March 1
1939 — Readers Digest declined to write article on AA.
1941 – Jack Alexander’s Saturday Evening Post article was published and membership jumped from 2,000 to 8,000 by year’s end.
March 3
1947 — Nell Wing started work at Alcoholic Foundation, 415 Lexington Avenue, NYC.
March 4
1891 — Lois W. was born.
1947 — Nell Wing met Bill W. for the first time.
March 5
1945 — Time Magazine reported first of a series of Detroit radio broadcasts by AA members.
March 7
1940 — Bill and Lois W. visited Philadelphia AA group.
1941 — Boston newspaper reported that any drunk who wanted to get well was more than welcome at the AA meeting at 115 Newbury St., at 8 PM Wednesdays.
March 9
1941 — Wichita Beacon reported on an AA member from NY who wanted to form a group in Wichita, KS.
March 10
1944 — New York Intergroup was established.
March 11
1949 — The Calix Society, an association of Roman Catholic alcoholics who are maintaining their sobriety through participation in Alcoholics Anonymous, was formed in Minneapolis by five Catholic AA members.
March14
South Orange, NJ, AA group held an anniversary dinner with Bill W. as guest speaker.
March 15
1941 — First AA group in New Haven, CN, was formed.
March 16
1940 — Alcoholic Foundation and Works Publishing moved from Newark to 30 Vesey St. in lower Manhattan.
March 21
1881 — Dr. Bob’s wife, Anne, was born.
1966 — Ebby T., whom Bill W. called his sponsor, died sober.
March 22
1951 — William Duncan Silkworth, MD, died at Towns Hospital. He helped more than 40,000 alcoholics during his lifetime.
1984 — Clarence S., “Home Brewmeister,” died at 81.
March 23
1936 — Bill & Lois W. visited Fitz M., “Our Southern Friend,” in Maryland.
1940 — Lois W. paid her first visit to the office on Vesey Street in NYC.
March 25
1898 — Jim B. (“The Vicious Cycle”) was born.
March 29
1943 — The Charleston Mail, WV, reported on Bill W.’s talk at St. John’s Parish House.
March 31
1947 — 1st AA group formed in London, England.

Other March happenings with no specific date:
1936 – AA had 10 members staying sober. At end of 1936 AA had 15 members.
1940 – Mort J. arrived in LA from Denver and helped faltering group; started custom of reading Chapter 5 Big Book at Cecil group.
1941 – 1st Prison AA Group was formed at San Quentin.
1941 – Second printing of Big Book appeared.
1946 – The March of Time film on AA was produced.
1949 – Dr. Bob considers idea of AA conference premature.
1951 – American Weekly publishes memorial article for Dr. Bob.
Thanks to Billy C. and Nancy O. for this list, used by permission.

Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Original Manuscript Form: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care and direction of God as we understood Him. 

Tradition 3 (Long Form): Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.

 * Is there some kind of alcoholic whom I privately do not want in my AA group?

 * Do I set myself up as a judge of whether a newcomer is sincere or phony?

 * Do I let language, religion (or lack of it), race, education, age, or other such things interfere with my carrying the message?

 * Am I over impressed by a celebrity? By a doctor, a clergyman, and ex-convict? Or can I just treat this new member simply and naturally as one more sick human, like the rest of us?

 * When someone turns up at AA needing information or help (even if he can’t ask for it aloud), does it really matter to me what he does for a living? Where he lives? What his domestic arrangements are? Whether he had been to AA before? What his other problems are?

Concept III: To insure effective leadership, we should endow each element of A.A. —the Conference, the General Service Board and its service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives—with a traditional “Right of Decision.”

* Do we understand what is meant by the “Right of Decision”? Do we grant it at all levels of service or do we “instruct”?

* Do we trust our trusted servants — G.S.R., D.C.M., area delegate, the Conference itself?