Step 7 · Tradition 7 · Concept VII
Who holds us up
Humility asks God for help, self-support keeps the group free, and the groups' basket keeps the Conference and board in balance.
Step 7 · Recovery
Humility
Asking, with humility, for help with our shortcomings
Read Step 7 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Tradition 7 · Unity
Responsibility
Paying our own way, declining outside contributions
Read Tradition 7 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Concept VII · Service
Balance
The board's legal power, balanced by the Conference's purse and tradition
Read Concept VII at aa.org (opens in a new tab)The Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts for World Service are copyrighted by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Read them in full at aa.org.
The thread
Step Seven asks us to approach God with humility, admitting we cannot fix ourselves and asking for help. Tradition Seven asks the group to pay its own way and decline outside money, so that no outside hand can steer it. Concept VII explains that the General Service Board holds legal authority under its charter, while the Conference’s authority rests on tradition and on the power of the purse, the groups’ own contributions. Humility, in all three, is knowing where our support truly comes from: from God for the individual, from ourselves for the group, and from the groups for the whole structure.
Where it shows up
Humbly asking for help with a shortcoming, a member learns that the asking itself is the point, and that strength arrives from somewhere other than her own effort. A home group lives Tradition Seven when it declines a generous bequest from a grateful family, and when it takes a hard look at a prudent reserve that has grown larger than it needs and sends the rest along to its intergroup or central office, the district, the area and GSO. Those group contributions are the only money the Conference has to stand on, which is exactly what Concept VII means by the power of the purse: the trustees hold the legal title and the corporate powers, but the groups hold the checkbook and the trust. If the Fellowship ever stopped giving, the Conference would have no leverage, and if the board ever ignored the Conference, the groups would stop giving. Humility keeps the two in balance the way it keeps the individual leaning on God rather than on himself.