By Steve K.

As a long-term member of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and the current secretary of a local group, I’m ever mindful of the 12 Traditions and the principles they contain which help to guide each AA group and the Fellowship, as a whole.

When new members enter the Fellowship of AA for help with their drinking problem, they are encouraged to concentrate on and practice the suggested 12 Step program of recovery and are, understandably, often ignorant of AA’s 12 Traditions.

Hopefully, over time, AA members are also encouraged to study and practice the principles contained within the 12 Traditions as they take on service positions within the Fellowship and attend their local group conscience/business meetings.

The 12 Steps and the 12 Traditions are, for most people, not that difficult to comprehend with the help of a good sponsor. However, practicing the principles they contain is a different matter and is a challenge requiring a high degree of self-discipline, integrity, and strong determination. If practiced conscientiously though, emotional sobriety and spiritual growth are the much-valued rewards.

The spiritual essence of the 12 Traditions is self-sacrifice for the greater good. A real humility that is willing to forgo personal ambition, desires, and social status for the good of the group and AA, as a whole. Our human instinctual desires and egotistical tendencies often rebel at the restraints suggested by the 12 Traditions, and adherence to these spiritual principles can often feel counter intuitive – particularly for type ‘A’ personalities such as AA’s co-founder Bill Wilson, who was highly ambitious and a natural leader. There are many similar types in today’s AA Fellowship, and the 12 Traditions help to keep their egos in check (mine included!) and protect the Fellowship from self-seeking behaviour.

As someone with a fairly dominant character, I have found the 12 Traditions very helpful in my efforts to practice humility – both inside and outside of the rooms of AA.

The Principle of Rotation

This brings me to the ‘principle of rotation’ in relation to service positions within the Fellowship, which is primarily inspired by Tradition Two: 

“For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.”

I would also suggest that the principle of rotation is inspired by Tradition One, with its emphasis upon ‘unity’ and ‘group welfare’, Tradition Nine, with its emphasis upon service rather than government, and Tradition Twelve, with its emphasis upon anonymity and humility.

Each AA group is responsible for electing its group service officers (chairperson, secretary, treasurer, literature person, Group Service Representative (GSR), tea/coffee maker etc) who help the group to function effectively and are the ‘trusted servants’ of the group.  The AA group, via its ‘conscience’, is also responsible for regularly rotating these ‘service positions’, and allowing others within the group the opportunity to serve the Fellowship. Service is an important principle in AA and has been a key factor in my recovery and in the practice of the 12 Steps.

The terms of service in AA are limited by the principle of rotation, in line with the principles contained within the Traditions. Each AA group is encouraged to hold regular group conscience and business meetings to help manage group issues, take its own inventory, and elect group service officers. Ultimately, the group decides who serves it and for how long they serve. Ideally, most group service positions are held for no more than 12 months at a time, although, the GSR is generally expected to serve for a minimum of 2 years.

The principle of rotation is an important safeguard against egotism within AA and helps to prevent ambitious individuals developing a sense of prestige, status, and power within the Fellowship. It promotes individual humility, group unity, and equality. It also allows newer group members to engage in service, encouraging them to share the responsibility of carrying a message of recovery “to the alcoholic who still suffers.”

My experience in AA is that it’s often difficult to let go of a service position that I find satisfying, that gives me a sense of meaning and purpose, and that may also meet certain instinctual or emotional needs within me.

The ‘AA Group’ pamphlet, published by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc, suggests this difficulty too, but also encourages ‘letting go’ for the greater good of the group and one’s own spiritual benefit:

“Traditionally, rotation ensures that group tasks, like nearly everything else in A.A., are passed around for all to share. Many groups have alternates to each trusted servant who can step into the service positions if needed. To step out of an A.A. office you love can be hard. If you have been doing a good job, if you honestly don’t see anyone else around willing, qualified, or with the time to do it, and if your friends agree, it’s especially tough. But it can be a real step forward in growth — a step into the humility that is, for some people, the spiritual essence of anonymity. Among other things, anonymity in the Fellowship means that we forgo personal prestige for any A.A. work we do to help alcoholics. And, in the spirit of Tradition Twelve, it ever reminds us “to place principles before personalities.” Many outgoing service position holders find it rewarding to take time to share their experience with the incoming person. Rotation helps to bring us spiritual rewards far more enduring than any fame. With no A.A. “status” at stake, we needn’t compete for titles or praise — we have complete freedom to serve as we are needed.”

Although it’s hard letting go of a service position that I enjoy, it’s vital to the lifeblood of the AA Fellowship that I do so. As the acting secretary and principal officer of a relatively new AA group, I’ll soon be confronted with the prospect of letting go of a role I find rewarding and personally meaningful. Hopefully, I will have the integrity and humility to step aside when the time for my service position rotation comes and not be a ‘bleeding deacon.’ As detailed in Tradition Two in ‘The ‘Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions’, the term is used to describe “someone convinced that the group cannot get along without him/her, who constantly connives for re-election to office, and who continues to be consumed with self-pity” at the loss of his/her service role.

Instead, I’d like it if I could adopt the humility of the more enlightened ‘elder statesman’

“who sees the wisdom of the group’s decision, who holds no resentment over his/her reduced status, whose judgement is sound, and whose example and quiet opinion is the real leadership within the fellowship.”

(Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p.139, 1^st edition.)

This article, written by Steve K, was published in the winter 2024 edition of ‘AA Service News’ (pages 28 – 29) which is available in print and digital formats.