledge with us.

Its fairly obvious that something has been very wrong for a very long time. The Delegates could do the obvious...... vote to get AAWS out of the publishing business. There is ample hard proof that others can do the job better, and at less than 1/3 the price. This has been true since 1992.

The problem is not so much related to personalities as it is to principles..... GSBofAA et al Incorporated -- has no need to be in the business of publishing - never has. Just give it up. Place all the copyrights into the public domain.... one thing we know for sure is that GSBofAA has proved itself to be a bad custodian of what they possess, and has not only failed to safeguard the Big Book - it has in fact been the only publisher to change the book.

Your charges of theft at the top add to reports of non-Jasper criminal activity at the top. Problems of money and power conflict with our Traditions --- we will all be better off if we follow them.

Change starts with the actions of a single honest Delegate.

John G.

--- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "bbfreeaa" <bbfreeaa@...> wrote:
>
> Hey Greg,
>
> The number one reason is the Pension Fund took a hit with the stock market collapse and they are mandated by law to keep it at certain levels. Contributions are up slightly but no where near enough to offset that mess.
>
> Also, Grapevine and, especially, La Vina continues to bleed AAWS dry. We talked here about the recently. They piss on the Traditions, sales go down and we keep feeding the "cancer".
>
> One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally and what it cost us to "buy him out". If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would have barely made it in the black. This guy is nothing more than a whore and has stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques that kept him from being fired. I could go on for hours about this cat. I don't know how people like him sleep at night.
>
> B
>
>
> --- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "letslookattherecord" <Greg@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Group,
> >
> > I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will be increasing another $2.00. Has anyone got any more information?
> >
> > Greg
> >
>

"One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally and
what it cost us to "buy him out".  If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would have
barely made it in the black.  This guy is nothing more than a whore and has
stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques".....

Bill, Tom Jasper ran the show for a long, long time.... this is the first that I
have heard that he was anything but honorable.... please share your knowledge
with us.

Its fairly obvious that something has been very wrong for a very long time. The
Delegates could do the obvious...... vote to get AAWS out of the publishing
business. There is ample hard proof that others can do the job better, and at
less than 1/3 the price. This has been true since 1992.

The problem is not so much related to personalities as it is to principles.....
GSBofAA et al Incorporated -- has no need to be in the business of publishing -
never has. Just give it up. Place all the copyrights into the public domain....
one thing we know for sure is that GSBofAA has proved  itself to be a bad
custodian of what they possess, and has not only failed to safeguard the Big
Book - it has in fact been the only publisher to change the book.

Your charges of theft at the top add to reports of non-Jasper criminal activity
at the top. Problems of money and power conflict with our Traditions --- we will
all be better off if we follow them.

Change starts with the actions of a single honest Delegate.

John G.


--- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "bbfreeaa" <bbfreeaa@...> wrote:
>
> Hey Greg,
>
> The number one reason is the Pension Fund took a hit with the stock market
collapse and they are mandated by law to keep it at certain levels. 
Contributions are up slightly but no where near enough to offset that mess.
>
> Also, Grapevine and, especially, La Vina continues to bleed AAWS dry.  We
talked here about the recently.  They piss on the Traditions, sales go down and
we keep feeding the "cancer".
>
> One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally and
what it cost us to "buy him out".  If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would have
barely made it in the black.  This guy is nothing more than a whore and has
stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques that kept him from
being fired.  I could go on for hours about this cat.  I don't know how people
like him sleep at night.
>
> B
>
>
> --- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "letslookattherecord" <Greg@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Group,
> >
> >  I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will be
increasing another $2.00.  Has anyone got any more information?
> >
> > Greg
> >
>

Trustees "nudged back by the AG of the State of NY...." Bill, this is big news.
Do you have anything to back up this statement of NYState's intrusion into the
affairs of GSBofAA Inc.?

By the way, the By-Laws are on line and they state that the chair can call a
board meeting anytime, if less than a quorum of 8 show up - than the meeting can
be adjourned to a later time agreed on by a majority of the trustees attending,
and that when a quorum of 8 is achieved.... 5 of them have the power to change
anything they want. The first change would probably be to reduce the number of
trustees to 8, or perhaps to 5 (the minimum votes required to effect the
change)..... next would be to hold a sale of all the property (copyrights,
trademarks etc.) and then start to seriously loot the corporation. Why?
$100million split 5 ways?.... Sounds inevitable.

My guess is that fewer than 5 of the elected delegates have ever read the
BY-Laws.... if they did, they would know that "Delegate Service" is service for
a corporation that isn't AA.

J

--- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "bbfreeaa" <bbfreeaa@...> wrote:
>
> Greg,
>
> The GSB members of AA do not personally receive any monies from AAWS other
than expenses.  I believe that the General Fund is kept by them and that same
General Fund houses everything from GSO salaries to retirement benefits to
Prudent Reserve.  I would take it to the bank that no one there is doing
anything illegal.  The only thing that they have been warned about was the
status of the GM and Chair of the GSB being voting members of all Trustee
Committees (I can't remember the Latin term right now).  They are members of all
Committees according to our by-laws but they went too far legally and were
nudged back by the AG of the State of NY.
>
> B
>
>
> --- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, Greg <Greg@> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks Norm and Dennis,
> >
> >  I don't think that GSBofAA owns AAWS in the IRS world, but are two
separate, yet "related", entities.
> >  As Dennis stated, they each file their own tax returns each year and have
two different tax
> > exempt purposes(or , if you will, the reasons for their existence and the
purposes for which they applied for and were granted tax exempt status by the
IRS.)
> >  I know  just enough (to get me in trouble) about this, having also been
involved with the application procedure and the tax exempt rules of running a
small non-profit.
> > The IRS seems to be concerned with how tax-exempt corporations get their
money and who benefits from it.
> >  The IRS loves to see contributions from the general public, members,Govt,
and/or business income derived from their tax -exempt purpose , i.e. aaws and
its publishing and dissemination of AA related books etc.
> >
> > The tax exempt corporation can make as much profit as it can doing
business.This profit cannot be transferred to individuals who are running the
thing or who are related. But , salaries can be paid. When the non-profit ceases
to exist, the leftover money and property has to be donated to another
non-profit. no individuals involved can benefit .
> >
> > I am just wondering if it is legal for AAWS, as a tax exempt corporation, to
raise prices on literature, in order to make more profit , for the sole reason
so that they can donate this extra profit to another tax exempt
corporation(GSBofAA) because AAWS knows in advance that the GSBofAA will need
this donation to cover the shortfalls in its budget?
> >
> > I"m tired.
> > Greg
> >
> > --- On Tue, 4/21/09, Dennis <gratefuldennis@> wrote:
> >
> > From: Dennis <gratefuldennis@>
> > Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book
> > To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com
> > Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 10:54 PM
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi Norm and Greg;
> >  
> > The whole relationship is real strange. Having ran a
> > non-profit for 14 years it raises a lot of questions to me. We had one
parent
> > corporation and two others were DBA’s (doing business as) of the parent
> > corporation as they were part of the corporation which means we only have
one
> > board of directors. But they are separately incorporated with separate
boards so
> > I really don’t understand the relationship or the GSB owning them. It is
done
> > somewhat if a company buys another company but then it usually involves
> > reorganization. The Federal Laws are the same but the State Laws must be
> > different than here in California.
> >  
> > It is against the law here to co-mingle accounts but on the
> > tax forms the GSB claims salary paid to Greg as well as AAWS although he
only
> > gets one check. There are a lot of questions.
> >  
> > One of the issues that just died out some years ago without
> > any explanation to concerned members of the fellowship was the fact that
AAWS
> > gave royalties to Stepping Stones and their executors were the late Owen
> > Flanagan and Michael Alexander. Michael Alexander was a GSB member and Owen
> > Flanagan’s accounting firm (now done by his son) was the ‘independent’
outside
> > auditor of AAWS who they also received funds from at Stepping Stones. There
were
> > some discussions from some Trusted Servants some years ago about having
another
> > outside auditor come in but nothing more was heard about that.
> >  
> > Peace,
> >  
> > Dennis M.
> >
> >  
> >
> >   ----- Original Message -----
> >   From:
> >   Kohl
> >   To: GSOwatch@yahoogroup s.com
> >   Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 3:46
> >   PM
> >   Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >   GSBAA owns AAWS and AAGv, so money flowing back
> >   to Papa bear isn't all that unusual.  What would be interesting is
> >   how they co-mingle funds.  Dennis has looked into this in the past and as
> >   I recall things were kind of fuzzy when it came to the lines between
> >   corporations.
> >    
> >   Bless,
> >   Norm
> >    
> >    
> >
> >     ----- Original Message -----
> >     From: Greg
> >
> >     To: GSOwatch@yahoogroup s.com
> >
> >     Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 6:20
> >     PM
> >     Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >         Thanks for the info guys!
> >  If aaws inc. stopped
> >           donating literature profits to the general service board, they
would
> >           save two million this year alone!
> >  I wonder what the
> >           legalities are with all this?
> >  A tax exempt corporation whose
> >           tax exempt purpose is the "dissemination of AA literature" raising
> >           those prices in order to be able to donate money to another
"related"
> >           tax exempt corporation in order to keep it afloat?
> >           Hmmmmm?
> >
> > Greg
> >
> > --- On Tue, 4/21/09, Kohl
> >           <kohl@> wrote:
> >
> >
> > From:
> >             Kohl <kohl@>
> > Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big
> >             Book
> > To: GSOwatch@yahoogroup s.com
> > Date: Tuesday, April
> >             21, 2009, 12:24 PM
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >             http://my.aamo. info/pdfs/ book_price_
> >             increase. pdf
> >              
> >             Bless,
> >             Norm
> >              
> >
> >               -----
> >               Original Message -----
> >               From:
> >               letslookattherecord
> >
> >               To:
> >               GSOwatch@yahoogroup
> >               s.com
> >               Sent:
> >               Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:44 AM
> >               Subject:
> >               [GSOwatch] Big Book
> >
> >
> >
> >               Hi Group,
> >
> > I heard at the district meeting last night
> >               that the big book price will be increasing another $2.00. Has
> >               anyone got any more
> >             information?
> >
> > Greg
> >
>

