What's in a Tradition?

...Lots, apparently.  Traditions can actually serve to keep things vibrant and relevant.  The Twelve Traditions that underlie Fellowships have become increasingly meaningful to me the longer I stay around.  There is, of course, no point in a tradition for the sake of a tradition.  That would be pointless, and would have put off countless numbers who came in search of an escape from the many institutions who have been found not to provide the solutions one could be forgiven for thinking they might. 

I have heard it said that while the Steps prevent suicide, the Traditions prevent homicide.  They work to keep the rooms a safe place in which people can recover, a day at a time.  They have preserved the fellowships and ensured their longevity.  They provide guidelines for relationships between the twelve-step groups, members, other groups, the global fellowship, and society at large.  Questions of finance, public relations, donations, and purpose are all explicitly addressed within the Traditions.

A new book recently caught my eye and is now on order...

Whilst the short form of the Traditions is generally apparent in meetings worldwide, often to be found hanging on scrolls at venues, the longer form is perhaps less well known:

Our experience has taught us that:

1. Each member of is but a small part of a great whole. The fellowship must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
3. Our membership ought to include all who suffer from the disease. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three members gathered together may call themselves a group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.
4. With respect to its own affairs, each group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience. But when its plans concern the welfare of neighbouring groups also, those groups ought to be consulted. And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect the fellowship as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board. On such issues our common welfare is paramount.
5. Each group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose—that of carrying its message to the individual who still suffers.
6. Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to the fellowship should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. A group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to the fellowship, such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the fellowship's name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, fellowship managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside the fellowship - and medically supervised. While a group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. A group can bind itself to no one.
7. The groups themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members. We think that each group should soon achieve this ideal; that any public solicitation of funds using the name of the fellowship is highly dangerous, whether by groups, clubs, hospitals, or other outside agencies; that acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever, is unwise. Then too, we view with much concern those fellowship treasuries which continue, beyond prudent reserves, to accumulate funds for no stated fellowship purpose. Experience has often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority.
8. The fellowship should remain forever non-professional. We define professionalism as the occupation of counselling alcoholics for fees or hire. But we may employ members where they are going to perform those services for which we may otherwise have to engage non members. Such special services may be well recompensed. But our usual "12 Step" work is never to be paid for.
9. Each group needs the least possible organisation. Rotating leadership is the best. The small group may elect its secretary, the large group its rotating committee, and the groups of a large metropolitan area their central or intergroup committee, which often employs a full-time secretary. The trustees of the General Service Board are, in effect, our General Service Committee. They are the custodians of our fellowship. Tradition and the receivers of voluntary contributions by which we maintain our fellowship. General Service Office. They are authorised by the groups to handle our over-all public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the Fellowship Grapevine. All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in the fellowship are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles; they do not govern. Universal respect is the key to their usefulness.
10. No group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate the fellowship, express any opinion on outside controversial issues—particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. The fellowship groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever.
11. Our relations with the general public should be characterised by personal anonymity. We think the fellowship ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us.
12. And finally, we of this fellowship believe that the principle of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practise a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all.