Bleeding Deacons

Every group gets one, and A.A. gave him an unkind name on purpose. Bill W. traced what happens to a founder after his group votes in a rotating committee (A.A. Comes of Age). Some become elder statesmen, willing "to sit quietly on the side lines patiently awaiting developments." The other kind — the bleeding deacon — is "one who remains convinced that the group cannot get along without him, who constantly connives for re-election to office, and who continues to be consumed with self-pity." He is not lying about the work. It is a lot of work and nobody thanks him, and he says so, and saying so is how a job stops being one anybody else feels able to take. Then Bill does the thing that makes this survivable: "Nearly every old-timer in our society has gone through this process in some degree. I have myself." Not a warning about someone else — about anyone who serves long enough. A.A. built the cure into the structure: he can be voted out. Now picture him with a job title and a salary in a building that holds "the meeting." No election reaches that man. The deacon is still bleeding; today he cannot be rotated out.