This is the OLD DISTRICT 40 WEBSITE as of May 31, 2024.

Open Service Positions

District 40 has the following open service positions.  Please see below for our current openings. If you are interested, please contact the DCM (District Committee Member) for additional information.

CommitteeOpen PositionDescription
ArchivesChair/Alternate ChairEnsure the history of our local AA heritage is kept for future generations.
Local Committee MemberGlen Ellyn/North/West/WheatonTo carry the message of the District and its available services to those meetings and groups that do not have a G.S.R.
Cooperation with ProfessionalsChair/Alternate ChairTo carry the A.A. message to the professional community as outlined in the G.S.O. Handbook.
GrapevineChair/Alternate ChairGrapevine communicates the experience, strength, and hope of its contributors and reflects a broad geographic spectrum of current A.A. experience.
LiteratureChair/Alternate Chair Inform group members, through displays and other suitable methods, of all available Conference-approved literature, audiovisual material and other special items.
NewsletterAlternateProduce and distribute the district newsletter publication, four times a year.
Public InformationChair/Alternate ChairTo carry the A.A. message to the outside community through such as outlets as libraries, schools, churches, etc.
Special Needs/AccessibilitiesChair/Alternate ChairCoordinate access to AA meetings and services for those with unique accessibility requirements.

While there are no special A.A. members, some members need special help to receive the A.A. message. For the purpose of these Guidelines, we define A.A.s with special needs as persons who are blind or visually impaired; deaf or hard of hearing; chronically ill or homebound, those who are developmentally disabled, and many others who may have less visible challenges.

A.A. Guidelines - Serving Alcoholics with Special Needs

Illinois District 43 has posted under a section titled “Groupvine” (at the top of the home page), a subsection (scroll down) titled “Sober Hands” which has ASL videos (signed videos) for the deaf and hard of hearing that includes the AA preamble; 3rd Step Prayer; 7th Step Prayer; 9th Step Promises; A Vision For You; Serenity Prayer; St. Francis Prayer; The Twelve Traditions; and the Responsibility Statement. Also, under “Groupvine” there is another subsection (again scroll down) titled “Many Voices” which has recordings of the meeting literature signed in “Sober Hands” and read aloud for the blind or those with eyesight problems or those that have difficulty reading.

There is also a website that provides access to ASL online meetings. The website is located at https://doda.omnijoin.com. At this website, a list of ASL AA online meetings can be found. After clicking on the chosen meeting one is redirected to instructions as to how to access the meeting.

GSO announced in November 2019, the revised ASL editions of the Big Book and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.

An A.A. answering service offers a local gateway to reach Alcoholics Anonymous. The service receives inquiries from those seeking help and may refer callers to a nearby A.A. group or may have a twelfth stepper contact them.

In the past, the A.A. answering service provided a listing for Alcoholics Anonymous in the local telephone directory. As technology has changed, A.A. members providing this service have found new avenues for problem drinkers seeking help to find A.A. – for example, getting the answering service number listed online with A.A. websites, Internet directories and local community websites.

Visit the Answering Service Website

View the Sign-up Sheet for the Answering Service

A.A. Guidelines for A.A. Answering Service

Like any other A.A. service, the primary purpose of those involved in archival work is to carry the message of Alcoholics Anonymous. Archives service work is more than mere custodial activity; it is the means by which we collect, preserve, and share the rich and meaningful heritage of our Fellowship. It is by the collection and sharing of these important historical elements that our collective gratitude for Alcoholics Anonymous is deepened.

AA Guidelines for Archives

Add your group's history with Area 20's Group History Project

Part of Bridging the Gap between a treatment program and A.A. is the Temporary Contact Program, which is designed to help the alcoholic in an alcoholism treatment program make that transition. As you know, one of the more “slippery” places in the journey to sobriety is between the door of the facility and the nearest A.A. group or meeting. Some of us can tell you that, even though we heard of A.A. in treatment, we were too fearful to go.

