Pass It On Eastside Intergroup Newsletter April 2016

Pass It On
Eastside Intergroup Newsletter
April 2016
Page 1
Why I Drank
Why I drank by John M.
Page 2
I drank because I was depressed
Why I drank , continued
I drank because I was afraid
Pink Can Contributions
I drank because I was upset
Page 3
Upcoming Sober Events and
Meeting Updates
I drank because I was angry
I drank because I was hurt
Page 4
I drank because I was sad
March Office News by Nancy O
I drank because I was happy
Page 5
I drank to celebrate
Birthday Club
I drank to forget
Faithful Fivers
I drank because others pissed me off
Pink Can Contributions
I drank because I was lonely
Page 6
I drank because no one understood me
Notes from the Archives
I drank because I wasn’t appreciated
by David C..
I drank because I resented my boss
Page 7
I drank to spite my spouse
Spiritual Experience
I drank to build up my confidence
Page 8
I drank to feel better about myself
Office Information
I drank because I didn’t like myself
Newsletter Volunteers
I drank to be social
Hotline Volunteers
I drank to relax
Contributions
I drank to quiet my nerves
Page 9
I drank because I was in terrible physical pain
Thank you ESIG Representatives
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(cont. on p 2)
Why I Drank (continued)
NO! NO! NO! A gazillion times NO! I drank because I’m an alcoholic! Hello. I was powerless over alcohol. If I was happy I drank. If I was sad, I drank. If I was lonely I drank. If I was
with friends I drank. There was never a time when I got up in the morning and decided “I’m
feeling very happy and carefree today, so there’s no need for me to drink.” And then lived up
to that decision? Are you kidding me?
Think about normies and how they handle all of the above. A normie might lift a drink in celebration, but guess what, they don’t continue until they black out. Normies don’t relax with
a bottle or two of chardonnay. They don’t ease their way into social situations with Captain
Morgan or Jose Cuervo. And normies don’t deal with personal crises by drinking a pitcher of
booze, thinking “I’ll just get through this difficult time getting sloshed and adding a nice hangover to my dilemma.” Normies don’t respond these ways. Alcoholics do. So, why would I ever expect that any condition I find myself in would be improved with alcohol? HONESTY! I
am who I am.
I believe that we alcoholics drink because we’re alcoholics. All the reasons we give are merely our way to “justify” or “explain” why we drink so much.
In the end it remains much more important for us to understand and be committed to why
we don’t drink, and to help others find that understanding and commitment. After all, that’s
what we do.
Thank You March Pink Can Contributors!
Seven & Sober
Fresh Start
Nooner’s
Wake Up
Anchor Group
Eastside Women
Anonymous
Sober Women
District 46
Women of Worth
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Upcoming Sober Events
April 2nd: Eastside Intergroup Pancake Breakfast and
Speaker Meeting from 10 am to 1 pm at the Eastside Foursquare Church in Bellevue. Cost is $7. Children $2.
April 9th: Live at Pine Lake Speakers Meeting from 7 to 9 pm
at Pine Lake Covenant Church in Sammamish. Speaker is Jeff T.
from Techahai, Ca.
April 16th: Area 72 Accessibility Quarterly from 9 to 3 pm at
Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Church in Seattle.. Soup potluck
will be served for lunch. Please bring a side dish to share.
April 16: Conway Old-timers Speakers Meeting from 5 to 8
pm at Fir Island Lutheran Church in Conway.
April 23rd: Jam Night hosted by Scott Kasper and Friends
from 6 to 10 pm at Hope Hall in Snoqualmie.
May 5th : Eastside Intergroup Meeting from 7:30 to 8:30 pm
at the Bellevue Christian Reformed Church in Bellevue.
May 7th: No Reservation Speaker Meeting from 7 pm to 9 pm
at the Swinomish Gymnasium in La Conner. Speakers are: Butch
M and Desiree C.
May 14th: District 38 Workshop on Sponsorship from 1pm to
4pm at the Kirkland Congregational Church 106 5th Ave. Keynote speaker Steve C.
