From Frank Amos and his report to John Rockefeller in 1937

Dr. Bob worked with thousands of drunks in Akron. But, after spending as much as 4 or 6 hours with them, many declined to “follow our path.” They were not “ready to go to any length” to get what we have.

Dr. Bob determined to become more efficient in the use of his time. With this in mind, he developed a checklist to quickly determine if a new pigeon was worth investing time in. Here is the where and the how we come to know of his checklist.

Early on, before the Big Book and the Twelve Steps, Rockefeller and his advisors were introduced to Bill W and heard the story of this new recovery process and movement. They were impressed enough to send one of the senior advisors, Frank Amos, to check it out. He met with the New York crowd and then went to Akron for a week to confirm the reality of this new sobriety society. He summarized the checklist that Dr. Bob and the others in Akron used to qualify a new pigeon.

Paraphrasing the report, he (Dr. Bob) had a checklist of seven items, five essential and two optional. If the pigeon did not commit and agree to all five essentials, Dr. Bob would politely decline to spend any more time with the fellow. He would wish the prospect well and move on. The optionals were, well, optional.

The five essentials were: (1), a complete admission that he was an alcoholic and could not drink again, (2) an obvious and heartfelt surrender to God, (3) a promise that he would work with others, carrying the message of sobriety and hope, (4) a promise of abandonment and cessation of all sinful activities, and (5) a commitment to daily meditation, a daily morning devotion and quiet time (my emphasis).

The two optionals: it would be nice if he attended the weekly meetings held at that time, and it would be nice if he went to church.

This explains why daily meditation is highlighted as being more important than going to meetings in both ‘Pass It On’ and ‘Dr. Bob And The Good Oldtimers.’ A commitment to daily meditation was one of the essentials required to qualify; meetings were optional.

Wow. In the old days, they challenged a newcomer to spend quiet time each day. And if the newcomer did not agree to a daily meditation practice, they moved on politely and firmly explaining that mediation was a requirement. They probably said something like, “if you want what we have, and are willing to go to any length to get it, then you are ready. But you are not, so keep drinking; you will become ready in due course.”

In those days, AAs would have been puzzled if you said, “90 in 90” (90 meetings in 90 days), or “meeting makers make it,” or “keep coming back.” Meetings were optional.

It was meditation that was required. Maybe, instead of our modern admonishments to newcomers, we could be saying, “90 meditations in 90 days,” or “meditators make it,” or “quiet timers quit.”