Greg,

The GSB members of AA do not personally receive any monies from AAWS other than
expenses.  I believe that the General Fund is kept by them and that same General
Fund houses everything from GSO salaries to retirement benefits to Prudent
Reserve.  I would take it to the bank that no one there is doing anything
illegal.  The only thing that they have been warned about was the status of the
GM and Chair of the GSB being voting members of all Trustee Committees (I can't
remember the Latin term right now).  They are members of all Committees
according to our by-laws but they went too far legally and were nudged back by
the AG of the State of NY.

B


--- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, Greg <Greg@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks Norm and Dennis,
>
>  I don't think that GSBofAA owns AAWS in the IRS world, but are two separate,
yet "related", entities.
>  As Dennis stated, they each file their own tax returns each year and have
two different tax
> exempt purposes(or , if you will, the reasons for their existence and the
purposes for which they applied for and were granted tax exempt status by the
IRS.)
>  I know  just enough (to get me in trouble) about this, having also been
involved with the application procedure and the tax exempt rules of running a
small non-profit.
> The IRS seems to be concerned with how tax-exempt corporations get their money
and who benefits from it.
>  The IRS loves to see contributions from the general public, members,Govt,
and/or business income derived from their tax -exempt purpose , i.e. aaws and
its publishing and dissemination of AA related books etc.
>
> The tax exempt corporation can make as much profit as it can doing
business.This profit cannot be transferred to individuals who are running the
thing or who are related. But , salaries can be paid. When the non-profit ceases
to exist, the leftover money and property has to be donated to another
non-profit. no individuals involved can benefit .
>
> I am just wondering if it is legal for AAWS, as a tax exempt corporation, to
raise prices on literature, in order to make more profit , for the sole reason
so that they can donate this extra profit to another tax exempt
corporation(GSBofAA) because AAWS knows in advance that the GSBofAA will need
this donation to cover the shortfalls in its budget?
>
> I"m tired.
> Greg
>
> --- On Tue, 4/21/09, Dennis <gratefuldennis@...> wrote:
>
> From: Dennis <gratefuldennis@...>
> Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book
> To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 10:54 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi Norm and Greg;
>  
> The whole relationship is real strange. Having ran a
> non-profit for 14 years it raises a lot of questions to me. We had one parent
> corporation and two others were DBA’s (doing business as) of the parent
> corporation as they were part of the corporation which means we only have one
> board of directors. But they are separately incorporated with separate boards
so
> I really don’t understand the relationship or the GSB owning them. It is
done
> somewhat if a company buys another company but then it usually involves
> reorganization. The Federal Laws are the same but the State Laws must be
> different than here in California.
>  
> It is against the law here to co-mingle accounts but on the
> tax forms the GSB claims salary paid to Greg as well as AAWS although he only
> gets one check. There are a lot of questions.
>  
> One of the issues that just died out some years ago without
> any explanation to concerned members of the fellowship was the fact that AAWS
> gave royalties to Stepping Stones and their executors were the late Owen
> Flanagan and Michael Alexander. Michael Alexander was a GSB member and Owen
> Flanagan’s accounting firm (now done by his son) was the ‘independent’
outside
> auditor of AAWS who they also received funds from at Stepping Stones. There
were
> some discussions from some Trusted Servants some years ago about having
another
> outside auditor come in but nothing more was heard about that.
>  
> Peace,
>  
> Dennis M.
>
>  
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From:
>   Kohl
>   To: GSOwatch@yahoogroup s.com
>   Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 3:46
>   PM
>   Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book
>
>
>
>
>   GSBAA owns AAWS and AAGv, so money flowing back
>   to Papa bear isn't all that unusual.  What would be interesting is
>   how they co-mingle funds.  Dennis has looked into this in the past and as
>   I recall things were kind of fuzzy when it came to the lines between
>   corporations.
>    
>   Bless,
>   Norm
>    
>    
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     From: Greg
>
>     To: GSOwatch@yahoogroup s.com
>
>     Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 6:20
>     PM
>     Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>         Thanks for the info guys!
>  If aaws inc. stopped
>           donating literature profits to the general service board, they would
>           save two million this year alone!
>  I wonder what the
>           legalities are with all this?
>  A tax exempt corporation whose
>           tax exempt purpose is the "dissemination of AA literature" raising
>           those prices in order to be able to donate money to another
"related"
>           tax exempt corporation in order to keep it afloat?
>           Hmmmmm?
>
> Greg
>
> --- On Tue, 4/21/09, Kohl
>           <kohl@...> wrote:
>
>
> From:
>             Kohl <kohl@...>
> Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big
>             Book
> To: GSOwatch@yahoogroup s.com
> Date: Tuesday, April
>             21, 2009, 12:24 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>             http://my.aamo. info/pdfs/ book_price_
>             increase. pdf
>              
>             Bless,
>             Norm
>              
>
>               -----
>               Original Message -----
>               From:
>               letslookattherecord
>
>               To:
>               GSOwatch@yahoogroup
>               s.com
>               Sent:
>               Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:44 AM
>               Subject:
>               [GSOwatch] Big Book
>
>
>
>               Hi Group,
>
> I heard at the district meeting last night
>               that the big book price will be increasing another $2.00. Has
>               anyone got any more
>             information?
>
> Greg
>

----- Original Message -----

From: Kohl

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 3:46 PM

Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book

GSBAA owns AAWS and AAGv, so money flowing back to Papa bear isn't all that unusual.  What would be interesting is how they co-mingle funds.  Dennis has looked into this in the past and as I recall things were kind of fuzzy when it came to the lines between corporations.

