Tradition 9 Short Form
“A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.”
Tradition 9 Long Form
“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 overall public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the AA 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.”
“But when we get into questions of action by groups, areas and by A.A. as a whole, we find that we must, to some extent, organize to carry the message – or else face chaos. And chaos is not simplicity.”
Five Reasons Why Tradition 9 matters
#1 Tradition 9 is Spiritual
While A.A. has to function, it must at the same time avoid wealth, prestige and power, three great dangers which necessarily tempt all human societies. Though Tradition Nine at first sight seems to deal with purely practical matters, it embodies a deep spirituality in its actual operation. A.A. is a society without organization, animated only by the sprit of service – a true fellowship.
(A.A. Comes of Age, pp. 120 also found in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pp 177)
#2 Tradition 9 is Practical
“Today, we are able to say with assurance that Alcoholics Anonymous—A.A. as a whole—should never be organized at all. Then, in seeming contradiction, we proceed to create special service boards and committees which in themselves are organized.”
(Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pp 174)
“It is clear now that we ought never to name boards to govern us, but it is equally clear that we shall always need to authorize workers to serve us. It is the difference between the spirit of vested authority and the spirit of service, two concepts which are sometimes poles apart. 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. Even our Foundation, once an independent board, is today directly accountable to our Fellowship. Its trustees are the caretakers and expediters of our world services.
Just as the aim of each A.A. member is personal sobriety, the aim of our services is to bring sobriety within reach of all who want it. 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. Our communications lines with those who need our help would be broken.”
(Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pp 176-177)
#3 Tradition 9 Cultivates Unity
As Rick W. mentioned in Tradition One, “we before me.” This is also a theme of Tradition 9. It is about trusted servants working together on a service board or committee. A committee of ONE is NOT a committee.
- We are contributing to the Unity of A.A. when we work with other trusted servants to accomplish our primary purpose.
- Want to really learn your character defects? Get on a committee with other alcoholics!
- We are contributing to the Unity of A.A. when we rotate leadership (especially when we help our successor begin their rotation well).
- Unity is further achieved because our boards and committees are directly responsible to those they serve.
#4 Tradition 9 Produces Trusted Servants
“Everybody in a certain sense is a leader in this society. Everybody who carries the language of the heart to the man or gal still suffering: this is the supreme leadership. This is the greatest trusted errand.
But there are those of us who find ourselves cast into assignments of service leadership, and this is nothing but a specialty in which we are supposed to become expert and dedicated to the task of making the primary leadership possible. If the light is to be carried to the newcomer, he has to be brought within reach of it. This is our business here. It is the business of every Intergroup association, every group committee. And we who man these special enterprises are commonly called trusted servants, and this implies leadership if the highest order, minus its usual implications.”
(Our Great Responsibility, Section 5: Service, Message Title: Standing Alone, page 161-162)
Rotation of leadership helps minimize the “usual implications.” 😊
#5 Tradition 9 Makes 12th Step Work Possible
In an article in the September 2019 A.A. Grapevine, Jennifer M. says
“Tradition Nine is about service in action. Through AA, I have found a way to recover and now my recovery depends on my service and AA unity. I want the newcomer to walk in and see how AA works. So, I show up and support my group. I share in honesty my experience, strength and hope. And I am responsible to my fellow AAs at the group level.
As long as we have members who continue to have the best interests of AA at heart and enjoy doing the things that need to be done without any notion of power or prestige, Tradition Nine won’t be any problem.”
Closing
The primary purpose of A.A. is to carry the message to the still suffering alcoholic. To carry our message to those who desperately need our solution. Service work, done within the guardrails of the Twelve Traditions and the 12 Concepts of World Service, provide opportunities for one alcoholic to talk with another and share their experience, strength and hope. This is why our trusted servants are so essential to the fellowship of Alcoholic Anonymous.
Originally presented at SWRAASA 2022.