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Introduction:
(Excerpts from Bill W.'s introduction in the A.A.
Service Manual 1999-2000 Edition, Pg. 3) |
The "Twelve Concepts for World Service" to be
described in this Manual are an interpretation of
A.A.'s world service structure. They reveal the
evolution by which it has arrived in its present
form, and they detail the experience and reasoning
on which our operation stands today. These Concepts
therefore aim to record the "why' of our service
structure in such a fashion that the highly valuable
experience of the past, and the lessons we have
drawn from that experience, can never be forgotten
or lost.
Quite rightly, each new generation of A.A. world
servants will be eager to make operational
improvements. Unforeseen flaws in the present
structure will doubtless show up later on. New
service needs and problems will arise that may make
structural changes necessary. Such alterations
should certainly be effected, and these
contingencies squarely met.
Yet we should always realize that change does not
necessarily spell progress. We are sure that each
new group of workers in world service will be
tempted to try all sorts of innovations that may
often produce little more than a painful repetition
of earlier mistakes. Therefore it will be an
important objective of these Concepts to forestall
such repetitions by holding the experiences of the
past clearly before us. And if mistaken departures
are nevertheless made, these Concepts may then
provide a ready means of safe return to an operating
balance that might otherwise take years of
floundering to rediscover.
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The Twelve Concepts For World
Service (as adopted by the 12th Annual General
Service Conference Of Alcoholics Anonymous on April 26, 1962) |
1. The final responsibility and the ultimate authority for A.A. world
services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole
Fellowship.
2. 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.
3. 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.”
4. 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.
5. Though out our world service, 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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
are the principal planners and administrators. They and their primary
committees 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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 matter for serious care and concern.
12. 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 (c) by the AA Grapevine, Inc.; reprinted with
permission.
A.A. and Alcoholics Anonymous are registered trademarks ® of Alcoholics
Anonymous World Services, Inc. |
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