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What is a "Twelfth Step call"?

In short:

  • It's the name members came to use for going to see an alcoholic who needs help, to carry the message to him. It's the work Chapter 7, "Working With Others," describes (pp. 89–103).
  • The phrase itself isn't in the Big Book's program (pages 1–164). Chapter 7 just calls it a visit: "your first visit" (p. 94), "your second visit" (p. 96).
  • "Twelfth Step call" appears only in the personal stories. The earliest dated use in our sources are Bill W.'s 1946 Grapevine essay on money, which calls it "simple Twelfth Step work" and says it is never paid for.

Where the phrase is, and isn't

Searching the whole fourth edition: the program chapters never say "Twelfth Step call." Chapter 7 names the work only as "our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics!" (p. 89).

The phrase turns up in the personal stories, written or revised later. In The Vicious Cycle the writer, sober since 1938, mentions a call he made in June 1945 (p. 230). Jim's Story says other groups taught his group "a great deal about Twelfth Step work" (p. 245). It appears again in stories in Parts II and III (pp. 303, 345, 429, 469, 521).

Two early non-story sources use the idea: - Tradition Eight in its 1946 Long Form says A.A. should stay nonprofessional and that ordinary "12 Step" work is never to be paid for (pp. 564–565). - Bill W.'s Grapevine essay "Money" (1946) calls it "simple Twelfth Step work — a purely spiritual undertaking" (P-17), and says we may pay for special services, "but never for straight Twelfth Step work" (P-17).

What the visit is, in the Big Book

Chapter 7 gives the whole procedure (see What does Step 12 really say? for a walk through it). In short: - Find a drinker who wants to stop, through a doctor, minister or hospital (p. 89), and learn about him from his family first (p. 90). - See him when the binge is over, or at least in a lucid interval, and see him alone (pp. 90–91). - Tell him about your own drinking until he starts talking about his. Describe the illness. Tell him how you recovered when he asks (pp. 91–93). - "On your first visit tell him about the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous" (p. 94). Leave him free, under no obligation (p. 94). - If he's interested, a second visit follows (p. 96).

Chapter 11 shows one in action: two men visiting a stranger in a hospital bed for an hour, telling him about their own drinking until he says, "That's me. That's me. I drink like that" (p. 157).

What the text doesn't settle

The Big Book never defines the phrase, because it never uses it in the program. Any rules or customs now attached to the phrase come from later practice, not from the book. Chapter 7 itself says the person you visit may still be drinking and may never have heard of A.A. (pp. 89–90).

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 7, "Working With Others" 89–96 1939
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 11, "A Vision for You" 157 1939
The Twelve Traditions, Long Form (Tradition Eight), Appendix I 564–565 written 1946; in the Big Book from 1955
Bill W., "Money," in P-17 P-17 pp. 27–33 Grapevine, 1946
Personal stories using the phrase (The Vicious Cycle, Jim's Story, and others) 230, 245, 303, 345, 429, 469, 521 fourth edition (2001); the 1945 date is the earliest the stories give

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001).

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited. The Big Book is © 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.