Tradition 9 · September 30

Read It to the End

Daily Traditions · September 30

How it gets captured

Tradition 9 only makes full sense when you read it to the end, past the short form and into the Long Form (Big Book, p. 565): "true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles; they do not govern." Servants of the whole means they work for the members, not the other way round. No title in A.A. lets anyone run you. The short form everyone quotes points the same way in its last words (p. 562): service boards or committees "directly responsible to those they serve." Today the Tradition gets cut short in rooms that call themselves A.A. but answer to someone else: a facility that books the meeting, pays the person at the front, and can cancel it. The person at the front of that room has a title and a boss, and neither one is the members. That room was organized, just not by the people in the chairs. Test your room tonight with three questions. Who could close it? Who does the person at the front answer to? Can anyone here put me out? In an A.A. group the answers are the members, the members, and nobody. That is the room the drunk still out there needs to find open.

Sit with

The Long Form says A.A.'s leaders are servants who do not govern. Who does the person at the front of my room answer to?

Grounded in: Long form, Tradition 9 (Big Book, p. 565); short form, Tradition 9 (Big Book, p. 562).

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 29Servants, Not Senators Tradition 9All of September →All of September

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).