THE
TWELVE TRADITIONS
1.
Our common welfare should come
first; personal recovery depends upon
A.A. unity.
2.
For our group purpose there is
but one ultimate authority-a loving
God as He may express Himself in our group
conscience. Our leaders are but
trusted servants; they do not govern.
3.
The only requirement for A.A.
membership is a desire to stop
drinking.
4.
Each group should be autonomous
except in matters affecting other
groups or A.A. as a whole.
5.
Each group has but one primary
purpose-to carry its message to the
alcoholic who still suffers.
6.
An A.A. group ought never
endorse, finance or lend the A.A.
name to any related facility or
outside enterprise,
lest problems of money, property and
prestige divert us from our primary
purpose.
7.
Every A.A. group ought to be
fully self-supporting, declining
outside contributions.
8.
Alcoholics Anonymous should
remain forever non-professional, but
our service centers may employ special
workers.
9.
A.A., as such, ought never be
organized; but we may create service
boards or committee directly responsible
to those they serve.
10.
Alcoholics Anonymous has no
opinion on outside issues; hence the
A.A. name ought never be drawn into public
controversy.
11.
Our public relations policy is
based on attraction rather than
promotion; we need always maintain personal
anonymity at the level of press,
radio and films.
12.
Anonymity is the spiritual
foundation of all our Traditions,
ever reminding us to place principles
before personalities.
THE
TWELVE TRADITIONS
(The Long Form)
Our A.A.
experience has taught us that:
1. - Each
member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but
a small part of a great whole. A.A.
must continue to live or most of
use will surely die. Hence our common
welfare comes first. But individual
welfare follows close afterward.
2. - For
our group purpose there is but one
ultimate authority-a loving God as He
may express Himself in our group
conscience.
3. - Our
membership ought to include all who
suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may
refuse none who wish to recover.
Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend
upon money or conformity. Any two or
three alcoholics gathered
together for sobriety may call
themselves an A.A. Group, provided
that, as a group, they have no other
affiliation.
4. - With
respect to its own affairs, each A.A.
group should be responsible to no
other authority than its own conscience.
But when its plans concern the
welfare of neighboring groups also,
those groups ought to be consulted.
And no group, regional committee, or
individual should ever take any
action that might greatly affect
A.A. as a whole without conferring
with the Trustees of the General
Service Board. On such issues our common
welfare is paramount.
5. - Each
Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to
be a spiritual entity having but one
primary purpose-that of carrying
its message to the alcoholic who
still suffers.
6. -
Problems of money, property, and
authority may easily divert us from
our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore,
that any considerable property of
genuine use to A.A. should be
separately incorporated and managed,
thus dividing the material from the
spiritual. An A.A. group, as such,
should never go into business. Secondary
aids to A.A., such as clubs or
hospitals which require much property
or administration, ought to be
incorporated and so set apart that,
if necessary, they can be freely
discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities
ought not to use the A.A. name. Their
management should be the sole
responsibility of those people who
financially support them. For clubs,
A.A. managers are usually preferred.
But hospitals, as well as other places of
recuperation, ought to be well
outside A.A.-and medically
supervised. While an A.A. group may cooperate
with anyone, such cooperation ought
never go so far as affiliation or
endorsement, actual or implied.
An A.A. group can bind itself to no
one.
7. - The
A.A. groups themselves ought to be
fully supported by the voluntary
contributions of their own members.
We think that each group should soon
achieve this ideal; that any public
solicitation of funds using the
name of Alcoholics Anonymous is
highly dangerous, whether by groups,
clubs, hospitals, or other outside
agencies; that acceptance of large
gifts from any source, or of
contributions carrying any obligation
whatever,
is unwise. Then too, we view with
much concern those A.A. treasuries
which continue, beyond prudent
reserves, to accumulate funds for no
stated A.A. purpose. Experience has
often warned us that nothing
can so surely destroy our spiritual
heritage as futile disputes over
property, money, and authority.
8. -
Alcoholics Anonymous should remain
forever non-professional. We define
professionalism as the occupation
of counseling alcoholics for fees or
hire. But we may employ alcoholics
where they are going to perform
those services for which we may
otherwise have to engage
nonalcoholics. Such special services may be
well recompensed. But our usual A.A.
"12th Step" work is never
to be paid for.
9. - Each
A.A. group needs the least possible
organization. Rotating leadership is
the best. The small group may elect
its Secretary, the large group its
Rotating Committee, and the groups of
a large Metropolitan area their
Central or Intergroup Committee,
which often employs a full-time
Secretary. The trustees of the
General Service
Board are, in effect, our A.A.
General Service Committee. They are
the custodians of our A.A. Tradition
and the receivers of voluntary A.A.
contributions by which we maintain
our A.A. General Service Office at
New York. They are authorized by the
groups to handle our over-all public
relations and they guarantee
the integrity of our principle
newspaper, "The A.A.
Grapevine." All such
representatives are to be guided in
the spirit of service, for 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. Universal
respect is the key to their usefulness.
10. - No
A.A. group or member should ever, in
such a way as to implicate A.A.,
express any opinion on outside
controversial issues-particularly
those of politics, alcohol reform, or
sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous
groups oppose no one. Concerning such
matters they can express no views
whatever.
11. - Our
relations with the general public
should be characterized by personal
anonymity. We think A.A. ought to
avoid sensational advertising. Our
names and pictures as A.A. members
ought not be broadcast, filmed,
or publicly printed. Our public
relations should be guided by the
principle of attraction rather than promotion.
There is never need to praise
ourselves. We feel it better to let
our friends recommend us.
12. - And
finally, we of Alcoholics Anonymous
believe that the principle of
Anonymity has an immense spiritual
significance. It reminds us that we
are to place principles before
personalities; that we are actually to
practice a genuine humility. This to
the end that our great blessings may
never spoil us; that we shall forever
live in thankful contemplation of Him
who presides over us all.
From
Pages 561 through 566 of the Big Book
of Alcoholics Anonymous Fourth
Edition
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