“Every SA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.”

Some members have suggested we should tell everybody what the financial picture is at the General Service Office (formerly called SA Central), so here goes. First, everyone should know that we’ve gone in for non-profit (charitable) tax-exempt organization status with the Internal Revenue Service. This means that all contributions to local SA groups and to SA General Service Office (GSO) are tax deductible. And once GSO gets its official exemption letter, we will go in with a letter listing all SA groups who want to be listed and get a Group Exemption Number, which can be noted on individual Income Tax Return Forms, officially legitimatizing all member contributions.

When I saw what happened in the Dear Abby column, I figured that paying for whatever the response to that column entailed out of my own pocket was one way I could make amends for all the persons I had directly or indirectly helped confirm in their disease. Now that SA is going strong nationally, it will violate our 7th Tradition not to have the task borne by the whole body of members. So here’s the current cost of running the operation at GSO:

For example, the actual cost of mailing this letter and enclosures to every member on our GSO list will run over one hundred dollars. Each group should vote to determine if it wants to help support GSO and what percentage of its surplus over their own expenses should go to GSO.