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Concept V: what are the Rights of Appeal and Petition?

In short:

  • Concept V says: "Throughout our structure, a traditional ‘Right of Appeal’ ought to prevail, so that minority opinion will be heard and personal grievances receive careful consideration" (p. 574).
  • The Right of Appeal lets a minority on any staff, committee, board or among the trustees file a minority report, and on a grave issue obliges it to bring the report to the General Service Conference.
  • The Right of Petition lets anyone working in A.A.'s service structure, paid or unpaid, take a personal grievance directly to the General Service Board "without prejudice or fear of reprisal" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept V).
  • Bill W. wrote it in 1962, but said these practices were already in use: he was writing them down only as a way of "helping to confirm and enlarge their future applications" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept V).

The earlier texts first (1946–47)

  • Long Form Three (1946): A.A. "may refuse none who wish to recover," and membership should never depend "upon money or conformity" (p. 563).
  • Bill's essay on money (1946), on clubs some members didn't want: "But the majority ought not to try to coerce the minority into supporting clubs they do not want or need" (P-17, Money, 1946).
  • Bill's essay on government (1947): A.A. has "no one set in personal authority over anyone else" (P-17, Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?, 1947).
  • The Conference Charter (1955): delegates elected "by a two-thirds written ballot or by lot" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix K, Original Conference Charter, 1955), so a narrow majority can't simply sweep the field.

What Bill's Concept V essay says (1962)

Why minorities. Minorities "frequently can be right" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept V), and even when wrong they force a thorough debate. "The well-heard minority, therefore, is our chief protection against an uninformed, misinformed, hasty or angry majority" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept V).

Petition. Bill expected it to be seldom used, but "its very existence will always tend to restrain those in authority from unjust uses of their power" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept V). Workers should accept the direction their jobs need, but needn't "silently endure unnecessary and unfair personal domination."

A.A.'s charter of liberties. "In Alcoholics Anonymous individual freedom is of enormous importance" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept V). A member belongs the moment he says so, and "Neither can we force our members to believe anything or pay anything" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept V).

Trusting a qualified minority. The group conscience can't act directly in most world service matters because it can't be fully informed, and in a time of great disturbance it may not act wisely. So A.A. trusts "a small but truly qualified minority" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept V), the hundred-odd members of the Conference, to act for it, keeping the power to recall and replace them.

Examples in 1962. - Electing delegates: without two-thirds, the majority's candidate goes into a hat with the minority's choices, and lots are drawn. Bill admits this sometimes sets aside "democracy’s cherished principle of final decision by a simple majority vote" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept V), and says it has strengthened the spirit of democracy. - The Conference: it often keeps debating even when two-thirds is easily available, and has usually refused to take important decisions on less. - The trustees: a Conference vote binds them only at two-thirds of a quorum, which gives them a veto over narrow majorities that they seldom use.

De Tocqueville. Bill closes with the French writer's warning against the "tyranny" of apathetic, self-seeking, uninformed or angry majorities, and adds the other danger: "the even worse tyranny of very small minorities invested with absolute power" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept V). A.A., he says, needs no government that enforces conformity by punishment, only a service structure that holds up the Traditions and carries the message.

A hope. He hoped A.A. would "one day inscribe these traditional Rights" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept V) in the Conference Charter.

What happened later (dated)

  • The current Conference Charter (in the 2024–2026 Service Manual) says the Conference recognizes "the Rights of Petition and Appeal reflected in Concepts IV and V" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix K, Current Conference Charter), and may hear Concept V appeals from members below the Conference level. Our copy doesn't say when this was added.
  • P-8 (© 2017) describes current practice: after a vote, those opposed are polled individually to see if they want to speak further, and the Conference has sometimes reversed itself. It adds that in A.A. a simple majority "is seldom sufficient basis for a decision" (P-8), so two-thirds is usually required.
  • The 2024–2026 Service Manual: policy matters need substantial unanimity, defined as two-thirds, and after each vote the side that lost may speak.

The limit

Concept XII's Fourth Warranty (same 1962 text) says a minority may not use substantial unanimity to block urgently needed action; then "it would be the plain duty of the majority to override such a misuse of the principle of substantial unanimity" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XII). The right is to be heard, not to veto.

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Where Written / first published
Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix I, Long Form Three p. 563 1946
P-17, Money; Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government? (Bill W.) — Grapevine, 1946 and 1947
Conference Charter, original text; current text The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix K 1955; current as amended
Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix VII, Concept V (short form) p. 574 Concepts 1962; short form 1971
Twelve Concepts for World Service (Bill W.), Concepts V and XII 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.