Tradition Seven

[bluidkiti]

AA Tradition Seven

"Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions."


SELF-SUPPORTING alcoholics? Who ever heard of such a thing? Yet we find that's what we have to be. This principle is telling evidence of the profound change that A.A. has wrought in all of us. Everybody knows that active alcoholics scream that they have no troubles money can't cure. Always, we've had our hands out. Time out of mind we've been dependent upon somebody, usually money-wise. When a society composed entirely of alcoholics says it's going to pay its bills, that's really news.

Probably no A.A. Tradition had the labor pains this one did. In early times, we were all broke. When you add to this the habitual supposition that people ought to give money to alcoholics trying to stay sober, it can be understood why we thought we deserved a pile of folding money. What great things A.A. would be able to do with it! But oddly enough, people who had money thought otherwise. They figured that it was high time we now--sober--paid our own way. So our Fellowship stayed poor because it had to.

There was another reason for our collective poverty. It was soon apparent that while alcoholics would spend lavishly on Twelfth Step cases, they had a terrific aversion to dropping money into a meeting-place hat for group purposes. We were astounded to find that we were as tight as the bark on a tree. So A.A., the movement, started and stayed broke, while its individual members waxed prosperous.

Alcoholics are certainly all-or-nothing people. Our reactions to money prove this. As A.A. emerged from its infancy into adolescence, we swung from the idea that we needed vast sums of money to the notion that A.A. shouldn't have any. On every lip were the words "You can't mix A.A. and money. We shall have to separate the spiritual from the material." We took this violent new tack because here and there members had tied to make money out of their A.A. connections, and we feared we'd be exploited. Now and then, grateful benefactors had endowed clubhouses, and as a result there was sometimes outside interference in our affairs. We had been presented with a hospital, and almost immediately the donor's son became its principal patient and would-be manager. One A.A. group was given five thousand dollars to do with what it would. The hassle over that chunk of money played havoc for years. Frightened by these complications, some groups refused to have a cent in their treasuries.

Despite these misgivings, we had to recognize the fact that A.A. had to function. Meeting places cost something. To save whole areas from turmoil, small offices had to be set up, telephones installed, and a few full-time secretaries hired. Over many protests, these things were accomplished. We saw that if they weren't, the man coming in the door couldn't get a break. These simple services would require small sums of money which we could and would pay ourselves. At last the pendulum stopped swinging and pointed straight at Tradition Seven as it reads today.

In this connection, Bill likes to tell the following pointed story. He explains that when Jack Alexander's Saturday Evening Post piece broke in 1941, thousands of frantic letters from distraught alcoholics and their families hit the Foundation* letterbox in New York. "Our office staff," Bill says, "consisted of two people: one devoted secretary and myself. How could this landslide of appeals be met? We'd have to have some more full-time help, that was sure. So we asked the A.A. groups for voluntary contributions. Would they send us a dollar a member a year? Otherwise this heartbreaking mail would have to go unanswered.

"To my surprise, the response of the groups was slow. I got mighty sore about it. Looking at this avalanche of mail one morning at the office, I paced up and down ranting how irresponsible and tightwad my fellow members were. Just then an old acquaintance stuck a tousled and aching head in the door. He was our prize slippee. I could see he had an awful hangover. Remembering some of my own, my heart filled with pit. I motioned him to my inside cubicle and produced a five-dollar bill. As my total income was thirty dollars a week at the time, this was a fairly large donation. Lois really needed the money for groceries, but that didn't stop me. The intense relief on my friend's face warmed my heart. I felt especially virtuous as I thought of all the ex-drunks who wouldn't even send the Foundation a dollar apiece, and here I was gladly making a five-dollar investment to fix a hangover.

"The meeting that night was at New York's old 24th Street Clubhouse. During the intermission, the treasurer gave a timid talk on how broke the club was. (That was in the period when you couldn't mix money and A.A.) But finally he said it--the landlord would put us out if we didn't pay up. He concluded his remarks by saying, "Now boys, please go heavier on the hat tonight, will you?"

