Tradition 4 · April 18

Who Holds the Link

Daily Traditions · April 18

The threat today

An online meeting is a group's own affair like any other, and whoever holds the link, the password and the host controls holds the group unless the group decides otherwise. The Big Book's latest foreword notes it (p. xxiv): "A.A. members with computers can participate in meetings online, sharing with fellow alcoholics across the country or around the world." Nothing changed in the Tradition when the room moved onto a screen. The Long Form (Big Book, p. 563): "With respect to its own affairs, each A.A. group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience." But an online room has new handles of power. One member pays for the account and can close it. A host can mute, remove or block anyone with a click. A program can run the meeting on its own platform and keep the list of who attended. None of that has to be sinister for it to be authority, and the group never voted any of it in. A group that meets online governs the link the same way a room group governs its key and its basket: by deciding, together, who holds it and for how long. Test it tonight: ask who could end your online meeting tomorrow, and whether the group ever chose them.

Sit with

Online, the key to the room is the link and the host controls. Did my group choose who holds them?

Grounded in: Long form, Tradition 4 (Big Book, p. 563); Foreword to the Fourth Edition (Big Book, p. xxiv).

Tradition 4

"Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole."

Read the Long Form (pp. 563–566). The short form on pp. 561–562 is the one everybody quotes — but the Long Form is where the Traditions actually say what they mean. Tradition 3's "no other affiliation" clause, for instance, exists only in the Long Form. That single clause is why no treatment centre can own an A.A. group. Most of what circulates online skips it.

And a distinction worth keeping straight: the Traditions are governance, not theology. They bind A.A. groups and the Fellowship — not individuals, and not outside businesses. They were adopted in 1950 to keep A.A. from being owned or co-opted. They are not a rulebook for your personal life.

What the Traditions actually say → The Long Form, p. 563 → Search the Big Book → Every day this month →

Ask Recovery Einstein about Tradition 4 → Get the app →

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Daily Traditions is an independent educational resource from Recovery Starts — not official A.A. literature, not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, and not medical advice. The Twelve Traditions are the property of A.A. Page references are to Alcoholics Anonymous (the Big Book), 4th Edition: short form 561–562, long form 563–566. If you're in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).