MY or THEIR Central Bulletin

MY Central Bulletin comes to me by mail every month. I pay them $10 every couple of years to keep it coming. I usually read it cover to cover, but don’t need to. And when I’m through with it I send by copy to our archives, but don’t need to. That’s fine. It’s MINE. I can do what I want with it.

You may be getting a Central Bulletin you didn’t pay for. That’s cause it’s your group’s courtesy copy sent to you because you’re THEIR secretary. You’re the address the Central Office has for your group. As its secretary you should read it cover to cover and you should also bring THEIR copy to the group. There may be items in it where the office requested that you read them to the group Please do! We have no practical other way to get the word out to your group’s members.

I’ve never had a job with enough responsibility to have my own secretary, but I’ve worked several places that had group secretaries. I always asked them not to cull my mail. It may have looked like junk mail to them, but it might have been an advertising brochure I requested or wanted to see.

Likewise, in AA, I might want to hear about the Goodtime III trip we just took, or the Legacy Evenings I organize for the Office, or any of a variety of other news items some members of your group may be curious about. They deserve the opportunity to learn of them and that’s their right.

Are you getting the “Bulletin” and no longer the secretary? This suggests the Office does not have the contact information of your group’s new secretary. Accurate, current information is needed by the Office to fulfill their and your mandate to carry our message to the still suffering alcoholic. Please help them get it.

By Bob M., archivist