The Telephone

A group breaks Tradition Five quietly when the drinker calls and nobody answers. The Big Book warned the first members what carrying the message would cost (p. 97): "Your telephone may jangle at any time of the day or night." Jangle means ring harshly. They expected to pay that price, because a call is often the drinker's one moment of willingness. Picture a group's listing. It once gave a member's number, someone who agreed to take the late calls. That member moved away. Nobody volunteered, so the group put a general line on the schedule, and the line goes to a voicemail box no one has checked since spring. The meeting still runs every week. But the drinker who works up the nerve at two in the morning hears a recording, hangs up, and pours another. The Long Form (Big Book, p. 563) gives each group "but one primary purpose—that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers." Carrying starts with being reachable. Today a group's whole public face may be one listing online, and if it leads nowhere, the group has closed its door without ever voting to. Test it tonight: call the number your group gives out, and see who answers.