Tradition 3 · March 9

No Monopoly

Daily Traditions · March 9

How a group breaks it

A group breaks Tradition 3 the day it starts telling newcomers to do it the group's way or find another room. The Long Form has one word for what a group may never demand (Big Book, p. 563): conformity, which means fitting a pattern someone else set. Picture how it creeps in. A group grows proud of how it works. Its old-timers decide a newcomer should share a certain way, use certain words, read certain pages and agree with certain opinions, or stop coming. Nobody votes. The pressure builds until the man who does it differently quietly drops away. The Big Book itself refused to work that way. In "Working With Others", the chapter on carrying the message to the alcoholic who is still drinking, it says of the man who wants a different road (Big Book, p. 95): "If he thinks he can do the job in some other way, or prefers some other spiritual approach, encourage him to follow his own conscience. We have no monopoly on God; we merely have an approach that worked with us." A monopoly is sole ownership. If the book that carries the message will not demand conformity from a drunk, no group has the right to. Test it tonight: is there anything your group expects of newcomers that the Long Form never asked of anyone?

Sit with

The Big Book tells us to let a man follow his own conscience, and the Long Form bars conformity as a condition. What does my group expect newcomers to fall in line with?

Grounded in: Long form, Tradition 3 (Big Book, p. 563); Big Book, p. 95 ("Working With Others").

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 8He Signs Nothing Tradition 3All of March March 10 →Money or Conformity

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).