"I heard all this quite plainly, as I was piously trying to convert a newcomer who sat next to me. The hat came in my direction, and I reached into my pocket. Still working on my prospect, I fumbled and came up with a fifty-cent piece. Somehow it looked like a very big coin. Hastily, I dropped it back and fished out a dime, which clinked thinly as I dropped it in the hat. Hats never got folding money in those days.

"Then I woke up. I who had boasted my generosity that morning was treating my own club worse than the distant alcoholics who had forgotten to send the Foundation their dollars. I realized that my five-dollar gift to the slippee was an ego-feeding proposition, bad for him and bad for me. There was a place in A.A. where spirituality and money would mix, and that was in the hat!"

There is another story about money. One night in 1948, the trustees of the Foundation were having their quarterly meeting. The agenda discussion included a very important question. A certain lady had died. When her will was read, it was discovered she had left Alcoholics Anonymous in trust with the Alcoholic Foundation a sum of ten thousand dollars. The question was: Should A.A. take the gift?

What a debate we had on that one! The Foundation was really hard up just then; the groups weren't sending in enough for the support of the office; we had been tossing in all the book income and even that hadn't been enough. The reserve was melting like snow in springtime. We needed that ten thousand dollars. "Maybe," some said, "the groups will never fully support the office. We can't let it shut down; it's far too vital. Yes, let's take the money. Let's take all such donations in the future. We're going to need them."

Then came the opposition. They pointed out that the Foundation board already knew of a total of half a million dollars set aside for A.A. in the wills of people still alive. Heaven only knew how much there was we hadn't heard about. If outside donations weren't declined, absolutely cut off, then the Foundation would one day become rich. Moreover, at the slightest intimation to the general public from our trustees that we needed money, we could become immensely rich. Compared to this prospect, the ten thousand dollars under consideration wasn't much, but like the alcoholic's first drink it would, if taken, inevitably set up a disastrous chain reaction. Where would that land us? Whoever pays the piper is apt to call the tune, and if the A.A. Foundation obtained money from outside sources, its trustees might be tempted to run things without reference to the wishes of A.A. as a while. Relieved of responsibility, every alcoholic would shrug and say, "Oh, the Foundation is wealthy--why should I bother?" The pressure of that fat treasury would surely tempt the board to invent all kinds of schemes to do good with such funds, and so divert A.A. from its primary purpose. The moment that happened, our Fellowship's confidence would be shaken. The board would be isolated, and would fall under heavy attack of criticism from both A.A. and the public. These were the possibilities, pro and con.

Then our trustees wrote a bright page of A.A. history. They declared for the principle that A.A. must always stay poor. Bare running expenses plus a prudent reserve would henceforth be the Foundation's financial policy. Difficult as it was, they officially declined that ten thousand dollars, and adopted a formal, airtight resolution that all such future gifts would be similarly declined. At that moment, we believe, the principle of corporate poverty was firmly and finally embedded in A.A. tradition.

When these facts were printed, there was a profound reaction. To people familiar with endless drives for charitable funds, A.A. presented a strange and refreshing spectacle. Approving editorials here and abroad generated a wave of confidence in the integrity of Alcoholics Anonymous. They pointed out that the irresponsible had become responsible, and that by making financial independence part of its tradition, Alcoholics Anonymous had revived an ideal that its era had almost forgotten. * In 1954, the name of the Alcoholic Foundation, Inc., was changed to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., and the Foundation office is now the General Service Office.

[bluidkiti]

NA TRADITION SEVEN

"Every NA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions."

Our program is grounded in spiritual principles. To drift away from the honest caring and sharing of our tremendous growth period is to betray the spirit of NA. After all, it is the promise of freedom from active addiction that attracted addicts to our program in the first place. The vast number of incoming members assures us that our members who know about recovery and principled living will be outnumbered. It takes principles and courage to interact with the newcomers and help them keep pace with the demands placed upon them. Yeah, we know this is a big job and we run a severe risk of developing teams of followers, but we just have to pray and do the best we can. Our need from prayer and meditation is greater when we have the support of a great number of people - because they may, on occasion, be wrong! Listening to the inner voice may be our only chance. This doesn't mean we act against the majority, we just bring our higher power into the picture. If our inner voice says something worth hearing, it should be interesting to others.

