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Who has the final say in A.A.?

In short:

  • No person. The earliest answer is Tradition Two (1946): "For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience" (p. 563). In its own affairs, the Long Form says, each group answers to "no other authority than its own conscience" (p. 563).
  • For A.A.'s world services (the General Service Office, literature, the Grapevine, public information), Bill W.'s Concept I (1962) puts final responsibility and ultimate authority in "the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship" (p. 574): the groups. They took it over from the founders at St. Louis in 1955.
  • In practice the groups delegate. The General Service Conference has the final decision on large matters of policy and finance, the trustees hold the legal power, and Bill says the Conference's practical power will nearly always win.
  • A few things are kept back for the groups themselves: no Tradition, and none of the Conference's Warranties, can be changed without the written consent of three-quarters of the groups that respond.

The earliest text: Tradition Two and Four (1946)

The Long Form of Tradition Two is one sentence: the one ultimate authority for a group's purpose is "a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience" (p. 563). The short form adds a line moved from Nine: "Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern" (p. 562). The Long Form of Nine says the same of every A.A. representative: "They derive no real authority from their titles; they do not govern" (p. 565).

Long Form Four sets the limits. "With respect to its own affairs, each A.A. group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience" (p. 563). When its plans affect neighbouring groups, they should be consulted, and no group, committee or individual should take action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole "without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board" (p. 563); in 1946 they were the trustees of the Alcoholic Foundation, renamed in 1954. Conferring is not obeying: the text asks for consultation, and gives no one the power to overrule a group.

Bill's 1947 essay on government sums up the early view: "the only real authority to be found in A.A. is that of spiritual principle" (P-17, Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?, 1947). He adds that he had tried to govern A.A. himself and been shouted down each time.

World services: Concept I (1962)

The Concepts deal with a narrower question: who has the last word over A.A.'s shared services. Concept I's answer is the groups. Bill writes that "The A.A. groups today hold ultimate responsibility and final authority for our world services" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept I), and that "The groups assumed that responsibility at the St. Louis International Convention of 1955" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept I).

Before that, the trustees (then the Alcoholic Foundation, from 1938) held the money, but policy questions went to Bill and Dr. Bob. When Dr. Bob's fatal illness became known in 1948, the risk was plain: "For the first time it was seen that only a representative conference could take the place of Dr. Bob and me" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept I). The Conference met experimentally from 1951; in 1955 the groups confirmed it permanently.

Bill grounds this in Tradition Two. He says its main principles are "crystal clear: the A.A. groups are to be the final authority; their leaders are to be entrusted with delegated responsibilities only" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept I).

Who actually decides, day to day

Bill is clear that ultimate authority alone gets nothing done. The groups delegate:

  • To the Conference. Concept II: since 1955 the Conference has been "the active voice and the effective conscience of our whole Society in its world affairs" (p. 574), except for any change in the Traditions or in Article 12 of its Charter. "The final say — the ultimate sanction in matters of large importance — has not been given to the Trustees alone" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept II). Concept VI: the Conference "traditionally has the final decision respecting large matters of general policy and finance" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept VI).
  • To the trustees. The trustees take the active lead (Concept VI) and are the only body with legal power (Concept VII). Even so, Bill writes, "Theoretically, the Conference is an advisory body only, but practically speaking it has all of the ultimate rights and powers that it may ever need" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept VII), because the delegates represent the groups and could withhold the groups' money. The trustees keep a legal veto, which Bill expected to be used seldom.
  • To delegates' own judgment. The groups have the right to instruct their delegates; Bill writes that "If they insist, they can give directives to their Delegates on any and all A.A. matters" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III). He thinks it unwise to carry it far, because a delegate who can't vote his conscience "is not a ‘trusted servant’ at all; he is just a messenger" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III).

The Conference Charter (1955) gives the working rule: a two-thirds vote of the Conference, with a quorum, is "considered binding upon the General Service Board" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix K, Original Conference Charter, 1955).

What only the groups can change

The 1955 St. Louis resolution, which made the Conference the successor to the founders, keeps two things back: neither the Twelve Traditions nor the Warranties of Article 12 can be changed by the Conference without the written consent of "at least three-quarters of all those registered groups who respond to such proposal" (The A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026, Appendix L). The Steps were added to that list later.

What the texts leave open

  • Tradition Two names God, as expressed in group conscience, as the one ultimate authority. Concept I's short form speaks only of "collective conscience" (p. 574). Bill's essay quotes Tradition Two in full and treats the two as one idea; it doesn't discuss what happens if they were thought to differ.
  • Bill admits the term is hard to pin down: "Perhaps many of us are still vague about the ‘group conscience’ of Alcoholics Anonymous, about what it really is" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept I). His essay describes it in terms of members' responsibility and love of the principles, not as a procedure.
  • Concept I is about world services. It doesn't give the Conference or anyone else a say over how a group runs its own meetings; for that, the Long Form of Four (1946) is the text.

Read it yourself

Sources

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

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.