Council of Special Mutual Help Groups
Hazelden
September 6-9, 2007
Hazelden Thought for the Day from Today’s Gift – September 11.
Good friendships are fragile things and require as much care as any other fragile and precious things. 
 --- Randolph Bourne
A good friendship is like a flower garden. It needs attention and care. We start by preparing
the soil and then planting our tiny seeds. Our friendships have foundations like the soil,
and in them we plant seeds of trust and understanding.
Like a garden, friendships need care and love in order to thrive. We nourish friendships
with visits, thoughtful favors, and trust. When we are feeling down or in need of help,
 a friendship can offer us more than just beauty.
When we work at our friendships, they are not seasonal but bloom in any weather,
and they surround us with comfort and the knowledge that we have, and deserve, love.
How can I nurture a friendship today?
 

NOTES

The Council of Special Mutual Help Groups met September 6-9, 2007 at Hazelden in Center City, MN. 
Hazelden hosted the conference.  Rooms were provided at the Holiday Express in St. Croix, WI.  The group met
at 7 PM on Thursday night for dinner at The Dalles House restaurant.  We enjoyed great food in a wonderful
atmosphere with good friends.  It was a nice way to begin our weekend.

The Council was held at the Cork Center on September 8 from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm and September 9 from 9:00 am
to 12:30 pm.  These notes may not reflect the exact conversations because the discussion was lively, excited and
flowed from one to another seemingly without a breath!  This is the gist of what I received.
                                                                                                   IPA - E-mail newsletter coordinator, Emily D., R.Ph.
 
 WHO?
 Scott was the leader for this year.
The members attending this year were Dick, Cheryl, Scott, Mike, Jim and Emily.  We added the amount of sobriety
in years for the attendees and it was noted that there were 134 years of sobriety in the room. Jim and Emily represented
International Pharmacists Anonymous.
 
We started with updates on members who could not attend.  It was noted that a number of members who could not attend
had planned to be there.  Most were unable to attend due to circumstances that were out of their control. 
   
Our thoughts and prayers were with Gordi on the loss of Connie.  We will continue to lift you.  Our thoughts and prayers
are also with the other members whose hardships impeded them from attending.
 
 Membership statement from last year:

 “Membership in the Council of Special Mutual Help Groups is open to representatives of identifiable groups who are
  dedicated to recovery and who can benefit from networking and support.”
 
 WHAT?
We discussed the business that was left over from last year including the website, mailing address updates, the list serve
and other information.  We spoke of the difference between the yahoo group which is a member’s only area and the
website which posts our help group information for others.  We agreed that we needed to have more people involved. We
discussed whether we should have sobriety recommendations similar to the AA service manual and decided on 2 years of
sobriety. We discussed the spirit of rotation.
 
The questions that arose were: Is the group based on referrals?  Is there a need for promotion?  Should there be a
 guarantee of attendance?  How much commitment is there to the group? What are we giving back to Hazelden? 
 Is there enough commitment to continue the group?  We could not find a copy of the mission statement.
 
 We discussed the need we have of doing something!  We really need to do something!
 
We discussed having the hospitality meeting room every 5 years at the International AA Conference.  This was
specially important to me as this is where I found International Pharmacists Anonymous and other pharmacists
in recovery.
 
Dick talked about sharing information, our benefit to Hazelden and the need for a group inventory.  We spoke
about the need to have a purpose of the group or our group mission.  Dick noted the importance of bringing
a backup person to the council and talked about what we are getting out of it personally.
 
 Mike talked about how important it was to “Keep an army in the field”.  Things will change.
 
 Jim spoke on the importance of networking and knowing the other groups are in existence. 

                                                 “Life is what happens when we are busy making other plans.”
  WHY?
After a nice lunch in the cafeteria, our discussion once again focused on the group’s mission, why we are here?
What are we getting out of it? What is the reason for the existence of ourselves? What is our mission? Are we doing it?
Who are we? What are we doing? Do we have a passion for the mission? It was difficult to say without knowing what the
mission stated.  We seemed to be going in circles with more questions than answers.  Someone stated that we needed
an Al-Anon Group of Help Groups.
 
Then Cheryl spoke.  She spoke of RENEWAL.  She talked about a program that was for conference center administrators
and whether the program was for the conference centers or the administrators.  What did we want to be?  We agreed we
wanted the council to serve for RENEWAL for the members and how we needed to be very specific about that.  She
brought some wonderful ideas for a meeting next year which would bring back Le Claire specifically and some of our
founding members.  It would be for the RENEWAL of our members. 
 
From that flowed the need for an inventory and outside facilitator.  Would we want a RENEWAL facilitator?  We made a
call to Gordi Grimm and he would join us on Saturday.
 
I must admit, it was a great weight off of my shoulders to feel we were going to DO SOMETHING!  It was also a great
relief when Cheryl said “You need to take care of yourself.”  I actually drew a picture of a cabin in the mountains and
 sort of resigned from note taking for the rest of the day.  This was exactly what I needed.
 
 Re-invent; re-invention

1)      To invent again or anew.

2)      To remake or make over, as in a different form.

3)      To bring back, revive.
 

We met at the Dam Bistro in St. Croix for supper and walked over to the dam for pie afterwards.  The historical
society was selling homemade Wisconsin pies.  Scott bought a pie for our Saturday night supper.  Some of the
pieces didn’t last long!
 
