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Source: 1955 St. Louis International Convention – 1955 St Louis Money and its Proper Place in AA Jonas A.,Tom.mp3 File: 1955-st-louis-international-convention-1955-st-louis-money-and-its-proper-place-in-aa-jonas-atom.mp3 Duration: 01:10:21
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I think it would be nice to have a moment of silence. Thank you. Now there are a few announcements. I forgot them at the AA meeting this morning and had to tag them all at the end, so we'll get them in their proper place this time. If there are any members of the press covering this meeting, we ask that you please observe the anonymity of our AA speakers and do not print their names. The opinions expressed here this afternoon are, of course, the individual opinion and do not represent AA as a whole.
The third legacy button, this little round button worn by some of our members, is the button worn by members of the General Service Conference, and they would be happy to ask any questions that you might have about the conference. Luncheons and dinners are served in the cafeterias downstairs, and they are hot and moderately priced, and the snack bars, I'm sure you've seen them all around the Palomar, have hot dogs and sandwiches and cold drinks and coffee.
Tape recordings are being made of all our meetings. Frankly, I'd like to say just a little word because we have had so many, many requests since last night and this morning about these tapes, and we really don't know the price yet. When we found that it was impossible to make arrangements to let individual AA members who had asked us to come in and use their own tape recorder, we decided that we would have to have all of the meetings recorded on a tape, not records, but on the tape, and we would see what could be done to make them available.
It will depend upon the demand and whether one session is needed more than another. Now we've had requests just for individual talks, and frankly, we don't know, but when we finish the conference tomorrow, we'll take all of the names and addresses and the requests and look them over and see if we can't find out just what will be available, and a bulletin will be sent out to the groups and to all members who left their names.
So if you are interested in either a special speaker, a special talk, that is, or in a panel or one of the big meetings, will you go to Committee Room B, the convention headquarters, and leave your name and address and the name of whatever it is that you're interested in? I thought I'd give that little word of explanation because the girls have just been swamped at the desk over there repeating this over and over again because so many people have been interested in finding out if they could get what they wanted.
There will be a little break at the end of this meeting, three or four minutes, to give the people who want to go on to one of the other meetings and catch the end of it a chance to get out, and then we can have a good question and answer period without any commotion. It's very gratifying to see so many people here at this workshop, which is titled Money, and it's placed in AA. I think it's marvelous. I know our speakers all have something very interesting and an experience, an actual experience to share with you.
So without further ado, I'm going to turn this meeting over to your chairman, an old and dear AA friend of mine, Jonas Anderson of Brooklyn, New York. Good afternoon, folks. My name is Jonas Anderson. I'm a member of the Brooklyn Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, and I am an alcoholic. I'm supposed to be chairing this meeting this afternoon, and I happened to be talking to a clergyman about seven or eight years ago as to why we didn't need money in AA, and here I am discussing money and its place in AA.
Well, the only group that I can talk about is the Brooklyn Group, and that's relative to not taking anyone else's inventory. Take your own. So I'm going to tell you about money and its place in AA as far as the Brooklyn Group is concerned.
[00:05:01]
We have an overhead of about $82 a week in the Brooklyn Group. We meet at the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn on Wednesdays, where we have a closed meeting, and on Fridays, where we have an open meeting. And this, the end of November, we will have been there 12 years, much to their surprise, and we're very happy about it. When we went there, I had to personally guarantee the damage. The fellow said, well, suppose you damage something.
Well, I said, we won't damage anything, but suppose we do. How much will it cost before you can get your detectives up? And he said $100. So I said, well, all right, I'll guarantee that. Well, I told you that our weekly amount was about $82 a week. We pay $60 a week rent. Some people say it's large. It is large. However, we collected, we have been collecting it ever since we started in the St. George Hotel. The rent wasn't quite as high when we started.
And we have an unwritten rule that nobody may contribute more than a dollar at a meeting. And the reason for that is that somebody next to you might be able to put in 10 cents, and we don't want to embarrass anyone. If it ever comes to the point that we need money, we can get it, but fortunately, we've never needed it. So the other $22 we contribute, we buy our literature first and give that away free.
