No Quotas
Daily Traditions · August 21
Nobody in A.A. is paid, so nobody in A.A. has a quota. Nobody signs you up — there is nothing to sign. Nobody calls you a lead — you cannot be sold. Nobody stretches your stay, because nobody bills for your time, and nobody quits on you at thirty days, because nothing runs out when nothing was charged. The Big Book says it straight (p. 89): "You can help when no one else can." Not once certified, once hired, once funded — when no one else can. A room with no revenue can wait years for one man, and somewhere tonight, one is. The world's help comes with schedules, targets and renewal dates. Ours comes with a chair. Walk in tonight and you will owe what every man beside you owed on his first night: nothing.
Nobody here is paid, so nobody here has a quota — and nobody has ever been dropped for running out of money. Have I ever been waited for like that anywhere else?
Grounded in: Big Book, "Working With Others" (p. 89); short form, Tradition 8.
Tradition 8
"Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers."
And a distinction worth keeping straight: the Traditions are governance, not theology. They bind A.A. groups and the Fellowship — not individuals, and not outside businesses. They were adopted in 1950 to keep A.A. from being owned or co-opted. They are not a rulebook for your personal life.
Daily Traditions is an independent educational resource from Recovery Starts — not official A.A. literature, not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, and not medical advice. The Twelve Traditions are the property of A.A. Page references are to Alcoholics Anonymous (the Big Book), 4th Edition: short form 561–562, long form 563–566. If you're in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).