• AA Literature
    • A.A. Big Book
      • A.A. Big Book (164 Pages)
      • Big Book Stories Edition 1
      • Big Book Stories Edition 2
    • A.A. Preamble
    • Singleness of Purpose
    • A.A. 12 Steps
    • A.A. 12 Traditions
    • A.A. 12 Concepts
    • 12 Traditions Checklist
    • 9th Step Promises (Pg 83/84)
    • The Serenity Prayer
    • Principles Of The Program
    • I Am Responsible
    • The Page Of Prayers
  • A.A. History
    • The Emmanuel Movement
    • The Washingtonians
    • Magazine & Newspaper Articles
    • Narrative Of A.A. Timeline
    • Timelines In A.A. History
    • Manuscript Of A.A. World History – Bob P.
    • Place And Things In AA History
    • Who’s Who In A.A. History
    • Big Book Story Authors
    • Writings Of A.A. Members
  • Influential Books
    • A.A. Big Book (164 Pages)
    • Big Book Stories Edition 1
    • Big Book Stories Edition 2
    • Mel B’s Library
    • Dick B.’s Library
    • The Greatest Thing In The World
    • The Varieties Of Religious Experiences
    • In His Steps
    • As A Man Thinketh
    • When Man Listens
    • John Barleycorn
    • The Confessions Of Saint Augustine (13 Books)
    • Religion, Clergy & A.A.
  • Free Stuff
    • Free Audiobooks & Speaker Tapes
    • Videos Of Bill Wilson
    • The PDF Project (1000+ PDF’s)
    • Free AA Apps For iPhone
    • Free AA Apps For Android
    • Free 12 Step Toolkit App
  • 10-Days To Sobriety
  • AA Literature
    • A.A. Big Book
      • A.A. Big Book (164 Pages)
      • Big Book Stories Edition 1
      • Big Book Stories Edition 2
    • A.A. Preamble
    • Singleness of Purpose
    • A.A. 12 Steps
    • A.A. 12 Traditions
    • A.A. 12 Concepts
    • 12 Traditions Checklist
    • 9th Step Promises (Pg 83/84)
    • The Serenity Prayer
    • Principles Of The Program
    • I Am Responsible
    • The Page Of Prayers
  • A.A. History
    • The Emmanuel Movement
    • The Washingtonians
    • Magazine & Newspaper Articles
    • Narrative Of A.A. Timeline
    • Timelines In A.A. History
    • Manuscript Of A.A. World History – Bob P.
    • Place And Things In AA History
    • Who’s Who In A.A. History
    • Big Book Story Authors
    • Writings Of A.A. Members
  • Influential Books
    • A.A. Big Book (164 Pages)
    • Big Book Stories Edition 1
    • Big Book Stories Edition 2
    • Mel B’s Library
    • Dick B.’s Library
    • The Greatest Thing In The World
    • The Varieties Of Religious Experiences
    • In His Steps
    • As A Man Thinketh
    • When Man Listens
    • John Barleycorn
    • The Confessions Of Saint Augustine (13 Books)
    • Religion, Clergy & A.A.
  • Free Stuff
    • Free Audiobooks & Speaker Tapes
    • Videos Of Bill Wilson
    • The PDF Project (1000+ PDF’s)
    • Free AA Apps For iPhone
    • Free AA Apps For Android
    • Free 12 Step Toolkit App
  • 10-Days To Sobriety
home/Alcoholics Anonymous/Grapevine Articles/Other Grapevine Articles

Corporate Poverty

487 views 0 aa

Corporate Poverty

Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., March 1997

This article is adapted from a presentation given by Gary A. Glynn, Class A (nonalcoholic) trustee at a general sharing session of the General Service Board, October 1994.

The subtitle for this sharing session on corporate poverty is: “spiritual and practical principles that assure AA’s future.” That got me thinking. I think in AA, spiritual and practical are the same thing. Imagine someone coming into service who wanted to have some influence in AA and promoted some practical-sounding idea that had no spiritual merit. The Fellowship would quickly put a stop to that. Such a person would have to find some idea with a spiritual basis – even if he didn’t believe it. So anything that is going to be of any practical use to us has to be spiritual as well.

At the same time, it looks to me as if AA, beginning with Bill W., has quickly dropped any spiritual-sounding ideas that don’t pass the practical tests of keeping alcoholics sober or keeping AA together.

So, is corporate poverty a spiritual and practical principle that will assure AA’s future? Of course, it is.

