Prepare to Learn from Dr. Bob of A.A.
How to “Stick with the Winners”
and
What “Old-School” AAs Actually Did
By Dick B.
© 2012 Anonymous. All
rights reserved
Introduction to 14 Resources for You to Study
Early A.A. Claimed
a 75% Overall Success Rate!
According to following statement in the
"Foreword to Second Edition" of Alcoholics
Anonymous, found also in "the Fourth Edition of the Big Book, the
Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous":
Of alcoholics who came to A.A.
and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way; 25% sobered up
after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A.A.
showed improvement.[1]
The statement above, found in A.A. General Service
Conference-approved literature, echoes A.A. cofounder Bill Wilson's remarks at
the "Rockefeller Dinner" on February 8, 1940:
To continue with what had
happened out in Akron. By the time the book was published last April [of 1939]
there were about one hundred of us, the majority of them in the West. Although
we have no exact figures, in counting heads recently, we think it fair to state
that of all the people who have been seriously interested in this thing since
the beginning, one-half have had no relapse at all. About 25% are having some
trouble, or have had some trouble, but in our judgment will recover. The other
25% we do not know about.[2]
And this claimed success rate was with “seemingly-hopeless,”
“medically-incurable,” “last-gasp-case,” “real” alcoholics who thoroughly
followed the early A.A. path.[3]
Early Cleveland A.A.
Had a Documented 93% Success Rate with No Relapses!
Cleveland A.A.--whose first group was founded on
May 11, 1939, shortly after the Big Book was published on April 10 of that
year—had an even greater, documented, 93% success rate—with no relapses! As
Clarence Snyder (Dr. Bob's sponsee and founder of A.A. in Cleveland) stated in
the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book, DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers:
"I think A.A. was more
effective in those days. Records in Cleveland show that 93 percent of those who
came to us never had a drink again. When I discovered that people had slips in
A.A., it really shook me up."[4]
Here is what Mitchell K., Clarence Snyder's
biographer, reported as to the 93% success rate in Cleveland:
Two years after the publication
of the book [i.e., of Alcoholics
Anonymous (the "Big Book") on April 10, 1939], Clarence made a
survey of all of the members in Cleveland. He concluded that, by keeping most
of the "old program," including the Four Absolutes and the Bible,
ninety-three percent of those surveyed had maintained uninterrupted sobriety.[5]
And three of Clarence Snyder's sponsees wrote:
"Of the first 260 people who came into A.A. in Cleveland, ninety-three
percent never drank again!"[6]
These were the Cleveland groups that grew from one to thirty in a year.[7]
I believe—based on just about 26 years of continuous
sobriety and 22 years of investigation and research—that the “winners,” the
“old-school” AAs, the recovered alcoholics led by A.A. cofounder Dr. Robert Smith,
publicized by cofounder Bill Wilson, and followed by Clevelander Clarence
Snyder—established recovery techniques which can and should be applied in 12
Step fellowships, Christian recovery programs, and alcoholism treatment today.
These Are the 14 Resources to Use in Preparation for and at the 2012
Meetings
1.
The seven-point summary of the Akron program prepared
by Frank Amos, presented to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and now published in DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers at page
131.
2.
The remarks of Dr. Bob presented in his last major
address to AAs in 1948 and now published in The
Co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major
Talks (A.A. General Service Conference-approved pamphlet P-53).
3.
The remarks of Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson together on the
stage of the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1948 before a crowd of
thousand and recently discovered reported in the Roman Catholic newspaper The Tidings, in the Friday, March 26,
1948, issue.
4.
D. J. Defoe’s long-“lost” interview of Dr. Bob
published in the September 1939 issue of Your
Faith magazine.[8]
5.
RHS, the January
1951 Grapevine Memorial Issue
published at the time of Dr. Bob’s death.
6.
The AA of Akron pamphlet, A Manual for Alcoholics Anonymous, published shortly after the Big
Book was came out in 1939, and containing the writing of Evan W. of Akron, who
was commissioned to write it by Dr. Bob (still available at Akron Intergroup
Office)
7.
The AA of Akron pamphlet Spiritual Milestones for Alcoholics Anonymous (same data).
8.
The AA of Akron Pamphlet Second Reader for Alcoholics Anonymous (same data).
9.
The AA of Akron Pamphlet A Guide to the TWELVE STEPS of Alcoholics Anonymous (same data).
