|
The Philadelphia Handbook |
May 18, 1942
To:
Miss Margaret R. Burger, Secretary,
The Alcoholic Foundation,
30 Vesey Street,
New York City.
Dear Miss Burger:
Here's a story of the Philadelphia Group from the handbook standpoint, as
requested in your recent mimeograph.
Our nucleus was derived from six alcoholics known to be such through their
written contact with Alcoholic Foundation. Two had dried up via the Oxford
Group, one of them attempted work upon other alcoholics without plan and without
results. Another had attained four months sobriety through the A.A. article in
"Liberty". Group organization came in February 1940 when a New York A.A. member
moved to our city. He knew the background of the parent group and kept contacts
with other fellowships actual or in formation. So we had the benefit of what
they had found practicable.
The first few meetings were in the homes of these pioneer members. At the
outset we were more fortunate than we knew in eliciting the interest of two
physicians of high standing who had alcoholic problems with close relatives.
They joined our enterprise with as much ardor as the seven alcoholics and had a
large room in St. Luke's Hospital reserved for our Thursday night meetings,
which the public may attend. One or the other of the physicians speaks at these
meetings. It serves to lend a medical approval to our work.
Following a trail blazed by the parent group at Bellevue Hospital, we
established similar contact with its local equivalent, Philadelphia General
Hospital. The well known psychiatrist in charge there cooperated intelligently
and added further prestige to the medical recognition we had previously
acquired. A small group visits patients in the alcoholic ward each Saturday
afternoon. The physicians and nurses indicate which patients are likely A.A.
material. They are given a chat and booklets, and invited to attend the
clubhouse upon discharge. This has been a fertile field for prospects and
"graduates" relish the work with new patients.
On alternate Sundays a small group visits the House of Correction.
Here, too, the authorities attempt to provide an audience of alcoholics who seem
fed up on drinking and ripe for consideration of our ideas. At first we were
importuned by these men to have their ninety day commitments shortened, which
annoyed the superintendent. Now we tell them at the outset that we will have no
hand in carrying messages to the outside; that we come only to tell them of a
plan that will relieve them of their alcoholism; that they are welcome at our
clubhouse and our meetings. As in Philadelphia General Hospital, we are spared
the necessity of convincing House of Correction inmates that they are problem
drinkers. The police force and the magistrates have done that for them.
Just before we attained our first Group birthday on of our members established a
pleasant and useful contact with the Salvation Army Industrial Headquarters, at
Roxborough. It has proved a handy stepping-stone in the transition from
Philadelphia General and House of Correction back to employment. At the
Salvation Army they are provided with clean quarters and good food for which
they render services in the factory or on the delivery trucks of the Industrial
Department. The pay is small which acts as an incentive for the men to move into
more lucrative jobs when they feel ready. A.A. members at Salvation Army hold
meetings there every Tuesday, joined by others of our main Group.
They attend our Thursday meetings at St. Luke's Hospital in a body.
From the first we felt that there was inherent danger in having a head man to
govern our organization. So instead of a president, we decided to function
through an Operating Committee, elected at the monthly business meeting to serve
for the ensuing month. The person senior in membership and sobriety is
automatically chairman of the six members who compose the committee. They take
full charge of the Group's business, exclusive of handling the funds, which is
the province of the Treasurer, elected for six months.
The Operating Committee conducts the meetings and appoints the leaders of such
gatherings. It is especially responsible for the following regular meetings:
Monday - 8:30 P.M. Clubhouse, Meeting for alcoholics only.
Tuesday - 12:00 noon, Business Men's Luncheon; 8:30 P.M. Salvation Army.
Thursday - 8:30 P.M. St. Luke's Hospital, for public and members.
Friday - 8:30 P.M. Clubhouse, for new members.
Saturday - 2:00 P.M. Clubhouse to Philadelphia General Hospital.
Sunday - (alternate) House of Correction.