In the Seventh Tradition, when talking about how AA acted when it found out about the bequests that were coming its way, Bill wrote, “The pressure of that fat treasury would surely tempt the board to invent all kinds of schemes to do good with such funds, and so divert AA from its primary purpose. The moment that happened, our Fellowship’s confidence would be shaken. The board would be isolated and would fall under heavy attack of criticism from both AA and the public. Then our trustees wrote a bright page in AA history. They declared for the principle that AA must always stay poor. Bare running expenses plus a prudent reserve would henceforth be the Foundation’s financial policy.” He went on to say, “At that moment, we believe, the principle of corporate poverty was firmly and finally embedded in AA tradition.”

That sounds pretty simple: avoid schemes that divert us from our primary purpose and only have enough money around to meet bare running expenses and maintain a prudent reserve. I don’t think anyone in this room would object to those statements, so why are we sharing about them? The reason is that they mean different things to different people.

The Concepts try to help us a little more in making these principles concrete, but the Concepts can be confusing, especially about the power of the purse and our prudent reserve, which usually are at the center of debates about corporate poverty. In the first warranty, Bill tells us why a dictator wouldn’t last a year: “And in the brief time he did last, what would he use for money? Our Delegates, directly representing the groups, control the ultimate supply of our service funds.” Sounds here like the power of the purse is supposed to be immediate, doesn’t it? That’s on page 63 [of Twelve Concepts for World Service]. On page 65, in the second warranty, writing about what hard times might do to AA, Bill says, “Our present reserve and its book income could see us through several years of hard times without the slightest diminution in the strength and quality of our world effort.” Sounds here as if immediate wasn’t what he had in mind after all.

Throughout Bill’s writings, there’s the sense of his recognizing the balancing act he was asking us to take on. Too much, and we argue over perilous wealth and power and lose sight of our primary purpose of carrying the message. Too little, and we risk losing the ability to carry the message at all. So he spoke for both sides in different places.

What are the issues here? AA groups are formed and dissolved all the time, and a reserve of one or two months for a group seems adequate to a lot of people. I’ve been asked, “If one or two month’s reserve is okay for a group, why do we need ten or twelve at GSO?” For one thing, it is probably easier to form a new group than it is to form a new GSO. There is no alternative GSO to turn to if ours goes under. The services we provide have been built up out of many years’ collective experience and would be hard to recreate. Also, despite the eagerness of others to publish some of our literature, GSO needs to continue to publish regularly without the threat of interruption so the message of sobriety will continuously be available, both through the written message itself and the services supported in part by literature profits. Many of our projects extend over a considerable period of time, like financing new translations or planning a convention. I think the Fellowship takes the financial stability of GSO for granted and assumes it will always stay that way.

Bill wrote about how Alcoholics Anonymous got the outside world’s attention when the world realized AA was going to be self-supporting. He pointed out that most people viewed alcoholics as financially irresponsible. When I tell people who don’t know much about AA that we accept no outside contributions, and are self-supporting and solvent, the reaction is amazement and admiration. AA has such a solid reputation with the public. When we discuss the idea that it might be sound to lower our Reserve Fund to come closer to some supposedly more spiritual level of corporate poverty, we should recognize that we would also be coming closer to the point of running out of money if we run into hard times or if some of those “possible demands on the Reserve Fund” occur at inconvenient intervals. The lower our Reserve Fund, the higher the risk of some financial accident where we run out of money. What would we do if we ran out of money? A financial failure of AA would do incalculable harm to our reputation with the public, the Fellowship, and with some poor drunk who’s looking for a reason to believe AA doesn’t work.

If we ran out of money, we might have to borrow from a bank temporarily to keep the doors open. If we did that, we would lose some measure of financial independence. A strong Reserve Fund is one of the prices we have to pay to assure that no one but the Fellowship sets our financial policies. And continually debating whether the Reserve Fund is perilously large is part of the price.

One counter to that argument is that if there ever was a real emergency, AA groups would increase their contributions and rescue GSO. This argument says, in effect, that we should rely on our Higher Power operating through the groups to save us from our own imprudence. Maybe that would work. If we rely on that, we wouldn’t have to worry about the accuracy of our budgets, our accounting, or much of anything really. This may be the place to invoke Bill’s comment in the Ninth Concept about casting the whole idea of planning for tomorrow onto a fatuous idea of Providence. I don’t believe that because God looks after AA, it doesn’t matter what we do in the practical realm. It’s risky to ask our Higher Power to bail us out of trouble when we can avoid it ourselves by budgeting solidly, running GSO and the Grapevine in a businesslike manner, and keeping at least ten months’ expenses in our Reserve Fund. I know that some responsible people in service think nine or even eight months might be okay. The treasurer probably should be a bit more conservative than most of you.

