SIP and TRADITION 11: Attraction or Promotion?

A closer look at the Traditions helps groups and committees discern whether they are in the problem or the solution.

SIP (Support for Institutions and Professionals) committee members sometimes get asked the question: Is SIP work attraction or promotion?

Before this question can be answered, terms must be clarified.

SIP’s mission is to carry SA’s message to institutions (e.g., hospitals and treatment centers) and to help professionals (e.g., doctors, therapists). This can be done by facilitating meetings with professionals and distributing information.

What about attraction vs. promotion? As Tradition 11 states, “Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films” (SA 209).

Is SIP work a violation of the 11th Tradition? The answer is clear. Promotion serves ego-driven purposes; It comes from pride and manipulation. Advertising operates on a simple formula: “Buy this product and you will get….” It relies on making promises and creating expectations about specific outcomes.

Attraction comes from a place of service. SIP workers tell their stories and let go of the outcome. The key lies in the sentence: “We have a solution. We don’t claim it is for everyone” (SA 2). We make ourselves vulnerable and share what helped us: no promises, no competing with other 12 Step fellowships. Then, the professional workers can decide if they are attracted by the message we have to offer. Is this something they want for their clients?

We need to find a healthy balance between being a secret society and breaking our anonymity with promotion.

Our mother fellowship, Alcoholics Anonymous, grew very quickly because of its friends: journalists, clergy, and doctors. SA should use the opportunity of giving its message not only to those who suffer, but also to those who help those who suffer. Not everyone who needs SA’s message might be yet at the point to name their problem. A friend of SA, working in the professional field, might be the channel of information needed at this very moment.