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March 17th, 2023
401-438-8860
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UNITY
Fourth Tradition – Long Form
With respect to its own affairs, each AA group should be responsible to no other authority than its own group 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 AA as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board..
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Anniversaries
Thu. April 6th Attleboro, MA-UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT– Cameron Recovery Center, 68 Falmouth St., (13th Anniversary) 7PM Guest Speaker/ Pizza
Sat. April 8th Attleboro, MA- HONEST WOMEN TRYING– Murray Universalist Ch., 505 No. Main St., (17th Anniv.) 9:45AM Breakfast-10AM Speakers
Fri. April 21st Pawtucket-TRIANGLE– Smithfield Ave. Congregational Church, 514 Smithfield Ave., (43rd Anniversary) 7PM Guest Speaker/ Buffet
Mon. April 24th Warwick-NEW WAY OF LIFE-Pilgram Lutheran Church, 1817 Warwick Ave., (48th Anniversary) 7:30PM
Wed. April 26th Gloucester/Chepachet- NEW FREEDOM-St Eugene’s Church, 1251 Putnam Pike (42nd Anniversary) 8PM.
Mon. May 1st Lincoln- FOOTPRINTS– Lincoln Woods State Park, 2 Manchester Print Works Rd., 7 AM (9th Anniversary)
Thur. May 4th No. Scituate- NORTH SCITUATE– St. Joseph’s Church, 144 Danielson Pk., (48th Anniversary), Refreshments 6:30PM / Speakers 7:30PM
Sat-. May 6th– Kingston– KINGSTON SATURDAY NIGHT-St. Augustine’s Church, 15 Lower Collage Rd. (48th Anniversary) 7:30PM Meeting/Buffet to follow.
Thur. May 11th Kingston- WE WANT TO LIVE – Kingston Congregational Church, 2610 Kingstown Rd., (35th Anniv.) 7PM Potluck/ 7:30PM Meeting
Tue. May 16th Providence- R.I. L.G.B.T.– Bell Street Chapel, 5 Bell St., (47th Anniversary)7PM. Guest Speaker/Light Refreshments
NEW GROUP
Cranston-PAWTUXET VILLAGE 12×12- Open Step. Trinty Episcopal Church, 139 Ocean Ave., Fridays at 7PM
Warwick-ONE STEP AT A TIME– Open Step. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 389 Greenwich Ave., Wed. at 1:30PM
Zoom Group- VILLAGE WOMEN STEP– Open Step (Women) Sundays at 6PM. Zoom ID 409-671-4613 Passcode: GcFqB5
MEETINGS RE-OPENING
Lincoln- FOOTPRINTS– Lincoln Woods State Park, 2 Manchester Print Works Rd., Daily at 7 AM. Rain Days meet in the Gazebo. Starts Monday, May 1st
CHANGES
Providence- WEST SIDE TOPIC – Closed Discussion. Has moved to Bell Street Chapel, 5 Chapel St. Thur. at 7PM
Providence- THE GIFT – Open Big Book. Has moved to Butler Hospital, (Ray Hall) – 345 Blackstone St., 2nd Floor – Rm 2. Fridays at 7PM
Zoom – ZOOM AT NOON-Open Discussion Mon thru Fri at Noon, will change to Zoom ID # 507 039 0431 starting Monday, March 27th
Zoom- Saturday Night Live– Hybrid meeting, YANA Club, Middletown has changed to Zoom ID # 881 5178 3095, Password: Yana
Zoom- WE HAVE TO LIVE IT (Womens)– Hybrid meeting, YANA Club, Middletown has changed to Zoom ID # 878 5125 0686 /Password 000456
NEEDS SUPPORT
No Providence-REFLECTIONS IN SOBRIETY-Open Discussion. Allendale Baptist Church, 545 Woonasquatucket Ave, Mondays at 7:30 PM
CANCELLATIONS
Providence-BOOZE BUSTERS– St. Augustine’s Church, 635 Mt Pleasant Ave. will not meet on Saturday, April 8th.
