Western Mass
Intergroup
Information on this page was aquired from the pamphlet above and also from the Area 31 Handbook. See both of these for more information or you may attend a Grapevine Meeting in your Area.
THE WESTERN MASS AREA 31 GRAPEVINE COMMITTEE
The Grapevine Committee will come to your group function, anniversary, or service conference.
The committee will set up Grapevine displays and will answer any questions that fellow AA members
attending your groups function may have.
Contact the Grapevine committee at the meeting time below to book them for you next event.
If you would like the Grapevine Committee to come out to your next group anniversay of special AA service function please click on the
e-mail address below and leave you name and phone number, group, date you'll need the boards, time of the event, and location of the event and we'll get back to you asap.
Please give us 1 to 2 month notice in advance but we can at times help those in an emergency situation.
A picture of the boards is below.
E-Mail Address
area31comm@gmail.com 
AA Grapevine our meeting in print: A monthly collection of articles written by AAmembers from around the world. As an integral part of Alcoholics Anonymous for over 50 years, the Grapevine publishes articles that reflect the full diversity of experience and thought found within the AA Fellowship. No one viewpoint or philosophy dominates its pages, and in determining content, the editorial staff relies on the principles of the Twelve Traditions. Each issue carries a statement of purpose, which states a fundamental truth about the Grapevine, that is a “lifeline linking one suffering alcoholic to another.”
Your Local Grapevine Committee and the Grapevine Rep: Your local Grapevine committee is a branch from the main Grapevine offices in New York City. Your local link to the Grapevine “Meeting in Print” is brought to you by many of Area 31 volunteer reps from your local groups of Alcoholics Anonymous. These representatives bring back to the groups the updated information about changes in the Grapevine, editorial news, holiday specials, price changes, and more. The Grapevine rep then takes all this information that is given to them, by the Area 31 Grapevine Chair and Co-Chair at the monthly meeting of the Grapevine ommittee, back and shares it with it’s group members who hopefully pass it to other waiting AA’s ears. This is a great way for a newcomer to get active in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and be a part of passing the message of recovery to those who are seeking it. The Grapevine Rep can also sell subscriptions to the magazine, inform AA members of the different books, tapes, CD’s, internet access, and writings that the Grapevine has to offer. (See bottom of page for subscription form, and literature section for prices of other items offered by intergroup.) If you are interested in getting active in service work and the Grapevine interests you; then join the committee at it’s monthly meeting the times are as follows:
Helping others through your local Grapevine: The Grapevine can so much further than in your briefcase, coffee table, meeting hall, or night stand. You can bring the AA Grapevine to people who cannot get to it. Since the Grapevine is a valuable tool for the recovery of every AA member, the ones who need it most are those locked behind the walls. Detox’s, nstitutions, Rest Homes, Nursing Homes, Rehabs, and Phyc Wards, benefit from that “Meeting In Print.” The donation of a Grapevine to these Institutions and Homes will allow AA members who cannot leave their places of resident to enjoy the writings of fellow AA members who experience the same everyday battles from this deadly illness. How can I help? Easy; Just go to you groups Grapevine Rep, Intergroup Office, or Grapevine Meeting, and donate a year subscription to a local cause. I guarantee you’ll feel better for doing it, and, they’ll feel better for having it. Thanks.
GRAPEVINE MEETING
TIME: 1st TUESDAY OF THE MONTH AT 7PM - ?
PLACE: GRACE UNITED CHURCH
474 PLEASANT STREET HOLYOKE, MA
Enter front of church go up the handicap through
doors then right down hall to big hall
Show up and see what Grapevine can do for you, and, what you can do to help the Grapevine. Then if you like it, see your group Chairperson and sign up to be your groups Grapevine Rep. If your group already has a rep., then be the alternate or just come along for the fun and excitement that is the “Grapevine.”
GRAPEVINE HISTORY AND RELATED MATERIAL
A Mirror of the Fellowship: From its beginning, in June of 1944, the Grapevine’s history has run parallel to that of AA as a whole, and many of the critical events in the evolution of the Fellowship have been chronicled in the pages of the Grapevine. The Twelve Traditions were first presented to the Fellowship by Bill W. in an April 1946 article entitled “Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition.” The AA Preamble was written by one of the Grapevine’s first editors, based on the Foreword to the book of Alcoholics Anonymous, and was published in the June 1947 Grapevine. Throughout the years many nonalcoholic friend of AA have shared their experience and insight with the Fellowship through the Grapevine - such friends as Sister Ignatia, Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Dr. William Silkworth, and others.
