The greater the base

I am a grateful recovering addict of nineteen years. My recovery has taken place in the rural United States, and I would like to share some of what I have experienced in regard to how the Fourth Tradition applies to NA in small communities.

I have been fortunate enough to visit and attend meetings in some large cities in the USA. I have encountered groups that hold multiple meetings each week—some three or four times a day, seven days a week. The meetings within these groups have a variety of formats. I have noticed that in these multiple-meeting groups, there are leaders who serve, not “addicts who govern.” The addicts in these groups approach service as a shared opportunity.

So, why can’t this happen in rural NA? Can’t our differences be set aside so that addicts can work together to better attract newcomers? In the description of our symbol in the Basic Text, we read, “The greater the base (as we grow in unity in numbers and in fellowship), the broader the sides of the pyramid, and the higher the point of freedom.”

Why does a community of approximately thirty recovering addicts need five or six separate NA groups? It has been my experience that when each meeting is a group, the door is open for self-will. If we divide the thirty addicts into six groups, we have about five home group members in each group. Of those five, at best, two or three may show up at business meetings. So, where’s the exchange of ideas, group conscience, and unity? What happened to “I can’t, we can?”

The comment I hear a lot is, “Our meeting is autonomous,” but this is not what the Fourth Tradition says. It states, “Every NA group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting other groups or NA as a whole.” A group (not a meeting) is autonomous, which means having the right or power of self-government.

If the group is strong, and we have a group conscience aligned with God’s will, our decisions and answers come from the group conscience, not from individuals such as those who have been around longer. Through unity and fellowship, we attract newcomers as well as oldtimers. Many times I hear the question, “Where are the oldtimers?” We tend to look to our longer-term members for solutions, and it is difficult to be the person who is depended upon for answers all the time. Involving more members in the group and the group’s business meetings allows oldtimers to just be addicts in their home groups, instead of always being looked to for answers and direction. To an addict with some clean time, this is an appealing concept.

Members of multiple-meeting groups only have to attend one business meeting per month, and because more members attend the business meeting, there is a better opportunity to reach a true group conscience instead of being influenced by individual personalities. Multiple-meeting groups also seem to promote unity. With several meetings operated by one group, there are enough people to fill service positions, because the resources of several meetings are combined in one group. One GSR represents the whole group, instead of having one GSR from each meeting.

Here’s an example of this idea in action. Two years ago, two groups in our rural community decided to combine into one group. We added two more meetings, so the group had four meetings per week at two different locations, with varying meeting formats.

At a recent home group meeting, we had nineteen addicts at the recovery meeting, and fourteen stayed to support the group’s business meeting. We exchanged ideas, discussed how to better carry the NA message, and filled most of the group’s service positions, with more than one willing addict nominated for some positions. The treasurer’s report was given, and we were all excited to learn that our group could donate the largest monthly donation from a group in our area’s history.

One of the group members made a motion to add another meeting to our schedule. Unanimous group conscience decided to table this motion until the next month so that an ad hoc committee could first consider details like time, location, format, and whether our group would be able to support another meeting. In the meantime, the Monday morning group was struggling to keep its doors open, due to limited resources, so they asked to join our group. After adding that meeting, and adding a Friday night meeting based on the ad hoc committee’s recommendation, our group now has six weekly meetings.

The base of our home group is changing and growing in a spirit of unity and fellowship, and we are proving that “together, we can!”

Bob S, Wisconsin, USA

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