The Traditions at the Steps and Tradions Group in Boca Raton, FL

Next week, Pat will be taking us through the steps starting with step one. And tonight our speaker is Brian who will share with us on the 12th tradition. So help me welcome, Brian.

Thank you.

I'm an alcoholic. My Home group is the Thursday night study group in Sunrise, FL. My name is Brian.

Hi, everybody. Thanks for having me.

It's obvious that most of you thought that the Step series was starting over tonight.

Usually, usually there's not. Usually there's not this kind of a turn out for a traditions meeting. So I'm assuming that I'm assuming you thought Pat was doing Step 1:00 tonight.

I

it's a privilege to talk anytime an alcoholic synonymous and so thanks thanks for having me. I owe my life to the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. I

and and this group has,

you know, plays a part in my sober, sober history. I, I guess it must have been 16 years ago. I think the very first time I ever LED a step meeting was at this group right here. I was coming up with my sponsor, John.

We were dragging newcomers. I was picking up a couple of newcomers going and picking up John and driving up here and he was doing the steps. And then when he was done with his series, the group asked me to to do it. And it was the first time I had ever had the opportunity and I had the book that you gave me. I still, I still have I keeping this nice big book cover that I bought. You're welcome to have a look at it. I so thank you for being a a part of my sobriety, a memorable part of my sobriety.

I, I got sober February 24th, 1988

and when I came to AAA,

I could careless about traditions.

I, I, you know, this was a, a was like, was like the perfect place for me because there was like no rules. There was nobody here to enforce these non rule things you call the traditions. And and I was a belligerent, defiant self will run riot alcoholic. And so this was like a, a match made in heaven for a guy like me. And given that I have addictions other than addictions to alcohol,

I, you know, trampled and could careless about the distinction and, and all of that stuff, and in many ways could careless about the traditions because I didn't understand any of it. It didn't really make sense to me at all. Just, you know, sound, you know, it all just made mush in my brain. I think I, I don't think I ever really had any appreciation for the 12 traditions until I started to have the promised spiritual awakening until I actually started to recover from alcoholism and recreate

life. Then I started to reflect on how valuable this fellowship is and what and think about what I could do to possibly help preserve it. And it's in that light that I'd like to talk about in the traditions because I'd like to talk about the traditions. Maybe I don't know how different it will be from how you're used to hearing about it, but I'm not going to talk about a lot of the history of Alcoholics Anonymous that created the traditions. If you want that it's in the 12 and 12 and a a comes of age and some other history books and it's, it's, it's great reading and it's, it's,

it's just not how I'm going to approach talking about the 12 traditions. I, I, I'd like to talk about the 12 traditions. I think as they're in I, I, I think this intent is implied in them as as 12 requests, as requests that the fellowship makes of all of us individually and collectively in order to preserve the fellowship in order to, in order to best preserve. Not that when, when Bill first introduced the 12 traditions, he he introduced them as the 12 points to assure our

they were, they were really 12 principles to make sure that Alcoholics Anonymous would be here for generations of Alcoholics to come who would need help. And I think there. So I look at them as request, as, as a, as way of asking me as, as a small favor for me having the opportunity to recreate my life in this fellowship as a small favor to consider making some personal sacrifices along the lines that we're going to discuss tonight

so that a, a can continue to exist.

Not that like there's anything I could do that could cause a, a not to exist. I mean, I think it would be presumptuous for us to think that we couldn't kill a, a right move. We certainly, I think we could. I, it'd be hard though. 2 million people sober Plus there's, you know, hundreds, 100,000 groups, you know, and, and how many countries 127 that I mean, it, it'd be pretty hard to kill it. But even if we couldn't hurt Alcoholics Anonymous, even if we couldn't destroy its being here, we can have an impact

on its effectiveness. And so following the traditions can help us remain effective at helping Alcoholics and by sticking to our purpose, etcetera, etcetera. And so in that light that we're being asked to do certain things to preserve the effectiveness of our fellowship. And quite literally, our group, you know, our groups are more effective at carrying the, a, a message when we're following the 12 traditions, when we're informed about the traditions. And, and,

and I still can't get over how many people are here that he'll listen to somebody talk about the traditions. I don't know that I would go and I'm just kidding.

