MBAIAA Newsletter – August 2021

Published on August 19, 2021

Step 8 – “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.”

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions – Page 77

“This is a very large order.  It is a task which we may perform with increasing skill, but never really finish.  Learning how to live in the greatest peace, partnership and brotherhood with all men and women, of whatever description, is a moving and fascinating adventure.  Every A.A. has found that he can make little headway in this new adventure of living until he first backtracks and really makes an accurate and unsparing survey of the human wreckage he has left in his wake.  To a degree, he has already done this when taking a moral inventory, but now the time has come when he ought to redouble his efforts to see how many people he has hurt, and in what ways.  This reopening of emotional wounds, some old, some perhaps forgotten, and some still painfully festering, will at first look like a purposeless and pointless piece of surgery.  But if a willing start is made, then the great advantages of doing this will so quickly reveal themselves that the pain will be lessened as one obstacle after another melts away.”

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions – Pages 77-78

What’s Happening Locally

August Birthday Meeting – Saturday August 28th @ 7:00PM

The Birthday meeting is on Saturday, August 28th at 7:00pm.  This month the meeting is hosted by The Seniors in Sobriety group.  Currently a hybrid meeting, they meet at the Oldemeyer Center in Seaside at 10:00 and also on Zoom.  The speakers will be Maureen and Jim B formerly from the Monterey Peninsula and now residing in Eugene, Oregon.

Please join us!  There will be a 50/50 raffle which you can participate in by sending money through Venmo.  Tickets are 3 for $5.00 and be sure to put the word ‘Raffle” on the transaction.  We will be drawing the winner at the end of the meeting.  The meeting will be open at least 20 minutes early and after the meeting for fellowshipping.  Come a little early, stay a little late, we will have time for fellowshipping. It will be wonderful to see all of your faces.  During this time of ‘Shelter in Place’, we cannot gather together in celebration as we usually do, so this will be the next best thing!

  • Zoom Meeting ID:  652 224 0517
  • Password:  Sobriety

38th Annual Coastal Rally 2021 – August 20th, 21st and 22nd, 2021

The 38th Annual Coastal Rally 2021.  “We’ve Never Had it So Good”.  A 3- day rally at the Spreckels Veterans Memorial Building 90 Fifth St, Spreckels , CA.  For more information, see the flyer posted on the Salinas Intergroup website.

Monterey Bay Area Roundup (MBAR)

The Monterey Bay Area Roundup (MBAR) committee has made the decision to put all of it’s efforts into a face-to-face conference to be held on Labor Day 2022.  If you would like to participate in putting this fun event together, the planning meetings are on the second Saturday of each month at 11:00 am.

  • Zoom Meeting ID:  831 4306 2293
  • Password: 2022

MBAR’s next meeting will be held Saturday September 11th @ 11 AM.

Online Meeting Listings

Note that our website has a new format for listing our Online and In-person meetings on Meeting Guide Online. All Online meetings have been moved to this new format.

On your mobile device you can also access meetings using the Meeting Guide Mobile App.

Digital Contributions At Online Meetings 1

Online meeting spaces make it difficult to “pass the basket”.  Some groups have set up digital contribution accounts with services like Venmo, PayPal, Google Pay, etc. to deal with this problem. Now might be a good time to review an essential piece of AA literature, “Self-Support: Where Money and Spirituality Mix”.

Each group is autonomous and might consider taking a group conscience on whether digital contributions are an option, and which platform (or mix of platforms) best suits their groups’ needs.

Why collect 7th Tradition for an online meeting?

Our regular meeting locations still have operating expenses

  • Our meetings facilities may rely on contributions to pay their rent and utilities
  • Meeting supplies will still be needed when our meetings reopen – coffee, paper products, literature, refreshments. And after an extended closure, we may experience a large influx of people who are motivated to re-join the fellowship in person.

Central Office and the General Service Office still have operating expenses

  • Websites – which we may now rely on more than ever!
  • Phone lines, rent and insurance on office space
  • Utility and other ongoing expenses
  • Paid Special Workers who deserve our continued support. Their compensation is crucial to their ability to serve us.

Our Districts and Areas and H&I still have expenses

  • Regular expenses to support the work of committees and events that will take place when the crisis has passed are still there.
  • Web services support for groups
  • Expenses for venues for events that have been cancelled may still need to be met, since any income from the event won’t be there to support the pre-payment of reservations, cancellation fees, etc. The expense of re-arranging for venues to reschedule events is very real.

News From General Service

The 71st Annual Meeting of The General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous was held.  The theme was “AA in a time of Change”.  While A.A.’s foundational principles remain fixed —
as reflected in our Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts — the “when, where and how” of A.A.  has taken a new expression.  Spurred by the global pandemic, the A.A. Fellowship has successfully pivoted over the past year toward new and effective approaches to A.A.’s Three Legacies of Recovery, Unity and Service — making clear that the message of A.A. and the lifesaving experience of our membership need not be limited by time, space or custom.  Drawing together 132 Conference members across multiple time zones from Hawaii to Newfoundland, the 71st General Service Conference both supported and expanded the Fellowship’s responsiveness to the realities hinted at in the 2021 Conference theme:” AA in A time of Change”.  If you are interested in reading the full report (137 pages) contact info@aamonterey.org and we will see that you get an anonymity protected copy.

“I am responsible, when anyone, anywhere reaches out for help, I want the hand of A.A. always to be there, and for that, I am responsible.”
Responsibility Statement

Current IGR Meeting Minutes & Financial Reports

A Note From Jana

Central Office is fully open.  We are now open Mon – Fri 9:30 – 5:30.  Please note, we’ll be closed Monday, September 6th for Labor Day.  We have a wonderful staff of volunteers who answer the phones and address the daily tasks of facilitating 12th step calls and being there to help the alcoholic who still suffers.  We are fully stocked with World Service approved literature and have a couple of new books from the Grapevine. ‘ Mujeres en AA’ Women in AA (Spanish-language) is a collection of stories taken from the pages of Grapevine and La Viña.  We also have ‘Free on the Inside’ which features 50+ powerful stories by sober members of Alcoholics Anonymous who have experienced AA in prison.  There is also a new collection of 3 volumes of “The Best of the Grapevine.  Come by and check them out!

We are updating the website everyday.  Many meetings are opening up to face to face meetings and some have chosen to do a hybrid of Zoom and face to face.  As things begin to look more positive in terms of the pandemic, each group has the autonomy to decide their own method of re-entering the traditional ways that we meet.  I would suggest that each group has business meetings addressing these issues. Please be sure that if any changes are to be made in the way that you meet, you inform the webteam so that people can find you.  The email is webteam@aamonterey.org. Also, if you could send an email to me at info@aamonterey.org to let me know the changes as well, it would be appreciated.

A special shout out goes to our phenomenal WEBTEAM. Keeping up with all the changes in an organized and thoughtful way has been a daunting task, but they have met every challenge.  We thank these trusted servants!

Personally, I am happy to be back in the office on a regular basis.  If you would like to be a part of the process, the best way to get involved is to step-up and volunteer to serve as an Intergroup representative.  Intergroup meets on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 7:00pm on Zoom – then, you take the information back to your group.  This is the way this fellowship best functions!  Just as we were able to respond to the Shutdown, we will respond to the changes carefully and TOGETHER.

Look after each other, support each other, remember that we can’t stay sober alone.  Share with others what was so freely given to you.  Thanks again everybody and HAPPY SUMMER!

“Nothing is so bad that a drink won’t make it worse.”
The Best of the Grapevine volume 3

1 This information is from the AA Intergroup of SF & Marin Online Contributions page.