Tradition 1 · January 3

A Small Part

Daily Traditions · January 3

The threat today

Tradition One makes every A.A. group a small part of one whole, and a meeting that belongs to something else can't keep that promise. The Long Form opens (Big Book, p. 563): "Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole." The whole is named: Alcoholics Anonymous. Not a clinic, not a recovery program, not a county service. The rumour runs the other way. In rooms run by facilities, unity gets taught as getting along with the house: keep to the schedule, don't question the staff, don't make trouble for the program that lets you meet. That is unity with a business. The short form says whose unity a drunk's life hangs on (Big Book, p. 562): "personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity." A.A. unity means groups that answer to their own members, joined to every other group by the same Traditions, with no owner, no contract and no fee. A meeting on a facility's schedule is also a small part of a great whole. The whole is the facility. Its staff can move the time, change the format or close the door, and none of them answers to the drunks in the chairs. Test it tonight: ask what your meeting is a small part of, and who could close it.

Sit with

The Long Form names the whole every group belongs to, and it is A.A., not a program. What is my meeting really a part of?

Grounded in: Long form, Tradition 1 (Big Book, p. 563); short form, Tradition 1 (Big Book, p. 562).

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 2Counting Noses Tradition 1All of January January 4 →Rocking the Raft

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).