The History of Greater Minneapolis Intergroup

   
Alcoholics Anonymous arrived in Minnesota during the Armistice Day Blizzard in November of 1940. Two men, AA members visiting from Chicago, made a 12th step call on a man by the name of Pat C. Shortly after, AA meetings started at 2218 First Avenue South in Minneapolis. It didn’t take long for those meetings to spawn other meetings at new locations, often in the homes of AA members. By the early sixties Alcoholics Anonymous had grown beyond Minneapolis, with groups meeting in the surrounding suburbs, including Richfield, Robbinsdale, Fridley and Columbia Heights. It is hard to believe that those were the suburbs at that time.

Following this dramatic growth, Greater Minneapolis AA members saw an increasing need for 12th step services. They had a vision of an Intergroup Service Office that would function as a central hub, providing vital services such as phone answering, coordinating 12 step calls, and publishing a meeting directory.

The Minneapolis Intergroup Office you know today opened in September 1968 at 24 East Franklin Avenue. Since then the office has moved several times. Many of our members may recall visiting the office at 6300 Walker Avenue in St. Louis Park, our home for 15 years. The office moved to its current location, 7204 West 27th Street in St Louis Park, on August 1, 2000.

Regardless of the location, the primary purpose of Minneapolis Intergroup has always been to provide AA 12-Step Services. These are some of the services we provide:

• Our 24 hour phone hotline is the lifeline to new AA members. The Intergroup office answers more than 20,000 phone calls annually from people looking for information about Alcoholics Anonymous. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by AA members – ensuring that someone is always available to share their experience, strength and hope. We also added a toll free number so prison inmates can obtain meeting information prior to their release.
• We sell AA literature. The office has sold thousands of Big Books, AA Grapevine Publications, and other AA Conference-approved literature since 1968. This past year we began stocking the Big Book in all available non-English languages, which allows us to carry the message to other cultures living in our community. Recently we added AA Pamphlets in 40 non English languages to further our commitment to carrying the AA message to other cultures.
• The AA Orientation meeting began in 1970 and meets every Saturday morning at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in St. Louis Park. This is an open speaker meeting, with presentations on the Steps, Traditions, and chapters in the Big Book. This meeting will be moving to Hopkins on May 1st.
• In 1977, Intergroup began publishing a newsletter. You know this newsletter today as the “MIRUS” – which stands for Minneapolis Intergroup Recovery Unity and Service. There are 2,500 copies of the MIRUS distributed each month. The 2009 MIRUS focused on our non alcoholics friends. Our 2010 MIRUS is focusing what AA is and What AA is not.
• We publish a When & Where meeting directory, which contains information with more than 1,100 groups meeting in 500 different locations in our area. Over 10,000 copies of our pocket-sized directory are distributed each year. Meeting times and locations can also be found on our website, which is updated weekly. Our Web site gets more than 1,500 visits per week from AA members and members of the professional community looking for information about AA.
• Our AA Information Committee – provides AA speakers to 26 outside agencies. Members provide information about what AA is and what it isn’t, in addition to sharing their personal AA experience.
• We have a committee devoted to carrying the message to Middle schools and High schools. Our teen AA members have presented AA information to more than 8,000 students in our community in the past 8 years. The committee also provides each school with an ample supply of pertinent AA literature at no charge.

In keeping with the 8th tradition, 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 sobriety. The staff’s commitment to carrying the message ensures that the doors will be open at 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday.

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. Intergroup Representatives act as a conduit between their group and Intergroup. The reps attend monthly meetings to hear updates on the office activities, get their groups involved in 12-step opportunities, and to carry their group’s voice on a variety of Intergroup matters.

Minneapolis Intergroup is governed by a 12 member Board of Directors, who are elected by Intergroup Representatives to three-year terms – with four directors rotating each year. Because of this level of commitment, our by-laws require that all AA members elected to the board to have a minimum of 5 years of continuous sobriety. The Annual Meeting and Board elections are held the 4th Thursday in September. Information about the elections is available in the MIRUS Newsletter. There are currently 162 years of sobriety serving on your Intergroup Board.

Intergroup strives to maintain a spirit of cooperation with the General Service Structure. Your Minneapolis Intergroup actively participates with the 11 metro Districts, Southern Minnesota Area 36 and your General Service Office. The Intergroup office has housed the Southern Minnesota Area 36 Temporary Contact Desk for over 15 years. We also act as the main contact point for the Area 36 Correctional Facilities Contact Program.

No matter how you contribute your time and talent to Intergroup, you play a vital role in carrying AA’s message. 7th Tradition Contributions from AA groups and individual AA members, along with literature sales, ensure that your Intergroup Service Office can continue to provide vital services. The Intergroup office is self-supporting, operated by the members for the members. In keeping with this principle of self-support, Intergroup does not accept contributions from outside the AA Fellowship. When you purchase a Big Book at Intergroup you are buying it from yourself.

The vision of our founding members over 42 years ago is alive and well at Minneapolis Intergroup, and our services are more in demand than ever. The early board members could not have predicted we would play such a large role in our community. Stop by the office soon and see how the original vision lives on, one day at a time. 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.