The Twelve Traditions and Unity – Big Book Workshop – 2025 – Part 4 of 5 – Charlie P. and Joe M. and John W. and Willie B. – Charlie Parker and Joe M and John W and Willie B

A little pamphlet, conference-approved literature, that is called Problems Other Than Alcohol. Bill makes a statement in here that sobriety, freedom from alcohol, through the teaching and practice of the Twelve Steps is the sole purpose of an AA group. Again, restating the fact that we only have one purpose, and that is to carry our message to the alcoholic that still suffers so we and they can stay sober. And that's all AA is really for. And any time we get involved in any other thing within our groups, we divert ourselves from our primary purpose and we begin to fight over what are we going to do. Now I would want to do one thing. Willie would wantと do something else and surely Joe would want something different. And then we could sit there and fight over what is it we're going to do within our group. Well, since we've only got one reason for being there, then we really have nothing to fight over. No controversy. This promotes unity within the group itself. Better to do one thing well than to do many things badly, in other words. And the Washingtonians were a prime example of trying to do mini-things. And so they didn't stay to one thing, and that was sobriety. The life of our fellowship depends upon this principle. It really, really does. The ability of each AA to identify himself with and bring recovery to the newcomer is a gift from God. Passing on this gift to others is our one aim. Sobriety can't be kept unless it's given away. That's the only reason that we're here tonight. That'sthe only reasonthat Alcoholics Anonymous exists. One primary purpose. about anything we don't have to buy argue about outside issues which is coming up later and we don' have to lend our name etc etc which is the next proposition and we find out that you know they always say to me that that a camel is a horse put together by an AA committee because that's just what we are tradition number six we never endorsed financial in our name Joe okay number six and a group ought to never endorse finance I live the AA named the interrelated facility outside enterprise these problems of money property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose. And this tradition is quite self-explanatory. And unity is the problem. And we can see if we do not endorse or finance or lend a name to any related, if we don't do this, then we'll have unity within the group. Now we can have certain facilities that have to sometime be operated where we have a group. But this should be incorporated outside of AA and not owned by the AA group because if we have property and money and prestige involved and we're related, then there's going to be a great argument in the group about what enterprise are we going to involve in, who we're going to lend money to, which one are we gonna become involved in. One group member will want to become involved with one group. Another one will want become aligned with another group, and somebody else, another group. And as they get to argue there will be disunity in the group. But since we can't lend a name to any related facility or get involved with anything else, then there can be no discussion about that within the group, there can't be no problem come up because we cannot do that. And since we cannot do that, there will be unity in a group when it comes to this particular issue. We cannot do That, so we have nothing to argue about, therefore, unity within the group. Experience proved that we could not endorse any related enterprise, no matter how good it was. There's more than one way to endorse. You can express an endorsement and you can imply an endorsements. If at my AA group I wanted to put out other literature other than AA literature, that would be an implied endorsement of something else. If I wanted some of these other folks who have recovery programs going for them, if I wanted put that on our literature table, would that not confuse a newcomer? Would that not cause some disruption in the group? Certainly it would. And so we don't lend our name to any either expressed or implied than endorsement to any related enterprise, no matter how good. Because you know as soon as you endorse yours, I'll want to endorse mine. I've got my favorites too. We cannot be all things to all men, or we wind up being nothing to nobody. We saw that we could not lend the AA name to any outside activity. And that brings us up to another primary concern of ours in Alcoholics Anonymous relating to this tradition in which we find that property, money, and prestige will tear an alcoholic up faster than anything I've ever seen. It gets me way out of kilter real fast, especially this next proposition having to do with our ability to be self-supporting, tradition number seven, which is Charlie. Tradition seven, long form. The AA groups themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members. We think that each group should soon achieve this ideal. that any public solicitation of funds using the name of Alcoholics Anonymous is highly dangerous, whether by groups, clubs, hospitals or other outside agencies. That acceptance of large gifts from any source or of contributions carrying any obligation of whatever is unwise. Then too we view with much concern those atresuries which continue, beyond prudent reserves to accumulate funds for no stated AA purpose. Experiences often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority. I think this is one of the traditions of AA that has really made us acceptable in the eyes of the public. We alcoholics who for so many years have had our hands out, demanding more than our fair share of everything, suddenly we have become self-supporting to our own contributions. Refusing outside contributions from any source whatsoever and limiting the amount of contributions that we can make as individuals even within our own fellowship. There is an old adage that says, whoever pays the piper