The Ei gh t y – Thr ee
Volume 5, No. 2
AREA 83 ARCHIVES
October 2009
Inside this issue:
Bob D.’s collection
1948 Peterborough
Examiner clippings
Wives Groups
Upcoming Events
- Hamilton
- Ottawa
- Toronto
Ottawa Archives
From the Chair
Contributions to “The Eighty Three
” should be sent to:
archivist@area83aa.org
See the Archivist’s Blog:
http://area83archivist.blogspot.com/
October 2009
Area 83 Archives Newsletter
Stay a little longer, try a little harder,
don’t leave before the miracle happens
gent work in collecting and recording his
How many times were these words history in A.A. The thousands of pieces
heard in meeting after meeting where of correspondence, records, photographs,
Bob D. was. Known and loved by many cards, newspaper and magazine articles
for his eloquence, Bob spent 30 years at he collected demonstrate his great love
the Fellowship Group in Toronto and passion for the Fellowship. And the
1
(District 22) after which he spent the hundreds of thank you cards he received
remaining years of life in Barrie. He show the feeling was mutual. In the first
2-3
was known to have kept a record of binder that was opened up there were
every meeting he ever attended in his cards from his one year anniversary
over 40 years of sobriety. One of his with signatures from Marg M., Pete W.,
closest companions was Butch M. who and many more whose names we hear
traveled just about everywhere Bob almost reverently mentioned by our long
did—and Bob was everywhere. When timers
Bob passed away a few years back on
3
June 10, 2004, his family entrusted Even our wise ‘oldtimers’ were young
Butch with what turned out to be an once and Bob was very involved in the
extensive collection of AA keepsakes. initial conferences and meetings of
Butch held onto these for awhile before Young People in AA. He has an exten-
4 he felt it was time to finally let go of sive collection of flyers, agendas and
these treasures. Bob was a very active badges from these early conventions
member for many years of the Archives along with many letters and cards from
Committee in Toronto so it was a natu- fellow attendees.
ral choice for these to be placed into the
care of that AA Archives repository. No Bob’s commitment to service was legen-
one had any idea about the extent to dary and, as such, his collection is also
4 which Bob went to record his life in AA. filled with thousands of articles, minutes
and announcements from the innumer-
4 The collection of over 30 binders re- able committees he served on.
quired special attention so a new volun- This desire to preserve a historical re-
teer was recruited to go through the cord for future generations is a tremen-
binders and begin the painstaking proc- dous gift and one that has provided us
ess of conserving, preserving, filing and with another window into our past. The
cataloguing these. All meticulously filed process of logging and recording the
the many binders that stretch from 1956 many thousands of documents will take
to 2004 make it very evident that ‘Bobby a fair amount of time but it is a job that
D.’ was someone who loved to participate we feel honoured to have and eager to
in all aspects of the Fellowship and we do. Adam F.
are greatly indebted to him for his dili-
Page 2 The Eighty – Three

From 1948 Peterborough Examiner

From the Personals in the Thursday, April 1, 1948

Peterborough Examiner. It’s entirely possible that
these ads precede April 1, 1948. More research is re-
quired.

From the Thursday, May 27, 1948 Peterborough Examiner.

From the Friday, October 1, 1948 Peterborough Examiner.

From the Friday, October 15, 1948 Peterborough Exam-

iner. There was no mention of the October 17 Open
Meeting in the Peterborough Examiner before or after
that date. These Open Meetings were very important in
exposing the public to the AA message. As AA in Can-
ada was first established in Toronto, it was speakers
from there that helped “carry the message.” As noted in
the letter from Reginald C. to the AA Service Office,
over 800 people attended an Open Meeting in London,
ON, just prior to October 14, 1948. There was much
news on an Ontario-wide power shortage and subse-
quent power saving regulations that actually had busi-
nesses closed for days at a time in Ontario. Might this
have affected the meeting date or was it just not publi-
cized in the Examiner? Again, more research is re-
quired.
Volume 5, No. 2 Page 3

“Wives Groups” — The Pass It On Project in Ontario South

Mary Jane, the Archives Coordinator for Al-Anon’s
Area 86 Ontario South writes that her real under-
standing of her responsibilities began when she was
invited to attend the 3rd Annual AA Area 83 Archives
Workshop in Kingston in 2008 and the 12th Annual
Archives Workshop in Niagara Falls in that same
year. The support and willingness given to Al-Anon
archives in Area 86 by the AA Area 83 Archivist has
been great. With a territory that stretches north to
Parry Sound, south to Lake Ontario, east to Kingston
and west to Sarnia and 32 districts, the collection of
history is no small task. Mary Jane has instituted a
program called PROJECT PASS IT ON that is col-
lecting oral histories, longtimer questionnaires, and
group histories. Al-Anon’s 60th Anniversary is in 2011and
this is one way for AA’s sister fellowship to help Pass It On.
On that note Mary Jane reminds us that:
“Lois Wilson was one of the 20th century's most
important women. Her life has been somewhat
overshadowed by that of her husband, but, in re-
cent years, she has emerged more visible than be-
fore for her unique contribution to humanity. It is
through her tireless efforts and vision that Al-
Anon is the strong organization it is today and why
it continues to attract members through its
message of hope and renewal.” (From The Story of
Lois Wilson). When Lois and Bill came to Toronto
in 1948 they met with the Toronto Wives Group
and they talked about how the women were meet-
ing to help themselves. It was this meeting with
the Toronto Wives Group that inspired Lois to
form a wives group when she went back home. The
result was Al-Anon.

