The Third Tradition

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Membership foundation

The Third Tradition replaced membership barriers with one requirement

This page follows the official Tradition from its short form through the membership experience that produced it and into present group membership.

  1. The short formRead the membership requirement in A.A.’s official text.
  2. The experience behind itSee why earlier membership requirements were abandoned.
  3. Membership in a groupApply the Tradition without adding an application.

The short form states one requirement

The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.

Official A.A.W.S. source: The Twelve Traditions

The page begins with A.A.W.S.’s text rather than a new definition. Every application below returns to this sentence.

The Tradition grew from A.A. experience with membership restrictions

they finally abandoned all membership regulations

Official A.A.W.S. source: Tradition Three

The official historical discussion records why groups moved away from additional qualifications. The page therefore presents the Tradition as accumulated A.A. experience, not as a PGHAA rule.

The result protects the opportunity to seek recovery in A.A.

To take away any alcoholic’s full chance was sometimes to pronounce his death sentence.

Official A.A.W.S. source: Tradition Three

That consequence explains why this subject belongs at the foundation of the Membership branch.

A group does not add a formal admission process

Just as we are members of A.A. if we say we are, so are we members of a group if we say we are.

Official A.A.W.S. source: The A.A. Group

The group-membership answer applies the same membership principle to a particular group without turning group autonomy into a new membership test.