The Twelve Points of Traditions

[MajestyJo]

Bill W. says in the language of the hearts, page 94.

The Twelve Points of Tradition are little else than a specific application of the spirit of the Twelve Steps of recovery to our group life and to society in general. The recovery steps would make each individual AA whole and one with God; the Twelve Points of Tradition would make us one with each other and whole with the world around us. Unity is our aim.

From: Grapevine©, April 1946

Twelve Suggested Points of AA Tradition

Nobody invented Alcoholics Anonymous. It grew. Trial and error has produced a rich experience. Little by little we have been adopting the lessons of that experience, first as policy and then as Tradition.

That process still goes on and we hope it never stops. Should we ever harden too much, the letter might crush the spirit. We could victimize ourselves by petty rules and prohibitions; we could imagine that we had said the last word. We might even be asking alcoholics to accept our rigid ideas or stay away. We never stifle progress like that!

Yet the lessons of our experience count for a great deal -- a very great deal, we are each convinced. The first written record of AA experience was the book "Alcoholics Anonymous". It was addressed to the heart of our foremost problem -- release from the alcohol obsession.

It contained personal experiences of drinking and recovery and a statement of those divine but ancient principles, which have brought us a miraculous regeneration. Since publication of "Alcoholics Anonymous" in 1939 we have grown from 100 to 24,000 members. Seven years have passed; seven years, of vast experience with our next greatest undertaking --- the problem of living and working together.

This is today our main concern. If we can succeed in this adventure -- and keep succeeding -- then, and only then, will our future be secure.

Since personal calamity holds us in bondage no more, our most challenging concern has become the future of Alcoholics Anonymous; how to preserve
among us AA's such a powerful unity that neither weakness of persons not the strain and strife of these troubled times can harm our common cause. We know that Alcoholics Anonymous must continue to live. Else, save few exceptions, we and our fellow alcoholics throughout the world will surely resume the hopeless journey to oblivion.

Almost any AA can tell you what our group problems are. Fundamentally
they have to do with our relations, one with the other, and with the world outside. They involve relations of the AA to the group, the relation of the group top Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole, and the place of Alcoholics Anonymous in that troubled sea called modern society, where all of humankind must presently shipwreck or find haven. Terribly relevant is the problem of our basic structure and our attitude toward those ever pressing questions of leadership, money, and authority. The future way well depend on how we feel and act about things that are controversial and how we regard our public relations.

Our final destiny will surely hang upon what we presently decide to do with these danger-fraught issues!

Now comes the crux of our discussion. It is this: Have we yet acquired sufficient experience to state clear-cut policies on these, our chief concerns? Can we now declare general principles which could grow into vital Traditions -- Traditions sustained in the heart of each AA by his own deep conviction and by the common consent of his fellows? That is the question. Though full answers to all our perplexities may never be found, I'm sure we have come at least to a vantage point whence we can discern the main outlines of a body of Tradition; which, God willing, can stand as an effective guard against all the ravages of time and circumstance.

Acting upon the persistent urge of old AA friends, and upon the conviction that general agreement and consent between our members is now possible, I shall venture to place in words these suggestions for an Alcoholics Anonymous Tradition of Relations -- Twelve Points to Assure Our Future.

Our AA experience has taught us that:

1. Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. AA must continue to live or most of us 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 alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought AA membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an AA group.

4. With respect to its own affairs, each AA 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 AA as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the Alcoholic Foundation [now 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 AA should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. An AA group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to AA such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. The management of these special facilities should be the sole responsibility of those people, whether AA's or not, who financially support the. For our clubs, we prefer AA managers. But
hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside AA -- and medically supervised. An AA group may cooperate with anyone, but should bind itself to no one.

7. The AA 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; that acceptance of large gifts from any source or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever is usually unwise. Then, too, we view with much concern those AA treasuries which continue, beyond prudent reserves, to accumulate funds for no stated AA 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 fee or hire. But we may employ alcoholics where they are going to perform those full-time services for which we might otherwise have to engage non-alcoholics. Such special services may be well recompensed. But personal Twelfth Step work is never to be paid for.

9. Each AA group needs the least possible organization. Rotating leadership is usually the best. The small group may elect its secretary, the larger group its rotating committee, and the groups of a large metropolitan area their central committee, which often employs a full time secretary. The trustees of the Alcoholic Foundation are, in effect, our general service committee. They are the custodians of our AA Tradition and the receivers of voluntary AA contributions by which they maintain AA general Headquarters and our general
secretary at New York. They are authorized by the groups to handle our overall public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principal publication, the AA Grapevine. All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in AA are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles, Universal respect is the key to their usefulness.

10. No AA group or members should ever, in such a way as to implicate AA, 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 outside world should be characterized by modesty and anonymity. We think AA ought to avoid sensational advertising. 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. 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 truly humble modesty. 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.