Secondly, we contribute $360 a year to the Intergroup Association of New York. The Intergroup Association of New York handles all the telephone calls. They may be inquiries. They may be concerning hospitalizations. And I know that's a controversial subject, and we have no opinion on any controversial subject, nor do we oppose one. So I'm going to let that one lay right there. They also do an awful lot of good work in helping other people, and I don't know whether I'll have time enough to tell you about that.
But I'm going to give you the factual things first, and if I have any time, I'll knit and crochet for you. As a matter of fact, we're going to be signed off at about 14 minutes. I think we get the first yellow buzzer at 13 minutes and the red one at 14. The meetings in the last, I think as Lib might have told you, an hour and a quarter, an hour and 20 minutes, and the rest is going to be open to questions.
They may be orally, or if you wish to write one out, write one up and either bring it up yourself or have it sent up. We'll endeavor to answer it. We also have been contributing recently $360 a year to the foundation. Now the foundation is, whether most of you know it, if you don't know it, is to reach the alcoholics all over the world and help people get dry. I am of the opinion that the only debt that I ever incurred when I came into AA was to repay in kind, and that was to help the other sick alcoholic recover if he or she wished to.
So that is our $82 a week, and as I said before, we collect it, we have no trouble about it, and now I don't know how much time I've got, Lib. Five more minutes. All right, I've got five minutes. I didn't know I could talk that long. I have a group that does a tremendous service. We have two fully paid workers up there, and we have one gal that's on a half-time basis, a typist and a filer. We have three volunteers every day excepting Saturday and Sunday, gals, that work from 10 to 5, and then from 5 to 8 is covered by volunteers in various groups.
[00:10:06]
And I think we have about 160 groups in the metropolitan New York area that have the right to go to the intergroup for services. To be hospitalized, you must clear through the intergroup. And we have two hospitals, the Knickerbocker Hospital, of which you always hear a lot about, and we have St. John's Hospital in Brooklyn, which you never hear anything about. And rarely do you hear anything about 182 Clinton Street, but Bill, I guess, has had to get on it, and you heard a little about it last night.
And that runs on the same basis as Knickerbocker. The doctors handle the medical end, the AA has handled the AA end of it. So far it's worked pretty well. We have Towns Hospital in New York that doesn't necessarily have to be cleared through the intergroup association, although the AA ward has to be cleared through that. Then we have various rest homes up there, and they too are controversial, and I've told you my opinion, it's a controversial subject.
That about wraps up quickly the intergroup association of New York. And the foundation, as you know, I think does a tremendous amount of work. It's a clearinghouse, in my opinion, for AAs all over the world. Now as far as the Brooklyn group is concerned, we might go to them for advice. We buy our literature direct. We do not buy our literature through the intergroup association in New York. We buy it direct.
Some other towns buy theirs through their intergroup association. AA is different all over the world, and all over this country and Canada. So all we do is ask the foundation for opinion. We run our group on as simple a basis as we possibly can, and run it ourselves. Nobody can tell us what to do, and if you ever tell an alcoholic what he or she has to do, brother, you are in for a hell of a time. I think that will be deleted if this is going to be recorded, but that's neither here nor there.
So that about wraps me up, Lib, and the next gentleman on this panel is Tom Sharp from Jacksonville, Florida, and he tells me it's the Jacksonville group, and Tom, you're on. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tom Sharp, and I'm from the central group of Jacksonville, Florida. I suppose that is what is known as the grassroots group among people from the metropolitan areas, and I like to be from that type of group and that type of community.
We're an old group in AA. We do get an influx of people from these metropolitan areas in our community now. In fact, some of the restaurants are featuring grits, kosher style. The thoughts I express, of course, are my own, but since being given this assignment, I have in my travel, and I do travel, tried to survey and get the opinions of alcoholics, anonymous members, both old and new in my area, and while talking about my area, I can talk with a great deal of pleasure because over the years, we have contributed well to the cause, I think, well above the average, and I find most of the groups by voluntary contribution, while not rich, are on a pretty well financially sound basis.
