Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) & 12 step programs

It would be sweet to target benches near Alano clubs, halfway houses, and intergroup offices. A lot of people in meetings don't have driver's licenses, so bus stops would be the preferred location.

First off Thanks lfid for posting this cute picture. It costs money but I understand that is the goal. One by the Marina Center, one by The Famous Log Cabin in Los Angeles and after a non profit is formed they will be all over. Send a city and a corner and down the road it will be done!

A new year is dawning. AA and it s Happy trails is coming to a slow, mule type of pace.

THE WAR HORSE is riding to a SMART MEETING, SOS, LifeRING, will be reading an Amy Lee Coy book , taking a workshop with Hank Hays, Talking to Steven Slate from A Clean Slate and St Judes Retreat, Enjoying Moderation Management with Dr Marc Kern or Ken Anderson or Donna Cornett!!!

And I bleive that many many , if not most will read a good book that will help them, take naltrexone and blog with many of us.

AA is the place where you go when everything else fails. Why isn't Smart or RR mentioned on the sign. Could there be a phone number. I think a website should be mentioned.

Dave, if that were true..things would be better. But it's not. AA is the first place most people end up . AA is too well known/ Like Sliced bread. Thats the part that needs changing.

People who get their first DUI are sent straight to the last hell hole on the block... AA. AA, where they are reading from a book written in 1939 as a plan for "living"! CLearly AA and its 12 steps are not a healthy plan for living after 6 months or so. IN fact doing the steps depressed me.
If one goes to the blog talk radio site Safe Recovery....then they will find all of the interviews which include Smart and Tom Horvath, Jack Trimpey, for Rational Recovery, SOS and Jim Christopher and Hank Hayes and Amy Lee Coy and Stanton Peele and many many other choices including Moderation.

I hope SMART Recovery and the rest take out their own ads when they can afford it.

I hope that the people looking for some help getting sober without aa dont read your comments here. Everyone in aa is not bad and thats a fact. Your absolute opinions on aa are so extreme you may push away the very people you are trying to help.

very good money. In my opinion the last manager worked his tail off. The trustees and directors don't make any money and some actually lose money because of time off work and this is a fact. If you dont include literature sales the amount the GSO needs from each aa member is about $3.50 per year. There is a non-profit worker scale for pay and aa does not pay in the highest range, but I dont know where the gso manager fits in this scale.

I have read most of those returns before except for the current years. I have also met phyllis a few times when she was pacific regional trusee (non paid position), but did not talk to her as much as I did greg. If you look at the salaries for AAWS for example, you will notice that several of the officers are not paid. The chairman of aaws is not paid and I would argue that is a very important position. I also believe travel reimbursements are large. Years ago all of the trustees and directors came from areas closer to New York for the purpose of convenience, but at the urging of the fellowship, trustees and directors now come from all over the us hence the high travel expenses. I used to be appalled at the money spent on salaries and travel, but when I found out more I began to actually embrace some of the expenses. I want the gso to have the best staff members it can afford within reason. I still dont know everything about what's going on, and I dont agree with everything I know about, but I have been lucky to know people who are involved on that level to answer my questions.

I wonder if I have you convinced that I am an aa clone?

I will have to look for the answer to the $500,000 question. I think I used to know, but I have since forgotten.

I thought in the past there was also a large amout given to another gso manager, but I still can't recall what it was. I did wonder about greg though. I met Robin about a week after she was hired. She seemed like a very nice person. Her positive attitued was infectious in my opinion and I really think she wanted to do a good job. I was guessing that they found someone better or that she could not do the job, but my gut feeling is that there is more to the story. I'm going to find out why she left. I did not know she was fired. Do you know anything about it? Maybe I'll google it.

The non aa archivest also moved on and I also thought she may have found a better job.

I was rotating out of general service when some delegates were having problems with greg. I do believe that greg did some great things and worked hard, but I could sense some iritation from gso staff at times. He was their boss, so I cant really comment. I thought he was forced out and I was surprised he did not step down. When he was gso manager we actually talked about when he was going to step down and why. He had some opinions on this and he might not have taken his own advice. He held the job for a long time, I think more than 10 years. He might even have held the job longer than any of his predessors. His job is clearly not a volunteer position. He was also their to get paid and provide a good service for aa. I think he did that, and if he was forced out for non legimate reasons, maybe he should have received some severence pay. What do other non profit corporations have a history of doing? I dont know.

Greg Muth paid himself $250,000 per year, and gave his lawyer friend Tom Jasper $469,000 as a going-away present. That isn't exactly starvation wages. And why did Jasper get nearly half a million dollars of A.A. money? And it looks like Muth took even more:

• Former EDP Manager for A.A. Lillianna Murphy wrote to me and said that she didn't get even half of the money that Greg Muth reported on the Form 990. So somebody else took that money home.
  
• Salaries of A.A. leaders
  
• More on A.A. headquarters finances, including copies of all of the recent Form 990 filings.

Thanks orange!