View the FLYER

A.A. is considered by many professionals to be a valuable resource for alcoholics who want help. When there is a good working relationship between A.A. members in the community and paid alcoholism workers, the sick alcoholic is the winner —he or she gets the help needed from both. We are not in competition with these non-A.A.s; we have our separate functions. A.A. is not in the business of education, research, medicine, counseling, treatment, prevention, or funding. We simply have a message to carry about a program of recovery for alcoholics—a program that works for hundreds of thousands who want it. The professional can reach out to alcoholics—by education, counseling, and rehabilitative treatment— and can also be of aid through making the community aware of the millions still suffering from the progressive illness of alcoholism.

A.A. Guidelines - Cooperation with the Professional Community

The purpose of a corrections committee is to coordinate the work of individual A.A. members and groups who are interested in carrying our message of recovery to alcoholics behind the walls, and to set up means of smoothing the way from the facility to the larger A.A. community through pre-release contacts.

Volunteer for Corrections Service Work

A.A. Guidelines - Corrections Committees

The Grapevine, “your meeting in print” is also your meeting on the Web. Why not share? We’re always accepting submissions of art or text, and you need no prior publishing experience. All it takes is a little willingness and a desire to share.

A.A. Grapevine Website

November 2020 Grapevine Presentation

Today, as in the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous, the A.A. message of recovery from alcoholism is carried by one alcoholic talking to another. However, since the publication of the first edition of the Big Book in 1939, literature has played an important role in spreading the A.A. message and imparting information about the A.A. Twelve Step program of recovery.

A.A. co-founder Bill W., who often called the influence of A.A. literature “incalculable,” wrote in the May 1964 issue of the Grapevine, “Suppose, for instance, that during the last twenty-five years A.A. had never published any standard literature…no books, no pamphlets. We need little imagination to see that by now our message would be hopelessly garbled. Our relations with medicine and religion would have become a shambles. To alcoholics generally we would today be a joke and the public would have thought us a riddle. Without its literature, A.A. would certainly have bogged down in a welter of controversy and disunity.”

The Language of the Heart, (p. 348) Bill’s words ring just as true today. The newcomer, walking into an A.A. group for the first time, may be given a meeting list, basic recovery pamphlets and, depending on the individual group conscience, perhaps a copy of Living Sober or the Big Book.

A.A. Guidelines - Literature Committees

Doings is a quarterly news bulletin from District 40. This newsletter includes information about A.A. service, literature, events, sharing from groups, service committees and individual A.A. members.

Doings - Qtr 4 2022

Doings - Qtr 3 2022

Doings - Qtr 2 2022

Doings - Qtr 2 2019

Doings - Qtr 1 2019

 

Like all of A.A., the primary purpose of members involved with public information service is to carry the A.A. message to the alcoholic who still suffers. Working together, members of local Public Information committees convey A.A. information to the general public, including the media.

For those who want a Big Book, but only want to borrow one – copies are available at the following Public Libraries within District 40. A.A. Guidelines - Public Information

Bloomingdale Public Library

Glen Ellyn Public Library

Glenside (Glendale Heights) Public Library

Warrenville Public Library

West Chicago Public Library

Wheaton Public Library

In trying to reach the alcoholic who is in an inpatient or outpatient treatment setting, A.A.s work together, insofar as possible, by using suggestions from those who have had experience carrying the message into these settings. These Guidelines provide a summary of that shared experience. A Treatment Committee Workbook, available from the General Service Office, contains detailed information about carrying the message into treatment and outpatient settings, including ways to approach treatment personnel, presentations and workshops, temporary contact programs, and other helpful information.

A.A. Guidelines - Treatment Facility Committees

Modern communication in A.A. is flowing from one alcoholic to another in ways that are high-tech, relatively open-ended and evolving quickly. Protecting anonymity is a major concern for members, who are accessing the Internet in ever-growing numbers. When we use digital media, we are responsible for our own anonymity and protect that of others. When we post, text, or blog, we should consider whether we are publishing at the public level. When we break our anonymity in these forums, we may inadvertently break the anonymity of others.

A Note from your Web Administrator:

This website has been developed to be a tool for District 40 committee members and all AA members alike.

A.A. Guidelines - Internet

How to submit your own flyer or information to add the District 40 Calendar Click HERE

Questions and Concerns:

Please e-mail me:
– If you have questions or comments about the website
– If you have recently assumed a position and need to correct an e-mail address
– If you have any other website-related issues