Originally Posted by
FrothyJay 
As a general rule, AA counts sober days so that they can assess your standing in the AA community. Not many will admit that, but it allows people to properly place you in the AA hierarchy and decide how much respect they should give you.
It's a quantitative barometer of your success.
There are, obviously, many exceptions to this. But AA is obsessed with counting time because the organization is no longer obsessed with recovery.
I think you're correct, Jay. I suppose you could find an upside to the 'hierarchy' phenomenon - maybe groups want to know who's newer so that can give them the proper attention they need, and likewise it could be that more is expected from a long-termer who not might be needed to take a sort of leadership role (whether mentoring/sponsoring newcomers, handling the business end of things, etc.)
This topic is particularly interesting to me because last week, less than a month from what would have been my first year sober, I had a 'slip' and drank again. I'm curious and a little wary of how my fellow aa members will put me into our group's hierarchy. The thing that particularly bums me out is that I doubt I'll be able to chair again until I've got 6 months (I think that's our rule), and I really enjoy chairing.
My group also takes a closed meeting to a nearby treatment facility every month and they require at least 30 days of sobriety for us to attend. Not that I'm going to be heartbroken if I miss one of those meetings, but it is a little discouraging to be identified as a newcomer again.
I think the whole idea of counting days versus 'one day at a time' is pretty inconsistent and does send a mixed message. But on the other hand, I can also appreciate the desire to have someone with longer sobriety take care of the administrative stuff (handling money, serving on committees - GSR or whatever that is).
OK, enough babbling from me.
