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Is "no crosstalk" an A.A. rule?

In short:

  • "Crosstalk" isn't in the Big Book or anywhere else in our sources: not in the 1946–47 essays, A.A. Comes of Age (1957), today's group pamphlet (P-16), or the Service Manual. No A.A. text here makes "no crosstalk" a rule.
  • What the literature does say is who sets a meeting's format: the group. In its own affairs each group "should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience" (p. 563), and meetings are "conducted by A.A. members who determine the format of their meetings" (P-16, 2018).
  • So a group may ask for no crosstalk as its own custom. That makes it that group's format, not an A.A. rule. Bill W. wrote in 1947 that A.A. has "no rules and regulations" (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947).
  • The Big Book's only picture of meetings (pp. 159–162) describes informal gatherings, not speaking rules.

What the search found

All our sources (Big Book with its stories, the pamphlets P-8, P-16, P-17, P-43, P-44, P-53, the three history books, Experience, Strength and Hope and the Service Manual) was searched for "crosstalk," "cross-talk," "cross talk," "crosstalking" and "cross-talking," with page breaks joined. None of them is there. Related wordings were tried too ("talk back," "speak only," "comment on"): also not found.

What the 1939 text shows of meetings

Chapter 11 has the book's only account of the early gatherings, in the "western city" (Akron):

  • Most evenings, "someone's home did not shelter a little gathering of men and women, happy in their release" (p. 159). On top of these "casual get-togethers," one night a week was set apart for a meeting (p. 159).
  • Its purpose: "the prime object was to provide a time and place where new people might bring their problems" (p. 160).
  • What won the newcomer over included "the absence of intolerance of any kind, the informality, the genuine democracy" (p. 160), and hearing "the story of some man whose experience closely tallied with his own" (p. 160).
  • The eastern meetings were "informal meetings such as we have described to you" (p. 162).

None of this says how members may or may not respond to each other in a meeting. The text doesn't settle that question either way.

Who decides a meeting's format

The Long Form of Tradition Four (1946). "With respect to its own affairs, each A.A. group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience." (p. 563). When its plans concern neighbouring groups, they "ought to be consulted," and action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole calls for conferring with the trustees (p. 563). How a group runs its own meeting is its own affair. See: Tradition Four: can GSO tell a group what to do?

Bill W., 1947. He lists what A.A. doesn't have: "no fees, no dues, no rules and regulations, no demand that alcoholics conform to A.A. principles" (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947). He also notes that committees have "sometimes composed minute rules and regulations" and set themselves up as judges of members' morals, and that he knew of no case where these strivings had any lasting effect (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947). That remark is about committees trying to govern members, not about meeting formats, so it doesn't decide the crosstalk question; it does show how the early writers saw rule-making inside A.A.

Today's group pamphlet (P-16, 2018). Later and dated, but it describes current practice:

  • Meetings are "conducted by A.A. members who determine the format of their meetings" (P-16, 2018).
  • "No one type or format is the best for an A.A. meeting, but some work better than others." (P-16, 2018).
  • The limits it mentions on speaking are optional, and none is about crosstalk: the chair "may request that participants confine their discussion to matters pertaining to recovery from alcoholism" (P-16, 2018), and at speaker meetings some groups prefer that speakers have a minimum period of continuous sobriety (P-16, 2018).
  • Among its group-inventory questions: "Are all members given the opportunity to speak at meetings" (P-16, 2018).

See: What happens at an A.A. meeting?

What this means

"No crosstalk" is a custom some groups adopt in their meeting format. It isn't in A.A.'s literature, so it can't be called an A.A. rule. A group is free to choose it, and free not to (p. 563; P-16, 2018). Nothing in our sources tell a group which to choose. See also: Are the Traditions rules? Who do they apply to — groups or members? and Is it true there are "no musts" in A.A.?

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
All our sources (searched): Big Book, pamphlets, history, stories, service — various
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 11 159–162 1939
The Twelve Traditions, Long Form (Big Book Appendix I) 563 1946
P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?" — 1947
P-16, The A.A. Group 13–15, 29 (group inventory) 2018

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book and P-16 are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; P-17's articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.