Tag: Literature

Attraction and Promotion

I remember when I was young, and I would party a lot. We would laugh about how intoxicated we got and how intoxicated we were going to get next time. Getting ‘messed up’, ‘baked’ or a dozen other euphemisms was what I thought was an attractive lifestyle. I had friends who dropped acid and called it ‘cutting tracks’ because it apparently scarred your brain and we thought that was cool.  I was too scared to try acid but I tried other things. Some people would talk about what a magical experience hard drugs were and try and convince me to try everything. Things changed when I decided to get clean and joined Narcotics Anonymous. I still think about what activities or lifestyles I consider attractive, and some people still promote their ideas about what they think is attractive.  Narcotics Anonymous Tradition Eleven says that ‘Our public relations policy is attraction rather than promotion, we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and film’. There are a couple things to consider when looking at the first part of this Tradition.  My public relations policy might not be the same as Narcotics Anonymous. I might be fine with promoting something that NA would not. I like wearing blue jeans, and I love gardening. You might find that an excellent experience too and seeing me in my jeans, working in the garden might be attractive. I could try and convince you that both are excellent choices by promoting them. Narcotics Anonymous would probably not have an opinion on either blue jeans or gardening but I can’t speak for what Narcotics Anonymous would say about either. As a member, when I do speak for NA, it would be as a servant, and my personal opinions should not influence what message I carry on behalf of NA and that can be difficult sometimes.  

The greater the base, as we grow in unity in numbers and in Fellowship, the broader the sides and the higher the point of freedom. Probably the last to be lost to freedom will be the stigma of being an addict. Goodwill is best exemplified in service and proper service is “Doing the right thing for the right reason.” When this supports and motivates both the individual and the Fellowship, we are fully whole and wholly free.

Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text, 2nd Edition, ‘Our Symbol’, page vii

Stacey Ruth, CPC wrote an excellent article about ‘Attraction vs Promotion’. Her article references a common misconception in 12 step programs about Tradition Eleven. I liked this quote from her article and found it really sorted out the difference between attraction and promotion.

Attraction leaves the opportunity for action in the hands of the audience, while promotion leads them into submission.

Stacey Ruth, CPC, Linkedin “The Big Lie About Marketing: Attraction vs. Promotion”

Fellowships, Cliques, and Passersby.

Attraction and promotion covers a wide range on the part of both the audience and the presenters. At one point I thought I was part of one of the many cliques that form in local recovery circles. I believe that cliques are formed to protect members from accountability for their actions.  United we stand and divided we fall. Cliques can ignore the traditions, or manipulate them to suit the needs of the clique. We would all sit together at meetings, and a privileged few would be invited to events. Phone calls from clique members were a sought-after reward for good behavior and formed part of the hierarchy. Being part of a clique can be precarious and the politics are well beyond my grasp to understand. I never function well in cliques even before I got clean and have given up on learning the etiquette of cliques. Cliques are dangerous because they detract from unity by promoting oppression. One danger is that the activities or events can truly be attractive, but promote disunity by oppressing other ideas.

I have found within myself repeatedly, a strong desire to promote my own ideas. I want to talk about who my sponsor is, how many sponsees I have, or my clean time. I will seek like-minded people who can appreciate me and help promote my ideas about what I think is attractive.  I am not the only one. People with clean time congregate with other people who have clean time.  Wildly crazy thoughts seem to make so much sense in the moment and even more sense when you have the support of a clique. Stupid loves company.

I have experienced how complacency is the enemy of members with clean time. It is very easy to develop uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements. I hear addicts sharing about their lavish lifestyles and new connections with other cliques. Looking good and feeling good become a mantra. Members talk about The Grace of God’, and how they are miracles in a meeting, but spend the rest of the day completely self-consumed with activities that enhance their own experiences.  Hubris is a lack of gratitude. In the cliques, we used gaslighting to oppress others. Simply present a viewpoint as truth, and act like the victim is crazy when they question it. People say “I don’t know why you don’t want to be apart of”, assuming what they are doing is particularly attractive. I keep my world small and my Fellowship small today. I’m interested in delivering meeting lists and working on websites for NA. I love Public Information.

I avoid members who promote treatment centres in meetings. Some members are confused about what recovery means in NA by trying to blend the two worlds. Other members are only interested in lifestyle but not work. Even after decades clean, member will continue to act like a passersby, doing the minimal effort to maintain what they see as their status in NA. A small percentage are invested in having a good time at retreats, conventions and holidays with members of the cliques that have appointed themselves the governing body of NA. All these behaviors are very much like using and require promotion.

