Acceptable,
responsible,
and productive
members

As a result of being a member of Narcotics Anonymous, I have received many gifts above and beyond the promised “recovery from active addiction” that our literature describes. I am more honest, hopeful, courageous, humble, responsible, patient, loving, and serene than I was when I was using. I also have been married for twenty-two years to another member of our fellowship; I have a thirteen-year-old daughter; I had a loving relationship with my parents until their deaths; I have not been arrested for thirty-three years; I have a good-paying job; I pay my taxes early; and I vote in every election.

All in all, most people would say that I am a responsible and productive member of society. Every now and then I get reminded that, although I am proud to be a recovering addict, society may not view me in this way. In early recovery, I used to give blood on a regular basis. Then one day I was given a questionnaire, and one of the questions was “Have you ever used drugs intravenously?” Being honest, I marked “yes,” and I was informed that they had no need for my blood. Even though, by the grace of God, I am HIV-negative and do not have hepatitis C, they still do not want my blood—but I still offer it every couple of years, just in case.

More recently, I applied for a volunteer position. The application process included an intensive investigation of my background and a polygraph test regarding any matters of concern to my background screeners. It turned out that the fact that I have been clean for twenty-five years did not overcome the fact that I had three felony arrests when I was seventeen years old.

When the people who wanted me for the volunteer position tried to help me overcome this obstacle, they asked me how many times I had smoked marijuana, used LSD, snorted methamphetamine, etc. As I answered each question honestly, I could feel that they did not want someone with my background volunteering for their organization. I was disappointed, hurt, and acutely aware that the tired old lie “once an addict, always an addict” is not dead in the minds of many in society.

These experiences have made me appreciate the love and acceptance NA offers me. It gives me membership that is mine as long as I have the desire to stay clean. It gives me a place to be of service, so I can keep what I have by giving it away. And finally, it gives me the confidence that, some day, if it be God’s will, I will be able to donate blood again and be a volunteer, even though I was arrested when I was seventeen years old.

The end of this story is that I allowed myself to feel sad for a couple days and to feel a pang of hurt when my friends talked about their training in this volunteer organization, but I have used the Serenity Prayer to show me the way back to peace of mind.

While I cannot make that organization accept me as a volunteer, I can still volunteer in other ways to help the same people. I have had a surge of energy, and the skills I learned in the service structure of NA are being put to work to help another group that is suffering. I may always bump into walls, reminding me that my rights of membership in society have been limited because of my addiction, but this same addiction has opened the doors to NA membership and all the blessings I have received here.

Anonymous

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Leadership in NA

Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from an article printed in the February 1985 NA Way. As you can see, the discussion of leadership is not all that new and has been going on for many years!

…The phrase “we have no leaders” is simply incorrect. An older member once challenged that statement in this way: “Who,” he asked, “are but trusted servants according to Tradition Two?” Leadership in NA is a living, vital need. Tradition Two simply speaks to leadership style. Our leaders serve, they don’t govern.

Another lesson we learned, sometimes the hard way, is that to be a good leader in NA, one must be an equally good follower. The group will welcome the leadership of a member who is well informed and open to the opinions of others. A leader needs to be well read in all conference-approved literature and to keep channels of communication open with available “elder statesmen” in the fellowship. We found, when we had no local NA elder statesmen, that those old AA fossils often had some pearls of wisdom for us too. Today the NA experience is abundant around the country, so the phone has also been a valuable tool.

A good leader, as a good follower, will respect group conscience. In our town, some have tried to dominate service committee meetings with passionate, power-driven speeches, and usually only succeed in intimidating and dividing the group. Others have tried to speak from a well-reasoned, well-informed, dispassionate vantage point, and then accept the democratic decision of group conscience on the matter. The tone of those meetings feels a lot healthier to me.

A leader in NA is also a role model. Whether we face it or not, after some clean time, we become an influence on newer members. One challenge of responsible leadership is to become aware of that influence, and learn to “practice these principles in all our affairs,” and carry ourselves as “acceptable, responsible, and productive members of society.”

