{"product_id":"the-gift-of-the-exile-one-a-a-group-reclaimed-its-conscience-paperback-1","title":"The Gift of the Exile: One A.A. Group Reclaimed Its Conscience - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eBeach\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn September 2025, a majority vote separated an online A.A. community from the home group it had built over five years.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn March 2020, when the pandemic shut down a long-running A.A. group's meeting room, one member printed flyers and set up a phone-in meeting. Twenty people called in on St. Patrick's Day morning. They thought the arrangement would last a few weeks. It lasted five and a half years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen restrictions eased, some members returned to a new in-person location. Others kept meeting online every morning at 7:00. For four years, the two communities coexisted under a single umbrella, sharing a fragile sense that they were still one group.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn September 2025, the in-person members called a vote to separate. Four weeks' notice, no rationale. It passed by three votes. Fifty-four online members were left with a blank page.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcross eight Saturdays of formation meetings, those fifty-four built something none of them had belonged to before-the group they had been seeking all along. They wrote their membership statement word by word. They chose their name by ranked-choice vote. They sought the group's conscience through consensus rather than majority rule and read A.A.'s Traditions for their spirit rather than the letter. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe questions they worked through are not unique to A.A.: how we decide together, who belongs, what we owe each other. Any community that governs itself by shared principles will recognize the dynamics in these pages, whether a church, a nonprofit, a civic organization, or a recovery group.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Gift of the Exile is a case study in what happens when a community loses its conscience, and what it takes to rediscover it. Jim Beach, a founding member of the group that became Our Fellow Travelers, tells the story from the inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Gift of the Exile is the story of what they lost, what they reclaimed, and what any community can learn from how they did it\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 144\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.34 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 23, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48707224699129,"sku":"9798995860105","price":17.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/C_hjR1z4j39798995860105_2adda7a2-31fe-4fc8-8136-835d6ceefaa6.webp?v=1784891572","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/the-gift-of-the-exile-one-a-a-group-reclaimed-its-conscience-paperback-1","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}