So

there the way I'd like to set up the traditions, the way it was taught to be by that same sponsor, John,

is there. There's a rhythm to the to the 12 principles of of recovery. So I'm going to talk about the 12 steps for a brief minute problem solution program of action result. There's the steps are are set up in this in this rhythm. The first step is a statement of the problem

over alcohol. The second step is a statement of the solution to that problem. Power is obviously the solution to powerlessness of power greater than ourselves. And the rest of the steps are a set of actions that we take in order to find this power, which of course is indicated in the result in step 12 having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps. And so it's problem, solution, action, result.

The 12 traditions can be looked at in the same way. The first tradition is a statement of the problem. The problem is unity.

Our common welfare should come first. Personal recovery depends upon a, a unity. If we can't stay together, then nobody recovers. You know, the new person will have no place to go to find a A in order to find what we have enjoyed. And if my recovery depends on working with other Alcoholics, then there go. I can't stay sober because I wouldn't have any new Alcoholics to work with. And so all of our recovery sobriety begins with this group staying in place. If we can't stay together,

then then there's no such thing as recovery from alcoholism. It's hard to fathom that sometimes. You know, I, I've never, I've never been alive during a time when there was not such a thing as recovery from alcoholism. I can't sometimes I don't stop long enough to appreciate that miracle like I hit the lottery. I was alcoholism has been around for thousands of years and I was born in the century where there was such a thing as recovery from alcoholism,

right? And we can go back to there being no such thing as recovery from alcoholism if we can't stay unified, if we can't keep this thing together. And so that's the problem. The problem is unity. And how do we keep this band of self will dominant type A? How do we keep all of that, you know, together? How do we work in it together and effectively at helping other Alcoholics? That's the problem. The solution to that problem is in tradition too.

For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority, a loving God as he may express himself to our group conscience, our leaders of a trusted servants. They do not govern. Just like in the steps, the solution to alcoholism is God. In the traditions, the solution to group unity is God. God speaking through our group conscience. My recovery depends upon my conforming to spiritual principles, my seeking for seeking God's will, God's direction for my daily life.

If each of us is seeking God's will for our daily lives and we bring that together in our group conscience, then we can each seek God's will for our group conscience as well. And in that spirit, we can solve all of our group problems by coming together and asking what would God's will be for our group. Whenever we have a situation that that seem that we seem to be divided on

this rest of this 12 steps are a set of actions that we take in order to bring about

recovery from alcoholism. The traditions, in contrast, are a set of inactions or sacrifices that we make in order to have the result, which we'll talk about in tradition 12. And so the rest of the 12 traditions are asking us to give up something so that we can remain unified to give up something so that there wouldn't there there are certain things that would just pull us apart and it's inevitable. So in order to keep the group conscience focused on only

relevant things, let's let's just make a decision that we're going to come into agreement about certain

core thing. And if we can just agree upon these things and all come down on the same side of these things, then our group would have nothing left to fight about that could possibly pull it apart. We could solve all of our other problems by seeking God's will in our group conscience. The very first of those requests is Tradition 3. The only requirement for a a membership is a desire to stop drinking. So the very first thing we're asked to do is to not make membership rules

for our groups, right? The long form of that tradition reads. Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism.

Hence we may refuse no one who wished to recover, nor ought any AAA membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three Alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A a group, provided that as a group they have no other affiliation. So there is a requirement for membership hidden and assumed in all of that, isn't there right? Is everybody detect what the requirement for membership is hidden and assume that all of that language,

the requirement for membership is that you're alcoholic.

That is a requirement for membership in Alcoholics Anonymous. There is a requirement that you're an alcoholic or at least you believe that you have a severe drinking problem or you believe that you potentially are an alcoholic. There there is there is that subtle requirement for membership that we're alcoholic. I'm an alcoholic. I also happen to be a cocaine addict, but I qualify for membership and Alcoholics Anonymous because when I take a drink, I can't control how much I drink and I cannot quit drinking No bad or how bad I wanted to

those. That's alcoholism by definition in the in the text Alcoholics Anonymous. So by definition, I'm an alcoholic. You can't keep me out because I have other problems. You can be alcoholic and schizophrenic and you're entitled to membership and Alcoholics Anonymous. We can't keep you out. You can be alcoholic and an asshole and,

and we we can't keep you out because of the ladder. You know, the requirement for membership is that we're alcoholic and once we satisfy that, or at least we think we are or we're looking for,

we may not know that we're alcoholic. But if you have a drinking problem and you want help for it, you're entitled to membership and have all its anonymous.

