saved1
06-27-2011, 07:59 PM
TRADITION 1-GOODWILL /HONESTY/LOVE-Love is a principle that is expressed in the practice of goodwill toward one another. We contribute to unity in our meetings by exercising loving care in the way we speak and the way we treat one another.
TRADITION 2-FAITH/HUMILITY/ INTEGRITY- Integrity is the consistent application of spiritual principles, no matter what the circumstances. Leaders who demonstrate this quality inspire our trust. We serve best when we display an honest respect for the trust placed in us by others. Fidelity and devotion to that trust reflects the personal integrity of our servants. When we choose members to serve us, we often look for integrity as a sign that they are trustworthy.
TRADITION 3- COMPASSION/ANONYMITY/TOLERANCE- Tolerance reminds us that judgment is not our task. The disease of addiction does not exclude anyone. Our program, likewise, cannot exclude any addict who desires to stop using. We learn to be tolerant of addicts who desire to stop using. We learn to be tolerant of addicts from different backgrounds than ours, remembering that we are not better than any other addict in a meeting.
TRADITION 4- INDEPENDENCE/ OPEN-MINDEDNESS/ UNITY- Remembering our part in the greater whole, we consider unity when we think about applying the Forth Tradition. Any decision that we make as an autonomous group ought to be founded first in our common welfare. Although we are autonomous, we may offer loving support to other groups by attending their meetings or offering other help. Meetings thrive when groups look beyond their immediate needs to offer help to each other.
TRADITION 5-INTEGRITY/ ANONYMITY/ RESPONSIBILITY -The Fifth Tradition gives our groups a great responsibility: to maintain our fellowship's primary purpose. Each group is responsible to become as effective a vehicle for carrying the NA message as it can be. Allowing our groups to lose sight of our primary purpose may deprive an addict of a chance to hear our message of hope. Each member is responsible to help the group keep our primary purpose in focus.
TRADITION 6-HUMILITY/ INTEGRITY/ ANONYMITY/ FAITH/HARMONY-The principle of harmony is both assumed and supported by Tradition Six. Our groups seek to cooperate with others in society whenever possible and as much as possible. Our contacts with others are made simple and straightforward when we let them know, right from the start, how far we can go in cooperating with them. By respecting the Sixth Tradition's boundaries in our group's relations with other organizations, we generate harmony in those relations.
TRADITION 7-GRATITUDE/ SELF-DISCIPLINE/ FAITH-So long as our group remains devoted to fulfilling its primary purpose, its needs are met. As members of an group, we have made a commitment to support one another in our recovery. Our group's commitment to become fully self-supporting reflects the group's integrity, its faithfulness to its fundamental identity. We support each other in recovery and, together, we fulfill our collective responsibilities as members of a self-supporting group.
TRADITION 8-HUMILITY/ INTEGRITY/ PRUDENCE -We must exercise prudence in employing professional assistance for our services. Most service responsibilities do not require special expertise or large, consistent commitments of time. Our members are perfectly capable of fulfilling such responsibilities on a volunteer basis. By exercising prudence, we can distinguish between those tasks requiring the support of special workers and those we can fulfill voluntarily.
TRADITION 9-HUMILITY/ PRUDENCE/ FIDELITY-The Ninth Tradition speaks of fidelity. Narcotics Anonymous groups join together, combining their resources to create service boards and committees that will help them better fulfill their primary purpose. Those boards and committees are not called to govern Narcotics Anonymous; they are called, rather, to faithfully execute the trust given them by the groups they serve. With a minimum of organization, our service boards and committees perform tasks on behalf of the groups, helping our groups remain free to do what they do best, simply and directly. Our fidelity to the Ninth Tradition assures that the simple, spontaneous atmosphere of recovery shared one addict to another in the NA group is never organized, legislated, or regulated out of existence.
TRADITION 10 -HUMILITY/NEUTRALITY -Individual members responsibly exercise the Tenth Tradition by personally guarding your programs reputation whenever and wherever they speak. Publicly, we differentiate our personal opinions and those of NA, avoiding the expression of any personal opinions at all in circumstances where the difference might not be recognized. In meetings, members make it clear that what we share is our own experience, not the position of your program, providing as little opportunity as possible for misinterpretation. The way we speak as NA members often affects how others view NA; therefore, as responsible members, we speak carefully, guarding the neutrality that is so important to the welfare of us all.