calls the tune. And if you and I want to be the authority within our groups, then we need to pay our own way. Because the day we start accepting money from outside sources, we become dependent on those outside sources. And then they in turn begin to tell us how to conduct our own business. And as long as we are self-supporting through our own contributions, then we ourselves will run the show. Now that not only applies to the group, but that applies also to AA as a whole. We have within our fellowship a means of making all the money in the world that we could possibly want through what we call the AA Publishing Incorporated. We sell literature, and this literature we set the price on. And any time that we needed money, we could increase the cost of the literature. But many, many people other than AA members buy that literature. and any profits that we made from literature sold to people outside of our fellowship would then be accepting monies from people who are non-AA members. So for years within AA itself, we've been trying to get the fellowship to contribute enough money from the groups to the General Service Office to pay for the full operation of AA so that we could get our literature prices down to a break-even level. And that way we don't make profits from them and that way мы не берем деньги от иностранных сущностей, спасибо Богу. Through communication over the last two year period last year for the first time in many, many years We became self-supporting through our own contributions. And if you'll notice, the price of the big book dropped from five-something to three and a half. The big book is now being sold on a break-even basis. That's what it costs us to produce it and distribute it. By the way, you might be interested in knowing that on the dust jacket of the first big book, Printed in 1939, the price of the big book was $3.50, which is the same as it is today. We are now self-supporting through our own contributions. And I must always give a claim where a claim belongs. within the last two years we've had a great drive through our general service conference and through our delegates to get this communication out to the fellowship and the delegates within the last couple of years have done a fine job with this by the way your delegate is here tonight if you don't know him you ought to meet him Tim some of them don't know you Always be careful when you elect GSRs. They might turn out to be the delegate, and you get what's sitting over there on the left now. I love him, though, and he knows it. Okay, notice the flip-flop that we took with respect to money in about nine years' time. Remember 1937, we decided we needed a lot of money and we needed to go to New York and start gathering it up. And then nine years later when we started writing about our points of survival, we found out that we didn't really need much because of those reasons that Charlie mentioned. Whoever pays the piper calls the tune. And no AA tradition has had the labor pains that this one has had over the long haul. and we found out through experience that we've taken certain positions on people who wanted to leave a lot of money to Alcoholics Anonymous and we have developed this principle, this prudent principle of self-support that we can take care of our own needs and wehave ways and means by which we can support ourselves. The Prudent Reserve came out as a result of our intelligent look at our relationship to money And the prudent reserve was not devised as a means by which we could accumulate money. It was devised als a means about which we would not accumulate a lot of money because some groups that seem to be hell-bent on seeing how much money they can accumulate and for no expressed purpose. And a prudent reserv, as I think about it, the only way that I can think a pruden reserve would be used would be out of a council of fear Prudent reserve is to be used in case something drastic happens, and I've never seen that happen. The only time I've ever seen anything happen to a prudent reserve is that it got so large that it was more tempting than robbing the 7-Eleven and the treasurer ran off with it. That happened in Florida. So we have taken a wise position with money. We need very little of it. It doesn't take much money to do what we have to do. Contrary to the world about us now. We're seeing a great deal of money involved in alcoholism. But AA's position is it just don't take any money for us to get sober here, just to pay our few limited expenses for a meeting place, a little coffee, a few donuts, and that's it. And if we get too much money, we've got a way to get rid of it. We pass it on to the next outfit, our central offices and our general service office. So we don't have anything to argue about. You get a bunch of money in my treasury, by God, we'll be a fist of cuffs. very shortly, because I've got my ways and means by which I want to get rid of it. And we would cause disruption. Okay, tradition number eight, having to do with professionalism. Willie. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers. AlcoholicsAnonymous should remained forever nonprofessional. we define professionalism as the occupation of counseling alcoholics for fees or higher. But we may employ alcoholics where they are going to perform those services for which we might otherwise have to engage non-alcoholics. Such special services may be well recompensed, but our usual AA 12-step work is never to be paid for. I think this one is very self-explanatory too. In the fact that we have to stay, when we're dealing with each other, we have not only remain in the non-professional bracket, but in the expecting no rewards bracket, as we will be talking about later in one of our steps. When we help each other, the reward comes from that we get back for ourselves. But as far as Alcoholics Anonymous is concerned, we must remain non-professional. So you see, Tradition 8 is also related to Tradition 7. It has to do with money. You can't mix 12-step work and money. and this is the tradition that sets a line of cleavage