The Less Business, the Better

A group can drift off its one purpose one motion at a time, and every motion can sound reasonable. The business meeting is where a group decides how it will carry the message, and that is exactly where the drift starts. A motion for an anniversary dinner. A motion for group shirts. A motion for a speaker night, then a committee to plan it, then a fund for the hall. An hour goes by. Nobody mentions the detox ward across town that hasn't seen an A.A. member in a year, or the outreach list that hasn't been updated. Bill W. learned this lesson when groups tried to run their own drying-out places, and wrote (A.A. pamphlet P-17, p. 15): "We have been obliged to see that an A.A. group is primarily a spiritual entity; that, as a group the less business it has to transact, the better." To transact business is to carry it out. None of those motions is wicked. Each one takes a piece of the group's time, money and attention, and the Long Form gives a group "but one primary purpose—that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers" (Big Book, p. 563). Business crowds the purpose out quietly, because it always feels urgent. Test it tonight: at your next business meeting, time how long the group spends on anything that reaches a drinker.