Our 7th Tradition – Self-Support in 2016

Consider what other AA members have shared about their experience with the 7th Tradition:

• When I started, I put $1 in the basket at every meeting I went to and I was going to a meeting every day. Awhile ago, I realized I was going to 2-3 meetings a week now and still only putting in $1. My contributions to AA had gone from about $30 a month to about $10!
• When I first came into AA, I had lost my job; I was unemployable. Now I’m not only employable, but I earn more than I ever did. When I realized none of that would be true without my getting and staying sober in AA, I decided I wanted to give more.
• My home group does AA’s Birthday Plan, where it’s tradition (little “t”) for us to put $1 in the basket for every year we’re celebrating when we pick up our chip. [Other groups use AA’s Birthday Plan envelopes to contribute similarly directly to AAWS.]
• I went to a meeting in another state and heard about the $2/$5 thing and I really liked it. Instead of putting $1 in the basket, I put $5 in the basket at my home group and $2 in the basket at other meetings.
• I saw this guy had a $2 bill on the table at a meeting. I asked about it because I hadn’t seen one in a long time. He told me he goes to the bank to get a bunch of them and then he uses them to put $2 in the basket. He said he does it to get people to ask about it so he can tell them about putting more than $1 in the basket. It worked on me! Sometimes I even go to the bank and get a bunch of $2 bills.