Tradition VIII

on

Short form: Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
Long form: Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional. We define professionalism as the occupation of counseling alcoholics for fees or hire. But we may employ alcoholics where they are going to perform those services for which we may otherwise have to engage non-alcoholics. Such special services may be well recompensed. But our usual AA "12 Step" work is never to be paid for.

Application in AA

  • Whereas earlier Traditions refer to groups, this Tradition refers to 'Alcoholics Anonymous'
  • What is meant? The fellowship or the individuals? Could be read as either!
    • AA does not charge for its service
    • AA members do not charge for Twelfth-Step work
  • In practice: apply the Tradition at all levels of the Fellowship
  • The essence of Tradition Eight
    • No financial recompense for carrying the message:
        • Counselling alcoholics
        • "12 Step" work
      • Taken together, this means any form of message carrying:
        • Public information
        • Twelfth-Stepping
        • Meeting attendance
        • Sponsorship
    • Fee or hire. What's the difference?
      • Fee: someone pays me to carry the message to him
      • Hire: someone pays me to carry the message to someone else
  • The Tradition Eight motto: to do what we do for fun and for free, expecting nothing in return from the individual
      • (Although we may be paid handsomely, spiritually, by God)
    • Three levels of service:
      • Good: obedience as a matter of principle (although this can be joyless)
      • Better: act out of enlightened self-interest (this is still wanting something in return, but from God)
      • Best: enthusiasm / zeal (joyous engagement in the activity for its own sake)
  • Employment of alcoholics: Where does this take place?
    • In AA offices
    • To perform ad hoc roles (e.g. producing videos, coding for websites or apps)
    • In practice: not just when non-alcoholics would have to be engaged
    • There are some jobs that are best performed by someone with personal knowledge of AA
        • General secretary
        • Telephone office managers
      • If such individuals are not AA members, they will be severely hampered in the performance of their duties
    • But it's OK for AAs to perform that work for nothing if everyone is happy
      • Graphic design
      • Informal auditing by accountants in AA of relatively small-scale events or entities
      • Informal legal 'soundings', prior to going to lawyers for a formal opinion
      • BUT it must be understood that the individuals are not acting in a professional capacity
      • They are using professional skills within AA
      • This must not establish a precedent, or:
        • It may be hard to find a pro bono replacement
        • Rotation is difficult to practise
        • Excessively reliance is placed on the individual
        • The true cost of services provided is masked
        • Contributions are not measured to match the costs
        • Introducing a new budget item for a service already being provided creates confusion and contention
  • 'Well-recompensed'
    • We do not pay less because the cause is good
    • Be clear:
      • Is this pro bono?
      • Or is it paid?
      • If it's paid: pay a market rate
  • Expenses
    • We do pay out-of-pocket expenses
    • This includes paying for speakers to travel & for their accommodation and certain other expenses
      • Pay for standard-class travel
      • Pay for reasonable accommodation (where would an ordinary employer accommodate conference attendees?)
      • Pay for any other out-of-pocket expenses
      • Do not pay the speaker for their actual speaking
      • Any travelling speaker will tell you that:
        • There are numerous other costs incurred (especially food and other subsistence costs) that are not reimbursed
        • Speakers are always out of pocket
        • Unpaid time off work is often a real bottom-line cost to speakers
  • Absolute nature of the prohibition
    • Forever
    • Never
  • Application in sponsorship
    • Do not receive anything tangible back for performing twelfth-step work
      • Even coffee / dinner
      • Taking turns to pay for coffee is as far as I would go
    • Do not encourage gifts by accepting them even once
    • Although: I accept gifts only where it would be churlish to refuse
      • Small-value items
      • Personalised items, e.g. a book with an inscription on the inside cover
      • Even then there has sometimes been a sting in the tail (an expectation on the part of the sponsee)
      • Gift-giving / excessively grateful sponsees are often ones who turn out to be difficult in other ways
    • If you want something back, even friendship, it may prevent the sponsor from challenging the sponsee
      • I need to be able to say what needs to be said without fear of the consequences
    • In Step Five
      • The fact that we're not paid to be nice means it means something when we are nice
      • We're unaffected by the contents of the Step Five even though we're not being paid to be unaffected
      • The clergy have to listen to us
      • Private psychologists etc. have a personal stake in not rejecting us
      • The fact we're not paid for Twelfth-Step work is what creates the basis for trust
  • Non-professionalism in the non-financial sense
    • We do our best
    • Our work need not be performed to a professional standard
    • Our best is enough
    • It need be performed only in good faith
    • Our work need not be standardised: we can sponsor in our own way
      • We're bound by God's law ...
      • ... not human codes
    • We offer what we want to offer: it is up to others to take up or reject the offer
    • There is no complaints procedure
    • There is no disciplinary authority
    • God disciplines us through our conscience
    • God disciplines us through others: people stop calling!
    • We're all equal: there is no ladder of professionalism
    • No one is an actual expert: though some have more experience, understanding, and effectiveness than others
  • It is OK to work as a counsellor of alcoholics under another banner / to work in the treatment industry
    • According to the Tradition, this is fine as long as it is not linked to AA
    • Potential problems
      • Deployment of core AA experience, knowledge, and skills in another domain for pay
      • Danger of boredom, cynicism, and loss of enthusiasm
      • Being required to adulterate the programme with other beliefs or practices
      • Being required to 'tone down the God side of things'
      • Compromise of personal integrity
      • Adoption of a professional stance towards the individual: this reduces efficacy
      • Fostering the feeling of superiority / being an expert
      • The creation of a public reputation
      • Speaking ex cathedra on other, unrelated topics
      • Separation from the fellowship / 'ordinary' AAs
      • Advocating within AA for the adoption of outside practices or therapies
      • Advertising outside practices or therapies
      • Reluctance to do twelfth-step work because it's effectively the day job, too
      • Burnout
      • Nowhere to go as the 'person who does not know'
    • How to keep yourself safe
      • Do not do jobs that require the performance of core AA activities
      • Do not bring AA membership into the outside activities
        • If such activities are required, switch hats (even mid day) & do not accept pay for those elements
        • Example: a treatment centre in Texas where the worker ran a step group but as a volunteer not a paid member of staff and wore different clothes
      • Keep the AA activities up to the same extent as if you worked in a bank or on a building site
      • Keep the work activities out of the AA work

