Only in the Long Form

The clause that stops a treatment centre from owning an A.A. group is not in the short form most rooms read aloud. The short form (Big Book, p. 562): "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking." True, and it says nothing about who a group may belong to. The Long Form, one page on, finishes the thought (p. 563): "Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation." Affiliation means being attached to some other body: belonging to it, answering to it, carrying its name. The Big Book says why it prints the longer version at all (p. 561): the Long Form "is more explicit and of possible historic value". A room set up by a program, staffed by a program and listed on the program's schedule can read the short form every night and never hear the sentence that says it is not an A.A. group. That is how the rumour works: quote the half that sounds open, leave off the half that sets a limit. Test it tonight: ask whether your group's name is attached to anyone else's, on a door, a schedule or a website.