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Concept XI: who helps the trustees, and how should paid A.A. workers be treated?

In short:

  • Concept XI says: "The trustees should always have the best possible committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants" (p. 575), and that how these people are chosen, rotated, related to each other and paid "will always be matters of serious concern" (p. 575).
  • In his 1962 essay Bill W. describes the trustees' five standing committees then (Nominating, Finance, Public Information, Literature, General Policy), the two service corporations, and four principles for their paid staff: one executive in charge, fair pay, rotation, and full participation.
  • On pay he is direct: paid workers should be paid in reasonable relation to what similar work earns in the commercial world. The 1946 text already allowed that special services "may be well recompensed" (p. 564).
  • Two dating cautions. P-8 calls much of Concept XI a picture of things "as they existed in 1962" (P-8). And a footnote says two paragraphs were removed from the published Concept XI by a later Conference action.

The earlier texts first (1946–47)

Long Form Eight (1946): A.A. should remain forever nonprofessional, "But we may employ alcoholics where they are going to perform those services for which we might otherwise have to engage nonalcoholics" (p. 564). "Such special services may be well recompensed" (p. 564).

Bill's 1946 essay on money argues the point. A janitor, a cook, a secretary or an editor can do their jobs without professionalizing A.A. "Why should these A.A.s work for nothing at jobs which the rest of us could not or would not attempt ourselves?" (P-17, Money, 1946). The line he draws: pay well for special services, never for Twelfth Step work.

What Bill's Concept XI essay says (1962)

Why these people matter. The non-trustee committee members, directors, executives and staff do most of the work, travel, meet visitors, and are what members see of world service. "Their quality and dedication, or their lack of these characteristics, will make or break our structure of service" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI). They don't just support the trustees' leadership; they share it.

The committees (as of 1962). - Nominating fills vacancies with the best people available. Bill warns of a quiet decline: "Instinctively we look for associates rather like ourselves, only a little less experienced and able" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI). - Finance and Budgetary keeps A.A. solvent. "This is the place where money and spirituality do have to mix, and in just the right proportion" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI). Bill also tells how an earlier drive to build the reserve let the office run down, and group contributions fell by tens of thousands a year: prudence isn't hoarding. - Public Information needs professionals who can adapt to "Attraction rather than promotion"; "the techniques used to sell a big time personality or a new hair lotion would not be for A.A." (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI). One public blunder could turn new prospects away. - Literature revises and creates books and pamphlets. Bill says the policy is "to aim at only the best," that a key figure "will necessarily be a paid writer and consultant" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI), and that getting the "A.A. feel" into the writing is vital. - General Policy filters business for the board, with minority reports, in long Sunday sessions.

None of these committees is executive; they recommend.

The two corporations. A.A. World Services (with its publishing division) and the Grapevine each have their own board of directors, made up of trustees, outside experts and paid executives. Bill explains why they shouldn't be merged with each other or with the board, and why publishing needn't be a separate company: "Most of our A.A. books are already written, and it is probable that not many more will be published" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI).

Four principles for paid workers. 1. One executive. "A board or a committee can never actively manage anything, in the continuous executive sense" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI). Executive direction heads up in one person, who should be left alone while the work is done well, and who must learn when to act alone and when to consult. 2. Fair pay. Each paid worker "should be recompensed in reasonable relation to the value of his or her similar services or abilities in the commercial world" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI). Bill rejects the idea that A.A. workers should accept charity-level pay, which would ask of them a sacrifice asked of no other member. Cheap help, he says, is insecure and costly: "This is neither good spirituality nor good business" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI). 3. Rotation. Staff rotate assignments and are paid on the same basis, after an early collapse showed the danger of one highly paid person holding everything. On terms of service: "a Delegate has to serve two years, and a Trustee must serve four" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI), but staff shouldn't have a fixed term. 4. Full participation. Paid workers get votes on boards and committees, and more: they should be treated as friends and co-workers, and the fact that they depend on their pay should never be used as a lever against them.

A line to read in its context. Explaining why members shouldn't see world service as charity they pay for, Bill writes that the services benefit members as much as newcomers: "We are helping others in order to help ourselves" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI). That is his 1962 wording about service funding. Chapter 7 of the Big Book (1939) is the earlier text on why we help others: it too says plainly that helping others protects the helper's sobriety (pp. 89, 97), and it keeps turning the helper toward the other man's welfare (p. 94) (see Is helping others selfish if it keeps me sober?).

Later changes (footnotes, 2024–2026 Service Manual)

  • Six more trustees' committees have been added since 1962 (footnote 1); the General Policy Committee became the General Sharing Session (footnote 2).
  • GSO has had a full-time general manager since 1960; the Grapevine now has a full-time paid editorial staff; most GSO staff now rotate every two years (footnotes 6–8).
  • "Due to an Advisory Action of the 66th A.A. General Service Conference, two paragraphs have been removed from the published version of Concept XI" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XI, footnote 10). They are available on request from GSO's Archives. Our copy doesn't say what they said. (Counting from the first Conference in 1951, the 66th met in 2016.)

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Where Written / first published
Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix I, Long Form Eight pp. 564–565 1946
P-17, Money (Bill W.) — Grapevine, 1946
Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix VII, Concept XI (short form) p. 575 Concepts 1962; short form 1971
Twelve Concepts for World Service (Bill W.), Concept XI, with later footnotes in The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition 1962; footnotes later
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.