I'm you know, I say all of that. I'm I'm sometimes we sometimes those of us that understand that take too hard of a line for that. We have to remember that these traditions are requests and not rules. We can't compel anybody to do anything. And so I'm not saying that we should have checks at the door for and keep all of the drug addicts at a a or or anything like that. I'm just saying if we all understood what the truth would understand what the traditions are

them and and we all understand that the requests that were that are being made of us in order to preserve the unity of our fellowship, then hopefully we will all comply willingly. But we can't compel compliance to any of these things. We we can't force anybody in a A to do anything. We can't even we can't even force you to work the steps out of our own big book. You can, you can take it or leave it and still be a member of a a I'd ask why you were here if you weren't going to do the steps of a big book, but you know, you're, you're welcome to or not as you, as you see fit. And so

a, a singleness areas sole requirement for membership is that you're an alcoholic. And, and when we're just asked not to make any other rules about membership whatsoever.

And if we don't make any rules about membership, then we won't have that to fight about. Tradition for each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or a, a as a whole. My group, the Thursday night study group has a group conscience with that group conscience decides about its affairs is what it decides about its affairs. The what's the name of this group again?

The steps in traditions group at Advent Lutheran Church has no authority to tell my group what to do. The Broward County Intergroup office my group meets in Broward County. My Broward County intergroup has no authority over my group. Can't tell it what to do, what not to do General Service District 9 No, no authority over my group. New York, no authority over my group. Our group can decide to do what it wants and how it wants. I was a a member of the Wednesday night study group and my sponsor John was the chairperson of that group. Weekend and week out. We never rotated chair people

ever was this. That was their group conscience. And I was a member of that group several times while

that topic came up in our group conscience meeting and several times our group conference decided after some debate with substantially unanimity I might add. We wanted him to chair our meeting every every every week. There were very few people that dissented from that ever. I don't necessarily believe that that's the smartest way to run a group today, but but at the time that was our group conscience. That was the way that it was. We had lots of people coming in and out of our group telling us we couldn't do it that way.

Lots of them. It's just not true. Even even the bit about rotating committees and the spirit of rotation has to do with group officers, secretary, treasurer, the not necessarily. The group can can have its meeting chaired by whoever and however it wants to have its meeting chaired.

I also came into

contact with this tradition personally by by the way, notice I'm going to try to avoid one of the one of my least like phrases in Alcoholics Anonymous. I'm going to try to avoid the term violating a tradition because usually

most of us in Alcoholics Anonymous, the very first time we ever hear about the traditions is when somebody says you can't do that. That's a violation of extradition. And, and most of us, by the time we ever hear something like that, we've heard the preamble read, you know, a dozen or two dozen times and we've heard people list the steps and the traditions in the beginning of the meeting of the end. And, and we go, there's just something not right about that statement. You can't do that. That's a violation of the extradition. We, we automatically,

we know that there's no such thing as rules. You can't compel anybody to do anything. There's nobody in authority that can that has the right to say that. So, so we automatically know that that's not the case. And so when I say that these are requests, that's kind of what I mean as as in contrast to being rules that are violated, there be there requests that were being asked and, and the request of tradition 4 is that we run our group affairs. We can do in our group, we can conduct our meeting however

we want to, provided that we're not affecting another group or a as a whole. That's the request that we're being made. I'm a, I'm a very many of you in this room don't know me. I have a little, I'm a little bit of a luxury here. And I say that because some people who know me don't like me. I, I'm pretty opinionated when it comes to you find that surprising.

