if i have one day clean and someone with less time than me asks for help i am no longer the newcomer

All of these sobriety requirements to do service are crazy. As you say Huw, some people who have been sober for a while would never dream of getting involved in service yet those who have less sober time but who have experienced a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps are told they don't qualify; it's lunacy!

I have a sponsee who had finished her amends and had changed beyond recognition due to a spiritual awakening but mwas still a little niaive about AA works. At one of her regular meetings it was announced that people were needed to help out with the local prison meetings. As soon as the meeting was over, she went up and put her name on the 'list'.

Next day she receives a call from the outgoing person who says 'All the stuff you need is in the post, you're running the meeting a week Wednesday. Bye!'

My poor sponsee went into complete panic as she had believed that she would have had to join some kind of queue in order to gradually be introduced to this vital work.

When she went to her next meeting she had begun to get quite excited about the prison! There was a number of people who were only too pleased to put her down by asking if she was up to it. (She has learning difficulties, is deaf and suffers from mental health problems.) She said to one of them 'I'm going to phone my sponsor, she'll be pleased for me' And I was - she was scared because the prison is a men's prison and she had had some bad experiences which made her afraid of men. I told her that God would be with her all the way and that the will of God would never lead her where the grace of God could not keep her.

I went to speak at that meeting and she is absolutely brilliant, the guys all show her tremendous respect and she has grown in confidence so much in that time. We have no right to deprive recovered alcoholics the opportunity of doing God's will because they don't have much time in recovery. Recovered is recovered!

well in my mind your a newcomer for the first year ,and if you stick around moving into the second year you couldn't be called a newcommer.

I had reached 8 years sober when an (old timer as in 18 years sober) said well you are now an older timer gazza .

When you out live your critics, you know your an oldtimer.

ha thats a good one ta2bill. makes sense tho.

michael, from www.TalkAboutSobriety.com

Heard this explanation which I like:

You stop being a newcommer once you have done the steps that way you have experience (not opinion) on recovery to share. You have become part of the solution.

You become an oldtimer when you stop being a bleeding deacon and become an elder statesman.

Does it for me lol

Take care G8

why not post your thoughts with the original post?