I think we should look at this subject from two angles. First, as it pertains to the support of our local groups, and secondly, as it pertains to the support of the general service office. And the support of the local groups in the old days, In the old days, our problems were small and few. We met in homes, word came by visitation, hand-of-mouth, and from contact with what in those days was the central office.
[00:15:15]
But as we grew, our needs became greater, and while still not extravagant, they are a great deal more than they were. We had to have larger meeting halls, which we had to pay for. Being alcoholics, we had to have a little finer and softer furniture, which we either had to rent or buy. We had to serve refreshments, and we had to get literature to carry the message and embed it to those who were trying to get along.
So in those days, it was a moral obligation of those that could to drop a dollar in the hat. And it wasn't a dime, we scraped the barrel and we usually got the dollar, and we paid our way. But I think in our anxiety to interest new people into this movement, we have minimized that part of our obligation, and we have stretched this no fees, no dues business to where sometimes it's even gotten us into the hole.
I think it would be better, in our expression of those thoughts, if we said no set dues or no set fees, that you could and were expected to give when and as you could, we would probably be a little better. I think one of the strongest traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous, both within our organization and people from the outside, is our ability and even our desire to pay our own way. God grants that that continues. What does it cost to belong to Alcoholics Anonymous? We all get asked that. The answer is it doesn't cost a penny. But still we have that obligation after we gain and maintain our sobriety and our place back in society to carry on.
Where that line has been shaded, I found generally it's because of the ambition of some particular group to do things in a big way and not be able to meet those obligations from within their own organization. So they go out and they do some little thing that may hinge on getting outside assistance. In my observation, those cases have been far and few. And I think today the general trend is even more so in the right direction. Because I know in my area the groups are getting on a more solid basis of what they can afford and what they can pay for from within their own rights. And I think that is as it should be.
On that phase of it, I think that still passing the hat will take care of things at the local level, provided we let the newcomer know and remind the old man and woman of their particular obligation to his group and his society. Secondly, on support of the general service office. Why are the services needed? Well, you don't have to do any more than walk down the hall and take a few minutes to scan each side and you'll find out. That's the best answer I know right there.
Most of us, we got started, at least back in the old days, from what we are asked to contribute to. That is, the news and the inspiration and the help that we got from the old central office, which is now the general service office. You ask a mayor and a loaner what he thinks of the value received from the money we spend, and I think you'll find out that your dollars go for a good cause. We still get that service, and we get it in greater quantities and greater bodies than we ever have. That money's not wasted.
Ask the men and women that wear the little badge that have been there, some of you who have been to New York and seen the activities in the general service office.
[00:20:09]
It's great. I don't know how they get the work done that they do, because they're always being pestered by us grunts wanting to know something bad and we're there, but they get the work done and it's done well. These activities, of course, are supported by voluntary contributions. I think, while the first we can do by passing the hat, I firmly believe that the second phase, that is, the support of the general service office, that we have to have in the groups and among the individuals some rather definite plan.
I know in my observation and working with civic organizations and benevolent organizations of various kinds, they all have a plan. Now, this afternoon, I'm sure you're going to hear one offered to you very definitely. There are others. One is to buy regular payments from the group treasury. I find in some groups that that works very well, just like to pay the rent or the lights or so forth. They've got a certain amount assigned in a budget to send to New York regularly to help with the expenses of the general service economy.
Another plan, and a plan that has worked in my particular group and has worked successfully, is we appoint a representative for that particular group. And he, the one we have now and has been for several years, is a darn good collector. And he stays after them and he gets the money that's necessary to send to New York. It's all voluntary, but you kind of have to push them, you know, occasionally to get that voluntary point across.
They don't just throw it out. You know how it is, boys. I think one thing, if we think of this helping the general service office in the terms of rather than support of that office, in the terms of helping the alcoholic that needs help and getting information to the millions that don't know, then I don't believe we would have much trouble. So if there's any one thought I would like to leave, let's forget this support of the general service office and let's say my $2 goes to helping an alcoholic or to seeing that some alcoholic that yet doesn't know is going to get the same information that was given to me.
I'm sure that as this conference works, as committee members are appointed, as this literature goes out, and word gets out as to the benefit and the influence of the general service office, that the load of getting the necessary funds to carry that organization will be greatly lessened. I think it's largely through ignorance of the average member that we haven't contributed, and at one time we actually went in debt, badly in debt.
