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From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
Click the page number or the book cover icon
to view that page in the literature.1.
2.
If you cannot find A.A. in your locality, visit our Web site: www.aa.org; or a letter addressed to Alcoholics
Anonymous, Box 459, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163, USA, will receive a prompt reply from this world center, referring you to the nearest A.A. group.
3.
Formation of a group.
4.
5.
6.
Can we bring the same spirit of love and tolerance into our sometimes deranged family lives that we bring to our A.A. group?
7.
The moment this Twelfth Step work forms a group, another discovery is made -- that most individuals cannot recover unless there is a
group.
8.
He learns that the clamor of
desires and ambitions within him must be silenced whenever these
could damage the group.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Every doctor concerned would at times wish he could devote himself to his chosen field rather than work only with the group.
15.
16.
17.
This meant, of course, that
we had been given the courage to declare each A.A. group an individual entity, strictly reliant on its own conscience as a guide to action.
18.
He visits preachers, doctors, editors, policemen, and bartenders ... with the result that Middletown now has a group, and he is the founder.
19.
"Does this mean," some will anxiously ask, "that in A.A. the individual doesn't count for much? Is he to be dominated by his group and swallowed up in it?"
20.
... group and
will, if you wish, correspond ...
BB
Appendix VI, How to Get in Touch With A.A., p.573
This headquarters will
give the location of the nearest family group and will, if you wish, correspond with you
about your special problems.
21.
The moment this Twelfth Step work forms a group, another discovery is made -- that most individuals cannot recover unless there is a
group.
22.
23.
24.
25.
To certain newcomers and
to those one-time agnostics who still cling to the A.A. group as their higher power, claims for the power of prayer may, despite all the logic and experience in proof of it, still be unconvincing or quite objectionable.
26.
(*) This refers to Bill's and
Dr. Bob's first visit to A.A. Number Three. See the Pioneer Section. This resulted in A.A.'s first group, at Akron, Ohio, in 1935.
27.
"The American Public Health Association presents a Lasker Group Award for 1951 to Alcoholics Anonymous in recognition of its unique and highly successful approach to
that age-old public health and social problem, alcoholism ... In emphasizing alcoholism
as an illness, the social
stigma associated with
this condition is being blotted out ... Historians may one day recognize Alcoholics Anonymous to
have been a great venture in
social pioneering which
forged a new instrument for social action; a new therapy based on the kinship of common suffering; one having a vast potential for the myriad other ills of mankind."
28.
29.
30.
But in relation to us, it means very simply that every A.A. group can manage its affairs exactly as it pleases, except when A.A. as a whole is threatened.
31.
The bleeding deacon is one who is just as surely convinced that the
group cannot get along without him, who constantly connives for
reelection to office,
and who continues to be consumed with self-pity.
32.
33.
34.
If nobody does the group's chores, if the area's telephone rings unanswered, if we do not reply to our mail, then A.A. as we know it would stop.
35.
Neither its General Service Conference, its Foundation Board,(*) nor the humblest group committee can issue a single directive to an A.A. member and make it stick, let alone mete out any punishment.
36.
The General Service Conference, the board of trustees, and group committees cannot issue directives to A.A. members or groups.
37.
2. For our group purpose
there is but one ultimate authority -- a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
38.
39.
These practical folk then
read Tradition Two, and learn that the sole authority in A.A. is a loving God as He may express Himself in the group conscience.
40.
41.
Two -- For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority -- a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
42.
43.
They become the voice of the
group conscience; in fact, these are the true voice of Alcoholics Anonymous.
44.
45.
Two -- 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.
46.
Tradition Two -- "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."
47.
"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."
48.
49.
This is the experience which has led us to the conclusion that
our group conscience, well-advised by its elders, will be in the long run wiser than any single leader.
50.
When A.A.'s Traditions were
first published, in 1946, we had become sure that an A.A. group could stand almost any amount of battering.
51.
The elder statesman is the
one who sees the wisdom of the group's decision, who holds no resentment over his reduced status, whose judgment, fortified by considerable experience, is sound, and
who is willing to sit quietly on the sidelines patiently awaiting developments.
52.
What should the group do?
53.
Cried Ed, "I can't stand this God stuff! It's a lot of malarkey for weak folks. This group doesn't need it, and I won't have it! To hell with it!"
54.
We saw that the group, exactly like the individual, must eventually conform to whatever tested principles would guarantee survival.
55.
Still more important, murmurs are heard in the body politic, which swell into a loud cry: "Do these oldtimers think they can run this group forever?
56.
When the broker returned
to New York in the fall of 1935, the first A.A. group had actually been formed, though no one realized it at the time.
57.
58.
59.
60.
Disliking the attempt of
some to manage a group, half its membership might angrily
rush off to form another group more to their liking.
61.
Five -- Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic
who still suffers.
62.
Tradition Five -- "Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers."
63.
"Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers."
64.
These are the growing group's
hierarchy of service --
self-appointed, of course, because there is no other way.
65.
66.
67.
It is in this spirit of service that we elect the A.A. group's informal rotating committee, the intergroup association
for the area, and the General
Service Conferences of
Alcoholics Anonymous
for A.A. as a whole.
68.
