Carrying the Message
A.A.’s Single Purpose — Tradition Five:
Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
There are those who predict that A.A. may well become a new spearhead for a spiritual awakening throughout the world. When our friends say these things, they are both generous and sincere. But we of A.A. must reflect that such a tribute and such a prophecy could well prove to be a heady drink for most of us — that is, if we really came to believe this to be the real purpose of A.A., and if we commenced to behave accordingly. “Our Society, therefore, will prudently cleave to its single purpose: the carrying of the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. Let us resist the proud assumption that since God has enabled us to do well in one area we are destined to be a channel of saving grace for everybody.
“The moment this Twelfth Step work forms a group, another discovery is made—that most individuals cannot recover unless there is a group.”
What Is an A.A. Group?
As the long form of Tradition Three clearly states, “Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.”
Further clarification of an A.A. group may be found in the Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept Twelve, Warranty Six:
no penalties to be inflicted for nonconformity to A.A. principles;
no fees or dues to be levied — voluntary contributions only;
no member to be expelled from A.A. — membership always to be the choice of the individual;
each A.A. group to conduct its internal affairs as it wishes — it being merely requested to abstain from acts that might injure A.A. as a whole; and finally
that any group of alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group provided that, as a group, they have no other purpose or affiliation.
Some A.A.s come together as specialized A.A. groups — for men, women, young people, doctors, gays and others. If the members are all alcoholics, and if they open the door to all alcoholics who seek help, regardless of profession, gender or other distinction, and meet all the other aspects defining an A.A. group, they may call themselves an A.A. group.
A.A. Guidelines
A.A. Members Employed in the Alcoholism Field
A.A. Answering Services
Accessibility for All Alcoholics
Archives
Central or Intergroup Offices
Conferences, Conventions and Roundups
Cooperating with Court, D.W.I. and Similar Programs
Cooperation with the Professional Community
Corrections Committees
Finance
Internet
Literature Committees
Public Information
Relationship Between A.A. and Al-Anon
Sharing the A.A. Message with the Alcoholic Who Is Deaf
Treatment Committees
The Twelve Concepts for World Service
(long form)
I. The final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.
II. When, in 1955, the A.A. groups confirmed the permanent charter for their General Service Conference, they thereby delegated to the Conference complete authority for the active maintenance of our world services and thereby made the Conference—excepting for any change in the Twelve Traditions or in Article 12 of the Conference Charter—the actual voice and the effective conscience for our whole Society.
III. As a traditional means of creating and maintaining a clearly defined working relation between the groups, the Conference, the A.A. General Service Board and its several service corporations, staffs, committees and executives, and of thus insuring their effective leadership, it is here suggested that we endow each of these elements of world service with a traditional “Right of Decision.”
IV. Throughout our Conference structure, we ought to maintain at all responsible levels a traditional “Right of Participation,” taking care that each classification or group of our world servants shall be allowed a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.
V. Throughout our world service structure, a traditional “Right of Appeal” ought to prevail, thus assuring us that minority opinion will be heard and that petitions for the redress of personal grievances will be carefully considered.
VI. On behalf of A.A. as a whole, our General Service Conference has the principal responsibility for the maintenance of our world services, and it traditionally has the final decision respecting large matters of general policy and finance. But the Conference also recognizes that the chief initiative and the active responsibility in most of these matters should be exercised primarily by the Trustee members of the Conference when they act among themselves as the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous.
VII. The Conference recognizes that the Charter and the Bylaws of the General Service Board are legal instruments: that the Trustees are thereby fully empowered to manage and conduct all of the world service affairs of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is further understood that the Conference Charter itself is not a legal document: that it relies instead upon the force of tradition and the power of the A.A. purse for its final effectiveness.
VIII. The Trustees of the General Service Board act in two primary capacities: (a) With respect to the larger matters of over-all policy and finance, they are the principal planners and administrators. They and their primary committees 2 directly manage these affairs. (b) But with respect to our separately incorporated and constantly active services, the relation of the Trustees is mainly that of full stock ownership and of custodial oversight which they exercise through their ability to elect all directors of these entities.
IX. Good service leaders, together with sound and appropriate methods of choosing them, are at all levels indispensable for our future functioning and safety. The primary world service leadership once exercised by the founders of A.A. must necessarily be assumed by the Trustees of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous.
X. Every service responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority— the scope of such authority to be always well defined whether by tradition, by resolution, by specific job description or by appropriate charters and bylaws.
XI. While the Trustees hold final responsibility for A.A.’s world service administration, they should always have the assistance of the best possible standing committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants. Therefore the composition of these underlying committees and service boards, the personal qualifications of their members, the manner of their induction into service, the systems of their rotation, the way in which they are related to each other, the special rights and duties of our executives, staffs, and consultants, together with a proper basis for the financial compensation of these special workers, will always be matters for serious care and concern.
XII. General Warranties of the Conference:
in all its proceedings, the General Service Conference shall observe the spirit of the A.A. Tradition, taking great care that the Conference never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power;
that sufficient operating funds, plus an ample reserve, be its prudent financial principle;
that none of the Conference Members shall ever be placed in a position of unqualified authority over any of the others;
that all important decisions be reached by discussion, vote, and, whenever possible, by substantial unanimity;
that no Conference action ever be personally punitive or an incitement to public controversy;
that, though the Conference may act for the service of Alcoholics Anonymous, it shall never perform any acts of government;
and that, like the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous which it serves, the Conference itself will always remain democratic in thought and action.
Copyright © 1962 Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All rights reserved Rev.6/5/13 SM F-195