Finally, a good leader knows when to step back a pace and let someone else don the mantle of leadership. “Trusted servants” who jealously guard their turf, and won’t yield the reins to the next generation of members, usually end up in some real trouble with this disease. Their plight is often described as the “bleeding deacon” role. I have felt those growing pains, and I wish them on no one. The elder statesman, on the other hand, will trust group conscience (even when it needs to learn from its own mistakes) and will recede into the background as a resource for the new people on the “front lines.”

So I may not be what I could be or what I’m going to be, but thank God I’m not what I used to be. Narcotics Anonymous has given me an arena in which to work out some of those old character defects and learn how to cooperate with people. Many times I have sat in a staff meeting at work, or a committee meeting for some volunteer organization, and thanked my Higher Power for using NA to give me a chance at a new personality. I can be a member of society today without secretly feeling like an infiltrator. I have learned some basic principles of cooperating with others in this world from a ragtag band of rebels learning from each other at the same time. How we did that is beyond me. Beyond us all…

RH, North Dakota, USA

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Leadership In the last NA Way Magazine, we shared some introductory thoughts about leadership. This article picks up on those ideas to discuss leadership in relation to service. We hope this essay inspires you to look at your own thoughts about leadership and service in NA and, further, to talk together about the subject. Many books have been written about the nature of leadership… We have access to plenty of material in NA about leadership—from the Fourth Concept essay of our Twelve Concepts to the Second Tradition. In fact, even when we don’t have the texts handy, plenty of us can quote them from memory. And if you feel there isn’t enough information on leadership available in NA publications, just type L-E-A-D-E-R-S-H-I-P into any popular Internet search engine. You’ll get back anywhere from 32,000,000 to 52,000,000 results!

We seem to know plenty about it. So why do we need to talk about it? Well, knowing about something and putting that knowledge to work are two different things. Many of us knew we were addicts, but still continued to use. Sitting around and talking about what we were going to do when we got clean one day didn’t change our lives. Getting clean and then figuring out what we needed to do to stay clean did.

We have plenty of information on leadership. But we still have unfilled service positions all over the world. And even when we have a number of people willing to run for a position, many of us lack a clear sense of what, beyond willingness, we are looking for in our leaders—those “but trusted servants.” Often, we just elect the person who seems like he or she loves NA the most or whom we all know and love. How much do we think about whether he or she is qualified and is prepared or trained for the job?

What qualifies a person to be an effective GSR, ASC subcommittee chair, RCM, RD, or World Board member? When we hear the word “qualification” it’s easy to think merely of clean time, but it’s no coincidence that “qualification” and “quality” come from the same root. What kind of qualities would we ultimately like to see in our trusted servants? Our Third Concept essay reminds us, “Delegating authority can  be a risky business unless we do so responsibly” (p. 7). What is it about certain people that makes us willing to delegate authority and makes us think of them as leaders? Developing answers to these questions is part of the responsibility the Third Concept talks about that takes the risk out of delegation.

Sponsorship is one aspect of leadership that we can all wrap our heads around. Our sponsors are leaders: We look to them for experience and advice. We don’t ask someone to sponsor us simply because he or she meets a clean time requirement. Sometimes we wait days and months to find the right sponsor. Why don’t we treat the service structure with the same love and concern?

We don’t wish to forge new definitions here or change the ones we have, but we do hope that we can inspire the fellowship to talk about these ideas. Our Fourth Concept essay is an excellent place to begin when thinking about what “leadership qualities” means in the context of NA service. But as important as it is to come to a common understanding of the qualities of an NA leader, that’s only a first step. So many of us who possess some of these qualities have discovered and polished them in Narcotics Anonymous. And we did not do that alone. We had help. Often someone took us to our first service meeting, encouraged us to run for a position, and helped us find our way once we were elected. When we don’t take responsibility to help others in this way, our groups and committees suffer.

Have you ever been to a great meeting only to return after the group has elected a new secretary to find the meeting in disarray? Often that’s because the group didn’t take the time to cultivate a leader—in this case the secretary—by teaching the secretary about what’s important to the group. Or it could be that either the outgoing or incoming secretary was too much in charge. Our Basic Text cautions us “that if a group becomes an extension of the personality of a leader or member, it loses its effectiveness” (p. 61). And that’s part of cultivating leadership as well—helping our leaders to grow into their roles as servants and understand the strength of humility.

