The 36 Principles of Alcoholics Anonymous
The 12 Traditions of A.A. (Short
Form)
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery
depends upon A.A. unity.
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.
3. The only requirement
for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be
autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one
primary purpose — to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. 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.
7. Every A.A. group ought
to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous
should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ
special workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought
never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly
responsible to those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous
has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into
public controversy.
11. 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.
12. Anonymity is the
spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place
principles before personalities.
The 12 Traditions of A.A. (Long Form)
1. Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a
great whole. A.A. 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 from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to
recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any
two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an
A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.
4. 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.
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 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.
7. The A.A. 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, whether by groups, clubs, hospitals, or other outside agencies; that
acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any
obligation whatever, is unwise. Then too, we view with much concern those A.A.
treasuries which continue, beyond prudent reserves, to accumulate funds for no
stated A.A. 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 fees or hire. But we may employ
alcoholics where they are going to perform those services for which we may
otherwise have to engage nonalcoholics. Such special services may be well
recompensed. But our usual A.A. "12th Step" work is never to be paid
for.
9. 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 principle newspaper, the A.A. 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.
10. No A.A. group or
member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., 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
general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think A.A.
ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as A.A. members
ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. 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. And finally, 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 genuine humility. 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.
The 12 Concepts of A.A. (Short Form)
I.
Final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should
always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.
II. The General Service Conference of A.A. has become, for
nearly every practical purpose, the active voice and the effective conscience
of our whole society in its world affairs.
III. To insure effective leadership, we should endow each
element of A.A.—the Conference, the General Service Board and its service
corporations, staffs, committees, and executives—with a traditional “Right of
Decision.”
IV. At all responsible levels, we ought to maintain a
traditional “Right of Participation,” allowing a voting representation in
reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.
V. Throughout our structure, a traditional “Right of Appeal”
ought to prevail, so that minority opinion will be heard and personal
grievances receive careful consideration.
VI. The Conference recognizes that the chief initiative and
active responsibility in most world service matters should be exercised by the
trustee members of the Conference acting as the General Service Board.
VII. The Charter and Bylaws of the General Service Board are
legal instruments, empowering the trustees to manage and conduct world service
affairs. The Conference Charter is not a legal document; it relies upon
tradition and the A.A. purse for final effectiveness.
VIII. The trustees are the principal planners and administrators
of overall policy and finance. They have custodial oversight of the separately
incorporated and constantly active services, exercising this through their
ability to elect all the directors of these entities.
IX. Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for
our future functioning and safety. Primary world service leadership, once
exercised by the founders, must necessarily be assumed by the trustees.
X. Every service responsibility should be matched by an equal
service authority, with the scope of such authority well defined.
XI. The trustees should always have the best possible
committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants.
Composition, qualifications, induction procedures, and rights and duties will
always be matters of serious concern.
XII. The Conference shall
observe the spirit of A.A. tradition, taking care that it never becomes the
seat of perilous wealth or power; that sufficient operating funds and reserve
be its prudent financial principle; that it place none of its members in a
position of unqualified authority over others; that it reach all important
decisions by discussion, vote, and whenever possible, substantial unanimity;
that its actions never be personally punitive nor an incitement to public
controversy; that it never perform acts of government; that, like the Society
it serves, it will always remain democratic in thought and action.
The Twelve Concepts for World Service were
written by A.A.’s co-founder Bill W. and were adopted by the General Service
Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1962. The Concepts are an interpretation
of A.A.’s world service structure as it emerged through A.A.’s early history
and experience.
The 12 Concepts
of A.A. (Long Form)
I. The final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A.
world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole
Fellowship.
II. When, in 1955, the
A.A. groups confirmed the permanent charter for their General Service
Conference, they thereby delegated to the Conference complete authority for the
active maintenance of our world services and thereby made the
Conference—excepting for any change in the Twelve Traditions or in Article 12
of the Conference Charter—the actual voice and the effective conscience for our
whole Society.
III. As a traditional
means of creating and maintaining a clearly defined working relation between
the groups, the Conference, the A.A. General Service Board and its several
service corporations, staffs, committees and executives, and of thus insuring
their effective leadership, it is here suggested that we endow each of these
elements of world service with a traditional “Right of Decision.”