between voluntary 12-step work and paid poor services there are certain things in Alcoholics Anonymous that wouldn't get done with voluntary workers we have to pay certain secretaries we haveto pay editors etc. and thisis the tradition that sets the boundaries between voluntary 12- step work and paid professionalism this brings up to tradition number nine about our organization or lack thereof and this is Joe's this is one of my favorites I love this one 988 such should never be organized but we may create service boards that commit directly responsible for those they serve and I kind of see why Bill wrote this one it can't be organized anyway It would be totally impossible to organize anything, any group of alcoholics. But we do not have an organization and a lot of times people refer to us as an organization. And most groups like ours, as large as this is an organization, sometimes we refer to ourselves as an organisation but we are not an organisation. are a fellowship. Now, an organization has had structure. In an organization, one person is over another. An organization has certain rules and has expulsions and all those things have to be in an organization. We are not an organization we are a fellowship. We're all equal. One person cannot be an over. If there was an organization and one was over another and we had rules and regulations and people had to be put out there would be a lot of disunity in the group if we had an organization but we are a fellowship now but it goes on to say although we are fellowship we may create service boards and these are rotating our committees responsible to the fellowship as a whole they did there are not authorities they are responsible back to the Fellowship they work for us but we are a fellowship not an organization so there is no disunity that what we would have if we were an organization the general service conference of the Board of Trustees and the group committees cannot issue directives to a members or groups. AAs just cannot be dictated to, as Joe has indicated, individually or collectively. The absence of coercion works because we find that just like as the individual, unless we follow a prescribed program of recovery, we will die. And unless an AA group follows certain directives, certain suggestions and guidelines, it too will go by the wayside and there won't be any place for us to recover. Suffering and love are two of AA's disciplinarians, and AA love is a hell of a lot better than AA suffering. The difference between the spirit of authority and the spirit of service is self-explanatory. We can listen to service, but don't sit in a seat of authority over me. Aim of our services is to bring sobriety within the reach of all who want it. That's the only reason that we create boards and services is so that they can help us to function with our fifth tradition and carry forth our primary purpose, and that's to carry the message to those who suffer. And that brings about nothing for us to argue about. Then we get to Tradition 10. If we have but one primary purpose and alcoholism is our game, Tradition10 is a self-explanatory thing, having no opinion on outside issues. If We don't have any opinions on outside issues we can't argue about nothing charlie we have already seen whether we where we never endorse any related facility in this tradition we also see where we never oppose anything either no a group or member should ever in such a way as to implicate aa express any opinion on outside controversial issues particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters, they can express no views whatsoever. We oppose nothing as AA as a whole. Now, as individual AA members acting as citizens of our country, We have the right to support and oppose and raise hell about anything we wish to as individual citizens of the United States of America, but not as AA members. In no way do we implicate AA and involve AA in such controversial issues. Matters of religion, matters of politics, matters of reform about alcoholism has no place within NAA whatsoever. All that can possibly do for us is to create controversy and destroy us within. So as we hear the people begin to discuss the politics, usually somebody will say, look, we're not interested in your politics. We're interested in Your program of recovery. When we hear people begin to discuss and argue about their religions with NAA, we usually say, Look, we are really not interested in your religion. We are interested in your program of recovery. Those things have no place within AA itself. Outside of AA, that's a different purpose. That's a difference thing. As a citizen of our country, that's a different thing, but not as an AA member. And as a fellowship, this is the tradition which was born right out of the Washingtonian movement. We took their history and put it in this tradition. Survival and the spread of AA are our only aim, nothing else. But we have to relate ourselves to the public, and how do we do that with Tradition 11? Willie? Yeah. Our public relation policy is based on attraction rather than promotion we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press radio and film and we're all seeing this tradition stretched to the limit right now whoa it is you know ever magazine, everything we pick up nowadays, we're seeing this tradition broken. Our relation with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think that AA ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as AA members ought not to be broadcast, filmed or publicly printed." And I love the fact that it doesn't go on to say, and this is also from an AA pamphlet, it does not go on the say unless you are a very famous person then it is all right for you to write a book, publish all you want to, and get on the telemfusion and tell about your story of recovery. It doesn't say that. It says that we ought not, any of us, broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us. This is one of our very dear safeguards. Mainly, it worries me when I pick up one of the new books that some famous person has