TRADITION 11 -FAITH/SELFLESS SERVICE -The principle of selfless service, critical to the application of our Eleventh Tradition, is not a passive principle. To be of maximum service to the still-suffering addict, we must energetically seek to carry our message throughout our cities, towns, and villages. Our public information policy is based on attraction, to be sure, not promotion. But to attract the still-suffering addict to our program, we must take vigorous steps to make our program known.
TRADITION 12-ANONYMITY -Anonymity is essential in preserving the stability of our fellowship, making personal recovery possible. Recovery is a delicate thing. It grows best in a stable, supportive environment. Each of us and each of our groups plays a part in maintaining that stability. Our unity is so precious that, given a choice between fulfilling our wishes and preserving our fellowship's common welfare, we put the best interests of our program first. We do this not only out of enlightened self-interest but out of our sense of responsibility to our fellow addicts. The principle of unity comes before the fulfillment of our personal wishes.
Practice These Principles . . .
Tradition One: Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.
Am I in my group a healing, mending, integrating person, or am I divisive? What about gossip and taking other member's inventories?
Am I a peacemaker? Or do I, with pious preludes such as “just for the sake of discussion,” plunge into argument?
Am I gentle with those who rub me the wrong way, or am I abrasive?
Do I make competitive AA remarks, such as comparing one group with another or contrasting AA in one place with AA in another?
Do I put down some AA activities as if I were superior for not participating in this or that aspect of AA?
Am I informed about AA as a whole? Do I support, in every way I can, AA as a whole, or just the parts I understand and approve of?
Am I as considerate of AA members as I want them to be of me?
Do I spout platitudes about love while indulging in and secretly justifying behavior that bristles with hostility?
Do I go to enough AA meetings or read enough AA literature to really keep in touch?
Do I share with AA all of me, the bad and the good, accepting as well as giving the help of the fellowship?
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.
Do I criticize or do I trust and support my group officers, AA committees, and office workers? Newcomers? Old-timers?
Am I absolutely trustworthy, even in secret, with AA Twelfth Step jobs or other AA responsibility?
Do I look for credit in my AA jobs? Praise for my AA ideas?
Do I have to save face in group discussion, or can I yield in good spirit to the group conscience and work cheerfully along with it?
Although I have been sober a few years, am I willing to serve my turn at AA chores?
In group discussions, do I sound off about matters on which I have no experience and little knowledge?
Tradition Three: The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.
In my mind, do I prejudge some new AA members as losers?
Is there some kind of alcoholic whom I privately do not want in my AA group?
Do I set myself up as a judge of whether a newcomer is sincere or phony?
Do I let language, religion (or lack of it), race, education, age, or other such things interfere with my carrying the message?
Am I over impressed by a celebrity? By a doctor, a clergyman, and ex-convict? Or can I just treat this new member simply and naturally as one more sick human, like the rest of us?
When someone turns up at AA needing information or help (even if he can’t ask for it aloud), does it really matter to me what he does for a living? Where he lives? What his domestic arrangements are? Whether he had been to AA before? What his other problems are?
Tradition Four: Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
Do I insist that there are only a few right ways of doing things in AA?
Does my group always consider the welfare of the rest of AA? Of nearby groups? Of loners in Alaska? Of internationalists miles from port? Of a group in Rome or El Salvador?
Do I put down other members’ behavior when it is different from mine, or do I learn from it?
Do I always bear in mind that, to those outsiders who know I am in AA, I may to some extent represent our entire beloved Fellowship?
Am I willing to help a newcomer go to any lengths – his lengths, not mine – to stay sober?
Do I share my knowledge of AA tools with other members who may not have heard of them?
Tradition Five: Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
Do I ever cop out by saying, “I’m not a group, so this or that Tradition doesn’t apply to me”?
Am I willing to explain firmly to a newcomer the limitations of AA help, even if he gets mad at me for not giving him a loan?
Have I today imposed on any AA member for a special favor or consideration simply because I am a fellow alcoholic?
Am I willing to twelfth-step the next newcomer without regard to who or what is in it for me?
Do I help my group in every way I can to fulfill our primary purpose?
Do I remember that AA old-timers, too, can be alcoholics who still suffer? Do I try both to help them and to learn from them?
Tradition Six: An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Should my fellow group members and I go out and raise money to endow several AA beds in our local hospital?
Is it good for a group to lease a small building?
