The 2014-2017 Al-Anon/Alateen Service Manual on page 111 states: “Whenever national publicity on Al-Anon/Alateen may be of interest to local groups, they are, if possible, notified in advance by the WSO.”

Please relay the following information to the members in your meeting.

The World Service Office has received a publication notice from the staff of the syndicated newspaper columnist, “Dear Abby.”  The column for Friday, September 22, 2017, will respond to a request for help from a woman who is troubled by her husband’s drinking behavior.

For various reasons, it is possible that individual newspapers might not carry the woman’s letter or Dear Abby’s recommendation for her to contact Al‑Anon.  The entire “Dear Abby” column, however, will appear on the internet September 22 at http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/.

In communities where editors choose to publish Al‑Anon information as part of the “Dear Abby” column, it would be appropriate and helpful for members to send thank-you notes to the newspapers.  Such expressions of appreciation might help editors choose to run more Al‑Anon and Alateen items in the future.  It is possible that thank-you notes sent to newspapers or “Dear Abby” might appear in print, so please ask to remain anonymous if you identify yourself as an Al-Anon member.

Since readers of national media items could very well contact the WSO for local meeting information, it is always important for groups to provide WSO with up-to-date group information about their meetings.

Thank you for offering help and hope to families and friends of alcoholics.