Never Organized At All

Here is the fact almost nobody knows, and it is the last word on this month. Tradition 9 didn't start out this strong. The first version said A.A. "needs the least possible organization" (Big Book, p. 565) — a matter of degree, a recommendation to keep it light. Then A.A. lived with it for fifteen years and decided it hadn't gone far enough. Bill, at St. Louis in 1955 (A.A. Comes of Age): "In the years since then, we have changed our minds about that. Today we are able to say with assurance that Alcoholics Anonymous—A.A. as a whole—should never be organized at all." Read what that is. A fellowship reviewed a principle after fifteen years of practice, and voluntarily reduced its own power to govern itself. Nothing forced it. There was no scandal, no lawsuit, no outside pressure. They had simply watched what happened both ways and concluded that less authority worked better than more. Anyone who tells you the Traditions are dead letters that nobody revisits should be handed this one. A.A. revisited it — and tightened the rope on itself.