Re: a bit more direct

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: Hey, I found this letter from 1996 and paste it here so as to lend strength to my words that : we saw it coming but could not stop it at the time. The best we could do was hang on and try to : do something productive till the storm passed. : In Loving Service, : Bo S. : Dear R, : Sorry for the stess, be glad you're not the turkey! I had a wonderful thanksgiving including calls from my oldest son, a talk with my dad and aunt. I spent the day with the local Fellowship sharing food and love. In the evening, I went to a sponsees home for the first time since he moved in with a young woman named Jeanie. She has three children and GJ has two daughters so it's really a housefull. I had GJ take a picture of me and if it comes out, you will get to see what I look like soon. : These questions are unintentionally involved. I just got in from working and it is six am, yet I feel terrific and will give a short answer. Thank you for being in my life. I will try to attach just one .jpg file. I did my first batch ever yesterday...! : First of all, when I got into world services as the WSC Lit Chair, there had only been one before me. It was all just getting started back in 1979. I had been working with the Chair of the Board of Trustees and the World Service Office while Jimmy Kinnon was still office manager. The set up was, we weren't even supposed to write literature. That was to be done out in the Fellowship and we were supposed to play a helpful role. So, when the Guidelines were expanded into the Handbook for NA Literature Committees, the whole idea was to help, not do for, the Fellowship and its members. Somehow this has gotten twisted so far around that most members think WSO approved and Fellowship Approved are the same thing or worse, that only the WSO approval really counts. : Let me ask you something! If you were fixing up a spoon and knocked a book off the table and read something that helped you stay clean, would that be a miracle? That is the kind of stuff I love to participate in writing. Writings done by some professional who can satisfy the clerk mentality and deal with the politics of the Office leave me cold. I like stuff that makes me laugh or cry. I like stuff I wish I had written. My greatest kick is to help others overcome the barriers and write great stuff. It really turns me on. : The current process is for a piece to be proposed by the Fellowship - and the office can propose a piece or get someone to do so. There is an A, B, C and D list with the priority given to the A list. There is a piece on sponsorship and the step working guides on the A list this year and they are going out to people for a four week period. When a piece has been gone over by the lit committee to their satisfaction, they send it out for a time in a review form to attract interest and input. Working with the input, they reach a point where they feel they can go no further and put it our for approve, or disapprove. There is no such thing as approve with input because it would change the piece, etc. They seem to have abbreviated or eliminated the review process in recent years. Honestly, it is hard to get a grip on who is doing what right now and how much is according to the approved structure and how much is according to the way the committee wants to do it. It is a confusing time because someone got the idea to do an inventory which has shut down our service structure. But, they have spent more money and traveled more places in the last few years so it is hard to say just what got shut down and what is still being done and by what sanction. I am very critical of all this because it has given us a crop of people with four or five years who have never seen a working structure and group conscience has gone out the window. It is almost impossible to get anyone together for a CAR workshop (pre-Conference Agenda Report). So, when something passes at world level today, we have a tiny number of people who have any idea of what is going on. I would say something way less than one percent even have an interest or an idea in these times. There is a Machiavelian effort to confuse, tire and ram something called the Guide to Service down the Fellowship throat right now. I mean if you were to really check this out, phone calls, reports, documents, WSC Minutes, etc. you would just puke, Rosemary. It is as upsetting and rotten as it can be. What saves it? Faith. Love. The sure knowledge that God' got it covered. We addicts have never gotten anything easy. Do you realize we have changed the world in the last decade? Addicts still die in whole sale lots and NA must continue to grow if there is going to be any chance for them at all. Most of our infighting is due to the huge number of members we have today. : There is no WSO approval process. I wrote the Handbook for NA Lit Coms based on group conscience sessions at the first World Lit Conference held in Wichita, Kansas in 1979. They weren't altered until 1987 or 1988. Unfortunately, no one regulates it. It is up to the whims of the annually elected chair to follow the guidelines or rewrite them. Most rewrite them to suit themselves or develop some parts but not others. : Give me your address and I will dub a tape recorded at the WLC workshop at the recent World Convention in St. Louis. Then you can hear for yourself. I am not giving you short answer to your questions, just trying to introduce the subjects. Now, remember, you keep enough notes to make sure I am being consistent and to develop better questions. OK? I'm outta here! God Bless! : : At 09:41 AM 11/29/96 PST, you wrote: : >Hi, : >Got some questions together. : >Going into semi-isolation....showing too many signs of stress....Hope you : >had a good Thanksgiving. : > : >What is the process for new NA literature to come about and be approved : >by the WSO? : > : >What are the advantages of literature being approved by WSO? : > : >Who formulated the WSO lit. approval process? : > : >Who regulates it? : > : >Is the Process benefiting its members? ie. carrying the message sot that : >no addict need ever die? Why AND why not (can't see that this question : >can neccessarily be answered in black and white). : > : >Why/how is our service structure averloaded? Give specific examples of : >events that show this, especially with the WLC. : > : >What avenues do our members have to improve the effectiveness of our : >revice structure at the World level? What are the advantages to this? : > : > : >What is the mural of? : >Hugs, : >R : > : > : > : >

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