Step 9 · Tradition 9 · Concept IX
Directly responsible
Direct amends, committees directly responsible to those they serve, and leaders who guide without governing: justice made visible.
Step 9 · Recovery
Justice
Going to those we harmed and setting things right
Read Step 9 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Tradition 9 · Unity
Structure
No bosses or bureaucracy, just committees that answer to us
Read Tradition 9 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Concept IX · Service
Leadership
Good leaders, well chosen, at every level of service
Read Concept IX 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 Nine moves from willingness to action, going directly to those we harmed and doing what justice requires. Tradition Nine refuses to let A.A. become an organization of bosses, yet it creates service boards and committees that are directly responsible to the members they serve. Concept IX insists that good leaders, well chosen, are indispensable at every level, and that the trustees must take up the leadership once carried by Bill W. and Dr. Bob. Running through all three is a responsibility that is direct and personal: we face the people we owe, our committees face the groups they serve, and our leaders face the Fellowship rather than rule over it.
Where it shows up
A member on Step Nine sits across a kitchen table from a sister he lied to for years and says plainly what he did, without excuses and without expecting forgiveness. Tradition Nine looks like a home group rotating its treasurer and secretary, keeping no permanent officers, and expecting each one to report back at the business meeting where anyone may ask questions. The district, the area committee, the delegate, the General Service Board and GSO are all Tradition Nine structures, and each stays responsible to the layer that created it; a DCM answers to GSRs, a delegate to the area, trustees to the Conference. Concept IX is about the quality of the people in those chairs: a good leader, in Bill W.'s description, originates ideas yet consults widely, listens, persuades, takes criticism, compromises where principle allows and stands firm where it does not. Justice in A.A. is not a courtroom; it is people showing up, face to face, to do what they said they would do.