Step 8 · Tradition 8 · Concept VIII
Freely given, well stewarded
Mending what we broke, helping one another for free, and trustees who steward without running everything: love that knows its job.
Step 8 · Recovery
Brotherly Love
Listing those we harmed and becoming willing to repair it
Read Step 8 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Tradition 8 · Unity
Fellowship
Twelfth Step work is never paid for; service centers may employ special workers
Read Tradition 8 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Concept VIII · Service
Oversight
Trustees plan broadly and oversee A.A.W.S. and the Grapevine
Read Concept VIII 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 Eight turns our attention outward, toward the people we have harmed, and asks us to become willing to set things right out of something like love. Tradition Eight keeps our help for one another freely given, member to member, while allowing paid special workers for the practical jobs that keep the message moving. Concept VIII has the trustees act as planners and stewards of overall policy and finance, while leaving the day-to-day operation of A.A.W.S. and the Grapevine to their own directors. In each case, love for others shows up as a clear sense of what is ours to do, and what we must entrust to others.
Where it shows up
Writing her Eighth Step list, a member stops arguing about who was more at fault and simply asks who she hurt, and that shift in attention is the beginning of brotherly love. In a home group, Tradition Eight is the member who answers the hotline at midnight for free, and it is also the group agreeing that the central office should hire a bookkeeper rather than burn out a volunteer. At GSO the staff members are A.A. members employed as special workers, working alongside nonalcoholic employees, all paid so that thousands of members can do Twelfth Step work unpaid. Concept VIII keeps the trustees from trying to edit every pamphlet or run the Grapevine’s subscriptions themselves; they set policy, watch the finances and elect the directors of A.A.W.S. and the Grapevine, then let those boards do their jobs. Love, wherever it shows up, is caring enough to let the right people do the work.