I wouldn't say ignorance, but I would say education. And as these things go on, I'm sure that such people as you who are interested in this matter will carry this word and that the load will be lightened for those who have been carrying it. So I think I charge a responsibility of both phases, the first and the second, exactly where it belongs, and that's on the old timer. Now I know you hear this in groups, and I do, that the new ones don't contribute.
But that's our responsibility. We haven't told them of their responsibility right. And if we do, we'll get it. We're extroverts. Everybody wants to pay. Come over here in a cab, and everybody throws out a dollar bill, and they let me pay it away. And they got green to pay for it. If you pass a basket in there, what do you come up with? One quarter and about four thin dimes. That's right. So this meeting will pass the responsibility from Bill to us, where it belongs.
Let's accept that responsibility and accept it wholeheartedly. But only in the giving ourselves are we going to receive the full and rich rewards which we seek, and which most of us have attained at least to some degree. Thank you. Thank you, Tom.
[00:25:00]
Now our next speaker is a gentleman from Oklahoma, Ab Abshire of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hi, folks. My name is Ab Abshire, and I'm an alcoholic. I came up here last Tuesday, and it reminded me of my last trip to the Jefferson Hotel about 12 years ago. I remember when I got off the plane, and I remember when I got to the hotel and registered and got in. And I remember going down to the cocktail room and getting started, and then I went over to the other room where the orchestra was playing, and I decided to take the orchestra leader's place.
He said, Now Ab, you go back to your seat. I'll run my business. You run yours. How little did I think. Where I was going. And that I would be here today. Yes, we were called in here to talk about money. You've heard two versions. We think in Oklahoma that we have found something sort of new, but something that we want to give you the benefit of our experience. You can take it or leave it. It's working for Oklahoma.
How many from Oklahoma are here? Pretty good gang. On the 27th day of February 1954, a member of the Oklahoma City group gave me an idea. He is in the audience today. And he said to me, Ab, why in the hell don't we start birthday, voluntary birthday, contributions to the general service headquarters and put in a dollar a year for the years from our first contact in AAF to $10. I said, Have you talked to anybody else about this?
And he said, No, I wanted to talk to you first. I didn't, I couldn't analyze it. I didn't say anything about it at our state meeting. But on the way home I talked to two active alcoholics and they didn't think much of it. But I wasn't satisfied to stop there, so I went out to some old timers, the folks that have passed through. And I talked, picked out several of them. And as I talked to them and explained my version of this voluntary birthday contribution to the general service headquarters, they all thought it was a fine idea.
And after I talked to three or four of them, I called the boys at Oklahoma City and I said, Boys, I think old Ted's got something. Go out and try it out. And I gave them my experience of starting it out. Well, they started out and we talked and talked and talked. And the farther we went, the more inspiration we received. So before I get too long, I was fortunate enough to be the representative of the New York Conference in 1953 and 54.
I made several observations up there. And I found lots and lots of information in this old handbook that comes to every group in the country. Only a few look to see what is in there. These gals and boys at the general service headquarters spent a lot of time accumulating this information for us, and we haven't been paying much attention to it. I found that the general service headquarters was very efficient, but they were worried about money all the time.
They worried from January the 1st to December the 31st of whether we were going to contribute enough money to do the things they thought they should do. I was up there last year. I was up there last November at Bill's birthday, and they had $40,000 in the hole.
[00:30:01]
When they wound up, the bunch out in the country and the groups sent in and contributed, or they were on about $1,000 or $1,500 short. Well, it's come through. But we found in this birthday thing that we was reaching people that had drifted away from AA. Also, if you'll take your old handbook, for the last three years, we've rounded out to approximately 100,000 carrying the ball. And all you folks that are active and speak from group to group, you go into these groups and they're about the same size.
You see some old familiar faces, but you see some new faces. And if you analyze that 100,000, you'll find about 40% or 50% of those folks attending AA meetings today are under two years old. And the other 50% or 60% are we old-timers that are carrying the ball. And we've got a big responsibility. We old-timers have a great responsibility in AA. Our work is never done. So we found in this birthday contribution that we found a good reception from everyone we called on, myself and the ones that fell in line to help with this thing.
