(short) Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
(long) 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.
- Primary principle(s): Autonomy, diversity, respect
- Other principles: group conscience, unanimity, unity, acceptance, consideration, peace, tolerance, understanding
Readings:
- 12 Steps & 12 Traditions - pp. 146-149
- The Twelve Traditions Illustrated - AAWS Pamphlet
- Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age - pp. 103-106
- Home Group - Heartbeat of AA - AAWS Pamphlet
- “Organized Into Oblivion” - May 1996 AA Grapevine
- “How Autonomous Can You Be?” - November, 1988AA Grapevine
Read the Long Form of Tradition Four & the “Declaration of Unity” to set the tone.
Read & discuss Concept III, The Twelve Concepts Illustrated. Follow that with a reading & discussion of the connection/balance between Traditions One, Two & Four, Concept III & page 76, Step Seven, 12×12.
Read the Long Form of Traditions Four, Six & Ten. Discuss as it relates to previous topics (Unity vs. Autonomy).
Group Experience
My observation of AA group consciences over the years has included watching many arguments about what is “right” in our group or “wrong” in another group. Some of these discussions are well meaning and open spirited. For example, my home group, Saturday Night Jive, is a strongly formatted meeting - a rarity in our AA community. Many of the “rules” we “impose” on those attending our meeting (I guess stuff like starting and ending on time, meeting chairs that are expected to read from the written format, expecting our main speakers to have 5 years of continuous sobriety in AA - you know, really heavy expectations 
) were offensive to some members of the community. With our blessings and encouragement (not that they needed either), another meeting was formed at the same time that was known unofficially as the “anti-Jive” meeting. Actually, I think it was known “officially” as the anti-Jive meeting until some members thought better of that…
Some of my favorite people in our AA community are part of that meeting. I’m sad they don’t come to my Home Group any more as I miss their participation. However, apart from and above that, I’m proud of the fact that they sought and created a meeting that meets their needs.
Autonomy does not mean isolation. It does not imply or support superiority except for that AA, as a whole, grows from our diversity and acceptance.
We still, as a group, struggle with what is the right thing to do as a group and what is the right thing to do for AA as a whole. Recently, we created a web site for our group. We felt we should do something that could be a service to our group (directions to our meeting, group history, etc.) as well as a service to the AA community as a whole. We are still finding our way with this…
A Central Office
We also learned some things about this tradition when we were in the process of starting a new Central Office for our local AA community. We struggled for over a year deciding what central office should be, what services we could offer, how to get started. We bought some books and had a disastrous experiment trying to sell books to groups out of a “managers” car trunk.
Finally, we decided we needed to get a physical office to establish our legitimacy. It was a bold step of faith but none of us were in a position we could co-sign a lease on commercial real estate and we felt we needed the legitimacy of the office before we put the touch on our groups for their financial support. Then, out of the blue, our “answer” arrived to our prayers.
Our local detox had an extra room (was an office that was being used to store junk) that was perfectly suited to our needs. A few AA meetings were held at the facility and they wanted an increased AA participation - getting their damp drunks to AA members was a very symbiotic relationship indeed.
We were well on our way toward setting up initial staffing and organization when a few “issues” cropped up:
- When we wanted to work out a lease, we found that the county was reluctant to make any commitments on paper for things like office access, cleaning services, etc. that would be normal with any landlord.
- When we started to make arrangements for our own telephone service, we found that it was against county policy to allow another telephone service into one of their buildings. After some negotiating, they agreed to have a separate number for us but that all the telephones in the facility would have both lines and, by the way, it would be expected that either their desk or our desk would answer the phone as the “Alcoholic Recovery Center”.
- It became increasingly obvious that, while we would have a separate office, our staff would be presumed to back up their staff on breaks and during times of high activity.
Fortunately, we all got to have a great 4th Tradition laugh at ourselves and back away from the agreement. Ironically, it provided exactly the justification and motivations we needed to rent some space in a commercial building a few months later and we’ve had a Central Office ever since.
Checklist
Grapevine traditions checklist:
- Do I insist that there are only a few right ways of doing things in AA?
- Principles: humility, open mindedness
- 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?
- Principles: financial prudence, inclusiveness
- Do I put down other members’ behavior when it is different from mine, or do I learn from it?
- Principles: humility, willingness, diversity, honesty, acceptance
- 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?
- Principles: humility, anonymity, responsibility, accountability, generosity
- Am I willing to help a newcomer go to any lengths—his lengths, not mine—to stay sober?
- Principles: willingness, open mindedness, tolerance, patience
- Do I share my knowledge of AA tools with other members who may not have heard of them?
- Principles: service, humility, honesty, kindness, tolerance, acceptance, willingness
2 Responses
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Well said, Ed! I appreciate how clearly you put this — I have had similar experiences over the years where a group splinters off and forms an “anti-that-meeting” meeting, and usually everyone wins, since there’s now another meeting, and whatever the issue which prompted its forming gets softened as time goes by.
Continuing the Discussion