May 21st: District 35 Workshop Living the Traditions from
1pm to 4pm at Our Savior Lutheran Church 745 Front Street in
Issaquah.
June 11th : AA Hotline Training from 10 to 11:30ish am at
Eastside Intergroup. Six months of sobriety required.
Conferences
Meeting Updates
NEW MEETINGS!
SAMMAMISH SOBER SISTERS
Mondays 7pm—8pm
Closed Big Book Study
Sammamish Presbyterian
Church—22522 NE Inglewood
Hill Rd. Room C205
HIGHLAND HAPPY HOUR
Fridays 6pm-7pm
Open, Young People
Highland Covenant Church
15022 NE Bel Red Rd. Bellevue
NEW LOCATION!
EASTSIDE WOMEN
Church of the Resurrection
15220 Main St. (cabana in back)
Bellevue 98007
Tuesdays at 10am
NEW MEETING TIME!
KIRKLAND SOBRIETY
HEADQUARTERS
Fridays at 7 p.m.
Kirkland Congregational Church
106 5th Ave. Kirkland
April 17th: 6th Annual Woman’s Spiritual Retreat from 9 am
to 4 pm at Cedar River Watershed Education above Rattlesnake
Lake in North Bend. The cost is $25 (includes a lite lunch).
April 22nd to 24th: Northwest Girlstock Women’s Big Book
12 Step Conference at Maple Hall in La Conner. Sold Out.
June 24-26th: Pacific Northwest Conference 2016 at the Pendleton Convention Center. More info at: www.pnc1948.org
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SUPPORT NEEDED!
UNBRIDLED GROUP
Thursdays 7:30 p.m.
Open meeting
United Methodist Church
7525 132nd Ave NE in Kirkland
March Office Report 2016
February
Office Report
Nancy O. Office Manager
It’s been a fantastic month at your Eastside Intergroup Office and I am grateful for the following volunteers that were of service during the month of March: Rick L., Carrie W., Susan H., Ted W., Steve C., Leah W., Ray R., Travis S., Wallene D., Nate W., John E----, and Erica E. - If you are interested in volunteering let me know. We still have some afternoon shifts open. One of the many gifts
of being of service at the Intergroup office is the feeling of being useful. Our promises say “that
feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear…” When we are able to help others it’s difficult
not to feel useful.
Eric C., Bill J. and I had a great hotline/phone training on March 12 th with several new people again
signed up for hotline and also for help on the phones in the office. This training is quarterly with the
next training scheduled for June 11th. If interested in the next training, it’s helpful for us to get a
headcount ahead of time so give us a call or a quick email.
Pancake Breakfast is April 2nd – we are looking forward to another fun event in which we get to
thank you all for supporting Eastside Intergroup.
We received donations for the Pancake Breakfast Raffle from the following groups, thank you! We
had a lot of contributions from individuals too! Thank you so much.
Moss Bay, Living Sober, Eastside Women, Juanita Triangle, District 35, Life Line, Issaquah
Tuesday Night, Pine Lake Stag, 59 Minutes at Pine Lake, Joy of Living, Sharing the Legacy,
Friday Night Firehouse, Bill’s Story, Any Lengths, and Millennium.
The newest addition to our inventory is the Big Book Dictionary which sells for $3.75. And if you’re
looking for a gift for a sponsor or sponsee, we have what you need! Stop in and see our great selection of medallions, literature and sobriety greeting cards. You can meet our wonderful volunteers
at the same time.
We are having a Big Book drive to collect books for the meeting “Sanity in Sobriety” in Kirkland that
needs some extra help. If anyone has old books they would like to donate or even if they’d like to
buy one and contribute it, we have a collection box at the office. Any help is appreciated!
