# Is the word "sponsor" in the Big Book?

**In short:**
- The word "sponsor" does not appear anywhere in the Big Book's program: not in the forewords, not in "The Doctor's Opinion," not in Chapters 1 to 11 (pages 1–164), and not in the appendices.
- It appears only in the personal stories at the back of the book.
- In "The Vicious Cycle," one of the earliest of those stories (set in 1938), a "sponsor" is simply the person who brought you the message while you were still drinking. In an Akron story set in 1937, the word describes Dr. Bob taking a newcomer through the early program in one afternoon.

## Where the word is, and isn't

Searching the whole fourth edition, every use of "sponsor" or "sponsorship" is in the personal stories (from page 165 on). There are none in the 164 pages that set out the program, none in the forewords, and none in the seven appendices.

The program's own instructions for helping another alcoholic are in Chapter 7, "Working With Others" (pp. 89–103). That chapter never uses the word. It describes reaching a man who is still drinking, who owes you nothing (p. 94), and who is free to go to someone else when he's ready to tell his story (p. 96). See: *What does Step 12 really say?*

## What "sponsor" meant in "The Vicious Cycle"

"The Vicious Cycle" (Part I, "Pioneers of A.A.") is the story of a man who got sober on January 8, 1938, more than a year before the fellowship had the name Alcoholics Anonymous (p. 220).

His sponsor was Jackie, the man who came to him while he was still drinking. Jackie "brought in many of our original members, yet he himself could not make it and died of alcoholism" (p. 220). Jackie had been sober only a month or so when he carried the message (p. 226). Two weeks later Jackie got drunk, and the writer says he had "become the sponsor of my sponsor" (p. 226).

In that story a sponsor isn't an experienced member who manages a newcomer's program. He's whoever went out and brought the message to a drunk, even someone barely sober himself. That is Chapter 7's work.

## Another early picture: Akron

"He Sold Himself Short" (also in Part I) describes Akron in 1937, before the Big Book was written (p. 260). Before the writer was allowed to his first meeting, eight or nine members came to see him, one after another (p. 262). Then Dr. Bob spent an afternoon taking him through the program as it was then, six steps, the last being "Continued work with other alcoholics" (p. 263). The writer calls that afternoon "this type of sponsorship" (p. 263), and adds that Dr. Bob "always emphasized the religious angle very strongly" (p. 263). Here the sponsor is the most experienced member there was, leading a newcomer through every step, but it is one afternoon, after which the man went home to Chicago to start a group (pp. 263–264).

## What this means

Sponsorship as many rooms describe it today, a standing relationship with a senior member who guides you through the Steps over months, isn't described in the Big Book's program at all. Where the word appears in the earliest stories, it describes someone going out to a drinker and carrying the message, which is what Chapter 7 tells every member to do, and, in Akron, an older member taking a newcomer through the program in a single sitting. Neither is the months-long arrangement.

## Read it yourself
- Chapter 7, "Working With Others" (pp. 89–103), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf
- The personal stories, also free from A.A.: Part I, "Pioneers of A.A.": https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_personalstories_partI.pdf
- The full book, *Alcoholics Anonymous*, is sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, pp. 1–164 and appendices (searched in full) | — | 1939 text (appendices added later; fourth edition 2001) |
| Chapter 7, "Working With Others" | 89–103 | 1939 |
| "The Vicious Cycle," Part I | 219–227 | story describes January 1938 |
| "He Sold Himself Short," Part I | 260–264 | story describes Akron in 1937 (p. 260; p. 265 dates the visit almost a year before summer 1938) |

Page numbers are from the fourth edition. The Preface explains the difference that matters here: the first portion, "describing the A.A. recovery program, has been left largely untouched" since 1939, while the personal stories have been added, edited and removed with each edition (pp. xi–xii). These two stories are in today's Part I, "Pioneers of A.A."

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.*