Welcome to Back To The Book

Back To The Book is a beginners meeting format for an AA group that guides experienced members in helping new members practice the AA program. The Back To The Book format consists of four weekly meetings that give the background, instruction and opportunity to practice all of AA’s Twelve Steps as the book “Alcoholics Anonymous” describes.

On the first week we pair up newer members with experienced members to work with as a guide. These are referred to as sponsorship pairs or sharing partners. Then, beginning with the Doctor’s Opinion we read from AA’s “Big Book” through the chapter We Agnostics to get a full understanding of what alcoholism is and what the AA solution is. Each new member does Steps One and Two the first week. We give homework on week one which asks that the sharing partners spend some time relating to each other’s experience.

The second week covers How It Works and the new members do Steps Three and Four. The homework consists of finishing the Personal Inventory and sharing their findings with another human being.

We cover Steps Six, Seven, Eight and Nine on week three going over the chapter Into Action in our basic text. We ask the new member to make amends to someone from their list as homework before week four.

On week four we ask for sharing and reveal the simple instructions for Steps Ten, Eleven and Twelve finishing up Into Action and visiting some of Working With Others in our Big Book. We include a short meditation with Step Eleven using the Prayer of St. Francis. All newer members, now having an experience of the Twelve Steps, are asked to come back and help newer members the next month.