Never Exclusive

March ends where Tradition 3 begins: the threat to A.A. was never who might walk in, but a fellowship that would start choosing. The Long Form (Big Book, p. 563) says it in four sentences: "Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. 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." All who suffer. None refused. No price and no test. No owner. Bill W. said where the groups had come to by 1946 (A.A. pamphlet P-17, p. 14): "We wish to be just as inclusive as we can, never exclusive." Exclusive means keeping people out. The Big Book had already set the goal for any town where a few A.A.s land (p. 164): "there will be no stopping until everyone in that town has had his opportunity to recover". Everyone in that town, including the one nobody in your room would have picked. A month of readings comes down to that drinker and a door no outside body controls. Test it tonight: picture the person you would least expect at your meeting, and ask whether your group's door, its rules and its landlord would all let them in.