IV. Throughout our
Conference structure, we ought to maintain at all responsible levels a
traditional “Right of Participation,” taking care that each classification or
group of our world servants shall be allowed a voting representation in
reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.
V. Throughout our world
service structure, a traditional “Right of Appeal” ought to prevail, thus
assuring us that minority opinion will be heard and that petitions for the
redress of personal grievances will be carefully considered.
VI. On behalf of A.A. as a
whole, our General Service Conference has the principal responsibility for the
maintenance of our world services, and it traditionally has the final decision
respecting large matters of general policy and finance. But the Conference also
recognizes that the chief initiative and the active responsibility in most of
these matters should be exercised primarily by the Trustee members of the
Conference when they act among themselves as the General Service Board of
Alcoholics Anonymous.
VII. The Conference
recognizes that the Charter and the Bylaws of the General Service Board are
legal instruments: that the Trustees are thereby fully empowered to manage and
conduct all of the world service affairs of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is further
understood that the Conference Charter itself is not a legal document: that it
relies instead upon the force of tradition and the power of the A.A. purse for
its final effectiveness.
VIII. The Trustees of the
General Service Board act in two primary capacities: (a) With respect to the
larger matters of over-all policy and finance, they
are the principal planners and administrators. They and their primary
committees directly manage these affairs. (b) But with respect to our
separately incorporated and constantly active services, the relation of the
Trustees is mainly that of full stock ownership and of custodial oversight
which they exercise through their ability to elect all directors of these
entities.
IX. Good service leaders,
together with sound and appropriate methods of choosing them, are at all levels
indispensable for our future functioning and safety. The primary world service
leadership once exercised by the founders of A.A. must necessarily be assumed
by the Trustees of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous.
X. Every service
responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority— the scope of
such authority to be always well defined whether by tradition, by resolution,
by specific job description or by appropriate charters and bylaws.
XI. While the Trustees
hold final responsibility for A.A.’s world service administration, they should
always have the assistance of the best possible standing committees, corporate
service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants. Therefore, the
composition of these underlying committees and service boards, the personal
qualifications of their members, the manner of their induction into service,
the systems of their rotation, the way in which they are related to each other,
the special rights and duties of our executives, staffs, and consultants,
together with a proper basis for the financial compensation of these special
workers, will always be matters for serious care and concern.
XII. General Warranties of
the Conference: in all its proceedings, the General Service Conference shall
observe the spirit of the A.A. Tradition, taking great care that the Conference
never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power; that sufficient operating
funds, plus an ample reserve, be its prudent financial principle; that none of
the Conference Members shall ever be placed in a position of unqualified
authority over any of the others; that all important decisions be reached by
discussion, vote, and, whenever possible, by substantial unanimity; that no
Conference action ever be personally punitive or an incitement to public
controversy; that, though the Conference may act for the service of Alcoholics
Anonymous, it shall never perform any acts of government; and that, like the
Society of Alcoholics Anonymous which it serves, the Conference itself will
always remain democratic in thought and action.
The 12 Steps of A.A.
Here are
the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:
Step 1. We
admitted we were powerless over alcohol~ that our lives had become
unmanageable.
Step 2.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Step 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the
care of God as we understood Him.
Step 4. Made
a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Step 5. Admitted
to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our
wrongs.
Step 6 . Were
entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Step 7.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Step 8.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became
willing to make amends to them all.
Step 9.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would
injure them or others.
Step 10.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted
it.
Step 11. Sought
thru 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.
Step 12.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to
carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our
affairs.
The 12 Promises of A.A.
“If we are
painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we
are halfway through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We
will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on
it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how
far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit
others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose
interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will
slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people
and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to
handle situations, which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God
is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant
promises? We think not.
They are being
fulfilled among us — sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always
materialize if we work for them.”
Page 83-84 Alcoholics
Anonymous~
Any A.A. Literature referenced on this Website, or quoted exactly by a sharer in our Meeting Room, is a Copyright of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. The opinions and experiences shared are of the individual's, and not necessarily in agreement with the Program of A.A.found in the "Big Book" ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS.