The term “Conference-approved” describes written or audiovisual material approved by the Conference for publication by G.S.O. This process assures that everything in such literature is in accord with A.A. principles. Conference-approved material always deals with the recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous or with information about the A.A. Fellowship.

The term has no relation to material not published by G.S.O. It does not imply Conference disapproval of other material about A.A. A great deal of literature helpful to alcoholics is published by others, and A.A. does . . . → Read More: Conference-Approved Literature]]> Service Material from the General Service Office

“Conference-approved” — What It Means to You

The term “Conference-approved” describes written or audiovisual material approved by the Conference for publication by G.S.O. This process assures that everything in such literature is in accord with A.A. principles. Conference-approved material always deals with the recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous or with information about the A.A. Fellowship.

The term has no relation to material not published by G.S.O. It does not imply Conference disapproval of other material about A.A. A great deal of literature helpful to alcoholics is published by others, and A.A. does not try to tell any individual member what he or she may or may not read.

Conference approval assures us that a piece of literature represents solid A.A. experience. Any Conference-approved booklet or pamphlet goes through a lengthy and painstaking process, during which a variety of A.A.s from all over the United States and Canada read and express opinions at every stage of production.

How To Tell What Is and What Is Not Conference-approved

Look for the statement on books, pamphlets and films: “This is A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature”

Not All “A.A. Literature” Is Conference-Approved

Central offices and intergroups do write and distribute pamphlets or booklets that are not Conference-approved. If such pieces meet the needs of the local membership, they may be legitimately classified as “A.A. literature.” There is no conflict between A.A. World Services, Inc. (A.A.W.S. — publishers of Conference-approved literature), and central offices or intergroups — rather they complement each other. The Conference does not disapprove of such material.

G.S.O. does develop some literature that does not have to be approved by the Conference, such as service material, Guidelines and bulletins.

Available at Most A.A. Groups

Most local A.A. groups purchase and display a representative sampling of Conference-approved pamphlets, and usually carry a supply of hardcover books. Conference-approved literature may be available at central offices and intergroups, or it may be ordered directly from G.S.O. Groups normally offer pamphlets free of charge, and the books at cost.

Copyright

Conference-approved literature is copyrighted with the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. To insure the continued integrity of A.A. literature, and to make sure the A.A. recovery program will not be distorted or diluted, permission to reprint must be obtained from A.A.W.S. in writing.

However, A.A. newsletters, bulletins, or meeting lists have blanket permission to use the material, providing proper credit is given to insure that the copyrights of A.A. literature are protected.

The A.A. Preamble is copyrighted by The A.A. Grapevine, Inc. (not by A.A. World Services). Beneath it, these words should appear: Reprinted with permission of the

A.A. Grapevine, Inc. The Steps and Traditions should be followed by these words: Reprinted with Permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.

Reviewed 7/20/06

This is a Big Book/Discussion meeting.

Location: LOCATION:  Sabana-Sur/South – Calle Vieja (the Old Road that runs parallel alongside the Pista going into Santa Jose, across from Sabana Park). Turn South at the Controlaria (Blue Pyramid looking bldg)  and go down about 2 blocks and it’s on the Right across the street from the Costa Rica Tennis Club parking lot.

Contact: Blaise via email.

The Friday night Pizza Party (Cost $7) and Saturday Night Tin Jo dinner (Menu $8-$22). Please have exact change if possible for Friday Night Pizza Party. Dinner at Tin Jo’s will be individual checks.

Saturday afternoon we are having a Speaker’s Meeting (One Man and One Woman–about 30 minutes each) at Jacqueline H.’s condo near Fresh Food in Paco. This event is limited to 30 . . . → Read More: Central Valley AA Roundup Oct 21-23, 2011 San Jose, Costa Rica!]]> There is no registration required or registration fee, but we are planning two food events that require planning and reservations. We are also planning a speakers meeting at a members Home on Saturday afternoon.

The Friday night Pizza Party (Cost $7) and Saturday Night Tin Jo dinner (Menu $8-$22). Please have exact change if possible for Friday Night Pizza Party. Dinner at Tin Jo’s will be individual checks.

