Tradition 3 · March 18

Thrown Out of a Club

Daily Traditions · March 18

The threat today

No program, house or club can end anyone's A.A. membership, because none of them ever started it. Bill W. wrote in 1946 (A.A. pamphlet P-17, p. 14): "Though he may be thrown out of a club, nobody thinks of throwing him out of A.A. He is a member as long as he says he is." A club is a building with rules, run by the people who pay for it. A.A. is not a building. The Long Form says why the difference matters (Big Book, p. 563): "Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover." Today the confusion runs the other way. A woman finishes a program, or breaks a rule at a sober house, and is discharged. The "A.A. meeting" she went to every night was the program's, held in its building for its residents. She leaves believing her place in A.A. went out the door with her bag. Her bed may be gone. Her A.A. is not, because it was never theirs to hand out or take back, and every A.A. group in town has to take her in tonight exactly as she is. Test it tonight: ask whether anyone in your room has been told by an outside body that they no longer belong, and whether your group would tell them they do.

Sit with

A program can discharge someone and a house can evict them, but neither ever held their A.A. membership. Would my group make sure the person who was put out knows that?

Grounded in: P-17, p. 14 (Bill W., "Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?", 1946); long form, Tradition 3 (Big Book, p. 563).

Tradition 3

"The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."

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 3 → Get the app →

← March 17The Home Which Had Sheltered Them Tradition 3All of March March 19 →Thirty Days to Speak

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).