Tradition Nine, which states:
Our groups ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
"WHEN Tradition Nine was first written, it said that “Alcoholics Anonymous needs the least possible organization.” In years since then, we have changed our minds about that.
Today, we are able to say with assurance that Alcoholics Anonymous—A.A. as a whole—should never be organized at all.
Then, in seeming contradiction, we proceed to create special service boards and committees which in themselves are organized. How, then, can we have an unorganized movement which can and does create a service organization for itself? Scanning this puzzler, people say,
“What do they mean, no organization?”
Well, let's see. Did anyone ever hear of a nation, a church, a political party, even a benevolent association that had no membership rules?
Did anyone ever hear of a society which couldn't somehow discipline its members and enforce obedience to necessary rules and regulations?
Doesn't nearly every society on earth give authority to some of its members to impose obedience upon the rest and to punish or expel offenders?"
12x12 pg 172
Before I came to AA I had major contempt prior to investigation. I knew I was an alcoholic for a while, but didn't seek help in AA because I saw that "it" didn't work for my cousins who had been in and out of the rooms for years, and they always ended up drinking or using again. I thought it might be a cult or a weird organization that would push their "real agenda" on me at some point so I just stayed away and suffered until I finally ran out of road. I couldn't afford rehab, and my mom who had kept me afloat for many years, passed away so AA was the last house on the block.
I didn't understand the concept of our spiritual program when I first got here. I was like, "Will I get in trouble if I don't come or am late; what if I fail to make coffee or forget to do something my sponsor asks....will I be kicked out?" No, not here. That freedom, that I wasn't forced to be here, that I didn't have to talk if I didn't want to. like in school; thus allowing my broken spirit to flourish because I wasn't under law, but spirit. I HATE rules...LOL! I had been in constant conflict with this world ever since I was born, so I wasn't used to not having to fight against the "system".
I started to learn to be accountable not because I was being forced to, but because I wanted to get well. I didn't have to fight anymore if I choose not to. I could just be and learn at the pace God directed my spirit guided by my sponsor and elders in AA. They had NO agenda. They didn't want or expect anything from me. They were teaching me a new way to handle life on God's terms and I had the option to decide. I wanted what they had so I became willing to go to any lengths to get that. Decision made.
*In 1954, the name of the Alcoholic Foundation, Inc., was changed to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous,Inc., and the Foundation office is now the General Service Office. pg 173 12x12
If AA had continued on the path to becoming a "Inc". (the process of constituting a company, city, or other organization as a legal corporation.) making our spiritual program a legal corporation or privatized, I would dead. We can't be lobbied or bought. We are organized by the spirit, accountable to God and our fellows that pushes no agenda except to be of General Service to the next suffering alcoholic that walks in.
What a wonderful thing to be a part of.