HISTORY OF AL-ANON AND ALATEEN IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
This history of Al-Anon and Alateen in Northern California was prepared in 1997 when the Bylaws for the organization was updated and printed. There are many stories not told. If you or another member you know has information that might enhance the story of the growth of our fellowship, please contact us here.
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Ever since Alcoholics Anonymous was formed in 1935, their spouses also used the same principles as their alcoholic husbands. Several of these spouses formed non-alcoholic groups in Northern California. Some of these attempted to register with AA, believing that the material sent by AA would help them also. While AA collected these letters, they did not register the groups, since they were not meeting for the purpose of staying sober.
In May 1951, Lois W and Anne B, cofounders of Al-Anon Family Groups, received the addresses of these groups and wrote to them. Lois’ letter presented the idea of a worldwide organization to establish and preserve the unity of Al-Anon by coordinating its message and naming the organization which we have come to know as Al-Anon Family Groups. In Northern California, the seeds of Al-Anon’s organization began before 1950.
These early groups formed the Al-Anon Northern California Council in December 1952 at the Northern California Conference in San Rafael. It was from this Council that a "delegate" system was tried from time to time in the 1950’s. (This term, "delegate", is what is now referred to as the Group Representative.) From the Al-Anon Northern California Council Handbook, published sometime after March 1960, we find the following statements:
"Benefiting from prior trial and error and utilizing all past experiences, the present Delegate System of the Northern California Council of Al-Anon was presented to each group in Northern California with the request that they approve or disapprove by either sending a delegate or a written expression to the Conference. As a result of these procedures, the present Delegate System was adopted at the Fresno Conference in March 1960."
This Handbook continues:
Section II. Purpose
"The Northern California Council of Al-Anon acts as a medium of exchange between member groups for the dissemination of ideas and experiences of mutual interest, and provides whatever other services those member groups may deem advisable."
"One of the important functions of the Council is to plan the agenda for all Northern California Conferences."
Section III. The Conference
"The Northern California Conferences of Al-Anon are held in conjunction with AA’s Northern California Conferences. These Conferences convene three times a year in various locations throughout Northern California."
"The Conference provides a place for Al-Anon members all over Northern California to assemble and participate in meetings pertaining to all facets of the Al-Anon program, such as: World Service, Northern California Council, Alateen, various types of workshops and panel meeting, as well as speaker meetings."
"The Conference makes it possible for us to carry the message of Al-Anon to the public as well as at the "grass roots level", in all areas."
In 1961, the World Service Office requested that Areas from the United States and Canada send a Delegate to New York to attend a World Service Conference annually for three years as an experiment. California responded and elected a Delegate, Helen Balder-Rowe, and a Chairman, Al S., who were both from Southern California. At the May 1962 Assembly, the Assembly recognized that there was little participation by the groups from Northern California. They recognized that costs of travel may have been a factor, though one person commented that if groups set aside just ten cents a day, there would be sufficient funds to attend the Assemblies in Southern California. As a result, the Assembly decided to hold its next meeting in San Francisco. They also decided that the Alternate Delegate should come from the North and elected Ann Oppenshaw as the first Alternate Delegate. While the Delegate herself opposed the splitting of California along the lines of AA’s split, she brought the petition to split to the World Service Conference at the request of the Northern California groups. In 1964, the World Service C
Conference was made permanent, and at that time, accepted California’s petition to divide into two areas.
In 1964, the first Northern California Delegate, Ann O. was elected to the World Service Conference. At the same time, the Chairman of the Assembly, John F. was elected. From 1964 to 1970, the Assembly and the Council operated independently, even though three Assemblies were held each year in conjunction with the Conferences sponsored by the Council.
In 1971, the Council voted to merge with the Assembly and transferred its funds to the Assembly. At this time, the name chosen for the Assembly was "Northern California World Service Area (NCWSA). In 1977, the Assembly voted to establish an Area World Service Committee, consisting of the Delegate, Alternate Delegate, Officers, Coordinators, Alateen Liaison and District Representatives, By 1978, the practice of groups sending Representatives to three Assemblies per year became too expensive, and in 1979, the Assembly voted to hold one Assembly each year separately from the Conferences.
The Northern California Council (NCC) Handbook appears to be the first written document outlining election and other procedures and duties of the Assembly. This handbook was written sometime after 1960 and states:
"This Handbook will endeavor to reclarify the basic structure voted on at the March 1960 Conference, and incorporate the necessary changes and additions that have made themselves evident and necessary in the intervening years."