Our Corrections Committee received 95 used Grapevine magazines this month from Eastside
Women to be donated to inmates in the jails and prisons – thank you so much! If you or your group
have used Grapevines to donate, we collect them and they are distributed to the Issaquah Jail, Kirkland Jail and to the Monroe prison
We still have the doctor packets available if anyone wants to take one to their doctor. My new doctor was thrilled and then asked for a literature rack for her waiting room! You just never know…..
The packets are put together by volunteers, but the pamphlets that go in them are chosen by Erin
A. our CPC Committee chairperson. The pamphlets in the packet are information about Alcoholics
Anonymous and are pertinent to how the doctor can help his/her patient.
Board Member elections are approaching quickly. On April 7th at our meeting we will elect three
Board members. Those nominated (in order of nomination) are: John K., Mary B., Jon S., Mike O.
and Rodney L.
Thank you for allowing me to be of service.
Nancy
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How Can You Help Support Eastside Intergroup in
Addition to the 7th Tradition at your Meetings?
Become a Faithful Fiver
Join Our Birthday Club!
What are Faithful Fivers?
Faithful Fivers are AA members who graciously pledge
to contribute $5.00 each month to support Eastside Intergroup in its efforts to carry the AA message of hope
and recovery to those alcoholics who still suffer in the
Eastside area. As a Faithful Fiver, your contribution
can and will make our vital services possible.
The Faithful Fiver idea came about when we remembered that we wasted much more than $5 each month
during our drinking days.
Contributions to Eastside Intergroup from AA members
are limited to $3,000 per member per year and are tax
Eastside Intergroup Birthday Club!
Many of our members contribute to ESIG $1, $2
or $5 per year during their
AA Anniversary month.
We’ll print your name, sobriety date and home
group in our Newsletter.
Your Birthday Club contributions directly
support your Eastside Intergroup Office which
provides a 24 hour phone line, literature, coins
Birthday Club!
Name___________________________________
Yes! Please enroll me as a
Home Group_____________________________
Faithful Fiver!
Sobriety Date____________________________
Here is my contribution of
Contribution $___________________________
$_______for_________months
Get your name & Home Group in the newsletter!
Name___________________________________________
Address________________________________________
City___________________ State/Zip_________________
Return this form to:
Eastside Intergroup
March 2016 Birthday Contributions
Barbara—2 Years!
Better Odds Sober Group
13401 NE Bel-Red Rd. Suite B6
Bellevue, WA 98007
Please mark here if you would like a renewal reminder
A contribution was made by Bobbie D. in honor of
her friend Fern M. who passed away in March with 44
years of sobriety. Fern was a wonderful example of recovery to many women in the area. Her home group was
Sammamish Plateau Women’s Step
Study. She will be missed.
Thank You March Faithful Fivers!
Barbara M. Pat A.
Eastside
David W. Ulf W.
Open
Nancy O. Don S.
Breakfast
Eastside
Susan
M.Open Breakfast
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Notes from the Archives
By David C., District 38 Archivist
Hello from the vaults of the District 38. This month I thought you might like to understand
about what the Archives really are. In the broadest sense, they are the records of the District
and a traveling display of items of A.A. history. My job is to collect and save all the monthly
District items for the future use by the District, such as the meeting minutes, the Treasurers
reports, and any items GSO sends to me. Along with that I have been tasked to put together
and maintain a display of A.A. items, and other pieces on alcoholism in general.
It is to this second item that I will be talking to you about today. Lots of you ask me why I have
pieces that have no bearing on Alcoholics Anonymous in the display? Well there is so much
more to our history than meets the eye. We have almost all the books that A.A. World Services
puts out, along with other books and items directly related to A.A. We also have many books
and items that tell the story of our beginnings and the road we have traveled in the past eighty
one years. For example many people want to know why we have a copy of the Bible in the display? Well that was the first book that was used by Anne Smith ( Dr. Bob’s wife ), to teach us
about Christian principals. She read from the book of James before every meeting. We also
have many books from the Washingtonians and the Oxford Group. They tell us of the struggles
of the many mutual aid groups that would eventually come to influence A.A. Bill and Bob knew
that we needed guidance and they looked to the past for that enlightenment.