In 1953, with a $2 contribution, Oklahoma was above the average per head, contributing 1,692. In 1953, you know the United States and Canada is divided into 75 districts. In 1953, they averaged $1,450 a district. In 1954, where we'd had the birthday plan in operation about five or six or seven months, we contributed $3,167. About two-thirds of that comes from the non-active AA. It's been a trial and error.
We first started out by saying your years of sobriety, but we changed that a little bit and saying the years from your first contact in AA. Because only about 25% of us took a hold of this thing when we first found it. And then you analyze it. The fellow boy or girl finally went back and picked up what they had found. They don't want to talk about those slips and we don't want to talk about them either.
So what's the difference? It's a matter of a dollar or two. So we changed that to your first contact in AA. About two-thirds of our money, I said, comes from the, in our contribution, $3,167. At least 60% of it comes from the non-active AA. And carrying this on, we formulated a little plan for the future. We sort of started out on a three-year plan in Oklahoma, thinking that this plan was sort of like AA.
It's a plan of habits. But if we can get that old boy or gal to remember that birthday, they're going to find someplace to contribute to. And we have tried. The money that I collect, I'm on the old rise in Tulsa. There are five groups there. I know most of the old ones that have passed through. And whenever they've paid me the money, I find out what group they, that they want the money sent through.
We don't advise them to send it direct to New York. We want it to come through the group. And in the outlying groups, we ask them to try this birthday plan. Try it until September or October. If it doesn't come up to the $2 recommended by the general service conference, fall back to your $2. Don't throw it out the window. But our plan is, as we go along, and it's not working perfect yet, but we're making progress.
Everybody in Oklahoma doesn't believe in this birthday plan. Lots of them don't. They say, the hell with the general service headquarters. We'll just take care of our own little outfit.
[00:35:01]
And anyhow, I'm putting in enough money this way. Let's just let it rip the way it is. But we have others that believe that this is the way out. So we try to get each group to sort of consider this. They don't vote on it, but they appoint a birthday boy or girl. And this birthday boy or girl gets up at the first of the month and reads the birthdays, the active ones, and they dig up all the inactive ones that they can find.
They tell them about this voluntary contribution of the general service headquarters. We try to get them to appoint for this birthday boy or the state representative, because with the third legacy and AA in our hands, your state organization is a very, very important part. So we get this representative to get up and read these birthdays, and he gives them a little rundown. Now, this is a voluntary contribution, this birthday.
Contribution is a voluntary. It's a voluntary contribution. Then he gives them a little rundown on the third legacy. Something about these gals and boys who are going off to the general service headquarters. Gives them a little education of what the overall picture of AA is. In other words, when you look at that 100,000 and we're settled off to 100,000, we're passing through AA. And in this plan, we're educating something about the general service headquarters that I didn't know anything about and you older ones didn't know anything about or wasn't taught when you come into AA.
So we're educating as they're passing through, and we're teasing old John and Mary back. We have them in Oklahoma coming back to AA because they wrote that birthday check. We don't ask you to follow us. I'm willing to answer any questions, go anyplace, because we think that we've found something. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ab. There's been an expression going around the metropolitan district.
And I heard it at our home group recently that the mind could absorb as much as the seat would permit. So if any of you folks want a 15-second seventh-inning stretch, just shift your chairs. Shift. That's from Louisiana. George Collmore of the New Orleans group. You know, it's something brand new to me, but I like it. I'd like to have you say hi to me, if you will. My name is George Collmore. I'm an alcoholic in the central group of New Orleans, Louisiana.
I bring you greetings from New Orleans. I know there are men and women probably in this group that remember some, well, I don't know whether they remember them or not. I'll change that. They have heard that they've been in New Orleans, let's say. This question of ours this afternoon in my book is a question. We talk about no controversial subjects and no taking of inventories, and I'm going to violate the whole damn business and take inventories and get controversial too, I imagine.
I may have had some friends when I came in here, and I probably won't have any when I leave.