We met at the Holiday Inn Express for an AA meeting.  What a powerful experience! 
We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, know thousands of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill. Nearly all have recovered.
  They have solved the drink problem. We are average Americans. All sections of this country and many of its occupations are represented,
  as well as many political, economic, social, and religious backgrounds. We are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among
  us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful. We are like the passengers of a great liner the
  moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to Captain's table.
  Unlike the feelings of the ship's passengers, however, our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways.
  The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us. But that in itself would never
  have held us together as we are now joined. The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution.
  We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action. ...AA Big Book

REAL PROGRESS?
 The council met again at the Cork Center on Saturday morning and made real progress.  We agreed that we wanted
 to honor Jeff with all of the work he has done on the website and would like to put a note of gratitude on the website. 
 Hopefully, we can assist him to make things more manageable by adding additional people to take over some of the
 duties of webmaster and group moderator.  We chose to ask “How can we be of assistance?”
 
 We made a call to Jeff about the website and yahoo groups and it was amazing that he was on the same page as we were. 
 He added me to the yahoo group as a moderator.  We determined we should probably have 2-3 moderators. 
 We would invite the people who were not on the yahoo group to participate. 
 
 Jeff has secured a place for the website on imac.com.  The amount was $200 for 2 years.  He will be putting it up shortly
 so that we can each make changes. Each group will be responsible for checking their hyperlinks and names before the site
 goes public. He will be sending a zip copy of the website to me.  Kathy has a webmaster that has assisted with her group
 so we may be able to add her to the website.  We agreed to have 2-3 webmasters. All changes to the web should be
 approved by an elected person.  We would like to have a paid professional webmaster and site designer.  We would like
 to have the program in a compatible program so more people can have access.
 
 GROUP INVENTORY?
 Gordi Grimm joined us at 11 am for a short inventory.  He stated some of the obvious, that if we no longer served
 our purpose than it may be better to disband.  But if we have a purpose to meet, we should meet. 
 
 The Council began meeting in March 1985 or 1986.
 
 Goals:

Bring self help people together.
Assist list keepers.
Feeling alone and isolated – always sustain personal growth and support.
If you want to perpetuate, leaders need to make sure someone else takes over.
Community organization/organizational development vs. personal growth.
 
Consider:  Have you accomplished your original goals? (Once again we did not have a referral point for the
original mission.)  If the goals have been met, then it would make sense to disband and if not, then redo.
 
Cheryl again spoke on RENEWAL and personal growth.  She wanted to make it clear that the next program will be
for the RENEWAL of the members.  It will focus on personal growth. 
 
After weighing in on what we were considering, Gordi felt it would be beneficial for us to meet next year. He also agreed to keynote the meeting for us.
 
 RENEWAL
The dates for the council meeting were determined.  The next council will be held September 11-14, 2008
so mark your calendars.
Next year the plans have been set for RENEWAL.  Mike will be our leader and I know he will do a fantastic job. 
He will be making plans possibly using some of the resources available at Hazelden, using some of his resources and
will get us an agenda.  The plan is for RENEWAL for our members. We wish to honor and focus on the previous
members. We hope to honor Le Claire. 
 
Remember those who have gone before…

Remember who we are…

Remember where we are going…

We spent the evening at Dick and Cheryl’s on the lake.  It was Mike’s birthday and we honored him by putting candles
in the pie!!! We didn’t do a bad job of singing either.  There was laughter and humor as always but also that somber
reminder that things do change, people pass.  We were a small group but we got to know each other and support each other.
 I felt renewed.

  Dr. Bob's Last Message: Delivered at the first international conference of Alcoholics Anonymous at Cleveland, Ohio in 1950
 
 My good friends in AA and of AA.
I feel I would be very remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to welcome you here to Cleveland not only to this meeting but those that have already
   transpired. I hope very much that the presence of so many people and the words that you have heard will prove an inspiration to you - not only
  to you, but may you be able to impart that inspiration to the boys and girls back home who were not fortunate enough to be able to come. In
  other words, we hope that your visit here has been both enjoyable and profitable.
 
I get a big thrill out of looking over a vast sea of faces like this with a feeling that possibly some small thing that I did a number of years ago,
  played an infinitely small part in making this meeting possible. I also get quite a thrill when I think that we all had the same problem. We all
  did the same things. We all get the same results in proportion to our zeal and enthusiasm and stick-to-itiveness. If you will pardon the injection
  of a personal note at this time, let me say that I have been in bed five of the last seven months and my strength hasn't returned as I would like,
  so my remarks of necessity will be very brief.
 
But there are two or three things that flashed into my mind on which it would be fitting to lay a little emphasis; one is the simplicity of our Program.
  Let's not louse it all up with Freudian complexes and things that are interesting to the scientific mind, but have very little to do with our actual
  AA work. Our 12 Steps, when simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into the words love and service. We understand what love is and we
   understand what service is. So let's bear those two things in mind.
 
Let us also remember to guard that erring member - the tongue, and if we must use it, let's use it with kindness and consideration and tolerance.
 
And one more thing; none of us would be here today if somebody hadn't taken time to explain things to us, to give us a little pat on the back, to
 take us to a meeting or two, to have done numerous little kind and thoughtful acts in our behalf. So let us never get the degree of smug complacency
 so that we're not willing to extend or attempt to, that help which has been so beneficial to us, to our less fortunate brothers. Thank you very much.