The 90/10 Program: AA Speaker - Tom I. - Muscatine, IL

Tom I. from Southern Pines, NC speaking on the topic of "Working with others" at Melon City Roundup in Muscatine, IL - September 28th 2001

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Tom delivers a wise, funny, and deeply spiritual talk on working with others, grounding everything in his belief that alcoholism is a killer illness and that the only real protection we have is service—what he calls AA’s “90/10 program,” where recovery is 10% gimme and 90% give (to the fellowship of AA). With stories ranging from suicidal newcomers to tuxedo-clad doctors, burned mattresses, police calls, and miracles born from simple willingness, Tom showed that helping others isn’t about expertise—it’s about love, action, and walking “with” people, not on them. He tied this to AA’s early history, reminding listeners that the fellowship was built by drunks who carried the message house to house, long before treatment centers or court mandates. He warned that attitudes, complacency, and detachment can quietly erode AA’s spirit and that unity, responsibility, and engagement with families and the community matter as much as step work. Above all, Tom emphasized that we need the newcomer as much as they need us, and that giving ourselves away—living that 90/10—creates the new and wonderful world AA promises.

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu