Tradition 12 · December 24

Two Motions

Daily Traditions · December 24

How a group breaks it

October's business meeting: a motion to move the meeting from seven to seven-thirty so the shift change at the plant can make it. It comes from a woman who reads from notes, runs long, and apologizes twice while making an airtight case. Defeated, three to fourteen. April: the identical motion from a man everyone loves — he gets the room laughing twice and sits down. Carried, fourteen to three. Nobody remembers October. The secretary, typing minutes for the archive, reads the two pages side by side and understands something her group does not know about itself. Nothing corrupt happened. The room voted on the voices, twice, and the shift workers waited six months for arithmetic that was true all along. The Big Book (p. 17): "We are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful." That warmth is the miracle — and exactly why a room of friends drifts toward its favorites. Principles are affection's correction.

Sit with

The same motion failed from one mouth and carried from another, and only the minutes noticed. Which do I vote on — the words, or the one saying them?

Grounded in: Long form, Tradition 12; Big Book p. 17.

Tradition 12

"Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."

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 12 → Get the app →

← December 23Glad He's Alive and Can Serve Tradition 12All of December December 25 →The Price Tag

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).