| The Twelve Traditions
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A.
unity.
2. 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.
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups
or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose, to carry its message to the
alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the
A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise,
lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every
A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our
service centers may employ special workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never
be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to
those they serve.
10.
Alcoholics Anonymous has no
opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be
drawn into public controversy.
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.
12.
Anonymity is the spiritual
foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before
personalities.
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