10. The
16 Practices of the “old-school” AAs, published in Dick B. and Ken B., Stick with the Winners: How to Conduct More
Effective 12-Step Recovery Meetings Using Conference-Approved Literature: A Dick B. Guide for Christian Leaders and Workers in the
Recovery Arena (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2012).
11. Dick
B., That Amazing Grace: The Roles of
Clarence and Grace S. in Alcoholics Anonymous (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, 1996).
12. Mitchell
K., How It Worked: The Story of Clarence
H. Snyder and the Early Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio
(Washingtonville, NY: AA Big Book Study Group, 1997).
13. Our A.A. Legacy to the Faith Community: A
Twelve-Step Guide for Those Who Want to Believe, by Three Clarence Snyder
Sponsee Old-Timers and Their Wives, compiled and edited by Dick B. (Winter
Park, FL: Came to Believe Publications, 2005).
14. The
personal stories of old-timers now available in Alcoholics Anonymous: The Original 1939 Edition: With a New
Introduction by Dick B. (Minneola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 2011).
If you want accurate information as to: (1) what the “old-school”
pioneers of A.A. did, in or as a result of the leadership of, Dr. Bob; (2) how
to prepare and to be prepared for the forthcoming “Stick with the Winners” meetings,
classes, workshops, and conference at His Place Church, Westminster, Orange
County, California May 14-21, 2012; and (3) how you can organize and conduct “old-school”
A.A. classes with your program, your group, your fellowship, 12 Step
fellowships, clients, patients, and churches; then the foregoing resources are
for you.
These resources will be available in Southern California for
discussion and suggestions from May 14-21, 2012, in Orange County. They are
mostly available online today. They are largely reprinted or posted on the many
Dick B., International Christian Recovery Coalition, and blog sites. They
should be part of the library and teaching tools of every Christian leader or
worker in the recovery arena interested in carrying the message of how to apply
“old-school” A.A. in today’s 12 Step and other recovery scenes.
Gloria Deo
[1] From
"Foreword to Second Edition" in Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed., xx.
[2] "The Rockefeller Dinner," http://www.barefootsworld.net/aarockdinner.html;
accessed 7/4/09. For further details about this important event in the history
of A.A., see Mitchell K., How It Worked:
The Story of Clarence H. Snyder and the Early Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in
Cleveland, Ohio (Washingtonville, NY: AA Big Book Study Group, 1997),
163-69.
[3] See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (New
York, N.Y.: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), 131, for the
seven points of Akron’s highly-successful program. Dr. Bob called Akron’s Group
No. 1 “a Christian fellowship.” (See DR.
BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 118.)
[5] Mitchell
K., How It Worked: The Story of Clarence
H. Snyder and the Early Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio
(Washingtonville, NY: AA Big Book Study Group, 1999), 108.
[6] Three
Clarence Snyder Sponsee Old-timers and Their Wives, comp. and edited by Dick
B., Our A.A. Legacy to the Faith
Community: A Twelve-Step Guide for Those Who Want to Believe (Winter Park,
FL: Came to Believe Publications, 2005), 9. See also pages 4 and 75.
[7] Nobody
seemed to reject the claim that the greatest growth in early A.A. was in
Cleveland. From a single group which first met in May 1939, Cleveland had grown
into perhaps thirty groups over a year period. In Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, at pages 21-22, Bill wrote of
the growth in both the number of groups, the several hundred members, and
results which he said “were of the best.” Bill said that, a year after the
publication of the Plain Dealer
articles [October 21, 1939, to November 4, 1939—"1939 Cleveland Plain
Dealer Articles"; http://barefootsworld.net/aaplaindealer.html; accessed
7/8/09], “Cleveland had about thirty groups and several hundred members."
After a diligent investigation of the Cleveland A.A. picture, historian Wally
P. reported: “By the end of 1940, Cleveland had 20-30 groups and 400 to 500
members. In September, Dorothy discussed with New York the possibility of
setting up a Directory with the names and addresses of group members. . . . The
Headquarters responded favorably. . . . The Group Directories were compiled
starting in 1940." See Wally P., But,
For the Grace of God. . . : How Intergroups & Central Offices Carried the
Message of Alcoholics Anonymous in the 1940’s (Wheeling, WV: The Bishop of
Books, 1995), 76.
[8] D. J.
Defoe, "I Saw Religion Remake a Drunkard," in Your Faith magazine, September 1939, 84-88 http://silkworth.net/aahistory/drbob/drbob_interview_fm_0939.html
; accessed 2/22/12.
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