The 7th Tradition - Every CODA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

At almost every meeting, a basket is passed to collect money. Ever wonder what happens to that money and why it is requested? Hopefully, this will answer your questions.

• What do we do with the collected money?

We all depend on our meetings being there when we need a meeting. In order to make that happen, many volunteers have to step up to do service and it needs to be funded. If you've ever wondered why we collect money and where it goes, it goes to pay for the management and running of CoDA.

• At the meeting level, that means paying the rent on the space used for holding meetings and for providing any coffee or other things that might be served. Literature and chips are paid for out of these funds, although literature is most often sold and is this self-supporting. At times, the literature may need assistance for new items or should anything happen to the literature stock.
• At the community level the money goes to provide a newsletter, literature, a website, and other programs that the community may run or sponsor. The community is made up of Group Service Representatives - people from the meetings that come together to help the community provide those things mentioned and to staff other programs that the fellowship can use. Members from the communities elect Service Representatives to attend the Voting Entity meetings.
• At the Voting Entity (VE) level, more programs are managed, another website and possibly a newsletter. And they elect delegates to go to the CoDA Service Conference. The Conference is where the voice of the fellowship is heard to determine what action will be taken to sustain and continue CoDA. Things like new literature pieces are voted on. CoDA also manages a website. At most of these levels a meeting list is maintained and the one at CoDA World Fellowship contains meetings from all over the world.
• Each level receives mail, pays bills, maintains meeting lists and helps to answer questions sent in by the fellowship, as well as solve problems that come up. All these things need some level of funding. Anytime a member is asked to go somewhere to help solve a problem, attend the Conference, mail things, or any other item that may incur a cost, it has to be reimbursed to the member. We do not ask our members to do things that cost them without reimbursement. This is another way of remaining self-supporting.
• What if we collect too much money?

We collect money at each meeting to pay our rent and chips. After all that is paid, it is suggested that your group keep enough of the leftover donations to cover two months worth of expenses. This is called a prudent reserve, and it is savings to be used should donations to the basket not cover expenses.

• What happens if there is still more money left over?

This is where the 60/30/10 plan comes in. With the plan, 60% of your meeting's remaining funds are donated to your Community meeting, 10% to your Voting Entity and 30% to the CODA World Service Office.

• The prudent reserve is there to cover months where donations may come up short, due to vacations, lack of attendance for whatever reason. It is suggested that a group keep two months' expenses; rent, literature, other supplies. Should a group have to use this reserve, it can be built again in following months. If attendance falls short of expenses continually, it is suggested that the group make other arrangements, such as stop giving out chips, finding a less expensive meeting place or as a last resort, consider the meeting failed. Should this happen, all leftover funds and supplies can be given to the community organization for re-distribution.
• When CoDA started 25 years ago the typical amount put in the basket was a dollar. As you all are surely aware, the cost of things has increased quite a bit over those 25 years. However, many people still tend to donate only a dollar at each meeting. As a result, 7th traditions donations are not keeping up with expenses in most places. If you can afford it please consider making your normal donation at least two dollars.

This is a resending of a message that originally went out on 11/1/11.

The contents of this email were originally written by the CoDA Communications Committee comm@coda.org,  & were vetted for re-publication by the Friday Fellowship subcommittee of the CoDA Communications Committee, archives@codependents.org

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