Under the Direct Auspices

Before Tradition Six was settled, some groups ran drying-out places themselves, and Bill W. reported how it went. In those years cheap hospital beds for drunks were hard to find. He wrote in 1947 (A.A. pamphlet P-17, p. 15): "This urgency has tempted some A.A. groups to set up drying-out places of their own, hiring A.A. managers, nurses, and securing the services of a visiting physician. Where this has been done under the direct auspices of an A.A. group it has almost always backfired. It has put the group into business, a kind of business about which few A.A.s know anything at all." Under the direct auspices means run by the group itself, in its own name. Backfired means it blew up on them. Drunks who knew how to carry a message were suddenly hiring nurses, chasing bills and fighting over who was in charge, and the message got whatever time was left. The Long Form, first printed in 1946, had already drawn the line (Big Book, p. 564): "But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside A.A.—and medically supervised." Places of recuperation are where people dry out and get their strength back. Today the pull runs the other way: facilities want groups inside them. Test it tonight: ask whether your group runs, staffs or answers for any place where drunks are treated.