Application in life

  • Give of yourself for fun and for free
    • Giving, rather than getting, will become the guiding principle. (Page 128)
  • See God as the source and others as the channel
  • If others give you something, they're merely God's intermediaries
  • Give out of abundance (consider the overflowing pot, the overflowing fountain)
  • Then the source of what you're giving is God not you
  • You're really channelling not giving
  • Others then receive from God, via you
  • In relationships
    • Stop counting what you get back
    • Who said it should be fifty-fifty?
    • How do you quantify what is given, anyway?
    • Give what?
      • Maximal forgiveness
      • Maximal service
    • This involves surrender of
      • Old ideas
      • The illusion of control
      • 'Plans and designs'
      • The seven areas of self
    • This involves channelling of
      • Spiritual energy
      • Physical energy
      • Time
      • Resources
    • This is what self-sacrifice means
    • If they're not worth sacrificing this for, why are you with them?
  • In work
    • I'm paid by God not by my employer or clients
    • My primary reliance is on God
    • My secondary reliance is on others
    • If I am conflicted between my reliance on God and my reliance on others ...
    • ... the reliance on God comes first
    • This means I need never compromise ethical standards ...
    • ... because I can always rely on God
  • Tradition VIII is the corollary of Tradition VII the way Tradition VI is the corollary of Tradition V
    • In Traditions V and VI we place God's purpose first, eschewing other purposes
    • In Traditions VII and VIII we rely on God not others
      • Being self-supporting means going to God for everything
      • ... rather than being dependent on others
      • Others are channels, not sources


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