I also think that if we ever had to go to the groups and say, for example, “If you don’t send us $500,000 of contributions within the next three months we’ll have to lay off half of our staff and cancel the Conference,” the reaction probably wouldn’t be, “Oh, aren’t they spiritual at GSO, practicing corporate poverty. Well, anyone can make a mistake. Let’s send them more money.” I think the actual and proper response from the groups would be that GSO didn’t know what it was doing and shouldn’t be trusted with any money at all.

But it is true that some groups are reluctant to contribute to GSO when they see a $9 million Reserve Fund. The problem with focusing on this amount is that the dollar amount low enough to counter that reluctance is so low that we would be running severe risks if we got to that level. That’s the main reason we’ve been displaying our financial numbers on a per-group basis as well as in total, like $156 per group for the amount in the Reserve Fund. This is not a trick; it’s a way to point out to the Fellowship how large we are. A large Fellowship will show large absolute dollar numbers.

Bill W. solved the question of whether a prudent reserve inhibited contributions. He wrote, “It is said that the impression is created that AA Headquarters is already well off and that hence there is no need for more money. This is not at all the general attitude, however, and its effect on contributions is probably small.” I wish I could get away with simply asserting that conclusion the way Bill did, but I don’t think I can.

I think the keys here are, first, we must be true stewards with AA’s money, acting as if we were poor even if we have a prudent Reserve Fund. No one is going to send us contributions if we are perceived as wasting money or spending it in marginally effective ways. I have said elsewhere that there were two ways to avoid going over the twelve-month limit on the Reserve Fund: spend more money or reduce literature income. I said, “We will not increase spending above ordinary amounts unless the Fellowship clearly indicates a desire for new services. We must control spending, despite the presence of a large Reserve Fund, with the same sense of stewardship that we would exercise if the Reserve Fund were small.” I believe that truly and think it’s a reasonable description of corporate poverty in practice. And in fact that’s what we did, reducing pamphlets and other literature prices in a way that makes it easier to carry the message and helps groups’ finances.

The other two keys to more contributions, and what I think is much more important – the number of groups contributing – are, first, explaining what the money is spent on, which we are now able to do with our new reports, and second, emphasizing the spiritual benefits of making contributions. Contributions are as important to the contributor as they are to the recipient. Contributions are very important for AA unity because making contributions gives the groups an opportunity to know that they are part of carrying the message of AA around the world.

Group contributions are important to us and they must always be at a high enough level so we hear the Fellowship directly, but I’ve never understood the equation that group contributions equal self-support but literature sales do not. I agree completely with Bill W. that book profits are “actually the sum of a great many contributions which book buyers make to the general welfare of Alcoholics Anonymous. The certain and continuous solvency of our world service rests squarely upon these contributions. Looked at in this way, our Reserve Fund is actually the aggregate of many small sacrifices made by the book buyers.”

What I’m trying to say is that corporate poverty is more a state of mind than the size of our bank account. We all know people and organizations that extravagantly spend money they don’t have, living beyond their means either by ignoring the facts of their finances or by assuming a rosy tomorrow. So you can in fact be poor and not practice corporate poverty. It happens to museums and opera companies all the time. The opposite is also possible, that we can maintain a prudent reserve without falling into the temptation of spending it just because it’s there. One fear I hear expressed is that GSO might ignore the will of the Fellowship because we have a prudent reserve. My experience at board weekends, the Conference, and AAWS and Grapevine corporate board meetings is that there is no danger of that. First of all, group contributions pay for three-quarters of services spending. But even more important, we listen because we know we should and must.

One advantage of having a sound prudent reserve is that it makes it easier for us to sign a lease for office space on good terms. A reserve fund is one of the few ways a nonprofit has to show a landlord that it is creditworthy. Another big advantage is that it lets us plan with better budgets. The year 1994 is a good example. We used best estimates throughout the budget. If we had had only five or six months’ expenses in reserve, we would have had to use more conservative budget estimates, which would have meant either cutting expenses or raising literature prices to balance our budget, which we never had to contemplate. I wouldn’t have been able to support reducing literature prices at mid-year, even though it was the right thing to do from a service point of view, if we had only had a six months’ Reserve Fund.

