It was a drizzly night here in Dayton, and there were only 11 alcoholics at our meeting. All of us have many years experience in AA. Ed's wife sent some chocolate chip sandwich cookies that were excellent.

Tradition Four - Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other Groups or AA as a whole.

Tradition Four, long form - With respect to its own affairs, each A.A. group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience. But when its plans concern the welfare of neighboring groups also, those groups ought to be consulted. And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole without conferring with the Trustees of the General Service Board. On such issues our common welfare is paramount.

There is a lot to discuss after reading this chapter in the 12 x 12 (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions). Many years ago, two women from Dayton went on vacation in New England and brought back a brick from Wambly's Clapboard Factory, mentioned in Bill's essay. Of course, this is also the chapter where Rule #62 is found - Don't take yourself too damn seriously. This is a topic that could be discussed for an entire meeting. Tonight, however, the discussion drifted towards us long timers sharing about our experiences with different groups and our service structure.

There is a lot of freedom here for the groups. This allows groups to conduct meetings as they see fit. It allows groups to take on their own personalities. This allows newcomers to find a group they are comfortable in. It gives us the flexibility to carry the message the best we know how in different environments. It allows us to make a comfortable place for each other and for new people.

With this freedom comes responsibility. We all seemed to agree that although we are at first shocked by groups that break traditions and don't stick to the AA message, if something is not spiritually based, it soon enough fades away. As Bill says in the book, just about every mistake that can be made, has been tried, and AA has survived. Some of the things that were mentioned were groups that were tied up with religion, a group where women were being pimped out, a group that tried to hold a car wash, groups that had conflicts of personalities take over, groups that used their treasuries for non-AA purposes, and groups that just did not focus on recovery. All of these groups we mentioned have faded away over a relatively short time.

We discussed how we are responsible to other groups and AA as a whole. Hank spoke about how different places try to schedule events so they do not conflict with other popular events. We discussed how we have an obligation to present the AA message at our meetings, to keep our closed group a closed meeting, and how we have an obligation to be a good tenant and not soil the AA name. Our group is particularly cognizant of these responsibilities, as we have a past delegate, two DCM's, and active GSR and an active intergroup representative, and the chair of the local central office committee in our group. Plus, two of us attend prison meetings. Quite a lot of service work going on in my group.

Also mentioned was the "Fourth Dimension" type of meeting that has sprung up in the last few years. Early in AA history, there were two places where there was AA - Akron, Ohio and New York. In Akron, our co-founder Dr. Bob (a proctologist) was a prolific 12th stepper, and people would go to Akron to "take the cure" as it were. Well, Dr. Bob and company only had these guys for about a week, so they sobered them up and pumped them as full of AA as they could, including a blitzkrieg through the steps.

The modern Fourth Dimension groups take their name from a line in the Big Book (the book "Alcoholics Anonymous") about us being rocketed into a fourth dimension. They take newcomers through the steps in about a week, using some techniques that most mainstream AAs find questionable. I have not heard much good about these groups or many tales of success, but I have no first hand experience, so I won't say too much. The mention made tonight was that these groups may be affecting AA as a whole by presenting something that is not the actual AA program.

This works. It is like a self cleaning oven, groups that carry the AA message thrive, those that don't, don't. We remain flexible but consistent in our message. And it did me good to hear a little about Rule #62.

-Chuck, Vegetarian fanboy