A Dozen Steps

Ought Never Be Organized

by Mark on September 17th, 2007

Tradition Nine: “A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards directly responsible to those they serve.”

Paraphrasing the 12&12, page 173;

Not even the “humblest group committee can issue a single directive to an A.A. member and make it stick, let alone mete out any punishment.”

Hmmm - I wonder how that applies when a newcomer sits in a longtimers’ “assigned seat” and gets booted? Does anyone else know?

“Groups have tried to expel members, but the banished have come back to sit in the meeting place, saying, “This is life for us; you can’t keep us out.”

I wonder if this might be a reason why clubhouses began?

“Committees have instructed many an A.A. to stop working on a chronic backslider, only to be told: “How I do my Twelfth Step work is my business. Who are you to judge?”

Now, that sounds like an itty bitty shi**y committee!

“Who is more unpopular than the oldtime A.A., full of wisdom, who moves to another area and tries to tell the group there how to run its business?”

Aaah - now this one I have an answer for… who is more unpopular? Those who make it a point to tell every “transfer” from another area not to attempt to tell them how to do it or what worked where the new person came from, because they don’t want to hear it!

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POSTED IN: The Twelve Traditions