From 1948 Peterborough Examiner (cont’d)

Some Interesting and, in retrospect, informative arti-

cles collected from the 1948 Peterborough Examiner.
Remember the “Indian” List? This would not be a po-
litically correct term today, although that’s how it was
then commonly referred to!

Alcoholics Anonymous officially started in Peterbor-

ough in 1948, although the seed was planted in 1947
and possibly even earlier by two sources: interested
individuals traveling to and from Toronto, and vaca-
tioners in the Peterborough region from Ohio. It was
not uncommon in the early days of Peterborough AA
for members to travel to Akron, Ohio.
Gary
 AREA 83 ARCHIVES
October 2009
Upcoming Events:
Hamilton
14th Annual Hamilton & District Archives
Breakfast. Sunday April, 2010. Carmen’s
Banquet Centre (1520 Stonechurch Rd East).
For more information call (905) 662—4096.
Ottawa
7th Annual Longtimers Luncheon, November
7, 2009. 10:00-2:00.Tickets $10. For more
information. (http://www.ottawaaa.org/
committees/archives/archives.html).
Peterborough
5th Annual Area 83 Archives Workshop,
Peterborough Intergroup. April 3, 2010. 9-3:30
Toronto
25th Annual Archives Breakfast. November 8,
2009. 9-12. Peter W., Oakville & Joy P., St.
Catharine's. 1036 Lakeshore Road E.,
Mississauga. Tickets $25
The 14th Annual National Archives
Workshop, Macon GA September 2010
http://www.aanationalarchivesworkshop.com
From the Chair
Our Area 83 Archives Committee is completing its sixth
year of existence. The Area Committee created this sub-
committee and appointed an Area 83 Archivist to :
find out what items Intergroups and Districts currently
have in their archives collections, encourage additional
districts to start archives efforts, and provide a resource
to answer “how to” questions.
My home district, District 42 St. Lawrence Interna-
tional, has had an Archives “Chairist” (a cross between
and Archivist and an Archives Chair) for about four
years now. Gary G. has concentrated on a couple of ef-
forts - taping local “long-timers” and photographing
groups’ meeting places. The latter he has used on a dis-
trict map display, with each photo linked to the city/
town where that group meets.
He has demonstrated that it is possible to “start small”
and build in small steps. It is another demonstration of
the adage that “It’s’ better do to a little something than
think about doing a lot and do nothing.” Essential also
is our District’s willingness to fund his activities in
terms of materials for displays, equipment to record
Ottawa Archives
The committee in Ottawa has been really busy in get-
ting their collection and space in order over the past
year. One person, Leslie, has been planning and now
finalizing the layout of their space in the Intergroup
Office. The Intergroup has been very gracious in allow-
ing the committee a room in their office space. Plans
are underway to have a listening station where people
can listen to speakers during the Intergroup’s office
hours. Leslie has been working on listening to and
cataloguing this fairly large audio collection. She has
also been involved in cataloguing material like meeting
minutes from Ottawa groups and a Grapevine collec-
tion that dates back to 1960. She has also been looking
in to various different standards and methods for cata-
loguing, including possible electronic tracking sys-
tems. They have acquired a new computer and are in
the process of setting this up. Another committee mem-
ber, Heather, has started amalgamating a history of
AA in the Ottawa Area (Districts 48, 54, 58, 62 and 66).
She is building off the information currently available
and is also looking for information from the member-
ship. This also includes oral histories from some of our
longtimers in AA.
interviews, and travel funds to attend the Area Ar-
chives Workshops in Kingston and Toronto.
The long term goals of our Area Archives Committee
remain the same as when the original committee
was formed. Two projects I foresee in the near to
medium future are: Scanning Area minutes to an
electronic, searchable pdf format, and evaluating a
suitable archives database software which can be
used to classify and record items contained in the
various district archives and in the three Intergroup
Archives (Toronto, Ottawa, Peterborough). And, as
always, we want to continue to encourage and sup-
port District and Intergroup archives activities.
As Máire O’B completes her term as Area 83 Archi-
vist at the end of 2009 we thank her for getting us
started on the “long march” to preserving our A.A.
history. The longest journey starts with a single
step, and Máire has led us a good way down that
road.
Milner G.