Twos and Threes and Fives

In 1939, before there was any Tradition, A.A. was already spreading the way the Long Form would later describe: in little knots of alcoholics who needed nobody's permission. The Big Book's last chapter reports it (Big Book, p. 162): "Some of us are salesmen and go about. Little clusters of twos and threes and fives of us have sprung up in other communities, through contact with our two larger centers. Those of us who travel drop in as often as we can." The two larger centers were Akron and New York. Then the book turns to the reader. "Thus we grow. And so can you," it says, even if you are (p. 163) "one man with this book in your hand." Seven years later the Long Form gave those clusters their standing (p. 563): "Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group". Size was never the test. Two was enough, if they were alcoholics, gathered for sobriety, belonging to no one else. Today a cluster like that is sometimes told it isn't a real meeting until somebody bigger takes it on. Test it tonight: ask whether your members could start another meeting across town if one were needed, and who they think they would have to ask.