Sobriety News
APRIL 2002

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The Sobriety News is a publication of the Harrisburg Area Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is written, edited, and read by AA members, and those interested in the AA program of recovery from the disease of alcoholism, linking one alcoholic to another.

Our desperation to find relief from the bondage of alcoholism has led us to this program as a new "design for living". Many members utilize meetings, sponsorship, self examination, amends, prayer, meditation, AA literature, service to fellow alcoholics, and many other tools to maintain their recovery. This publication is intended as one more tool to live a life of recovery. Because each AA member has an individual way of working this program, divergent views to recovery, within the concept of the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous, are welcome. An effort is made to print all viewpoints in this forum. Articles are not intended to be statements of AA policy, nor does publication of any article imply endorsement by AA or the Harrisburg Area Intergroup.

APRIL Calendar of Events*

Looking Ahead

* Look for more information about these events in Sobriety News.
 ** See links page for flyer

To links and current events

Your Help for the Calendar of Events

A complete Calendar of Events depends on our active members contributing information about their coming events, participation of Intergroups in surrounding Districts, and our ability to gather information. We feel it is worth trying. Let us know what you think. Often, we miss opportunities within the fellowship because the message didn't get out. We all want to carry the message to other alcoholics. This will be one more way we can accomplish that.

OUR FACE IS CHANGING

We now have the capability to update Sobriety News during the course of the month, so events can be added to the Calendar. You may, therefore, find it helpful or informative to check back to the website periodically to see what has been added. Your group has access to a printed copy of Sobriety News through your Intergroup Rep. As changes are made to the Internet copy in http://www.aaharrisburg.org your group will have no way of knowing new information about upcoming events unless a group member with internet access brings the information to the group. This can be another option for service that members can perform to maintain sobriety through action.
    The HAI index page has various links which gradually will become more active. This month a link has been added to the Meeting Schedule so you can print out the schedule on a single sheet of 8 1/2X11 paper. This schedule is current with the latest information available. If you see an error, or information for your meeting has been changed, the schedule will be updated if you notify Sobriety News at asdungan@mindspring.com or if you notify an Intergroup Officer or mail the info to HAI, Fellowship House, 1251 S. 19th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17105. This current schedule can be duplicated for group purposes from this link at any time it is needed, and will be maintained in as current a state as possible to try to minimize the problems of accuracy encountered with the printed schedules of the past.
    Flyers for the Middletown Shot of Enthusiasm, the 13th Birthday of There's More to Life, the HAI Spring Speaker Meeting, and a Flyer for the 5th Annual SOS Conference are available on the links and coming events page. Other flyers will be added as they become available and removed when an event passes. If you are looking at this on the Internet, you will see that many of the insert pictures are links you can click on to get added information or flyers. Keep checking.
    The above suggested service opportunity to bring internet information back to the group could also be broadened to include flyers, and current meeting schedules. The printed schedules and flyers will still be available but may continue to have their current disadvantages too.

 

 

 

ATTITUDES ARE CONTAGIOUS.
 IS YOURS WORTH CATCHING?

 

Attitude Adjustment Meeting Celebrates

Probably the only April Fools on Monday April 1 are the ones who could have made it to the 7:00AM weekday meeting at Fellowship House but thought they had more important things to do (Like me). Celebrating 17 years of carrying the message, the Attitude Adjustment meeting (for those who prefer to adjust their attitude daily before starting their day)  certainly adjusted some attitudes with a continental breakfast. The discussion meeting was chaired by charter member Jim S. Congratulations!

The Tenth - Acts of Recovery

The Baltimore Acts of Recovery, held on March 2nd, proved to be an enthusiastic and spiritual example of recovery in action.   As the four featured speakers wove their personal tales into a tapestry of experience, strength and hope, participants were sure to relate to some aspect of each of their stories.

Doug L from the Commonwealth Speakers Group in Alexandria, VA shared how his perception caused him to believe he did things he never did at places he'd never been: and believing it, he acted upon it with unpleasant consequences. In and out of AA for many years, he woke up one day in the hospital. He opened his Big Book at random to page 30 and saw, for the first time that "...we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery." It was at that point that the obsession to drink was lifted from him. But, it was only through working (not just memorizing) the remaining eleven steps that allowed it to remain 'lifted'.

Joellen P. from Baltimore told of the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of alcoholism.  As the daughter of an alcoholic mother, she swore she would never follow in her footsteps.  But her first drink quickly sent her into an adolescence filled with ‘disposable’ relationships, homelessness and a daily battle to make her unmanageable life appear normal.  But through a spiritual experience in which she realized that she would lose everything if she took one more drink, she came to AA… and twenty years later her life continues to get better one day at a time.