[00:40:01]
But the question is, does money have a place in a… I think the answer to that would have to be yes, a very emphatic yes, probably. It's an interesting conjecture that probably no one in this room would be sober this minute except for money. That may seem to be a broad statement. But prior to 1951, AA in general knew nothing of its finances. I know I didn't. I was very eager to find out, and I was robust on all sides, and it wasn't until the first general service conference of 1951 that the figures were made available to us.
I'm controller of the company I work for, and my business is figures. Past and present figures analyzed and projected into the future as best we can. And to say that I was astounded at what had been accomplished with what seemed to me a minimum of funds, I could scarcely believe. I think we might paraphrase Mr. Churchill in saying that never has so much been done for so many for so little. I think at that time the revenues from the groups ranged in the area of $100,000 per year.
$100,000 per year. And they haven't varied too much since that time. And I remember the thought occurring to me then, that some few were regarding the situation rather seriously. From any sane, practical business viewpoint, we were on dangerous ground. We had no reserve, no prudent reserve that any business that should stay in business should have. It seemed that we were cruising along with far too limited funds.
Far too limited funds. And to we of the First Service Conference, the thought naturally came up, how can that be changed? How can that be changed? We don't want our general services to exist on a bare basis. We alcoholics who have spent millions in the pursuit of acquiring our membership in this wonderful fellowship, what then could be the answer? Well, to date I've seen none. I do see what I believe to be the roadblock.
I somehow am convinced if the individual alcoholics, some 150,000 of us knew, that that would be all that would be necessary. But strange to say, in 1951, and it persists up to this day, only approximately 50 percent of the groups contributed to general services. Why, I don't know. That is a matter that I would respectfully refer to the present Service Conference for their own analysis. In starting what little I have to say this afternoon, I wanted to touch on briefly on three phases.
The General Service Conference, which I have just mentioned, the local groups, and then the individual. To begin with, we have a principle in AA which began with us of rotating. …of rotating. I must say that my experience has taught me to believe that in the local groups, rotation in the handling of financial matters hasn't been too good. At least it hasn't where I happen to live.
[00:45:14]
Too often have I seen men of deep concern and ability strive over a period of three or four months to put the thing on a sensible basis, to be immediately followed by part of the lunatic fringe that we all know so well, tearing it all to pieces, the old members waking up to the fact that we not only have no money but we've incurred indebtedness sheer there and the other place. Then again it's the duty of someone to come along and try to set the house in order again.
I don't know whether, and I don't believe the suggestion would be acceptable, but some permanent form of local group financing. I realize that A.A. should remain poorer. But I think in the national sense we're a hell of a lot poorer than we should be. You know I'm nervous up here, but it's kind of pleasant to compare it to the old king-sized St. Vitus dance that used to be my companion most of the time.
But I remember back my first days in A.A. and I've never stopped thanking God for the men that I met in those days because I'm no longer with it. But for me, those men opened just a tiny crack in the view of the blessing of giving. All my life, and I was a fairly old man when I found this thing, it was give me. No thought of anything else but myself. 100% selfish. And the more selfish I got the more frustrated and the more impossible life became.
And these fine old men that I speak about showed me a little of that. And then along about the time I was able to focus my eyes after about 3 or 4 weeks in A.A., somewhere out of the blue came an expression which I have since traced to the book of Luke. I can imagine in my earlier years it wasn't the first time I'd heard that. I was brought up in a Christian family and we had much of religion in our home.
But for some strange reason this quotation registered with me. In it I could see a divine command and also a divine promise. And I began to look at these men with different eyes. And I saw that the happy ones were the ones who were giving. And I don't mean necessarily giving money. I mean giving of what they had. It might be time, it might be attention, it might be interest. But they were giving. And that thought has remained to me to this day.
[00:50:10]
I can sit in an A.A. meeting and you can pick the most boresome speaker in the United States. And I find I have something I can give him. I can give him my interest. And I do. You know, it's rather amusing too. I remember a story that's probably old to most of you in the early days. A fellow said, you go to an A.A. meeting and you're standing there talking to a fellow and you're about halfway through the sentence.
