June 25
Permission for Every Purchase
The group has asked someone to take care of literature, agreed on a budget, and then begun questioning every routine purchase. Before long, the person asks permission to order another box of pamphlets. We may feel reassured by this careful supervision. We may also wonder why nobody seems willing to show initiative in service anymore.
A responsibility without usable discretion becomes a frustrating assignment. Concept III connects trust with the ability to decide within understood duties. That does not mean silence about expenses or freedom to disregard a budget. It means that once we have agreed on the task and its limits, the person doing it has something real to exercise. Our wish to prevent every mistake can make ordinary work needlessly difficult. We might learn more about trust by allowing a reasonable choice we would not have made than by approving only the choices that resemble our own.
Where have I entrusted a task while keeping all the actual decisions for myself?
The agreed budget gives the order somewhere to begin.
For the A.A. nerds: Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III.