You Own the House and Want to Announce It

You have empty beds, and you are sitting in a meeting where people need a place to sleep. You want to say the vacancies out loud. It feels like help. It also feels like a commercial, and you can already hear it in your own voice.

You can be a member and not pitch the house. The group should not become your ad.

The name is not yours to lend

Tradition Six says the group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise. A sober house, or a similar business, is an outside enterprise. It may be a decent place. People may need it. The tradition is still about the name and the group, not about whether your rooms are clean. Announcing vacancies in the meeting puts the fellowship to work as your listing service. That is the pitch. Skip it.

The long form says cooperation is not affiliation. It also says clubs and hospitals that are separately incorporated ought not use the A.A. name. You do not have to map your house onto those exact words to see the shape. Your business stays your business. The meeting stays a meeting. Cooperation, if it ever belongs anywhere, is not a share that ends with a vacancy count.

You might tell yourself you are only being useful. Useful can be true and still be an ad. The people who came tonight came to hear what drinking did and what someone did to stop. They did not come to comparison-shop a bed. If you take the format for your business, you teach the newcomer that the room is a storefront. You know how that feels when you are the newcomer. Do not do it from the other chair.

You still get a chair

Owning the house does not push you out. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. The welcome includes profession. Landlord, manager, house staff who also drinks: profession is already named. There are no dues or fees. You can sit and listen. If you share, share your experience with drinking, not a vacancy, not the rules of the house, not who moved out. Introducing yourself is not mandatory. You need not join a prayer. You can pass the basket. The basket is members supporting the group. It is not an endorsement.

Groups set their own format. If you are the chair tonight, that service is trust, not a microphone for the business. Open the meeting the way this group opens it. Do not add a classified. If someone else owns the announcement and asks you to read a plug, you can decline. A fundraiser with the A.A. name is the same family of problem. Do not put the group on a flyer covers the paper version. Vacancies in a spoken announcement are the same lend of the name, just faster.

Nothing here is a zoning lesson or a permit lesson. Your local rules for the house are your local rules, and they are not written in the Traditions. Do not look to the group for what a city allows you to operate. Look to the group for a meeting.

After the meeting is still not a captive audience

You will be tempted in the parking lot, where need looks like a private favor. A newcomer asking where to sleep is a human moment. You can be kind without turning the sidewalk into a counter. Handing every scared person your business, with the meeting still emptying behind you, is how the group becomes the front door of the enterprise. If you are unsure, do not sell. Let them get home. Let them find help the way people find help when nobody is pitching.

aa.org is not a meeting finder, and it is not a housing office. The meetings search lists meetings, and the listings are not verified. It is not a board of vacancies. Confirm a meeting if you need one for yourself. You do not confirm your business through the fellowship's list.

An open meeting allows observers. A closed meeting is for members, or for people with a drinking problem and a desire to stop. Neither format is a leasing appointment. Court and treatment referrals are welcome. Those referrals are about the person's drinking, not about filling your beds.

If you are sick

Empty beds will still be there in the morning. Call 911 if you are sick, confused, or cannot breathe. Call or text 988 if you are in a mental health crisis. NIAAA says alcohol withdrawal can be life-threatening when a person who drinks heavily over time stops suddenly.

NIDA says mutual-help groups such as A.A. are peer-led, not led by healthcare professionals, and not a substitute for treatment. The meeting is not detox, and your house is not the meeting. SAMHSA's National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357), is free, confidential, and available 24/7 in English and Spanish. FindTreatment.gov lists programs.

Tonight

Go to the meeting as a member. Leave the vacancies out of the announcements, off the flyers, and out of your share. If you need a meeting for yourself, use the meetings search and confirm the listing. Call (800) 653-9376 if you need treatment; the call is free to you, treatment providers pay for the referral, the line is not an intergroup, and the line is not A.A., and it is not SMART Recovery.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• A.A.: The Twelve Traditions
• A.A.: Need help with a drinking problem?
• A.A.: What to Expect at an A.A. Meeting
• A.A.: Find A.A. Near You
• NIAAA Core Resource: Alcohol Use Disorder, From Risk to Diagnosis to Recovery
• NIDA: Treatment, including mutual-help groups
• SAMHSA National Helpline
• SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
• SmarterRecovery meetings page (listings are not verified)
• SmarterRecovery about page (calling is free to the caller)

Common Questions