Tradition 9 · September 16

The Screening Committee

Daily Traditions · September 16

The threat

No committee decides who is fit for A.A. Oscar W. helped start a group, went back to visit, and found four ministers in the front row (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers). He was delighted — four ministers in A.A.! One of them stood up and set him straight: "We're not drunken ministers, We are the screening committee for Alcoholics Anonymous, to determine who is fit for membership." Read the title again. Not friends of the group. A screening committee, ruling on fitness, in a fellowship whose only requirement is a desire to stop drinking. Nobody invaded that room. Somebody invited them, because they were respectable and seemed like the right people to have around. That is how it happens — not by force, by help. The Long Form leaves no gap for it (Big Book, p. 563): "we may refuse none who wish to recover." None. Not by a minister, a clinician, or an intake form. So when a building tells you it will "assess" whether you are ready for A.A., you are looking at four ministers in a front row. A.A. has no screening committee. It never accepted one.

Sit with

Somebody invited the ministers in because they seemed like the right people. Who have I let decide whether I qualify?

Grounded in: Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers; Big Book, long form, Tradition 3 (p. 563).

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 →

← September 15Responsibility, Not Authority Tradition 9All of September September 17 →A Legal Bludgeon

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).