been compelled to write and tell us about their recovery and how great Alcoholics Anonymous is. I always hurt very deeply for that person because the price that they may have to pay. I know that if I wrote a book about Willie, my I don't know how in the world I could keep one of our most dreaded traits from popping right back in and that's egotism I don' t know how in the word you can do this how great I am when it's so much better for us to sit quietly and think how great thou art if if in our behavior if in the way that we conduct ourselves we're not told in this tradition that we can't tell our friends the people that we are close to that we're in Alcoholics Anonymous it doesn't say anything about that it just gives us those three guidelines and if those people that know us as alcoholic anonymous members if we don't count how great we are they'll be a little bit more prone to notice the fact that we go quietly about our own business and maybe they all toot the horn instead of us tooting our own and I think in this particular time that we're living through right now we need to to pay attention to this tradition it was written for a very very good reason because many of our anonymity breakers have paid the price so dearly and found out it didn't make any difference where they were famous personages or not that it still brought that old egotism straight up to the surface again and they had a new tiger to fight so i'm as joe says this is another one of my favorites joe and i have a hard time figuring out because they all get to be our favorite may i john yes sir not only does the breaking of this tradition usually result in harm to the person who breaks it but it also hurts the fellowship as a whole. Because if one of these well-known personages let people know they are members of Alcoholics Anonymous and tout that throughout the world, and then they get drunk, then that gives a bad impression to the public as a hole, and especially to the alcoholic who's been trying to find an excuse not to go to AA. Because then he can say to his spouse, you see, I told you that damn thing wouldn't work. It really does give a bad impression of our fellowship. This tradition is meant to guide us in our relations with the general public. This traditional is not meant to hide us from each other. This tradition does not in any way tell me that I cannot use my name within the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. It tells me explicitly where I cannot use my name and membership, and that's at the level of press, radio, and film. But it's ridiculous for me to try to keep you from knowing my last name within our fellowship. There's no way that you knowing who I am is going to hurt the Fellowship of Alcoholic Anonymous." Now traditionally, as a matter of courtesy, we assure the newcomer that we're going to keep their anonymity also. But that has nothing to do with this tradition. That is simply a matter of courtesy and an assurance we give to the newcomers so they don't have to be afraid people are going to find out that they're in AA. I had a fellow not long ago, and he is a ringer-dinger, I'll guarantee you. He was very concerned about this. He did not want anybody to know that he was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. And I said, my God, don't worry. We're not going to tell anybody because we don't want them to know it either. So even that common courtesy is to protect the fellowship too as well as the newcomer. Dr. Bob always said that this tradition definitely states the level at which we maintain anonymity and he said for you and I to maintain anonymety at any level other than the press, radio and film is a violation of this tradition just as much as breaking it at the level of press, Radio and Film You know, this stuff about Charlie P., Joe M., and John W., I think that's absolutely ridiculous with an alcoholic synonym. There's no reason why we should not tell each other who we are. How in the world can we help each other if we don't know who we Are? I haven't really told you who I am until I've told you my name. There's a lot of Charlie Ps in AA. I hope there's only one Charlie Parmley. That's probably all AA could really stand at one time. How can I possibly help the people in my community if they don't know I'm in AA? How can i possibly help the suffering alcoholic that my doctor treats next week if my doctor does not know that I'm an AA? How can possibly help law enforcement officers, help alcoholics If they don't know, I'm in AA. You see, we're dealing with press, radio, and film only. And that's the only way you can break this tradition, is to reveal your name and your membership at the level of press, radio, and film. It is not meant to hide us from anybody, including ourselves. And if we keep that in mind, we don't have anything to argue about. Good public relations for any outfit our size is important. And this is a tradition which had its share of turmoil. And our co-founder at one time admitted to being one of the biggest violators of this tradition. After Raleigh Cleveland got his name in the paper, Bill said it might be a good idea for him to get his name on the paper and his picture and credit for AA. But they saw the folly of such ways because none of us have a guarantee for sobriety. We seek publicity for our principals, not our members. The press has cooperated. Sometimes more to... The press Has been more cooperative in this tradition than the individuals have been. The individuals wanted to put his name in. The press says, well, I got a release from our general service office which says we're not supposed to mention full names at this level. Oh, excuse me, you're right. The 11th tradition is a constant reminder that personal ambition has no place in Alcoholics Anonymous. Each member, each of us, becomes an active guardian of our fellowship. Now as a result of all of this non-action having to do with membership and autonomy and primary purpose, the fact that we don't endorse or lend our name or finance anybody else, the fact que we're