Memo to Audio Technicians

DATE:           February 2024
TO:                Memo to Audio Technicians
FROM:          Trustees’ Public Information Committee of Alcoholics Anonymous
SUBJECT:     ANONYMITY 

Greetings from Alcoholics Anonymous!  

As you may know, anonymity is an important principle in the Fellowship of A.A. Anonymity is often referred to as the greatest single protection the Fellowship has to assure its continued existence and growth and to assure our members that their recovery will be private.  Often, the active alcoholic will avoid any source of help which might reveal their identity.

We seek your continued cooperation in identifying A.A. members by first name only in printed or online catalogs, on CD inserts and displays, and on all public digital platforms.

While A.A. Traditions preclude us from having any opinions on outside entities, we request your cooperation, as we do with media professionals, in protecting the anonymity of A.A. members. 

The enclosed A.A. literature has been recently updated and contains the shared experience of A.A. members regarding the recording of A.A. speakers. This excerpt from the “A.A. Guidelines (for) Conferences, Conventions and Roundups” may be of particular interest: 

Experience shows that it is best to encourage speakers not to use full names and not to identify third parties by full names in their talks. The strength of our anonymity Traditions is reinforced by speakers who do not use their last names and by recording companies or recorders whose labels and catalogs do not identify speakers by last names, titles, service jobs or descriptions.

Experience also indicates that speaker recordings are being disseminated over the Internet, a public media outlet. In addition, some A.A. members, if being recorded for future play on a public Website, may choose to leave out other details of their lives that may make themselves or their families identifiable.

Based on the above, we respectfully request that you not post any A.A. talks online such as public websites and social media platforms such as YouTube that contain the full name and the identifiable face of any A.A. member.  

We deeply appreciate your cooperation in helping to maintain this basic principle of the A.A. program of recovery from alcoholism.  

Thank you!

Links:     
Anonymity Online and Digital Media,  
A.A. Guidelines on the Internet,
A.A. Guidelines on Conferences, Conventions & Round-ups,
Annual Anonymity Letter to Media