Tradition 4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
A group can therefore stipulate who has the opportunity to
share. In some groups, there is no restriction whatsoever. In others, those
sharing are handpicked by an officer of the group.
Tradition 9. AA, as such, ought never be organised; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
The spiritual principle here is allowing God to work through
the room.
Here are some useful questions:
Will we allow God to act just through the picker, who
chooses without raised hands?
Will we have raised hands for those wishing to share plus a
picker?
What are the picker's criteria? Length of sobriety?
Likelihood to observe Tradition 5 and the other Traditions?
Or individual fairness? Picking people in the order they
raised their hands?
I've been to some great meetings where there is hand-picking,
but some awful ones too. The same applies to free-for-all meetings.
Tradition 5 is important: structures and formats are often chosen to promote Tradition 5 above all else. This is not bad. It is a group's prerogative.
There are, however, other principles that might be relevant.
Tradition 1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.
To be unified, we must
all have a common stake. As my friend Tom W. says, 'we all have one share in
AA. You don't get an extra share or an extra vote just because you've been here
longer.' Linked to this is Concept IV:
Concept IV. At all responsible levels, we ought to maintain a traditional 'Right of Participation,' allowing a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.
Now, this is obviously not about voting, but sharing, but
the principle of participation nonetheless applies. AA is a participation, not
a spectator sport. I see AA functioning and flowering most effectively where
everyone is given the chance to participate. Having even newcomers participate
allows them to feel part of AA right from the start and to be valued as such.
At my home group, newcomers participate freely, and they are simultaneously very
eager to take on active service at the group, as tea-makers, greeters, etc. I
do not think this is coincidence.
Tradition 2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
A group is
indivisible: Tradition 5 (long form) refers to a group being a spiritual entity.
A partly stifled
voice is no voice at all.
God, unfortunately,
has no taste whatsoever. He has the habit of picking the most improbable people
to speak through. Sometimes, He has the temerity to voice AA's message of
recovery and love most clearly through someone who is a few days sober, and
resolutely fails to use the old-timers routinely trotting out their well-worn
spiel.
It is established in
spiritual traditions outside AA that it is often the most innocent or the
outsider who are chosen by the Spirit as the voice of God, and that the
established leaders are bypassed by the Healing Force.
I would therefore
be very hesitant to see sharing restricted only to old-timers or 'trusted
hands'. There's a risk of an AA group being a command-and-control pharisaic institution.
The pendulum can,
however, swing too far, and I have been to meetings where there is little message
and a lot of craziness.
Typically, timed
sharing tends to take care of that. If sharing is limited to three or four
minutes (and this is monitored by a bell, and the bell is respected), enough
people will be given the opportunity to share for balance to prevail. This will
often be sufficient to ensure balance.
If there is far
greater demand for sharing time than there is supply, a group will have to have
raised-hand sharing plus a picker.
Here, one way of
ensuring that the above Traditions and Concepts are respected is a
principles-based system rather than a personality-based system (cf. Tradition
12).
E.g.: alternating
men and women; alternating established members and visitors; alternating
experienced and inexperienced members.
This can act as the
minimum organisation necessary to allow smooth and effective running.
As with much else
in AA, lightness of touch can go a very long way.