Thoughts on Tradition Eight from the Shropshire (UK) Intergroup:

Short form

Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centres may employ special workers.

Long form

Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional. We define professionalism as the occupation of counselling alcoholics for fees or hire. But we may employ alcoholics where they are going to perform those services for which we might otherwise have to engage non-alcoholics. Such special services may be well recompensed. But our usual A.A. Twelfth Step work is never to be paid for.

From The Twelve Traditions Illustrated:

 

Spiritual as it is, AA remains very much of this world. The Eighth Tradition, like the Seventh, focuses on a vulgar five-letter with that isn't actually mentioned in either: money. Many of us have had to explain to some cynical prospect, "No, I'm not a social worker. I don't get paid for talking with you. I'm doing it because it's the best way to stay sober myself."

 

This does not mean, of course, that the idea of turning professional has never entered any AA's mind. In the lean years, Bill W. did think of becoming a lay therapist to earn money through his experience in helping alcoholics. But, with a strong nudge from the group conscience, he soon realised that he could never hang out a shingle reading "Bill W., AA Therapist, $10 an Hour"! It became clear to the early member that no AA should ever ask or accept payment for "carrying this message to somebody else, person to person and face to face."...

 

On occasion, volunteers have given their time and talent to all these services, and their contributions are deeply appreciated. But what if the Fellowship decided that all such assignments should be handled only by unpaid volunteers? In present-day AA, there's too great a volume of work to be done in spare hours here and there, and only the rich or the retired could afford to work full-time. If we tried to find in this limited group people qualified for particular tasks, obviously the field would be narrowed down–too often, down to nobody at all.

 

There would be another problem in using volunteers alone: It seems ungrateful–or, at least, it's socially awkward–to criticise or reject a job done for free. But paid jobs for AA get quite a going-over! Take our literature, for instance (like this pamphlet). Whatever the subject, we want to be sure that each piece expresses as clearly as possible the view of the group conscience of AA as a whole. So any new project must first be approved by the Conference. Once it is in progress, the Literature Committee of the General Service Board keeps a careful eye on it at every stage. Frequently, drastic changes are required. The "finished" product then must be okayed both by that committee and by the Conference Literature Committee, and further revisions are often–

 

"Now wait a minute!" some old-timer may interrupt. "What's going on here? Didn't Dr. Bob say, 'Let's keep it simple'?"

Tradition Eight Discussion Questions

1. Do I try to sound in AA like an expert on alcoholism? On recovery? On medicine? On sociology? On AA itself? On psychology? On spiritual matters? Or, heaven help me, even on humility?
2. Do I sometimes try to get some reward—even if not money—for my personal AA efforts?
3. Do I understand what AA employees there are and what they do?
4. Does being nonprofessional mean that we should not do our service work to a professional standard?
5. Do I give more value to the opinions of a member who works in the recovery sector or do I listen to and value the experience of all members?

(More HERE)