Tradition 11 · November 24

Six Hundred and Forty Dollars

Daily Traditions · November 24

How a group breaks it

The group has money — not much, eleven hundred dollars past the prudent reserve, gathered over four years of good Thursdays. Somebody points out, correctly, that there are people in this town who do not know A.A. exists. So they take a month on the bus shelter outside the hospital: the group's name, the meeting time, the address, one plain line about drinking. It costs six hundred and forty dollars. Two people come because of it and one of them stays, and that is not nothing — that is a life, and everyone involved was right about the need. Here is the difficulty, and it is not that advertising is wicked. The long form (Big Book, p. 565) says A.A. "ought to avoid sensational advertising," and a bus shelter is not sensational. But a group has just spent members' contributions to promote itself, publicly, under the A.A. name — a decision with no obvious stopping point that nobody in that room was authorised to take. Next year it will be two shelters. Because it worked.

Sit with

A man came in off that bus shelter and stayed, and the group had spent members' money to promote itself under a name it was never authorised to spend. When has a thing working stopped me asking whether it was mine to do?

Grounded in: Long form, Tradition 11.

Tradition 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."

Read the Long Form (pp. 563–566). The short form on pp. 561–562 is the one everybody quotes — but the Long Form is where the Traditions actually say what they mean. Tradition 3's "no other affiliation" clause, for instance, exists only in the Long Form. That single clause is why no treatment centre can own an A.A. group. Most of what circulates online skips it.

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.

What the Traditions actually say → The Long Form, p. 563 → Search the Big Book → Every day this month →

Ask Recovery Einstein about Tradition 11 → Get the app →

← November 23He Is Almost Never Only Carrying Himself Tradition 11All of November November 25 →Trained Doubters

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).