Tradition 9 · September 18

Still Around

Daily Traditions · September 18

The threat today

It would be comfortable to read this month as history — men in hats, in 1940, making mistakes we've outgrown. A.A.'s own literature refuses to let that stand. Describing the people the early members learned to watch for, it says flatly (A.A. pamphlet P-43): "And they're still around — the members who are always sure that they're always right — the members who are happily ready to assume all the burdens of leadership and grimly unwilling to share them, let alone give them up." Read the two halves of that. Happily ready to take it on. Grimly unwilling to hand it back. Both at once, in the same person, usually someone with real sobriety and real willingness who has done a great deal of good. That's why it isn't caught early. Nobody is looking for a villain, and there isn't one — there's a hard-working member whose grip tightened so slowly that the group adjusted around it. The Tradition doesn't ask you to find that person. It asks the group to be built so it doesn't matter when one shows up.

Sit with

The people the early members learned to watch for take the work on happily and hand it back grimly — and they're usually the ones who have done the most good. Am I holding anything happily that I'd hand back grimly?

Grounded in: P-43 (the Tradition Two spread).

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 17A Legal Bludgeon Tradition 9All of September September 19 →The Expanded Program

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).