Chapter Five The Growth through Our Book

“There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.”

As they worked on writing the Basic Text, NA members from all over the country became ever more informed about NA recovery, Steps and Traditions. Indeed, they became the most informed members in our history. Even members who were unable to attend one of the seven Literature Conferences became informed. The reading and discussions allowed members to share, ask questions, correct mis-impressions and get our NA message straight out of a book. There were other results that stemmed from their involvement in the writing of the Basic Text. They stayed clean. And they became super-informed members who knew first hand almost anything a person could know about their Fellowship. This information empowered them to go forth and carry our message to the world. Meetings started and recovery took root in places all over the United States, Europe and even faraway India, where the heroin traffic resulting from the Afgan War was wreaking havoc where drugs had been mostly a religious observance and not a health problem. Heroin addicts sprouted up everywhere and NA was quick to follow. There were NA meetings in Russia, Japan and Australia. As a direct result of the members writing the basic message of recovery down on paper in a form that most members could agree on, NA became a world-wide fellowship.

Following our Twelve Traditions and our general impulse to include rather than exclude, we developed our service structure using a volunteer system that endures to this day. No one was trained, well almost no one. And the services were heroic. A fledling Public Information committee in South Florida pasted up thousands of stickers saying “Drug Problem? – Call NA at this phone number.” They did this on a Friday night and Monday morning the telephone company called them and told them they were having a problem with the stickers, not the drugs, and would we please remove them from many of the twenty-five thousand pay phones all over Dade County! Members in Cleveland, Ohio put up billboards. Flyers went up in clinics and laundromats. These service volunteers have never been properly applauded for their heroic efforts which continue to this day.

As the business operations in California continued to grow, they forgot that the membership wrote the book. As days went by, more and more memory was being lost. New employees were concerned with day to day activities and when they heard about this happening or a persons name, it was from a co-worker or their boss. A Corporate mind set began to set in and replace the intuitive, loving, caring spirit of service. As weeks became months and months passed into years, the Fellowship continued to grow and know about its history and what had taken place – there were numerous witnesses and participants who loved to talk. There were writings. But over time, there was one view coming out of the Office and another out in the Fellowship.

This corporate mind set grew as the WSO spread its influence into the burgeoning Fellowship. There is an inevitable air of being ‘in the know’ when you’re involved with a primary service center. Unfortunately, our primary service center was being revamped into our primary business office. WSO began to style itself as a publishing company and expenditures directed towards the creation of new books and publications we justified by the return potential rather than the good they did for people. Try not to allow your mind to slip into the ‘good and bad’ mode. These things were bound to happen and would have happened in one form or another under any conceivable administration. Call it growth changes or learning curve if that helps you understand. We are not blame assessors. At best we describe what happened so you - the members - can be better informed and make better choices relating to our future as a spiritual Fellowship and enjoy more peace of mind as you go about your recovery and service.

As the Fellowship grew in hundreds of thousands of new members, naturally WSO grew more and more perplexed about our policies and nervous about eventualities like the members voting to do things that would limit or damage WSO’s ability to function. We all know what one crazy addict can do, how about two hundred and fifty thousand voting members with less than a year clean? Who knows what “if... then...” propositions flourished among WSO personnel during these years. I imagine that if you were part of that group and came up with one more terrible senario, it got repeated and encouraged others to think of something even more hideous and implausible. There was a line altered during the WSO’s edit of the Basic Text. The original said, “The mind will of course wander.” This is taken form old spiritual writings and alludes to the simple task of learning to drag the mind back to the place you have chosen for it. It was altered to read, “The mind will wander off course.” Does this constitute an improvement to your mind? I heard that whoever came up with the alteration was praised and that the brilliant edit was whispered up and down the halls of WSO the rest of that day. So much for blaming the 4^th Edition debacle on the Literature Committee.