Tradition 6: An SAA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the SAA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose

1. Read the section on Tradition Six in Sex Addicts Anonymous pages. 86-87.
What are my first reactions to the words of this tradition and what I read?



2. Read the paragraph starting with "In carrying our message of recovery".
A
  1. What do we often come in contact with?
  2. What might parts of our outreach include?
  3. What role can such cooperation play?
  4. What is the danger being too closely identified with other organizations?




B
  1. Has your group ever been confused with the owner/operator of the building where you meet?
  2. Does your group have an outreach program?
  3. Does that outreach program cooperate with any other organizations or even with other SAA groups?




3. Read the paragraph starting with "There are many other groups".
A
  1. What do other groups or fellowships present or offer?
  2. What would it constitute if SAA made a public statement about these other groups?
  3. What would such confusion cause?
  4. What might happen if we financially supported another organization?
  5. What reputation would get mixed if we were affiliated?




B
  1. While this paragraph is written about the SAA fellowship as a whole, the same principles apply at the group level.
  2. What could happen if my group rented its own building or became part of a treatment center (such as being therapist led or answering to the center's administration)?
  3. (This is different from renting a room at a treatment center for a meeting.)
  4. If your group meets at a common recovery center, how is the group keeping separate from that center's administration and operation?
  5. What experience do you have with treatment centers having difficulties or being shut down by an authority?
  6. What would have happened if the group were affiliated with that center?
  7. Some treatment centers bring patients to 12 step meetings.
  8. Do we welcome them without expecting any support from the treatment center?
  1. If my group is a member of an Intergroup composed of groups from multiple fellowships, do we keep a clear identification as an SAA group?




4. Read the paragraph starting with "The Sixth Tradition wisely identifies".
A
  1. What are the potential obstacles to carrying our message?
  2. What are the efforts of our fellowship based on?
  3. What are not our purposes?
  4. What are the powerful forces in this world and what can we be tempted by?
  5. What do they divert our attention from?
  6. What are we to remember our purpose is not?
  7. What are growth and financial stability instruments for?




B
  1. There are always people who will attempt to profit from 12 Step recovery.
  2. What is the experience of my group in relating to these?
  3. There are 12 step fellowships that have their own clubhouses, or rent exclusive use of a section of a building.
  4. Has my group tried to do the same and struggled with the financial pressures?
  5. How have the issues of money, property, and prestige affected my group?
  6. How has my group been on finances?




C
  1. Do we look at "outreach" to increase our numbers and finances or do we look at finances as a spiritual indication of whether we are doing the right thing as a group?
  2. Has my group used financial challenges as a time to re-examine how our recovery is going and to review the basic aspects of our recovery?
  3. Do we have a "Chief Financial Officer" concerned about the money or are we seeking the guidance of our higher power through the group conscience?




5. Read the paragraph starting with "Prestige is perhaps".
A
  1. To what is prestige the greatest challenge?
  2. What would affiliation with an outside organization seem to do?
  3. What has our experience shown us?
  4. What would we risk if we applied notions of status, authority, or control?
  5. What does prestige also foster and fracture?




B
  1. What fractures the unity on which our recovery depends?
  2. How can relying on the group conscience keep us from internal politics and the seeking of status?




C
  1. How does anonymity help us to keep prestige down within the group?
  2. How does humility benefit both us and our group?
  3. How does a regular revisiting of Steps 1, 2, & 3 allow me to share my shame and allow me to let the program work?
  4. How does that help me to let go of prestige within the group?




6. Read the paragraph starting with "From the group to the international level".
A
  1. What do we maintain?
  2. What are we offering?
  3. What does Tradition Six put boundaries around?
  4. What do we avoid being entangled with?
  5. What do we keep in mind?
  6. By keeping separate and distinct from other organizations, what is the effect to us and to our fellow sex addict?




B
  1. How do the healthy boundaries of Tradition Six help ensure that we carry our message?
  2. Tradition Six does not mean that we have no cooperation.
  3. How is my group working with other organizations to help carry the message, find new meeting locations, and reach out to underserved groups in my community?
  4. How does this tradition help us keep from focusing on "building _our_ group" and what does it suggest our focus should be?




C
  1. Tradition Six wisely suggests that we change our focus from building an organization to that of service to the addict.
  2. What "clarity of focus" does this Tradition suggest for our spirituality?
  3. In our busy world and with us being pulled in many different directions, what would a "clarity of focus" mean to our lives in the community, at work, and in our own family?
  4. How could that help us say no to many opportunities that come our way?