Spiritual Entities

A group goes into business one good idea at a time, and nobody ever votes for the moment it stops being a group. It starts with a literature table. Then medallions, mugs and shirts with the group's name, because they sell. The anniversary dance needs tickets, a hall deposit and a DJ, and it makes money, so next year there are two. Somebody has to keep the stock, chase the deposits and do the books. The business meeting that used to ask who would go out on the next call now spends forty minutes on inventory and ten on the drunk. Every item passed by a fair vote. Bill W. wrote in 1946 (A.A. pamphlet P-17, p. 29): "More and more, the A.A. groups are realizing that they are spiritual entities, not business organizations." An entity is a thing that exists in its own right. A group is one with a single job, and the job isn't retail. Literature carries the message, so the table isn't the problem. The problem is a group that needs its sales to pay its rent, because then the sales come first. The Long Form says flatly that a group should never go into business. Test it tonight: at your group's next business meeting, count the minutes spent on money and stock, and on the drinker still out there.