I started out by saying that if it wasn’t spiritual it wouldn’t work in AA and if it wasn’t practical, it wasn’t spiritual. A solid, prudent Reserve Fund and good business management skills are both spiritual and practical. It is neither practical nor spiritual to accumulate more or spend more than we need to. It is also neither practical nor spiritual to run out of money. As usual Bill has a good phrase for what we need. He called it fiscal common sense.

Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., March 1997

In practicing our Traditions, The AA Grapevine, Inc. has neither endorsed nor are they affiliated with Silkworth.net.
The Grapevine®, and AA Grapevine® are registered trademarks of The AA Grapevine, Inc.

Tags:aabig bookaa grapevinealcoholics anonymous1997

Was this helpful?

Yes  No
Related Articles
  • How AA Came To Geneva, Nebraska In 1964
  • I Don’t Feel As If I Belong Anymore
  • New Century, Same Old AA
  • What We Were Like Emmet Fox And Alcoholics Anonymous
  • The Home Group
  • You Mean You’re Still Married?
Popular Articles
  • Dr. Tom M., 1987 PNW Conference Ptld.
  • Chapter VII
  • Decisions
  • Chapter XVII
  • Father Martin Malevski, At Oshawa, Canada 1997
KB Categories
  • Research & Study 14
    • Magazine And Newspaper Articles 149
    • People In A.A.'s History 26
    • A.A. History – News Articles 8
      • Cleveland Plain Dealer 8
    • Place And Things In AA History 13
    • Dr. William Duncan Silkworth M.D. 12
      • Grapevine Articles Of Dr. William Silkworth 5
    • The Washingtonians 31
      • Grapevine Articles Of The Washingtonians 15
    • Gresham's Law And Alcoholics Anonymous 5
    • A Narrative Of Timeline Of A.A. History 30
    • The Emmanuel Movement 12
    • Tiebout Papers 6
    • Stepping Stone News 1
    • Timelines In A.A. History 14
    • Big Book Story Author's 78
    • AA Growth 135
    • Timelines Of Historic A.A. Events 1
    • Charlie Bishop Jr. 3
    • Manuscript Of A.A. World History, 1985 – By Bob P. 23
    • Whos's Who In A.A.'s History 23
    • Big Book Changes 1
  • Audio Books 0
    • Videos 15
    • International Conventions – 2015 184
    • AA Speaker Chuck C. 111
    • AA Big Book Audiobook 14
    • AA Speakers Clergy 220
    • AA Speakers Doctor's 129
    • Sandy B. – Saturday Morning Live 12
    • AA Speaker Sandy B. 74
    • AA Assorted Speakers 195
    • AA Speaker Bill W. 100
    • Joe & Charlie 34
  • A.A. History – General 27
  • Literature 12
    • The First A.A. Pamphlet 8
    • Big Book 18
    • A.A. Prayers 10
    • Big Book Stories Edition 1 29
    • Big Book Stories Edition 2 40
    • The Big Book Concordance 27
    • The Original Manuscript Of AA. 16
  • Al-Anon 14
  • The PDF Project (1000+ PDF's 1
    • General Service Conference (157 Articles 6
    • Grapevine (51 Articles 5
    • History (437 Articles 52
    • The Big Book (179 Articles 6
    • Bill W. (172 Articles 4
    • Dr. Bob (24 Articles 1
  • Grapevine Articles 4
    • Additional A.A. Grapevine Articles 20
    • Big Book Updates 13
    • Other Grapevine Articles 33
    • Grapevine Articles – Interviews 6
    • Grapevine Reproduction 8
  • The History Of Alcoholics Anonymous 6
  • Other Articles 41
    • Religion, Clergy & A.A. 108
    • Printed Book Reviews 26
  • The Global Map 3
    • Caribbean 0
      • Haiti 1
      • Anguilla 1
      • Jamaica 1
      • Antiqua 1
      • Margarita 1
      • Aruba 1
      • Martinique 1
      • Bonaire 1
      • Puerto Rico 1
      • Barbados 1
      • Saint Maarten/Saint Martin 1
      • Barbuda 1
      • Saint Barts 1
      • Bahamas 1
      • Saint Lucia 1
      • Bermuda 1
      • Saint Vincent And The Grenadines 1
