We all know how far we get in this program if we as individuals don’t have that First Step realization of our utter powerlessness over lust. Nowhere! Have you ever thought there might be such a thing as the group or SA as a whole being powerless over lust? If our malady has been telling us anything, it is that none of us as individuals or groups has the power to conquer lust and create sobriety, joy, and freedom. All we have to do is look at the percentage of slippers we have and how much true victory over lust there is (or is not). The profound nature of our problem eventually forces us all back to the First Step.

Can we get so caught up in the apparent “success” of things—the number of newcomers, new groups, conventions, retreats, recognition from the therapeutic profession and the media, status, and respectability—that we lose sight of the quality of recovery we must have? Such thinking can cover over the real sickness. Without realizing it, we can turn into a false support group where, even without sobriety, we feel better about ourselves while supporting the illness! Yes, this can and does happen!

For a group to admit its powerlessness, its leadership must first accept that fact. That feeling of the swelling ego when we see growing numbers and standing room only in meetings can blind us to the fact that we are really without strength and totally dependent on God for any real sobriety, victory, and true recovery. Numbers don’t make sobriety and recovery; they never did!

The Traditions are becoming increasingly important as groups and SA as a whole face new issues and problems. In taking a group inventory, we sit down together and judge ourselves against the letter and spirit of our Twelve Traditions. We examine ourselves as a group and ask, “How are we doing?” Has your group had an SA Tradition meeting yet? In these, we study one Tradition at a time using the AA Twelve and Twelve, much as Steps are studied in Step Study meetings.

Enclosed with this ESSAY is a piece on Meeting Quality. Be sure to read and discuss it with your group in a business meeting. There is something here for all of us to consider. [Ed.]

“My experience has been that once the First Tradition (unity equals the foundation of recovery) is broken, then the entire program loses much of its force.… In other 12-Step programs…it’s not uncommon to sit through an entire meeting without hearing one mention of God or spirituality or the 12 Steps.… Perhaps the only solution for those of us who believe in the classical program is to reach deep into our spiritual resources, work the Steps more assiduously, and above all, stick closer together. We walk by faith, not by sight. Who would have thought on May 9, 1935, that Dr. Bob would find a new friend who would help him to stop killing himself?”