Twelfth-Step work can easily become "scalp-hunting." How many people do we sponsor? Do we rush upon the newcomer at the end of the meeting, hoping that she will see us as the all-wise enabler of her recovery?

Obviously, Twelfth-Step work with newcomers is vital to Program -- if nobody sobers up, what happens to the Fellowship? But much Twelfth-Step work is carried on outside the limelight. Whenever one recovering member talks to another about Program, the message is carried once more.

Do we count our "success" in terms of sponsees, the meetings we lead to the accompaniment of plaudits, or the number of phone calls we receive each day? If we are tempted to think in terms of scalps, we can do no better than start sharing the message of Steps 10, 11 and 12. For this is a message few people want to hear, even in Program itself. However few takers we may have for the basic early Steps of Program, they will be a crowd compared to the people who respond to the simple spiritual message of the last three Steps.

Are we sharing only the basic message of recovery? Or are we also sharing the world of the Spirit that we have encountered after Step Nine -- however unpopular that message may be?