Saturday afternoon we are having a Speaker’s Meeting (One Man and One Woman–about 30 minutes each) at Jacqueline H.’s condo near Fresh Food in Paco. This event is limited to 30 people and while we are not planning on exceeding that number, we need to know just in case more than that want to attend and we will move it to another place.

Agenda

Friday:
5:30 PM    AA Mtg (VC)
7:00 PM    NA Mtg (VC)
8-10 PM    Pizza Party (VC)

Saturday:
9:00 AM AA Mtg (ZuGroup)
10:30 AM    Meal/Fellowship (MultiPlaza Food-Court)
1:00 PM    Coffee/Cake (JC)
2:00 PM    Speaker Mtg (JC)
6:30 PM    Dinner (Tin Jo)
9:00 PM    AA Mtg (VC)

Sunday:
9:30  AM    AA Meeting (VC)
10:30AM    (Pastries, Bagels & Coffee ater meeting)
12:30 PM    AA Mtg (ZuGroup)

VC-Vigilance Club
Zu Group-Int’l Baptist Church
JC-Jackie’s Condo

Name__________________________________

Telephone Number________________________

I will be attending the following: (Please  all that apply)

Friday:  Pizza Party 

Saturday:  2PM Speaker Mtg 
Dinner Tin Jo-(Asian Food) 

Sunday:  9:30AM  AA Mtg 

Please Email to: brastello@gmail.com or give to Blaise

Times: WED @ 5:30pm

Location: Monteverde Friends Meeting house

Contact:  Ran S. 8313 2523

================================

Spontaneous Meetings gratefully and happily available upon request!

Contact: To request a meeting, call Leah 8779 6852 or Katie 8658 8438!

Meetings: WED & SAT 12-1p

Wednesday is a Big Book/discussion. Saturday is a 12 & 12/discussion.

Meetings in Spanish: TUE & THU 7-8p. Open Discussion.

Location: Manta Raya Hotel, across the street from the Luz De Vida Resort, Santa Teresa de Cobano, Puntarenas

Contact: Email Rachelle C.  or you can call the hotel front desk at 2640-0732.

    Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;    to . . . → Read More: 11th Step Prayer]]>     Lord, make me a channel of thy peace;
    that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
    that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
    that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
    that where there is error, I may bring truth;
    that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
    that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
    that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
    that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

    Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
    to understand, than to be understood;
    to love, than to be loved.
    For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
    It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
    It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.
    Amen.

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.

3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, . . . → Read More: 12 Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous]]> 1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.

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.

3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

1. Honesty: fairness and straightforwardness of conduct; adherence to the facts

2. Hope: desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment; expectation of fulfillment or success; someone or something on which hopes are centered

3. Faith: allegiance to . . . → Read More: 12 Principles of Alcoholics Anonymous]]> Yesterday at the 9:15am meeting at the Anchor Club, we talked about the 12 Principles (Honesty, Hope, Faith, Courage, Integrity, Willingness, Humility, Brotherly Love, Justice, Perseverance, Spirituality, Service), in particular #5, integrity. There was mention of looking up the definitions in the dictionary. Here they are:

1. Honesty: fairness and straightforwardness of conduct; adherence to the facts

2. Hope: desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment; expectation of fulfillment or success; someone or something on which hopes are centered

3. Faith: allegiance to duty or a person; loyalty; fidelity to one's promises; sincerity of intentions; firm belief in something for which there is no proof; complete trust;
something that is believed especially with strong conviction. Re. religion: belief and trust in and loyalty to God; belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion

4. Courage: mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty

5. Integrity: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values; incorruptibility; an unimpaired condition; soundness; the quality or state of being complete or undivided
 
6. Willingness: inclined or favorably disposed in mind; ready; prompt to act or respond; done, borne, or accepted by choice or without reluctance; of or relating to the will or power of choosing

7. Humility: the quality or state of being humble.

Humble: not proud or haughty; not arrogant or assertive; reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission; ranking low in a hierarchy or scale; insignificant, unpretentious; not costly or luxurious