May it be urged that while these principles have been stated in rather positive language they are still only suggestions for our future. We of Alcoholics Anonymous have never enthusiastically responded to any assumption of personal authority. Perhaps it is well for AA that this is true. So I offer these suggestions neither as one man's dictum nor as a creed of any kind, but rather as a first attempt to portray that group ideal toward which we have
assuredly been led by a Higher Power these ten years past.

Originally posted at Recovery Inn

[MajestyJo]

12 Steps & 12 Traditions Comparison Writing Questions

Received this from a friend. It is written for OA and yet it also reads very well when you put in AA, NA, Al-Anon or Nar-Anon into the translation.

The Twelve Steps of OA The Twelve Traditions of OA

Question(s) Comparing the Step and the Traditions

1. We admitted we were powerless over food — that our lives had become unmanageable.

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon OA unity.

How has the unmanageability in your life due to your compulsive overeating caused disunity in your personal relationships? In what ways have you changed since realizing the unmanageable aspect in your life and has that realization caused more unity in your work, personal
relationships and in OA?

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

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.

In what ways have you become a trusted servant after being restored to sanity?

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

3. The only requirement for OA membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively.

Do you have the desire to stop eating compulsively by having turned your will and life over to the care of a Higher Power, as you understand a Higher Power?

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or OA as a whole.

How has completing the 4th Step inventory allowed you to be autonomous in your life without affecting your OA group/work/home/social life?

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the compulsive overeater who still suffers.

Having done a 5th Step, what are some of the ways doing this step has allowed you to become more aware of the primary purpose of carrying the message to others?

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

6. An OA group ought never endorse, finance or lend the OA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and
prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

Where has the insight of understanding your character defects led you to lose sight of the primary purpose of carrying the message by allowing problems of money, property and prestige diverting you from the primary purpose of carrying the message to those who still suffer from the disease of compulsive overeating?

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

7. Every OA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

In what ways has your understanding of humility allowed you to be more generous to your family, your favorite charitable organizations and to the fellowship of Overeaters Anonymous?

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make
amends to them all.

8. Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

By becoming willing to make amends, do we owe an amends to any OA service body for holding ourselves out to be professional "OA-ers?" Have we allowed other OA members to take the lead and held them out as OA "professionals?"

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

9. OA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

While doing the actual amends as suggested by the 9th Step are there organizations besides OA and work situations in which we have been suspicious of those we have chosen to be our trusted servant and how do we make amends to those individuals?

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

10. Overeaters Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the OA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

In taking our 10th Step inventory and admitting our mistakes, have we looked at how we have allowed ourselves to have strong opinions and have drawn others and ourselves into public controversy?

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television and other public media of communication.

Step 11 requires each of us to improve our conscious contact with a Power greater than ourselves through prayer and meditation. How have we used this step to assist us practicing the 11th Tradition by being an attraction for the program while maintaining our anonymity at the
level of press, radio, films, television and other public media of communication?

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive overeaters and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

How are we able to carry this message to other people while practicing these principles in all our affairs being reminded to place principles before personalities?

http://www.oasv.org/included/12%20St...Comparison.pdf

My program is based on the Third and Fifth Traditions.

All I have to do is say I belong and want to be here to become a member. I don't have to people please, act out in any particular way, all I have to do is identify because when I compare I stay sick, and can go into denial. It is enough that I know I have a problem and I don't need anyone else's direction. It is about my recovery and believe me, I qualify for most of the programs.

The fact that I made it here and was given the opportunity for a new life bring the Fifth Tradition into my life as an act of gratitude. By carrying the message of recovery, I make amends to myself, to my Higher Power, to my friends, to my family and to those I hurt along my journey to get here. It is an indirect amend to those who have gone before me and didn't make it and are no longer here.

Just for today, it is Tradition Three. You are a member when you say you are!

But what is a member?

Why become one?

- For a sense of belonging

- No longer alone

- Sharing and caring

- Suiting up and showing up for the day

- A sense of family

- A place to call home

- A reason for being

- Strength, courage and hope

- Experiences to compare and identify with

- Just because!

[MajestyJo]

R is for Rotate. For change and revival of your spirit, change around your meetings. Go to some you haven't been to or ones who haven't been to for a while. Especially, go to the ones that you decided in early recovery that you didn't like. Rotate your movie night or your golf game with a night out with some recovery friends, unless they are going with you to the movie and the golf game. Do you invite newcomers into your circle?

Do you rotate leadership in your group? Are the same people always doing the same positions in service? Are you active? Have you worked the traditions? Do you practice them in your home? They are applicable there as well as at your group and in the community. Rotate your thinking to broaden your horizons.