I'm, I'm, I'm pretty opinionated in the circles and Alcoholics Anonymous in in which I run. I'm, I'm pretty outspoken. I, I, you know, I have very strong feelings about Alcoholics Anonymous about our fellowship, about what our purpose is and about how we ought to be conducting ourselves in a, a, a very strong feelings about making sure that newcomers are introduced to the steps and, and the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. And I have poor groups who don't talk about

those things in their meetings. And so, and I'm fairly outspoken about all of that. And so

one time I got a really bright idea. I live in Broward County and, and the Broward County intergroup website is a, a broward.org. And I discovered that a abroward.com was available. And so I registered it and I did more than register it. I I put up my own website with some of my own opinions about what a a should be

listed some groups that I thought were doing a great job and I think the only the only real disparaging mark remark I made was that I felt that my it was my opinion that AA and Broward County was watered down. Now this is a public website and I am speaking as a person on behalf of or it could be easily implied I wasn't. I was speaking for myself, but it could be easily implied that I was speaking on behalf of the listed in there a, a groups in our area

that would be considered outside of the spirit of tradition for

a, it seemed like a really good idea at the time. And I and I had a lot of people come to my defense on the issue. I mean, I had a lot of people tell me that there was nothing wrong with what I said. It was absolutely right. It was my website, not theirs. I was within my right to do it. But you know, none of that really, really matters when you see the truth about something. You have to do the right thing and the right thing was obviously to pull the website down. And I actually gave them

a Broward calm to the Broward County Intergroup as an attempt to try to make amends for the issue. Now, you've never heard of this little thing because there was only about 21 people that ever hit the website. So it's not like, and, and eight of those were people from the groups that were listed. So it wasn't like anybody ever really saw it. But but that would be something outside of the spirit of the tradition because I was saying something defamatory about a a in our county and and by listing only group, only a select number of groups,

kind of implying that the rest of the groups were really matched the description of my disparaging remarks. So not really, not really. OK, now I, I can have that opinion all I want to, but publicly displaying it on a website would be, would, would be outside of that spirit of the tradition.

Tradition 5. Each group has but one primary purpose to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers. So that's our primary purpose, to carry a as message to the alcoholic who still suffers, right? We're not here to help. As was said in the beginning of the meeting, we're not here to help drug addicts.

It's sad because there's a lot of drug addicts who get sober in any game. There's a, a can help drug addicts. There's no question about it. We're we're just, we're being asked in Alcoholics Anonymous to limit the people that we help to Alcoholics. Do, you know, does that mean we're going to kick the drug addicts out of all of our meetings and tell them like they can't come? No, no, no, not necessarily. I mean, you know.

Is a very generous organization, it said. Here world here's our 12

steps, here's our 12 traditions, here's our experience how we recover go start another fellowship that focuses on your particular problem because we would fall apart if we tried to include trying to help everybody in alcohol. It's anonymous. How would the alcoholic identify with the person speaking if the person speaking wasn't alcoholic, if they didn't have a story that shared how they tried to control their drinking unsuccessfully and how they tried to quit and were, you know, we're we're dismayed and, and

and defeated by the fact that in the reality that they couldn't. I mean, that story is what an alcoholic hears that goes, wow, that's my problem. Maybe I can find help here too. And if that story was so different because the substance that they were using was different, I'm not so sure.

I want to share with you that I, I, you know, I, I do this traditions talk at a couple of groups and I've done it a half a dozen of times or so. And one of the things I hear about this, and by the way, any, and I'm giving you my opinion, obviously, of the 12 traditions, I'm not reading it verbatim out of the book because I don't, I want you to stay awake.

So if, if, if you agree or disagree or have any comments for me, I'm, I'm glad to listen to you after the meeting. I'm open to the fact that I might be wrong about some of my assumptions and interpretations of the tradition. And I'm always glad to listen to another point of view because I'm quite sure that what I'm giving you is my opinion. It's, it's how I think the traditions apply rather than exactly what the traditions are. And I'm always open to to,

you know, to hear some feedback about it. And some of the feedback that I hear is that there's no such thing as a true alcoholic anymore, that everybody is dual and diagnosed, that everybody coming to us as more than one problem. And I happen to know for me in my own life, I happen to know that that's not true.

I have a couple of family members who I don't believe are alcoholic, but they, they drink more now than they ever have in their life. And they're, they're, you know, getting along in, in years. And I happen to know a little bit about alcoholism. I know that that that alcoholism, the physical part of it is, is based on metabolism and that the enzymes necessary to metabolize alcohol become deficient over time just because the body is becomes deficient over time.

