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Service Material from the General Service Office
TRADITIONS CHECKLIST
from the A.A. Grapevine
These questions were original y published in the AA Grapevine in conjunction with a series on the Twelve Traditions that began in November 1969 and ran through September 1971. While they were original y intended primarily for individual use, many AA groups have since used them as a basis for wider discussion. Practice These Principles….


Tradition One: Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends
upon AA unity.
Am I in my group a healing, mending, integrating person, or am I divisive? What about gossip and taking other members’ inventories? Am I a peacemaker? Or do I, with pious preludes such as “just for the sake of Am I gentle with those who rub me the wrong way, or am I abrasive? Do I make competitive AA remarks, such as comparing one group with another or contrasting AA in one place with AA in another? Do I put down some AA activities as if I were superior for not participating in this or that Am I informed about AA as a whole? Do I support, in every way I can, AA as a whole, or just the parts I understand and approve of? Am I as considerate of AA members as I want them to be of me? Do I spout platitudes about love while indulging in and secretly justifying behavior that Do I go to enough AA meetings or read enough AA literature to real y keep in touch? 10. Do I share with AA al of me, the bad and the good, accepting as wel as giving the help Tradition Two: 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.
Do I criticize or do I trust and support my group officers, AA committees, and office Am I absolutely trustworthy, even in secret, with AA Twelfth Step jobs or other AA Do I look for credit in my AA jobs? Praise for my AA ideas? Do I have to save face in group discussion, or can I yield in good spirit to the group conscience and work cheerful y along with it? Although I have been sober a few years, am I stil wil ing to serve my turn at AA chores? In group discussions, do I sound off about matters on which I have no experience and
Tradition Three: The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.
In my mind, do I prejudge some new AA members as losers? Is there some kind of alcoholic whom I privately do not want in my AA group? Do I set myself up as a judge of whether a newcomer is sincere or phony? Do I let language, religion (or lack of it), race, education, age, or other such things Am I overimpressed by a celebrity? By a doctor, a clergyman, an ex-convict? Or can I just treat this new member simply and natural y as one more sick human, like the rest of When someone turns up at AA needing information or help (even if he can’t ask for it aloud), does it real y matter to me what he does for a living? Where he lives? What his domestic arrangements are? Whether he had been to AA before? What his other

Tradition Four: Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other
groups or AA as a whole.
Do I insist that there are only a few right ways of doing things in AA? 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 Do I put down other members’ behavior when it is different from mine, or do I learn from 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 Fel owship? Am I wil ing to help a newcomer go to any lengths—his lengths, not mine—to stay Do I share my knowledge of AA tools with other members who may not have heard of

Tradition Five: Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the
alcoholic who still suffers.
Do I ever cop out by saying, “I’m not a group, so this or that Tradition doesn’t apply to Am I wil ing to explain firmly to a newcomer the limitations of AA help, even if he gets Have I today imposed on any AA member for a special favor or consideration simply Am I wil ing to twelfth-step the next newcomer without regard to who or what is in it for Do I help my group in every way I can to fulfil our primary purpose? Do I remember that AA old-timers, too, can be alcoholics who stil suffer? Do I try both

Tradition Six: An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any
related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige
divert us from our primary purpose.
Should my fel ow group members and I go out and raise money to endow several AA Is it good for a group to lease a smal building? 3. Are al the officers and members of our local club for AAs familiar with “Guidelines on Clubs” (which is available free from GSO)? Should the secretary of our group serve on the mayor’s advisory committee on Some alcoholics wil 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? Tradition Seven: Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside
contributions.
Honestly now, do I do al I can to help AA (my group, my central office, my GSO) remain self-supporting? Could I put a little more into the basket on behalf of the new guy who can’t afford it yet? How generous was I when tanked in a barroom? 2. Should the Grapevine sel advertising space to book publishers and drug companies, so it could make a big profit and become a bigger magazine, in ful color, at a cheaper price If GSO runs short of funds some year, wouldn’t it be okay to let the government subsidize AA groups in hospitals and prisons? Is it more important to get a big AA col ection from a few people, or a smal er col ection Is a group treasurer’s report unimportant AA business? How does the treasurer feel How important in my recovery is the feeling of self-respect, rather than the feeling of being always under obligation for charity received?
Tradition Eight: Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but
our service centers may employ special workers.
Is my own behavior accurately described by the Traditions? If not, what needs When I chafe about any particular Tradition, do I realize how it affects others? Do I sometimes try to get some reward—even if not money—for my personal AA Do I try to sound in AA like an expert on alcoholism? On recovery? On medicine? On sociology? On AA itself? On psychology? On spiritual matters? Or, heaven help me, Do I make an effort to understand what AA employees do? What workers in other alcoholism agencies do? Can I distinguish clearly among them? In my own AA life, have I any experiences which il ustrate the wisdom of this Tradition? Have I paid enough attention to the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions? To the pamphlet AA Tradition—How It Developed? Tradition Nine: AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service
boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
Do I resist formal aspects of AA because I fear them as authoritative? Am I mature enough to understand and use al elements of the AA program—even if no one makes me do so—with a sense of personal responsibility? Do I exercise patience and humility in any AA job I take? Am I aware of al those to whom I am responsible in any AA job? Why doesn’t every AA group need a constitution and bylaws? Have I learned to step out of an AA job graceful y—and profit thereby—when the time What has rotation to do with anonymity? With humility?
Tradition Ten: Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the
AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
Do I ever give the impression that there real y is an “AA opinion” on Antabuse? Tranquilizers? Doctors? Psychiatrists? Churches? Hospitals? Jails? Alcohol? The federal or state government? Legalizing marijuana? Vitamins? Al-Anon? Alateen? Can I honestly share my own personal experience concerning any of those without giving the impression I am stating the “AA opinion”? What in AA history gave rise to our Tenth Tradition? Have I had a similar experience in my own AA life? What would AA be without this Tradition? Where would I be? Do I breach this or any of its supporting Traditions in subtle, perhaps unconscious, How can I manifest the spirit of this Tradition in my personal life outside AA? Inside AA?
Tradition Eleven: 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.
Do I sometimes promote AA so fanatical y that I make it seem unattractive? Am I always careful to keep the confidences reposed in me as an AA member? Am I careful about throwing AA names around—even within the Fel owship? Am I ashamed of being a recovered, or recovering, alcoholic? What would AA be like if we were not guided by the ideas in Tradition Eleven? Where Is my AA sobriety attractive enough that a sick drunk would want such a quality for Tradition Twelve: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever
reminding us to place principles before personalities.
Why is it good idea for me to place the common welfare of al AA members before individual welfare? What would happen to me if AA as a whole disappeared? When I do not trust AA’s current servants, who do I wish had the authority to straighten In my opinions of and remarks about other AAs, am I implying membership requirements other than a desire to stay sober? Do I ever try to get a certain AA group to conform to my standards, not its own? Have I a personal responsibility in helping an AA group fulfil its primary purpose? What Does my personal behavior reflect the Sixth Tradition—or belie it? Do I do al I can do to support AA financial y? When is the last time I anonymously gave 8. Do I complain about certain AAs’ behavior—especialy if they are paid to work for AA? Do I fulfil al AA responsibilities in such a way as to please privately even my own 10. Do my utterances always reflect the Tenth Tradition, or do I give AA critics real 11. Should I keep my AA membership a secret, or reveal it in private conversation when that may help another alcoholic (and therefore me)? Is my brand of AA so attractive that 12. What is the real importance of me among more than a mil ion AAs? THE AA GRAPEVINE INC., PO BOX 1980, GRAND CENTRAL STATION, NEW YORK, NY 10163-1980

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