Never Organized At All

Tradition 9 got stricter, on purpose, after fifteen years of practice. The first version was mild. Bill W. quoted it himself at St. Louis in 1955 (A.A. Comes of Age): "When Tradition Nine was first written it said," — "Alcoholics Anonymous needs the least possible organization." A matter of degree — keep it light. Then: "In the years since then, we have changed our minds about that. Today we are able to say with assurance that Alcoholics Anonymous—A.A. as a whole—should never be organized at all." And he said what the words mean, so nobody could soften them: "What we really mean, of course, is that A.A. can never have an organized direction or government." No direction. No government. Read what happened there. A fellowship reviewed a principle, watched what organizing did to the people it was for, and voluntarily cut its own power to govern itself — with no scandal forcing it. Anyone who tells you the Traditions are old letters nobody revisits should be handed this one. A.A. revisited it and tightened the rope on itself. So a body that directs your recovery, on a schedule, under a director, and calls itself A.A. is claiming the one thing A.A. said with assurance it would never be.