There appears to be far fewer female sponsors verses the male gender, and I present the below to encourage women who are fearful or reticent to sponsor (the most cited reason I've encountered).
Assuming you have been through all the other eleven steps and have had a spiritual awakening, I was taught from my own sponsor that you only need two things in order to sponsor:
A: the Big Book
and
B: your experience
That's it.
Very few people are without timidity about sponsoring for the first time. Those who did simply did so anyway (and because our text instructs us to do so).
While alcoholics are instructed to carry the message in Step 12, the term "sponsor" was not coined until after the Big Book's publication (although the term "sponsor" is used liberally throughout Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions). Not sponsoring can, in my opinion, put you at risk for an 11-Step program.
Active practice is how we learn everything. After all, that's why doctors "practice" medicine. Sponsors "practice" teaching the 12 Steps through the book and their own experience (the only thing we are experts on).
And, finally, we don't want to "have sponsees." We want to sponsor sponsors.
What does our literature say about this? Well, a lot. The Big Book is filled with statements about carrying the message, but the following is one of my favorites:
Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry A.A.'s message to the next sufferer? No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn't care for this prospect - unless he has to do these things on order to stay alive himself.
- p. 24,Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.
In sum, the program suggests that you to give away what was freely given to you - because the Twelfth Step is no less important than the eleven that come before it.
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