Minneapolis/St. Paul Aug. 20, 1999

Please copy this newsletter for your group.

The Twin Cities GLBT Roundup, MinneSober, will be held at the Regal Minneapolis Hotel Oct. 8, 9, & 10, 1999. The theme for this year's Roundup is "A Way of Life". Registration fee is $40 before Sept. 1, and $45 after Sept. 1. The fee includes the banquet on Saturday night and breakfast Saturday and Sunday mornings. There are workshops, speaker and candlelight meetings, a dance, and lots of fellowship.

The MinneSober information line is (612) 837-3714.

There is an open house at the new space of Beyond Jitters on Saturday, August 28^th. The open house will be a potluck dinner from 6 PM 'til 10 PM. The open house will be followed by the 10:30 candlelight meeting.

Beyond Jitters is in the Rockler Fur Building, Suite 500, 15 N. 4^th Street. There is a buzzer system to gain access.

Plan on Attending

the

The GLBT in AA

Halloween Party

(An International Convention Awareness Event)

there will be lots of music, dancing, and food

(Will a Bridal Party show up?)

The time for the International Convention is approaching quickly!

The hospitality committee has worked out a project plan for the Hospitality Room and the Dance. It will be very helpful in the future to track the various jobs to be done.

We discussed having another Halloween Party. We are hoping to obtain the same space as last year, but arrangements have not yet been made.

The Friday meeting at Pride has been the only group sending in pledges for the Hospitality Room at the International Convention. We ask that the other groups that pledged support check their records and send in the pledges as soon as possible.

The contract has been signed for with the International Market Square for the IAC Dance - GLBT SoberDance 2000. Although the dance is being held during the International Convention, it is not part of the convention. It is a separate event held by IAC.

The IAC Hospitality Room is an official participant in the Convention. GSO furnishes the space, which will be the Horizon Room and Dome on the 14^th floor of the Regal Minneapolis Hotel. We will need lots of volunteers to staff the room for 4 days.

There will be 3 GLBT Panel Discussion meetings at the International Convention. GSO will pick the topics and the panel members. IAC will make suggestions for the topics and panels.

To volunteer for helping with any other part of the Convention - working as usher at meetings, working the registration table, or other duties that need be performed, the kick off for volunteers will be on January 30, 2000. The local Host Committee will be handling all of the other volunteers. Remember all volunteers will need to register for the Convention. Registration forms will be sent out in September to all registered A.A. groups, Intergroups, and will also be available in Box 4-5-9. Registration fee is $85 before May 15, 2000, and $95 after May 15.

"Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy."

This tradition REALLY says a mouth full. I don't know of any way to explain it better than to quote "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions".

"As by some deep instinct, we A.A.'s have known from the very beginning that we must never, no matter what the provocation, publicly take sides in any fight, even a worthy one. ....Nor does it mean that the members of Alcoholics Anonymous, now restored as citizens of the world, are going to back away from their individual responsibilities to act as they see the right upon issues of our time. ...

"The Washingtonian Society, a movement among alcoholics which started in Baltimore a century ago, almost discovered the answer to alcoholism. At first, the society was composed entirely of alcoholics trying to help one another. The early members foresaw that they should dedicate themselves to this sole aim. In many respects, the Washingtonians were akin to A.A. of today. Their membership passed the hundred thousand mark. Had they been left to themselves, and had they stuck to their one goal, they might have found the rest of the answer. But this didn't happen. Instead, the Washingtonians permitted politicians and reformers, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic, to use the society for their own purposes. Abolition of slavery, for examples, was a stormy political issue then. Soon, Washingtonian speakers violently and publicly took sides on this question. Maybe the society could have survived the abolition controversy, but it didn't have a chance from the moment it determined to reform America's drinking habits. When the Washingtonians became temperance crusaders, within a very few years they had completely lost their effectiveness in helping alcoholics. ..."

I think it important that we learn from this to deal with our alcoholism in A.A. on a public level. We have all found that we can learn from others past experience on working the steps. It is also important to learn from others experience in working and valuing the traditions.

We would like to thank all of you who have donated time and money to help us carry the message. Thank you to the groups that have included us in the 7^th Tradition or who have pledged set amounts each month. Also, thank you to the individuals who have pledged monthly amounts to keep the Web Site up and running over the next year.

If you or your group would like to make a donation for the International Convention in the year 2000, or to GLBT in A.A, please send them to the following address:

IAC (the International Advisory Council for Homosexual Men and Women in Alcoholics Anonymous) have the new edition of the World Directory of GLBT meetings. They are $5 each. The IAC newsletter, IACTIVITY is free, but a donation of $5 is suggested to help with expenses including postage. Both can be ordered from IAC: a non-profit corporation, P.O. Box 18212, Washington, DC 20036-8212.

Please check to see if your group is including IAC in the 7^th Tradition. Some members also make a special gift to IAC on their anniversary date of one or two dollars per year. IAC offers many services for our community. Please support them.

(Held during the International Convention)