Tradition 9 · September 1

Not an Organization

Daily Traditions · September 1

The threat

Akron, 1937. Eighteen alcoholics sat in a living room while Bill W. made his case: A.A. should hire paid missionaries, build a chain of hospitals that turned a profit, and publish a book. The room pushed back hard. Then it voted, and Bill won — "by the barest majority, and over the most strenuous objections," in his own account of it (A.A. Comes of Age). A.A. had just decided, democratically and in good faith, to turn itself into an organization. Nobody in that room was cynical about it. They believed structure would reach dying men faster, and they may well have been right. It never happened. Bill went east to raise the money and came back with nothing. Two years later the Big Book went to print, and page xiii carried the first thing A.A. ever said about itself in public: "We are not an organization in the conventional sense of the word." That sentence survived because a fundraising trip failed. It's also why the meeting you sat in this week has no owner, no dues, no membership committee, and nobody with the standing to put you out.

Sit with

Nobody in that room has the standing to put me out — not the chair, not the oldest member there, nobody. What would change for me if somebody did?

Grounded in: Big Book p. xiii (Foreword to the First Edition); A.A. Comes of Age (the Akron vote).

Tradition 9

"A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve."

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 9 → Get the app →

←All of September Tradition 9All of September September 2 →Won't Money Spoil This Thing?

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).