 

Bless,

Norm

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Greg

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 6:20 PM

Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book

Thanks for the info guys!  If aaws inc. stopped donating literature profits to the general service board, they would save two million this year alone!  I wonder what the legalities are with all this?  A tax exempt corporation whose tax exempt purpose is the "dissemination of AA literature" raising those prices in order to be able to donate money to another "related" tax exempt corporation in order to keep it afloat? Hmmmmm? Greg --- On Tue, 4/21/09, Kohl <kohl@...> wrote: From: Kohl <kohl@...> Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 12:24 PM http://my.aamo. info/pdfs/ book_price_ increase. pdf   Bless, Norm   ----- Original Message ----- From: letslookattherecord To: GSOwatch@yahoogroup s.com Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:44 AM Subject: [GSOwatch] Big Book Hi Group, I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will be increasing another $2.00. Has anyone got any more information? Greg

----- Original Message -----

From: Greg

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 6:20 PM

Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book

Thanks for the info guys!  If aaws inc. stopped donating literature profits to the general service board, they would save two million this year alone!  I wonder what the legalities are with all this?  A tax exempt corporation whose tax exempt purpose is the "dissemination of AA literature" raising those prices in order to be able to donate money to another "related" tax exempt corporation in order to keep it afloat? Hmmmmm? Greg --- On Tue, 4/21/09, Kohl <kohl@...> wrote: From: Kohl <kohl@...> Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 12:24 PM http://my.aamo. info/pdfs/ book_price_ increase. pdf   Bless, Norm   ----- Original Message ----- From: letslookattherecord To: GSOwatch@yahoogroup s.com Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:44 AM Subject: [GSOwatch] Big Book Hi Group, I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will be increasing another $2.00. Has anyone got any more information? Greg

----- Original Message -----

From: bbfreeaa

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 8:49 AM

Subject: [GSOwatch] Re: Big Book

Hey Greg,

The number one reason is the Pension Fund took a hit with the stock market collapse and they are mandated by law to keep it at certain levels. Contributions are up slightly but no where near enough to offset that mess.

Also, Grapevine and, especially, La Vina continues to bleed AAWS dry. We talked here about the recently. They piss on the Traditions, sales go down and we keep feeding the "cancer".

One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally and what it cost us to "buy him out". If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would have barely made it in the black. This guy is nothing more than a whore and has stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques that kept him from being fired. I could go on for hours about this cat. I don't know how people like him sleep at night.

B


--- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "letslookattherecord" <Greg@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Group,
>
> I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will be increasing another $2.00. Has anyone got any more information?
>
> Greg
>

----- Original Message -----

From: Kohl

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:24 AM

Subject: Re: [GSOwatch] Big Book

http://my.aamo.info/pdfs/book_price_increase.pdf

 

Bless,

Norm

 

----- Original Message -----

From: letslookattherecord

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:44 AM

Subject: [GSOwatch] Big Book

Hi Group,

I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will be increasing another $2.00. Has anyone got any more information?

Greg

----- Original Message -----

From: letslookattherecord

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:44 AM

Subject: [GSOwatch] Big Book

Hi Group,

I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will be increasing another $2.00. Has anyone got any more information?

Greg

Hey Greg,

The number one reason is the Pension Fund took a hit with the stock market
collapse and they are mandated by law to keep it at certain levels. 
Contributions are up slightly but no where near enough to offset that mess.

Also, Grapevine and, especially, La Vina continues to bleed AAWS dry.  We talked
here about the recently.  They piss on the Traditions, sales go down and we keep
feeding the "cancer".

One of the big hits last year though was getting rid of Tom Jasper finally and
what it cost us to "buy him out".  If you eliminate that hit, AAWS would have
barely made it in the black.  This guy is nothing more than a whore and has
stolen from AA over the years with his blackmail techniques that kept him from
being fired.  I could go on for hours about this cat.  I don't know how people
like him sleep at night.

B


--- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "letslookattherecord" <Greg@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Group,
>
>  I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will be
increasing another $2.00.  Has anyone got any more information?
>
> Greg
>

Hi Group,

  I heard at the district meeting last night that the big book price will be
increasing another $2.00.  Has anyone got any more information?

Greg

Recovery.org/aa was one of the very first AA websites online.  It was online
YEARS before AAWS put up a dismal website.  They were sued by AAWS to steal
various domain names including bigbook.org.  They are the original host of
the Big Book Website (now at http://aamo.info/bb/)  Recovery.org is
currently coming up with a generic 404 file not found page.
http://www.recovery.org/aa/ -- see original at
archive.org....[(http://web.archive.org/web/20071230112138rn_1/www.recovery.org/\
aa/)]

Silkworth.net, one of the most extensive and complete AA websites is coming
up dead for excessive bandwidth.
http://silkworth.net/  -- see original at archive.org....
http://web.archive.org/web/20080214040611/http://silkworth.net/index.html

I've not been able to reach the webmaster Jim, for a long time now.

Bless,
Norm

----- Original Message -----

From: letslookattherecord

To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 8:56 PM

Subject: [GSOwatch] When did it start?

Hi Group,

I have been looking at different AA timelines, trying to get a grip on when we started breaking Traditions.
I suppose that we needed to have Traditions to break in the first place.
The first "group conscience of AA" endorsement of the traditions came in 1950, when the 3,000 attendees of the 1st International Convention at Cleveland approved the "Traditions"(Bill's summation of them) by a unanimous standing vote.

Before this ,in 1947, we had the arrival of the AA preamble (owned by the Grapevine) which tries to explain what our rules are.

The grapevine stole the ideas/principles from the forward to the 1st edition of the Big Book.
Meanwhile Bill is busy writing the Twelve Points , and published them in the Grapevine.

Following on the heels of the Traditions endorsement at Cleveland in 1950, we have the birth of the "5 Year Experimental General Service Conference"
This five year trial seems to be the starting point of Tradition breaking for the good of AA. Examples being: of "Works Publishing" had been changed to "Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing.", Alcoholic Foundation Inc. was renamed to the "General Service Board of AA Inc"

It isn't until the year 1955 that AA comes of Age. Estimated attendance was 3,800. Its theme was Coming of Age. On the final day of the Convention, Bill W made some introductory remarks and presented a resolution to the attendees, the heart of which read: BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED: That the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous should become, as of this date July 3, 1955 the guardian of the Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous, the perpetuator of the World Services of our Society, the voice of the group conscience of our entire Fellowship and the sole successors to its co-founders, Dr Bob and Bill. It was unanimously approved.

So, the first two international conventions have made some important decisions. I'm sure if I was there I would have happily cast my vote for anything Bill w. said we needed.

It is interesting to note that the original conference charter, which states that it is the Guardians of the traditions, wasn't adopted until1955. What the heck was guiding the experimental conference from 1950-54, when they gave the AA name to the general service board and the publishing co.? maybe they thought it was ok.

I don't know what any of this means now or where this thread is going.

Thanks, Greg

"HOW THE BIG BOOK WAS PUT TOGETHER"

BILL W.

FORT WORTH, TEXAS - 1954

I think I'm on the bill for tonight's show with a talk on the 12 Traditions of
A.A. But you know drunks, like women, have the prerogative, or at least seize
the prerogative of changing their minds - I'm not going to make any such damn
talk! For something very festive I think the Traditions 1-12 would be a little
too grim, might bore you a little. As a matter of fact, speaking of Traditions,
when they were first written back there in 1945 or 1946 as tentative guides to
help us hang together and function, nobody paid any attention except a few
"againers" who wrote me and asked what the hell are they about?

