The Alumni Group

A group that takes a program's name has taken an affiliation with it, however proud its members are of where they got sober. Graduates of a treatment program want to keep meeting, so they start a group. The program offers its room for free. The group names itself after the program, opens with the program's news and welcomes each new graduating class. Every member is an alcoholic. But the group as a group now belongs to the program: its room, its name and its newcomers all come from one place, and a drinker who never went there can tell the room was not meant for him. The Long Form (Big Book, p. 563): "Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation." As a group. Each member can be grateful to anyone; the group cannot carry the debt. Bill W. saw the same line from the other side (A.A. pamphlet P-17, p. 33): "Years ago we used to think A.A. should have its own hospitals, rest homes and farms. Nowadays we are equally convinced we should have nothing of the sort." If A.A. should not own the facility, the facility should not own the group. Test it tonight: ask whether your group's name, room and newcomers would all survive the program closing tomorrow.