Tradition 9 · September 21

A Great Many Sheets of Paper

Daily Traditions · September 21

The threat

Every rule was reasonable. Added together they would have kept nine out of ten of A.A.'s own founders out. Around 1943 the head office asked every group to send in its membership rules. Listing them, Bill recalled, "took a great many sheets of paper" (Pass It On). Then he did the arithmetic: "If all these edicts had been in force everywhere at once, it would have been practically impossible for any alcoholic to have ever joined A.A. About nine-tenths of our oldest and best members could never have got by!" Nine-tenths. Including the men who wrote the rules. No group had done anything cruel. Each had added one requirement, for one good reason, after one bad night — and no one could see the total until somebody stacked the sheets. That survey is the closest thing A.A. has to a photograph of what organizing a fellowship does to the person it exists for. Today the sheets have new names: intake criteria, readiness assessment, programme eligibility, discharge conditions. Each one sensible. Stack them and ask the only question that matters: could the drunk who needs this room tonight get by them? A.A. asked that once, and threw the sheets away.

Sit with

A hundred sensible rules would have kept nine-tenths of the oldtimers out. What have I built from reasonable decisions that I have never once looked at all together?

Grounded in: Pass It On (the membership-rules survey).

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 20The Absence of a Boss Is Not a Vacancy Tradition 9All of September September 22 →Servants of Your Group

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).