Nobody paid the slightest attention. But, little by little as these Traditions
got around we had our clubhouse squabbles, our little rifts, this difficulty and
that, it was found that the Traditions indeed did reflect experience and were
guiding principles. So, they took hold a little more and a little more and a
little more so that today the average A.A. coming in the door learns at once
what they're about, about what kind of an outfit he really has landed in and by
what principles his group and A.A. as a whole are governed. But, as I say, the
dickens with all that. I would like to just spin some yarn and they will be a
series of yarns which cluster around the preparation of the good old A.A. bible
and when I hear that it always makes me shudder because the guys who put it
together weren't a damn bit biblical. I think sometimes some of the drunks have
an idea that these old timers went around with almost visible halos and long
gowns and they were full of sweetness and light. Oh boy, how inspired they were,
oh yes. But wait till I tell you. I suppose the book yarn really started in the
living room of Doc and Annie Smith.

As you know, I landed there in the summer of `35, a little group caught hold. I
helped Smithy briefly with it and he went on to found the first A.A. group in
the world. And, as with all new groups, it was nearly all failure, but now and
then, somebody saw the light and there was progress. Pampered, I got back to New
York, a little more experienced group started there, and by the time we got
around to 1937, this thing had leaped over into Cleveland, and began to move
south from New York. But, it was still, we thought in those years, flying blind,
a flickering candle indeed, that might at any moment be snuffed out. So, on this
late fall afternoon in 1937, Smithy and I were talking together in his living
room, Anne sitting there, when we began to count noses. How many people had
stayed dry; in Akron, in New York, maybe a few in Cleveland? How many had stayed
dry and for how long? And when we added up the total, it sure was a handful of,
I don't know, 35 to 40 maybe. But enough time had elapsed on enough really fatal
cases of alcoholism, so that we grasped the importance of these small
statistics. Bob and I saw for the first time that this thing was going to
succeed. That God in his providence and mercy had thrown a new light into the
dark caves where we and our kind had been and were still by the millions
dwelling. I can never forget the elation and ecstasy that seized us both. And
when we sat happily taking and reflecting, we reflected, that well, a couple of
score of drunks were sober but this had taken three long years. There had been
an immense amount of failure and a long time had been taken just to sober up the
handful. How could this handful carry its' message to all those who still didn't
know? Not all the drunks in the world could come to Akron or New York. But how
could we transmit our message to them, and by what means? Maybe we could go to
the old timers in each group, but that meant nearly everybody, to find the sum
of money - somebody else's money, of course - and say to them "Well now, take a
sabbatical year off your job if you have one, and you go to Kentucky, Omaha,
Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles and where ever it may be and you give
this thing a year and get a group started."

It had already become evident by then that we were just about to be moved out of
the City Hospital in Akron to make room for people with broken legs and ailing
livers; that the hospitals were not too happy with us. We tried to run their
business perhaps too much, and besides, drunks were apt to be noisy in the night
and there were other inconveniences which were all tremendous. So, it was
obvious that because of drunks being such unlovely creatures, we would have to
have a great chain of hospitals. and as that dream burst upon me, it sounded
good, because you see, I'd been down in Wall Street in the promotion business
and I remember the great sums of money that were made as soon as people got this
chain idea. You know, chain drug stores, chain grocery stores, chain dry good
stores. That evening Bob and I told them that we were within sight of success
and that we thought this thing might go on and on and on, that a new light
indeed was shining in our dark world. But how could this light be a reflection
and transmitted without being distorted and garbled? At this point, they turned
the meeting over to me, and being a salesman, I set right to work on the drunk
tanks and subsidies for the missionaries, I was pretty poor then.

We touched on the book. The group conscience consisted of 18 men good and true
... and the good and true men, you could see right away, were dammed skeptical
about it all. Almost with one voice, they chorused "let's keep it simple, this
is going to bring money into this thing, this is going to create a professional
class. We'll all be ruined." "Well," I countered, "That's a pretty good
argument. Lots to what you say ... but even within gunshot of this very house,
alcoholics are dying like flies. And if this thing doesn't move any faster than
it has in the last three years, it may be another 10 before it gets to the
outskirts of Akron. How in God's name are we going to carry this message to
others? We've got to take some kind of chance. We can't keep it so simple it
becomes an anarchy and gets complicated. We can't keep it so simple that it
won't propagate itself, and we've got to have a lot of money to do these
things." So, exerting myself to the utmost, which was considerable in those
days, we finally got a vote in that little meeting and it was a mighty close
vote by just a majority of maybe 2 or 3. The meeting said with some reluctance,
"Well Bill, if we need a lot of dough, you better go back to New York where
there's plenty of it and you raise it." Well, boy, that was the word that I'd
been waiting for. So I scrammed back to the great city and I began to approach
some people of means describing this tremendous thing that had happened. And it
didn't seem so tremendous to the people of means at all. What? 35 or 40 drunks
sober up? They have sobered them up before now, you know. And besides, Mr.
Wilson, don't you think it's kind of sweeping up the shavings? I mean, wouldn't
this be something for the Red Cross be better?

In other words, with all of my ardent solicitations, I got one hell of a freeze
from the gentlemen of wealth. Well, I began to get blue and when I begin to get
blue my stomach kicks up as well as other things.

I was laying in the bed one night with an imaginary ulcer attack (this used to
happen all the time - I had one the time the 12 steps were written) and I said,
"My God, we're starving to death here on Clinton Street." By this time the house
was full of drunks. They were eating us out of house and home. In those days we
never believed in charging anybody anything - so Lois was earning the money, I
was being the missionary and the drunks were eating the meals. "This can't go
on. We've got to have those drunk tanks, we've got to have those missionaries,
and we've got to have a book. That's for sure."

The next morning I crawled into my clothes and I called on my brother-in-law.
He's a doctor and he is about the last person who followed my trip way down. The
only one, save of course, the Lord. "Well," I said, "I'll go up and see
Leonard." So I went up to see my brother-in-law Leonard and he pried out a
little time between patients coming in there. I started my awful bellyache about
these rich guys who wouldn't give us any dough for this great and glorious
enterprise.

It seemed to me he knew a girl and I think she had an uncle that somehow tied up
with the Rockefeller offices. I asked him to call and see if there was such a
man and if there was, would he see us. On what slender threads our destiny
sometimes hangs. So, the call was made. Instantly there came onto the other end
of the wire the voice of dear Willard Richardson - one of the loveliest
Christian gentlemen I have ever known. And the moment he recognized my
brother-in—law he said, "Why Leonard, where have you been all these years?
"Well, my brother-in-law, unlike me, is a man of very few words, so he quickly
said to dear old Uncle Willard, he had a brother-in-law who had apparently some
success sobering up drunks and could the two of us come over there and see him.
"Why certainly," said dear Willard. "Come right over." So we go over to
Rockefeller Plaza. We go up that elevator - 54 flights or 56 I guess it was, and
we walk promptly into Mr. Rockefeller's personal offices, and ask to see Mr.
Richardson. Here sits this lovely, benign old gentleman, who nevertheless had a
kind of shrewd twinkle in his eye. So I sat down and told him about our exciting
discovery, this terrific cure for alcoholics that had just hit the world, how it
worked and what we have done for them. And, boy, this was the first receptive
man with money or access to money — remember we were in Mr. Rockefeller's
personal offices at this point — and by now, we had learned that this was Mr.
Rockefeller's closest personal friend. So he said, "I'm very interested. Would
you like to have lunch with me, Mr. Wilson?" Well, now you know, for a rising
promoter, that sounded pretty good - going to have lunch with the best friends
of John D. Things were looking up. My ulcer attack disappeared. So I had lunch
with the old gentleman and we went over this thing again and again and, boy,
he's so warm and kindly and friendly. Right at the close of the lunch he said,
"Well now Mr. Wilson or Bill, if I can call you that, wouldn't you like to have
a luncheon meeting with some of my friends? There's Frank Amos, he's in the
advertising business but he was on a committee that recommended that Mr.
Rockefeller drop the prohibition business. And there's LeRoy Chipman, he looks
after Mr. Rockefeller real estate. And there's Mr. Scotty, Chairman of the Board
of the Riverside Church and a number of other people like that. I believe they'd
like to hear this story." So a meeting was arranged and it fell upon a winter's
night in 1937. And the meeting was held at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. We called in,
posthaste, a couple of drunks from Akron - Smithy included, of course - heading
the procession. I came in with the New York contingent of four or five. And to
our astonishment we were ushered into Mr., Rockefeller's personal boardroom
right next to his office. I thought to myself "Well, now this is really getting
hot." And indeed I felt very much warmed when I was told by Mr. Richardson that
I was sitting in a chair just vacated by Mr. Rockefeller. I said "Well, now, we
really are getting close to the bankroll." Old Doc Silkworth was there that
night too, and he testified what he had seen happen to these new friends of
ours, and each drunk, thinking of nothing better to say, told their stories of
drinking and recovering and these folk listened. They seemed very definitely
impressed. I could see that the moment for the big touch was coming. So, I
gingerly brought up the subject of the drunk tanks, the subsidized missionaries,
and the big question of a book or literature.

