Conference Talks From 1951 Can Wait

Someone told you that you are behind, and the proof they offered was a book of talks you have never opened. The years on it, 1951 to 1970, sat there like a debt you were supposed to pay before you could walk into a room.

You are not behind. The book can stay closed tonight.

Talks, and a lot of pictures

B-70 is titled Our Great Responsibility. It is a selection of Bill W.'s General Service Conference talks from those years, and it includes over 60 black-and-white and color images. That is a book for a long season of reading, if you ever want the season. It is not an entrance requirement. You do not have to recognize a photograph. You do not have to know what was said in a given year. A meeting does not check your progress through somebody else's speeches.

If a person says the talks are what separate real members from visitors, hear the scare tactic and do not pick it up. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Conference-approved means the General Service Conference approved the material for publication by the General Service Office. The label does not disapprove of what that office does not publish. A.A. does not tell members what they may read. Approval of a book is not an order to finish it, and it is not a ruling that you are late if you have not opened it. You may read B-70 someday. You may also never finish it. Both are allowed. Tonight is smaller than the shelf.

You might feel foolish if someone in the room mentions a conference you have never heard of. You can let the reference go past. You do not have to ask what the book is out loud, and you do not have to pretend you have seen the pictures. Later is a fine time to be curious. Curiosity can wait until you have slept. The chair in front of you does not grade your reading list.

The room is not a conference from 1951

What happens in a meeting is people. Members share what drinking did, the actions they took to stop, and how they live now. When the format is a speaker, the speaker talks about what they were like, what happened, and what they are like now. That is a living person, not a recording of a General Service Conference. Some groups prefer a minimum period of continuous sobriety before someone speaks. The preference belongs to the group. There is no national number of days attached to it. You are not required to speak. Introducing yourself is not mandatory. You can listen from a chair and leave when the hour ends.

If the same person who mentioned B-70 also stacked other history books onto the guilt, the history shelf guide is where that pile is named. You do not owe that pile either. Use it when you want the stack identified in one place, not as homework before bed. Conference-approved literature explains the label when the label is what snagged you. The Big Book can wait on the same night these talks wait. It has been the basic text since 1939, and it can remain unread until you want it. What to expect is the hour itself. Beginner meetings are a place to land if a speaker night sounds like a class you failed to prepare for. You can just listen.

aa.org is not a meeting finder. Local lists carry that job. The meetings search is a start, and the listings are not verified, so confirm the time. In person, online, or by phone: choose the one you can reach without turning the errand into another unfinished book. How to find a meeting keeps the steps of the search in one place. There are no dues or fees. The seat does not require the book in your lap. If money and books get tangled later, books at cost is the page for that tangle. It is not due tonight.

A volume of old talks will not steady you if your body is in trouble. Call 911 if you are sick, confused, or cannot breathe. Call or text 988 if you are in a mental health crisis. NIDA says mutual-help groups such as A.A. are peer-led, not led by healthcare professionals, and not a substitute for treatment. The meeting is not detox. NIAAA says alcohol withdrawal can be life-threatening when a person who drinks heavily over time stops suddenly. FindTreatment.gov lists programs. SAMHSA's National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357), is free, confidential, and available 24/7 in English and Spanish. Withdrawal symptoms are worth reading if you are trying to tell nerves from something dangerous.

Tonight, go to a meeting and leave Our Great Responsibility where it is. You can be in the room with empty hands. The years 1951 to 1970 do not have to be in your head before you sit down.

Call (800) 653-9376 if you need treatment; the call is free to you, treatment providers pay for the referral, the line is not an intergroup, and the line is not A.A., and it is not SMART Recovery.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• A.A. literature catalog 2025
• A.A.: Conference-approved literature (SMF-29)
• A.A.: Information about meetings
• A.A.: The Twelve Traditions
• A.A.: The Big Book
• A.A.: Find A.A. near you
• SmarterRecovery meetings search
• SmarterRecovery about and referral line
• NIDA: Treatment
• NIAAA Core Resource on Alcohol
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
• SAMHSA National Helpline
• FindTreatment.gov

Common Questions