SPONSORSHIP INVENTORY

This is something that I received in an email today from justloveaudio.com. If anyone is interested, I highly recommend signing up for his emails. I find them always full of interesting and wonderful tidbits to enhance my program.

I wanted to post it because I feel like sponsorship is one way that we help carry the message to others. A sponsor is someone who has what you want so you are willing to do what she does so you too can get what she has. It is one of the ways that we attract rather than promote the program to others.

While we may believe we are doing good, Bill W.’s philosophy was that the good can often be the enemy of the best and for us, only the very best will do.

Remember that our Program is one which requires rigorous honesty.

1. Have I honestly had a spiritual awakening, spiritual experience, or psychic change as the result of having followed the clear-cut directions for the Twelve Steps as outlined in the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous (the Big Book)?

2. Do I clearly understand that my real purpose in learning to live by the Twelve Steps is to fit myself to be of maximum service to God and the people He places in my life?

3. Do I understand and accept the personal challenge of honoring the Creed of Alcoholics Anonymous? “When anyone, anywhere reaches for help, I want the hand of AA to always be there and for that, I AM RESPONSIBLE?”

4. If given the opportunity to help an alcoholic, am I willing to go anywhere, anytime? If I am unable to do so, do I make certain another person will?

5. Do I really understand that I am insuring my sobriety by taking advantage of every opportunity I am given to be of service?

6. Am I one of those who might try to help someone even if it’s inconvenient?

7. When given the opportunity to help someone in AA, do I consider it a boost to my ego or do I honestly realize I am accepting the responsibility for an alcoholic’s life?

8. Do I know how to determine if a protégé fully understands the seriousness of alcoholism and if they have the complete willingness to go to any lengths to survive?

9. Do I understand my responsibility is to guide protégés, who ask for my help, learn to follow and live by the clear-cut directions in our Basic Text?

10. Do I insist they search for those they can help, that it is their responsibility to try to help others as I have tried to help them?

11. Do I try to help them understand that to the extent they learn to live by our Program (the 12 Steps) will they have a solution to all their problems, that I do not have answers for them?

12. Do I really hold my protégés accountable or do I enable them by accepting their excuses?

13. If someone suggests one of my protégés might be off the Path, do I try to defend them or do I listen and then see if the person I am responsible for might benefit from learning where they might be falling short?

14. Do I really believe that my longevity in sobriety is dependent on my constant willingness to try to help others?

15. Do I understand the importance of getting a protégé to take the Steps as soon a possible and as quickly as possible?

16. If the protégé is showing me by their actions that they lack the complete willingness to follow directions, am I prepared to suggest that they are not currently willing to go to any lengths to overcome alcoholism so there is no reason to invest any more time in trying to help them? Remember, alcohol is the great persuader.

PRINCIPLES BEFORE PERSONALITIES

by Cliff B.