The Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous
Many using addicts find themselves in a state of hopelessness, having consumed more than a lifetime of resources from society, treatment centers, family and friends. The Fellowship meets regularly to help each other stay clean and carry a message to the still suffering addict. Narcotics Anonymous is not a self-help program, but a help others program. Giving back can start at any point in an addict’s recovery. A using addict with a desire to stop should continue to attend as this is giving back to other members. The way I learned to be self-supporting and give back to society was from joining a Narcotics Anonymous Group. Members of a Group will adopt the Twelve Traditions as a basis of their Fellowship. Addicts will call the group they regularly attend a ‘Home Group’. The practical application of the spiritual principles learned in the Twelve Steps and the application of the Twelve Traditions benefited my recovery immensely. Some recovered addicts choose to give back in other ways once they are clean. There are many service opportunities that society has to offer. For example, you can volunteer with organizations that feed the homeless. Some members continue to support Narcotics Anonymous by giving back in service by becoming a trusted servant.
Growing Pains and Division
In the mid-1980’s, a split emerged within the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous. The division was within the Fellowship over the contents of the Basic Text that were adopted by members but were altered by the trustees of the Fellowship. A few Trustees disagreed with the Groups. The Groups had reviewed and approved the Basic Text but the text was altered.
- Tradition 4 (Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or N.A. as a whole.) was altered.
“All else is not N.A.” was removed which was a reference that only Groups make up the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous.
(Narcotics Anonymous, 2ND Edition, published 1983, Tradition 4, page 61, Copyright 1982 by C.A.R.E.N.A. Publishing Co.)
The idea that service bodies were nothing more than trusted servants, and outside the Fellowship was suppressed by the Trustees. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all the traditions, so having any form of structure was considered counter to the Twelve Traditions by many members.
- Tradition 9 (N.A., as such, ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.) was altered. “…The Ninth Tradition goes on to define the nature of the things that we can do to help N.A. It says that we may create service boards or committees to serve the needs of the Fellowship.”
“None of them has the power to rule, censor, decide, or dictate.” was removed and refers to the function of a service body.
(Basic Text, 2nd Edition, Tradition 9, page 68)
The above lines removed had specifically detailed that not only were the service bodies not part of N.A. but that the service body holds no power over groups. By removing these details, the trustees had effectively given themselves the authority to govern. This has caused problems for decades in N.A. and has influenced the decision-making process to this day. Many addicts today do not question the authority of those who are supposed to be servants. Since this change the support of Narcotics Anonymous Groups for the World Service Conference (WSC) has eroded. The NAWS Corporation, who allegedly holds the copywrites in trust and the WSC no longer represent more than a small minority of Groups.
Problem solving
Critical to the success of any service body is the ability to make decisions. Making decisions can be difficult without structure. Procedures that aid in decision making existed before Narcotics Anonymous.
- Robert’s Rules of Order (RRO).
Robert’s Rules is based on motions that are raised by participants, is considered adversarial, and is rigid in adapting to new ideas and information in the decision-making process since it requires considerable understanding of the rules and procedures.
- Consensus Based Decision Making (CBDM).
There are major differences between the two methods, far beyond what I could cover in this article. CBDM is orientated to problem solving, easily adapts to changes but is prone to groupthink, whereby participants avoid conflict by putting aside their personal opinions and can result in dysfunctional decisions.
RRO was quickly adopted by most service bodies within Narcotics Anonymous. Bob Stone (an executive, and non-addict) was hired to act as chair in some of the first World Service Conferences for NA and used RRO to make decisions. It was popular for many business people to adopt RRO. Bob Stone eventually became the first Executive Director of the Word Service Office (WSO) corporation that served the fellowship as the primary publisher of literature. The WSO morphed into the NAWS Corporation as it is known to addicts today.
Groups make decisions by applying the spiritual principles learned from members working the Twelve Steps and arriving at a decision by careful consideration of the Twelve Traditions. They refer to this as a ‘group conscience’ and it governs all the decisions of a group.
The World Service Conference.
The World Service Conference (WSC) is held every two years for Narcotics Anonymous and is the mechanism where decisions that affect Narcotics Anonymous globally are discussed and voted on. Many Groups have organized service bodies called an ‘Area’ and send a representative from the Groups to the Area. In turn, each Area elects a representative to attend a larger service body called a ‘Regional’, who then sends a representative to the WSC. In 2000, the WSC informed the Fellowship.
…the World Service Conference is moving toward a “consensus-based” and “issues oriented” conference meeting. While this change is not fully realized yet, the need is evident for a Conference Agenda Report (CAR) that contains issues highly relevant to members and groups. … This frees up our members and groups to devote their attention to holding meetings and carrying the message of recovery, without having to ratify every decision made on their behalf at every level of service.
