What Happens After I Become A Sponsor Or Get A Sponsor?

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WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I BECOME OR GET A SPONSOR? Both people find a mutually agreeable time and place to meet regularly. Sponsee and sponsor decide what program principles they will work on and how they plan to accomplish their goals.Members continue attending 12Step group meetings. Meetings are an equally important part of the program.Occasionally both people need to evaluate their sponsorship relationship.It is important to establish at the beginning of the relationship that either person can end the sponsorship relationship at anytime.Termination happens when the work together may be completed, when either person may see that the sponsorship relationship has gone as far as it can or when either is unable to continue the sponsorship relationship. Both people end their sponsorship relationship by sharing their closure together.GUIDEFORLIVING12-Step Program SPONSORSHIP Recovery is not a solitary journey.Even if you could do it alone,you don't deserve to do it alone.GOD grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change,COURAGE to change the things I can,and WISDOM to know the difference.Guide For Living Home Office P.O. Box 1204Fort Colllins, CO 80522www.GuideForLiving.org1/2004
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Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.PURPOSE:•study and listen to each other•learn and discuss the steps•make suggestions on how to use the 12-step program•share personal 12-step experience•encourage accountability•develop trust, honesty•break the don't talk rule•develop commitment Tradition 5: Each Guide For Living group has but one purpose; to help others help themselves. (We do this by practicing the 12 Steps ourselves, by encouraging and understanding our fellow members, welcoming and giving comfort to new members.)DEFINITION:Sponsorship is generally a relationship between two people of the same sex, who meet on a regular basis, where both continue to attend GROUP SPONSORSHIP: May be both exes, may focus on a topic, workbook, tapes, videos, pamphlets,etc. to study and work their programs together.We can become helpers, as well as the helped;givers, as well as takers.CHARACTERISTICS TO LOOK FOR INA SPONSOR:Someone who has skills I don't have.Someone who has something I want.Someone who has wisdom to share from their life experience.Someone who knows that this is not"a quick fix".Tradition 8: Guide for Living's Twelve Step work should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.WHY BECOME A SPONSOR?We learn in the program that youdon't get to keep your 12-step knowledge and skills unless you practice them and share them with others by giving them away. Many members decide they are not ready for the program until someone shows them the way.Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other people and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.a 12-step meeting on a regular basis.In a group sponsorship, several people gather to work the steps together,possibly through a book study,outside the regular group meetings.Tradition 12: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles above personality.Anonymity: Everything that is said in a meeting or member-to-member, is left there; not repeated, even if a member leaves the group.TYPES OF SPONSORS:TEMPORARY SPONSOR: (For newcomers) Short term or agreed upon time (maybe 4-6 weeks), gives the sponsee time to find a regular sponsor or to agree to continue in this relationship.REGULAR SPONSOR: An ongoing relationship. The sponsor is someone who is a seasoned member, someone with 12-step skills, "someone who has some thing I want."COSPONSOR: Both people are at a similar development in their program.They agree to mutually help each other work the steps.