Step 4 · Tradition 4 · Concept IV
Owning our own affairs
Courage to take stock of my own life, freedom for a group to run its own, and a real vote for everyone who serves.
Step 4 · Recovery
Courage
Taking an honest, searching look at ourselves
Read Step 4 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Tradition 4 · Unity
Autonomy
Each group runs its own affairs, mindful of others
Read Tradition 4 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Concept IV · Service
Participation
Everyone who serves gets a vote in proportion to responsibility
Read Concept IV at aa.org (opens in a new tab)The Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts for World Service are copyrighted by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Read them in full at aa.org.
The thread
Step Four takes courage because it asks us to look squarely at our own part in things, without blaming anyone else. Tradition Four gives each group the freedom, and the responsibility, to manage its own affairs, as long as it does not harm other groups or A.A. as a whole. Concept IV guarantees that everyone who carries service responsibility also gets a voice and a vote, in proportion to that responsibility. The thread is ownership: no one else can take my inventory, run my group or cast my vote for me.
Where it shows up
The member writing a Fourth Step learns that resentments usually point back to her own fears and choices, and that facing them is both frightening and freeing. A home group exercising Tradition Four decides its own format, its own literature table and its own Seventh Tradition split, and takes a periodic group inventory to ask honestly how well it is carrying the message. That same group also pauses before a decision that might affect the groups next door, because autonomy ends where harm to others begins. At the area assembly, Concept IV means the GSR from a group of six has a vote alongside the DCM and the area officers, and at the Conference the trustees, directors and GSO and Grapevine staff vote alongside the delegates rather than merely advising them. Courage to look, freedom to act and a seat at the table belong together.