What does "no outside affiliation" mean in practice?
In short:
- It means an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, but never so far as "affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied." "An A.A. group can bind itself to no one" (p. 564).
- A group is an A.A. group only if, as a group, it has "no other affiliation" (p. 563). It doesn't go into business, lend A.A.'s name to any facility or cause, take money with strings, or take sides on outside controversies.
- It limits A.A. groups and A.A. as a whole. In 1947 Bill W. wrote that individual members are free to work in hospitals, research or education, as individuals, so long as they keep A.A.'s name out of it.
- In practice it was learned from failures: groups that ran drying-out places and "A.A. hospitals," and members who tied A.A.'s name to causes.
What the Long Form says (1946)
Tradition Three: what a group is. Any two or three alcoholics gathered for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, "provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation" (p. 563).
Tradition Six: how far cooperation goes. Problems of money, property and authority "may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim" (p. 563). So: - Any considerable property useful to A.A. should be separately incorporated, dividing the material from the spiritual (pp. 563–564). - "An A.A. group, as such, should never go into business" (p. 564). - Clubs and hospitals should be set apart so the groups can drop them if necessary, and shouldn't use the A.A. name (p. 564). - Hospitals and places of recuperation "ought to be well outside A.A. — and medically supervised" (p. 564). - "While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied" (p. 564).
Tradition Seven: no strings. No contributions "carrying any obligation whatever" (p. 564), and no public fund-raising in A.A.'s name, whether by groups, clubs, hospitals or outside agencies (p. 564).
Tradition Ten: no sides. "The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one" (p. 565).
What it looked like in practice (Bill W., 1946–47)
Groups running hospitals failed. Where groups set up their own drying-out places with hired managers and nurses, it almost always backfired: "It has put the group into business" (P-17, "Hospitals and A.A.", 1947, p. 15). Groups that raised money publicly for "A.A. hospitals" got nowhere, because solicitation carrying A.A.'s endorsement is dangerous to everyone (P-17, pp. 15–16). What worked were rest farms run by individual members under medical supervision: "Not being a group project and not bearing the A.A. name," they could be taken or left alone (P-17, "Hospitals and A.A.", 1947, p. 16).
Cooperation is normal. "Everywhere we cooperate with hospitals" (P-17, "Money", 1946, p. 33). Hospitals gave A.A. working arrangements, consulted it and employed A.A. nurses, and these relationships worked well, but none of these places were known as A.A. hospitals (P-17, p. 33).
The line for groups. "Neither A.A. as a whole nor any A.A. group ought to enter any activity other than straight A.A." (P-17, "Dangers in Linking A.A. to Other Projects", 1947, p. 24). Groups can't endorse, finance or ally with any other cause, however good, or link A.A.'s name to other alcohol work so that the public thinks A.A. has given up its own aim (P-17, p. 24). Members and friends in those fields should be discouraged from stressing A.A.'s name in publicity or fund-raising (P-17, pp. 24–25).
The freedom for members. Bill calls the "do nothing" view unthinkable (P-17, p. 25). Members can bring their experience to other noncontroversial alcohol work if they act as individuals: no A.A. label in public and no use of A.A. status to raise money (P-17, p. 25). His summary: "A.A. does not sponsor projects in other fields" (P-17, "Dangers in Linking A.A. to Other Projects", 1947, p. 25), but members may work in constructive ones as individuals, careful of A.A.'s name (P-17, pp. 25–26).
Restated in 1955 (dated)
Bill's 1955 foreword asks A.A. to "steadfastly decline all political, sectarian, or other alliances" (P-17, Foreword, 1955, p. 4). The 1955 essay on anonymity puts it plainly: A.A. will cooperate with almost everybody, "yet we decline to marry our Society to anyone" (P-17, "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous", 1955, p. 50). P-17 also prints a General Service Conference statement, undated, that A.A. follows a policy of cooperation but not affiliation with other organizations concerned with alcoholism (P-17, p. 36).
What it doesn't mean
It doesn't mean groups can't meet in churches, hospitals or treatment centres (a later pamphlet describes such groups as renting space there; P-16, 2018, pp. 17–18), or that A.A. can't work alongside hospitals and doctors; all of that is cooperation. It doesn't stop individual members working in other fields as individuals, provided they keep A.A.'s name out of it, and it doesn't bind outside organizations. What it rules out is a group, or A.A., belonging to, endorsing, financing, or lending its name to anything outside A.A.
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
- P-17, A.A. Tradition: How It Developed ("Hospitals and A.A.," pp. 15–16; "Dangers in Linking A.A. to Other Projects," pp. 23–26; "Money," pp. 27–35): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-17_AATraditions.pdf
- Related: Tradition Six: can an A.A. group partner with a treatment centre? · Can an A.A. group be named after a treatment centre or a person? · Tradition Ten: does A.A. take sides on outside issues?
Sources
| Source | Pages | First published |
|---|---|---|
| The Twelve Traditions, Long Form, Traditions Three, Six, Seven and Ten (Big Book Appendix I) | 563–565 | AA Grapevine, 1946; in the Big Book from 1955 |
| Bill W., "Hospitals and A.A." (excerpts from "Adequate Hospitalization," P-17) | 15–16 | AA Grapevine, 1947 |
| Bill W., "Dangers in Linking A.A. to Other Projects" (P-17) | 23–26 | AA Grapevine, 1947 |
| Bill W., "Money" (P-17) | 33 | AA Grapevine, 1946 |
| Bill W., P-17 foreword; "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous" | 4; 50 | 1955 |
| "A.A. and Alcoholism," General Service Conference statement (P-17) | 36 | undated |
| P-16, The A.A. Group | 17–18 | © 2018 (revised 2022) |
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 and P-16 are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; the P-17 articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc., reprinted by A.A. World Services.
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.