Whereupon we tried A.A. hospitals -- they all bogged down because you cannot put an A.A. group into business; too many busybody cooks spoil the broth.
69.
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.
70.
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.
71.
72.
73.
74.
While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied.
75.
While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never to go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied.
76.
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.
77.
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.
78.
79.
Disliking the attempt of
some to manage a group, half its membership might angrily
rush off to form another group more to their liking.
80.
Tradition One -- "Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity." Without unity, A.A. dies. Individual liberty, yet great unity. Key to paradox: each A.A.'s life depends on obedience to spiritual principles.
The group must survive or the individual
will not. Common welfare comes first. How best to live and work together as groups.
81.
82.
83.
84.
In either case, the group now has a so-called rotating committee, very sharply limited in its authority.
85.
The doctors weren't trying to find how different we were from one another; they sought to find whatever personality traits, if any, this group of alcoholics had in common.
86.
If a group of doctors possessed a cancer cure, they might be conscience-stricken if
they failed their mission
through self-seeking.
87.
88.
Alcoholics Anonymous
can be likened to a group of
physicians who might find
a cure for cancer, and upon whose concerted work would depend the answer for sufferers of this disease.
89.
A.A.'s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in
their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole.
90.
... group of
related principles to help ensure ...
BB
Appendix VII, Twelve Concepts (Short Form), p.574
Written by co-founder Bill W. in 1962, the Twelve Concepts for World Service provide a group of related principles to help ensure that various elements of A.A.'s service structure remain responsive and responsible to those they
serve.
91.
When A.A. was quite young, a number of eminent psychologists
and doctors made an exhaustive study of a good-sized group of so-called problem drinkers.
92.
93.
One of the first members of A.A., entirely contrary to his own desires, was obliged to conform to group opinion.
94.
For the time being, we who were
atheist or agnostic discovered that our own group, or A.A. as a whole, would suffice as a higher power.
95.
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.
96.
Ten -- 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.
97.
98.
Six -- 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.
99.
Tradition Six -- "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."
100.
"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."
101.
Two storm signals -- a group ought not do anything which
would injure A.A. as a whole, nor affiliate itself with outside interests.
102.
In charting this enormous expanse of freedom, we found it necessary to post only two storm signals: A group ought not do anything which
would greatly injure A.A. as a whole, nor ought it affiliate itself with anything or anybody else.
103.
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.
104.
Five -- 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.
105.
106.
Tradition Seven -- "Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions."
107.
108.
A second small group promptly took shape at New York, to be followed in 1937 with the start of a third at Cleveland.
109.
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.
110.
So confident of this had we become that the original statement of A.A. tradition carried this significant sentence:
"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."
111.
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.
112.
Two -- 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.
113.
2. For our group purpose
there is but one ultimate authority -- a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
114.
Tradition Two -- "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."
115.
"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."
116.
Two -- For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority -- a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
117.
It was soon apparent that while alcoholics would spend lavishly on Twelfth Step cases, they had a terrific aversion to dropping money into a meeting-place hat for group purposes.
118.
Not long after the man with the double stigma knocked for admission, A.A.'s other group received into its membership a salesman we
shall call Ed.
119.
... group, regional
committee, or individual should ever ...
BB
Appendix I, The A.A. Tradition, p.563
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.
120.
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.
121.
122.
Four -- Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
123.
Tradition Four -- "Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole."
124.
125.
4. With respect to its own affairs, each A.A. group should be responsible to
no other authority than its own conscience.
126.
Four -- With respect to its own affairs, each A.A. group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience.
127.
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.
128.
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.
129.
"But," he asked, "will you let me join your group? Since I am the victim of another addiction even worse stigmatized than alcoholism, you may not want
me among you. Or will you?"
130.
From great numbers of such experiences, we could
predict that the doubter
who still claimed that he
hadn't got the "spiritual angle," and who still considered his well-loved A.A. group the higher power, would presently love God and call Him by name.
131.
Who is more unpopular than
the oldtime A.A., full of wisdom, who moves to another area and tries to tell the group there how to run its business?
132.
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.
133.
So confident of this had we become that the original statement of A.A. tradition carried this significant sentence:
"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."
134.
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.
135.
These facts appear to be of
extreme medical importance; because of the
extraordinary possibilities of rapid growth inherent in this group they may mark a new epoch in the annals of alcoholism.
136.
137.
138.
139.
140.
Unless there is approximate conformity
to A.A.'s Twelve Traditions, the group, too,
can deteriorate and die.
141.
... group unto
themselves and their best results ...
BB
Appendix III, The Medical View on A.A., p.569
Dr. G. Kirby Collier, psychiatrist:
"I have felt that A.A. is a group unto themselves and their best results can be had under their
own guidance, as a result of their philosophy.
142.
143.
144.
145.
The spark that was to flare
into the first A.A. group was struck at Akron, Ohio, in June 1935, during a talk between a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician.
146.
It was thought that no alcoholic man or woman could be excluded from
our Society; that our leaders might serve but never govern; that each group was to be autonomous and there was to be no professional class of therapy.
147.
By his eloquence he allayed all fears, despite advice from the Foundation that it could issue no charter, and that ventures
which mixed an A.A. group with medication and education had come to sticky ends elsewhere.
148.
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