Tradition Eight
"Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our
service centers may employ special workers."
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS will never have a professional class. We have
gained some understanding of the ancient words "Freely ye have
received, freely give." We have discovered that at the point of
professionalism, money and spirituality do not mis. Almost no recovery
from alcoholism has ever been brought about by the world's best
professionals, whether medical or religious. We do not decry
professionalism in other fields, but we accept the sober fact that it
does not work for us. Every time we have tried to professionalize our
Twelfth Step, the result has been exactly the same: Our single purpose
has been defeated.
Alcoholics simply will not listen to a pain twelfth-stepper. Almost
from the beginning, we have been positive that face-to-face work with
the alcoholic who suffers could be based only on the desire to help and
be helped. When an A.A. talks for money, whether at a meeting or to a
single newcomer, it can have a very bad effect on him, too. The money
motive compromises him and everything he says and does for his
prospect. This has always been so obvious that only a very few A.A.'s
have ever worked the Twelfth Step for a fee.
Despite this certainty, it is nevertheless true that few subjects have
been the cause of more contention within our Fellowship than
professionalism. Caretakers who swept floors, cooks who fried
hamburgers, secretaries in offices, authors writing books--all these we
have seen hotly assailed because they were, as their critics angrily
remarked, "making money out of A.A." Ignoring the fact that these
labors were not Twelfth Step jobs at all, the critics attacked as A.A.
professionals these workers of ours who were often doing thankless
tasks that no one else could or would do. Even greater furors were
provoked when A.A. members began to run rest homes and farms for
alcoholics, when some hired out to corporations as personnel men in
charge of the alcoholic wards, when others entered the field of alcohol
education. In all these instances, and more, it was claimed that A.A.
knowledge and experience were being sold for money, hence these people,
too, were professionals.
At last, however, a plain line of cleavage could be seen between
professionalism and nonprofessionalism. When we had agreed that the
Twelfth Step couldn't be sold for money, we had been wise. But when we
had declared that our Fellowship couldn't hire service workers nor
could any A.A. member carry our knowledge into other fields, we were
taking the counsel of fear, fear which today has been largely dispelled
in the light of experience.
Take the case of the club janitor and cook. If a club is going to
function, it has to be habitable and hospitable. We tried volunteers,
who were quickly disenchanted with sweeping floors and brewing coffee
seven days a week. They just didn't show up. Even more important, an
empty club couldn't answer its telephone, but it was an open invitation
to a drunk on a binge who possessed a spare key. So somebody had to
look after the place full time. If we hired an alcoholic, he'd receive
only what we'd have to pay a nonalcoholic for the same job. The job was
not to do Twelfth Step work; it was to make Twelfth Step work possible.
It was a service proposition, pure and simple.
Neither could A.A. itself function without full-time workers. At the
Foundation* and intergroup offices, we couldn't employ nonalcoholics as
secretaries; we had to have people who knew the A.A. pitch. But the
minute we hired them, the ultraconservative and fearful ones shrilled,
"Professionalism!" At one period, the status of these faithful servants
was almost unbearable. They weren't asked to speak at A.A. meetings
because they were `making money out of A.A." At times, they were
actually shunned by fellow members. Even the charitably disposed
described them as "a necessary evil." Committees took full advantage of
this attitude to depress their salaries. They could regain some measure
of virtue, it was thought, if they worked for A.A. real cheap. These
notions persisted for years. Then we saw that if a hard working
secretary answered the phone dozens of times a day, listened to twenty
wailing wives, arranged hospitalization and got sponsorship for ten
newcomers, and was gently diplomatic with the irate drunk who
complained about the job she was doing and how she was overpaid, then
such a person could surely not be called a professional A.A. She was
not professionalizing the Twelfth Step; she was just making it
possible. She was helping to give the man coming in the door the break
he ought to have. Volunteer committeemen and assistants could be of
great help, but they could not be expected to carry this load day in
and day out.
At the Foundation, the same story repeats itself. Eight tons of books
and literature per month do not package and channel themselves all over
the world. Sacks of letters on every conceivable A.A. problem ranging
from a lonely-heart Eskimo to the growing pains of thousands of groups
must be answered by people who know. Right contacts with the world
outside have to be maintained. A.A.'s lifelines have to be tended. So
we hire A.A. staff members. We pay them well, and they earn what they
get. They are professional secretaries, * but they certainly are not
professional A.A.'s.
Perhaps the fear will always lurk in every A.A. heart that one day our
name will be exploited by somebody for real cash. Even the suggestion
of such a thing never fails to whip up a hurricane, and we have
discovered that hurricanes have a way of mauling with equal severity
both the just and the unjust. They are always unreasonable.
No individuals have been more buffeted by such emotional gusts than
those A.A.'s bold enough to accept employment with outside agencies
dealing with the alcohol problem. A university wanted an A.A. member to
educate the public on alcoholism. A corporation wanted a personnel man
familiar with the subject. A state drunk farm wanted a manager who
could really handle inebriates. A city wanted an experienced social
worker who understood what alcohol could do to a family. A state
alcohol commission wanted a paid researcher. These are only a few of
the jobs which A.A. members as individuals have been asked to fill. Now
and then, A.A. members have bought farms or rest homes where badly
beat-up topers could find needed care. The question was--and sometimes
still is--are such activities to be branded as professionalism under
A.A. tradition?
We think the answer is "No. Members who select such full-time careers
do not professionalize A.A.'s Twelfth Step." The road to this
conclusion was long and rocky. At first, we couldn't see the real issue
involved. In former days, the moment an A.A. hired out to such
enterprises, he was immediately tempted to use the name Alcoholics
Anonymous for publicity or money-raising purposes. Drunk farms,
educational ventures, state legislatures, and commissions advertised
the fact that A.A. members served them. Unthinkingly, A.A.'s so
employed recklessly broke anonymity to thump the tub for their pet
enterprise. For this reason, some very good causes and all connected
with them suffered unjust criticism from A.A. groups. More often than
not, these onslaughts were spearheaded by the cry "Professionalism!
That guy is making money out of A.A.'s Twelfth Step work. The violation
in these instances was not professionalism at all; it was breaking
anonymity. A.A.'s sole purpose was being compromised, and the name of
Alcoholics Anonymous was being misused.
It is significant, now that almost no A.A. in our Fellowship breaks
anonymity at the public level, that nearly all these fears have
subsided. We see that we have no right or need to discourage A.A.'s who
wish to work as individuals in these wider fields. It would be actually
antisocial were we to forbid them. We cannot declare A.A. such a closed
corporation that we keep our knowledge and experience top secret. If an
A.A. member acting as a citizen can become a better researcher,
educator, personnel officer, then why not? Everybody gains, and we have
lost nothing. True, some of the projects to which A.A.'s have attached
themselves have been ill-conceived, but that makes not the slightest
difference with the principle involved.
This is the exciting welter of events which has finally cast up A.A.'s
Tradition of nonprofessionalism. Our Twelfth Step is never to be paid
for, but those who labor in service for us are worthy of their hire.
*The work of the present-day staff members has no counterpart among the
job categories of commercial organizations. These A.A.'s bring a wide
range of business and professional experience to their service at
G.S.O.