June 1
1949 – Anne S., Dr. Bob’s wife, died.
June 4
2002- Caroline K., author of “Drinking: A Love Story” died sober of lung cancer.
June 5
1940 – Ebby T. took a job at the NY Worlds Fair.
June 6
1940 – The first AA Group in Richmond, VA, was formed.
1979 – AA gave the two-millionth copy of the Big Book to Joseph Califano, then Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. It was presented by Lois W., Bill’s wife, in New York.
June 7
1939 – Bill and Lois W. had an argument, the first of two times Bill almost slipped.
1941 – The first AA Group in St. Paul, Minnesota, was formed.
June 8
1941 – Three AA’s started a group in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
June 10
1935 – The date that is celebrated as Dr. Bob’s last drink and the official founding date of AA. There is some evidence that the founders, in trying to reconstruct the history, got the date wrong and it was actually June 17.
June 11
1945 – Twenty-five hundred attend AA’s 10th Anniversary in Cleveland, Ohio.
1969 – Dr. Bob’s granddaughter, Bonna, daughter of Sue S. and Ernie G. (The Seven Month Slip in the First Edition) killed herself after first killing her six-year-old child.
1971 – Ernie G. died.
June 13
1945 – Morgan R. gave a radio appearance for AA with large audience. He was kept under surveillance to make sure he didn’t drink.
June 15
1940 – First AA Group in Baltimore, MD, was formed.
June 16
1938 – Jim B., “The Vicious Cycle” in Big Book, had his last drink.
June 17
1942 – New York AA groups sponsored the first annual NY area meeting. Four hundred and twenty-four heard Dr. Silkworth and AA speakers.
June 18
1940 – One hundred attended the first meeting in the first AA clubhouse at 334-1/2 West 24th St., New York City.
June 19
1942 – Columnist Earl Wilson reported that NYC Police Chief Valentine sent six policemen to AA and they sobered up. “There are fewer suicides in my files,” he commented.
June 21
1944 – The first Issue of the AA Grapevine was published.
June 24
1938 – Two Rockefeller associates told the press about the Big Book “Not to bear any author’s name but to be by ‘Alcoholics Anonymous.'”
June 25
1939 – The New York Times reviewer wrote that the Big Book is “more soundly based psychologically than any other treatment I have ever come upon.”
June 26
1935 – Bill D. (AA #3) entered Akron’s City Hospital for his last detox and his first day of sobriety.
June 28
1935 – Dr. Bob and Bill W. visited Bill Dotson at Akron’s City Hospital.
June 30
1941 – Ruth Hock showed Bill W. the Serenity Prayer and it was adopted readily by AA.
2000 – More than 47,000 from 87 countries attended the opening meeting of the 65th AA Anniversary in Minneapolis, MN.

Other significant events in June for which we have no specific date:
1948 – A subscription to the AA Grapevine was donated to the Beloit, Wisconsin, Public Library by a local AA member.
1981 – AA in Switzerland held its 25th Anniversary Convention with Lois W. and Nell Wing in attendance.

Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Original Manuscript Form: Were entirely willing that God remove all these defects of character.

Tradition 6 (Long Form): Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to A.A. should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. An A.A. group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to A.A., such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the A.A. name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, A.A. managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside A.A. — and medically supervised. While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. An A.A. group can bind itself to no one.

* Should my fellow group members and I go out and raise money to endow several AA beds in our local hospital?

* Is it good for a group to lease a small building?

* Are all the officers and members of our local club for AAs familiar with “Guidelines on Clubs” (which is available free from GSO)?

* Should the secretary of our group serve on the mayor’s advisory committee on alcoholism?

* Some alcoholics will stay around AA only if we have a TV and card room. If this is what is required to carry the message to them, should we have these facilities?

Concept VI: The Conference recognizes that the chief initiative and active responsibility in most world service matters should be exercised by the trustee members of the Conference acting as the General Service Board.

* Are we familiar with how our General Service Board (G.S.B.) Class A and Class B trustees serve A.A.? Are we familiar with how our other trusted servants serve A.A.?

* Are we clear about the terms, “chief initiative” and “active responsibility”? Can we see a direct link to our home group?