To let our focus drift into fundraising and excessive markup of our literature and justify it in the name of helping others fools no one. We are not a business. We are a spiritual Fellowship. In those instances where we must collect or disburse funds, we have to minimize the cost to the Fellowship.

Our service bodies are nothing more than holding companies for what we have given. It is hard in some of the committees to remember that while the illusion of power can come with a title, service positions are nothing except opportunities to help those who may otherwise die or suffer needlessly. It is easy to see ourselves as more than we are because of this. Nevertheless, we surrender and pray for a loving God to help us remember our contribution to what we have been given only allows us to increase ourselves by more giving. This is how we fill the hole in the gut.

The Seventh Tradition speaks about being fully self-supporting. In this Tradition, fully means completely. We decline all outside contributions. If we compromise this principle, we open the doors to outside influences. Many places would like to give us free meeting rooms. We insist on paying rent. This helps to insure our autonomous groups. We also refuse donations of money, materials and services from outside our Fellowship. We send back the money with a note of thanks and a polite explanation. We cannot afford to be obligated or to even feel obligated. Our sense of obligation may effect our actions and decisions as groups.

We also need to look at the less obvious effects of this Tradition on NA as a whole. If our service boards and committees become dependent on sales of NA materials to outside enterprises for income, how does this affect our motivations and the development of NA materials? Our Fifth and Sixth Traditions become interrelated here. Our primary group purpose comes first. These are issues we have faced in the past and continue to face today.

In our addiction, we were never able to be self-supporting. We were always dependent on others. That is why it is so important for us to be self-supporting in our recovery. By being completely self-supporting we owe nothing to anyone other than our group and the fellowship, no one can say you owe me. We begin to stand on our own two feet and we take pride in our independence.

We just experience the concept of responsibility through our group. Our group teaches us that we need to take care of our own. We refuse money or anything else from outside of NA. Our members donate at the group level. The group, in respect to the fund flow and their autonomy has the choice to donate to the area, or to provide services to the addict who suffers. If a group decides to follow the fund flow, they may donate their excess money to the area. If they choose to surrender to the fifth tradition, they may make books free to newcomers or various other things to carry a message. Addicts can choose to donate in their home group or in many groups. Many addicts get confused and believe the seventh tradition applies to service boards or committees. Service boards or committees are not NA thus the seventh tradition does not apply. Donating in a committee does not carry our message, it funds the service board. The service board is not a business and is not self-supporting. Groups are self-supporting and money after bills goes to support the service effort. We may on occasion throw a fund-raiser to meet additional needs if they occur. Service boards and committees carry our group conscience with money from the groups. As we begin to respect our seventh tradition and begin to make healthy decisions in our lives and be self-supporting members of society.

As addicts, we have always been dependent on others - either our families, spouses or social agencies. We have never felt secure enough in ourselves to stand on our own two feet. Dependency has become a way of life. In order to begin to recover we must break that chain and a way to begin is by contributing our fair share to our NA group. In doing this, we become responsible for our own recovery.

Much of recovery has to do with awakening to the interrelationships that were invisible to us in active addiction or early recovery. We demand respect when someone intrudes on us yet express amazement when others accuse us of intruding on them. The Seventh Tradition helps us maintain some separation from other groups and purposes to preserve our focus on recovery. In gratitude, we seek strength and guidance to carry on in the Spirit of NA in many ways. Direct contact with addicts who are learning to live clean places special demands on us to keep faith with the confidence and trust they place in us. This requires distance and seperation from groups and the purposes those organizations would have. We dare not alter our identification as addicts recovering in Narcotics Anonymous. Other purposes would creep in and while most would seem to have little impact, they would accumulate until we were applying for funds and preoccupied with the concerns of bureaucracy rather than meeting the service needs of groups..

Getting our support from our members gives us a solid base in recovery. We have no other goals to take into account or people whose aims we must satisfy. Our sincerity protects us when things could go wrong.

An addict shares, "Giving of 'myself' is a new concept in my life. In the past, I would always try to buy your attention, friendship, etc. The self support that this tradition talks about has a lot more to do with home group members giving of themselves in service than it has to do with the money we put in the basket. The commitment of sharing 'myself,' 'my being' with you is one of the most effective antidotes to self-centeredness and egocentricity that I have found.

