Do Not Put the Group on a Flyer

A draft is on the table, or in a text, or already sitting in a drafts folder with the group's name on it. Someone who cares about you wants a flyer, a neighborhood post, or a little promo so more people will come. They are waiting for you to say it looks fine. You are new enough that no feels rude. Yes feels like you are about to spend a trust you do not understand yet.

You can say no.

The draft in front of you

Tradition Eleven is one sentence. Public relations are based on attraction rather than promotion, and personal anonymity is kept at the level of press, radio, and films. That is the line. A flyer that pitches the group, a post that sells the meeting, a promo that borrows the name: you do not have to approve it, improve it, or make it prettier. Leave the design alone. Do not write a slogan for them. Do not pick a photo. The kind thing is a clear refusal.

Attraction, in ordinary language, is a person hearing how someone else got through drinking and wanting that for themselves. Promotion is an ad. The fellowship was built on one alcoholic talking with another, which is a conversation, not a campaign. You can tell one person who is hurting where you go. That stays a conversation. It does not need the group's name on a handbill.

If the draft also asks strangers for money under the A.A. name, there is a second problem. The long form of Tradition Seven says public solicitation using the A.A. name is dangerous. You still do not name a price, because there is not one for you to invent. You just do not let the group's name do that asking.

The traditions are a short list when you want the rest later. You do not have to recite them to the person holding the draft. One sentence is enough: you are not going to put the group on a flyer or a post.

How people actually find a room

Your fear may be that a refusal leaves somebody stranded. It does not. aa.org does not keep a meeting finder. It points people to local A.A. and to online meetings. Local lists are how groups say where they meet. The Meeting Guide app is free, on iPhone and Android, and the list shows time, location, and name. When the group added notes, the detail view can show format. The meetings search on this site is another way in. Listings here are not verified by the site. Confirm the time.

That is the path you hand someone. A meeting list. Not a promo with a face on it.

Personal anonymity at press, radio, and films means your full name and your photo stay off the public version. It also means you do not offer anyone else from the room. If a coworker, a reporter, or a camera is the real ask, use Anonymity When Someone Asks. This night is the flyer, the post, or the promo that wants the group as a product.

Groups are self-supporting through their own members. There are no dues or fees for the person who walks in. You do not have to join a publicity committee to make that true. Each group is autonomous about its own life, except where a plan would affect other groups or A.A. as a whole. A personal post is not the local meeting list those groups already choose to share.

If it is already public

You can ask the person to take it down. You can be brief. You do not have to publish your own correction with your name on it. If they meant well, you can say so and still want the post gone. Kind and clear can live in the same text.

Then go to a meeting yourself if you need the room. An open meeting welcomes anyone interested in the program. A closed meeting is for members, or for people with a drinking problem and a desire to stop drinking. The open and closed guide sorts that if the listing is the confusing part. The first meeting guide covers the hour. None of that requires a flyer with your group on it.

If the night is already bad

A fight about a post can land on a body that is not safe. Call 911 if you are in a medical emergency. Call or text 988 if you are in a mental health crisis. NIAAA warns that withdrawal can be life-threatening if a person who has been drinking heavily over time stops all at once. A meeting cannot manage that. NIDA describes mutual-help groups as peer-led. Healthcare professionals do not run them, and they are not a substitute for treatment. A meeting is peer support. It is not detox. Care is listed on FindTreatment.gov.

SAMHSA's National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357), is free, confidential, and offered in English and Spanish.

If you need treatment, call or text (800) 653-9376. The call is free, and treatment providers pay for the referral. The line is not A.A., and it is not SMART Recovery.

Tonight, tell the person no. Point them at a meeting list if they truly want a meeting. Then leave the draft unpublished.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• A.A.: The Twelve Traditions
• A.A.: Information about meetings
• A.A.: Find A.A. near you
• A.A.: Meeting Guide app
• A.A.: New to A.A.
• NIDA: Treatment
• NIAAA Core Resource on Alcohol
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
• SAMHSA National Helpline
• FindTreatment.gov
• SmarterRecovery meetings search
• SmarterRecovery about and referral line

Common Questions