NA SOCIETY

The NA Society has existed since addicts first started to meet on a regular basis and live the Steps within the spirit of the Traditions of NA. We find our ‘trusted servants’ from within this Society. Personal service has always been provided by our members and this characterizes our Society. The Society functions in order to ensure that our needs as a Fellowship are met. While the rule of the NA Society is inclusion for all, individuals have the freedom to remove themselves. We seek to carry the NA message of hope and recovery to all who seek it. The members of the NA Society have formed and functioned in the service structure during the years between the early Seventies to the Nineties. Some parts of the existing structure have worked well while other areas have had major problems. It is now a generally accepted fact that no structure can meet all of our needs. In the attempt to meet more of our needs we need something that is more like NA itself. Something that can reach into our lives and where we live. Whether we agree on issues or not, we are still members of NA and have the rights of membership. Members who show up at fundraisers are an example of this non-structural support. Any activity that service committees undertake remain totally dependent on the support from the members of the Fellowship. Members of the NA Society are involved in the voluntary service structure as well as providing the energy and love that is needed to make it work.

The force that gives The NA Society its validity is generated when we stay true to our announced purposes. We maintain our spiritual integrity by following the letter and spirit of our Traditions. Violations of integrity diminish this life-giving force. We as a Fellowship define morality simply as applying the proper of energy within human systems. Morality allows us to take action and to be acted upon without a sense of violation of our personal spiritual directions. Virtue is simply living within spiritual principles so that the energy that we develop will build up our strength rather than being a steady drain that leaves us empty. Since we each contribute to as well as draw from our common resources, we each have a definite personal interest in the growth and continuation of NA. We create a collective and multifaceted approach to solutions. Networks of members who seek, distribute, and discuss information can go far beyond what is possible within structured approaches. The results of these efforts can find a route to greater availability and increased consideration. We work together to strengthen the ties that bind us together.

The NA Society also provides us with non-structural and informal forums in which we can address all things happening in NA with ongoing interests, projects, and goals in mind. It has long been recognizable that many of our members work programs that place great emphasize personal service. This has always been the first and last level of service without which none of the other levels of service make any sense. Many of our members have fulfilled their commitments to service and continue to support the service structure with their participation, study, and general discussions with others who love and have a commitment to NA. Obviously, this is the only place that we can find the ongoing accumulation of knowledge and experience.

The natural tendency that we each have to follow up when things personally interest us creates a foundation of members increasingly informed and experienced with doing the things that we need to know and do in order to grow and flourish as a Fellowship. Information flows along unusual paths within and throughout the Fellowship. We addicts have discovered many ways to find out what's happening and will always find out what we need to know. There will always be people that don't know this and they will, at times, appear to score victories at the expense of the Fellowship. Many of our members have felt extreme emotional pain over some of the deliberate ‘wrongs’ done in the name of service. The main injury from these ‘wrongdoings’ damages our faith in one of our most valuable resources: Our loving and devoted ‘trusted servants.’ One of our strengths is the ability to come back repeatedly and endure the pain. We learn how to reach deep inside ourselves and find the spiritual strength and guidance to continue and do what we alone can do: to do the will of a loving God to bring hope and recovery to the sick and dying addicts who reach out for help. The NA Society will endure in the form of addicts who have found a way to recover and share it willingly in order to keep it.

Petty games, bureaucratic manipulation, and betrayal of trust are actions that will become clearly apparent over a period of time. These tactics can only fail against the force of gratitude, love, and dedication. Clean, we can learn, discuss, and share. Our common welfare increases as our concerns narrow. At times, our restraint and trust in God may be mistaken to be a lack of resolution and the energy it that takes to be effective. Many of us have found that by simply keeping the faith and coming back, we qualify for the miracles of tomorrow. If we concede that the troubles described above come from ignorance of spiritual principles, the remedy must come from those of us who have learned about and apply spiritual principles. This takes time and is one of the main functions of the NA Society. We strive to explain to and give comfort to those who experience the reality of the pain that comes from betrayal on one hand while working for positive solutions on the other.

