Principle 12: No Leaders, No Gurus; Attract Rather Than Promote
No leaders, no gurus, no spokespeople. We attract rather than promote, and protect the fellowship from being identified with any individual.
Commentary
The personal-identification corollary to principle-10 and principle-11. The fellowship has no face. Attraction over promotion mirrors AA’s Tradition 11. Together: no central body, no class of professionals, no personalities — the fellowship is structurally faceless.
Status notes
v3, ready for team review.
Source carries an inline team note attached to the “On Authority and Leadership” section: “10 compresses two ideas (no individual figureheads + attract rather than promote). Worth deciding whether to split into 10a and 10b.” The pointer “10” appears to be source numbering drift — the two-ideas description matches THIS statement (12), not principle-10 (which is one idea: no central authority). Carry the split question into team review.
Source confirmations
v5 strategy draft (raw/EPI_Expansion_Strategy_v5.docx.md) is an independent
source asserting the same content. Section “What makes this fragile”: “Guru risk — charismatic individuals becoming ‘the leader’ of a group or the larger network.” And the four pillars frame the work as service, not authorship.
This is archival corroboration — a different voice and a different context arriving at the same statement. Worth noting for the eventual ratification pass.