| These services only scratch the surface of how Intergroup provides 12-Step opportunities in the Greater Minneapolis area. You can just imagine the busy place the office has become! Currently there are more than 500 AA members actively contributing their time to these efforts. In addition to the services mentioned previously, volunteers go on 12-step calls and help newcomers find sponsors. Without this level of commitment from you, the heart of Minneapolis Intergroup would cease to beat.
In addition to individuals contributing their time, the office also has paid special workers. This includes an Office Manager and Staff Assistants, all active members of our Fellowship with over 85 years of combined AA experience. Due to their commitment, you can always be sure the office doors will be open at 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and they will welcome you on your next visit.
We want to thank our Intergroup staff: Chuck, Steve, Ginny and Claudia for providing an atmosphere of service to our callers and visitors.
All across the greater Minneapolis Area, AA groups stay in touch with the Intergroup office by electing an Intergroup Representative. The reps meet every month to hear updates on the office activities, help their groups get involved in 12-step opportunities and have their groups’ voice and ideas heard.
In addition to Intergroup Representatives, Minneapolis Intergroup is governed by its 12 member Board of Directors, who is elected to three-year terms four rotating each year. Because of this commitment our by-laws require that all AA members who submit a resume for open Board positions have a minimum of 5 years of continuous sobriety. The Annual Meeting and Board elections are held the 4th Thursday in September. Notice and information is always available in the MIRUS Newsletter.
There is currently 209 years of combined AA experience serving on your IG Board. Early in our history, this Board included members of Al-Anon. In the 1980s it was decided our fellowships would be better served if AA and Al-Anon had separate Offices. We have been fortunate over the years to be located in the same building with Al-Anon Information Services of Minneapolis. This has facilitated a spirit of cooperation between our two fellowships, for which we are very grateful.
The same spirit of cooperation has also developed over the years with the General Service Structure. Your Minneapolis Intergroup actively participates with the 11 metro General Service Districts, Southern Minnesota Area and your General Service Office. We have been pleased to house the Temporary Contact Desk for the Southern Minnesota Area 36 Treatment Facilities Committee over the past 15 years at the Intergroup Service Office and we are the main contact point for the Area 36 Corrections Committee and their Correctional Facilities Contact Program. Three years ago we added a toll free number so incarcerated inmates can have immediate meeting information before their release. If you would like to be involved with the many 12-Step opportunities that carry the AA message, please visit our 12-Step Service Tables during the evening.
In whatever capacity you are helping Intergroup carry the message; your service work is priceless. In addition to the time you contribute, 7th Tradition Contributions from AA groups and individual AA members, along with literature sales, ensures your Intergroup Service Office can continue to provide vital services. Every time you purchase a Big Book at Intergroup you are buying it from yourself. The office is operated by the members for the Members. In this manner Intergroup is self-supporting. Consistent with this principle, Intergroup does not accept contributions from outside the AA Fellowship.
The Service Office is a busy place these days. Most visitors are from the local AA community, although the office has hosted AA Members and Professionals from around the world. We have been visited by healthcare workers from Japan, Peru, Brazil and Vietnam. The Serenity Prayer in Japanese is now hanging in the office. The non-alcoholic (Class A) Trustee chairperson for the General Service Office in Brazil made a visit a few years ago. We now have a beautiful color poster celebrating the 60th Anniversary of AA in Brazil. This past January Leonard Blumenthal Class (A) Non-Alcoholic Trustee and Chairman to our General Service Board took the time to visit your Service Office. He has a long history with the Edmonton, Canada Intergroup/Central Office.
Please stop by and see us soon, have a cup of coffee. You’ll find all the bustling activity I have described and the opportunity to learn more about AA’s past on our wall of history.
In closing, since 1968, Greater Minneapolis Intergroup has been providing these “Vital Services” envisioned by the founding board 40 years ago. Our vital services are in greater demand more than ever. The early board members could not have predicted we would be playing such a strong role in our community. We respond to requests for information about AA from schools, religious groups, medical groups and businesses. We are also responding to the 12-Step needs of teens and pre-teens with special 12-Step services. I’m sure you can see the original vision lives on stronger than ever, one day at a time, day after day. It’s the spirit of participation that makes this possible. In that spirit, let us not forget that at this very moment a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous is either standing by to answer our phone, or is now speaking to a member of the community who may have a drinking problem.
Thank you and enjoy our 25th Annual Gratitude Night - 40 years in Celebration of Services.
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