It’s March and with that comes the anticipation of warmer, sunny days. It’s also the month we focus on step three, tradition three and concept three.

Step Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Practicing this step is like the opening of a door which to all appearances is still closed and locked. All we need is a key, and the decision to swing the door open. There is only one key, and it is called willingness. Once unlocked by willingness, the door opens almost of itself, and looking through it, we shall see a pathway beside which is an inscription. It reads: “This is the way to a faith that works.”

Tradition Three: The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking. Who determines whether or not newcomers qualify, whether they do want to stop drinking? Obviously, nobody except the newcomers themselves; everybody else simply has to take their word for it. In fact, they don’t even have to say it aloud. And that’s fortunate for many of us who arrived at A.A. with only a halfhearted desire to stay sober. We are alive because the A.A. road stayed open to us.

Concept Three: As a traditional means of creating and maintaining a clearly defined working relation between the groups, the Conference, the A.A. General Service Board and its several service corporations, staffs, committees and executives, and of thus insuring their effective leadership, it is here suggested that we endow each of these elements of world service with a traditional ‘Right of Decision’. Our entire A.A. program rests squarely upon the principle of mutual trust. We trust God, we trust A.A., and we trust each other.

Featured Committee of the Month

Bridging the Gap (BTG)/Treatment, our featured committee this month, connects alcoholics transitioning out of treatment facilities with A.A. members who bring them to their first A.A. meeting outside the institution. This essential Twelfth Step service helps connect sober members of Alcoholics Anonymous with people in treatment facilities who are interested in going to an A.A. meeting upon their release.

A.A. experience suggests that attending meetings regularly is critical. You could be the first contact a newcomer has with A.A., by taking them to a meeting and introducing them to the fellowship.

For further reading see the A.A. Bridging the GAP pamphlet.

Get involved! We invite anyone to participate who would like to share the message with alcoholics in treatment centers. Interested members of the SDI Community with specific questions or wishing to learn more about BTG/Treatment are invited to send an email to btg@sussexaa.org.

Website Tip of the Month

Did you know you can easily search on the Meetings page for specific groups, regions and locations using the search box located at the left top of the meeting list page? Just begin typing and the auto-suggest will help you finish the term.

You can also combine the search to filter any regions, day of the week, and type. The results can be viewed in the default list or as a map. Of course, you can view the Meeting Types and Regions page.

Significant March Dates in A.A. History

• March 1, 1939 — Readers Digest declined to write article on AA.
• March 1, 1941 — Jack Alexander’s Saturday Evening Post article was published and membership jumped from 2,000 to 8,000 by year’s end.
• March 5, 1945 — Time Magazine reported first of a series of Detroit radio broadcasts by A.A. members. The program was called “The Glass Crutch”.
• March 16, 1940 — The Alcoholic Foundation and Works Publishing moved from Newark NJ to 30 Vesey St. in lower Manhattan. Though something of a financial gamble, the move means that for the first time the Fellowship has a headquarters of its own. The group operated there until 1944.
• March 22, 1951 — William Duncan Silkworth, MD, died at Towns Hospital. He helped more than 40,000 alcoholics during his lifetime.

Highlights from A.A.W.S.

You can read the highlights from the A.A. World Services (A.A.W.S.) board meeting on Friday, December 6, 2019, at the General Service Office in New York City here.

The Group Services coordinator is working with the Publishing Department on a “thorough evaluation, update, and redesign” of the Service Manual.

In addition, a new Communication Services department was successfully launched in November with plans underway to launch a new travel program with World Travel, which will also cover delegate travel and streamline the process of booking and invoicing. And finally, the Records department is processing a backlog of GSR, DCM, DCMC and New Group kits, fulfilling over 1,200 kit requests. with the push to continue through the first quarter of 2020.

Grapevine News

The Grapevine website has been totally redesigned with a beautiful new look that is mobile-friendly.

Here’s what’s new for March 2020 which you can download here. This month’s Special Section features stories by A.A. members about “Emotional Sobriety”.

G.S.O. Quarterly Report

The the most recent G.S.O. Quarterly Report on the activities of the General Service Board Including A.A. World Services, Inc., A.A. Grapevine, Inc. can be found here.

March 2020 Printable Meeting List

You can download the March PDF listing of our meetings in Sussex County DE.