Without Charge or Obligation

A.A.'s message reaches a drinker free and owing nothing, and once it is sold inside a package it is no longer A.A.'s message. Bill W. wrote that A.A. could complete its mission only if, as a movement (A.A. pamphlet P-17, p. 4): "we remain a spiritual entity concerned only with carrying our message to fellow sufferers without charge or obligation." Without charge means no fee. Without obligation means he owes nothing afterward, not even thanks. "Spiritual entity" is the Long Form's own phrase for a group (Big Book, p. 563). Today the capture comes on an invoice. A treatment program sells aftercare, and the package lists "A.A. meetings" among its services, held in its building, led by its staff, logged in its file. The drinker, or his insurer, has paid. He has a counsellor's expectations to meet and a report going somewhere. Every word of Bill's line is broken at once: charged for, with obligation, carried by someone paid to carry it. A group that lets its name sit in that package has let its one purpose be sold. Test it tonight: ask whether anyone in your room was billed, by anybody, for the hour they are sitting in.