WEEK 21 �
TRADITIONS 6, 7 & 8
Tradition 1 explains the need for AA unity and that all the
Traditions work towards this end. Tradition 12 reminds us that they do so by
requiring us to take actions of humility and countering the defects of
character that reside in all of us. Traditions 6, 7 and 8 protect AA from our
greed and dishonesty. They concern money. The long forms of these Traditions
are very much more detailed than the forms on the scroll behind me and are
largely self-explanatory. So this week�s talk will involve less comment from
us, and more time spent listening to the Traditions themselves.
First [NAME] will read out the long form of Tradition 7 from the Big
Book� thankyou
This Tradition outlines the idea of corporate poverty. We try to
avoid accumulating money. Also, after the initial setting-up period, a group
declines outside contributions. In discussion of this many consider that it is
about the AA group aiming for an ideal of behaving responsibly. This is true to
a degree, but there are more immediate concerns. This tradition protects AA as
a whole from dishonest alcoholics. This tradition is the principle of autonomy
applied to finances. Wherever there is a pile of money, you can be sure that we
will quarrel about it and pretty soon an alcoholic somewhere will try to steal
it. Such disputes are likely to bring the group down, but as long as no group
is financially connected to any other, it cannot bring any other groups down
with it.
Similarly, if it is not receiving any outside funds, an AA group
cannot bring AA into dispute with any outside agencies, which might have been
cheated of their money. Occasionally, there are difficulties when a group fails
to pay the rent and comes to its local Intergroup for
help. On these occasions, the Intergroup might pitch
in and pay the outstanding amount, but only on the condition that the group is
closed down. This saves AA�s good name, but not the group that has failed to be
self-supporting. Also, if a group is not reliant for its money on any other
group, or any outside agencies, then it will not compromise its message in
order to try to please the outside donors. This helps to protect the integrity
of the AA message.
This question of preserving the integrity of the AA message is
important. Tradition 8 is designed to deal with this in particular. [NAME] will
read out the long form of the tradition �
Businesses are successful because they give people what they want.
As we know, what we want and what we need are not
always the same thing. If we were offering AA for money, the temptation to
adapt it so that it corresponds more to what people will pay for might be too
great for some of us to resist. Changing the message until it is palatable is
contrary to spirit of the chapter Working with Others, which
outlines our general approach: we lay the programme out on
the table and then sit back and let people decide if they want to pick it up or
not. If they don�t want it, we don�t change the programme,
we drop our prospect and switch our focus onto others that do.
If we wanted to sell AA to make money, we might be tempted to alter
a few things so that people were more inclined to do it. This Tradition does
not say there is anything wrong with people outside the context of an AA group
charging people for doing the programme. In fact AA has always aimed to
cooperate with everyone who treats alcoholics. It just says that if we do
charge, we shouldn�t call it AA. Also, AAs are as
entitled as anyone else to be professionals in alcohol treatment. If anyone pays
us for carrying the message, it does not affect the usefulness of the advice
given and so may help to keep the individual who receives the advice sober.
However, it will not help to keep the counsellor who gave the advice sober
because it does not represent 12th-step work. If we work professionally in
alcohol-related fields and want the benefits of the AA programme, we must do
12-step work that is freely given as well as our paid work.
Tradition 6 concerns a special case where we do need to accumulate
large sums of money. [NAME] will read this out from the Big Book�
This Tradition has much greater application in the US than the UK where they have AA clubhouses.
These are run by the city Intergroups and have
meetings round the clock as well as coffee bars and social rooms. They are
legally separated from AA, and are usually run as not-for-profit organisations
with a different name, for example, Alano Club, and
each AA group rents space from them in the usual way. This means that if they
go under, they don�t bring AA down with them.
That concludes the talk for this week. Now I hand over to [NAME] who
will share is experience, strength and hope that it may help the alcoholic who
still suffers, and so enabling us all to recover from our common problem.