Appendices

…. 318

Timeline …. 333

…..335

….. 335

….. 336

….337

Excerpt from Bob Stone's Book:

The following extract is placed here not to embarrass anyone but simply because most members of our Fellowship don't know this happened. Since they cannot find a specific time and place where 'everything' changed, they believe the fun loving, caring Fellowship we had in the late seventies and early nineties is still in existence somewhere. Adjustments that have been made by people like me have been a positive reaction to these changes. But if the Fellowship has no way of knowing, they will think some of what we do is unnecessary. The NA Way of Life project for instance is far too loving and caring to survive in this kind of power politics atmosphere. It would be like choosing to go to a dumpster to have a baby.

Still, I respect the friends I have who have stood the strain of all the years in world service. We need a strong structure and a stable World Service Office. It is up to us to provide the spirit, the fun and the good humor that brings life to our Program and Fellowship. They take care of their stuff: the corporate work, the reports, the printing, distribution and all the other work they do for the Fellowship in trust. Like us, if they fail they can pay a high penalty. None of this recovery stuff is anything but a God given miracle! If we are grateful, we can wish them well and get back to what we do the best: stay clean and carry the message.

Bob Stone was a great man in our history and we will be fortunate to attract others of his caliber. I have long suspected that while he was not an addict, he held back more insanity within our world service system then we will ever know. If we don't show gratitude and respect to our trusted servants and special workers, who will?

- Bo S.

Bob Stone and the na fellowship

Bob Stone was the manager of the NA World Service office from 1983 to 1990. He was not an addict which made for peculiar problems in his management of the Office. Our approved and carefully considered service structure of the time did not make provision to prohibit the WSO from making NA policy or manipulating information in Fellowship publications entrusted to their care. The expansion of WSO from less than $10,000 in the 1978-1979 fiscal year to a million dollars in the 1984-1985 fiscal year (figures approximate) increased the staff of the Office from none to over forty. The dynamics of this change included a range of new strains and pressures. It was hard for the workers at WSO to know exactly what pains had been taken by the Fellowship leadership. They had to answer to their boss on a daily basis and that which their boss did not know, did not reach the light of day. Heavy on the business side and hazy on the spiritual Fellowship side, it is not surprising that many mishaps miscommunications happened. Add to this all the personal interpretations that Bob was given by addicts who surrounded him at the WSO in Southern California or else on the road traveling 'for the Fellowship.' It has to have been confusing.

Several years before the end of his managing the WSO, I advised him to write a book about his experience. Our members need to know what you are learning and it may help others understand what goes on at WSO and thereby make improvements that would be impossible if they were kept in the dark. At the time, I thought no more about it. Then I heard his contract was not renewed. Greg P. who I trusted in these things told me that there were many little things towards the end of Bob's work for us that would be unimportant but taken as a whole, they were enough to get him 'non-renewed.' I now think there are other explanations. I have just finished reading his book, "My Years with Narcotics Anonymous" and may have stumbled on an unexpected explanation.

Before going into that, I want to point out that during my assignment to the WSC Literature Committee in the 1986-1987 Conference year, we were going through a document that contained a large excerpt from a letter Bob Stone wrote to the Chairperson of the Literature Committee. He advised that the work of the Committee be suspended for a few years during which time the Chairpersons should go around a talk with members about what they would like to see written about recovery. In the course of reviewing the material, the excerpt proved to be problematic. It made good points but just didn't fit in with the piece we were working on. Sorry, I can't recall which piece. It may been concerning the Committees guidelines. Someone finally snapped to the fact that Bob's letter was not meant to be input but only contained some thoughtful and relevant observations. Bob's comments left no doubt that he believed as we did that the writing should be tuned to the reality of NA recovery and not the member coerced into doing it the way a writer thought they should. This experience based approach is what saved us with the Basic Text. State someone's experience and no one in the world can deny it. Present the same information as a suggestion or opinion, anyone can argue with you. There were other things but after that, I began to suspect that Bob was holding back plenty of insanity instead of making problems.

Reading Bob Stone's book, he refers to a 'vocal minority.' This would be funny if it were not so sad. The members who had studied and been apart of World Services the longest, whether as a Fellowship supporter or as an active participant became outraged when certain breeches of trust and written policy were violated. Hell, no one knew it all and it took a sizable group of well informed members to keep up with events and the written material in Quarterly Reports, the Annual Conference Agenda Report and any other documents to come out of the WSO, WSC (World Service Conference) or WSB (World Service Board). These few members who cared and dared enough to complain or express concern were dubbed as a group: the vocal minority. So, if something upset the 'vocal minority', he would wave it off as if the concern came from people who just liked to find fault or complain. This is what proved to be his undoing. While there may be no direct relationship between to two events, it is not lost on me that the non-renewal came after the 4th Edition debacle.