Along this historical path, we meet many people that helped us to grow and flourish. Father Ed
Dowling, a Catholic priest that helped Bill with his struggles with the spiritual side of our program. Emmet Fox who wrote, “Sermon on the Mount”, read by so many in A.A. Ernie Kurtz
who wrote, “Not God” the best history ever written about the formation of A.A. to name but a
few. The more I delve into our history the more I realize I know so little. I just hope that I live
long enough to have my questions answered. The traveling display is huge, and yes I am responsible for that. Is it confusing to most people? I guess so, but the fact that there is so much
material only allows us to find out those answers we seek. Some of my other fellow Archivists
question my way of presenting our history, but this is the way
I know how. I know that when the questions are asked, I will
be ready to answer them. More will be revealed…..
P. S. Come and see the entire traveling display on June 18
at the Kirkland Congregational church. Till next time……
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Spiritual Experience
The terms “spiritual experience” and “spiritual awakening” are used many times in this
book which, upon careful reading, shows that the personality change sufficient to bring
about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms.
Yet it is true that our first printing gave many readers the impression that these personality changes, or religious experiences, must be in the nature of sudden and spectacular upheavals. Happily for everyone, this conclusion is erroneous. In the first few chapters a number of sudden revolutionary changes are described. Though it was not our intention to create such an impression, many alcoholics have nevertheless concluded that in order to recover they must acquire an immediate and overwhelming “God-consciousness” followed at
once by a vast change in feeling and outlook.
Among our rapidly growing membership of thousands of alcoholics such transformations,
though frequent, are by no means the rule. Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James calls the “educational variety” because they develop slowly over a period
of time. Quite often friends of the newcomer are aware of the difference long before he is
himself. He finally realizes that he has undergone a profound alteration in his reaction to
life; that such a change could hardly have been brought about by himself alone. What often
takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self discipline. With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner
resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than
themselves.
Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of spiritual experience. Our more religious members call it “God-consciousness.”
Most emphatically we wish to say that any alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in the light of our experience can recover, provided he does not close his mind to all
spiritual concepts. He can only be defeated by an attitude of intolerance or belligerent denial.
We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Willingness,
honesty and open mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable.
“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”
By HERBERT SPENCER
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Office Information
13401 NE Bel-Red Suite B6
Bellevue, WA 98005
Phone: 425-454-9192
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.eastsideintergroup.com
Office Hrs: Mon.-Fri. 10:00am-6:00 pm
Thank you March Hotline Volunteers!
Carmen A.
Carrie W.
Chuck M.
Elton B.
Eric C.
Fred M.
Ginny K.
Guy P.
Jim R.
Joe M.
John K.
John M.
John R.
Keith S.
Leslie G.
Mark J.
Matthew M.
Merrill G.
Mike S.
Richard J.
Sara K.
Sheree P.
Susan M.
Ted W.
Tim B.
Tina B.
Travis S.
Backup :
Sheree P.
Newsletter Contributors
Publisher…….....................Alma O.
month 7:30-8:30pm
All members welcome!
Bellevue Christian Reformed Church
1221 148th Ave NE, Bellevue 98007
Office Manager - Nancy 0.
Editor……………..………..Sandy B.
Archivist……………..……..David C.
Personal Story…..……….. John M.
Office News …….………..Nancy O.
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Eric C.
Bill J.
John E.
Ted W.
Leah W.
Travis S.
Nate W.
Wallene D.
Rick L.
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Coordinators:
Steve C.
Ray R.
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Nancy O.
Carrie W.
Erica E.
Directions on website
Core Relations
59 Minutes at Pine Lake
Nameless Bunch of
Drunks
Tuesday Night Solutions
12 & 12 Fellowship Hall
Ladies Step Study
Serenity Break
Nooners
Up the Creek
Sharing the Legacy
Kenmore Big Book
Sober Valley
Wallene D.
