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 directly manage
to 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.
Link to Audio Version of 12 Concepts of World Service of AA: https://www.aa.org/twelve-concepts-long-form
- Service Material from the General Service Office
- Copyright © 1962
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
All rights reserved
The text of the complete Concepts is published in The A.A. Service Manual/Twelve
Concepts for World Service (BM-31).
www.aa.org
Rev. 11/21 SM F-114