A Buck in the Basket?
Questions about contributions today
Take me out to the ball game, but I won’t expect you to buy me a hot dog,
too. Those who participate in the highway robbery of buying refreshments at
sports events pay something like $6.00 for the beer and $5.00 or more for
the hot dog. (I can remember when one got a whole case of beer at that
price.)
It’s a harsh fact that inflation has us by the
throat and is choking us to death. Those of us who are no longer kids feel
pinched and distressed by the ongoing soaring prices.
So how does this affect Grapevine readers? In order to
keep operating, businesses like the Grapevine must raise their rates to
keep this battle against the roaring tiger under control. Gasoline hovers
around $2.50 to $3.00 a gallon. Movies cost in the neighborhood of $8.00.
We are all aware of these facts. Let’s look at AA meetings, something
dear and essential in our lives, which are treated shabbily by far too many
members.
When I first came to AA in 1963, the accepted
contribution was $1.00, which seemed to pretty well cover expenses. That
dollar from 1963, the average “dues” paid by most members, when
adjusted for inflation is equal to just 16 cents today!
How — and why — should this be? you might
ask. The cost of food and other essentials, like coffee, has tripled in
forty years. The cost of rent for most meeting places has shot up,
too. Literature, directories, coffee, cream and sugar, paper cups, it
all adds up.
We have not really paid serious attention to inflation
in AA, even though we’d have to be blind not to recognize its serious
nature. Churches, which so generously make their facilities available,
deserve a larger rental fee. The bite of inflation affects them, too. If we
aren’t paying a fair rental fee, we have to ask ourselves if we are
in violation of Tradition Seven: “Every A.A. group ought to be fully
self-supporting, declining outside contributions.”
Likewise, there have been continuously increasing
expenses to maintain our vital intergroup offices, area assemblies, and the
General Service Office in New York. They can’t carry our message of
recovery effectively without adequate funding, and there are millions of
alcoholics around the world awaiting a message they may never hear.
Obviously, if the average contribution is only one
dollar, a group of fifteen or twenty members will have little, if any,
money left over to make badly needed contributions to these AA service
units after paying for coffee, rent, and literature.
Does this help explain why only about half of all
groups in Canada and the United States contributed to the GSO last year?
That lamentable figure — only about fifty percent of the membership
— is about the same for my local groups’ contributions to our
intergroup office.
Is this responsibility? Is one dollar — less
than the price of a bag of popcorn at a movie — the value that we
place on AA?
Let’s wake up to the dangers lurking out there.
We must not deny our precious life-saving heritage to other alcoholics
lurking in the wings for lack of a few more dollars from each of us, not if
we truly believe our Declaration of Responsibility: “I am
responsible. When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the
hand of AA always to be there. And for that: I am responsible.”
Jack H., Stanwood, Washington
 You can download and listen to this story at AudioGrapevine
Editor’s note: There are no dues or fees in
AA. AA is here for anyone who reaches out for help. The program is
given freely to anyone who wants to stop drinking, even at times when
he or she may not be able to contribute financially.
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