Kingston-KINGSTON SATURDAY NIGHT– St Augustine’s Church, 15 Lower Collage Rd. will not meet on Saturday, April 8th
DISBANDED
Middletown-COURAGE TO CHANGE- St Lucys Church, Sat. at 7PM
Fall River , MA- S.O.S– River To Recovery- Tues & Thurs. at 12 noon
Middletown-COURAGE TO CHANGE– St Lucy Church, Sat. at 7PM
Warwick-NEW MORNING-St. Benedicts Church, Sundays at 10AM
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SERVICE
The next regular meeting for Central Service Delegates will be held Via Zoom on Wednesday, April 19th , 2023 at 7:00 PM Meeting ID and links will be sent to all registered Central Service Delegates and will also be available on the website.
We need volunteers to help with our monthly mailing – takes less than one hour. The next mailing will take place at Central Service, 1005 Waterman Ave, E. Providence on Wednesday, April 26th at 9AM.
The HAPPY WANDERERS will host the District One “Joy Of Service Bingo” Sunday, March 26th at 11AM Pot Luck Donations Welcome – Come learn about Service- Bring a Newcomer
AREA 61 will Host roundtable discussion on Select Agenda Items for the 2023 General Service Conference. To be held via Zoom- March 30th, April 3rd & April 4th at 7PM. Find more information at www.aainri.com
The next Area Assembly will take place on Saturday April 8th at 9AMWarwick Central Baptist Church, 3270 Post Rd., WarwickThis Is a Pre- Conference Assembly– GSR’s Give a Voice to your GroupAlso this event is Hybrid -Zoom # can be found on www.aainri.com
ACTIVE will host the District 2/4 Joy Of Service St Martha’s Church, 2595 Pawtucket Ave., East Providence, Friday, May 12th at 7:30PM Come Learn about Service- Bring a Newcomer
District 5 Monthly GSR Meeting held 4th Tuesday of the month. Will now be a Hybrid Meeting . Zoom ID: 871 2916 5633 / Password: District5
“Do you or someone you know have an accessibility issue in AA (hard of hearing, handicap etc.)? Please contact us at treatmentaltchair@aainri.com so we can work toward accommodating you.”
RI Central Service is always in the process of up-dating our 12-STEP LIST. Anyone willing to be added to the list should contact their Group Secretary or call Central Service. “When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of AA always to be there and for that I am responsible”
***Please note the deadline for submitting any information for the next today is Friday, April 21st , 2023
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RECOVERY
RI Central Service will sponsor a monthly virtual “OPEN MIC NIGHT NITE ” Saturday, April 22nd Starting at 8PM Zoom Meeting ID: 856 8703 0297 Passcode:891419 Anyone interested in performing or needing more information should contact Austin D Email: 1wholestep@gmail.com
The HAPPY WANDERERS will host the District One “Joy Of Service Bingo” Sunday, March 26th at 11AM -Pot Luck Donations Welcome – Come learn about Service- Bring a Newcomer
Central Service will sponsor our annual Golf Scramble on Friday, May 12that the Cranston Country Club, 69 Burlingame Rd., Cranston. $125 per person includes Greens fees, Carts, Golf balls, Prizes, Coffee, Snacks and All- You Can Eat Buffet Family Style Chicken and Roast Beef Dinner.
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Learning how to live in the greatest peace, partnership, and brotherhood with all men and women, of whatever description, is a moving and fascinating adventure. Bill W.
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Tradition Four
Each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
AUTONOMY is a ten-dollar word. But in relation to us, it means very simply that every AA group can manage its affairs exactly as it pleases, except when AA as a whole is threatened. Comes now the same question raised in Tradition One. Isn’t such liberty foolishly dangerous? Over the years every conceivable deviation from our Twelve Steps and Traditions has been tried. That was sure to be, since we are so largely a band of ego-driven individualists. Children of chaos, we have defiantly played with every brand of fire, only to emerge unharmed and, we think, wiser. These very deviations created a vast process of trial and error which, under the grace of God, has brought us to where we stand today.
