(This is a personal story from one of our members.)
I have an ever-growing respect for the SA Traditions. SA (and AA before that) still exist and can offer a program of recovery because the Traditions have ensured they are still here, still doing what they were designed to do from the beginning.
Naturally I am a "member" of some other organizations such as my workplace and my religious affiliation. And I've seen and experienced the rise (and fall) of personalities in those groups. It truly is a rare person who can be the focus of attention for very long before that attention leads to problems of power and control. As someone once said, "we are by nature glory-hoarding, self-centered, control freaks." I know I certainly am.
In keeping with the principles in our SA literature (Tradition 2), our local group refers to the members who have been elected to positions of "leadership" as "trusted servants." When I am serving the group as treasurer or literature chairperson or secretary, I am reminded every week when we read the Traditions together that as a "trusted servant", my "position" in the group is for the purpose of serving this local fellowship. And I am further reminded that the primary purpose of our group is to carry the message to the sexaholic who still suffers (Tradition 5). Serving and helping others diminishes my tendency toward becoming a "personality".
The Traditions are packed with so much great stuff that helps keeps the "me" in check from harming "us". And this too requires that I surrender my will to God, or I will naturally default to being a "glory-hoarding, self-centered, control freak" in my pursuit of my personality.
