Tradition 9 · September 8

The Passion for Consolidation

Daily Traditions · September 8

The threat today

It never announces itself as a power grab. It arrives as tidying up. Two committees that overlap get merged. A function that's scattered gets centralized so that somebody finally owns it. Every step is defensible and the result is that authority pools. Bill named this the recurrent passion for consolidation, and refused to be polite about where it comes from — it is, he wrote (A.A. Service Manual), "nearly always the underlying (though not always the conscious) motivation" behind the impulse. Then he named what sits underneath that — "we usually try to enlarge our own authority and prestige when we are in the saddle" — and he did not exempt himself. "I'm the more sure of this because I possess these traits myself." That's the sentence worth carrying. The man who built A.A.'s entire service structure said the appetite for control was in him, and built the structure assuming it would be in whoever came next. The safeguard was never trusting the right people with authority. It was arranging things so nobody has to be trusted that much.

Sit with

Bill said the appetite to concentrate authority was in him too, and built the structure assuming it's in everyone. When I want to take something over so it gets done properly — how much of that is really about getting it done?

Grounded in: A.A. Service Manual, Concepts Introduction.

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 7Shouted Down Tradition 9All of September September 9 →Somebody Has to Be Told

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).