Tradition 9 and Hierarchy – 12 Traditions Workshop – Part 7 of 8 – John C.

That's what we're saying. All right, so let's jump back in. We'll talk about Tradition 9. AA is such a never be organized. That's wild. But we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve. So I think sometimes we read this and we think, oh, we shouldn't be organized, we shouldn'T be having these like business meetings and following Robert's Rules of Order and all these things, and that's not necessarily what the organization part is referring to. Sometimes when we think of organization, and historically what we have thought as an organization is that there are dues to pay, yearly dues to pay. You get a little membership card or what have you, something like that. We don't do that in Alcoholics Anonymous, right? You're a member if you say you are. So we're not necessarily an organization in that sense. We also are not this organization, as we've talked about too, where this regular kind of triangle structure where we have our leaders up at the top right or our CEOs or COOs and then all the way down to middle management, blah, blah, bla, to the mail room. We're not an organization in that sense of the word. We are completely opposite where you guys are in charge. The AA groups determine how we do things in Alcoholics Anonymous and all the changes that get made come from the group conscience, right? From the group. So that's essentially what that is referring to in there as well. Now I will say there is some discussion too about rotating leadership and how it's important that we continue to rotate, that we don't get stagnant in one position, that we can continue on. And the beauty is that, like, I'm super grateful for that rotation, right ? I'm super grateful that if something were to happen to our treasurer or to our coffee person, that it's okay. We have multiple people that can step in at any moment, right? And just be able to take that over. Also, I think it's good for us because it allows different voices to be at the table and again, that different perspective to hopefully figure out best practices, right, of how we can best carry the message of how you can best do whatever service position that we have. um yeah um yeah i'll pass on thanks i want you to start with this one because it's not as sexy as the other ones oh oh got it that makes sense that tracks i was selfish no i mean i am this is really there is a lot of value in this um and i love what you just kind of talked in And eight, that there is no hierarchy here. There is no corporate structure. And if you're at your first business meeting and you have 34 days of sobriety, your vote counts the same as the guy with 34 years. That's the beauty of Alcoholics Anonymous. I love in Bill's essay, and I hate to be the guide to read to you, but I'm going to. It's just so powerful. And this really explains why we don't need an enforcement squad or a bunch of rules. This is exactly why. Ready? Unless each AA member follows to the best of his own ability or our suggested 12 steps to recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant. His drunkenness and disillusion are not penalties inflicted by people in authority. They result from his personal disobedience to spiritual principles. It's like, it takes care of itself. But then talking about the group, the same stern threat applies to the group itself unless there is approximate, keyword, conformity to AA's 12 traditions, the group too can deteriorate and die. So we have AA must, I'm sorry, so we have AAA, I threw that must in there. We have AA do obey spiritual principles first because we must and ultimately because we love the kind of love such obedience brings us. And this last sentence is, to drop the mic, it's great suffering and great love are AA's disciplinarians. We'd need no others, right? So we don't need this breathalyzer squad at the front door. We don't the spiritual scorekeeper, thank goodness. We don' have any, I mean you could, God forbid, be an axe murderer and still be the group business chairman, right? We have no, if that's the group conscience, Hopefully it's not that much of a recent axe murder, but you get the point. There is no spiritual code of demotion or promotion in here. But thank you for sharing our tradition. This is the easy one, and that's why I wanted you to start with nine. AA has no opinion on outside issues. AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy or into controversy. Because, like I said, most lessons I've learned in here are the wrong way. And a lot of them have been subtle. And, you know, I hope I continue to make mistakes and learn these lessons. You know, one of my jobs as an AA member is to continue to be a seeker and to continue To better understand these things. And, you know, I was – as I told you, I used to go to meetings a lot in D.C., and in D。C., politics is like a blood sport. I mean, it's wild. I'll leave it at that. But the lesson I want to share with you is kind of – you know? It's not just in the one hour of the meeting, you now? Like, I have to make sure I'm available to be of service to anybody. and I was in this meeting. It was about 10 minutes before it started and one guy was talking about a newspaper that has a political leaning. Don't take anything from that. There's two newspapers in D.C. And this guy that he was talking to was getting ready to ask me to be his sponsor. You all know what that looks like, right? We do that in stages. Typically, they interview you a little bit hey can we talk later and you know do you have a sponsor you know he's priming the pump feeling me up and um but before the meeting he said something about you know this newspaper and i said i wouldn't wipe my butt with that newspaper and and and he instantly knew what political party i was from the guy never talked to me again right now you know i don't think that was the right approach on his part But on my part, I don't want to be at a point where I exclude half the universe because of my political opinion or any outside opinion. And so I've got to be really careful in how I run my mouth to newcomers, to the men I sponsor. This guy, a man I very much love, great man. He once told me something about an AA speaker. and like the next five times i heard this asp feel like i didn't listen to a word the guy said you know i mean and it was a total outside issue stuff right like all of it like i said these are all just different guideposts and coming back to how can we best do what we do and that's carry the message of alcoholics anonymous what are the you know what arethe 12 or 11 biggest mistakes that we can make, and that's what they should be entitled, right? Our 12 biggest mistakes, you know, and how to avoid them to go forward. And that's because, as Shannon said, my life depends on it. Like, it's no joke. You know, if I have died spiritually in this program from deviating from these spiritual principles that Bill talks about, you now, I've been 18 years sober thinking shotgun or rifle. What's it going to be tonight? 