Well, God moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform. It didn't look like
a wonder to me when Mr. Scott, head of a large engineering firm and Chairman of
the Riverside Church, looked at us and said "Gentlemen, up to this point, this
has been the work of goodwill only. No plan, no property, no paid people, just
one carrying the good news to the next. Isn't that true? And may it not be that
that is where the great power of this society lies? Now, if we subsidize it,
might it not alter its' whole character? We want to do all we can, we're
gathered for that, but would it be wise?" Well then, the salesmen all gave Mr.
Scott the rush and we said, "Why, Mr. Scott, there're only 40 of us. It's taken
3 years. Why millions, Mr. Scott, will rot before this thing ever gets to `em
unless we have money and lots of it." And we made our case at last with these
gentlemen for the missionaries, the drunk tanks and the book. So one of them
volunteered to investigate us very carefully, and since poor old Dr. Bob was
harder up than I was, and since the first group and the reciprocal community was
in Akron, we directed their attention out there. Frank Amos, still a trustee in
the Foundation, at his own expense, got on a train, went out to Akron and made
all sorts of preliminary inquiries around town about Dr. Bob. All the reports
were good except that he was a drunk that recently got sober. He visited the
little meeting out there. He went to the Smith house and he came back with what
he thought was a very modest proposal. He recommended to these friends of ours
that we should have at least a token amount of money at first, say $50,000,
something like that. That would clear up the mortgage on Smith's place. It would
get us a little rehabilitation place. We could put Dr. Smith in charge. We could
subsidize a few of these people briefly, until we got some more money. We could
start the chain of hospitals. We'd have a few missionaries. We could get busy on
the book, all for a mere $50,000 bucks. Well, considering the kind of money we
were backed up against, that did sound a little small, but, you know, one thing
leads to another and it sounded real good. We were real glad. Mr. Willard
Richardson, our original contact, then took that report into John D. Jr. as
everybody recalls. And I've since heard what went on in there. Mr. Rockefeller
read the report, called Willard Richardson and thanked him and said: "Somehow I
am strangely stirred by all this. This interests me immensely." And then looking
at his friend Willard, he said, "But isn't money going to spoil this thing? I'm
terribly afraid that it would. And yet I am so strangely stirred by it."

Then came another turning point in our destiny. When that man whose business is
giving away money said to Willard Richardson, "No," he said, I won't be the one
to spoil this thing with money. You say these two men who are heading it are a
little `stressed', I'll put $5,000 dollars in the Riverside Church treasury.
Those folks can form themselves into a committee and draw on it as they like. I
want to hear what goes on. But, please don't ask .me for any more money." Well,
with 50 thousand that then was shrunk to five, we raised the mortgage on
Smithy's house for about three grand. That left two and Smith and I commenced
chewing on that too. Well, that was a long way from a string of drunk tanks and
books. What in thunder would we do? Well, we had more meetings with our new
found friends, Amos, Richardson, Scott, Chipman and those fellows who stuck with
us to this day, some of them now gone. And, in spite of Mr. Rockefeller's
advice, we again convinced these folks that this thing needed a lot of money.
What could we do without it? So, one of them proposed, "Well, why don't we form
a foundation, something like the Rockefeller Foundation?" I said, "I hope it
will be like that with respect to money." And then one of them got a free lawyer
from a firm who was interested in the thing. And we all asked him to draw up an
agreement of trust, a charter for something to be called the Alcoholic
Foundation. Why we picked that one, I don't know. I don't know whether the
Foundation was alcoholic, it was the Alcoholic Foundation, not the Alcoholics
Foundation. And the lawyer was very much confused because in the meeting which
formed the Foundation, we made it very plain that we did not wish to be in the
majority. We felt that there should be non-alcoholics on the board and they
ought to be in a majority of one. "Well, indeed," said the lawyer, "What is the
difference between an alcoholic and a non-alcoholic?" And one of our smart
drunks said, "That's a cinch, a non-alcoholic is a guy who can drink and an
alcoholic is a guy who can't drink." "well," said the lawyer, "how do we state
that legally?" We didn't know. So at length, we have a foundation and a board
which I think then was about seven, consisting of four of these new friends,
including my brother-in-law, Mr. Richardson, Chipman, Amos and some of us
drunks. I think Smithy went on the board but I kind of coyly stayed off it
thinking it would be more convenient later on.

So we had this wonderful new foundation. These friends, unlike Mr. Rockefeller,
were sold on the idea that we needed a lot of dough, and so our salesmen around
New York started to solicit some money, again, from the very rich. We had a list
of them and we had credentials from friends of Mr. John D. Rockefeller. "How
could you miss, I ask you, salesmen?" The Foundation had been formed in the
spring of 1938 and all summer we solicited the rich. Well, they were either in
Florida or they preferred the Red Cross, or some of them thought that drunks
were disgusting and we didn't get one damm cent in the whole summer of 1938,
praise God! Well, meantime, we began to hold trustee meetings and they were
commiseration sessions on getting no dough. What with the mortgage and with me
and Smithy eating away at it, the five grand had gone up with the flu, and we
were all stone broke again. Smithy couldn't get his practice back either because
he was a surgeon and nobody likes to be carved up by an alcoholic surgeon - even
if he was three years sober. So things were tough all around, no fooling. Well,
what would we do?

One day, probably in August 1938, I produced at a Foundation meeting, a couple
of chapters of a proposed book along with some recommendations of a couple of
doctors down at John Hopkins to try to put the bite on the rich. And we still
had these two book chapters kicking around. Frank Amos said, "Well now, I know
the religious editor down there at Harpers, an old friend of mine, Gene Exman."
He said, "Why don't you take these two book chapters, your story and the
introduction to the book, down there and show them to Gene and see what he
thinks about them." So I took the chapters down. To my great suprise, Gene who
was to become a great friend of ours, looked at the chapters and said, "Why Mr.
Wilson, could you write a whole book like this?" "Well, I said, "Sure, sure."
There was more talk about it. I guess he went in and showed it to Mr. Canfield,
the big boss, and another meeting was had. The upshot was that Harpers intimated
that they would pay me as the budding author, 15 hundred in advance royalties,
bringing enough money in to enable me to finish the book. I felt awful good
about that. It made me feel like I was an author or something. I felt real good
about it but after awhile, not so good. Because I began to reason, and so did
the other boys, if this guy Wilson eats up the 15 hundred bucks while he's doing
this book, after the book gets out, it will take a long time to catch up. And if
this thing gets him publicity, what are we going to do with the inquiries? And,
after all, what's a lousy 10% royalty anyway? The 15 hundred still looked pretty
big to me. Then we thought too, now here's a fine publisher like Harpers, but if
this book if and when done, should prove to be the main textbook for A.A., why
would we want our main means of propagation in the hands of somebody else?
Shouldn't we control this thing? At this point, the book project really began.

