While the UK Intergroup cannot help struggling ACA meetings financially we have prepared a basic set of suggestions from our collective experience which may help.

 1. Have a prudent reserve

A prudent reserve is a minimum amount of funds that a meeting sets apart from the general Tradition 7 funds, to be able to pay rent if circumstances change at any point. A prudent reserve can be as little as one month’s rent, but many members believe 3 months’ rent is a fair amount to aim for. A good way to establish a prudent reserve is to decide it at a group conscience.

 2. Negotiate the rent with your venue

This may not always be possible, but it’s worth a shot. Speak to your contact at the meeting venue about your issues meeting rent. It may be that they are flexible with pricing, or might have another space in the same venue for a lower cost.

3. Ask fellows to mention the meeting at other ACA meetings

If your meeting is struggling financially due to not getting a lot of members, you can ask fellows to share the details of this meeting when they attend larger meetings elsewhere. This can be suggested in the committee announcement section, or as a line in the script.

4. Tell members the meeting is struggling

It’s good to be honest with members about the difficulty in paying rent. This can be added as a temporary line in the script when collecting Tradition 7, or mentioned by the group treasurer in their announcement. While contributing to Tradition 7 is optional, some members may wish to give more to support the meeting.

5. Find a lower rent elsewhere

While not ideal, to keep the meeting going you may have to search for more affordable rent elsewhere. If you’ve exhausted all other avenues, check on Google what other options there are in the local area, and share your findings with the group in a business meeting.

We hope that some of these suggestions are useful to your meeting. If you have any further questions don’t hesitate to get back to us.