Mary Ellen K. from Ellicott City focused her comments on the essence of spiritual recovery.  Alcoholism ran in her family too and she recalled living a self-centered life, feeling like an empty shell, watching life occur outside of herself.  She has found in AA that through a spiritual way of living she has everything she needs and more.  By replacing her old way of thinking with new ideas and behaviors, she is eagerly ‘giving it away’ through sponsorship and helping others.

From Westminster, MD, Joe B says he came from a drinking class family, any occasion was a reason to drink. He early found he had a large capacity for alcohol. He and his drinking partners would solve all the world's problems between 10:00PM and 4:00AM, and then awake in the morning to find they were all back again. Finally his employer solved one of the important problems by forcing him into counseling to keep his job. He was scared, so he went, and that led him to Alcoholics Anonymous. He heard a man in a suit with a smile on his face tell a story about a gun and a telephone. He believed it, and that gave him hope. He eventually found that working with others because you are told to do it, eventually leads to caring about them, and yourself. No other thing is proof against drinking again.

Thanks to Elaine S for contributing heavily to this report. Obviously, the details can only be skimmed over here, but you have a chance for more of the same kind of stimulating recovery even closer to home at the York AOR on April 20, see below.

THE 40th STREET GROUP'S 15th YEAR

The 40th Street Group will celebrate their fifteenth year with a dinner and speakers meeting on Friday April 5. Doors will open at 5:30PM and a dinner of tasty ziti will be served at 6:00PM. At 8:00 there will be three speakers sharing the time and their stories. It will be interesting to hear from Jan D, Jim D, and Harold R, who have all been active in the local AA structure for many years. They are prepared for a large crowd of well wishers, so don't be timid. Get out and support this event, you'll be glad you did.

ANOTHER SHOT OF ENTHUSIASM

The folks down in Middletown will be hosting another Shot of Enthusiasm on Saturday April 6th from 12 Noon till 3:00PM. The speakers will be Keith W from West Chester, and Liz B from Hollis, New York. Of course there will be the usual Internationally famous (or at least locally known) Middletown desserts. A good old fashion welcome will be extended to all who come for desserts, fellowship and enthusiasm. If you have attended spaghetti dinners, the Polly P, Eva C, or Michael E shots of enthusiasm, then you know what's in store. Pick up a copy of the flyer from the links page, or click on the logo at the left to get a copy of the flyer to take to your home group. If you have an internal modem, be patient, it may take 30 seconds.

There's More to Life Celebrates 13 Years

The There's More to Life Group at 16th and Bridge Street in New Cumberland will be celebrating another anniversary Friday April 12. The event at the Community United Methodist Church will begin at 5:30PM with a Fellowship Hour. At 6:30PM the guest speaker, Allyn S, from Bryn Athyn will share about "Stepping to Freedom". From 7:30 to 8:30PM there will be a Happy! Joyous! and Free! Fellowship Hour. Finger Foods for sharing will be appreciated. Let's all get out and help them celebrate.

PEARL OF THE MONTH contributed by Jim M
  

As never before the struggle for power, importance, and wealth is tearing
civilization apart. Man against man, family against family, group against
group, nation against nation.
  Nearly all those engaged in this fierce competition declare that their aim
is peace and justice for themselves, their neighbors, and their nations: Give
us power and we shall have justice; give us fame and we shall set a great
example; give us money and we shall be comfortable and happy. People
throughout out the world deeply believe that, and act accordingly. On this
appalling bender, society seems to be staggering down a dead-end road. The
stop sign is clearly marked. It says" Disaster. "
  What has this got to do with anonymity and Alcoholics Anonymous?
  We of AA ought to know. Nearly every one of us has traversed this identical
dead-end path. Powered by alcohol and self-justification, many of us have
pursued the phantoms of self-importance and money right up to the disaster
stop sign. Then came AA. We faced about and found ourselves on a new high
road where the direction signs said never a word about power, fame, or wealth.
The new signs read,       
 " This way to sanity and serenity---the price is self-sacrifice. "
                                                   

c. The Language of the Heart, Pages 209 & 210

The HAI Easter Egg Hunt

The Easter Egg hunt at Fort Hunter Park on March 30 was a hit again this year. The children who attended had a wonderful adventure at the Fort Hunter Park, searching out treasure! Oh to be young again, now I can never find the eggs even when I hide them. Events like this pay off now as well as in tomorrow's memories of yesteryear. Thanks to the committee for making it possible for some to mend some of the past damage of our own doing.

P. A. C. E.= Positive Attitudes Change Everything

MORE STUFF TO DO

Don't forget the Harrisburg Area Intergroup meeting Thursday the 4th at 6:45PM. The District 36 General Service Rep meeting will be on Monday April 8th at 6:30PM; all GSRs or alternates should be there. Interested visitors are welcome, but may not participate in Intergroup or General Service business. Witnessing what goes on there is one way to help decide if you'd like to participate in this type of service work.

