District 9 Inventory, July 12th, 2024
District 9 Inventory
“A business which takes no regular inventory usually goes broke.” Alcoholic Anonymous p 64. Just as each of us must take a personal inventory, would not the same be true of our District? In AA, Areas often take inventory, but it’s been awhile if ever that District 9 has taken one.
Why take an inventory?
For the same reason as we took our personal ones, to get down to causes and conditions. Honestly, Covid was hard on everything, and now we need to evaluate where we are. But there were issues even before Covid: membership is not increasing much, the average age of members is closer to 60 than 30, many of us have not done a 12th Step call in years – whether due to Treatment Centres taking over that role – or our own reluctance, and many of us have ignored the Service structure. And it may be a radical idea that Tradition Seven is not just about money – AA does have a structure, and without support, that structure can collapse. In fact, District 9 has been so poorly represented at the Area 91 level that some think we have no regularly functioning meetings at all.
How to take an inventory?
Area 91 did an inventory in October, 2023, looking at the Committee structure and examining why the committees exist, what is being done well, and where can improvements be made. We can follow that example, but the basic idea is to honestly look at where we are as a District, what are we doing well, and what not so well, and how are we working Tradition 5? Then we can look at what we do next.
We can also use this as an opportunity to collect some history and information about our groups, such as: when did it start, what locations, and to look at how active members have been, for example: Has anyone from your Home Group been DCM; Area 91 Committee Chair; Area 91 Web servant or Registrar? Or how about an Area 91 Table Officer such as Delegate; Alternate Delegate; Treasurer; or Secretary?
Conclusion
For those who think this a waste of time, because “AA ought never to be organized,” we don’t disagree, and have felt the same way about the entire service structure. But just as Tradition 9 has a big “but” after the word “organized” we see that without some service structure, we will not have Big Books or other literature available, and interaction with other groups and areas will be difficult. And if we do not do it, who will?
Same questions for those who say “I did my time in Service! It’s time for someone else to step up!” Well, see the above note on the average age of members and the dearth of new members; until we have a functioning Service Structure in District 9, someone needs to step in and show others how it’s done.
Each month, on the third Sunday, District 9 meets at 12:30 pm at Action Now, 15th Ave & 101st St. With 18 groups in the District, and each sending a GSR and Alternate, we should have 36-40 people at each meeting, counting the Table Officers: DCM, Alternate, Treasurer, Secretary, WebMaster. While anyone can go to a District Meeting, we have rarely had more than 12 in attendance.
In addition, we have not had a functioning committee structure for some time. We need Committee Chairs and members for each of the District Committees: Accessibilities, Treatment Centres, Corrections/Bridge the Gap, Public Information, Archives, CPC, Literature, Social. There is a place in AA for everyone to participate, no matter each individual’s talent, from putting on coffee, to sponsoring, to being Treasurer at any level, to liaising with Correctional Centres; and there is a need for every one.
If all this does not convince you to get more involved, then maybe Bill W. can help. In 1951 the first General Service Conference was held in New York. His thoughts on that are included in Language of the Heart, p 129, “To Serve is to Live” (available online if no copy handy). It’s only a few pages and is great to read before doing a group (or District) Inventory. A basic premise is that ‘Faith without works is dead’ and that mere faith that someone else will do the service work means AA will eventually wither and die. Is that what we want?
– District 9 Committee