Help Others, not Self Help

“Meet regularly to help each other” (Basic text, 2nd Edition, ‘What is the Narcotics Anonymous Program’, Pg 7), has become the Program of Narcotics Anonymous for me. I believe the purist form of recovery is only found in a home group. I learned recovery skills by attraction, not promotion. The difficulty today is understanding the other person’s perspective and I can only do that by connecting with home group members in service, working with newcomers and continuing to attend meetings regularly. I love my life today and have found myself “enjoying complete recovery and acceptance within society.” (Basic text, 2nd Edition, ‘Recovery and Relapse’, Pg 71) I am not the judge of what is attractive to others, but my life is amazing and by enjoying my recovery and being a part of society, I have a greater impact on the future of Narcotics Anonymous.

Carrying the Message

Rebirth

I returned to the roots of my recovery at 14 years clean in British Columbia. My home group had a noon meeting that met daily, Monday to Friday. This was around 2016-17 after losing my job, and not being allowed to be of service in my old area to the north. I had very few friends and struggled to maintain a connection. The town where I attended the noon meeting is a city of about fifty thousand people. Our noon meeting had swollen to about forty people daily, with three newcomers a week. I was also a meeting list coordinator for the local area. I was amazed at how many meetings lists we used. We would require four hundred meeting lists distributed monthly to keep inventories up at all ninety locations where we stocked them. Some months I had nine people who helped. The Public Information Committee had a lot of members and were doing some presentations to various organizations.

I am an IT technician by trade. I have learned enough about websites to create simple designs. I did a website for the area and learned how to incorporate the BMLT (Basic Meeting List Toolbox – https:\\bmlt.app). I monitored our website traffic and we added our website to the meeting lists. Everything and everyone worked together. I was the ‘meeting list guy’ and the ‘website guy’ and with a strong fellowship I felt both trusted and a servant to the Fellowship. It was the most magical time in my recovery. I was surrounded with the love and enthusiasm of members. I was able to heal from several abusive relationships.

Public Information

I have always been fascinated by carrying the message. I was the briefly the website coordinator for the British Columbia Region over a decade ago. I talked to members and worked really hard on the website. We made a lot of improvements. Our website traffic went from fourteen hundred to fourteen thousand visitors every month. I was sad and angry when I was removed from the position. I understand now that the disease of addiction is always present. Some members lose the desire to stop using and return to old behaviors. There is lots of support for poor behaviors in any service structure where members come together. This results in disunity and a lack of support from the Fellowship.  I wish I had learned that lesson then, but I have often repeated behaviors before the lesson was learned.

By 2019, The area I attended had lost the momentum and the enthusiasm was gone. My experiences in service have taught me that support for the services to the Fellowship is like an ocean tide. The tides go in and out, sometimes washing addicts ashore and sometimes carrying them back out into addiction. When the tide is high, I am excited and when the tide is out, I am dejected.  I am powerless over everything that happens but I have choices about where I spend my energy and time. I try and stay involved but sometimes I find myself working alone.

Pandemic Unity

There was little service happening locally in 2019, and I was starting to participate in virtual Fellowship. I learned a lot about virtual meeting platforms and the application of the Twelve Traditions online. When the COVID Pandemic hit I felt well prepared, and it was as if my Higher Power had been preparing me for this. I started an online meeting and worked with anyone who joined our virtual home group. We had regular business meetings. Our group voted to create a website and do Facebook Boosts to carry the message to the public.  We peaked at nineteen meetings per week but today do about ten or twelve. Our website traffic has risen to seventy-five visitors per day, and over three hundred during a boost. We have members from isolated communities where no local meetings exist and members who struggle to feel apart of the local Fellowship where they live. Some newcomers feel safer attending their first meeting from the safety of their home. Our home group is healthy and inclusive. My perception is that we enjoy a rich blend of members who freely give of their time to support creating an atmosphere of recovery.

March 2023 Website Traffic for my Online Home Group

Repeated Success

I have returned to a stable job in a large urban centre of over a quarter of a million people north of where I live. I joined another noon meeting locally to try and support the Fellowship there. Many meetings have under twenty participants, but I see it as a starting point. I am still very passionate about doing Public Information and the group has been supportive. We now have a website and the traffic is rising steadily. We budget funds for Facebook boosts and have seen an increase in newcomers. I want to publish a meeting list with website information to support our efforts. I’m quite certain that a city of this size will support hundreds of members attending the daily noon meeting. I have a vision of multiple locations and three newcomers daily.  I cannot do it alone.