I had a guy helping me on this thing who had red hair and ten times my energy
and he was some promoter. He said, "Bill, this is something, come on with me."
We walk into a stationary store, we buy a pad of blank stock certificates and we
write across the top of them `Works Publishing Company'- Par Value 25 Dollars.
So we take the pad of these stock certificates, (of course we didn't bother to
incorporate it, that didn't happen for several more years) we took this pad of
stock certificates to the first A.A. meeting where you shouldn't mix money with
spirituality. We said to the drunks "look, this thing is gonna be a cinch.
Parker will take a third of this thing for services rendered. I, the author will
take a third for services rendered, and you can have a third of these stock
certificates par 25 if you'll just start paying up on your stock. If you only
want one share, it's only five dollars a month, 5 months, see?" And the drunks
all gave us this stony look that said, "What the hell, you mean to say you're
only asking us to buy stock in a book that you ain't written yet?" "Why sure " ,
we said "If Harpers will put money in this thing why shouldn't you? Harpers said
it's gonna be a good book." But the drunks still gave us this stony stare. We
had to think up some more arguments. "We've been looking at pricing costs of the
books, boys. We get a book here, ya know, 400 or 450 pages, it ought to sell for
about $3.50." Now back in those days we found on inquiry from the printers that
that $3.50 book could be printed for 35 cents making a 1,000% profit, of course,
we didn't mention the other expenses, just the printing costs. "So boys, just
think on it, when these books move out by the carload we will be printing them
for 35 cents and we'll be selling them direct mail for $3.50. How can you lose?"
The drunks still gave us this stony stare. No salt. Well, we figured we had to
have a better argument than that. Harpers said it was a good book, you can print
them for 35~ and sell them for $3.50, but how are we going to convince the
drunks that we could move carload lots of them? Millions of dollars.

So we get the idea we'll go up to the Readers Digest, and we got an appointment
with Mr. Kenneth Paine, thee managing editor there. Gee, I never forget the day
we got off the train up at Pleasantville and were ushered into his office. We
excitedly told him the story of this wonderful budding society. We dwelled upon
the friendship of Mr. Rockefeller and Harry Emerson Fosdick. You know we were
traveling in good company with Paine. The society, by the way, was about to
publish a textbook, then in the process of being written and we were wondering,
Mr. Paine, if this wouldn't be a matter of tremendous interest to the Reader's
Digest? Having in mind of course that the Reader's Digest has a circulation of
12 million readers and if we could only get a free ad of this coming book in the
Digest we really would move something, ya see?

"Well," Mr. Paine said, "this sounds extremely interesting, I like this idea,
why I think it'll be an absolutely ideal piece for the Digest. How soon do you
think this new book will be out Mr. Wilson?" I said, "We've got a couple of
chapters written, ahem, if we can get right at it, Mr. Paine, uh, you know, uh,
probably uh, this being October, we ought to get this thing out by April or next
May. "Why," Mr. Paine said, "I'm sure the Digest would like a thing like this.
Mr. Wilson, I'll take it up with the editorial board, and when the time is right
and you get already to shoot, come up and we'll put a special feature writer on
this thing and we'll tell all about your society." And then my promoter friend
said, "But Mr. Paine, will you mention the new book in the piece?" "Yes," said
Mr. Paine, "we will mention the book." Well, that was all we needed, we went
back to the drunks and said, "now look, boys, there are positively millions in
this – how can you miss? Harpers says its going to be a good book. We buy them
for 35~ from the printer, we sell them for $3.50 and the Reader's Digest is
going to give us a free add in its' piece and boys, those books will move out by
the carload. How can you miss? And after all, we only need 4 or 5 thousand
bucks."

So we began to sell the shares of Works Publishing, not yet incorporated, par
value $25 and at $5 per month to the poor people. Some people bought as little
as one and one guy bought 10 shares. We sold a few shares to non—alcoholics and
my promoter friend who was to get one-third interest was a very important man in
this transaction because he went out and kept collecting the money from the
drunks so that little Ruthie Hock and I could keep working on the book and Lois
could have some groceries (even though she was still working in that department
store).

So, the preparation started and some more chapters were done and we went to A.A.
meetings in New York with these chapters in the rough. It wasn't like
chicken-in-the-rough; the boys didn't eat those chapters up at all. I suddenly
discovered that I was in this terrific whirlpool of arguments. I was just the
umpire - I finally had to stipulate. "Well boys, over here you got the Holly
Rollers who say we need all the good old-fashioned stuff in the book, and over
here you tell me we've got to have a psychological book, and that never cured
anybody, and they didn't do very much with us in the missions, so I guess you
will have to leave me just to be the umpire. I'll scribble out some roughs here
and show them to you and let's get the comments in." So we fought, bled and died
our way through one chapter after another. We sent them out to Akron and they
were peddled around and there were terrific hassles about what should go in this
book and what should not. Meanwhile, we set drunks up to write their stories or
we had newspaper people to write the stories for them to go in the back of the
book. We had an idea that we'd have a text and all and then we'd have stories
all about the drunks who were staying sober.

Then came that night when we were up around Chapter 5. As you know I'd gone on
about myself which was natural after all. And then the little introductory
chapter and we dealt with the agnostic and we described alcoholism, but, boy, we
finally got to the point where we really had to say what the book was all about
and how this deal works. As I told you this was a six step program then. On this
particular evening, I was lying in bed on Clinton Street wondering what the
deuce this next chapter would be about. The idea came to me, well, we need a
definite statement of concrete principles that these drunks can't wiggle out of.
Can't be any wiggling out of this deal at all. And this six step program had two
big gaps in-between they'll wiggle out of. Moreover if this book goes out to
distant readers, they have to have got to have an absolutely explicit program by
which to go. This was while I was thinking these thoughts, while my imaginary
ulcer was paining me and while I was mad as hell at these drunks because the
money was coming in too slow. Some had the stock and weren't paying up. A couple
of guys came in and they gave me a big argument and we yelled and shouted and I
finally went down and laid on the bed with my ulcer and I said, "poor me."

There was a pad of paper by the bed and I reached for that and said "you've got
to break this program up into small pieces so they can't wiggle out. So I
started writing, trying to bust it up into little pieces. And when I got the
pieces set down on that piece of yellow paper, I put numbers on them and was
rather agreeably surprised when it came out to twelve. I said, "That's a good
significant figure in Christianity and mystic lore. "Then I noticed that instead
of leaving the God idea to the last, I'd got it up front but I didn't pay much
attention to that, it looked pretty good. Well, the next meeting comes along;
I'd gone on beyond the steps trying to amplify them in the rest of that chapter
to the meeting and boy, pandemonium broke loose. "What do you mean by changing
the program.. .what about this, what about that, this thing is overloaded with
God. We don't like this, you've got these guys on their knees.. .stand them up!"
A lot of

these drunks are scared to death of being Godly.. .let's take God out of it
entirely." Such were the arguments that we had. Out of that terrific hassle came
the Twelve Steps. That argument caused the introduction of the phrase which has
been a lifesaver to thousands....it was certainly none of my doing. I was on the
pious side then, you see, still suffering from this big hot flash of mine. The
idea of "God as you understand Him" came out of that perfectly ferocious
argument and we put that in.