And he turns and walks clear across the room and shakes hands with somebody else. And they said, don't pay any attention to that, we're sick people. Getting back to the money phase, I'm sure of the fact that financial responsibility to A.A. has been a means of some men maintaining sobriety. I have the sad duty of burying a very dear friend of mine in A.A. sometime back. And he was one of the impossible cases. He had gone through sanitarium after sanitarium before he found it. But when he found A.A., his contributions were regular, meticulously regular.
Until a very unfortunate thing happened. His mother died and left him a quarter million dollars and he was off to the races. But I know he had three and a half years of sobriety that I believe was solely because of his feeling of financial responsibility. I am of the opinion that you can have a cheap sobriety or you can have a bountiful sobriety. And the cheap sobriety will be just what the word implies. You give little and you get little.
But the men I've found in A.A. who seem to live it most richly are the men who have given of time, of interest, and of money. And on the controversial side, I'll have to tell you, I look with jaundiced eye. Only no do's, no don'ts. Don't talk money in A.A., boys. They kind of remind me of the prohibition party. Few sincere, honest, fine people, but coupled with a group with ulterior motives. I think probably watching these exponents of the no do's and no don'ts, I've noticed this one thing. They're not disgruntled, but to quote P.G. Woodhouse, they're not exactly gruntled either.
Each of us, as you know, express only our own views. And you may wonder at the positive feeling that I have about some of these things. But something over nine years ago, an old, helpless drunk stumbled into A.A. And in my very feeble, inadequate attempts at following along the lines on which I've spoken, I find myself today with my blessings heaped up, pressed down, and overflowing. Thank you. Thank you very much, George. I might have been a little remiss in introducing the previous speakers that speak to you. I've got a new brand for you now.
[00:55:19]
I've got a pitch man. And it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you Chet Rood of the Arlington Group of Los Angeles, California, who will give you a pitch. Hello, everybody. If any of you have occasion to be in New York at any time, I can recommend wholeheartedly you're attending the Brooklyn Group of Alcoholics Anonymous. Because for some reason or another, Jonas thinks the back of a chair is the front of a chair. And he sits the same way in his group at Brooklyn.
When we speak of money and its place in A.A., we're not speaking about very much money by any standards, usually associated with money needs. In fact, we're speaking of a very small amount of money. But that small amount is very important. There are probably as many answers to this question as there are people in this room. This subject lends itself to rather specific statements. I hope not too dogmatic or too positive. But money is a definite, measurable thing.
If you need dollars and don't have them, it certainly is necessary to do some thinking and planning. The structure of A.A. from the group up to the general service board made your sobriety and mine possible. It makes it possible for the new member to find us. It gives us the vehicle through which we can work and help each other. All with the basic idea of attracting the person who does not yet know their way of solving his or her alcoholic problems.
Whether a group is in a small town or a large city, there are certain money requirements. The ad in the newspaper, the telephone, the rent for the group location, the literature. As war groups are formed, the central office becomes necessary, with a full-time secretary to receive calls for help and transmit them where they belong. Committees are formed to carry out public relations, handle institutional help, guide the central office policies, and administer the funds needed for these services.
As we function along these very simple lines in our respective areas, so general service headquarters serve throughout the world. They make it possible for us to have literature for the new member and to guide us in our public relations so that our good name is protected, which is the way we want it. Even more important, our general service headquarters makes it possible for you and me to find AA wherever we may go in the world.
In 1951, the General Service Conference was set up as a link between the groups and the General Service Board. We have the responsibility as individual members through our group to pay the expenses of the delegates to an annual conference. Therefore, we have money requirements for the group, the central office, if we have one, and the General Service office. and the General Service Office. All of this is for the purpose of attracting the person who does not yet know AA. This is our financial need, the place of money in AA. What is the
[01:00:06]
specific amount we're talking about for each one of us? This is not an easy question to answer, but we can be specific so far as General Service Headquarters is concerned. They have calculated that to properly finance their responsibilities, the specific amount per member is $2 per annum, not a very large sum. How well have we carried out this request? A study of the 1955 group directory shows the following interesting statistics. In ten states, more groups failed to contribute than did. Groups in seventeen states contributed less than a dollar per member. Of these, five states contributed less than 70 cents per member, and two states 50 cents or less per member. There were five states that contributed more than two dollars per member. In one state, Oklahoma, was the only one to contribute more than two dollars per member. I met AB for the first time today. They came up with the astonishing figure of $3.46 per member. The next highest was $1.67, $1.63, $1.56, $1.56.
