Tradition 1 · January 18

No Respecter of Persons

Daily Traditions · January 18

The threat today

Tradition One makes every member the same size, and the threat today is a room that quietly sorts its people into two kinds. The Long Form (Big Book, p. 563): "Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole." Each member: not each member who chose to come, not each member in good standing. The Big Book's foreword says why the room can't be sorted (Big Book, p. xx): "Alcohol being no respecter of persons, we are an accurate cross section of America, and in distant lands, the same democratic evening-up process is now going on." No respecter of persons means it does not care who you are. Evening-up means levelling: whoever you were outside, in the room you are one more drunk. Now watch a meeting where a facility's van pulls up. The clients file in together, sit in a block, sign a sheet, and leave together before the coffee. The members sit on the other side. Nobody planned it, but there are now two rooms in one: people who are there because a program sent them, and people who belong. The client never learns that he belongs too. Test it tonight: look at where people sit, and ask whether a newcomer off a van would know this room is his.

Sit with

Alcohol does not sort people, so the room cannot either. Is there anyone in my meeting who sits there without knowing it is theirs?

Grounded in: Long form, Tradition 1 (Big Book, p. 563); Big Book p. xx (Foreword to Second Edition).

Tradition 1

"Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity."

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 1 → Get the app →

← January 17Its Own Rights Tradition 1All of January January 19 →Couldn't Be Steered

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).