Tradition 9 · September 16

The Screening Committee

Daily Traditions · September 16

The threat

Oscar W. had helped start a group. He came back to visit it and found four men seated at the front who were not alcoholics. They were ministers. He asked what they were doing there, and one of them stood up and explained (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers): "We are the screening committee for Alcoholics Anonymous, to determine who is fit for membership." Sit with that title for a second. Not advisers. Not friends of A.A. A screening committee, determining fitness, in a fellowship whose only requirement is a desire to stop drinking. And they weren't intruders — somebody in that group had invited them, because they were respectable and well-meaning and seemed like the right people to have around. That's how a group ends up with a body deciding who's fit: not by being invaded, but by being helped. Tradition 9 exists because A.A. discovered that the moment any committee can rule on a person's fitness, the Fellowship has stopped being the thing that saved everyone in the room.

Sit with

Somebody in that group invited the ministers in, because they were respectable and seemed like the right people to have around. Who in my life have I quietly given the authority to decide whether I qualify?

Grounded in: Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (Oscar W. and the ministers).

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).