Are all the officers and members of our local club for AAs familiar with “Guidelines on Clubs” (which is available free from GSO)?
Should the secretary of our group serve on the mayor’s advisory committee on alcoholism?
Some alcoholics will stay around AA only if we have a TV and card room. If this is what is required to carry the message to them, should we have these facilities?
Tradition Seven: Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
Honestly now, do I do all I can to help AA (my group, my central office, my GSO) remain self-supporting? Could I put a little more into the basket on behalf of the new guy who can’t afford it yet? How generous was I when tanked in a barroom?
Should the Grapevine sell advertising space to book publishers and drug companies, so it could make a big profit and become a bigger magazine, in full color, at a cheaper price per copy?
If GSO runs short of funds some year, wouldn’t it be okay to let the government subsidize AA groups in hospitals and prisons?
Is it more important to get a big AA collection from a few people, or a smaller collection in which more members participate?
Is a group treasurer’s report unimportant AA business? How does the treasurer feel about it?
How important in my recovery is the feeling of self-respect, rather than the feeling of being always under obligation for charity received?
Tradition Eight: Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
Is my own behavior accurately described by the Traditions? If not, what needs changing?
When I chafe about any particular Tradition, do I realize how it affects others?
Do I sometimes try to get some reward – even if not money – for my personal AA efforts?
Do I try to sound in AA like an expert on alcoholism? On recovery? On medicine? On sociology? On AA itself? On psychology? On spiritual matters? Or, heaven help me, even on humility?
Do I make an effort to understand what AA employees do? What workers in other alcoholism agencies do? Can I distinguish clearly among them?
In my own AA life, have I any experiences which illustrate the wisdom of this Tradition.
Have I paid enough attention to the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions? To the pamphlet AA Tradition – How It Developed?
Tradition Nine: AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
Do I still try to boss things in AA?
Do I resist formal aspects of AA because I fear them as authoritative?
Am I mature enough to understand and use all elements of the AA program – even if no one makes me do so – with a sense of personal responsibility?
Do I exercise patience and humility in any AA job I take?
Am I aware of all those to whom I am responsible in any AA job?
Why doesn’t every AA group need a constitution and bylaws?
Have I learned to step out of an AA job gracefully – and profit thereby – when the time comes?
What has rotation to do with anonymity? With humility?
Tradition Ten: Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
Do I ever give the impression that there really is an “AA opinion” on Antabuse? Tranquilizers? Doctors? Psychiatrists? Churches? Hospitals? Jails? Alcohol? The federal government? Legalizing marijuana? Vitamins? Al-Anon? Alateen?
Can I honestly share my own personal experience concerning any of those without giving the impression I am stating the “AA opinion”?
What in AA history gave rise to our Tenth Tradition?
Have I had a similar experience in my own AA life?
What would AA be without this Tradition? Where would I be?
Do I breach this or any of its supporting Traditions in subtle, perhaps unconscious, ways?
How can I manifest the spirit of this Tradition in my personal life outside AA? Inside AA?
Tradition Eleven: 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.
Do I sometimes promote AA so fanatically that I make it seem unattractive?
Am I always careful to keep the confidences reposed in me as an AA member?
Am I careful about throwing AA names around – even within the Fellowship?
Am I ashamed of being a recovered, or recovering, alcoholic?
What would AA be like if we were not guided by the ideas in Tradition Eleven? Where would I be?
Is my sobriety attractive enough that a sick drunk would want such a quality for himself?
Tradition Twelve: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
Why is it a good idea for me to place the common welfare of all AA members before individual welfare? What would happen to me if AA as a whole disappeared?
When I do not trust AA’s current servants, who do I wish had the authority to straighten them out?
In my opinions of and remarks about other AAs, am I implying membership requirements other than a desire to stay sober?
Do I ever try to get a certain AA group to conform to my standards, not its own?
Have I a personal responsibility in helping an AA group fulfill its primary purpose? What is my part?
Does my personal behavior reflect the Sixth Tradition – or belie it?
Do I do all I can to support AA financially? When is the last time I anonymously gave away a Grapevine subscription?
Do I complain about certain AAs’ behavior – especially if they are paid to work for AA? Who made me so smart?
Do I fulfill all AA responsibilities in such a way as to please privately even my own conscience? Really?
Do my utterances always reflect the Tenth Tradition, or do I give AA critics real ammunition?
Should I keep my AA membership a secret, or reveal it in private conversation when that may help another alcoholic (and therefore me)? Is my brand of AA so attractive that other drunks want it?
