Concept II: what is the General Service Conference, and what can it decide?
In short:
- Concept II says the groups, when they confirmed the Conference's permanent charter in 1955, delegated to it "complete authority for the active maintenance of our world services" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept II). The short form: the Conference "has become, for nearly every practical purpose, the active voice and the effective conscience of our whole Society in its world affairs" (p. 574).
- Two things are excepted: any change in the Twelve Traditions, and any change in Article 12 of the Conference Charter (the Warranties of Concept XII). Those stay with the groups themselves.
- Bill W.'s reason, written in 1962: the groups hold all the final authority, but thousands of scattered groups can't run world services themselves, so authority has to be delegated.
- The Conference serves A.A.; it doesn't govern it. "The Conference represents us, but cannot rule us," as Bill put it in the first edition of the service manual (quoted in the current manual, which doesn't give that edition's date).
The earlier texts first (1946–47)
Long Form Four (1946) already treated the trustees as the body to consult on matters affecting all of A.A.: no group, regional committee or individual should take action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole "without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board" (p. 563); in 1946 that was the Alcoholic Foundation, renamed in 1954. Long Form Nine says the trustees "are authorized by the groups to handle our over-all public relations" (p. 565).
In 1946 Bill called the Foundation's trustees "our over-all service committee" (P-17, Money, 1946). So delegation from the groups to a service body was there from the start. What changed with the Conference was who stood between the groups and the trustees: no longer the two founders, but delegates the groups elected.
What Bill's Concept II essay says (1962)
The groups own it. "The operation is really theirs; they really own it" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept II). Their power to change the structure and criticize it is "virtually supreme."
But owning isn't running. "In order to get effective action, the groups must delegate the actual operational authority to chosen service representatives who are fully empowered to speak and to act for them" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept II). Bill calls this the clear implication of Tradition Two's "trusted servants."
Delegation was always the rule. Bill retraces it: - In 1937 the Akron and New York groups authorized him and Dr. Bob to create services to spread the message. - Dr. Bob handed most of that work to Bill, since New York had more friends and funds; in 1938 the Alcoholic Foundation was formed. - In 1940 the stock of Works Publishing, the company that published the Big Book, was turned over to the trustees, who then took over managing the office, since the book's income paid for it. Bill became "an adviser only" on money. - In 1941 groups began sending contributions to the Foundation; later the trustees took over public relations, then the Grapevine.
Ultimate versus immediate authority. "In the course of these developments the great difference between ultimate and immediate service authority became apparent" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept II). The trustees could be given the immediate authority, but not the ultimate responsibility that Bill and Dr. Bob still carried: that couldn't go to "a self-appointing Board which was relatively unknown among AA’s as a whole" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept II). "At St. Louis it went from Dr. Bob and me to the A.A. groups themselves" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept II), and the groups in turn delegated the active work to the Conference.
Why it mattered to Bill. He closes hoping the old-timers had avoided the pitfalls "into which societies have so often fallen because their originators have failed, during their lifetimes, to properly delegate and distribute their own authority, responsibility and leadership" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept II).
The two exceptions
The 1955 St. Louis resolution made the Conference "the voice of the group conscience of our entire Fellowship, and the sole successors of its co-founders" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix L). It also said neither the Twelve Traditions nor the Warranties of Article 12 may be changed by the Conference without first asking the registered groups of the world, allowing at least six months, and receiving the written consent of three-quarters of those who respond.
What later sources add (dated)
- The current Service Manual (2024–2026) quotes Bill in "the first edition of this manual" (undated in our copy; the manual grew out of his Third Legacy Manual, first drafted in 1951): the Conference can direct the General Service Office, "it can never mandate or govern the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous which it serves" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Chapter 6), followed by "The Conference represents us, but cannot rule us" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Chapter 6).
- P-8 (© 2017) describes the current pattern: GSRs meet in area assemblies and every two years elect a delegate; each April the delegates from 93 areas in the U.S. and Canada meet for six days with the trustees and staff.
- The current Conference Charter opens: "The Conference shall be a service body only, never a government for Alcoholics Anonymous" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix K, Current Conference Charter). The original 1955 Charter has the same sentence.
Read it yourself
- Long Form Four and Nine (Appendix I, pp. 563, 565), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicei.pdf
- Concept II, short form (Appendix VII, p. 574): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicevii_.pdf
- P-17, with Bill's 1946 essay on money: https://www.aa.org/aa-tradition-how-it-developed
- P-8, The Twelve Concepts for World Service Illustrated: https://www.aa.org/twelve-concepts-illustrated
- The full essay is in The A.A. Service Manual combined with Twelve Concepts for World Service: https://www.aa.org/aa-service-manual (sold at https://onlineliterature.aa.org)
- Related: Concept I: who has the final say in A.A.? · Concept III · What is a GSR, a district and an area?
Sources
| Source | Where | Written / first published |
|---|---|---|
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix I, Long Form Four and Nine | pp. 563, 565 | 1946 |
| P-17, Money (Bill W.) | — | Grapevine, 1946 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix VII, Concept II (short form) | p. 574 | Concepts 1962; short form 1971 |
| Twelve Concepts for World Service (Bill W.), Concept II | in The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition | 1962 |
| St. Louis resolution; Conference Charter | The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendices K and L | 1955; current text as amended |
| The A.A. Service Manual, Chapter 6 (quoting Bill's first manual) | — | quote from the manual's first edition (date not given); manual 2024–2026 |
| P-8, The Twelve Concepts for World Service Illustrated | — | first printed 1986; © 2017 |
Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, the Service Manual and Twelve Concepts for World Service, and P-8 are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; the P-17 articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc.
These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.