N.B. Red text are new or amended questions. Some have been omitted entirely from the original WSO checklist.

Huntercombe Recovery Traditions Checklist

Tradition One: Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity. 

1. In my group am I a healing, mending, integrating person, or am I divisive? What about gossip and taking other members’ inventories? 

2. Am I a peacemaker? Or do I, with pious preludes such as “just for the sake of discussion,” plunge into argument? 

3. Am I gentle with those who rub me the wrong way, or am I abrasive? 

4. Do I put down some AA activities as if I were superior for not participating in this or that aspect of AA? 

5. Am I informed about AA as a whole? Do I support, in every way I can, AA as a whole, or just the parts I understand and approve of? 

6. Am I as considerate of AA members as I want them to be of me? 

7. Do I spout platitudes about love while indulging in and secretly justifying behaviour that bristles with hostility? 

8. Do I go to enough AA meetings or read enough AA literature to really keep in touch? 

9. Do I consider the welfare of all members my home group or just those I like?

10. Do we listen to the minority in discussions and ensure their inclusion? 

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.

1. In group conscience meetings am I looking to find God’s will or am I secretly trying to push my own agenda?

2. Am I in sufficient contact with my Higher Power to consider myself able to try to speak on His behalf?

3. Am I too trusting of AA leaders? Do I take enough responsibility for my own understanding or simply parrot what I’m told?

4. Do I try to save face in group discussion, or can I yield in good spirit to the group conscience and work cheerfully along with it?

5. As a leader, do I drive by mandate or lead by example?

6. In group discussions, do I sound off about matters on which I have no experience and little knowledge?

7. Do I attend my group’s group conscience meetings?

Tradition Three: The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.

1. In my mind, do I judge the sincerity of some new AA members? 

2. Is there some kind of alcoholic whom I privately do not want in my AA group? 

3. Do I show prejudice against those who have other problems?

4. Do I let language, religion, race, gender, sexuality, education, age, fear or other such things interfere with my carrying the message?

5. Am I over impressed by a celebrity? By a doctor, a clergyman or an ex-prisoner? Or can I just treat this new member simply and naturally as one more sick human? 

Tradition Four: Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.

1. Does my group always consider the welfare of the rest of AA? Of nearby groups? Of Internationalists miles from port?

2. Do I put down other groups when they operate differently from mine, or do I learn from it? 

3. Am I mindful of the fact that with autonomy comes the responsibility of maintaining unity?

4. Do I always bear in mind that, to those outsiders who know I am in AA, I may to some extent represent our entire beloved Fellowship? 

Tradition Five: Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

1. Am I willing to explain firmly to a newcomer the limitations of AA help, even if he gets mad at me for not giving him a loan? 

2. Am I willing to twelfth-step the next newcomer without regard to who or what is in it for me? 

3. Does our group carry the message effectively? Could we do anything to make it clearer?

4. Do I know exactly what the message is?

5. Do I help my group in every way I can to fulfill our primary purpose? 

6. Do I remember that AA old-timers, too, can be alcoholics who still suffer? Do I try both to help them and to learn from them? 

Tradition Six: An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

1. Should my fellow group members and I go out and raise money to endow several AA beds in our local hospital? 

2. Is it good for a group to lease a small building? 

3. Would it be acceptable to make a special donation to the owners of the building we meet in to express our gratitude?

4. Should the secretary of our group serve on the council’s advisory committee on alcoholism? 

5. Should our group make donations to charities or organizations we wish to support.

Tradition Seven: Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

1. Are we supporting our group through our own contributions?

2. What is a prudent reserve and do we send surplus funds promptly to Intergroup?

3. What is our group money spent on? Could we spend it more wisely?

4. Should we accept money from newcomers or visitors or favours from landlords or suppliers?

5. Does our treasurer report regularly enough? Does our treasurer feel sufficiently supported and are they accountable?

6. How much is the right amount to give for tradition seven?

7. Is my giving anonymous or do I make my paper money obvious and stigmatize those on a lower income?

8. Do we understand the ‘power of the purse’?

Tradition Eight: Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

1. Do I try to sound in AA like an expert on alcoholism? On recovery? On medicine? On sociology? On AA itself? On psychology? On spiritual matters? Or, heaven help me, even on humility?

2. Do I sometimes try to get some reward—even if not money—for my personal AA efforts? 

3. Do I understand what AA employees there are and what they do?

4. Does being nonprofessional mean that we should not do our work to a professional standard?

5. Do I give more value to the opinions of a member who works in the recovery sector or do I listen to and value the experience of all members?

Tradition Nine: AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

1. Is our group over organized? Are our leaders servants or do they take control?

2. Am I aware of the service structure of AA? Of the upside-down triangle?

3. Do I feel that our service structure is accountable? Do I understand how it is accountable?

4. Do I serve to the best of my ability or do I leave the work to others because ‘it’s not my job’ or ‘someone else will do it’ or judge that it’ll be ‘good for the newer member’?

5. Am I aware of those I am responsible to in my A.A. work?

6. Do I resist formal aspects of A.A. because I fear them as authoritative?

7. Does ‘not organized’ mean no organization?

Tradition Ten: Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

1. Do I ever give the impression that there really is an “AA opinion” on Antabuse? Tranquilizers? Doctors? Psychiatrists? Churches? Hospitals? Jails? Alcohol? The Government? Drug and alcohol legislation? Vitamins? Al-Anon? Alateen? 

2. Can I honestly share my own personal experience concerning any of those without giving the impression I am stating the “AA opinion”? 

3. What in AA history gave rise to our Tenth Tradition? 

4. When offering guidance or sponsoring, do I offer my opinion as if it is AA lore?

5. What would AA be without this Tradition? Where would I be? 

6. Do I breach this or any of its supporting Traditions in subtle, perhaps unconscious, ways? 

7. How can I manifest the spirit of this Tradition in my personal life outside AA? Inside AA? 

Tradition Eleven: Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.

1. Do I sometimes promote AA so fanatically that I make it seem unattractive? 

2. Do I understand the level of anonymity this tradition suggests? Am I an ‘invisible’ alcoholic?

3. When in service am I careful to avoid using my name at the level of press, radio and film.

4. Are public forums on the internet ‘at the level of press’? Do I inadvertently compromise the anonymity of others?

5. Am I ashamed of being a recovered, or recovering, alcoholic? 

6. What would AA be like if we were not guided by the ideas in Tradition Eleven? Where would I be? 

7. Is my AA sobriety attractive enough that a sick drunk would want such a quality for himself?

Tradition Twelve: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

1. Why is it good idea for me to place principles before personalities?

2. When I do not like or trust AA’s current servants, do I wish had the authority to straighten them out? 

3. Do I ever try to get a certain AA group to conform to my standards, not its own? 

4. Do I do all I can do to support AA financially? When is the last time I anonymously gave away a Big Book? 

5. Do I complain about certain AAs’ behaviour? Who made me so smart? 

6. Do I fulfil all AA responsibilities in such a way as to please privately even my own conscience? Or do I compare myself to other’s standards?

7. What is the real importance of me among more than two million AAs? 

8. Does this tradition mean we ought not have personalities, or even one myself?

9. Do I aim to practice a genuine humility’?