What is the real importance of me among more than a million AAs?
Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc.
TRADITION 2-FAITH/HUMILITY/ INTEGRITY- Integrity is the consistent application of spiritual principles, no matter what the circumstances. Leaders who demonstrate this quality inspire our trust. We serve best when we display an honest respect for the trust placed in us by others. Fidelity and devotion to that trust reflects the personal integrity of our servants. When we choose members to serve us, we often look for integrity as a sign that they are trustworthy.
TRADITION 3- COMPASSION/ANONYMITY/TOLERANCE- Tolerance reminds us that judgment is not our task. The disease of addiction does not exclude anyone. Our program, likewise, cannot exclude any addict who desires to stop using. We learn to be tolerant of addicts who desire to stop using. We learn to be tolerant of addicts from different backgrounds than ours, remembering that we are not better than any other addict in a meeting.
TRADITION 4- INDEPENDENCE/ OPEN-MINDEDNESS/ UNITY- Remembering our part in the greater whole, we consider unity when we think about applying the Forth Tradition. Any decision that we make as an autonomous group ought to be founded first in our common welfare. Although we are autonomous, we may offer loving support to other groups by attending their meetings or offering other help. Meetings thrive when groups look beyond their immediate needs to offer help to each other.
TRADITION 5-INTEGRITY/ ANONYMITY/ RESPONSIBILITY -The Fifth Tradition gives our groups a great responsibility: to maintain our fellowship's primary purpose. Each group is responsible to become as effective a vehicle for carrying the NA message as it can be. Allowing our groups to lose sight of our primary purpose may deprive an addict of a chance to hear our message of hope. Each member is responsible to help the group keep our primary purpose in focus.
TRADITION 6-HUMILITY/ INTEGRITY/ ANONYMITY/ FAITH/HARMONY-The principle of harmony is both assumed and supported by Tradition Six. Our groups seek to cooperate with others in society whenever possible and as much as possible. Our contacts with others are made simple and straightforward when we let them know, right from the start, how far we can go in cooperating with them. By respecting the Sixth Tradition's boundaries in our group's relations with other organizations, we generate harmony in those relations.
TRADITION 7-GRATITUDE/ SELF-DISCIPLINE/ FAITH-So long as our group remains devoted to fulfilling its primary purpose, its needs are met. As members of an group, we have made a commitment to support one another in our recovery. Our group's commitment to become fully self-supporting reflects the group's integrity, its faithfulness to its fundamental identity. We support each other in recovery and, together, we fulfill our collective responsibilities as members of a self-supporting group.
TRADITION 8-HUMILITY/ INTEGRITY/ PRUDENCE -We must exercise prudence in employing professional assistance for our services. Most service responsibilities do not require special expertise or large, consistent commitments of time. Our members are perfectly capable of fulfilling such responsibilities on a volunteer basis. By exercising prudence, we can distinguish between those tasks requiring the support of special workers and those we can fulfill voluntarily.
TRADITION 9-HUMILITY/ PRUDENCE/ FIDELITY-The Ninth Tradition speaks of fidelity. Narcotics Anonymous groups join together, combining their resources to create service boards and committees that will help them better fulfill their primary purpose. Those boards and committees are not called to govern Narcotics Anonymous; they are called, rather, to faithfully execute the trust given them by the groups they serve. With a minimum of organization, our service boards and committees perform tasks on behalf of the groups, helping our groups remain free to do what they do best, simply and directly. Our fidelity to the Ninth Tradition assures that the simple, spontaneous atmosphere of recovery shared one addict to another in the NA group is never organized, legislated, or regulated out of existence.
TRADITION 10 -HUMILITY/NEUTRALITY -Individual members responsibly exercise the Tenth Tradition by personally guarding your programs reputation whenever and wherever they speak. Publicly, we differentiate our personal opinions and those of NA, avoiding the expression of any personal opinions at all in circumstances where the difference might not be recognized. In meetings, members make it clear that what we share is our own experience, not the position of your program, providing as little opportunity as possible for misinterpretation. The way we speak as NA members often affects how others view NA; therefore, as responsible members, we speak carefully, guarding the neutrality that is so important to the welfare of us all.