      • Cuba 1
      • Saba/Saint Eustatius 1
      • Cayman Island 1
      • Saint Kitts And Nevis 1
      • Curacao 1
      • Trinidad And Tobago 1
      • Dominican Republic 1
      • Turks And Caicos 1
      • Dominica 1
      • Virgin Islands 1
      • Grenada 1
      • Guadeloupe 1
    • Middle East 0
      • Lebanon 1
      • Oman 1
      • Qatar 1
      • Syria 1
      • Arabia 1
      • Saudi Arabia 1
      • Azerbaijan 1
      • Tajikistan 1
      • Armenia 1
      • Turkmenistan 1
      • Afghanistan 1
      • Turkey 1
      • Bahrain 1
      • United Arab Emirates 1
      • Cyprus 1
      • Yemen 1
      • Iran 1
      • Iraq 1
      • Israel 1
      • Jordan 1
      • Kuwait 1
      • Kyrgyzstan 1
    • Canada 0
      • Alberta 1
      • British Columbia 2
      • Manitoba 1
      • New Brunswick 1
      • Newfoundland 1
      • Northwest Territories 1
      • Nova Scotia 1
      • Ontario 18
      • Quebec 1
      • Saskatchewan 1
      • Yukon 1
    • South America 0
      • Paraguay 1
      • Suriname 1
      • South Georgia (UK 1
      • Uruguay 1
      • Venezuela 1
      • Aruba (NL 1
      • Argentina 1
      • Bolivia 1
      • Brazil 1
      • Chile 1
      • Ecuador 1
      • French Guiana (France 1
      • Falkland Islands (UK 1
      • Guyana 1
      • Netherland Antilles (NL 1
      • Peru 1
    • United States 0
      • Hawaii 1
      • Nebraska 1
      • Texas 6
      • Idaho 1
      • Nevada 1
      • Utah 1
      • Illinois 3
      • New Hampshire 1
      • Vermont 1
      • Indiana 1
      • New Jersey 3
      • Virginia/DC 3
      • Iowa 1
      • New Mexico 1
      • Washington 3
      • Kansas 1
      • New York 1
      • West Virginia 1
      • Alabama 1
      • Kentucky 1
      • North Carolina 2
      • Wisconsin 1
      • Alaska 1
      • Louisiana 1
      • North Dakota 1
      • Wyoming 1
      • Arizona 1
      • Maine 1
      • Ohio 5
      • Arkansas 1
      • Maryland 3
      • Oklahoma 1
      • California 4
      • Massachusetts 1
      • Oregon 1
      • Colorado 1
      • Michigan 4
      • Pennsylvania 6
      • Connecticut 1
      • Minnesota 2
      • Rhode Island 1
      • Delaware 1
      • Mississippi 1
      • South Carolina 5
      • Florida 28
      • Missouri 1
      • South Dakota 1
      • Georgia 1
      • Montana 1
      • Tennessee 1
    • Europe 0
      • Estonia 1
      • Malta 1
      • Ukraine 1
      • England 2
      • Macedonia 1
      • Wales 1
      • Finland 1
      • Monaco 1
      • Yugoslavia 1
      • France 1
      • Netherlands 1
      • Germany 1
      • Norway 1
      • Greece 1
      • Poland 1
      • Gibraltar 1
      • Portugal 1
      • Hungary 1
      • Romania 1
      • Austria 1
      • Herzegovina 1
      • Russia 2
      • Andorra 1
      • Iceland 1
      • Scotland 2
      • Belgium 1
      • Ireland 1
      • Slovakia 1
      • Bulgaria 1
      • Italy 1
      • Slovenia 1
      • Croatia.html 1
      • Latvia 1
      • Spain 1
      • Cyprus 1
      • Liechtenstein 1
      • Sweden 1
      • Czech Republic 1
      • Lithuania 1
      • Switzerland 1
      • Denmark 1
      • Luxembourg 1
      • Turkey 1
    • General 3
    • Australia (Oceania 0
      • Fiji 1
      • Tuvalu 1
      • French Polynesia 1
      • Vanuatu 1
      • Guam 1
      • Western Samoa 1
      • Kiribati 1
      • Wallis And Futuna Islands 1
      • Marshall Islands 1
      • Northern Mariana Islands 1
      • New Zealand 1
      • Nauru 1
      • New Caledonia 1
      • Niue 1
      • Palau 1
      • Australia 3
      • Papua New Guinea 1
      • American Samoa 1
      • Pitcairn Islands 1
      • Cook Islands 1