It can call upon any member outside of the Committee for assignment to an
alcoholic prospect or for any reasonable A.A. purpose and it passes upon small
loans made to members in the course of rehabilitation.
The problem of the cold broke alcoholic with no place to
get help is one that new groups are apt to encounter early in their existence.
How it is met is important because some forty percent of the new members is apt
to be so situated. The new man may take your assistance and use it wisely or
foolishly. He may think he has hit a gold mine and work the entire group quietly
but carefully for quite a sum of money.
In Philadelphia, we have developed the following plan and procedure:
All requests for financial assistance are referred to the operating committee,
who, if the cause is worthy, advance credit in the Clubhouse restaurant for
meals and cash to the extent of a place to sleep in one of the local missions.
We then place the man in some employment such as Hospital Orderly or the like.
On his first pay-day he is expected to repay us for what we have spent. If on
this pay-day he is still sober, our small investment is returned and we have a
man well advanced in the program. If he is a "phony", or has not the desire to
stop drinking, or is not an alcoholic, he is gone and we have lost very little
and none of the individual members have lost.
This plan may seem very cold and ungenerous on first reading, but bear in mind
the following:
We find that it is too easy to spoil a good prospect
with kindness.
We have used this method in Philadelphia for two years with most satisfactory
results. We have applied it regardless of former social standing or financial
rating. We have even used it on some former members of other groups who have
come to us. The fellows who have come up this way are themselves very proud of
it and the Group is most proud of them and they are held in very high esteem.
The financial report on these loans is most interesting. In the last year we
loaned $588.98 and of that sum only $146.41 remains unpaid to date. Contrast
this with your own "loans" to drunks.
While the policy is not ironclad (we have had two exceptions) we do not
encouraged ministers and priests to address our gatherings. We are afraid that
it might lead new people to think we are interested in some particular type of
worship. On the other hand, our meetings have addressed bible classes and other
church bodies and will carry our message to any interested associations.
Source material for a handbook should include a few experiments that went sour
so that they will not be repeated in new Fellowships that are forming. One such
comes to mind. We held a theory that men having difficulty with the A.A. program
might fare better if we imposed some responsibility upon them. So the January
1941 Operating Committee was composed entirely of such fellows. Charged with the
duty of running our Group one member of this Committee "slipped" two days after
it assumed office. Before the end of the month every last one of them had gone
off the deep end, finally the chairman. We see dangers also in having men too
recently out of drink addressing our meetings. From the showmanship standpoint
they are usually effective, but it frequently does something to their emotional
organization which is not helpful. Getting too holy too fast has also been
observed as a possible danger sign. The gutter - to sainthood - and back to the
gutter is fast traveling but hardly the trip we planned for our fellow
alcoholic.
We can never cease looking upon 1537 Pine Street as unique, for it is at once a
club and a hospital. We enjoy a social life that is given only to people who
mingle in their common deliverance. Yet, each is still an afflicted person, each
at a different point on the road of recovery. Each is groping for the answers
that are contained in the broad pattern of the twelve steps. We who are sick of
mind and spirit, to varying degrees, here apply the medicine of helpful
conversation.
We'd hate to think of parting with our clubhouse. Read more of how we handle it
in the copy of our letter to the Chicago Group, attached.
Please tell Bill Wilson for our membership that the Philly boys and girls look
forward to publication of his handbook. It will furnish us with some of the
answers that heretofore we had to find by the costlier method of trial and
error.
Regards to Bill and Lois and to all of you of the Foundation, from
our gang in Philadelphia.
Cordially,
THE PHILADELPHIA A.A. FELLOWSHIP
By its MAY OPERATING COMMITTEE
Signed,
Joseph E. T.
H. K. S.
Carl R.
Joseph McK.
James F.
Geo. I. S., Chairman
Enclosures:
Financial Statements (2)
Copy of letter to Chicago Group dated 5/10/42
Return to the Letters, Brochures, etc. Page
Return to the A.A. History Page
Return to the West Baltimore Group Home Page