Cultivating leadership is an active and ongoing process. Our Basic Text tells us that “two of our seemingly inherent enemies [are] apathy and procrastination” (p. 75). Just as these tendencies can be destructive in our personal recovery, they can be detrimental to NA’s service structure. In other words, we shouldn’t wait until elections at our home group (or area or regional service committee) to “draft” someone into a position. When we do that, sometimes the only thing we pay attention to is the clean time requirement, and we’re willing to waive that if we really, really need someone for something.

In an immediate sense, we need to take the time to determine what we expect of members serving in particular positions, explain those expectations to members, and allow them to make a considered choice. That’s a good start—certainly part of what it means to delegate authority responsibly—but these actions only address short-term solutions. We can do much, as individual members and together in our groups and committees, to change the culture of NA. The more thoughtfully we consider questions of leadership and cultivate leadership qualities in our members, the less it will seem that filling service positions is a problem to be solved. Instead, finding members willing to serve whom we trust to lead us can be a logical extension of our day-to-day practices.

It is an honor and privilege to serve NA. Service to the fellowship is one of the ways we get to keep what we have. Each of us has gifts to offer the program, and over time many of us find the spots where those gifts can shine. For some, sponsorship is their niche, the place where they are most comfortable as leaders in the program; for others it might be serving as secretary of a meeting; still others may find themselves most effective serving on an area, regional, or world level. Regardless, most of us need others to help us find and develop those qualities within ourselves and to understand what it is to be a leader in the program. And all of us bear the responsibility of teaching others about the importance of service and helping them learn how to give their best to NA. Before we can take on that role, however, we must have an understanding of our own. We hope the questions below spark ideas and inspire conversations in your groups and committees. And we hope that happens soon, not just on the day of elections.

What do we mean by “leadership” and “leadership qualities”?

The Second Tradition answers the question of what leadership consists of very simply for us. Our leaders are the trusted servants of Narcotics Anonymous—everyone from the members elected at the group as secretary, treasurer, coffee person, or GSR to the regional chairs and delegates to the World Board members. We all have the right to serve NA, and as our Fourth Concept essay reminds us, “NA’s leaders are not only those we vote into office.” Members who take responsibility to clean up a meeting space, motivate others to get involved, maintain the atmosphere of recovery in a home group, reach out to newcomers, and so on, these are our leaders as well. Acting as a power of example and serving selflessly, whether in an elected position or not, is at the heart of NA leadership.

With that as a foundation, we can consider the additional leadership qualities that will make a member most effective in a particular position. What qualities are we looking for in an RD? A group secretary? An area treasurer?

“Qualities” mean more than just the stated requirements to serve in a position. Qualities also refer to experience, character, and abilities.

Here are some of the traits our literature says are leadership qualities:

What other traits do you think are important?

Here are some of the abilities and experience our literature outlines as important in leadership:

• experience working the steps, which teaches us to depend on a Power greater than ourselves and to use this Power for our group purposes

•  willingness to ask for help, advice, and direction on a regular basis

• the ability to compromise and disagree without being disagreeable

• the courage of conviction and to surrender

• the ability and willingness to report completely and truthfully

• willingness to expend time and energy to serve the fellowship, study background material, and consult with those who have greater experience

• the ability to know when it is best to step aside and allow others to take over communication and organizational skills

• the ability to see where today’s actions will take us and to offer the guidance we need to prepare for the demands of tomorrow

• educational, business, personal, and service experiences

What other abilities and experience are important?

Even if we have a vision of the qualities we are looking for, it can be hard to put that vision into action when electing trusted servants. An effective meeting secretary, for example, when the group secretary is also the person who acquires speakers for a group, knows other people in the fellowship who can carry the message, and goes to enough meetings to hear others and ask them to come to the meeting. How do we determine if the person we are considering as our meeting secretary has these qualities? Do we ask him or her? Do we make assumptions because we know the person? Do we ask other people what they think about our candidate? Have we made it clear to the group in advance that we want to see someone who has served as treasurer or coffee person at the meeting before we see him take on this commitment? Or is that unnecessary for our group?

Though the above is an example on the group level, the same concerns hold true at any level of service. We must determine the qualities we are looking for and then ask ourselves: How do we know or find out if a member has those qualities?

What do we mean by cultivating leadership?