Today the Grapevine reaches an AA population that’s dramatically different from the population of the early 1940’s. There are many more young people now; the number of women has increased considerably; more minority groups and language groups are represented throughout Alcoholics Anonymous. These changes all point to an ongoing need for increased communication between different segments of the AA community, and that’s just what readers find in the Grapevine.
How the Grapevine began: In the spring of 1944, just nine years after the Fellowship’s founding, a small group of AA members living in and around New York City began an AA magazine, with the goal of providing news of AA to members hungry for information about the growth of the Fellowship and the AA program of recovery. As one of the original editorial staff of the Grapevine recalled, “It’s hard to remember in 1944 AA’s themselves had little opportunity of communicating with each other outside of their own small groups; that an AA group in Arkansas had little idea of how an AA group in Ohio or New Jersey conducted its meetings; that many AA groups were so small and anonymous they couldn’t be found by traveling AA’s…; that there were no AA publications beyond the Big Book and one or two pamphlets”
So with the blessings of AA’s co-founder Bill W., the first issue of the Grapevine—whose title was meant to suggest an informal but powerful way to communicate - was published in June 1944 as a large - format newsletter off to a good start, a copy of the first issue was sent to every group (totaling only about 300 at the time), as well as to all known AA members in the armed services overseas. It was hoped that a monthly AA paper would be especially helpful to these overseas members, as the usually cut off from group meetings and direct contact with other members. Each month, an entire page was devoted to publishing the letters received from these members, with the heading, “Mail Call for All AA’s in the Armed Forces,” and they soon began to refer to the Grapevine as their “Meeting in Print.” This designation has remained over the years, and current issues of the Grapevine still carry the words “Our Meeting In Print” on the cover.
The Grapevine and Conference Approval: A question often asked about the Grapevine is whether or not it is “Conference - Approved .” General Service Conference approval is a lengthy review process, and Conference-approved literature represents the wildest possible consensus of AA experience. The process can take years for longer projects, with several stages of committee evaluation along the way. Ultimately, the General Service Conference as a whole must approve the final product before it can be published with the “Conference-Approved” statement.
Since the Grapevine comes out 12 times a year, and the Conference meets only once a year, the magazine would never come off the press if it had to go through the Conference review process. However, the Conference has always supported the concept of the Grapevine and, in 1986, a Conference Advisory Action specifically addressed the issue of Conference approval for the first time with the following statement: “Since each issue of the Grapevine cannot go through the Conference-approval process, the Conference recognizes the Grapevine as the international journal of Alcoholics Anonymous.” In addition the Conference Charter guarantees the right of the Grapevine editor to accept or reject material for publication; there is a Conference Committee on the Grapevine, formed in 1954; and any Grapevine matter of importance to the Fellowship as a whole is brought to the Conference through that committee. Over the years a number of Conference Advisory Actions have encouraged questions of corporate or editorial policy. The concept of the Grapevine as been endorsed by the Conference as a whole and use of the Grapevine as a recovery tool has been encouraged throughout the Fellowship year after year.
Editorial selection: All articles for the magazine are contributed by AA members, with the exception of a few by non-alcoholics who know and love the Fellowship. Articles are evaluated by AA staff members, and while some editing is done fore purposes of clarity, styling, and length, the editors encourage all writers to express their own experience in their own unique way. Articles are selected for publication only after discussion and consensus of the editorial staff, and when needed , the Editorial Advisory Board.The Grapevine receives nearly 200 manuscript submissions a month and whether or not a manuscript is published, the contributor receives a personal reply from the Grapevine editorial department.
How to contact the Grapevine: For editorial correspondence, ordering information, or current subscription information, please write to the Grapevine at P.O. Box 1980, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-1980. The Grapevine can also be reached by phone at: (212) 870-3400;
or by fax at: (212) 870-3301, or online at
www.aagrapevine.org
SUBSCRIPTION FORM BELOW
