Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence, we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other purpose.
– Tradition Three, long-form.
Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose – that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
– Tradition Five, long-form.
Unless there is approximate conformity to A.A.’s Twelve Traditions, the group…. can deteriorate and die.
– Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions