# Does A.A. cost anything?

**In short:**
- No. Membership costs nothing. The 1939 Foreword says: "There are no fees or dues whatsoever." (p. xiv). The 1946 Long Form says membership should never depend "upon money or conformity" (p. 563).
- Groups do have expenses, such as rent, coffee and literature, and they pay them from members' voluntary contributions, often by passing a basket. Giving is not a condition of membership: Bill W. wrote in 1946 that contributions are "in no wise a condition of our A.A. membership" (P-17, "Money", 1946).
- A.A. groups pay their own way and decline outside contributions (Tradition Seven, short form, p. 562; the Long Form on p. 564 says the same).
- The Big Book itself is sold by A.A., and A.A. also publishes it free on aa.org.

## What the 1939 text says

- **No fees or dues.** "There are no fees or dues whatsoever." (p. xiv).
- **Nothing to pay the person who helps you.** Among the conditions the early members found most effective when approaching a drinker: "there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured" (p. 18).
- **The work is unpaid.** "None of us makes a sole vocation of this work" (p. 19). The Foreword calls it "an avocation" (p. xiii).

What the 1939 text describes members spending is their own: time, sleep, and sometimes "sharing your money and your home" with a newcomer (p. 97).

## The 1946 Long Form

- **Tradition Three:** "Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity." (p. 563).
- **Tradition Seven:** "The A.A. groups themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members." (p. 564). Public solicitation using A.A.'s name is "highly dangerous" (p. 564), and large gifts, or contributions carrying any obligation, are unwise (p. 564).
- **Tradition Eight:** A.A.'s Twelfth Step work "is never to be paid for" (pp. 564–565).

## What Bill W. wrote (1946–47)

- In the first years there were no money problems at all. Members met in homes, and there were no group funds (P-17, "Money", 1946).
- Once there were meeting places, clubs and offices, members dropped money in "the hat" to pay for them, "with the full understanding, of course, that such contributions are in no wise a condition of our A.A. membership" (P-17, "Money", 1946).
- "As our A.A. membership does not depend on fees or dues, we can always 'take our special facilities or leave them alone.'" (P-17, "Money", 1946). That, he argued, is what keeps A.A.'s offices from ever governing it.
- "In A.A. we have no fees or compulsory dues." (P-17, "Clubs in A.A.", 1947). Even a club, he suggested, should let any A.A. member enjoy its ordinary privileges "whether he makes a regular voluntary contribution or not" (P-17, "Clubs in A.A.", 1947).
- On a nonalcoholic friend at a meeting: it is hardly an exception to self-support "if a nonalcoholic friend comes to a meeting and drops a dollar in the hat" (P-17, "Money", 1946).

The Foreword to the Second Edition (1955) sums up the principle as it had settled: "There were to be no fees or dues; our expenses were to be met by our own voluntary contributions." (p. xix).

## Today (2018)

*The A.A. Group* (P-16): "There are no dues or fees for membership in A.A., but we do have expenses such as rent, refreshments, A.A. Conference-approved literature, meeting lists and contributions to services" (P-16, 2018). A group may "pass the basket" and members are encouraged to take part. The pamphlet also sets limits on what any one member may give the General Service Office in a year, and says GSO accepts bequests only from A.A. members. The A.A. Preamble, printed in P-16 and P-17, says: "There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions."

## The book

*Alcoholics Anonymous* is sold by A.A. World Services through its bookstore (https://onlineliterature.aa.org), and the whole fourth edition is also free on aa.org (see *Where can I read the Big Book free, from A.A. itself?*). In 1939 the book itself told members, on a first visit, to lend a prospect their own copy if he showed interest (p. 94).

## Read it yourself
- Foreword to the First Edition (pp. xiii–xiv): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordfirstedition.pdf
- Chapter 2, "There Is a Solution" (pp. 17–29): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt2.pdf
- Appendix I, "The A.A. Tradition" (pp. 561–566): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicei.pdf
- P-17, *A.A. Tradition — How It Developed* ("Money," "Clubs in A.A."): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-17_AATraditions.pdf
- P-16, *The A.A. Group* ("Self-support: The Seventh Tradition," p. 16): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/p-16_0723.pdf
- Related: *Tradition Seven: does A.A. take outside money?* · *Is the A.A. Preamble in the Big Book? Where did it come from?*

## Sources
| Source | Pages | First published |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Foreword to the First Edition; Chapters 2 and 7 | xiii–xiv, 18–19, 94, 97 | 1939 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Appendix I, Traditions Three, Seven and Eight | 562–565 | Long Form 1946; short form by 1950 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Foreword to the Second Edition | xix | 1955 |
| P-17, "Money" | — | 1946 |
| P-17, "Clubs in A.A." | — | 1947 |
| The A.A. Preamble (as printed in P-16 and P-17) | inside cover | first in the Grapevine, June 1947; these printings 2018 and 2019 |
| P-16, *The A.A. Group* | 16, 21–22 | 2018 |

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001).

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book and P-16 are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; the P-17 articles and the Preamble are © AA Grapevine, Inc.*