# Does the Big Book say "90 meetings in 90 days"?

**In short:**
- No. The first 164 pages, where the program is set out, never say "90 meetings in 90 days," and they never set any number of meetings.
- The phrase appears only in two personal stories added to later editions. Each describes what that writer chose to do.
- What the program text asks for every day is different: inventory and prayer (pp. 84–88), and working with other alcoholics (p. 97).

## What the search found

The whole fourth-edition text was searched for "ninety," "90," and "meeting." In the main text, the forewords and the appendices, "90" appears only as a page number and in the Third Edition foreword's count of countries. "Ninety" doesn't appear at all.

The phrase is in two personal stories:
- **"Student of Life"** (Part II, "They Stopped in Time"): "I did ninety meetings in ninety days, got a sponsor, and joined a home group" (p. 326).
- **"Grounded"** (Part III, "They Lost Nearly All"): a pilot who came to A.A. out of treatment set out to do ninety meetings in ninety days, and with a trial coming "completed my ninety meetings in sixty-seven days" (p. 525).

These are personal histories. The Big Book introduces its stories as each writer describing things "in his own language and from his own point of view" (p. 29). Neither story presents ninety in ninety as something the book requires.

## What the program text says about meetings

Meetings are in the 1939 text, but as something that grew up among members, not as an assignment:
- Bill W.: "We meet frequently so that newcomers may find the fellowship" they're looking for (p. 15).
- Chapter 11 describes the first group's casual evenings at members' homes, and how "it became customary to set apart one night a week for a meeting" open to anyone interested, mainly so that new people had a time and place to bring their problems (pp. 159–160).

Chapter 7, the Big Book's chapter on helping a newcomer, never mentions meetings. (Its one use of the word is "avoid meeting a man through his family," p. 91.) The newcomer is told about the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous on the first visit and lent the book (p. 94). He's asked to read it and decide for himself whether to go on (p. 95), and on a second visit he may be ready to go through with the Twelve Steps (p. 96).

It's sometimes said that "Working With Others" discusses meeting attendance. It doesn't: the chapter doesn't discuss meetings at all.

## What the program does ask daily

The daily disciplines in the text are Steps Ten and Eleven (pp. 84–88) and helping others: "You have to act the Good Samaritan every day, if need be" (p. 97).

## Read it yourself
- Chapter 7, "Working With Others": https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf
- Chapter 11, "A Vision for You": https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt11.pdf
- Personal stories, Part II, with "Student of Life": https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_personalstories_partII.pdf
- Personal stories, Part III, with "Grounded": https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_personalstories_partIII.pdf

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, whole fourth-edition text (searched) | — | 1939 text; fourth edition 2001 |
| Chapters 1, 2, 6, 7, 11 | 15, 29, 84–88, 91–97, 159–160 | 1939 |
| "Student of Life," Part II | 326 | personal story in the fourth edition (2001) |
| "Grounded," Part III | 525 | personal story in the fourth edition (2001) |

The Preface says the personal stories have been revised in every edition (pp. xi–xii). Our sources have only the fourth edition, so this page doesn't say which edition first printed these two stories.

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.*