(Narcotics Anonymous, Conference Agenda Report, published in 2000)
An example of a decision made by CBDM in the United Kingdom;
To be included on the UKNA meeting list, a group must only use conference approved NA literature. When a new edition of NA literature is approved, the previous edition loses its approval status. The UKNA RSC policy, dated May 2017, states that any meeting found to be using non-conference approved NA literature, will be removed from the meetings list.
(from an unpublished policy guide but confirmed from sources)
These types of decisions and the use of CBDM have caused further division within the Fellowship. CBDM and RRO are mechanisms that service structures use to function outside of the Groups that make up the Fellowship of NA and have no bearing on a group conscience. Groups use group conscience to arrive at all the decisions that they feel best carries a message to the suffering addict, by whatever means they believe is best. Groups are taught that this conscience reflects our collective higher power’s will and at its core, Narcotics Anonymous is a spiritual organization.
One Solution
If the service structures were to reconsider their relationship with the Fellowship by seeing themselves as trusted servants, outside of the Groups, without the ability to govern, then other effective solutions could be sought. There are good ideas being adopted by many organizations worldwide. Spokes councils are becoming very popular. The following is excerpts about spokes councils drawn from the internet.
A spokes council is the larger organizing structure used in the affinity group model to coordinate a mass action. Each affinity group (or cluster) empowers a spoke (representative) to go to a spokes council meeting to decide on important issues for the action. For instance, affinity groups need to decide on a legal/jail strategy, possible tactical issues, meeting places, and many other logistics. A spokes council does not take away an individual affinity group’s autonomy within an action; affinity groups make their own decisions about what they want to do on the streets (as long as it fits in with any action guidelines.) All decisions in spokes councils are made by consensus, so that all affinity groups have agreed and are committed to the mass direct action.
Each group sends a delegate (or ‘spoke’) to the spokes council meeting, where all delegates present the breadth of ideas and concerns of their groups…..The remit [task] of the spoke needs to be clearly defined for a spokes council to work effectively. The task of the spoke is primarily to feedback information between the small group and the council. The spoke needs to act as a voice for everyone within the small group, communicating the breadth of collective thought rather than their own personal point of view.
See these two websites; https://organizingforpower.org/clusters-spokes-councils/and https://seedsforchange.org.uk/spokescouncil
Some Truths about Narcotics Anonymous
N.A. Groups worldwide can choose to participate in service structures, or simply function independently. They make decisions about the format of the meetings, what literature to present and/or sell, regardless of the opinion of the service structures who should only be accountable to the groups they serve. Some groups use literature produced independently. New groups can and do translate, print, and distribute literature long before it’s approved. This was the case in Iran’s N.A. Fellowship with almost five thousand groups hosting more than twenty thousand meetings (Numbers are estimated based on reports prior to the COVID Pandemic). Iran had a catalog of translated literature available as early as 1998 long before the WSC and The NAWS corporation knew of the extent of NA in Iran.
The effectiveness and success of the Group seems to be based on two factors; The unity of those who are members (committed) and the ability to attract the suffering addicts who are new to the Group. Groups are faced with the governance of from the service structures, which seem to come down to two choices, CBDM or RRO, like grocery stores asking if you want paper or plastic bags. Some groups might prefer to bring their own cloth bags.
I believe this is why so many Groups choose to do what they believe works best; Members with various experiences, strengths and hopes come together. They may prefer older literature, alternative literature and a multitude of other choices that allows them to effectively carry a message without outside influence. Spokes Councils would give direction without governance and improve the unity of the entire Fellowship.
A Successful Program of Recovery.
The success or failure of a group is in the hands of the members who are committed to the primary purpose and does not require outside influence from service bodies. Service structures need to understand that they have a responsibility to be directly accountable to the groups because they are outside enterprises, and the success of the service structure is in attracting groups, not dictating to them. Attraction rather than promotion has a proven success within the Fellowship.
We recover in an atmosphere of acceptance and respect for one another’s beliefs. We try to avoid the self-deception of arrogance and self-righteousness.
Basic Text, 2nd Edition, Chapter 9, “Living the Program” page 88.
Each person takes complete responsibility for their recovery. Each Group takes responsibility for carrying the message. The danger is that in my arrogance or self-righteousness I can endanger myself and other group members. Giving anyone authority over my recovery means I can blame them for what I see as a failure. Giving structures authority amplifies the worst of the defects of individual members who serve. This guarantees the failure of being either trusted or a servant.