Which Way the Money Runs

Tradition 9 says two things, and the famous half is the wrong one. First: A.A. ought never be organized. Then the exception — it may create service boards or committees, the offices answering the phone. That's the permission; the safeguard is the condition riding on it (Big Book, p. 562): those bodies stay "directly responsible to those they serve." Bill explained how that clause gets enforced (A.A. pamphlet P-17): money, not anyone's character. "If any of them were to become inefficient or overbearing the remedy is simple enough. The average A.A. would stop his financial support until conditions were changed." Follow it around: the people served are the people paying, so they can stop paying, so the body serving them can't afford to stop serving them. That's a circuit, not a virtue. Responsibility runs whichever way the funding runs — automatically, whether anyone intends it or not. Now apply that to any body doing recovery work that's paid for by clients, insurers, or owners. It can be staffed by decent people. It can run a good program. It still answers upward, because that's the only direction the circuit allows. No villain required. So when you're working out whether something is A.A. or something wearing A.A.'s clothes, don't ask what it says about itself. Ask who could close it by keeping their money in their pocket.