TRADITION 11 -FAITH/SELFLESS SERVICE -The principle of selfless service, critical to the application of our Eleventh Tradition, is not a passive principle. To be of maximum service to the still-suffering addict, we must energetically seek to carry our message throughout our cities, towns, and villages. Our public information policy is based on attraction, to be sure, not promotion. But to attract the still-suffering addict to our program, we must take vigorous steps to make our program known.
TRADITION 12-ANONYMITY -Anonymity is essential in preserving the stability of our fellowship, making personal recovery possible. Recovery is a delicate thing. It grows best in a stable, supportive environment. Each of us and each of our groups plays a part in maintaining that stability. Our unity is so precious that, given a choice between fulfilling our wishes and preserving our fellowship's common welfare, we put the best interests of our program first. We do this not only out of enlightened self-interest but out of our sense of responsibility to our fellow addicts. The principle of unity comes before the fulfillment of our personal wishes.
Practice These Principles . . .
Tradition One: Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.
Am I in my group a healing, mending, integrating person, or am I divisive? What about gossip and taking other member's inventories?
Am I a peacemaker? Or do I, with pious preludes such as “just for the sake of discussion,” plunge into argument?
Am I gentle with those who rub me the wrong way, or am I abrasive?
Do I make competitive AA remarks, such as comparing one group with another or contrasting AA in one place with AA in another?
Do I put down some AA activities as if I were superior for not participating in this or that aspect of AA?
Am I informed about AA as a whole? Do I support, in every way I can, AA as a whole, or just the parts I understand and approve of?
Am I as considerate of AA members as I want them to be of me?
Do I spout platitudes about love while indulging in and secretly justifying behavior that bristles with hostility?
Do I go to enough AA meetings or read enough AA literature to really keep in touch?
Do I share with AA all of me, the bad and the good, accepting as well as giving the help of the fellowship?
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.
Do I criticize or do I trust and support my group officers, AA committees, and office workers? Newcomers? Old-timers?
Am I absolutely trustworthy, even in secret, with AA Twelfth Step jobs or other AA responsibility?
Do I look for credit in my AA jobs? Praise for my AA ideas?
Do I have to save face in group discussion, or can I yield in good spirit to the group conscience and work cheerfully along with it?
Although I have been sober a few years, am I willing to serve my turn at AA chores?
In group discussions, do I sound off about matters on which I have no experience and little knowledge?
Tradition Three: The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.
In my mind, do I prejudge some new AA members as losers?
Is there some kind of alcoholic whom I privately do not want in my AA group?
Do I set myself up as a judge of whether a newcomer is sincere or phony?
Do I let language, religion (or lack of it), race, education, age, or other such things interfere with my carrying the message?
Am I over impressed by a celebrity? By a doctor, a clergyman, and ex-convict? Or can I just treat this new member simply and naturally as one more sick human, like the rest of us?
When someone turns up at AA needing information or help (even if he can’t ask for it aloud), does it really matter to me what he does for a living? Where he lives? What his domestic arrangements are? Whether he had been to AA before? What his other problems are?
Tradition Four: Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
Do I insist that there are only a few right ways of doing things in AA?
Does my group always consider the welfare of the rest of AA? Of nearby groups? Of loners in Alaska? Of internationalists miles from port? Of a group in Rome or El Salvador?
Do I put down other members’ behavior when it is different from mine, or do I learn from it?
Do I always bear in mind that, to those outsiders who know I am in AA, I may to some extent represent our entire beloved Fellowship?
Am I willing to help a newcomer go to any lengths – his lengths, not mine – to stay sober?
Do I share my knowledge of AA tools with other members who may not have heard of them?
Tradition Five: Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
Do I ever cop out by saying, “I’m not a group, so this or that Tradition doesn’t apply to me”?
Am I willing to explain firmly to a newcomer the limitations of AA help, even if he gets mad at me for not giving him a loan?
Have I today imposed on any AA member for a special favor or consideration simply because I am a fellow alcoholic?
Am I willing to twelfth-step the next newcomer without regard to who or what is in it for me?
Do I help my group in every way I can to fulfill our primary purpose?
Do I remember that AA old-timers, too, can be alcoholics who still suffer? Do I try both to help them and to learn from them?
Tradition Six: An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Should my fellow group members and I go out and raise money to endow several AA beds in our local hospital?
Is it good for a group to lease a small building?
Are all the officers and members of our local club for AAs familiar with “Guidelines on Clubs” (which is available free from GSO)?
Should the secretary of our group serve on the mayor’s advisory committee on alcoholism?
