Concept I. Final responsibility and
the ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the
collective conscience of our whole fellowship.
Concept 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.
Concept 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."
Concept 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 allowing a voting representation in
reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.
Concept V.Throughout our world services
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.
Concept 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.
Concept VII. The Conference recognizes
that the Charter and the Bylaws of the General Service Board are legal
instruments: that the Trustees 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.
Concept 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 placers
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 throughout their
ability to elect all directors of these entities.
Concept 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 be necessarily be assumed
by the Trustees of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Concept 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.
Concept 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.
Concept 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.