Click Here!!The 5th Annual Sunlight of the Spirit Conference at the York Holiday Inn will be here before you know it. Avoid the disappointment of finding it's already filled and register now. You can get the registration form from the link page, or by clicking on the picture.
     The speakers signed up so far are: Ted B (LaMarque, TX), Karen G (Venice, CA), Dennis N (Charlotte, NC), Dave D (Alexandria, VA), and Don M (Louisville, KY). This Conference is always an excellent enthusiasm stimulator.
     If you don't have internet access, you can call Bill or Linda M at (717)741-9021, or there is still time to write to SOS Conference, PO Box 3538, York, PA, for a registration form.

The dance at Fellowship House on 19th Street is held on the third Saturday each month, starting at 8:30PM. It costs only $3.00 for adults, and please, no children under age eleven. Isolation is not a good alternative to enjoying the fellowship of dance. Come and have a good time.

The York - Acts of Recovery will be held Saturday April 20 from Noon till 5:00PM. Speakers: April D, "There is a Solution"; Keith W, "We agnostics"; Valerie D, Into Action", and Steve F, "Working with Others. They will have a half hour break for a light lunch midway through the afternoon. Getting four quality speakers on a Saturday Afternoon for FREE is a perfect opportunity to take a newcomer and show them a new way of life. Directions from Harrisburg: Take Rt 83 south to exit 18 (Mt. Rose Ave-Rt 124), go left  on Mt. Rose Ave to 2nd traffic light, turn left onto Haines Ave and church will be @ a half mile on right.

The Spring Fling - Dinner Dance will be sponsored by the 19th Street Group on Saturday April 13 from 6:30 till 12:00PM at the Oberlin Firehouse. There will be an all you can eat spread, good fellowship, and dancing to DJ Ray Thomas. This is always a fun event and you can get tickets for $10 per person before April 6 from a 19th Street member, or call Bill P at 215-8377.

You may want to mark Saturday May 18 on your calendar so you don't forget the Spring Speaker Meeting and Pig Roast. This event will be jointly sponsored by the Harrisburg Area Intergroup and the Lykens Winding It Up Group. There will be fellowship starting at 12:00N, and the speakers will start at one o'clock. The local speaker will be Bud W who has 26 years of sobriety, and the visiting speaker comes from Philadelphia, Bobby C, who is no stranger, having spoken at PENNSCYPAA 12 and at SOS 4. Dessert donations will be appreciated. The location for this event will be the St James Church. From Harrisburg, take Rt 322 West to Rt 147 North (2nd Halifax Exit). Turn left at the light. Turn right after 1/8 mile at Community Bank onto Powells Valley Road. Go approximately 8 miles to the Carsonville Hotel and turn left. The church is about 1/8 mile. Park on the right. Hope to see you there.

Keep in mind that PENNSCYPAA XIV will be held this year July 26-28th in Pittsburgh at the Ramada Plaza Suites & Conference Center at One Bigelow Square, Pittsburgh (In the Heart of Downtown). The handle for the conference will be ROCKETED INTO A 4th DIMENSION. This conference is always enjoyable for those who are able to not take themselves too seriously. Tickets will be $12 until June 28, and rooms run from $90 per night. The flyer and registration form are available on the links page, you can click on the logo at the left, and print at 135%. New and lasting friendships have been formed at previous PENNSCYPAAs and the speakers and workshops have always been stimulating. If more information becomes available it will be shared in the future.

The Intergroup Bookstore at 19th Street is still open Saturdays from 10:00AM till 11:00 AM for Groups to restock their literature cabinets with books and pamphlets.

The 9th Annual Pennsylvania State AA Convention, "Release from care, boredom, and worry" will be held August 2-4. At the Clarion Hotel and Convention Center in Carlisle there will be alcothons, speaker meetings, discussion meetings, AA entertainment, banquet, dance, indoor pool, etc. They plan a scenic motorcycle ride, golf, and midnight bowling for those who want to participate. Registration is $15 (banquet, buffet breakfast and other activities extra). Click on the logo at left for the hotel and conference registration forms. Sounds like fun.

*Many of the above have Flyers on the http://www.aaharrisburg.org/links.htm page. Some of these provide additional information. If you wish to print copies of the flyers, be aware that to reduce the enormous file size of scanned flyers for transmission on the internet, the physical size rather than resolution has been reduced. Therefore, to print you should adjust the print size of the document using whatever program your system uses to view these files (not the printer icon on your toolbar). It may take 30 seconds or so to download, so be patient.

Let us always love the best in others --
and never fear their worst.
 

