SOUTHERN DELAWARE INTERGROUP NEWSLETTER February 2026

WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT??  EVERYTHING!!

Nothing says love like an AA event conceived, planned, and executed by group members…ON A HOLIDAY!!  For the very first time this past 12/31,  I attended the annual “New Years Eve Spaghetti Dinner & Dance” at Jones Hall and was once again blown away by the enthusiastic display of service and fun all in the name of “extending the hand of AA” and showing people, in this case, mostly young people, that we are not a glum lot! Decked out in everything from holiday finery to blue jeans and T-shirts, nearly 100 people attended a meeting, followed by a spaghetti dinner, further embellished by two banquet tables of member contributed appetizers and desserts. THEN came the dancing… the music was loud and there was lots of action on that dance floor! And although I wished the DJ hadn’t waited till 9:30 to play the Electric Slide… just as us old folks who were sneaking out by then had been longing for…. my heart was full. The fellowship of AA had once again suited up, shown up, and 12 stepped a whole new generation of sober Sussex County Citizens… all disguised as a party…. on the biggest party night of the year. As I have often experienced when a group of sober drunks gather in a room for our common goal… Love was palpable that night. Pass it on… and I will too!   Xoxo Beth S, your Intergroup Chair & loving servant.

Highlighted Step/Tradition/Concept for February

Step 2: “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

The moment they read Step Two, most A.A. newcomers are confronted with a dilemma, sometimes a serious one. How often have we heard them cry out, “Look what you people have done to us! You have convinced us that we are alcoholics and that our lives are unmanageable. Having reduced us to a state of absolute helplessness, you now declare that no one, but a Higher Power can remove our obsession. Some of us won’t believe in God, others can’t and still others who do believe that God exists have no faith whatever He will perform this miracle. Yes, you’ve got us over the barrel, all right – but where do we go from here”?

Reprinted from The Twelve and Twelve – page 25, with permission of  A.A. World Services, Inc.

Tradition 2: “For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.”

Where does A.A. get its direction? Who runs it? This, too, is a puzzler for every friend and newcomer. When told that our Society has no president having authority to govern it, no treasurer who can compel the payment of any dues, no board of directors who can cast an erring member into outer darkness, when indeed no A.A. can give another a directive and enforce obedience, our friends gasp and exclaim, “This simply can’t be. There must be an angle somewhere.” These practical folk then read Tradition Two and learn that the sole authority in A.A. is a loving God as he may express Himself in the group conscience.”

Reprinted from The Twelve and Twelve – page 132, with permission of  A.A. World Services, Inc.

Concept 2: “When, in 1955, the A.A. groups confirmed the permanent charter for their General Service Conference, they thereby delegated to the Conference complete authority for the active maintenance of our world services and thereby made the Conference – excepting for any change in the Twelve Traditions or in Article 12 of the Conference Charter – the actual voice and the effective conscience for our whole society”

Reprinted from A.A. Service Manual/Twelve Concepts for World Services (with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc

Writing Workshops for A.A.’s New Pamphlets

Following two Advisory Actions of the 74th General Service Conference (2024), the trustees’ Literature Committee of Alcoholics Anonymous has opened calls for stories for two pamphlets: “A pamphlet on the Asian and Asian American alcoholic” and “A pamphlet on the transgender alcoholic”

Schedule of Virtual Workshops is as follows (all workshops will be identical):

• Monday, February 16th (President’s Day) 4 PM PST/7 PM EST
• Saturday, March 7th, 11 AM PST/2 PM EST

Zoom ID: 842 434 92371, Password: 705297 (same Zoom ID for all workshops)

Southern Delaware Intergroup Monthly Meeting — Join us Thursday February 5th @  6 pm via Zoom. Meeting ID: 987-8110-5001, Passcode: 914711. Our intergroup is a resource for 12-Step work and Alcoholics Anonymous information in Southern Delaware. Please consider volunteering for a service opportunity, which includes most Intergroup committees. For more information about what each Committee does, see our Service Committees page and plan to attend our next intergroup meeting.