"Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A. A. as a whole."
For the better part of the last twenty years I have attended A. A. meetings all over the country. The root of the message is the same where ever I go. Don't drink, go to meetings, and work the steps.
I have learned that there are groups that have sprung up to deal with special issues or needs within the alcoholic community.
There are groups to deal with alternative life styles, professionals, law enforcement personnel, children, prisoners, ham radio groups, computer chat room groups, and gender specific groups. Truck drivers, pilots, clergy, doctors, lawyers, nurses, entertainers, and government officials have there own groups.
Most of these groups have been created to fill a specific need not addressed by the general recovering population. Sometimes anonymity is a primary prerequisite for recovery. Sometimes specific knowledge of profession or lifestyle is needed.
Within these individual groups the specific needs are met, but when we come together there is only one purpose. United against a common foe…alcoholism and addiction, we carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
Tradition Five
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