Dick B.s son Ken talks about the new book he and his dad released this month, Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous: Gods Role in Recovery Confirmed! (December 2012). When Bill W. and Dr. Bob met in Akron, Ohio, on May 12, 1935 (Mothers Day), both were members of a group named "A First Century Christian Fellowship" (also known as the Oxford Group). Bill and Bob developed a program of recovery over the summer of 1935 which John D. Rockefellers agent Frank Amos summarized in seven points in February 1938. (See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 131.) As Dr. Bob said in his last major talk: "In early A.A. days, . . . we were convinced that the answer to our problems was in the Good Book." (See The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biograhical Sketches: Their Last Major Talks, Item # P-53, page 13.) After Bill and Bob "counted the noses" of those who had recovered as of November 1937, Bill was commissioned to write a book that would present the highly-successful, original Akron A.A. "Christian fellowship" program. (See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 123 and 118.) Bill W., however, wrote what he called "the new version of the program, now the Twelve Steps." (See Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 162.) Bills statement at the Rockefeller Dinner on February 8, 1940, that A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among "seemingly-hopeless," "medically-incurable" alcoholics who thoroughly followed their path is mainly speaking about the original Akron program, as the Big Book had only been published April 10, 1939. When Clarence S. founded the A.A. group in Cleveland, which had a documented 93% success rate without relapse(!), he had done it with "by keeping most of the old program, including the Bible and the Four Absolutes." (See Mitchell K., How It Worked, 108.) Our new book talks about success
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