Legacy of Service
The Service Manual / 12 Concepts for World Service
Both in a single booklet. The manual opens with a history of A.A. services; explains the Conference structure and its year-round importance; includes the Conference Charter and General Service Board Bylaws. The Concepts—principles of service that have emerged from A.A.’s service accomplishments and mistakes since its beginning— are set forth by Bill W.
12 Traditions
One – Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
Two – For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern.
Three – The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
Four – Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups, or A.A. as a whole.
Five – Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
Six – An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Seven – Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
Eight – Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
Nine – A.A., as such, ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
Ten – Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues, hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
Eleven – Our public relations policy is based upon attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
Twelve – Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
Copyright © 1952, 1953, 1981 by Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing (now known as Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.) All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.12 Concepts for World Service
THE 12 CONCEPTS OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
The "short form" of the Concepts, which follows, was prepared by the 1974 General Service Conference.
I. Final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole fellowship.
II. The General Service Conference of A.A. has become, for nearly every practical purpose, the active voice and the effective conscience of our whole Society in its world affairs.
III. To ensure effective leadership, we should endow each element of A.A.--the Conference, the General Service Board and its service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives--with a traditional "Right of Decision."
IV. At all responsible levels, we ought to maintain a traditional "Right of Participation," allowing a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.
V. Throughout our structure, a traditional "Right of Appeal" ought to prevail, so that minority opinion will be heard and personal grievances receive careful consideration.
VI. The Conference recognizes that the chief initiative and active responsibility in most world service matters should be exercised by the trustee members of the Conference acting as the General Service Board.
VII. The Charter and Bylaws of the General Service Board are legal instruments, empowering the trustees to manage and conduct world service affairs. The Conference Charter is not a legal document; it relies upon tradition and the A.A. purse for final effectiveness.
VIII. The trustees are the principal planners and administrators of overall policy and finance. They have custodial oversight of the separately incorporated and constantly active services, exercising this through their ability to elect all the directors of these entities.
IX. Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for our future functioning and safety. Primary world service leadership, once exercised by the founders, must necessarily be assumed by the trustees.
X. Every service responsibility must be matched by an equal service authority, with the scope of such authority well defined.
XI. The trustees should always have the best possible committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants. Composition, qualifications, induction procedures, and rights and duties will always be matters of serious concern.
XII. The Conference shall observe the spirit of A.A. tradition, taking care that it never becomes the seat of perilous wealth and power; that sufficient operating funds and reserve be its prudent financial principle; that it place none of its members in a position of unqualified authority over others; that it reach all important decisions by discussion, vote, and, whenever possible, by substantial unanimity; that its actions never be personally punitive nor an incitement to public controversy; that it never perform acts of government, and that, like the Society it serves, it will always remain democratic in thought and action.