We alcoholics must work together and hang together, else most of us will finally die alone. The 12 Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous are, we A.A.’s believe, the best answers that our experience has yet given to those ever-urgent questions, “How can A.A. best function?” and “How can A.A. best stay whole and so survive?”
- Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon Alcoholics Anonymous unity.
- 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.
- The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.
- Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole.
- Each group has but one primary purpose, to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
- An Alcoholics Anonymous group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the Alcoholics Anonymous name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
- Every Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
- Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
- Alcoholics Anonymous as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
- Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the Alcoholics Anonymous name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
- Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films (television and the Internet).
- Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.