'Please Put A Penny In  The Old Man's Hat...'

SO goes a line in an old Christmas carol that shot into my memory during a recent AA business meeting. We were discussing the topic of the Seventh Tradition; how much money is contributed when the hat is passed around the room towards the end of each meeting, the principle of the ‘Overflowing Hat’ and how wisely this money is spent by the trusted servants throughout the Fellowship.

The final point first; since the earliest days of our wonderful Fellowship, recovering drunks have debated and sometimes even fought about how best to spend the money collected. Bill was stone broke throughout the late 30s and 40s, which must have been difficult for him and Lois personally. Yet, the principle of applying 100% of the collected money to the execution of our primary purpose was firmly established during this period. Whether for literature, public information initiatives, group, intergroup, Region, Conference expenses or the like, we have been trained to spend the Seventh Tradition funds wisely and to scrutinize how well we are doing. We also established clearly that no member of the Fellowship should be denied the opportunity of doing service due to any difficult personal financial circumstances.

The principle of the 'Overflowing Hat´ is set out clearly in a short brochure provided free of charge by GSO in York. According to this principle, money contributed at group level should be used wisely for the day-to-day expenses of that group. Part of the wisdom is to set aside a sufficient prudent reserve, which can be drawn upon should unforeseen circumstances dictate. There are stories, for example, of miscalculations and/or insufficient financial controlling (we are not saints!), treasurers deciding to do further research into whether they are real alcoholics (thereby taking some funds entrusted to their care to finance the research!) and sometimes extreme volatility, from time to time, in the volume of contributions.

Any surplus over and above current expenses and the prudent reserve, should be passed downward to the next level, i.e. the intergroup. Here the same principle applies, with any surplus going down to Region. When Region has carried out its duties to the Fellowship and 'the still suffering alcoholic´ any money left-over is passed down to the General Services Office. Each level of the Fellowship it thereby encouraged to do all it can to fulfil our Primary Purpose within its own sphere of influence and pass on any surplus to the next level, whereby all are obliged, in line with our Traditions and the ethos of accountability, to publish (at the least) annual financial reports accessible to those they serve.

Which brings me to the final point; how much each of us contributes. I must confess that I felt directly addressed by the person in the recent business meeting when she said, “Even today in 2019 many people still put in £1, just as we did a decade ago. We don’t see our contribution in terms of what needs to be done to fulfil our Primary Purpose or in relation to the amount we were prepared to spend on drink in the past or on that latte today.”

Boom! She was right. While I was broke (several periods lasting multiple quarters) it was quite reasonable for me to limit my contribution to £1 or 50p, that the Promises be fulfilled. This is no longer the case. I cannot, on reflection, justify spending £3.50 on my latte while putting only £1 in the pot. I am grateful for this wake-up call, which I gladly share with you by means of this article.

Have a sunny sober day.

PATRICK L