And the other leading contributor to the deficiency of these enzymes is actually drinking. And so because these people are drinking more now than they ever have and they're getting a little along in years, it's possible from my point of view that they could cross that line one day into alcoholism and find that they can't control her quicker drinking. I and I know for both of these individuals that they've never touched a drug. Well, I don't know that if we're actually for a fact, but I, I don't believe that they've ever

touched a drug in their lives. And so if they walked into a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous and we're listening to a fellow tell a story or a gal tell a story

that had nothing to do except but drugs and prison and probation officer. And, you know, if that was the story they were listening to, I don't know that they'd identify. And, and I think we have to remember that Alcoholics Anonymous is here. And what the traditions are asking us is to is to preserve Alcoholics Anonymous for the alcoholic who comes in the future. That's our job. That's what we're being asked to do. I was given a free gift, Alcoholics Anonymous. I mean, I was able to recreate my life and I've always known my life was in the toilet when I got here,

and I live a pretty cool life today because of Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous only asked in return that I complied to certain principles so that it would be available for the next alcoholic who comes here. 10:20, 30-40 years later. And so this is a small thing that they're asking. Our primary purpose is to help the next alcoholic who needs help, nothing else.

I would also this is where my opinion gets it in a little bit. A a message is clear. You know it's it's a spiritual awakening as a result of the 12 steps. An alcoholic is powerless over alcohol because of a physical and mental condition.

We learned that God can be the answer to that problem or a power greater than yourself if you like and we have and if and if you're if, if you believe you're an alcoholic and you believe that perhaps there is a power that can restore you to sanity. You can make a decision and take some action and get the results that Alcoholics Anonymous offers. There's it's a very defined program. Now we all take liberties with how we practice the program. I'm not saying you got to do your 4th step exactly the way that the big book lays it out, but there are certain

inventory confession, repentance, amends, prayer, meditation. These are the core principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. This is a as message. We're being asked to carry a as message to the next alcoholic in a a. If you've got a better idea for how to get sober, go start your own fellowship. Really, we don't need you here. If you, if you really think that you're that smart and you know another way to get sober, go do it. A as request is simply that you don't do it under the a a umbrella. A A has a program,

works really well, and if we can, if we stick to it and keep sharing it with the next newcomer, then a A will continue to perpetuate itself. Some of the reasons why I think a A is watered down is because we seem to talk about everything and anything under the sun other than recovery from alcoholism and alcoholism. We're not therapists. Since when did group therapy become a means by recovering from alcoholism? It's not.

It's not. So again, my opinion,

but but Alcoholics Anonymous has a program of action that works. It's magnificent. Our job as a A members is to make sure that when the newcomer comes into the door, they're hearing a as message, not my own opinions about that which I'm sharing with you now.

Tradition 6 an A A group ought never endorse, finance or lend the a a name to any related facility or outside enterprise. List problems of money, property, or prestige

divert us through our primary purpose. Since I'm on the kind of a track of saying how I think we do, we

if if we read actually, I'm going to read the long form of this tradition because this one it makes it makes a difference. Problems of money, property and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to a A should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. an A A group as such should never go into business.

Secondary aids to AAA, such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set a set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not use the A A name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, a A managers are usually preferred, but hospitals as well as other places of recuperation ought to be well outside of AA and medically supervised. While an A A group making make cooperate with anyone,

such cooperation ought never go so far as to affiliate or endorsement, actual or implied. an A group combined itself to no one.

One of the ways. I think that I mean, this isn't really a big problem today in a a is it? I mean, for the most part, hospitals and detoxes are pretty well set apart. A as name is not attached to them. Even when a a groups meet to meet in them, they're not, you know, everybody seems to be aware of the distinction in a a group comes in for an hour, they leave for an hour. The group, the groups that they're doing in the treatment are very different from that a, a group and etcetera.

So the distinction seems to be clear until we get to some of these groups that run clubs, in my opinion. We have, we have, I don't know if you have any Palm Beach County, but in, in Broward County, we have some groups where the group themselves has the facility and the group's name is on the door of the building. And this is actually, you know, again, a, a tradition or requests. So what we hope to do is have this conversation openly and honestly with as many people that will listen and

believe good members of Alcoholics Anonymous if they see that their group might, might not be within the spirit of it. We'll make some changes, but we can't compel anybody to do anything. But it is my opinion that that some of our groups who put their name on the door of the building, the bottom line group,

you know, I, I,

it, it is my opinion that the tradition is asking us not to do that to the outside world. It's an, it's, you know, it's an actual or implied to the outside world. That group is in business.

