Traditions War: a pathway to peace
Chapter 12
The Superboard
THE
SUPERBOARD
Voted down again and again in the
1980's the idea of having a single superboard over all of world services was
finally accomplished by creating a Fellowship that did not know what was
happening. In the ten years of the WSO inventory plus a few years for its
implementation, members who would have opposed the changes fell away. These were
not complainers or members who did not work their Steps. They were the most
devoted and brave members in our history. They helped form all the new regions,
areas and groups. Some few were able to stay clean through it all, but many will
have nothing to do with service beyond group level. Others who got clean after
our group conscience process was shut down for the inventory never knew what
they were missing. By the late 1990's, the opposition had moved on with their
lives, members had adapted by beginning to ignore the going�s and coming�s
of world service and concentrate more on their personal recovery and carrying
the message. Somehow, NA survived all this and alternative service efforts began
to bubble up like water springs in a parking lot. You can cover it up, but water
will find a way. You can block the Spirit but the Spirit will find a way. Using
manipulation and control to take advantage of people who have surrendered to a
terrible disease and trust you with their lives is not only un-thinkable, it is
illegal. But you will never hear an outcry because our internal struggles are
just that � we keep them within NA. It is not our way to appeal to the law of
the land. We are in touch with a much higher power.
Distanced from World Services by
what began as part of the California legal code - that a corporation could not
be under the direct control of another, unincorporated, group or undefined body
of people, the World Board now controls effectively everything that happens in
the rooms of Narcotics Anonymous. While the shadows of our former organization
are still in place, they only have a say if the Board wants to listen. Some
members will attack you if you point this out as if you had done it to them,
since you are aware of it.
Board Authority Motion to be inserted here -
Ed
The path to self determination is
still open to us, although in the past several years there may be things
established as a matter of law that we have no knowledge of or fail to
understand. Many still believe that something voted in can later be voted out
but this might not be the case. We don�t need a lawyer to stay clean or work
our NA program. We can even write books if we want to and no one can stop us. We
live in a free country. The attractiveness of being a part of a spiritual
Fellowship bonded together by gratitude, concern for others and a sense of
wonder is great. Joining a corporation might be a fine thing also but it is a
different thing.
[I
have asked for some current information on the Super Board and what it is doing
right now. Hearing nothing is not the same as imagining nothing is going on. I
believe there are people who are so fear based, they would cheerfully throw out
the �baby with the bath water�, forgetting what is important here to the
members. We�ll see what comes in. NOTE:Ron - do what you can to
check for recent minutes, reports, anything you can dig up. � Ed]
The
blindness of the �un-spiritual� is incredible and they will inevitably come
up with statements like one heard several years ago. One of the NA members
working with the group master minding the super board repeated what he had heard
in a session: �This new structure is just setting in place what we have been
doing for years.� By announcing this, he was in effect describing the actions
of people who circumvented our structure by power of association and with full
view and knowledge of participants in their closed circle. So, by not playing
�above board�, they have cancelled out the service structure written and
supported by the Fellowship in the seventies and eighties and substituted a new
structure that no one understands. Well, there might be a few hundred who
understand but that is not enough to bind the Fellowship to their agreements.
And certainly we cannot approve that which we don�t understand. NA members
have never thought putting the entire control in the hands of a few people was a
bright idea. It was opposed in year after Conference year through the 1980�s
until the inventory suspended the WSC for a decade and a new Fellowship was
allowed to grow up without fully understanding the issues. That is why there is
a disparity of feeling and experience between members who got clean before 1988
or after 1990.
hits in 2004!
Reprinted from the
N.A. FELLOWSHIP USE ONLY
Copyright � December 2001
Victor Hugo Sewell, Jr.
NA Foundation Group
6685 Bobby John Road Atlanta, GA 30349 USA
404.312.5166
All rights reserved. This draft may be copied by members of Narcotics Anonymous for the purpose of writing input for future drafts, enhancing the recovery of NA members and for the general welfare of the Narcotics Anonymous Fellowship as a whole. The use of an individual name is simply a registration requirement of the Library of Congress and not a departure from the spirit or letter of the Pledge, Preface or Introduction of this book. Any reproduction by individuals or organizations outside the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous is prohibited. Any reproduction of this document for personal or corporate monetary gain is prohibited.
Last update January 12, 2006