Tradition 9 · September 23

Now Dr. Bob Said

Daily Traditions · September 23

The threat today

A.A. has nobody who can give orders, so people manufacture authority the only way left — by borrowing it from the dead. Joe P., who knew Dr. Bob, watched it start while the man was barely gone (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers): "others are always repeating things Dr. Bob said that I know he didn't." And he named why: people say "Now Dr. Bob said …" in order to lend a little importance to what they are saying. That is the mechanism, from a witness. Mostly it is not lying. It is a person who wants to win a point, knows their own name will not carry it, and reaches for one that will. Today the borrowed name is often not a founder's. It is "the program." The program requires this. The program says you must. Tradition 9 took titles away from the living; quoting authority that does not exist is how a title gets smuggled back in. The defence is dull and it works: ask where it is written. Everything the founders actually said is on paper, the paper is in your hands, and it has never needed anyone to speak for it.

Sit with

With no one to give orders, people borrow authority from the dead or from "the program." When someone tells me what A.A. requires, have I asked where it is written?

Grounded in: Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (Joe P.).

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 22Servants of Your Group Tradition 9All of September September 24 →Bleeding Deacons

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).