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Concept III: what is the Right of Decision, and must a delegate vote the way the group says?

In short:

  • Concept III gives every element of A.A.'s world service (the Conference, the trustees, the service corporations, staffs, committees and executives) a traditional "Right of Decision": within their defined duties, they decide which problems to handle themselves and which to report on, consult about, or refer up.
  • On the delegate question, Bill W.'s 1962 answer has two sides. The groups do have the right to instruct their delegates: "If they insist, they can give directives to their Delegates on any and all A.A. matters" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III). But he thought it unwise, and says delegates should cast final votes by their own judgment and conscience.
  • The 1955 Conference Charter, written before the Concepts, already said: "Delegates should be free to vote as their conscience dictates" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix K, Original Conference Charter, 1955).
  • The right comes with duties: report all significant actions, don't exceed a clearly defined authority, and consult those who should be consulted.

The earlier texts first

Tradition Two's short form ends: "Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern" (p. 562). The Long Form of Nine calls true leaders "trusted and experienced servants of the whole" (p. 565).

Bill's 1947 essay describes how group committees saw themselves then: "they have only the authorization to serve, never to command" (P-17, Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?, 1947), and "Each committee carries out what it believes to be the wishes of its group" (P-17, Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?, 1947). That leans toward the servant following the group, though "what it believes" already leaves the committee some judgment. Concept III, fifteen years later, gives servants more discretion explicitly.

The original Conference Charter (1955) gives delegates two freedoms: to vote as their conscience dictates, and "to decide what questions should be taken to the group level, whether for information, discussion or their own direct instruction" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix K, Original Conference Charter, 1955).

What Bill's Concept III essay says (1962)

The principle. Within their general responsibilities, all world service boards, committees and executives should decide "which problems they will dispose of themselves and upon which matters they will report, consult, or ask specific directions" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III). Without that trust, no effective leadership is possible.

Why charters aren't enough. The Conference Charter is broad and "can be variously construed." Under one reading the groups can instruct delegates all they like; under another the delegates and trustees can ignore instructions when they think best. Bill's examples of the problem: - Groups instructing delegates. Bill says this right exists, but "good management seldom means the full exercise of a stated set of ultimate rights" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III). A Conference with all the facts and the debate in front of it will nearly always decide better than delegates bound beforehand. "Nevertheless the ‘instructed’ Delegate who cannot act on his own conscience in a final Conference vote is not a ‘trusted servant’ at all; he is just a messenger" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III). - Delegates issuing hasty, flat directives to trustees who know the subject better. - Trustees managing the service corporations in detail, so that staff "would be turned into buck-passers and rubber stamps; their choice would be to rebel and resign, or to submit and rot" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III).

Three possible answers. Throw away all charters and job descriptions (anarchy); add rules for every contingency ("altogether too much red tape"); or trust leaders, within their framework, to decide how to apply their authority to each situation as it comes up. Bill chooses the third, from "the latter part of Tradition Two, which provides for ‘trusted servants’" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III).

The safety net. "There will always be plenty of ultimate authority to correct inefficiency, ineffectiveness, or abuse" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III): groups can send better delegates; the Conference can censure or reorganize the trustees; the trustees can replace directors.

Applied: - A. The Conference decides which matters it settles itself and which it refers to the groups. - B. "our Conference Delegates are primarily the world servants of A.A. as a whole, that only in a secondary sense do they represent their respective areas" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III); on final decisions they vote their own judgment and conscience. - C. The trustees decide when to act on their own and when to ask the Conference. - D. Headquarters corporations, committees, staff and executives decide when to act and when to refer up.

The limits. The Right of Decision is never an excuse for failing to report significant actions, for constantly exceeding a defined authority, or for failing to consult those entitled to be consulted.

The spirit. "Our entire A.A. program rests squarely upon the principle of mutual trust" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III). "We trust God, we trust A.A., and we trust each other" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III).

What later sources add

P-8 (© 2017) applies the same idea one level down: if groups instruct their GSRs rather than giving them a Right of Decision, the area is hamstrung, and if GSRs instruct delegates, the Conference is. Bill's essay speaks of groups and delegates, and of area committee members and GSRs as people the Conference may consult; it doesn't discuss instructing GSRs as such.

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Where Written / first published
Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix I, Tradition Two; Long Form Nine pp. 562, 565 1946; short form by 1950
P-17, Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government? (Bill W.) — Grapevine, 1947
Conference Charter, original text, Article 3 The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix K 1955
Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix VII, Concept III (short form) p. 574 Concepts 1962; short form 1971
Twelve Concepts for World Service (Bill W.), Concept III in The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition 1962
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.