To Those We Serve

A fellow AA and I were at a state prison to carry the message to the inmates. Our meeting hadn’t started yet, and the women were just arriving. We were short Big Books; I had brought only a few, and the prison had relocated their own small supply someplace inaccessible. A few of the women had their own. To my question, “Do you have a Big Book?” one of the women said, “No, I ordered one but it didn’t come yet.” Knowing the prison did not take orders for Big Books, I was surprised by her answer and asked from whom she ordered the book. Her response was from one of the AAs who bring in meetings. I bristled a little: placing book orders with an AA? No such thing. We’re not organized at that level. As Tradition Nine notes, AA as a whole ought never be organized.