The rapid growth of our Fellowship and the proliferation of structural services in the last few years has created the need for us to find a balance. This must be done within the membership of the NA Fellowship to counterbalance the service committee meetings. We will most likely never find that perfect set of guidelines. When our service structure was formulated, it was certainly beneficial if not absolutely necessary to model our service structure after existing Fellowships. Our present service structure was written and approved in the middle Seventies. We began the painful process of its implementation in 1976. Today, we can look back and take inventory what has worked and where we need improvement. Studying how people come together in working relationships will reveal some common answers that anyone may find in their local library or bookstore. We encourage each one of you to go and learn everything that you can. This will assist you to have a better understanding and helping serve others through NA. Too often, the emphasis is placed on the information that we have acquired and this takes the focus away from the needs of addicts seeking recovery. Structural service lends itself to the development of personal conflicts about loyalty, viewpoints, and levels of understanding. It is too easy for these conflicts to compete with our desire to help others. Helping others becomes an impossible task when we fight among ourselves. The identification that exists between our members holds us together when other bonds seem to have been broken.

With all the changes going on in ‘World Services’ today, many addicts that I talk to seem unsure of exactly where they now fit in. Many long-time trusted servants, who aren't in agreement with these changes yet still want to serve, are unwilling to do so under the conditions placed upon them by the existing structure.

The application of political power within the service structure creates problems. When the people who lack an understanding of surrender encounter people who are seriously trying to apply spiritual principles in their lives, strange conflicts emerge. The ‘powerful’ may appear to be heavy-handed and obtuse in their apparent ignorance of what is really going on in NA. The ‘surrendered’ seem to be ineffective and at times illogical. The assortment of volunteers that give service to the NA principles, members, and objectives can appear to be very different to someone who has not been schooled in the NA way of doing things. Looking at service as an extension of our personal will portrays a different picture than does looking at service as an extension of God's will. To realize the ramifications of this difference, we can imagine the difference between merely doing a daily task adequately rather than giving it our very best effort. In either case, we are the ones who are there with our own special talents and potentials.

The difference lies in our attitude and our attention to detail. The capacity that we each have to strive for excellence may exceed our expectations greatly in one case and fall short of adequate in another simply because of a lack of enthusiasm or effort. When we look at things this way, we understand that the entire volunteer effort is dependent upon keeping faith and respecting people's feelings. This understanding places some rather clear limitations and requirements on what happens within our Fellowship whether structurally in service or in recovery meetings. Our experience indicates that whenever we permit outside forces to intrude, we suffer. We get good, and then get even better, at focusing on the needs of the addicts seeking recovery. This requires us to become spiritually adept at keeping our egos in check and working with others who sometimes have difficulty in this area.

Many ask, "What about unity?" Well, unity takes place when we, as individuals and groups, base our service on the same primary purpose and use the Traditions as our common map in so doing. This keeps us all headed in the same direction toward the same goal which unites us in purpose. It makes no difference whether we walk, drive a car or truck, fly or hitchhike. It's only important that we keep moving in the same direction and follow the rules (Traditions) ‘of the road.’ We must travel together on this journey in order to get the message of hope for recovery to addicts who might die from this disease. We created the existing service structure and all of its different components and have the freedom to choose whether to use it or not. We may choose to not use any of it or to use any part of it that we feel is helpful to us in achieving our ‘primary purpose.’ We may, at any time decide to create other tools for service and we don't need anyone's permission to do so. We are limited only by our imagination and abilities. This is where the importance of ‘The NA Society’ is most visible. Each of us individually has our own gifts. Some of us write while some enjoy organizing dances and other functions. Some relate well to those in jails and institutions while others enjoy working with the public. Some of us feel comfortable in accepting responsibility on a grand scale such as undertaking major projects many others feel more comfortable when they are chairing a meeting or just making coffee. It is our responsibility as individual members of this Society to discover and use our gifts for the betterment of the Fellowship. Each member has their own unique place in The NA Society. We individually have our own abilities, gifts, and ability to meet responsibilities that we use in order to contribute to our ‘primary purpose.’ All we need to do is to free ourselves and each other so that we can follow the will of our Higher Power and remain united in our efforts through the spiritual principals of the Traditions. We need to remember that not a single one of us can do everything but all together we can do everything. We just need to do our part.