Some alcoholics will stay around AA only if we have a TV and card room. If this is what is required to carry the message to them, should we have these facilities?
Tradition Seven: Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
Honestly now, do I do all I can to help AA (my group, my central office, my GSO) remain self-supporting? Could I put a little more into the basket on behalf of the new guy who can’t afford it yet? How generous was I when tanked in a barroom?
Should the Grapevine sell advertising space to book publishers and drug companies, so it could make a big profit and become a bigger magazine, in full color, at a cheaper price per copy?
If GSO runs short of funds some year, wouldn’t it be okay to let the government subsidize AA groups in hospitals and prisons?
Is it more important to get a big AA collection from a few people, or a smaller collection in which more members participate?
Is a group treasurer’s report unimportant AA business? How does the treasurer feel about it?
How important in my recovery is the feeling of self-respect, rather than the feeling of being always under obligation for charity received?
Tradition Eight: Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
Is my own behavior accurately described by the Traditions? If not, what needs changing?
When I chafe about any particular Tradition, do I realize how it affects others?
Do I sometimes try to get some reward – even if not money – for my personal AA efforts?
Do I try to sound in AA like an expert on alcoholism? On recovery? On medicine? On sociology? On AA itself? On psychology? On spiritual matters? Or, heaven help me, even on humility?
Do I make an effort to understand what AA employees do? What workers in other alcoholism agencies do? Can I distinguish clearly among them?
In my own AA life, have I any experiences which illustrate the wisdom of this Tradition.
Have I paid enough attention to the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions? To the pamphlet AA Tradition – How It Developed?
Tradition Nine: AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
Do I still try to boss things in AA?
Do I resist formal aspects of AA because I fear them as authoritative?
Am I mature enough to understand and use all elements of the AA program – even if no one makes me do so – with a sense of personal responsibility?
Do I exercise patience and humility in any AA job I take?
Am I aware of all those to whom I am responsible in any AA job?
Why doesn’t every AA group need a constitution and bylaws?
Have I learned to step out of an AA job gracefully – and profit thereby – when the time comes?
What has rotation to do with anonymity? With humility?
Tradition Ten: Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
Do I ever give the impression that there really is an “AA opinion” on Antabuse? Tranquilizers? Doctors? Psychiatrists? Churches? Hospitals? Jails? Alcohol? The federal government? Legalizing marijuana? Vitamins? Al-Anon? Alateen?
Can I honestly share my own personal experience concerning any of those without giving the impression I am stating the “AA opinion”?
What in AA history gave rise to our Tenth Tradition?
Have I had a similar experience in my own AA life?
What would AA be without this Tradition? Where would I be?
Do I breach this or any of its supporting Traditions in subtle, perhaps unconscious, ways?
How can I manifest the spirit of this Tradition in my personal life outside AA? Inside AA?
Tradition Eleven: 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.
Do I sometimes promote AA so fanatically that I make it seem unattractive?
Am I always careful to keep the confidences reposed in me as an AA member?
Am I careful about throwing AA names around – even within the Fellowship?
Am I ashamed of being a recovered, or recovering, alcoholic?
What would AA be like if we were not guided by the ideas in Tradition Eleven? Where would I be?
Is my sobriety attractive enough that a sick drunk would want such a quality for himself?
Tradition Twelve: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
Why is it a good idea for me to place the common welfare of all AA members before individual welfare? What would happen to me if AA as a whole disappeared?
When I do not trust AA’s current servants, who do I wish had the authority to straighten them out?
In my opinions of and remarks about other AAs, am I implying membership requirements other than a desire to stay sober?
Do I ever try to get a certain AA group to conform to my standards, not its own?
Have I a personal responsibility in helping an AA group fulfill its primary purpose? What is my part?
Does my personal behavior reflect the Sixth Tradition – or belie it?
Do I do all I can to support AA financially? When is the last time I anonymously gave away a Grapevine subscription?
Do I complain about certain AAs’ behavior – especially if they are paid to work for AA? Who made me so smart?
Do I fulfill all AA responsibilities in such a way as to please privately even my own conscience? Really?
Do my utterances always reflect the Tenth Tradition, or do I give AA critics real ammunition?
Should I keep my AA membership a secret, or reveal it in private conversation when that may help another alcoholic (and therefore me)? Is my brand of AA so attractive that other drunks want it?
What is the real importance of me among more than a million AAs?
Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc.