History of 15 week “Big Book Study & Action Group” (BBSAG)

During the 1950’s, a man by the name of Mac C. (now deceased) started a group in Winnipeg Manitoba called the “Golden Slippers”. The group was a back to the basics of the “Big Book” kind of group, especially for those people who just could not stay sober for any length of time. The group took a bunch of chronic “slippers” and walked them through the Steps, taking the action exactly as laid out by the first 100 men and women who wrote the basic textbook, Alcoholics Anonymous.

The results were miraculous and word soon spread throughout Winnipeg. Many people with all lengths of sobriety wanted to join this group. During the 1975 International AA Convention in Denver, Mac talked about their experience and many AA members around the country began to replicate this amazing process.

In 1994, a group of experienced AA and Al-Anon members decided to try and replicate this process in the Twin Cities with equally amazing results. Since then, a number of these people have gone on to guide dozens of these groups. The guides for these groups have led hundreds of people through the steps in this kind of a setting.

What do we do during the BBSAG?

This is not your typical “thanks for sharing” kind of AA meeting, nor is it like any seminar. Participants are asked to DO all twelve Steps as laid out in our basic textbook.

A couple (or more) of the people who have done this work before will be guides to lead you through the instructions in our basic textbook using a dictionary published at about the same time as the book Alcoholics Anonymous to help us better understand the directions as they were written by the first 100 men and women.

We ask every participant to commit to the entire process.

Though we read and study the AA “Big Book”, this group is not limited to members of AA. In the past we have had members of Al-Anon, NA, CA, GA, EA, OA, SAA and others participate in these sessions. These meetings are, in effect, Open AA meetings.

We who have participated in these groups before have come to understand that these sessions make us much better sponsors. We can now lead people through the Steps exactly as given to us by those who have gone before, unfettered and unchanged. In addition to being a boot camp for sponsors, we also feel this is especially valuable to those who have been through some sort of treatment or rehab and have been, in effect, left off at Step Three or Step Five. Recovery requires that we do all twelve steps.

We recover in A.A. by taking the Steps, and if we don’t take the action as described in our basic text book, we may not recover.

These “Study and Action” sessions will guide you through the Steps precisely as the first 100 men and women laid them down.

These are back to the basics sessions – “accepting the simple kit of spiritual tools” that has been laid at our feet.

We use a dictionary published in 1934 to find the meaning of the directions in the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

E-mail the guides at info@into-action.com