Well, little by little things ground on, little by little the drunks put in
money and we kept an office open in Newark which was the office of a defunct
business where I tried to establish my friend. The money ran low at times and
Ruthie Hock worked for no pay. We gave her plenty of stock in the Works
Publishing of course. All you had to do is tear it off the pay, par 25 have a
week's salary, dear. So, we got around to about January, 1939. Somebody said
"hadn't we better test this thing out; hadn't we better make a pre-publication
copy, a multilith or mimeographed copy of this text and a few of the personal
stories that had come in - try it out on the preacher, on the doctor, the
Catholic Committee on Publications, psychiatrists, policemen, fishwives,
housewives, drunks, everybody. Just to see if we've got anything that goes
against the grain anyplace and also to find out if we can't get some better
ideas here?" So at considerable expense, we got this pre-publication copy made;
we peddled it around and comments came back, some of them very helpful. It went,
among other places, to the Catholic Committee on Publications in New York and at
that time we had only one Catholic member to take it there and he had just
gotten out of the asylum and hadn't had anything to do with preparing the book.

The book passed inspection and the stories came in. Somehow we got them edited,
somehow we got the galleys together. We got up to the printing time. Meanwhile,
the drunks had been kind of slow on those subscription payments and a little
further on I was able to go up to Charlie Towns where old Doc Silkworth held
forth. Charlie believed in us so we put the slug on to Charlie for $2,500 bucks.
Charlie didn't want any stocks, he wanted a promissory note on the book not yet
written. So, we got the $2,500 from Charlie routed around through the Alcoholic
Foundation so that it could be tax exempt. Also, we had blown $6,000 in these 9
months in supporting the 3 of us in an office and the till was getting low. We
still had to get this book printed. So, we go up to Cornwall Press, which is the
largest printer in the world, where we'd made previous inquiries and we asked
about printing and they said they'd be glad to do it and how many books would we
like? We said that was hard to estimate. Of course our membership is very small
at the present time and we wouldn't sell many to the membership but after all,
the Readers Digest is going to print a plug about it to its' 2 million readers.
This book should go out in carloads when it's printed.

The printer was none other than dear old Mr. Blackwell, one of our Christian
friends and Mr. Blackwell said "How much of a down payment are you going to
make? How many books would you like printed?" "Well," we said "we'll be
conservative, let's print 5,000 just to start with." Mr. Blackwell asked us what
we were going to use for money. We said that we wouldn't need much, just a few
hundred dollars on account would be all right. I told you, after all, we're
traveling in very good company, friends of Mr. Rockefeller and all that.

So, Blackwell started printing the 5,000 books; the plates were made and the
galleys were read. Gee, all of a sudden we thought of the Reader's Digest, so we
go up to there, walk in on Mr. Kenneth Paine and say "We're all ready to shoot."
And Mr. Paine replies "Shoot what - Oh yes, I remember you two, Mr. Marcus and
Mr. Wilson. You gentlemen were here last fall, I told you the Reader's Digest
would be interested in this new work and in your book. Well, right after you
were here, I consulted our editorial board and to my great surprise they didn't
like the idea at all and I forgot to tell you!" Oh boy, we had the drunks with
$5,000 bucks in it, Charlie Towns hooked for $2,500 bucks and $2,500 on the cuff
with the printer. There was $500 left in the bank.. .what in the duce would we
do?

Morgan Ryan, the good looking Irishman who had taken the book over to the
Catholic Committee on Publication, had been in an earlier time a good ad man. He
said that he knew Gabriel Heatter. "Gabriel is putting on these 3 minute heart
to heart programs on the radio. I'll get an interview with him and maybe he'll
interview me on the radio about all this," said Ryan. So, our spirits rose once
again. Then all of a sudden we had a big chill, suppose this Irishman got drunk
before Heatter interviewed him? So, we went to see Heatter and lo and behold,
Heatter said he would interview him and then we got still more scared. So, we
rented a room in the downtown Athletic Club and we put Ryan in there with a day
and night guard for ten days. Meanwhile, our spirits rose again. We could see
those books just going out in carloads. Then my promoter friend said "Look,
there should be a follow-up on a big thing like this here interview. It'll be
heard all over the country... .national network. I think folks that are the
market for this book are the doctors.. .the physicians. I suggest that we pitch
the last $500 that we have in the treasury on a postal card shower which will go
to every physician east of the Rocky Mountains. On this postal card we'll say
"Hear all about Alcoholics Anonymous on Gabriel Heatter's Program - spend $3.50
for the book Alcoholics Anonymous, sure-cure for alcoholism." So, we spent the
last $500 on the postal card shower and mailed them out.

They managed to keep Ryan sober although he since hasn't made it. All the drunks
had their ears glued to the radio. The group market in Alcoholics Anonymous was
already saturated because you see, we had 49 stockholders and they'd all gotten
a book free, then we had 28 guys with stories and they all got a free book. So
we had run out of the A.A. books. But we could see the book moving out in
carloads to these doctors and their patients. Sure enough, Ryan is interviewed.
Heatter pulled out the old tremelo stop and we could see the book orders coming
back in carloads.

Well, we just couldn't wait to go down to old Post Office Box 658, Church Street
Annex, the address printed in the back of the old books. We hung at it for about
three days and then my friends Hank and Ruthie Hock and I went over and we
looked in Box 658. It wasn't a locked box, you just looked through the glass. We
could see that there were a few of these postal cards. I had a terrible sinking
sensation. But my friend the promoter said "Bill, they can't put all those cards
in the box, they've got bags full of it out there." We go to the clerk and he
brings out 12 lousy postal cards, 10 of them were completely illegible, written
by doctors, druggists, monkeys? We had exactly two orders for the book
Alcoholics Anonymous and we were absolutely and utterly stone broke.

The Sheriff then moved in on the office, poor Mr. Blackwell wondered what to do
for money and felt like taking the book over at that very opportune moment, the
house which Lois and I lived in was foreclosed and we and our furniture were set
out on the street. Such was the state of the book Alcoholics Anonymous and the
state of grace the Wilson's were in the summer of 1939. Moreover, a great cry
went up from the drunks, "What about our $4,500?" Even Charlie (Towns) who was
pretty well off was a little uneasy about the note for $2,500. What would we do?
What could we do? We put our goods in storage on the cuff, we couldn't even pay
the dray man. An A. A. lent us his summer camp, another A.A. lent us his car,
the folks around New York began to pass the hat for groceries for the Wilson's
and supplied us with $50 per month. So, we had a lot of discontented
stockholders, $50 bucks a month, a summer camp and an automobile with which to
revive the failing fortunes of the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

We began to shop around from one magazine to another asking if they would give
us some publicity, nobody bit and it looked like the whole dump was going to be
foreclosed; book, office, Wilson's, everything. One of the boys in New York
happened to be a little bit prosperous at the time and he had a fashionable
clothing business on Fifth Avenue which we learned was mostly on mortgage,
having drunk nearly all of it up. His name was Bert Taylor. I went up to Bert
one day and I said "Bert, there is a

promise of an article in Liberty Magazine, I just got it today but it won't come
out until next September. It's going to be called `Alcoholics and God' and will
be printed by Fulton Oursler the editor of Liberty Magazine. Bert, when that
piece is printed, these books will go out in carload lots. We need $1,000 bucks
to get us through the summer." Bert asked, "Well, are you sure that the article
is going to be printed?" "Oh yes," I said, "that's final." He said, "O.K.,I
haven't got the dough but there's this man down in Baltimore, Mr. Cochran, he's
a customer of mine.. .he buys his pants in here. Let me call him up." Bert gets
on long-distance with Mr. Cochran in Baltimore, a very wealthy man, and says to
him "Mr. Cochran, from time to time I mentioned this alcoholic fellowship to
which I belong. Our fellowship has just come out with a magnificent new
textbook.. .a sure cure for alcoholism... .Mr. Cochran, this is something we
think every public library in America should have, and Mr. Cochran, the retail
price of the book is $2.50. Mr. Cochran, if you'll just buy a couple of thousand
of those books and put them in the large libraries, of course we would sell them
for that purpose at a considerable discount." Mr. Cochran, some publicity will
come out next fall about this new book Alcoholics Anonymous, but in the
meantime, these books are moving slowly and we need, say, $1,000 to tide us
over. Would you loan the Works Publishing Company this?" Mr. Cochran asked what
the balance sheet of the Works Publishing Company looked like and after he
learned what it looked like he said "no thanks." So Bert then said, "Now Mr.
Cochran, you know me. Would you loan the money to me on the credit of my
business?" "Why certainly," Mr. Cochran said, "send me down your note." So Bert
hocked the business that a year or two later was to go broke anyway and saved
the book Alcoholics Anonymous. The thousand dollars lasted until the Liberty
article came out. 800 inquiries came in as a result of that, we moved a few
books and we barely squeaked through the year 1939. In all this period we heard
nothing from John D. Rockefeller when all of a sudden, in about February, 1940,
Mr. Richardson came to a trustees meeting of the Foundation and announced that
he had great news. We were told that Mr. Rockefeller, whom we had not heard from
since 1937, had been watching us all this time with immense interest. Moreover,
Mr. Rockefeller wanted to give this fellowship a dinner to which he would invite
his friends to see the beginnings of this new and promising start.

