Box 4-5-9 is published quarterly by the General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115, copyright © 2021 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Mail address: P.O. Box 459, Grand Central Station New York, NY 10163 G.S.O.’s A.A. Website: www.aa.org Subscriptions: Individual, $3.50 per year; group, $6.00 for each unit of 10 per year. Check—made payable to A.A.W.S., Inc.—should accompany order. To have issues delivered directly to your inbox, register your email on the A.A. Digital Subscription Service on G.S.O.’s Website. Note on anonymity: From time to time in this publication full names and/or pictures of G.S.O. employees, Class A trustees and other nonalcoholics are used. The anonymity of A.A. members is maintained, as they are identified throughout by first name and last initial only.
sions twice a week for seven weeks. “Each module took approximately four days to complete, with an extra day for assessment.” The end result is that members and customers can now call or email, and one person can help them with any and all business requests they may have. “Before NetSuite, everyone was siloed in their own department, and systems weren’t speaking to each other,” says Malini Singh (nonalcoholic), director of the new department. “We used to have members say, ‘Do I have to be transferred? Can’t you take care of it here?’ All of this is a win for our customers and members and a win for G.S.O.” The process, she says, is “speedier, easier, streamlined.” When a member or customer calls, the number goes right through to an associate — the new team will have reps speaking English, French and Spanish — instead of being routed through the main G.S.O. number. (The new dedicated phone number is 212-870-3023, and the new email is memberandcustomerservice@ aa.org.) “I come from a 30-year career in customer service,” says Bob W., G.S.O. general manager. “My organization cross-trained people years ago and it was a home run. People are calling us for help in certain situations — maybe they want to update the address of a group or get a certain piece of literature they want. Instead of getting passed to another department or having to call back, members and customers will get what they need. They’ll see that G.S.O. can deliver, that we are on their side. As stewards of the Fellowship’s Seventh Tradition dollars, we want to spend them as wisely as possible, and one way to do so is to be as efficient as possible with the services we provide. I’m really excited about this and think that ultimately it’s a great win for G.S.O., in terms of rounding out staff education on everything we provide, as well as meeting the needs of the Fellowship.” 2
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n An Armed Services Standing Committee for San Diego/ Imperial California (Area 8) A recent review of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2013-2017 studies on drinking within industries, published by the Delphi Behavioral Health Group, found that active-duty military members spend more days a year consuming alcohol than people in any other industry. Military personnel reported drinking 130 days out of the year and imbibing four to five drinks a day in one sitting at least 41 days a year, also more than any other profession.1* “Alcohol is always a problem in the military,” says Tiffany G. “It is culturally so different. You’re expected to drink, and to drink a lot.” While not a member of the military, Tiffany has a family member who is, and she has spent a good deal of time on or near Marine Corps bases. Tiffany got sober some 20 years ago in Idaho and moved around a bit, first to Colorado and later to Florida. In January 2017, her family member got a duty posting to the MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) at Iwakuni, Japan, and Tiffany decided to go along and have what she called “a great sober adventure.” Living on base, she worked as a civilian employee, but felt isolated when she stepped into a civilian world with a very different language. Her saving grace was the A.A. group that met twice a week on base, although it turned out that there was only one other person there who had worked the Steps and that Tiffany was the person with the longest sobriety. She ended up sponsoring men, despite A.A.’s time-honored “men with men, women with women” suggestion, because, as she says, “If we didn’t work together despite gender identity, we weren’t going to make it.” Over time, Tiffany noticed that the group was shrinking. Marines and sailors rotated out to other duty stations, and military counselors received different postings; in all, there seemed little continuity. She puzzled over this and then thought, “Maybe they just don’t know we’re here.” Using her own funds, she ordered as much literature as she could, including “A.A. and the Armed Services” and “This Is A.A.” She got the C.P.C. and the P.I. workbooks and read them both carefully. (She found the P.I. workbook especially helpful.) She took pamphlets to the counselors and was able to attend internal “safety” briefings where she could make the case for A.A., thus gaining unusual entrée for a civilian. She was even able to produce a PSA for broadcast on the base radio station. All of this work stood her in good stead when her family member received a permanent change of station to Camp Pendleton, located in San Diego, California. San 1*Delphi Behavioral Health Group “Drinking Habits by Industry” https://delphihealthgroup.com/drinking-habits-by-industry
Box 4-5-9, Fall 2021
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