Panel 42 Delegate – We can learn from your Experience
AA in Kentucky recently lost a great trusted servant. I had the opportunity to meet our Panel 42 Delegate Joe S. a few times. Others knew him much better and could certainly share how they were helped by this dedicated, trusted servant. He helped a lot of people. Some people in greater Louisville might be able to share about Joe sharing wisdom and fellowship at a local Waffle House after a meeting, or how he continued to carry the message for over 50 years in Alcoholics Anonymous.
He remained active in AA, and it was my pleasure to meet him on a few occasions and enjoy a meal with Joe and his family one evening in Louisville. His passing made me reflect on what it might have been like for Joe as our delegate back in 1992.
Joe served as chair of the Report & Charter committee, during which several changes to the AA Service Manual were recommended. One such change was adding shared experience about some Areas that had incorporated linguistic districts.
Many topics are recycled in Alcoholics Anonymous, and I found evidence of this in the Kentucky Area 26 Highlights Joe shared at the General Service Conference, which included this statement: “More treatment facilities are cooperating with AA in not overloading small meetings and helping with the cross-addicted identification problem. This is the direct result of friendly contact by members of the treatment facilities committees.”
If you think the Conference taking its own inventory is a new idea, you would be wrong. The 1992 Conference, where Joe served as our delegate, chose the theme, “AA Takes Its Inventory – The General Service Conference structure”
While not appointed to the committee from the hat, Joe was our delegate when a special ad hoc committee on chips/medallions was formed. As the practice today reflects, this Conference agreed that the use of sobriety chips was a local autonomy matter, and AAWS or Grapevine should not produce or license them.
Another example of how many topics recycle through the years: the 1993 Conference Joe would have attended as a second-year delegate considered an agenda item to publish a facsimile of the 1st Edition of “Alcoholics Anonymous.” At this time, the Conference affirmed the 1977 Advisory Action that the publication of a facsimile of the 1st Edition Big Book should not be undertaken, as it would destroy the sentimental value of the actual first edition. The committee further felt no need exists for such a book. As you know, later Conferences exercised their autonomy and published such a facsimile. While the results may not have destroyed sentimental value, the error in publishing a second print run by the office certainly destroyed some financial value.
Reviewing the 1993 Conference Final Report, I found this interesting callout. The statement recognized that two wives of current delegates both serve as Al-Anon trustees; the wives of Joe Sostarich and Les L., West Central Regional Trustee.
Joe was our delegate, with the only SE Regional Trustee from Area 26 serving, Jackie M., who at the time was rotating out and replaced by Gary G. from Georgia. I appreciate that general service puts me in contact with some great AA members. One of those past delegates I had the great privilege to meet was Joe S. While it was only a brief encounter, it motivated me to investigate our history and imagine what the General Service Conference was like at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza New York City in 1992 and 1993. It reaffirmed for me that many of our topics recycle, but that is ok because we need to hear all the voices and new perspectives, while remembering where we came from. Thank you, Joe, for your service and the opportunity to imagine the lessons from our past.