Twelfth Step Houses

The A.A. name is the one thing every group owns together, and Tradition Six keeps it off buildings. The Long Form, speaking of clubs and hospitals (Big Book, p. 564): "Hence such facilities ought not to use the A.A. name." The early members had to apply it to their own places first. Bill W. wrote (A.A. Comes of Age): "We found it imperative even inside A.A. to remove the A.A. name from clubs and Twelfth Step Houses." Imperative means it couldn't wait. Even A.A.'s own places had to give the name back. "These strenuous adventures implanted the deep-rooted conviction that in no circumstances could we endorse any related enterprise, no matter how good." Strenuous means exhausting. If members' own clubhouses couldn't carry the name, nothing outside can carry it on a group's say-so. Capture today goes through the name. A facility advertises A.A. meetings on site as a feature of what the client pays for, and a group that meets there goes along. The Traditions don't govern the facility. They govern the group, and the group decides whether its meeting is offered as part of someone's product. A group can ask to be left off the brochure, and it can move. Test it tonight: find every place your group's meeting is advertised, and ask whether anyone is using it to sell something.