The General Service Conference
“Connecting With Love, Unity and Service”
The General Service Conference is the practical means by which the Group conscience in the U.S and Canada can express itself in matters that concern the Fellowship as a whole. The existence of the Conference is moreover a guarantee that the Fellowship will be able to function under all conditions. It is, in effect, the successor to the founders of AA, ensuring the continuity of the work within the framework of the Twelve Traditions. This conference is held once a year. The Conference will be held April 14-20, 2024 in Brooklyn, New York.
As you read the Agenda items, they will fall into three general categories:
Review, Discuss, and Consider.
Review is review the work that was completed in the past year. Provide suggestions, changes or corrections.
Discuss a request to brainstorm and bring your groups ideas and suggestions.
Consider means a vote might be taken at the GSC on this item.
Ask your group for a yes/no or for/opposed response. If your group has no strong opinion either way, it’s OK to report that as well.
“I am responsible, when anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of AA to be there, and for that I am responsible.”
The deadline for Conference Agenda Items to be submitted for the 74th GSC has passed.
GSRs, for up to date information, including the background information for the Conference agenda items, please see the Confidential Resources under the Delegate tab on the MSCA 09 website The MSCA 09 website will open in a new window. For the password please contact the DCMC or use the District 1 & 3 Contact link on the website.
The General Service Conference
For the GSR, why you are here
“The Annual Conference Meeting: 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. “— General Warranties of the Conference Concept XII, Twelve Concepts for World Service
Sources of Agenda Items:
The final agenda for any Conference consists of items suggested by individual A.A. members, groups, delegates, trustees, area assemblies, area committee members, and directors and staff members of A.A.W.S. and the Grapevine.
Whatever its origin, any agenda item follows the same path to the Conference agenda: The A.A. staff studies it in the light of previous Conference actions, then passes it on to the trustees’ Conference Committee or the appropriate Conference committee. Usually, the trustees’ committee determines the most appropriate way of programming it — as a workshop or presentation subject, a proposal, or a committee concern.
What Goes On at the Conference ?
A typical Conference lasts a full week, with sessions running from morning to evening. Business sessions from Sunday to Friday include committee meetings, presentations, workshops, and new trustee elections. Each delegate serves on one of the standing Conference committees, which meet early in the week and do the principal work of the Conference. The committees bring recommendations to the full Conference for consideration as possible Advisory Actions, and generally the last two days (or more) are devoted to discussion and voting on committee recommendations.
The General Service Conference Timeline
The General Service Conference Timeline: The Conference Process continues all year long. GSRs, DCMs and Committee Chairs play an active and important role throughout the process. An abbreviated version of the process is below.
January
By January 15th Members, Groups, Districts, and Areas have submitted requests for a change in AA Literature or Policy.
May
Delegate’s Report to the Assembly is a meeting at which you will be informed about what Actions were taken at the Annual Meeting of the Conference. GSRs are to report back these Actions to their Groups and listen to their reaction
February
The Delegate presents a list of agenda items with background material. These are items about which the Delegate needs an informed group conscience from your group. GSR’s can start presenting items to the Groups to begin forming an informed group conscience.
September
Final Conference Reports delivered to the Delegate who presents them at the ACM. Bring your copy to your Group and make it available to every Member.
March
GSRs and DCMs prepare to share their informed group conscience at the Area Pre-Conference Mock General Service Conference next month
October
In even years the Assembly elects a new Delegate from the current Area Committee members.
April
Our Delegate attends the week long Annual Meeting of the General Service Conference together with the Trustees and GSO staff to discuss the Agenda Items in Committees and then to vote together on matters of policy affecting A.A. as a whole.
December
Can the Conference Act for A.A. as a Whole?
Here is what co-founder Bill W. has to say about that in Concept III of Twelve Concepts for World Service: “Excepting for its Charter provisions to the contrary, the Conference should always be able to decide which matters it will fully dispose of on its own responsibility, and which questions it will refer to the A.A. groups (or more usually, to their Committee Members or G.S.R.s) for opinion or for definite guidance. “Therefore it ought to be clearly understood and agreed that our Conference Delegates are primarily the world servants of A.A. as a whole, that only in a secondary sense do they represent their respective areas. Consequently they should, on final decisions, be entitled to cast their votes in the General Service Conference according to the best dictates of their own judgment and conscience at that time. “Similarly, the Trustees of the General Service Board (operating of course within the provisions of their own Charter and Bylaws) should be able at all times to decide when they will act fully on their own responsibility and when they will ask the Conference for its guidance, its approval of a recommendation, or for its actual decision and direction. “Within the scope of their defined or implied responsibilities, all Headquarters service corporations, committees, staff or executives should also be possessed of the right to decide when they will act wholly on their own and when they will refer their problems to the next higher authority." - 2021-2023 Service manual C11