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What is "Conference-approved" literature?

In short:

  • "Conference-approved" means a book, pamphlet or video has been reviewed by A.A.'s General Service Conference (the yearly meeting of delegates from the U.S. and Canada with A.A.'s trustees) and approved by a two-thirds vote. It may then carry the line "This is A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature."
  • The label tells you the Conference accepted the text as expressing A.A.'s view. It doesn't tell you when the text was written.
  • The Conference first met in 1951, after the Big Book (1939), the Long Form of the Traditions (1946) and Dr. Bob's death (1950). Books and pamphlets written decades later carry the same line.
  • The Grapevine is not Conference-approved issue by issue; the Conference recognizes it as A.A.'s international journal instead.

What the label means

The A.A. Service Manual (2024–2026 edition) describes the process (Service Manual, 2024–2026): - A need for a new piece is studied by Conference and trustees' committees; if it isn't urgent or broad enough, the project is dropped or put off. - Committee and staff members criticize and suggest from first draft to last, which can take months or years. - The finished manuscript goes to the right Conference committee, and if that committee recommends it, to the whole Conference. - "If two-thirds of Conference members agree to the manuscript as presented or with specific edits approved by the body, the new piece of literature is entitled to bear the designation" (Service Manual, 2024–2026).

Its glossary puts it in one line: literature produced under Conference and trustees' committees, reviewed and recommended by Conference committees, "and that have been approved by the Conference" (Service Manual, 2024–2026).

P-43, Twelve Traditions Illustrated (1971), describes the same care in its own day: each new project "must first be approved by the Conference" (P-43), a trustees' committee watches it at every stage, and the finished piece must be okayed again by the Conference Literature Committee (P-43). The aim, it says, is that each piece expresses "the view of the group conscience of A.A. as a whole" (P-43).

P-16, The A.A. Group (© 2018), separates Conference-approved books and pamphlets, which come from Conference actions, from the General Service Office's "service material," which is written to answer members' practical questions (P-16).

What the label doesn't tell you

When a text was written. The General Service Conference held its first meeting in April 1951 (P-44). The Big Book's text was written in 1938 and published in 1939; today's copy carries the Conference-approved line on its copyright page (p. iv), but our sources don't say when the designation was first applied to it. P-43 (1971), Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980) and P-53 (© 2017) carry the same line (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

So the label puts a 1939 text and a 1980 text on the same footing. It doesn't help with the question of which is earlier and closer to the events. For that, check each source's date. See: Which A.A. books are oldest, and why does the date matter?

Who wrote the material inside. Conference-approved items can contain material from other publishers. P-53 says Dr. Bob's 1948 talk is reprinted with the permission of AA Grapevine, Inc. (P-53), and the Big Book's copyright page says five of its personal stories are copyrighted by the Grapevine (p. iv).

The Grapevine

The Service Manual answers this directly: in 1986 the Conference said that since each issue of the Grapevine can't go through the approval process, "the Conference recognizes AA Grapevine as the international journal of Alcoholics Anonymous" (Service Manual, 2024–2026). The same recognition covers La Viña (Service Manual, 2024–2026).

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
The A.A. Service Manual — 2024–2026 edition (© 2024)
P-43, Twelve Traditions Illustrated — © 1971
P-16, The A.A. Group — © 2018
P-44, A.A.'s Legacy of Service (Bill W.) — text through 1955; pamphlet © 2018
Alcoholics Anonymous, copyright page iv fourth edition, 2001 (printing of 2013)
Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers; P-53; P-43 (front and back matter) — 1980; © 2017; © 1971

This page describes A.A.'s process from A.A.'s own current manual. The process itself dates from after 1951.

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; The A.A. Service Manual, P-16, P-43, P-44, P-53, the Big Book and Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers are © A.A. World Services, 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.