The Certified Audit

Sooner or later you will hear that somebody, somewhere, is making money off A.A. This was a real concern before the Traditions existed. Tradition 8 clearly states: A.A. stays "forever nonprofessional." Nobody is ever paid for Twelfth Step work — carrying the message to the drunk still drinking. It breaks the moment the message itself is sold. Even the A.A. founders were once on trial for it. Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers reports: "In 1942, a story got around Cleveland that the New York office and the Big Book were nothing but a racket." After a thinly attended dinner, the local group chairmen led Bill W. and Dr. Bob into a hotel parlor where a lawyer and an accountant waited. The claim: the two founders had split $64,000. Bill wrote (A.A. Comes of Age) that he "happened to have with me a certified audit of all of our affairs from the beginning." The books showed the money ran the office. No alcoholic had ever been charged for help. Dr. Bob was living on thirty dollars a week and had never taken a royalty. The committee apologized. Bill's own verdict: "This was one of the test cases out of which A.A.'s Tradition respecting professionalism and paid workers was evolved."