Every Contestant

Tradition One was not handed down from above; it was dug out of the mail from groups that were fighting. By 1945 letters about group problems filled the files in New York. Bill W. (A.A. Comes of Age): "It seemed as if every contestant in every group argument wrote us during this confused and exciting period." A contestant is someone on one side of a fight. Then: "The basic ideas for the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous came directly out of this vast correspondence." And: "A code of traditions could not, of course, ever become rule or law. But it might act as a guide for our Trustees, Headquarters people, and especially for A.A. groups with growing pains." The first version went into print in the Grapevine in May 1946, the Long Form you can still read (Big Book, p. 563): "Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole." It was written for groups, out of groups' own wreckage, so the next group would not have to learn it by losing members. Today it is rarely read where it was meant to be used, the business meeting, and rooms run by others hold no business meeting at all. Test it tonight: ask when your group last read the Long Form aloud at a business meeting, or whether it holds one.