Assembly guidelines were written later, basing them on the Council work and the World Service Handbooks then available. In 1981, a Bylaws committee was formed to examine the wisdom and/or necessity to incorporate the Assembly as a Nonprofit Corporation. The committee used the Assembly guidelines, AFG Inc.’s Bylaws, Bylaws of other Al-Anon functions, the World Service Handbooks and the collective wisdom of several interested Al-Anon members as guides. These NCWSA Bylaws were approved by the Assembly at its vote at its regular meeting in February 1983. The California Secretary of State accepted them on October 12, 1983. It was at this point that the new official name for NCWSA became "Northern California World Service Assembly". The Delegate was made an officer in addition to the more traditional officers.
In 1988, the growth of NCWSA and changes to the law required several revisions to the Bylaws. Several paragraphs were legally unclear as to intent, voting was inconsistent with the traditional procedures, protection of officers from liability became necessary, the definition of "members" was changed to agree with the traditional practice that members had to be present to vote, an Executive Committee was formed to maintain the policies of NCWSA and to supervise the operation of NCWSA between Assemblies and the NCWSA removed the Delegate as an officer of NCWSA, because it was felt that the Delegate represents all groups of Northern California, rather than only the NCWSA organization. In addition, the Area was divided into three "Sections", to allow the broad representation from the Northern, Central and Southern Sections of NCWSA. The name of NCWSA was also returned to its earlier form, as it is in these Bylaws.
These Bylaws were approved by a substantial unanimity at the regular Assembly meeting held in Modesto on February, 10, 11, and 12, 1989.
Beginning in 1995 and continuing at the Assembly in September 1996, the Bylaws were substantially revised again. More inconsistencies were corrected, the laws concerning not for profit corporation were reviewed and where necessary the bylaws were changed. This revision removed one officer position, "Corresponding Secretary". The NCWSC created a new coordinator position, "Group Records Coordinator". This was done in recognition that the task of providing mailing lists to the Chairperson, Delegate, 12 STEPPER and the Alateen Express were not functions of an officer. The committee also had found that the NCWSA had established the position as an experiment and then forgotten to review the position three years later. Finally, the section concerning the duties of the officers were changed to avoid some overlapping duties. Coordinator duties were removed from the Bylaws and placed into the NCWSC Guidelines book. Sections concerning the removal and replacement of the Delegate, officers and coordinators were substantially revised and clarified.
In 1956, an Oakland mother wrote to the Al-Anon Clearing House and asked in reference to a teenage friend, "how old must an alcoholic relative be to attend Al-Anon meetings". The answer she received, "there is no age limit set for membership". The following April, a member of the Sacramento Nalano Group asked for help from the Clearing House in starting an Al-Anon group for teens. The reply included a list of three existing meetings, two in Southern California and one in South Africa. In the fall, the Clearing House sent her the new Alateen Traditions that the Pasadena Group had written as well as the August 1956 AA Grapevine article "It’s a Teenaged Affair". A 17 year old Oakland member (2 1/2 years in Alateen), while representing a Hayward group, mentions speaking with three other teens at the Northern California Conference in Pacheco in the fall of 1961 to an audience of 900 AA and Al-Anon members. This teen also mentions that the 7 Bay area groups formed an Alateen Intergroup office in San Francisco. The groups sent delegates to these Intergroup meetings. These Alateen groups offered to write an Alateen book. The World Service Office gently suggested that writing a book or pamphlet was a large undertaking, and maybe the groups could assist the WSO in developing its own first Alateen book.
In 1963, the Northern California Conference included their first Alateen group, the San Jose Alateen group. The WSO also asked this group for input to the Alateen portion of the 1965 AA International Convention held in Toronto. The World Service Office surveyed Alateen Groups throughout the 1960’s. This survey, filled out by 21 Northern California Alateen Groups, showed there were 16 Al-Anon and 10 AA sponsors and the average group size was ten members. In 1967, the Modesto group reported that the age range for their group was 9 to 13 years. The first problem listed in our records came from an 18 year old Alateen member from Napa who said, "We do not have an Alateen group any more [because] a Mr S ‘would not leave us alone’."
With 35 in attendance, the Alateen workshop at the February 1966 Northern California Conference discussed the topic, "Talking in the Meeting". The two page report gives many suggestions about the topic. Alateens formed their own annual conference in 1971, called the Northern California Alateen Conference (NoCAC). It was discontinued in 1974 and began again in 1979. At their 10th annual Conference in 1988, there were 400 teens and sponsors present. In 1983, The NCWSC Committee invited the NoCAC Chairperson to be a member of its committee.
