Tradition 06

(short) 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.
(long) 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 A.A. should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. An A.A. group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to A.A., such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the A.A. name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, A.A. managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside A.A.-and medically supervised. While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. An A.A. group can bind itself to no one.

1. Primary principle(s): Spirituality, cooperation, non-affiliation, singleness of purpose, purity, integrity
2. Other principles: deliberate poverty, service, helpfulness, honesty, open mindedness, responsibility, straightforwardness, tolerance, understanding, unity, responsibility matching authority, democracy, financial prudence

Readings:

• 12 Steps & 12 Traditions - pp. 155-159
• The Twelve Traditions Illustrated - AAWS Pamphlet
• A.A. Guidelines - Relationship Between A.A. and Clubs - G.S.O. Box 459 Pamphlet
• AA Comes of Age - pp. 107-109
• “Tradition Six: Enthusiasm Unbounded”, June 2006 AA Grapevine
• “The Question of Clubs”, June 2004 AA Grapevine
• “Cooperation Not Affiliation: We Are Responsible”, June 2002 AA Grapevine
• “Awareness and Action”, June 1998 AA Grapevine
• “Keeping the Focus Clear”, December 1996 AA Grapevine
• “Friendly Yet Different”, June 1990 AA Grapevine
• “Love In a Troubled World”, May 1988 AA Grapevine
• “Lending the AA Name?”, September 1987 AA Grapevine
• “How About a Group Inventory”, October 2006 AA Grapevine

Over the 25 years that I’ve been in AA, it’s been interesting to note how complicated affiliation or the appearance of affiliation can become.

In a previously written article on Tradition 4, I related our experience of how our new central office almost wound up answering the phone for and serving as unwitting staff for our local detox.

I’ve attended many, many meetings in clubhouses through the years.  It’s something more than an idle curiosity to me how creative we can become at organization and how close we can come to crossing (or going way over) the prudence and experience indicated by Tradition 6 and our history in reflection of this.

That is not to say that meetings in churches don’t have potential problems with affiliations as well.  My home group meets in a church basement.  After a few years where we were sort of “feeling each other out”, the church suddenly became very supportive of our group and our purposes.  We were astonished and hugely grateful when they decided they would turn away any Saturday afternoon weddings (hugely profitable for them) since they generally required us to not meet at our regular location.  They’ve also even modified their holiday church meeting times and places in deference to our regularly scheduled meetings.

They invited a delegation of us to their business meetings and worship services to report on who we were and what we did.  The pastor came to our meeting to personally thank us for “all that we do”.  We were feeling extremely comfortable in our close relationship.

Then, at our regular meeting around Christmas one year, we were shocked to come to the door of our meeting room and find that they had carefully (and thoughtfully) provided “gifts” for each and every one of us.  They were each wrapped (one could imagine their Meetings making a project of this for several days) and left on a table for us to take them and a few church leaders were there to shake our hands and wish us Merry Christmas.

We quickly took them aside and, as diplomatically and gratefully, as we could, explained several of our Traditions as well as our principles.  They were nothing if not gracious and apologetic (though, of course they had no need to be apologetic) and the table full of gifts was quickly spirited away.  Some members took some of the gifts just to make them not feel bad.

It seems that we always need to test each and every opportunity offered our group against the principles that have sustained us thus far.

Grapevine traditions checklist:

1. Should my fellow group members and I go out and raise money to endow several AA beds in our local hospital?
   • Principles: non-affiliation, endorsement, autonomy, self-support
2. Is it good for a group to lease a small building?
   • Principles: responsibility, autonomy, separation, deliberate poverty
3. Are all the officers and members of our local club for AAs familiar with “Guidelines on Clubs” (which is available free from GSO)?
   • Principles: singleness of purpose, self support, clarity (of message), non-affiliation
4. Should the secretary of our group serve on the mayor’s advisory committee on alcoholism?
   • Principles: autonomy, non-affiliation
5. 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?
   • Principles: freedom, autonomy, singleness of purpose, integrity