Tradition 9 · September 29

Servants, Not Senators

Daily Traditions · September 29

How a group breaks it

An A.A. committee cannot judge you, advise you, or order you, and it can be voted out at the next election if it tries. Bill W. described what a group is left with once it has thrown off its founder and elected a rotating committee (A.A. Comes of Age): a body "very sharply limited in its authority. In no sense whatever can its members govern or direct the group." Then the exact limits: "It can give no spiritual advice, judge no one's conduct, issue no orders." And any committee member "may be promptly eliminated at the next election if he tries to throw his weight around. The members fully realize that they are actually servants, not senators." Three things a committee cannot do, and one thing the group can always do to it. That is the entire relationship between anyone at the front of an A.A. room and anyone in the chairs. So run the test on the meeting in the building. Does the person running it give spiritual advice you are expected to take? Judge your conduct — attendance, attitude, progress? Issue orders? And the fourth: can the people in the chairs vote that person out? A committee that fails the first three has become senators. A room that cannot do the fourth has been governed. Neither is an A.A. group, whatever the sign says.

Sit with

No spiritual advice, no judging conduct, no orders — and the group can remove anyone who tries. Could the people in my meeting vote out the person running it?

Grounded in: A.A. Comes of Age (the rotating committee's limits).

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 28Never Organized At All Tradition 9All of September September 30 →Read It to the End

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).