Cancel culture strikes again! We have recently been “uninvited” from the international DA meeting list over disagreements in our interpretation of the 12 Traditions. Please don’t worry about this. Neither the DA General Service Board nor the DA World Service Conference has the authority to censure, punish, or banish DA or BDA members. Please see the Traditions and Concepts, perhaps especially Concept 12, for confirmation.

Unsurprisingly, the issues at hand are money and power (and authority):

We’ve been accused of breaking the 4th Tradition because, by serving DA and BDA members globally, we have the potential to affect other groups and DA as a whole. The potential of something is not the reality of anything. Since 2020, we have happily provided free literature to more than 1,400 requestors from every continent except Antarctica. We like to think there’s been a positive effect from our service.

We’ve been accused of breaking the 6th Tradition because the GSB has deemed us an outside enterprise. We are not. We are simply a small group of solvent, recovering BDA members practicing the DA and BDA program principles, tools, and promises. By this definition —" a project or undertaking, typically one that is difficult or requires effort” — we are an enterprise, but very much an inside enterprise. By this definition — "a business or company”— we are not an enterprise, outside or otherwise. We are BDA members helping BDA members … and DA members too.

We’ve been accused of breaking the 7th Tradition because we ask for generous contributions as debtors register for our 6-month recovery conferences, which are not DA or BDA meetings, but which are closed to non-debtors. We’d like to think these events, like most recovery conferences, are MUCH MORE than meetings. We do not ask for weekly contributions during the conference. 

Here’s our truth: We spend approximately $1,000 per month purchasing and shipping conference-approved literature to debtors who request it. Conference contributions at the time of registration are our primary funding source for that service. Our experience is that immediate practice of generosity and reciprocity in this program has changed our lives and opened us to receiving in ways that we never could before. Please join us in these practices. 

Additionally, we are embarrassed by our fellow members who refuse to contribute despite months or years of recovery in this program, and we do not support that stinginess and ingratitude, although we do offer one-time scholarships. Otherwise, we ask everyone to contribute SOMETHING, and we suggest $60 to $180 for six months, where every $30 buys a set of conference-approved books for someone who requests them. Our steering committee members each contribute $250 to $500 per six-month cycle.

Please don’t let this misdirected heavy handedness of DA’s GSB interfere with or discourage you from participation in our recovery conference. We have been providing this service, as well as the free literature, which go hand in hand, since 2020. We love helping compulsive debtors, especially business owners, to get and stay solvent and to take the 12 Steps.

Please feel free to share this information with other debtors.