The Traditions Started as Suggestions

Key takeaway

The Traditions feel like a law code you already broke. They grew from a need for guidance as A.A. grew. Bill W. wrote them in the 1940s, and in April 1946 the Grapevine ran them as suggestions. They are guidelines. You can hear one read in a meeting tonight and still take a seat with a desire to stop drinking.

Last updated: Tue Oct 06 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

You heard one read out loud and your stomach dropped, because you are sure you already broke it. Maybe you gossiped. Maybe you put the group's name where it did not belong. Maybe you do not even know the number, and the not-knowing feels like guilt. The Traditions are landing on you like a code, the kind with penalties, and you are already guilty in your own head. You can put the gavel down. Nobody handed you a sentence.

They came from a need for guidance as A.A. grew. Bill W. wrote them in the 1940s. The fellowship was getting bigger, and groups had questions. Guidance is what he was reaching for. A criminal code is the thing your shame added later.

Suggested is the word he used

In April 1946 he wrote a Grapevine article titled "Twelve Suggested Points for A.A. Tradition." The beginnings page calls it an early presentation of what became the Traditions. In that article he wrote: "I offer these suggestions neither as one man's dictum nor as a creed of any kind."

Sit with that sentence if the law-code feeling is loud. Suggestions. Not one man's dictum. Not a creed. He was telling the groups, in 1946, that he was not crowning himself to punish them. The same page says the Traditions are guidelines, not rules. Guidelines are how you find your way. Rules are how you get written up. The literature you are afraid of is on the guideline side.

You do not have to swallow all twelve tonight to accept the relief in that sentence. One is enough to hear in a meeting. The rest can stay in the book. Where to start in the Twelve and Twelve is about which page to open, if you want a page. The shame of having already broken a law is the thing that can ease before you open anything.

Two titles, and neither one is a fake

You may have heard a second name and decided one of them was counterfeit. The traditions page says the short form was published in the April 1946 Grapevine under the title "Twelve Points to Assure Our Future." That title is official too. It is also April 1946. It is also the Grapevine.

So there are two titles on official pages. "Twelve Suggested Points for A.A. Tradition" stresses the offering: suggested points. "Twelve Points to Assure Our Future" stresses why the groups needed them. Do not throw either title out. Do not let someone tell you that you have been following a fraud because they prefer the other wording. You can hear one this week and the other next month. Both point at the same set of guidelines.

You were not alive for that magazine, or you were, and it does not matter. The article is not a contract with your signature. Hearing the points in a church basement in whatever year this is does not backdate a crime onto you.

A desire to stop is the requirement you can actually use

The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. That is the short form of the tradition about who belongs. The long form says membership ought never depend on money or conformity. If your particular shame is that you could not pay, or that you did not fit, those words are already on your side. There are no dues or fees. You can sit and listen. Introducing yourself is not mandatory. You need not join a prayer.

Groups still talk about the Traditions because unity takes practice. A meeting may read one. People may disagree. You can listen to the disagreement without volunteering for the role of defendant. Members share experience, strength, and hope. You can be new, wrong, and welcome in the same hour. Membership is voluntary. You can leave a fight and come back for the next meeting, or you can find a different group. Online and phone meetings exist if the room where you felt accused is too hot tonight.

You do not confess a tradition number at the door. If you want to make something right later, you can do it when you know what you are making right, with a person, in ordinary language. Tonight the job is smaller. Hear that the points were offered as suggestions. Take a chair because you want to stop.

If you are sick, the guidelines can wait. Call 911 if you are sick, confused, or cannot breathe. Call or text 988 if you are in a mental health crisis. NIAAA says alcohol withdrawal can be life-threatening when a person who drinks heavily over time stops suddenly. NIDA says mutual-help groups such as A.A. are peer-led, not led by healthcare professionals, and not a substitute for treatment. A meeting is peer support, not detox. A 1946 article cannot manage withdrawal.

If you need help finding treatment, call (800) 653-9376, which is free to the caller; the line is not A.A., and it is not SMART Recovery. Treatment providers pay for the referral, and the line is not an intergroup. FindTreatment.gov lists programs. SAMHSA's National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357), is free, confidential, and available 24/7 in English and Spanish.

Use the meetings search and confirm the time, because the listings are not verified by the site. Go hear whatever they read, or go and only listen. You can be someone who already feels guilty and still be on time. The suggestions will not become a law code overnight. The chair is for the desire to stop.

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Common Questions

Did I break a law if I messed up a Tradition?

The Traditions are guidelines, not rules. They grew from a need for guidance as A.A. grew, and Bill W. wrote them in the 1940s. In the April 1946 Grapevine he offered them as suggestions, and he said he was not handing down one man's dictum or a creed. A mistake, a fight, or a night you do not understand does not read like a conviction under that sentence. You can sit in a meeting tonight. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

What did Bill actually offer in 1946?

In April 1946 he wrote a Grapevine article titled Twelve Suggested Points for A.A. Tradition. The beginnings page calls that article an early presentation of what became the Traditions. The sentence he wrote is this: I offer these suggestions neither as one man's dictum nor as a creed of any kind. Suggested is in the title. Guidelines is what the fellowship still calls them. You do not have to memorize the rest of the article, and you do not have to recite twelve points to walk in.

Why have I heard a second title from the same month?

Because the traditions page says the short form was published in the April 1946 Grapevine under the title Twelve Points to Assure Our Future. Both titles are on official A.A. pages. Neither title is a fake. One stresses that the points were suggested. The other stresses the fellowship's future. You may hear either one in a meeting. Hearing both does not mean someone lied to you, and it does not mean you signed the second title as a contract.

What if I already took money, or refused to fit in?

The long form says membership ought never depend on money or conformity. So money trouble and being different are not how you get removed. The short form you need tonight is simpler: the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees. You can sit and listen. If a group is in a fight about a Tradition, you can still be the person who came to stop drinking. You do not have to referee the law you are afraid you broke.

What if I am too sick to care about any of this?

Then leave the Traditions for a night when you are safe. Call 911 if you are sick, confused, or cannot breathe. Call or text 988 if you are in a mental health crisis. NIAAA says alcohol withdrawal can be life-threatening when a person who drinks heavily over time stops suddenly. NIDA says mutual-help groups such as A.A. are peer-led and not a substitute for treatment. A meeting is peer support, not detox. A guideline from the 1940s cannot manage withdrawal.