Twenty-three percent of the groups in the United States contributed the suggested amount of two dollars per member. Twenty-three percent of the groups. In this specific request for two dollars, we have certainly failed by a very large margin. Lack of information is certainly not a proper excuse because we have been informed at least twice a year of the need in this specific amount per member. There was a period in AA when there were two things to thought about. God and money. You have paid your initiation fee when you walk in the group. There are no dues and no fees. But we're sensible enough to realize if we're honest that there are financial needs. When will we realize our responsibility for meeting them? Is it possible we have forgotten first things first and mixed up the cost of social affairs with our responsibilities? No one should object to a dance, a picnic, or any decent form of entertainment. The big question is, can we afford it? First things first, it seems to me, should mean, among other things, individual sobriety. Helping the other fellow gain his sobriety by supporting the vehicle which makes it possible. This means supporting the group. Tradition number seven says every AA group ought to be fully self- supporting, declining outside contributions. The group supports the other three important links, the central office, the general service conference, and the general service headquarters.
The financial support of these functions are inseparably woven together into the place of money in AA. As individual members, we speak of gratitude and what it has meant to us. Are we grateful enough to give the equivalent of a double shot when the basket is passed? Are we grateful enough to match it with the cost of a movie or the cost of cigarettes? What is our financial status now as compared with when we found AA? What are our prospects in our work and what is our general manner of living? Our financial support is an integral part of twelve-step work. It makes the twelve steps possible by furnishing a means and a
[01:05:02]
place through which we can complete the attraction of the new member. It has been my observation that when the membership of a group are informed, they will respond. I know that's true in our own group. You can't expect a member to put a dollar in the basket when a leader passes with no explanation at all or at the most a statement that we have coffee and donuts to pay for. Coffee and donuts used to be about ten cents. The logical AA member puts a quarter in the basket and thinks he's been generous. Therefore, it is my belief that the financial needs of AA can be comfortably taken care of without any strain on anyone through a process of continuous explanation at the group level. This can be accomplished very simply with a brief financial report monthly and that the leader of each meeting will explain in passing the basket that our financial needs are simple but important because this group believes that it is essential to support general service headquarters and the central service in addition to our own rent, literature, donuts, and coffee. These simple and essential money needs will help carry the message which is one of the primary purposes of our organization.
Proper financial support is a specific, tangible way of expressing gratitude. I haven't received the yellow light yet and the thought occurred to me there is one thing that we can also do of great help. The grapevine to me is one of the great publications, not only as a member of AA, but the importance of supporting the grapevine because of the messages that it has from all over the world to keep us all informed of what's going on in our organization.
And I think and recommend our individual subscription and group subscription so all of us can have the benefit of the grapevine. As I've said many times in my pitches, all I know about AA is what I've read in the books, the Twelve Steps in Tradition, the literature, the grapevine, and what I hear at group meetings. And the grapevine to me keeps our continued interest and keeps us informed of what's happening in other parts of the country.
I didn't intend to say this when I started discussing this subject, but in the area for which I come, my business is banking. I never use it in my pitch because some people don't like bankers and policemen. I only say it now because I have been identified with the solicitation of money for Red Cross, community churches, hospitals, and many other organizations. I think I know something about the solicitation of money. In this particular case, it seems to me we have the easiest thing to sell that we can imagine. Because I don't look upon money to AA as a gift. I look upon it as an investment in our sobriety. Thank you.
Thank you, Chet. You didn't even get the caution light. Well, I think this has been so far a most interesting discussion. And it's been from all parts of the country. Everybody does things differently, but AA works. I just happen to be in my fourteenth year of AA. But I know that sixteen years ago that
[01:10:02]
I could have answered anything. Now, we're going to give you folks a two-minute break and come in with some questions, would you please? We might be able to answer them. Sixteen years ago, we couldn't. Bye.