Tradition 9 · September 6

Rule-Making Benders

Daily Traditions · September 6

The threat

Bill wrote the plainest sentence anyone has written about early A.A. meetings (A.A. pamphlet P-17): "At one time or another most A.A. groups go on rule-making benders." He meant it literally, and he listed what set them off. Panhandlers worked the room. Members got drunk and took others with them. Gossip ran. Newcomers argued they weren't alcoholics and kept turning up anyway. The steady members watched this and got frightened for the thing they loved — which is the only motive in the whole story. What happened next has a shape you'll recognize. "Charters, bylaws and membership rules are excitedly passed and authority is granted committees to filter out undesirables and discipline the evildoers. Then the Group Elders, now clothed with authority, commence to get busy." Read "clothed with authority" slowly. Nobody seized anything. The group handed it over, deliberately, at a business meeting, believing it was protecting itself. That's how it happens every time. Not a takeover — a vote, taken by worried people, on a bad night.

Sit with

The rules weren't seized. The group voted them in, on a bad night, believing it was protecting itself. What did I hand over when I was frightened, and never think to take back?

Grounded in: P-17 (the rule and regulation phase).

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 5Which Way the Money Runs Tradition 9All of September September 7 →Shouted Down

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).