In 1986, the Assembly accepted legal responsibility for NoCAC. NoCAC’s finances, though kept separate, are merged with the Assembly’s finances for purposes of state and federal non-profit reporting requirements.
Sometime in the late 1960’s, the Assembly established the position of Alateen coordinator. In 1977, Irma C, Delegate, appointed Tim H. of San Leandro as the Alateen representative to the NCWSC Committee. The following year, the position of Alateen Liaison was established and selected by the Alateens themselves. Today, the coordinator is an adult who has been or is an Alateen sponsor, and the Liaison is a teen selected by the coordinator to directly represent teen issues at the NCWSC committee meetings.
In the mid 1980’s, an area Alateen Committee developed a series of guidelines called Alateen Rights, Alateen Conference Behavior Guidelines and Sponsorship Selection Guidelines, which were approved by successive Assemblies. These guidelines formed the basis of some of the topics found in "A Guide to Alateen Sponsorship", WSO’s P-86.
A preteen group from Boulder Creek began a newsletter called Alatot News. The October, 1968 Issue survives in our archives. This newsletter lists a simplified version of the steps and traditions. In 1987, the area teens, with the help of their sponsors, began publishing a newsletter called "Alateen Express". Since then, two to six issues per year have been sent to the area Alateen Groups.
From the first Alateen Group in Sacramento in 1956, the 21 early 1960’s groups, we now have 67 Alateen groups in our area including about 8 preteen groups.
The Al-Anon Groups have held three Conferences in conjunction with AA from at least 1952 until 1993. It began in 1952, when the newly formed Al-Anon Council held their Assemblies in conjunction with the Conferences, and continued them when the Council merged with the Assembly. In 1993, the Assembly agreed with the Northern California World Service Committee recommendation to no longer hold the Al-Anon Conference at the same time and city as AA. Instead, the Assembly approved holding one Convention per year, to be held in May, June or July.
In September 1986, NCWSA held the California Statewide Al-Anon Convention (CSC) in Fresno, in cooperation with the Southern California Area. This was the first combined convention held since the Areas divided in 1964. The Chairman of this Conference, Phyllis Alden, was instrumental in writing the guidelines for this separate convention. It was called the California Statewide Convention, and was held every three years, alternating between North and South. In 1989, it was held in Bakersfield, and in 1992 it was held in Fresno again. In 1994, the Southern members asked to hold the convention one year early, since the AA International Convention with Al-Anon participation was planned for San Diego in 1995 and the Al-Anon International Convention was planned for Utah in 1998. The Northern members suggested 1996 and 1999 as the years. No agreement was reached and the idea of holding future CSC’s was dropped.
Conference guidelines are also a significant part of the body of experience available. The Northern California Council Handbook printed in 1960 provided the first conference guidelines. New Conference Guidelines were presented to the Assembly and approved in 1984. Then the Assembly delegated the responsibility of updating these guidelines to the Northern California World Service Committee. With the change from supporting the Conferences to supporting the Convention, new guidelines were approved by the Committee in 1994, and its name was changed to "Suggested Convention Committee Manual".
In addition to the Convention, NCWSA supports Al-Anon participation with AA’s annual Institutions Conference, which usually is held in April, and the Northern California Alateen Conference (NoCAC), which meets in November. Support includes a small grant, publicity in the 12 STEPPER and Alateen Express, payment of liability insurance, coordination of the reporting of income and expenses into the required state and federal forms and volunteers.
Newsletters have been a means of communications since the beginning of Al-Anon in Northern California. The Non-Alcoholic Family Group of the San Francisco Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous began publishing a monthly newsletter, "The Family Club Chronicle" in July 1950. According to the "First Steps, Al-Anon... 35 years of beginnings", this group changed the name of their monthly newsletter to the "Family Forum" in May 1951. At that time they had a mailing list of about 1,000. Five years later, when the editor stopped publishing this newsletter, Lois W wrote and received their permission to use the name, "Family Forum" for the World Service Office newsletter. Thus today’s "FORUM" has its roots in our own area.
The Northern California Council Handbook states: The Alternate Secretary shall act as news reporter for our N.C.C., making sure that news about our Conference is placed in "GOOD NEWS", both before and after the Conference." This became the second newsletter provided to interested Al-Anon members and groups.
