Weekly Update

March 10, 2020

Announcements

• As of now, Primary Purpose Group will continue to meet as scheduled.  Please join us if you are safely able to.  
  
• CityWide for March has been canceled.  Barry F is rescheduled to speak at July’s CityWide
  
• PPG will be celebrating its anniversary on April 7th.  There will be BBQ and speakers in lieu of the traditional meeting. 
  
• Capital Of Texas Conference is hosting their musical “The Sponsor of Aus” on April 25th at 6pm at the Highland Park Baptist Church (5206 BAlcones Dr).  Tickets are $20 if you get ahead of time and $25 at the door. 
  
• The Old Timer’s Banquet will be May 2nd from 5:00 pm to 8:00pm at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 3003 Northland Drive, Austin, Texas 78757.  Tickets are $25 for those with under 25 years sobriety and with that ticket you can bring a sponsee with under 3 months for free. See Flyer for more details
  

 
Chips
In addition to the 2 month, 1 month, and desire chips, we had 1 person pick up a yearly chip and share their strength and hope to the group.  A chip was picked up for 18 months sobriety!

Tradition Reviewed
Tradition 6 (short form): An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

Tradition 6 (long form): Our A.A. experience has taught us that Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to A.A. should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. An A.A. group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to A.A., such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the A.A. name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, A.A. managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside A.A.—and medically supervised. While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. An A.A. group can bind itself to no one.

How it Works (pg. 63-64)

Next we launched out on a course of vigorous action, the first step of which is a personal housecleaning,which many of us had never attempted. Though our decision was a vital and crucial step, it could have little permanent effect unless at once followed by a strenuous effort to face, and to be rid of, the things in ourselves which had been blocking us. Our liquor was but a symptom. So we had to get down to causes and conditions.

Some Thoughts on what we read:
This week we read the paragraph that closes out Step Three and launches us into Step Four:

• We are getting ready to look at our DNA and how we show up.  This is going to require us to put pen in hand.
  
• Liquor being but a symptom is hard to understand when we first come into the rooms.
  
• If we want to get unblocked, we need to kick it into gear instead of attempting to take our time.
  
• We have a window of opportunity before the disease kicks back in.  Words like at once, vigorous, next, launch, decision, and vital make clear that importance of this.
  
• Causes and Conditions - the inability to accept life on life’s terms and without trying to be the director.
  
• We need to get through the steps to have a spiritual experience.  The steps are showing us how to fix the spiritual malady and how to take action.
  
• Beyond early sobriety, our ego builds back up quickly.  If we aren’t working a program we can get back into self, think we are unique and fall back on our character defects.  We must continue to do the work to get rid of that thinking that can block us.
  

 
Definitions:

permanent - lasting, durable
 
therefore - for that or this reason
 
crucial - severe, extremely critical
 
condition - external circumstances