Frequently Asked Questions

Below there are frequently asked questions arranged by category.

Group membership requires no formal application. As stated in Tradition Three, “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking…
Individual A.A. members and A.A. groups may make a contribution to benefit GSO online or by mail. In keeping with A.A.’s tradition of self-support,…
This is a personal matter. However, the spirit of the program is one of sharing, and a recent study of A.A. members shows that a high proportion of…
Please see the A.A. Finance Guidelines (publication MG-15) section entitled "Bank Accounts & Tax ID numbers" (page 4). This publication is…
To help support A.A.’s essential services, the General Service Conference suggests that individual groups, through an informed group conscience,…
No. Each A.A. entity — group, district, area, central office and GSO — provides a specific service and is autonomous. Contributions should be made…
Members and groups who participate in A.A.’s tradition of self-support often say the amount they contribute is secondary to the spiritual connection…
No. The recording is of a one-man play called Moments, An Evening with Bill W., written in 1989 by an A.A. member. According to the playwright, an…
Anonymity is and always has been the basis of the A.A. program. Most members, after they have been in A.A. awhile, have no particular objection if…
A few people have stopped drinking after reading Alcoholics Anonymous, the A.A. “Big Book,” which sets forth the basic principles of the recovery…
Many alcoholics, by the time they turn to A.A. for help with their drinking problems, have also accumulated substantial financial problems. Not…
Bill W. was not nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In early 1960 an individual from the New York area wrote to Bill concerning the possibility of…