We'll Get Around to You in a Minute

The moment a group owns a treatment operation, the newcomer becomes the least urgent thing in the room. A.A. has the case on record (P-43, The Twelve Traditions Illustrated): in the early days some members thought "A.A. should cover the whole alcoholism field," and one group "built an all-purpose center, including a section for drying-out treatment" — a building of its own, with beds. The pamphlet asks you to picture it: "Arguments over cost, architecture, staff, fees, medication, and rules might even make the local paper." And pity the poor newcomer straying into the group — "We'll get around to you in a minute." Cost, staff, fees, rules — every one of those is a thing somebody has to govern, and Tradition 5 says a group has one purpose, carrying the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. The centre failed. The lesson did not. The same page gives the standing practice: "keep the operation of the facility completely separate from that of any A.A. group," and keep the A.A. name, and terms like Twelfth Step, out of the facility's name. Read that against today's storefronts. A business with "12 Step" on the sign and beds down the hall is the all-purpose centre, rebuilt. The newcomer is still being told to wait a minute.