WHAT I LEARNED: 1. Ever since this pamphlet first came out in 1970, its original subtitle was: “from the Other Side of the Family” but around 2010, it was updated to be: “Alcoholics Speak to the Family.”  The image of this “white-circle” design pamphlet with this new subtitle is one of the rarest & hardest for me to find of all the pamphlets because shortly after the subtitle was switched, the pamphlet was redesigned!  See below for the new image.

2. So far on this “reading” journey it marks the second appearance of Bill Wilson’s contribution to our pamphlets.  It starts with a small excerpt from his talk at the first Al-Anon trial conference in 1961.  The other main sections are from a 1969 article from AA’s journal “The Grapevine,” & “An Open Letter to My Family” (based on material which appears in the pamphlet: “A Guide for the Family of the Alcoholic” (item # P-7)).

3. After reading “The Grapevine” article, I now know not to try doing Al-Anon 12th Step work with the alcoholic.   …That must explain why it’s the only Step that is different from AA’s.   It’s their responsibility to “carry this message to alcoholics,” & it’s ours to carry it “to others.”

4. Here’s the new re-designed look below:

━━━━━▼━━━━━

**BONUS: Another related pamphlet to check out is: “The Al-Anon Focus” (item # P-45) which includes sharings from alcoholics that are also Al-Anon members.