# Are the Traditions just formalities?

**In short:**
- No. The Big Book introduces the Traditions as A.A.'s best answers to two life-or-death questions: how A.A. can best function, and how it can stay whole and survive (p. 561). Without unity, it says, "most of us will finally die alone" (p. 561).
- The Traditions record things that had already gone wrong: membership rules that would have kept out nine-tenths of the early members, groups that went into the hospital business, fights over money and clubs, members who used A.A.'s name for their own causes.
- They aren't rules either. In 1955 the Big Book said none of them had "the force of rules or laws" (p. xix), and Bill W. warned that if A.A. hardened them, "the letter might crush that spirit." Groups follow them by choice, for the same reason members follow the Steps.

## What the Big Book says they are for (Appendix I)

Appendix I opens by saying what's at stake. A.A. has made "the difference between misery and sobriety, and often the difference between life and death" for its members, and could mean as much to alcoholics not yet reached (p. 561). So no society ever had a more urgent need for lasting unity: "We alcoholics see that we must work together and hang together, else most of us will finally die alone" (p. 561). The Traditions are "the best answers that our experience has yet given" to how A.A. can best function and stay whole (p. 561).

The Long Form starts from the same place. Each member is a small part of a great whole, and "A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die" (p. 563). Its Seventh Tradition gives the reason behind several of the others: "Experience has often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority" (p. 564).

## Where they came from: experience, not theory

Bill W.'s essays from 1946–47 show the Traditions growing out of trouble:

- **Membership.** When the office collected the groups' membership rules, Bill found that if all of them had been enforced, "it would have been practically impossible for any alcoholic" to join; about nine-tenths of the oldest members would never have got in (P-17, "Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?", 1946, p. 11).
- **Hospitals and business.** Groups that ran their own drying-out places found it put them into business, and it almost always backfired (P-17, p. 15).
- **Clubs.** New York's first club tangled the groups, the club and the area's money for years (P-17, pp. 19–20).
- **Money.** Bill saw "the great ordeal of its own prosperity and success" as A.A.'s supreme test (P-17, "Money", 1946, p. 35).
- **Authority.** Every time Bill tried to govern A.A. himself, he was "shouted down" (P-17, p. 39).

The Big Book's 1955 foreword sums it up: as A.A. grew, it faced the very problems feared, over money, power and splits, "in every group" (p. xix). Out of that came the conviction that A.A. had to unify or die (p. xix).

## How seriously Bill meant them (P-17 foreword, 1955)

- Unity doesn't look after itself. Like personal recovery, A.A. would always have to work at it, with honesty, humility and "above all — vigilance" (P-17, Foreword, 1955, p. 5). Bill asks every member to be as aware of what endangers A.A. as of his own defects, "For whole movements have, before now, gone on benders, too!" (P-17, Foreword, 1955, p. 5).
- He calls the Twelve Points "our first attempt to state sound principles of group conduct and public relations" (P-17, Foreword, 1955, p. 5), and reports that many members felt "we ought to apply them as seriously to our group life as we do the Twelve Recovery Steps" to themselves (P-17, Foreword, 1955, p. 5).

## But not as rules

In the same foreword Bill warns against the opposite mistake. "Nobody invented Alcoholics Anonymous. It grew" (P-17, Foreword, 1955, p. 5). Experience became policy, then tradition, and he hoped that process would never stop. "Should we ever harden too much, the letter might crush that spirit" (P-17, Foreword, 1955, p. 5). A.A. could victimize itself "by petty rules and prohibitions" or ask alcoholics to accept rigid ideas or stay away (P-17, Foreword, 1955, p. 5). "Yet the lessons of our experience count for a great deal" (P-17, Foreword, 1955, p. 5).

In 1947 he explained why groups keep them without anyone enforcing them. Members follow the Steps from choice because they prefer recovery to death; groups follow the Traditions "for the very same reason," because they see "they would disintegrate if they didn't" (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947, p. 38).

The Big Book's 1955 foreword adds that though none of the principles had the force of rules or laws, they were so widely accepted by 1950 that A.A.'s first International Conference, held at Cleveland, confirmed them (p. xix).

## What this means

The Traditions aren't decoration and aren't red tape. They're A.A.'s record of how groups nearly destroyed themselves, written down so newer groups don't have to learn it the same way. They also aren't laws: nobody can enforce them, and Bill feared what would happen if anyone tried. A group that reads only the one-line short forms misses most of that history. The Long Form and Bill's essays keep the reasons attached. See *What is the Long Form, and why read it instead of the short form?*

## Read it yourself
- Appendix I, the Long Form of the Traditions (pp. 561–566), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicei.pdf
- Foreword to the Second Edition (pp. xv–xxi): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordsecondedition.pdf
- P-17, *A.A. Tradition: How It Developed* (foreword pp. 4–10; essays pp. 11–58): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-17_AATraditions.pdf
- Related: *Why were the Twelve Traditions written?* · *Are the Traditions rules? Who do they apply to — groups or members?*

## Sources
| Source | Pages | First published |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Appendix I, "The A.A. Tradition," and the Long Form | 561–566 | Long Form: AA Grapevine, 1946; appendix from 1955 |
| Bill W., "Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?" (P-17) | 11–14 | AA Grapevine, 1946 |
| Bill W., "Hospitals and A.A." (P-17) | 15–16 | AA Grapevine, 1947 |
| Bill W., "Clubs in A.A." (P-17) | 17–22 | AA Grapevine, 1947 |
| Bill W., "Money" (P-17) | 27–35 | AA Grapevine, 1946 |
| Bill W., "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?" (P-17) | 37–40 | AA Grapevine, 1947 |
| Bill W., P-17 foreword | 4–10 | 1955 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Foreword to the Second Edition | xix | 1955 |

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). P-17 page numbers are the pamphlet's printed numbers (© 2019), which match aa.org's free PDF.

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.; the P-17 articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc., reprinted by A.A. World Services.*