March 2023 Website traffic for my face to face local home group

Anonymi

“Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities”

Narcotics Anonymous, various publications, ‘Tradition Twelve’

I love the writing of a member who wrote Narcotics Anonymous IP #14, “One Addict’s Experience with Acceptance, Faith, and Commitment” and a personal book titled “A Matter of Principle”, available for free (Digital download copy at Nasalden, See this link) under the pen name of ‘Anonymi’.

Both these publications taught me a lot about anonymity.

  • The quality or state of being anonymous
  • One that is anonymous
“Anonymity.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anonymity.
A well known entity within the Narcotics Anonymous Fellowship

It is very rewarding to be a part of but sometimes I find myself the lone voice of reality. There is a delicate balance in giving back and being a part of. Taking on the role of ‘trusted servant’ is difficult. For me what has been clear is that I understand the meaning of ‘trusted’ and ‘servant’. Open communication with home group members lays a solid foundation with the spiritual principles of Narcotics Anonymous.  

The real danger for me is when I sell my anonymity like a commodity.  It can start very subtilty when I mention I have twenty years clean. Suddenly my opinions and experiences carry weight at meetings.  No matter how much I try, sometimes my personality spills over the principles I try and convey. When I get involved in service, that danger increases but so do the returns on selling my anonymity. The community learns that I am a trusted figure in the Fellowship because I sell my anonymity to become a contact person for my group or efforts to serve.  Big personalities ahead of principles might prove to be entertaining at Narcotics Anonymous meetings and functions. I can even lie to myself and say ‘what I offer is attractive’ but dishonesty and self-deception prevents me from enjoying ‘complete recovery and acceptance within society’. I might hear and feel the love but miss out on a balanced perspective by shunning others. Being a part of a home group is the healthiest opportunity to fully experience anonymity.

Trusted Servants

Alcoholics Anonymous has done a good job with anonymity on a global scale. The World Board positions of the Alcoholic Corporations are a mix of alcoholics and non-alcoholic members.  They quietly perform their duties without prestige.

Narcotics Anonymous has not followed suit.  The NAWS Corporation world board members all identify as members and have prostituted their anonymity. They bear the full fruits of prestige. Each member enjoys a handsome financial return of travel and per diem expenses to participate in functions around the world. Selling this investment in personalities has become a business within the Fellowship and good convention speakers are much sought after.

Carrying the message has inherent dangers. All the trappings of success might not be evident to us, but a newcomer might be attracted or repulsed depending on their experiences. What we wear, the shapes of our bodies, and particularly our experiences can create an image that might be desirable to some but not all.  My sponsor told me once that I might be the whole world to a single addict in a single moment so be mindful.

Invest in our vision (without Iran)

Conference Agenda Report 2020

Editor’s Note; Published on ‘The Fix’ website in 2019

The Narcotics Anonymous World Service (NAWS) corporation has released the ‘Conference Agenda Report’ which are a list of motions for the Fellowship to review and vote on with some supporting information.  Motions come from various sources including the World Board who manage the affairs of the NAWS corporation and service bodies who participate in the biennial (every 2 year) World Service Conference.  The next WSC is in spring of 2020. The CAR includes significant changes in the ‘Fellowship Intellectual Property Trust’ which allows the NAWS corporation to control the production and use of the Narcotics Anonymous logos and literature. Control of publication rights is very important to NAWS.  If you examine the Annual Reports available online from the NAWS corporation, you see that over 80% of the revenue comes from the sale of literature with little if any change in over two decades. The CAR report is aptly named “Invest in our vision” but the single critical phrase that I noticed on the CAR report was ‘without Iran’ on page 5. The effects of the Iranian Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous has been nothing short of breathtaking and an examination of the numbers reveals a great deal.

In the 1990’s the World Service Office, Inc (which would eventually become NAWS in 1998) decided to tighten control of the use and production of literature. This was likely a reaction to individuals, groups, and service bodies who were not supportive of NAWS and used alterative literature sources. The WSO initiated a lawsuit that they lost, and an agreement was reached but never honored by the World Service Office, Inc (NAWS). The FIPT was formed and adopted by the segments of the Fellowship who supported the WSO/NAWS corporation. During this same time, unrelated and probably unaware of these new rules, a few addicts returned to Iran from the United States. They sought to continue their recovery by fulfilling the primary purpose of members of Narcotics Anonymous which is to carry a message of hope to the still suffering addicts. This dedication resulted in growth beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. The rapidly growing Iranian fellowship translated (from English into Farsi), printed and distributed a wide array of literature including the most significant literature available in Narcotics Anonymous which is the ‘Basic Text’.  Some segments of the Fellowship have always supported the idea of ‘free’ or ‘low cost’ literature and produce alternative literature including ‘The Grey Book’ and ‘Baby Blue’ versions of the Basic Text. Low cost production and distribution is what Iran was able to do with their Farsi Version.