      • Solomon Islands 1
      • Coral Sea Islands 1
      • Tongi 1
      • Federated States Of Micronesia 1
      • Tokelau 1
    • Asia 0
      • China 1
      • Sri Lanka 1
      • Hong Kong 1
      • Thailand 1
      • India 1
      • Taiwan 1
      • Indonesia 1
      • Vietnam 1
      • Japan 1
      • Kazakhstan 1
      • Laos 1
      • Malaysia 1
      • Maldives 1
      • Mongolia 1
      • North Korea 1
      • Nepal 1
      • Pakistan 1
      • Bangladesh 1
      • Philippines 1
      • Burma 1
      • Russia 2
      • Bhutan 1
      • South Korea 1
    • Africa 0
      • Burkina Faso & Mali 1
      • Nigeria & Niger 1
      • Cameroon 1
      • Reunion & Mauritius 1
      • Central African Republic & Ethiopia 1
      • Rwanda & Burundi 1
      • Comoro Island & Seychelles 1
      • Saint Helena & Equatorial Guinea 1
      • Congo & Gabon 1
      • Sao Tome & Principe 1
      • Cote d'Ivoire & Guinea 1
      • Senegal & Cape Verde 1
      • Egypt 1
      • Somalia 1
      • Eritrea & Djibouti 1
      • South Africa & Lesotho 1
      • Ghana, Togo & Benin 1
      • Sudan & Chad 1
      • Guinea-Bissau & The Gambia 1
      • Swaziland & Mozambique 1
      • Liberia & Sierra Leone 1
      • Tanzania & D. R. Congo 1
      • Libya & Tunisia 1
      • Uganda & Kenya 1
      • Madagascar 1
      • Malawi & Zimbabwe 1
      • Algeria & Morocco 1
      • Mauritania & Western Sahara 1
      • Angola & Zambia 1
      • Namibia & Botswana 1
    • Central America 0
      • Costa Rica 1
      • El Salvador 1
      • Guatemala 1
      • Honduras 1
      • Mexico 1
      • Nicaragua 1
      • Panama 1
      • Belize 1
  • The Detroit Pamphlet 4
  • Writings Of A.A. Members 0
    • Bill W. 19
      • Let's Ask Bill W. 41
      • Bill W. On The 12 Traditions 16
      • Letters – To Jim Burwell From Bill Wilson 18
      • Letters – To Bill Wilson From Jim Burwell 3
      • Talks At General Service Conferences 31
        • Alcoholic Foundation 4
      • Grapevine Articles Of Bill W. 34
        • Grapevine – 12 Traditions Of A.A. 16
        • Grapevine – 12 Steps Of AA 2
    • Ebby Thacher 2
    • Others 13
      • Letters – To Jim Burwell From Bill Wilson 18
      • Letters – To Bill Wilson From Jim Burwell 3
    • Lois W. 7
    • Doctor Bob 10
    • Henry G. (Hank P. 2
    • Clarence S. 6
    • Bill D. 2
  • Influential Books 0
    • Big Book Of AA 21
    • Personal Stories – Edition 1 29
    • Personal Stories – Edition 2 40
    • Mel B.'s Library 56
      • The Four Absolutes 17
    • Dick B.'s Library 128
    • The Greatest Thing In The world 5
    • In His Steps 32
    • The Varieties Of Religious Experiences 17
    • As A Man Thinketh 8
    • When Man Listens 6
    • The Confessions Of Saint Augustine 5
      • Book Five 16
      • Book Six 18
      • Book Seven 23
      • Book Eight 14
      • Book Nine 15
      • Book Ten 45
      • Book Eleven 33
      • Book Twelve 34
      • Book Thirteen 40
      • Book One 20
      • Book Two 12
      • Book Three 14
      • Book Four 18
    • Other Books 9
    • John Barleycorn 39
AA Anonymity Statement

Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions.

Please respect this and treat in confidence who you see and what you hear.

About Silkworth.net
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal Disclaimer
  • Contact Us
External Links
  • Free 12 Step Toolkit App
  • Free AA Apple Apps
  • Free AA Android Apps
  • Silkworth’s YouTube Channel
  • Alcoholics Anonymous (AAWS Inc.)
  • AA Grapevine, International Journal of Alcoholics Anonymous
  • Al-Anon Family (Includes Alateen)
Newsletter Subscription





  • © 2020 silkworth.net. All Rights Reserved