Mr. Richardson produced the invitation list. Listed were the President of Chase
Bank, Wendell Wilkie, and all kinds of very prominent people, many of them
extremely rich. I mean, after a quick look at the list I figured it would add up
to a couple of billion dollars. So, we felt maybe at least, you know, there
would be some money in sight. So, the dinner came, and we got Harry Emerson
Fosdick who had reviewed the A.A. book and he gave us a wonderful plug. Dr.
Kennedy came and spoke on the medical attitudes. He'd seen a patient of his, a
very hopeless gal, Marty Mann, recover. I got up, talked about life among the
"anonymie," and the bankers assembled 75 strong and in great wealth, sat at the
tables with the alcoholics. The bankers had come probably for some sort of
command performance and they were a little suspicious that perhaps this was
another prohibition deal, but they warmed up under the influence of the
alcoholics.

Mr. Ryan, the hero of the Heatter episode and still sober, was asked at his
table by a distinguished banker, "Why, Mr. Ryan, we presumed you were in the
banking business." Ryan says, "not at all sir, I just got out of Great Stone
Asylum." Well, that intrigued the bankers and they were all warming up.
Unfortunately, Mr. Rockefeller couldn't get to the dinner. He was quite sick
that night so he sent his son, a wonderful gent, Nelson Rockefeller, in his
place instead. After the show was over and everyone was in fine form, we were
all ready again for the big touch. Nelson Rockefeller got up and speaking for
his father said, "My father sends word that he is so sorry that he cannot be
here tonight, but is so glad that so many of his friends can see the beginnings
of this great and wonderful thing. Something that affected his life more than
almost anything that had crossed his path." A stupendous plug that was! Then
Nelson said, "Gentlemen,

this is a work that proceeds on good will. It requires no money." Whereupon, the
2 billion dollars got up and walked out. That was a terrific letdown, but we
weren't let down for too long.

Again, the hand of Providence had intervened. Right after dinner, Mr.
Rockefeller asked that the talks and pamphlets be published. He approached the
rather defunct Works Publishing Company and said he would like to buy 400 books
to send to all of the bankers who had come to the dinner and to those who had
not. Seeing that this was for a good purpose, we let him have the books cheap.
He bought them cheaper than anybody has since. We sold 400 books to John D.
Rockefeller Jr. for one buck apiece to send to his banker friends. He sent out
the books and pamphlets and with it, he wrote a personal letter and signed every
dog gone one of them. In this letter he stated how glad he was that his friends
had been able to see the great beginning of what he thought would be a wonderful
thing, how deeply it had affected him and then he added (unfortunately)
"gentlemen, this is a work of goodwill. It needs little, if any, money. I am
giving these good people $1,000." So, the bankers all received Mr. Rockefeller's
letter and counted it up on the cuff. Well, if John D. is giving $1,000, me with
only a few million should send these boys about $10! One who had an alcoholic
relative in tow sent us $300. So, with Mr. Rockefeller's $1,000 plus the
solicitation of all the rest of these bankers, we got together the princely sum
of $3,000 which was the first outside contribution of the Alcoholic Foundation.

The $3,000 was divided equally between Smithy and me so that we could keep going
somehow. We solicited that dinner list for 5 years and got about $3,000 a year
for 5 years. At the end of that time, we were able to say to Mr. Rockefeller,
"We don't need any more money. The book income is helping to support our office,
the groups are contributing to fill in and the royalties are taking care of Dr.
Bob and Bill Wilson."

Now you see Mr. Rockefeller's decision not to give us money was a blessing. He
gave of himself. He gave of himself when he was under public ridicule for his
views about alcohol. He said to the whole world "this is good." The story went
out on the wires all over the world. People ran into the bookstores to get the
new book and boy, we really began to get some book orders. An awful lot of
inquiries came into the little office at Vessy Street. The book money began to
pay Ruth. We hired one more to help. There was Ruthie, another gal and me. And
then came Jack Alexander with his terrific article in the Saturday Evening Post.
Then an immense lot of inquiries... .6,000 or 7,000 of them. Alcoholics
Anonymous had become a national institution.

Such is the story of the preparation of the book Alcoholics Anonymous and of its
subsequent effect, you all have some notion. The proceeds of that book have
repeatedly saved the office in New York. But, it isn't the money that has come
out of it that matters, it is the message that it carried. That transcended the
mountains and the sea and is even at this moment, lighting candles in dark
caverns and on distant beaches.
--- In GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com, "Kohl" <kohl@...> wrote:
>
> Hi John:
>     In regard to help with the analysis...
> (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSOwatch/message/6606)
>     I'd be willing to look it all over again but I get lost.  It appears
> that you start with a transcript of Bill W's 1954 speech (which I'm slightly
> familiar with) but then it looks like most of the 144 paragraphs are related
> to or directly from AA comes of age. Can you forward the speech or drop a
> link to where-ever you found it online?
>     Your comments are eye-opening but like I've said, I'm having trouble
> with the precise references.  Some documentation references would be
> helpful.  For example on the stocks there is already a good reference at
> http://aamo.info/aa/history/100men/about$.htm with links to the prespectus
> that Hank produced. Maybe document the page numbers so folks can easily
> identify... or so I can later post extracts (fair use policy) on the
> website?
>     In the end, after good referencing and such we ought to be able to
> publish this mini-history along with the supporting documents and raise the
> questions you point out as well as expecting more input for various
> historians about the analysis.
>
> Bless
> Norm
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: johng12fellow
> To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 3:14 AM
> Subject: [GSOwatch] Re: When did it start?
>
>
> <snip>
> See http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSOwatch/message/6606
>

Hi John:
     In regard to help with the analysis...
(http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSOwatch/message/6606)
     I'd be willing to look it all over again but I get lost.  It appears
that you start with a transcript of Bill W's 1954 speech (which I'm slightly
familiar with) but then it looks like most of the 144 paragraphs are related
to or directly from AA comes of age. Can you forward the speech or drop a
link to where-ever you found it online?
     Your comments are eye-opening but like I've said, I'm having trouble
with the precise references.  Some documentation references would be
helpful.  For example on the stocks there is already a good reference at
http://aamo.info/aa/history/100men/about$.htm with links to the prespectus
that Hank produced. Maybe document the page numbers so folks can easily
identify... or so I can later post extracts (fair use policy) on the
website?
     In the end, after good referencing and such we ought to be able to
publish this mini-history along with the supporting documents and raise the
questions you point out as well as expecting more input for various
historians about the analysis.

Bless
Norm

----- Original Message -----
From: johng12fellow
To: GSOwatch@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 3:14 AM
Subject: [GSOwatch] Re: When did it start?


<snip>
See http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSOwatch/message/6606