April Speakers

The Friday 8:30pm speaker meetings for the 19th Street Group for April 5, Mark; April 12, Dave S; April 19, Laurie; and April 26 is Anniversary Night. The Sunday 8pm Bridge Street speakers are: April 7, Colleen from the Rebellion Dogs Group; Apr 14, Jeff C from Harrisburg; Apr 21, Brian D from There's More To life Group; and Apr 28, Don O from the Mid-City Group. The April 6 speaker at Hershey will be Chet H from the Hershey Group and for May 4, Jim S from the There's More To Life Group. The Middletown Survivors speaker for Apr 18 will be Louise M, and Apr 25, will be Al D.

Traditions Checklist*

TRADITION FOUR: Each Group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.

  1. Do I insist that there are only a few right ways of doing things in AA?
  2. Does my group always consider the welfare of the rest of AA? Of nearby groups? Of loners in Alaska? Of Internationalist miles from port? Of a group in Rome or El Salvador?
  3. Do I put down other members' behavior when it is different from mine, or do I learn from it?
  4. Do I always bear in mind that, to those outsiders who know I'm in AA, I may to some extent represent our entire beloved fellowship?
  5. Am I willing to help a newcomer go to any lengths --- his lengths, not mine --- to stay sober?
  6. Do I share my knowledge of AA tools with other members who may not have heard of them?

NOT NECESSARILY NEW MEETINGS

The Women's Serenity Group Thursday evening meeting needs the support of women who are new, long-timers, and those in between. This meeting is at the Trinity Lutheran Church, 20th & Market Sts, Camp Hill. It is a closed, beginners, non-smoking meeting.

There is a new meeting at Fellowship House on Sundays at 6:00PM. The Group will be known as the Never Too Young For Recovery Group, and will be geared for young people and those young in sobriety. Fellowship House is located at 1251 South 19th Street, Harrisburg. See you there.

The Chapter 9 Family Group needs the support of recovering alcoholics with families. Check it out on Saturdays at 8:00PM, at Saint Mark's Lutheran Church, West Fairview (South of Enola) at the intersection of Rts 11/15 and Market Street (Uni-Mart). All people in recovery are welcome.

Groups Continue Supporting Intergroup

For the month of March, contributions from four groups totaled $1,154.48. We would like to thank the following groups for their contributions to the Harrisburg Area Intergroup Fund. They were Bridge Street, Concordia, Hershey, and There's More To Life Groups. We would also like to thank all the groups and members who continue to donate time toward Intergroup's activities. These activities include speaker meetings, picnics, men and women's prison meetings, Internet Website, meeting schedules, literature, the AA Hotline, and the many other vital AA functions that help alcoholics recover in our community. Intergroup performs those services for our community which no single group is prepared to handle, and it coordinates activities between the 56 groups it serves. Remember that we can do together what none of us could do alone.

March Intergroup Meeting

At the March Intergroup meeting, Tina H made another plea for central office volunteers to relieve the cell phone volunteers. She suggested that groups could sign up for specific two hour periods and group members could then alternate to fill that slot. This would allow the cell phone operator to know when they could plan things that make hot line answering inconvenient or embarrassing. Let your Rep know that you support this kind of action service work.

The community prisons need volunteers in Dauphin County. Moses B is the coordinator, call him at 238-3924 to help out. The State Hospital meetings are covered until June, the Middletown Trudgers covered the March meetings, and the West Shore Group will serve for April. The 40th Street Group took the Cell phone during March, the need for an April group is still unfulfilled. Jim D reported that Big Book sales are still going strong, and that the two cases of soft cover Big Books had been mailed to Botswana. What an opportunity we have in helping Jim M spread the message in the country with the world's highest per capita alcoholism rate. There is the potential to positively affect the lives of millions of people, perhaps we may have the chance to get the reward of helping again in some way. Groups represented at the March meeting were 19th Street, 40th Street, Ain't You Had Enough, Bridge Street, Carlisle Area, Desire, Dillsburg, Hershey, It Works, Joy of Living, Keep It Simple Big Book Group, Millersburg, Out of the Dark, Progress, Rule 62, Survivors, There's More to Life, Trudgers, Up the Creek, West Shore, and Winding It Up Groups.

Volunteers for Hotline

You can help assure that help is available for the suffering alcoholic, alcoholics needing meeting schedule information, literature, or other assistance by volunteering to operate the central office hotline, or by getting your group to take the cell phone for a month. Why not give Tina H a call at home (238-3545), or Email (spicee308@aol.com), or you can volunteer through your Intergroup Rep. Central Office needs phone volunteers to handle the phone during the day to help reduce the burden on the cell phone volunteer. This is rewarding service work, and Central Office hours are pretty flexible.

ANNOUNCE YOUR EVENT - GIVE YOUR OPINION

Let the AA community know what's going on in your group, express your opinion on any AA topic you want to share about, or contribute material you find helpful or meaningful in your recovery. You can inform the editor and get your information out by sending your material to Sobriety News, Harrisburg Area Intergroup, 1251 S 19th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17111, or Email me at (asdungan@mindspring.com)