Serve but Never Govern

When a program pays someone to run a meeting, the person at the front works for the program, not for the group. The Big Book's foreword sums up what the early groups settled on (p. xix): "that our leaders might serve but never govern; that each group was to be autonomous and there was to be no professional class of therapy." Autonomous means self-governing. A professional class of therapy means people paid to treat alcoholics inside A.A. The Long Form puts the authority in the group (Big Book, p. 563): "one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience." Now watch the capture. A recovery program sends a paid coach to chair the meeting. The coach takes attendance for the program, steers the sharing toward the program's lessons, and reports back to the office. The members can't remove the coach, because the members never chose the coach. A leader the group can't replace isn't serving the group. That leader is governing it, on someone else's payroll. Nothing about the room has to look different for this to happen; the chairs, the readings and the basket all stay. Only the answer to who decides has changed. Test it tonight: ask who chose the person chairing your meeting, who pays them if anyone does, and whether the members could replace them next week.