Kind of tangential, but I found the AA 12 traditions really interesting; these aren't about recovery, but about how the groups are organized: 1. Our common wel

Kind of tangential, but I found the AA 12 traditions really interesting; these aren't about recovery, but about how the groups are organized: 1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity. 2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern. 3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking. 4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole. 5. Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers. 6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility our outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose. 7. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. 8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers. 9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards and committees directly responsible to those they serve. 10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy. 11. 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. 12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities. Specifically I find it interesting how the anonymity really comes out not in how people relate to each other, but in how the group relates to the world: there are no formal leaders, entanglements are avoided, professionalization is avoided, and the rules keep the concept of AA from being confused with any individual. The traditions feel like a kind of governance to avoid governance.