"Our membership ought to include all who suffer from Alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought AA Membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an AA group, provided that, as a group they have no other affiliation." - Tradition Three (the 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 (the long form)
“Unless there is approximate conformity to A.A.’s Twelve Traditions, the group... can deteriorate and die.” — Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 174.