In 1964, the Delegate began the practice of writing to all the groups when necessary. By 1970, the 12 STEPPER was formed and edited by Irma C. As late as 1978, it continued to be a single 8 1/2" x 14" sheet of paper folded in two, appearing as four pages. The 12 STEPPER became the official newsletter of NCWSA, where the minutes, the Treasurer’s report and the budget are published. In addition, the 12 STEPPER contains reports from the Delegate, officers, coordinators and the District Representatives. It has been issued six weeks in advance of the three Conferences and the fourth issue, six weeks before the Assembly, so that the Al-Anon groups would be informed about area activities. Today the 12 STEPPER contains up to 48 pages, is issued three times per year, and has a circulation of about 1,200 copies.
Committees have also played an important part in the development of the NCWSA structure. The Al-Anon Northern California Council had a Hospital and Institution Chairman, one of whose duties was listed as follows:
"The H & I Chairman should have a working knowledge of H & I meetings from actual attendance and interest., in order to create interest among others in this type of activity." This position is now called Institutions Coordinator. In 1986, the Assembly accepted the responsibility of supporting the Al-Anon portion of the annual AA Institutions Conference.
Sometime in the mid sixties, the position of Alateen Coordinator was established.
The Public Information Coordinator position was established at the time of the merging of the Council and the Assembly in 1971. In 1982, the Assembly set up its own Literature Depot to provide Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature at the conferences sponsored by NCWSA.
By 1987, the growth of Spanish speaking groups was such that NCWSA established the position of Spanish Speaking Coordinator. One result has been the regular holding of Spanish speaking meetings at NCWSA’s Conferences and Conventions. Another has been the NCWSA’s actively supporting the establishment of Spanish meetings throughout Northern California. There are now over thirty Spanish speaking groups, including several Spanish Alateen meetings within NCWSA. In 1991, NCWSA changed the name of the coordinator position to "Non-English". This was in consideration that there are several other languages spoken in addition to that of Spanish. Although there have been no meetings begun in any other languages, the coordinator maintains a listing of Al-Anon members who speak other languages, including French, Italian, German, Farsi, Japanese, Hindu, Tamil, Russian and someone who signs.
With the growth of Al-Anon comes the funds to support NCWSA. In 1971, total revenue of NCWSA was $2,107 and expenses $2,205, with a balance of $847. A formal budgeting process began in 1979. By 1980, revenue was $13,281, expenses $13,199, with a balance of $5,906. In 1988, our books were examined by a CPA for the first time. Revenue was $86,696, expenses $86,657 and balances were $20,628. While revenues declined somewhat over the next several years, the NCWSA also controlled its expenses in acceptance of the reality of static and slightly declining numbers of groups. In 1996, total revenues were $79,192 and total expenses were $68,952.
In 1989, NCWSA established a formal Reserve Fund, to be used only when severe financial circumstances required it. The Assembly asked that funds be placed into this reserve as finances permitted until 1/2 year’s NCWSA expenses were set aside. Twice since the beginning, the NCWSC committee requested that the Assembly allow the removal of funds for the business of NCWSA. In 1996, most of the funds were returned and a balance of about $15,000 was in this reserve fund.
In 1952, the first "World Group Directory of Al-Anon Family Groups" (NY) listed 27 Al-Anon Family Groups in California, 10 of which are in NCWSA’s existing boundaries. The cities where these groups met are Berkeley, Eureka, Fresno, Modesto, Monterey, Napa, Roseville, Sacramento, Salinas, San Francisco and San Jose. The 1964 directory listed 218 groups in California. In Northern California, there were 69 Al-Anon groups, 6 Alateen groups, 1 Intergroup in San Francisco, and 1 lone member in Napa. This was the year, 1964, that California split into two areas. The Assembly split the new area into 12 Districts and developed their first map showing their locations.
By 1981, there were 350 groups and 24 districts. Since 1981, three new districts were formed. District 25 (South San Francisco and southern cities) split from District 12 (San Francisco), District 26 (Berkeley and other cities nearby) split from District 15 (Oakland) and District 27 (Stockton and other nearby cities) split from District 18 (Modesto). In 1989, there were approximately 900 groups. Today in 1997, there are a total of 754 groups, of which there are 67 Alateen groups, 30 Spanish speaking groups, and 6 Institutions groups in three Sections and 27 Districts.
The Bylaws committee is truly grateful for the opportunity to serve Al-Anon in this manner. Applying the spiritual principles of the Steps, Traditions, and Concepts has allowed us all to understand more clearly how our Higher Power works in all areas of our lives.
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