By not listening to the informed, studied and experienced members, he was left to listen to whom? His employees? Currently elected WSC Officers and Chairpersons? So, would you expect he got a well rounded viewpoint or might his view point be restricted by the limited group of persons he let advise him. After all, he wasn't going to listen to a bunch of sick addicts who were vocal and lacking in numbers, was he? Only the 'vocal minority' could have or would have helped him, if he had asked. But a manger runs on information and any corporation places a high value on information. Once you think you have enough, you just go for it and hope for the best. Corporation go out of business because they can't read the writing on the wall. They become insensitive to customer complaints and they go out of business. If instead of fearing, dismissing or ignoring the vocal minority - who is still around, let me tell ya! - he could have brought them into the picture and heard them out. Their feelings were probably on track and it would have been easy enough for him in particular to please them. To me, this is, or should be the difference between a spiritual fellowship and a corporation. A corporation has no soul. It responds to lobbying. A spiritual fellowship takes the long view and looks out for all its members, not just a few who seem to be in power. God's really in power in NA.

As his story moves towards the last two chapters, Bob is literally globe trotting at Fellowship expense. He goes everywhere from Tokyo for two weeks to South America and Europe. Of course he travels extensively around the United States. He was paid a good salary as WSO manager and worked very hard to achieve the directives of the Fellowship. After around ten years of involvement with us, he did know a few things about what we wanted and how we worked towards our goals within the Twelve Traditions. He describes a group of people who decide not to renew his contract. He says he was told that they wanted to change Executive Directors because they were planning some changes in the Service Structure that he might not be able to go along with because of his well known basic beliefs. Apparently, these members succeeded because right after he was kicked out, there were some dramatic changes in our Structure. Representatives at the WSC no longer represented, now they are delegates. This means that while the tokens of representation are still there at the Regional level, they can vote their own conscience at the WSC. They don't have to vote the way their regions tell them to on issues announced in the Conference Agenda Report (CAR). Since they no longer have to follow the specific directions of their members in the region that has delegated them to vote at the WSC, the Fellowship no longer has a real vote. The linkage that used to exist between Group Member whose vote at the Group level was tallied with other groups at their area, then the area votes tallied at the region, and finally the regional votes tallied at the annual WSC. Without specific language, this linkage is destroyed. There were other sweeping changes. A big move to efficiency resulted in drying up the Board of Trustees (WSB) and the WSC sub-committee system. During the years I attended the WSC there was only one thing the Fellowship did not want: the super board composed of a few people who run everything. Today, we have a super board. No doubt, Bob Stone would not have gone along with that plan.

To pull off this exhausting and radical change, a decade long charade called 'The Inventory' was utilized. It had the effect of freezing most WSC activity while WSO continued to function 'business as usual.' The most striking thing about the implementation of the super board is that they had two years to write their own guidelines. So, they had all the money under their control, all publications under their control, and all world service functions under their control. The only way for a member to get in is called the 'pool.' So members who want to serve at the World Level, have to sign up for a pool, fill out forms - the first in our history, and wait to be called. Presumably, if they do a good job, they are retained and even giving other assignments. A perfect management system.

I am grateful to Mr. Stone for all his work on our behalf. The man was not perfect but his position as Executive Director would have driven anyone insane. It is a wonder he did as well as he did and to credit the 1983 WSC voting group conscience, no one could have done as well. You and surely couldn't unless you're one hell of a manager! When he got sick with inoperable cancer, he wrote his truth probably as much to help him process what had happened as anything.

So that you members reading this will have some idea of what is contained in Bob's book, I am going to present the last chapter or two of the book. The early chapters have some excellent detailed writings on the history of NA. There is also an amazing blow by blow description of some of the service politics from the 1980's. This is the stuff we will have to master if we are to do better service in the future. To spare anyone at all the feeling that I am up to something, let me say that I am telling anyone I can reach that they should pray and step out on faith to meet any perceived need the NA Fellowship may have at present or in the future. Since these people in World Services wanted the super board, let them have it. If they get in trouble, we may have to save them. After all, it is our service work they are selling.

It is the love and understanding along with useful survival information in the Basic Text that called most of them to recovery in the first place. The Basic Text was written by over a thousand members in the late 1970's and early 1980's. It is the combined experience, strength and hope of addicts in recovery from all over the Fellowship with members from one day clean to over thirty years. Their input was put in a big pot and set to boil until it became condensed into writing and met the approval of members and groups all over the world who voted through a group conscience system in days when we had representative voting. My role in all this has always been basically the same: I hate to see big guys beating the shit out of little guys. I enjoy supplying the little guys so they at least have a chance. It gives me a thrill and makes my Higher Power happy. And that is just fine with me.

Since so much of this is coming to light for many members today, my suggestion is to leave the structure alone, especially at the world level. Just surrender. They will ask for help from the only people who can give it to them, or they will drain away power hungry members from the more important tasks at the group and area level. For instance, we need to get Basic Texts into every library in our state - how about yours? We need to routinely visit young doctors just when they are graduating from medical school and do this on a regular basis to get help for addicts and help doctors better understand addiction and recovery when they are young and growing. How about visiting local police departments and letting the new policemen and women know about recovery from addiction.

Maybe then they can jump out of the Hollywood stereotyping and into reality. We can do these things through existing H&I and P.I. committees. Did you know some large groups used to sponsor a hospital meeting so when the person got out of treatment, they had existing friends in a regular NA recovery meeting? Dreaming works - when you are clean!

In Loving Service,

Bo S.

My Years with Narcotics

Anonymous

by Bob Stone