Tuesday AA literature link - Bill W.'s original 1948 Grapevine article on Tradition Eleven:

 

                  Tradition Eleven

               
                  Providence has been looking after the public relations of
                  Alcoholics Anonymous. It can scarcely have been otherwise.
                  Though we are more than a dozen years old, hardly a syllable
                  of criticism or ridicule has ever been spoken of AA. Somehow
                  we have been spared all the pains of medical or religious
                  controversy and we have good friends both wet and dry, right
                  and left. Like most societies, we are sometimes scandalous --
                  but never yet in public. From all over the world, naught comes
                  but keen sympathy and downright admiration. Our friends of the
                  press and radio have outdone themselves. Anyone can see that
                  we are in a fair way to be spoiled. Our reputation is already
                  so much better than our actual character!

                  Surely these phenomenal blessings must have a deep purpose.
                  Who doubts that this purpose wishes to let every alcoholic in
                  the world know that AA is truly for him, can he only want his
                  liberation enough. Hence, our messages through public channels
                  have never been seriously discolored, nor has the searing
                  breath of prejudice ever issued from anywhere.

                  Good public relations are AA lifelines reaching out to the
                  alcoholic who still does not know us. For years to come, our
                  growth is sure to depend upon the strength and number of these
                  lifelines. One serious public relations calamity could always
                  turn thousands away from us to perish -- a matter of life and
                  death indeed!

                  The future poses no greater problem or challenge to AA than
                  how best to preserve a friendly and vital relation to all the
                  world about us. Success will rest heavily upon right
                  principles, a wise vigilance, and the deepest personal
                  responsibility on the part of every one of us. Nothing less
                  will do. Else our brother may again turn his face to the wall
                  because we did not care enough.

                  So the Eleventh Tradition stands sentinel over the lifelines,
                  announcing that there is no need for self-praise, that it is
                  better to let our friends recommend us, and that our whole
                  public relations policy, contrary to usual customs, should be
                  based upon the principle of attraction rather than promotion.
                  Shot-in-the-arm methods are not for us -- no press agents, no
                  promotional devices, no big names. The hazards are too great.
                  Immediate results will always be illusive because easy
                  shortcuts to notoriety can generate permanent and smothering
                  liabilities.

                  More and more, therefore, are we emphasizing the principle of
                  personal anonymity as it applies to our public relations. We
                  ask of each other the highest degree of personal
                  responsibility in this respect. As a movement we have been,
                  before now, tempted to exploit the names of our well-known
                  public characters. We have rationalized that other societies,
                  ever the best, do the same. As individuals, we have sometimes
                  believed that the public use of our names could demonstrate
                  our personal courage in the face of stigma, so lending power
                  and conviction to new stories and magazine articles.

                  But these are not the allures they once were. Vividly, we are
                  becoming aware that no member sought to describe himself in
                  full view of the general public as an AA, even for the most
                  worthy purpose, lest a perilous precedent be set which tempt
                  others to do likewise for purposes not so worthy.

                  We see that on breaking anonymity by press, radio, or
                  pictures, any one of us could easily transfer the valuable
                  name of Alcoholics Anonymous over onto any enterprise into the
                  midst of any controversy.

                  So it is becoming our code that there are things that no AA
                  ever does, lest he divert AA from its sole purpose and injure
                  our public relations. And thereby the chances of those sick
                  ones yet to come.

                  To the million alcoholics who have not yet heard our AA story,
                  we should ever say, "Greetings and welcome. Be assured that we
                  shall never weaken the lifelines which we float out to you. In
                  our public relations we shall, God willing, keep the faith."


                  Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., October 1948