"I have had confused feelings when it comes to giving. Am I giving enough? I would spend much more than this if I were using. Should I make up the difference when I think the basket is short? After all this fellowship has given me so much and I contribute so little. The amount must be an individual decision. Contribution through service and monetary means are necessary for our fellowship to survive. Once I decided on an amount and made a commitment to it I try to donate it regularly not just here and there. Part of the change for me is consistency and willingness to stay consistent."

It would be easy for us to accept free rent from centers that would like to promote themselves as having our services available to their clients. We must not allow this so as not to become dependent upon them for meeting halls and to allow them to possibly bend our message to better suit their needs. They would commit our services to their clients and that would be a lie. We in NA respect the treatment community and want the respect from them needed for us to function. Our spiritual integrity is at stake here.

[MajestyJo]

Tradition Seven: Every A.A. group ought to be fully
self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

Alcoholics are certainly all-or-nothing people. Our
reactions to money prove this. As A.A. emerged from
its infancy into adolescence, we swung from the idea
that we needed vast sums of money to the notion that
A.A. shouldn’t have any. On every lip were the words
“You can’t mix A.A. and money. We shall have to separate
the spiritual from the material.” We took this violent new
tack because here and there members had tried to make
money out of their A.A. connections, and we feared we’d
be exploited. Now and then, grateful benefactors had
endowed clubhouses, and as a result there was sometimes
outside interference in our affairs. We had been presented
with a hospital, and almost immediately the donor’s son
became its principal patient and would-be manager. One
A.A. group was given five thousand dollars to do with
what it would. The hassle over that chunk of money played
havoc for years. Frightened by these complications, some
groups refused to have a cent in their treasuries.

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 161

It was so important for me to take the traditions and recognize them for tools to be applied to my daily life, not just my home group. It wasn't always about money, it was about giving time and energy as well. I was told not to give away anymore than I could afford and not to take without giving back.

This tradition is the one that made me realize that the traditions were not just for the groups but for daily living in my own home. It didn't matter that I had less money than others, it was about being self-supporting with what I did have and finding acceptance of where I was at.

There use to be so much money left and so little money. The sign of progress is having money the day before payday for me. Being able to play bridge when I want to. One of my partners asked me about playing in the Hamilton Bridge Tournament next month. I said, "I am not sure I can afford to go, but check into when you want to schedule a game and I'll see. He said, "I don't mind paying your way." I said, "Well if you want to play more than one game, I will pay for one, you can pay for the other." I would really like to go. The last time I played my partner and I came first in our division. We only played on a Saturday afternoon and there were games Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The old me would have wanted to play every session and been in there like a dirty shirt. I would have borrowed the money if need be to be there. Today I can look at things with a more realistic outlook and accept what is. I am so grateful for the gifts of this program.

A post I made in 2009

[MajestyJo]

Received the following from an AA group which they used for a Group Inventory:

Tradition Seven: Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

1.Honestly now, do I do all I can to help AA (my group, my central office, my GSO) remain self-supporting? Could I put a little more into the basket on behalf of the new guy who can't afford it yet? How generous was I when tanked in a barroom?
2. Should the Grapevine sell advertising space to book publishers and drug companies, so it could make a big profit and become a bigger magazine, in full color, at a cheaper price per copy?
3. If GSO runs short of funds some year, wouldn't it be okay to let the government subsidize AA groups in hospitals and prisons?
4. It is more important to get a big AA collection from a few people, or a smaller collection in which more members participate.
5. Is a group treasurer's report unimportant AA business? How does the treasurer feel about it?
6. How important in my recovery is the feeling of self-respect, rather than the feeling of being always under obligation for charity received?

From AA Grapevine

Many times I need to look at my own finances, and I need to look at what kind of spending I have been doing that got me to where I am at. Do I need to cut corners? Have I been robbing Peter to pay Paul? Have I been short changing myself? Have I been allowing myself a little treat on pay day? Have I been frugal? Have I been a spend thrift? All questions we can ask ourselves. Have we shared with others? Have we been miserly? Has our motto been, "Charity begins at home!