self-supporting, nonprofessional, we never get organized, and we don' t have any opinions on outside issues, and we've developed a public relations policy that allows us to operate on principle and not personalities. All of this brings about something called a spiritual anonymity. Now Charlie doesn't know this, but I'm going to ask him to speak to that. Charlie? At the group level. Spiritual anonymity is an entirely different thing than personal anonymity. Personal anonymity deals with the revealing of my name and the telling people that I'm in AA. Spiritual anonymety is an entire different kind of anonymity Spiritual anonymacy is when everybody within the group is exactly the same. where no one person is placed in authority over another, where no person has the right to discipline another, where no other person has a right to determine who can or who cannot be a member of AA. Spiritual anonymity is the genuine practice of true humility. In 1950, Bill and Bob called an international conference of all of the members of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous throughout the world to be held in Cleveland, Ohio. And the purpose of this conference was to see if the fellowship would not accept these steps, the big book. as the first legacy, and the traditions as the second legacy. At that international conference, these traditions were explained in great detail by Bill and Bob and some of the other people. Then a loving God expressed himself through that group conscience and accepted the traditions as a second legacy. And that made sure that a loving God would then be the conscience of AA, Tradition 2. Now, in expressing that, then each of the traditions that followed 2 became one of those that would ensure that the loving God could express himself as the group conscience. And those of us that follow those traditions of 3 through 11 are repressing our own desires, our own wants, and our own needs as individuals for the good of fellowship as a whole. Because you see, I really would like to be the authority of AA. Hey, I really would like to tell you whether you can or cannot be a member. Oh, I would really like to accept money for some of the things that I do. Oh,I really would love to contribute heavily so I can run the group. But if I follow all these traditions, then I am practicing genuine humility. Number twelve deals with spiritual anonymity. ever reminding us to place these principles we have just discussed before any personalities. And if we do this, then we will always have unity within the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. Now these things were accepted by the fellowship in 1950 as the second legacy of Alcoholic Anonymous The first legacy deals with the individual and is a program of action whereby we can recover from our disease of alcoholism. The second legacy is a programme of non-action, whereby we keep the unity of the fellowship as a whole. And the reason the unity is so important is because united we'll stand and divided we'll fall. There is no group in the world that I know of that protects the individual rights of the member any more than Alcoholics Anonymous does. But when we have to place the rights of a member against the unity of the group, then we must always be willing to sacrifice the one individual. And sometimes we need to do that. Sometimes the person who is at the meeting does not belong there. Sometimes that person is a continual disruption to our group. Sometimes we must ask that person as an individual to please straighten up your act or get the hell out of here, one of the two. because the most important thing we have is the unity of our groups. Without each other, we will die. And we must always keep that in mind. And if I keep that In mind, then that also keeps me from being the one who creates the controversy. And that is genuine humility. Spiritual anonymity has nothing to do with the re-redeeming of our names. It has to do with the way we live within our own fellowship. John? So, another set of 12s. Bill seemed to like to write in 12s, and as I mentioned before, the rhythm of his writing, setting forth a problem, setting forth an solution, a planned program of action which brings about a result. In the first case of the individual, it brings about his spiritual awakening. With respect to the group, as we have just covered, it brings about spiritual anonymity the essence of which is sacrifice that's what the twelve traditions ask me to do as an individual to give up my own personal aims and ambitions when it comes to Alcoholics Anonymous and group operation and to take into consideration the common welfare of the group principles do come before personalities in AA for just the reasons that Charlie mentioned that the anonymity is real humility at work Humility. Chipping away of ourselves, getting rid of selves, so that we do gain a perspective of humility and begin to walk in that light. Now tomorrow night we're going to talk a little bit about emotional sobriety. We're goingto find another set of 12s which Bill wrote about, which he stated a problem, gave us a solution, a planned program of action, and it had a result called emotional sobrietty. And tomorrow night at 7.30, we're going to take that up. Now, we've been at this an hour and a half. We've got two hours on the program. But we sometimes wing it. And we have wung it. Anybody have a comment before we close the meeting with a serenity prayer? Or the Lord's Prayer, I'm sorry. See, I get confused too. no comments from the group ok so let's do this let's close the meeting with a saying of the Lord's Prayer and reconvene in the morning at 9 o'clock thank you all for being here tonight thank you very much for being hier applause applause applause this concludes session number 10 of the 3rd annual Northern California Big Book Seminar as presented by the four speakers from the seminar. Please go to tape number 11 for a continuation of Joe and Charlie's discussion of chapter 5, how it works, the inventory process, and their beginning on chapter 6 into action step 5.