Thinking about and discussing the leadership qualities that are important for a given position and how to discover those qualities in members is a good start. But we can do more. We can also work to cultivate those qualities in members.

When we talk about “cultivating” leadership, we mean that these qualities are not inborn, they are developed over time. All of us are very familiar with development. The process of recovery, in fact, is a process of development. Our sponsors, our friends in the program, the members of our home group, and others have been helping us to develop for years, working the steps with us and teaching us how to practice principles in all our affairs. This usually happens long before we get to the Twelfth Step, just as development of trusted servants happens long before we step into a new position.

Often it is not until the end of our term that we learn how to be truly effective in our service position. In our last few months as RCM we may finally realize that if we write the report for our ASC right after the regional meeting, we remember what happened better. At last we feel comfortable at the regional meeting and don’t have to repeat what everyone else already said just to feel like we are participating. We really start to make the connection and learn the most about ourselves—and then it’s time to go. Now what do we do?

Too often, the answer is, we walk away, leaving the new RCM to learn by himself. It’s easy to blame a lack of preparation on the member who holds the service position. But we are all responsible for maintaining a “throw them in the water and see if they can swim” approach to leadership and service. How do we help cultivate leadership in our NA communities? If we have experience in service, do we reach out and share our knowledge with those who are newer to their positions? Do we help others with writing reports, encourage them to find their voices, give them guidance in effective communication, and so on? What can we do as a group or service body, not just as individuals, to help cultivate leadership? Does our group, area, or region consistently elect alternates in addition to GSRs, RCMs, and RDs? If not, how can we better fill those positions? Do we know the difference between holding our trusted servants accountable and beating them up? Between encouraging them and turning a blind eye to their shortcomings?

The fact is, we are always developing our leaders. Even when we say nothing, we are teaching our trusted servants about leadership. We may be sending a message that we don’t really care about what they do. Or worse, we could be telling them that effective leadership consists of staying out of trouble. Often our leaders hear nothing from us until they make mistakes. Do we let our trusted servants know when we think they are acting as effective leaders? Do we speak up if we see a potential problem instead of waiting until after it happens? Do we talk about the work we do?

The challenge

We don’t want to seem glib in listing a host of questions and things to think about in this article. This is a difficult area for us as a fellowship, and we know that. It takes thinking and sharing to understand how our spiritual principles really work in the context of leadership.

It’s easy to fall back on a belief that, because “there is but one ultimate
authority,” we need not speak our mind in a business meeting, for example. Yet part of being responsible is sharing our ideas, thoughts, and concerns out loud. Group conscience is born of discussion and even debate.

It can feel uncomfortable to practice “principles before personalities,” not just in putting aside our dislike for a member, but in truly embracing the principle of “anonymity” and holding our friends to the same standards we would hold others to.

Perhaps most centrally, in working a personal program, many of us focus so closely on personal responsibility, it’s difficult to broaden our perspective beyond simply acting as an example. Certainly, that is a very important thing to do, and we don’t want to minimize the effect of asking “What can I do?” But as recovering addicts, we are part of something much bigger than ourselves. We are responsible to help others navigate the system that is our service structure and, further, to help them polish their best qualities and learn how to be the kind of leaders who will help them and help NA. Together we can.

As addicts, we are masters of handling crisis and seem to thrive in such situations. Our Basic Text reminds us, “By nature, we are strong-willed, self-centered people, who are thrust together in NA. We are mismanagers and not one of us is capable of consistently making good decisions” (p. 60). But recovery affords us the opportunity to transcend that nature. Working our personal programs, we can learn to be God-centered and service-oriented. Working together, we can make better decisions than we do as individuals. In short, we need not be doomed by our addictive natures. Together, we can improve our service structure today and work for a future in which “every addict in the world has the chance to experience our message in his or her own language and culture.”

Cultivating Leadership in NA is one of the projects selected at the 2004 World Service Conference. Our work on this project depends on your involvement. We will continue to talk about this important topic and expect to have a deeper discussion about leadership in future issues of The NA Way Magazine and NAWS News. These discussions will include material on the Twelve Traditions and the Twelve Concepts in relation to leadership. Please check www.na.org/conference for the latest information on this and other world service projects. Send us your thoughts and discussion results. We look forward to hearing from you and continuing this discussion.