District 04 MSCA 09

Program 9:00am-11:00am

Serenity Prayer | Héctor | La Viña Chair Area 09

Purpose of the Grapevine | Deborah L. | Past Grapevine 09 Chair

Purpose of La Viña | Erika DCM | District 20

Welcome Remarks | New Delegate: Deborah L. | Panel 76 Area 09

History of Grapevine La Viña | Mitchell B. | Panel 72 Area 09

My experience at La Viña | Mary | Alt. MCD Dist. 22

Legacy of Service | Raúl Ch. | Archives Area 09

Writing Workshop

Coordinator of La Viña District 20 Úrsula F.

Read Guidelines and Motivation to Write Mauricio T. District 24

Discussion Tables

Table 1

Grapevine / La Viña website

Moderator District 25

a. How it helps my group and the LV rep

b. What I find for my recovery

c. How to improve the site

Table 2

Grapevine / La Viña Literature

Moderator: Deborah L. Past Grapevine Area Chair

a. How many books are there

b. Does my base group accept them

c. Is there enough diversity

Table 3

The Applications of both Magazines

Moderator: District 23

a. How to Subscribe to the App

b. List benefits of Apps

c. How to motivate members to Apps

Table 4

Both Magazines in Corrections

Moderator: District 22

a. History of the journal in institutions

b. How the message passes on to the inmates

c. Gift certificates behind the walls

Table 5

The Grapevine and La Viña Representative

Moderator: District 21

a. The importance of RLV

b. How an RLV helps your Group

c. How to Motivate Subscriptions in the Group

Table 6

The Grapevine and La Viña in Pl and CPC

Moderator District 20

a. How to use journals in Pl and CPC

b. What other items are used

c. Magazines can pass on the message to the public

Table 7

Subscriptions

Moderator: Ursula District 20 La Viña Chair

a. How to Increase Subscriptions

b. List member subscription ideas

c. Gift subscriptions – Carry the Message project

Table 8

The importance of Workshops

Moderator: District 24

a. History of Writing Workshops

b. How to record my story

c. How to make the monthly magazine

4:00pm Closing… I Am Responsible

Grapevine and La Viña History

The AA Grapevine was created by six AA members in the New York Area: four women and two men. With the blessing of Bill W., co-founder of AA, they published the first issue in June 1944, just nine years after AA was founded. A copy of that first issue was sent to every AA group-about 300 at the time-and to every known AA member in the beloved forces overseas. An entire page with the heading “Correspondence for all AAs in the Armed Forces” was devoted to letters from these members, who began calling the Grape-vine their “Printed Meeting.” The title was kept, and today Grapevine La Viña has it on their covers

In July 1995 a special edition of the Grapevine appeared in Spanish with articles translated from the magazine in English. La Viña From July 1996 and bimonthly, La Viña began to be published. Although at first it was thought to be given the name “The Grape-vine”, it was decided that, since the magazine would have its own identity, it needed to have its own name. We chose the symbolic name of La Viña which describes the place where the grapes used to make wine grow, but where cooperation and work also produce healthy spiritual growth. At first, La Viña depended on translations of articles that appeared in the English edition, but thanks to the contributions of our readers, most of the manuscripts we publish are originals in Spanish.

La Viña has approximately 8,000 subscribers in some 34 countries. It reaches places where AA is quite recent, such as Cuba, and also in many prisons, where it keeps alive the hope of recovery among inmates or those deprived of their physical freedom. The future of our Spanish-language print meeting is in the hands of all Spanish-speaking recovering alcoholics. We need to increase our circulation to become self-sufficient and carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. At the same time, we must continue to nourish ourselves with the contributions of letters, recovery stories, articles, photographs, jokes, caricatures and drawings sent by our readers. We want La Viña to remain and bear fruit, becoming a lasting institution in Alcoholics Anonymous.