AA literature and history together - Read Bill W.'s 1948 Grapevine article on Tradition Six:

Tradition Six

   The sixth of our Twelve Points of AA Tradition is deemed so

important that it states at length the relation of the AA

movement to money and property.

   This Tradition declares in substance that the accumulation of

money, property, and the unwanted personal authority so often

generated by material wealth comprise a cluster of serious

hazards against which an AA group must ever be on guard.

   Tradition Six also enjoins the group never to go into business

nor ever to lend the AA name or money credit to any "outside"

enterprise, no matter how good. Strongly expressed is the

opinion that even clubs should not bear the AA name; that they

ought to be separately incorporated and managed by those

individual AAs who need or want clubs enough to financially

support them.

   We would thus divide the spiritual from the material, confine

the AA movement to its sole aim, and ensure (however wealthy

as individuals we may become) that AA itself shall always

remain poor. We dare not risk the distractions of corporate

wealth. They have become certainties, absolute verities for us.

   Thank God, we AAs have never yet been caught in the kind of

religious or political disputes which embroil the world of

today. But we ought to face the fact that we have often

quarreled violently about money, property, and the administration 

thereof. Money, in quantity, has always been a

baleful influence in group life. Let a well-meaning donor

present an AA group with a sizable sum and we break loose. Nor

does trouble abate until that group, as such, somehow disposes

of its bankroll. This experience is practically universal.

"But," say our friends, "isn't this a confession of weakness?

Other organizations do a lot of good with money. Why not AA?"

   Of course, we of AA would be the first to say that many a fine

enterprise does a lot of good with a lot of money. To these

efforts money is usually primary; it is their lifeblood. But

money is not the lifeblood of AA. With us, it is very

secondary. Even in small quantities, it is scarcely more than

a necessary nuisance, something we wish we could do without

entirely. Why is that so?

   We explain that easily enough; we don't need money. The core

of AA procedure is one alcoholic talking to another, whether

that be sitting on a curbstone, in a home, or at a meeting.

It's the message, not the place; it's the talk, not the alms.

That does our work. Just places to meet and talk, that's about

all AA needs. Beyond these, a few small offices, a few

secretaries at their desks, a few dollars apiece a year,

easily met by voluntary contributions. Trivial indeed, our

expenses!

   Nowadays, the AA group answers its well-wishers saying: "Our

expenses are trifling. As good earners, we can easily pay

them. As we neither need nor want money, why risk its hazards?

We'd rather stay poor. Thanks just the same!

Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., May 1948