8. Brotherly Love: "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

9. Justice: the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments; judge; the administration of law; especially; the establishment or determination of rights according to the rules of law or equity; the quality of being just, impartial, or fair; the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action; conformity to this principle or ideal; righteousness; the quality of conforming to law; conformity to truth, fact, or reason

10. Perseverance: the action or condition or an instance of persevering; steadfastness

Persevere: to persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counter influences, opposition, or discouragement

11. Spirituality: This one was hard because almost all of the definitions relate to religion, and not as we know it: "Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for people who've been there." Here are the definitions (too long to post here): Spirituality, Spiritual, Spirit.

12. Service: the occupation or function of serving; help, use, benefit; contribution to the welfare of others; the act of serving; as a helpful act; useful labor that does not produce a tangible commodity.

===================

A search on the web brought up this site, BareFoot's World, with lots of interesting historical references and more discussion of the principles. I include it here because it gave me food for thought on the topic and I appreciated having the principles connected to the steps.

Bob's opinion is:

"The 12 Steps of AA ARE the Principles of the Program that we practice, as listed on Big Book pages 59 and 60! Over the years many lists of virtues that correspond to each of the Twelve Steps and their underlying spiritual nature have been printed in local area AA newsletters and on pocket cards. The origins of these lists are unknown, although they are used by many Twelve step members."

AA Principles and Virtues

Honesty | Step 1 We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable. (Surrender: capitulation to hopelessness.)

Hope | Step 2 Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. (Hope: Step 2 is the mirror image or opposite of step 1. In step 1 we admit
that alcohol is our higher power, and that our lives are unmanageable.
In step 2, we find a different Higher Power who we hope will bring
about a return to sanity in management of our lives.)

Faith | Step 3 Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him. (Commitment: The key word in step 3 is decision.)

Courage | Step 4 Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. (Honesty: an inventory of self.)

Integrity | Step 5 Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. (Truth: candid confession to God and another human being.)

Willingness | Step 6 Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. (Willingness: choosing to abandon defects of character.)

Humility | Step 7 Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. (Humility: standing naked before God, with nothing to hide, and asking that our flaws – in His eyes – be removed.)

Brotherly Love | Step 8 Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. (Reflection: who have we harmed? Are we ready to amend?)

Justice | Step 9 Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. (Amendment: making direct amends/restitution/correction, etc.)

Perseverance | Step 10 Continued to take personal inventory and, when we were wrong, promptly admitted it. (Vigilance: exercising self-discovery, honesty, abandonment,
humility, reflection and amendment on a momentary, daily, and periodic
basis.)

Spirituality | Step 11 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out. (Attunement: becoming as one with our Higher Power.)

Service | Step 12 Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs. (Service: awakening into sober usefulness.)

===================

There is more to be found at Barefoot's World and at a Scroogle.org search.

We do not endorse any of these programs. However, the owner of Costa Rica Recovery treatment house, James Dopp, and several clients go to my Saturday Escazú meeting.

Costa Rica Recovery Rohrmoser, San José province

Casa . . . → Read More: Treatment Centers in Costa Rica]]> Here is a partial list of English speaking programs in CR (procured from an internet search that yielded incomplete data.)

We do not endorse any of these programs. However, the owner of Costa Rica Recovery treatment house, James Dopp, and several clients go to my Saturday Escazú meeting.

Costa Rica Recovery
Rohrmoser, San José province

Casa Serenidad
San Ramón de Tres Ríos, Cartago province

A more thorough search would involve contacting IAFA. The website is in Spanish. IAFA is the government agency responsible for licensing programs.

There are many Spanish speaking programs: 2-3 week, 12 Step or religion-based. The most visible is the Hogar Crea. You see their clients in yellow t-shirts selling pencils at street corners.

Location: In Playas del Coco, on the way to Playa Ocotal after 2nd bridge, left, Coco Condos at marina loft.

Contact: Max 8917-2222 or email or John 2672-1163, 8897-9951

Phone Calls in Costa Rica