Tradition 11 · November 6

Bill the Broker

Daily Traditions · November 6

The threat

Bill W. told this story on himself for years. The ballplayer's break had worked spectacularly, and Bill's reaction was not caution (Pass It On). "Soon I was on the road, happily handing out personal interviews and pictures. To my delight, I found I could hit the front pages, just as he could. Besides, he couldn't hold his publicity pace, but I could hold mine." Read that again. He was competing. With a member, for column inches. "At the time, this looked like the thing to do. Feeling justified, I ate it up. What a bang it gave me when I read those two-column spreads about 'Bill the Broker,' full name and picture, the guy who was saving drunks by the thousands!" He called himself A.A.'s number one anonymity breaker. And here is the part that makes him worth trusting: it was not quite true. Lois's diary shows he barely left New York that year, and his real breaks came two years later. A.A.'s own biography says so — "But the truth is that he did not act on those feelings" — and explains why he told it worse than it was. He was "never afraid to use himself as a negative example (something he would not do to anyone else)."

Sit with

Bill accused himself in public of a break he had not quite committed, because he would use himself as the bad example and never anybody else. Whose example do I reach for when I want to make a point land?

Grounded in: Pass It On (Bill's own account, and the book's correction of it).

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 5The Face That Costs Nothing Tradition 11All of November November 7 →Two Ways to Break It

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).