Tradition 9 · September 21

A Great Many Sheets of Paper

Daily Traditions · September 21

The threat

Around 1944 the head office decided to find out what the groups were actually doing, and asked every one of them to send in its membership rules. They came back. Writing them all down, Bill said, took a great many sheets of paper. Then somebody added them up, and the arithmetic ended the argument permanently (Pass It On): "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 out of ten. Including the men who wrote the rules. No group had done anything unreasonable on its own — each had added one requirement, for one good reason, after one bad experience. It's only in aggregate that you can see it, which is exactly why nobody saw it. That survey is the closest thing A.A. has to a photograph of the problem, and what it shows isn't cruelty. It's a hundred sensible decisions that would have closed the door on almost everyone.

Sit with

Every group's rules were sensible on their own; added together they would have kept nine-tenths of A.A.'s own oldtimers out. What have I built out of reasonable decisions that I've never once looked at all together?

Grounded in: Pass It On (the membership-rules survey); P-43.

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 20We'll Supply the Organization Tradition 9All of September September 22 →Business Meetings

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).