March Office Volunteers
Email: [email protected]
Thanks to the following Groups for sending contributions
to the Eastside Intergroup office in the month of March
2016. Group contributions enable us to pay the rent and
bills for your Intergroup Office, maintain our phone lines
24 hours a day 7 days a week, publish a monthly newsletter, provide a meeting directory, and carry AA information and literature.
Eric C.
Bill J.
Intergroup Meeting
First Thursday of each
Bob F.
Susan H.
Group Contributions District, GSO & Area Info
District 35
Eastside Intergroup:
Eastside Intergroup
Sammamish Plateau
Women’s Step Study
Afternooners
Serenity on Sunday
Wake Up
Gay Men in Recovery
Eastside Beginners
Anchor Group
Right Side of the Tracks
Happy Destinies
Eastside Men’s Group
Fresh Start
Unbridled Group
Issaquah
District 35
13401 NE Bel-Red Rd. Suite
B6
P.O. Box 442
Bellevue, WA 98007
Issaquah, WA 98027
Western WA Area 72
District 36
702 Kentucky St., #535
Snoqualmie Valley, Duvall,
Bellingham, WA 98225
North Bend
District 36
General Service Office (GSO)
P.O. Box 459
P.O. Box 1963
North Bend, WA 98045
Grand Central Station
New York, NY 10163
District 38
District 34
District 38
Kirkland
Bellevue, Redmond, East Lake
P.O. Box 322
Sammamish, Mercer Island
Kirkland, WA 98083
District 34
P.O. Box 50081
District 39
Bellevue, WA 98015
Bothell, Kenmore, Woodinville
Call Intergroup
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Thank you Intergroup Reps!
The following Intergroup Reps were in attendance at our meeting. See you on Thursday, Feb. 4th!
Andy G. – Core Relations, District 35 & ESIG PI Chair
Ari B. – Sunday Breakfast at Alano
Aysen R. – Seven & Sober
Betsy N. – Women of Worth/Sober Women
Brian G. – Living Sober
Carol G. – Reflections
Carrie W. – Tons of Grace
Charlie C. – ESIG Web Committee
Dan H. – Pine Lake Stag/ESIG Corrections Chair
Erin A. – ESIG CPC Chair
Erin E. – District 34 Liaison
Garrett V. – Eastside Men’s Group
Holly F. – Women’s Way
James T. – Issaquah Big Book Study
Jane L. – ESIG Accessibility Chair
Jean M. – ESAC Nooners
Jeannie H. – Essentials Alternate
Jeffrey G. – Pocket of Enthusiasm
Jen T. – Sobriety Lifeline/Joy of Living
John K. – Sammamish BB Study/Live at Pine Lake
Judi D. – LSS
Kiera E – District 35 Intergroup Rep
Kyle M. – Maximum Service
Leigh Anne D. – ESIG CPC Alternate
Lisa S. – 59 Minutes at Pine Lake
Margaret H. – Eastside Women
Margie C. – ESIG Web Committee
Mary B. – District 38 Intergroup Rep/BB GSR
Michelle M. – Reflections
Phil K. – Area 72 Corrections Chair
Robin O. - Millennium
Rodney L. – Redmond Friday Night
Samantha F. – Woman’s Way
Sandy B. – ESIG Newsletter Editor/FSHQ
Sheree H. – Fresh Start
Susan M. – Sober Cartooners/Sanity in
Sobriety/Wednesday Willingness
Todd G. – Juanita Triangle
Tracy A. – Wake Up
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What does an Intergroup Rep do?
An Intergroup Rep is elected at his/her Home Group and attends the Eastside Intergroup Meeting
on the 1st Thursday of each month from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. You represent your home group at
the monthly meeting and hold a vote for your group.
Because Eastside Intergroup covers five Districts and is a central clearinghouse for local AA activities and information, you become a vital link between the Intergroup office, the Districts, and your
home group. The Intergroup Rep keeps his or her home group informed about work being done,
activities going on, etc. You become a part of the networking between Eastside Intergroup and the
groups.
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