When AA’s Traditions were first published in 1945, we had become sure that an AA group could stand almost any amount of battering. We saw that the group, exactly like the individual, must eventually conform to whatever tested principles would guarantee survival. We had discovered that there was perfect safety in the process of trial and error. So confident of this had we become that the original statement of AA tradition carried this significant sentence: “Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an AA group provided that as a group they have no other affiliation.” This meant, of course, that we had been given the courage to declare each AA group an individual entity, strictly reliant on its own conscience as a guide to action. In charting this enormous expanse of freedom we found it necessary to post only two storm signals. A group ought not do anything which would greatly injure AA as a whole, nor ought it affiliate itself with anything or anybody else. There would be real danger should we commence to call some groups “wet,” others “dry,” still others “Republican” or “Communist,” and yet others “Catholic” or “Protestant.” The AA group would have to stick to its course or be hopelessly lost. Sobriety had to be its sole objective. In all other respects there was perfect freedom of will and action. Every group had the right to be wrong.
When AA was still young, lots of eager groups were forming. In a town we’ll call Middleton, a real crackerjack had started up. The townspeople were hot as firecrackers about it. Star-gazing, the elders dreamed of innovations. They figured the town needed a great big alcoholic center, a kind of pilot plant AA groups could duplicate everywhere. Beginning on the ground floor there would be a club; in the second story they would sober up drunks and hand them currency for their back debts; the third deck would house an educational project. . .quite noncontroversial, of course. In imagination the gleaming center was to go up several stories more, but three would do for a start. This would all take a lot of money. . .other people’s money. Believe it or not, wealthy townsfolk bought the idea. There were, though, a few conservative dissenters among the alcoholics. They wrote the Foundation, AA’s headquarters in New York, wanting to know about this sort of streamlining. They understood that the elders, just to nail things down good, were about to apply to the Foundation for a charter. These few were disturbed and skeptical. Of course there was a promoter in the deal. . .a super-promoter. By his eloquence he allayed all fears, despite advice from the Foundation that it could issue no charter, and that ventures which mixed an AA group up with medication and education had come to sticky ends elsewhere. To make things safer, the promoter organized three corporations and became president of them all. Freshly painted, the new center shone. The warmth of it all spread through the town. Soon things began to hum. To insure foolproof, continuous operation, 61 rules and regulations were adopted. But alas, this bright scene was not long in darkening. Confusion replaced serenity. It was found that some drunks yearned for education, but doubted if they were alcoholics. The personality defects of others could be cured maybe with a loan. Some were club-minded, but it was just a question of taking care of the lonely heart. Sometimes the swarming applicants would go for all three floors. Some would start at the top and come through to the bottom, becoming club members, others started in the club, pitched a binge, were hospitalized, then graduated to education on the third floor. It was a beehive of activity, all right, but unlike a beehive, it was confusion compounded. An AA group, as such, simply couldn’t handle this sort of a project. All too late that was discovered. Then came the inevitable explosion. . .something like that day the boiler burst in Wombley’s Clapboard Factory. A chill choke-damp of fear and frustration fell over the group When that lifted, a wonderful thing had happened. The head promoter wrote the Foundation office. He said he wished he’d paid some attention to AA experience. Then he did something else that was to become an AA classic. It all went on a little card about golf-score size. The cover read: “Middleton Group No. One. Rule No. 62.” Once the card was unfolded, a single pungent sentence leaped to the eye: “Don’t take yourself too damn seriously.” Thus it was that under Tradition Four an AA group had exercised its right to be wrong. Moreover, it had performed a great service for Alcoholics Anonymous, because it had been humbly willing to apply the lessons it learned. It had picked itself up with a laugh and gone on to better things. Even the chief architect, standing in the ruins of his dream, could laugh at himself. . .and that is the very acme of humility
BILL W. August 1952
This has been reprinted with permission from the Grapevine Inc.