The group has its own name on the building and the guidelines for clubs that a a box 459 publishes. They specifically asked that the groups name and the clubs name of the facilities name be different. These are specific. So it's not mean you can, it's sometimes it's questionable whether something is. But this is, you know, our, our literature actually very specific along these lines that we not marry the name of the a, a group to the facility in which it means it's just a simple request,

call the building a club, call the Group A group, problem solved, problem solve. And that's the only place where I think that this tradition really, you know, intersects. We're not, you know, we don't have, you know, in the, in the history and the traditions. They're talking about people coming out and, you know, getting a, a members to run their a a education in, in, in a distillery or something like that. And, you know, those are just things we don't run into anymore. But, but in this place where some of our groups operate clubs, you know

it. It's not the group's decision to decide on tile or linoleum for the floor in a Coke or a Pepsi machine and how we gonna fix the air conditioning. The group's purpose is to help the next alcoholic who comes in the door. And so there's reason for the separation. There's, there's a, there's a, there's a, a clear purpose for the

separate body that manages the facility and the group conducts only the business, only the affairs that have to do with helping other Alcoholics. There's a, there's a very clear purpose and reason for that separation. So that's tradition 6,

tradition 7 every a a group ought to be fully self supporting, declining outside contributions. Simple enough, right? We support ourselves. We, you know, pass the hat, we collect some money, we pay our rent and we buy some coffee and literature and medallions and

chips and we cover our expenses. And then we have a responsibility to pay our small, small part of the local intergroup office that serves our area, that manages a telephone and an office and a bookstore and prints a meeting list for the county, etcetera. Right. To send a little bit on to the district. I think your District 8 here in Palm Beach County is there. Yeah. Garrett. Yeah, yeah,

General service guy,

you know, to send a small portion to District 8 so that they can help meet their expenses. Send a small portion to, I don't know if in Broward County we have a very large institutions committee

that requires money in order to buy literature to bring into the jails and hospitals that they go to. And so these are all things that we get to pay for as responsible AAA members. Now,

if you're new to Alcoholics Anonymous or I don't care, even if you've been around for twenty, 30-40 years, if you, if, if you don't have money, I mean, there are times there's several times a month, probably I go to a meeting and I don't have any money in my wallet. And you know what? I don't put anything in the basket and I don't think twice about it. Alcoholics Anonymous is free and, and it, it costs nothing and you should never fee if you don't have a couple of bucks in your pocket. You should never even feel like you owe a, a, anything if you didn't put anything in the basket, because that's not why we're here. We're here to help each other,

especially in times when we're down on our luck and, and not doing very well. So, so you should never really think twice about that. But when you're doing well, you know, I mean, I'm enjoying certain success in my life because of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. I've I've I have something in my life and I usually do have a few bucks in my pocket and a buck doesn't buy anything anymore.

A buck doesn't buy anything anymore. Even put a dollar in the basket since the 1950s. I mean, put as much or as little as you can afford to give. I'm just telling you, we're starving our services because we're not contributing at least two or three dollars in the basket when it goes around. We can't do the things that are our offices are, you know, we go to a in Broward County, we go to the intergroup meeting once a month. We ask them to do certain things and then we don't give them enough money to do it. You know, it's silly, you know, and, and if we all, if everyone who could afford it

dropped $3 in the basket instead of being stuck on a buck, then then they could afford to do everything that they needed to do and then some. They probably could lower the price of big books so that we can get more of them in the hands of, of newcomers if we were contributing enough. Even our own general service offices raised the price of a big book because group contributions are down and literature is the only way they can make up for it. And so we as a fellowship, I think

are are we, we do a great job. We really do. We send a lot of money to New York and our services, but it's not as much as they need. I think we all kicked in a little bit more,

You know, also, even though it's not specifically money, we also get to help out. You know, Intergroup meets once a month, usually in the district date meets once a month, District 9 weeks a month. I mean once a month. I have a quarterly every now and again. And and you know, if they don't just need our money, they need our bodies. There are certain things that we do as a fellowship in order to make sure that Alcoholics Anonymous is here for the next newcomer that comes in the door. We organize in ways that coordinate these efforts so that so that we're reaching out to the community and

various ways and we get to not only financially support that, but but to show up and be accountable and responsible to our fellowship. If we all did just a little bit, it would be all covered. We shouldn't have months where there's nobody to go into the jail. We should be fighting over going into the jail and over who, you know, we should be out. There should be a waiting list for the jail meeting, you know, not the other way around. If we all were doing just a little bit, there would be nothing left to do. We'd be waiting in line to do it. And so I think that falls under the spirit of

support. And this is our fellowship. This is our fellowship. We get to support it with our time and with our money.

