The Twelve Concepts for World Service 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.
(from the book Twelve Concepts of World Service)
The Twelve Concepts for A.A. World Service, Short Form
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The final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world
services should always reside in the collective conscience of
our whole fellowship.
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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.
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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".
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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General Warranties of the Conference: in all its proceedings,
the General Service Conference shall observe the spirit of 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 principal;
that none of the Conference Members shall ever be placed in a
position of unqualified authority over any 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.
Reprinted with permision of Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing
(now known as Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.)
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