# What is a GSR, a district and an area?

**In short:**
- They are the steps between an A.A. group and the yearly General Service Conference in the U.S. and Canada. A group elects a **general service representative (GSR)**. The GSRs of nearby groups form a **district** and elect a district committee member (DCM). Districts make up an **area** (93 of them in the U.S. and Canada), whose assembly elects a **delegate** to the Conference every two years.
- None of this is in the Big Book's 1939 text. It was built from 1951, when the first Conference met, and the Conference Charter (1955) set it out. Most details below come from the current *A.A. Service Manual* (2024–2026 edition) and are labelled that way.
- Bill W.'s Concept IX (1962) calls GSRs, committee members and delegates "the direct agents of the A.A. groups" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX). None of them governs a group.
- Intergroups and central offices, which the Long Form of Nine (1946) mentions, are a separate thing: local service offices, not part of this general service structure.

## The earliest text: Long Form Nine (1946)

The 1946 Long Form describes the service A.A. had then: "The small group may elect its secretary, the large group its rotating committee, and the groups of a large metropolitan area their central or intergroup committee, which often employs a full-time secretary" (p. 565). Above them were the trustees, A.A.'s General Service Committee in New York (p. 565). There were no GSRs, districts or delegates yet; the Conference that needed them came in 1951.

## The 1955 Charter and the 1962 Concepts

The original Conference Charter (1955) set up "State and Provincial Assemblies" of group representatives, which met every two years to elect committeemen and, from among them, a delegate "by a two-thirds written ballot or by lot" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix K, Original Conference Charter, 1955). Of delegates it says: "Delegates should be free to vote as their conscience dictates" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix K, Original Conference Charter, 1955). In 1971 the Conference allowed states and provinces to be joined into one assembly area, and in 1978 it renamed them area assemblies, made up of GSRs, district committee members and area officers (footnotes to the Charter, Appendix K).

In Concept IX (1962) Bill puts the base of the whole service structure on "several thousand General Service Representatives (GSRs), several hundred area Committee Members, and nearly a hundred Delegates" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX). He asks groups to choose GSRs with care: "Hit-or-miss methods should be avoided" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX). Only the GSRs, meeting in assembly, name the committee members and finally the delegates.

Concept III adds what the delegate is for. 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), so on final votes they should vote their own judgment and conscience.

## How it works now (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026)

**GSR.** Elected by a group, usually for two years, with an alternate. The manual calls the GSR "the link between the group and" A.A. as a whole and says "The GSR is that voice" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Chapter 1). A GSR attends district meetings and area assemblies with a vote, reports back to the group, and passes on the group's views. The manual suggests at least two years' sobriety. P-16, *The A.A. Group* (© 2018), calls the GSR "the group’s link with the General Service Conference" (P-16).

**District.** A cluster of groups near one another (the manual also describes language districts and, since the pandemic, virtual districts for online groups). The GSRs elect a **DCM**, who sits on the area committee. On how a DCM should lead, the manual says the GSRs will want "to be inspired and encouraged, but not told what to do" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Chapter 2).

**Area.** "The U.S. and Canada are divided into 93 geographic areas" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Glossary), usually one per state or province, more where A.A. is large. The area assembly is made up of GSRs, DCMs, area officers and committee chairs. Every two years an election assembly chooses the delegate, usually by the Third Legacy Procedure: a two-thirds vote, or names drawn from a hat. The area also runs services too big for one group, such as public information, corrections and treatment facility work.

**Delegate and Conference.** The delegate serves two years and goes to the Conference each spring in New York. It has about 135 voting members; area delegates "make up at least two-thirds of the Conference body" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Introduction), with the trustees, the directors of A.A. World Services and the Grapevine, and staff. Matters approved by two-thirds become Advisory Actions, and the delegate reports back to the area and its GSRs.

## What these servants are not

- **Not bosses.** The current manual quotes Bill in "the first edition of this manual" (our copy gives no date; the manual grew out of his Third Legacy Manual, first drafted in 1951): "The Conference represents us, but cannot rule us" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Chapter 6). Concept XII (1962) bars the Conference from "any acts of government" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept XII).
- **Not the intergroup.** Intergroups and central offices keep local meeting lists and phones. The manual says they are an important part of A.A. but "they are not part of the general service structure or a satellite of GSO" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Introduction).

## Read it yourself
- Long Form Nine (Appendix I, p. 565), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicei.pdf
- P-16, *The A.A. Group* (the GSR and the structure chart): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/p-16_0723.pdf
- *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)
- P-8, *The Twelve Concepts for World Service Illustrated*: https://www.aa.org/twelve-concepts-illustrated
- Related: *Is A.A. run from the top down?* · *What is a home group?* · *Concept IX: what makes a good leader in A.A. service?*

## Sources
| Source | Where | Written / first published |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Appendix I, Long Form Nine | p. 565 | 1946 |
| Conference Charter, original text and footnoted amendments | *The A.A. Service Manual*, 2024–2026, Appendix K | 1955; amendments 1971, 1978 |
| *Twelve Concepts for World Service* (Bill W.), Concepts III, IX, XII | in *The A.A. Service Manual*, 2024–2026 edition | 1962 |
| *The A.A. Service Manual*, Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 6, Glossary | — | 2024–2026 edition (current procedure) |
| P-16, *The A.A. Group* | — | © 2018 (2023 printing) |

*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-16 are © A.A. World Services, Inc.*