8 Tradition. 8 Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

I don't get paid to do 12 step work other than the money Kimberly is going to give me for showing up here tonight. Oh, you're not? Oh,

we don't get paid to speak in a a meetings or to do 12 step work. I don't have the guys I sponsor painting my house and cutting my grass to say thank you.

I, I know I just busted some sponsors in this room, but

I mean, it's just, it's, you know, freely you receive, freely we give. I mean, that's the spirit of this whole thing. I mean, in reality, that's the reason why it works, right? Because we come into Alcoholics Anonymous and as soon as we get past alcoholism, you know, God is the answer. Step three, we go, oh, my problem really is selfishness and self centering this. So my path to God comes through reduction of self centeredness. Well, you know, in a a there's plenty of opportunity to work on reduction of self centeredness because

because AAA is asking me to show up to Rep, to be responsible to a group, to make it put my hand out to help newcomers that give people rides, all with no nothing in return. The only thing I get in return is the joy of having done so. And that for most of us takes a little while to learn. But but that's the spirit of this tradition. We're not to be paying people to do this kind of stuff. I know at our at our inner but, but, and on the flip side of that, our intergroup office

have paid staff and you can scratch your head and go, oh, why? Well, because they're not doing 12 step work. They're doing things that professional people have to be hired to do. The fact that we hire Alcoholics to do it is irrelevant. Alcoholics understand our fellowship better than anyone. So why not hire Alcoholics? Honestly do Alcoholics to do it. But they're doing professional tasks. They're bookkeeping tasks and organizing tasks. They're not doing 12 step work. We go to great lengths in Broward County to make sure that we have volunteers manning the phones all the time so that our paid help is not

phone because it would be, it would be improper for somebody who's being paid to sit in the office to answer 12 step calls, which is what most of those calls are, right. So we, we, you know, we keep those two things separate. We're not paying people in a, A to do 12 step work, but there are certain tasks that New York and our local intergroup offices etcetera have to do. And so we do pay people to do those things.

Tradition 9AA as such ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees or directly responsible to those they serve. We talked a little bit about this in tradition too. I think, you know, we're, we're not organized in the traditional sense. Nobody can compel anybody to do anything. We have, you know, District 9 and general service in this area. And that District 9 is answerable to you, not the other way around. You know, so when you're GSR, your DCM comes to your business meeting and starts telling you all you can't do that.

You can tell them to shove it

because that's not their job. Their job is not to come police your group on the traditions. Their job is to find out what it is that your group conscience is so that they can take it back to their body. Now, should you listen to somebody who might have some advice for you about following traditions? Yeah, you probably, you probably, you probably want to listen to that. If you, if you want, if you want to conform with the traditions, if you want to adhere to the spiritual principles that are the traditions that help preserve our fellowship, you probably should listen to that feedback. But the general Service office

and your inner group office can't tell you what kind of meetings you can have and on what nights and how you should conduct them, etcetera. That's not their job. That's not their job.

We, we when I was on the steering committee for the Broward County Intergroup office one time, we had a gal who, who wanted to, she wanted to take a group out of the where and win because they were giving away chips for clean time instead of sobriety. They were literally were saying clean time on a repetitive basis. And and they felt that that was outside of the spirit of the 5th tradition and the third tradition, the only requirement for membership and our singleness of purpose. And she thought that group doesn't deserve to be in our where and when they're trying to help people other than Alcoholics.

And, you know, we're at the steering committee for the Broward County Intergroup office. And so should we take that group out of the where and when was the question being asked? What should we have? No,

no. Can we go to that group and, and try to help them understand what the principles of the traditions are? Yes, we can. Can we make a request of them that they use the words sobriety and, and make sure that they're complying with the 3rd and the 5th tradition? Yes, we can, but we're not but, but, but organization in that sense. What this tradition is specifically asking is that our bodies, these bodies that we create to serve us, that we don't ask them to govern us. That's not their job.