The Numbers

The ‘Basic Text, hard cover, English language’ that NAWS used in 2015 cost $359,091 to print in ($336,900 in 1995) and produced $2,081,468 in income ($1,801,996 in 1995). Most years they sell about 250,000 copies. In fact, this single item over the last 25 years remained an average of about $350,000 to print and then sell for $2,000,000 and currently accounts for about 20% of the revenue for NAWS. That works out to over a 400% markup. This is in stark contrast to what is happening in Iran. Reviewing the Annual Reports produced by NAWS, the Regional summaries produced by the Iran Region and a detailed look at the Independently audited financial statements produced by Millar Kaplan of the NAWS Corporation will help to build a somewhat blurry picture. We know that today about 30% of the literature currently produced by NAWS is in Iran and the approximate markup is a much lower 50% which is very close to cost. Iran sells about 120,000 Basic Texts or roughly 30% of the total. This is critical concept of ‘free’ or ‘low cost’ literature is supported by some members and has fueled the distribution of Grey Books and Baby Blues for decades. How many groups use these or how many books are distributed is not reported by the WSC or NAWS.

The History of Iran and the WSC

The first time Iran had participated in a WSC was 2006 and NAWS reported 1100 groups. Iran Region attended the 2008 WSC and reported 2564 groups hosting 11256 meetings.  Iran appears to have always been self-supporting off member contributions, never requiring profits from literature sales.  In 2011 NAWS formed a non-profit entity in Iran called Payam Omega which operates very much like a non-profit company in North America and assumed production of literature. Each year, Millar Kaplan are provided copies of the reports of Payam Omega that were produced by an independent auditor.  In 2018 financials, Iranian auditors report incomes for Payam Omega of $261,182, $224,450 and $287,943 for 2018, 2017 and 2016 which Millar Kaplan noted. This is a combined $773,575 in income for the three years listed. The only expenses NAWS reports on the consolidated statements produced are $189,336 for distribution costs over that 3-year period. A total inventory and where the remaining profits of $584,239 were spent during the three years is not reported.

Narcotics Anonymous Iran

Iran is under sanctions that prevent Payam Omega from transferring profits to NAWS but there are alternatives. Iran actively trades with the European Union, China, Japan and many Asian countries and has a well-educated population. Iranians are free to travel and have significant recent experience with Fellowship Development.  NAWS expenses fall into 4 categories; Events ($0.45 million) Conference/WSC Support ($2.02 million), Literature Production/Distribution ($3.22 million) and Fellowship Development ($3.28 million). The WSC could assign any or a portion of these to Payam Omega and reduce literature prices in North America by as much as 30%.  The WSC could halt all travel costs for NAWS staff which is an estimated $2-3 million that is hidden in the 4 categories which seems excessive given the lack of results.  Iran has the largest conventions in the world, well beyond the attendance of the NAWS sponsored world convention.  If NAWS continues to fund services using profits of literature sales then the fair application of that policy needs to be discussed by the WSC and adopted for the future. Reducing overheads and operating on member contributions would allow them to reduce the price of literature and could ignite growth not seen since the 1980’s in North America.  Any version of the Basic Text includes the following section; (last two paragraphs, TRADITION TWO “For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority-a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.”)

Those of us who have been involved in service or in getting a group started sometimes have a hard time letting go. Egos, unfounded pride, and self-will destroy a group if given authority. We must remember that offices have been placed in trust, that we are trusted servants, and that at no time do any of us govern. Narcotics Anonymous is a God-given program, and we can maintain our group in dignity only with group conscience and God’s love.

Some will resist. However, many will become the role models for the newcomers. The self-seekers soon find that they are on the outside. causing dissension and eventually disaster for themselves. Many of them change; they learn that we can only be governed by a loving God as expressed in our group conscience.

The most significant event in Narcotics Anonymous history since 1995 is the entirely independent development of the Iranian fellowship.  The WSC should pause and consider what’s working and what isn’t.  The significant changes in the FIPT will only deepen the chasm between NAWS supporters and the anti-NAWS movement. Clearly this idea of free/low cost literature needs to be evaluated and priority should be the reunification of all NA members. The WSC and NAWS represent a dwindling number of groups and they appear to be trying to use travel funds to promote the NAWS brand.