3 o'clock in the morning. You know? I'm deviating form these spiritual principle. and the group is the same way, you know. So that's all I have to say on tin. I'll leave it to you. Thank you. Yeah, I love tradition tin, right? Because again, we've kind of talked about this. It's hard to talk about one tradition and just one tradition without kind of like, it's like little arms reaching out tentacles, whatever you want to call it, right. But we've talked about this to some extent already in the sense that all we need to really focus on in Alcoholics Anonymous is like our crippling alcohol problem, right? And that's really- And if that's not enough. And the solution, yes of course, of course. But hopefully the solution too, right. But sometimes there's this outside noise, right, whether that comes in the form of politics or whatever, you know, the news, any of it, right any of It. I know we may not necessarily have politics like DC, right but we've got sports teams and I vividly recall being a newcomer like seeing someone come in with not like our rival teams like shirt on or something and i mean i would love to tell you that i like did not judge them and i prayed for and that's not what happened i judged them right like and i didn't listen to anything they said um because how dare you right um uh so so yeah so i even have to be mindful of like what i wear at meetings sometimes right because i don't want um someone to not listen to me uh if that's the message that's going to save their life if just because of something that I'm wearing that really isn't that big of a deal for me to remove right similarly to I can be very involved and I don't think this tradition either is saying that we can't be involved in politics or that we can't be involved sports teams or any type of other movement right yes any type of whatever movement but I think for me it's important to remember that things for me are different than times are different then when I got sober right in the sense that everyone has social media now and for me this isn't for everybody for me its important that I'm not necessarily aligning myself with any particular movement or political party or what have you even on social media right because I see what other people say and I will pray for you if I disagree right you're welcome Anna you know so but but I don't want that to influence I don' t want that to influence anyone's opinion of if they're gonna listen to what I have to say in a meeting or not and I don''t really participate on Facebook a whole lot I don´t actually read a whole lot of Facebook I like Instagram because it's pictures but because for that same reason right it's it's very hard for me to disconnect the thought from the person sometimes and so I just choose not to participate and that's an option too right but but I love this too in this we learned this I would love to tell you that like a figured this out all on their own and really we learned it from another organization the Washingtonians which the essay kind of talks about a bit more right where there was this non-drinking group before us right we weren't the first and and they kind of got into the weeds on politics and different social movement issues at the time and it ripped them apart they went from like zero to a hundred in no time you know or thousand members yeah yeah and then back in no-time right so like they grew astronomically faster than Alcoholics Anonymous did in the beginning remarkably fast which is crazy to think this was like before like social media the news like tv all of that right they grew like nobody's business and then they were gone they were done I didn't even know who they were until I started reading this and I probably would have no reason to know who there were if I wasn't a member of Alcoholics Anonymous right uh and Bill didn't know who he was until someone brought his attention and he like went to the library and read about him you know so um so yeah so they were gone very quickly when when they started uh when they start getting diverted from that primary purpose right um when they started looking else and started maybe thinking that our solution could be applicable to all these different things you know um and potentially it could be but we're just really focused on where we know that it works best right we know that it works in alcoholics anonymous and so keeping it here and cancelling out all the noise which is also really wonderful too because I really love everybody this way you know and it's not important for me to put you in different classes or boxes or what have you right of this is how you are this is how you artists I don't need to do that man we're all on the same team same team right same same wild yeah yeah okay we'll go to 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 in films and I love this right I love tradition so we talked about this traditional lot with social media right so we just kind of talked about this a little bit the long form of that tradition maybe encompasses what social medium internet is now we also have guidelines for Internet and those sorts of things that that are published from the general service office but yeah what I think is important in this one is that the question that I asked myself with this tradition is am i making alcoholics anonymous look attractive to the to the newcomer right and my making service look attractive to the newcomer you know do I come back as that to my group as GSR and complain about how long the assembly was and how it was so ridiculous and what I might have felt those things right but like at the end of the day I did the work of alcoholics anonymous hopefully right and participated in the future of Alcoholics Anonymous and so so yeah am i making and I think the question that I get asked a lot as someone being in service is how we can get people more involved that's like the single question that I get asked the most and I would love to tell you like this is the one way you you should do this and like that's it right that would be so easy that would be so the thing that I always fall back to is this tradition though am i making it look attractive am I making it look fun or am I'm making it looks like something I have to do right because for me service is a lot of fun this is where I get to hang out with you guys this is half of my program I feel like right or a third of my programs recovery unity service right and so it's such a huge part and huge benefit that I get from from this right from giving back I think when I was first coming into the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous I was always afraid there was not enough there's not enough of this or that or whatever right there was enough and I've completely like switched my perspective on that is like there's always enough there there's always enough time for me to come in and share my experience strength and hope there's always enough time for me to pick some, pick a newcomer up before the meeting. There's always enough time für me to go a little bit earlier, stay a little late and help make coffee or clean up or take someone through the book, right? For some reason like God always finds time for these types of things and I don't have to micromanage it, right, like I learned a long time ago that like God's in charge of that. He laughs when I make my cute little plans and designs. He goes, you're so cute! You know, so yeah but it's important for me too to make AA look attractive I think because it is because it right not not putting lipstick on a pig right but maybe lipstick on like a supermodel or whatever so yeah there's there's lots of different facets with with tradition 11 as well but but I love that and I think to how this translates into you know into my work and into my home life and that sort thing is continuing to to make those things attractive right and the second part of this is where it talks about personal in an animated level of press radio and films it's important for me not to take credit that's what that tells me too right because I don't know if you were like me but if we were like this before I got here and we were not on the same team you may not have known this but I was keeping score every time I would do something nice for you I would remember