The Sponsor Who Bills

Picture a sponsor who starts charging. It begins reasonably — his time is real, he's been at this twenty years, and the men he takes through the Steps get sober. So there is a monthly figure now, and a schedule, and a message saying he can fit you in Thursday. Watch what it does, because it does not change a single word that gets said. It changes who is sitting in the chair. A sponsee is a man you can tell the truth to; you have nothing to lose by losing him. A client is a man you can lose. And a man you can lose is a man you must control. The harsh truth gets softened. The conversation that belonged to the sponsee starts serving the sponsor. The relationship has acquired an interest, and an interest bends everything it touches — including whether he ever tells you it is there. A.A. drew this line early. Its pamphlet on the Traditions, P-43, says it became clear to the first members that no A.A. should ever ask or accept payment for "carrying this message to somebody else, person to person and face to face." That is what sponsorship is. There is no version of it with an invoice attached: no company the sponsor answers to, no outside organisation with a stake in what he tells you.