Whoever Pays

The Long Form says whoever pays for a facility runs the facility, and capture is when they start running the group too. The Long Form (Big Book, p. 564): "Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them." Sole means only. Those who pay for a club or hospital manage it, and nothing else. Bill W. watched the line crossed both ways at the early clubs (A.A. pamphlet P-17, p. 20): "if an A.A. rotating committee tries to boss the club corporation or if the corporation tries to run the A.A. affairs of those groups who may meet at the club, there is difficulty at once." A rotating committee is the group's elected servants, changed often so nobody stays in charge. His cure: "If an A.A. group wishes to use a given club, let them pay rent or split the meeting take with the club management." The meeting take is the basket. Rent keeps the two apart. The group is a tenant, not a department. Today the facility often pays for everything, asks no rent, and in return picks the chair, sets the format and decides who may come in. That is the payer managing an A.A. group, which the Long Form never allowed. Test it tonight: ask who pays for the room your group meets in, and what that payer gets to decide.