Everybody's Book

Anything that belongs to every group, the A.A. name, its book, its Steps, can only be changed by asking them all, and today it gets changed without asking anyone. A.A.'s own book was named that way. Bill W. wrote (A.A. Comes of Age): "The Akron and New York groups had been voting for months on possible titles." Two groups, one book, both voting, because the book would speak for both. Bill admits he was tempted to settle it himself, with a title he could sign: "I began to forget that this was everybody's book and that I had been mostly the umpire of the discussions that had created it." An umpire calls the game; he does not own it. Friends slapped the idea down, and the groups kept voting. That is the Long Form's third sentence at work (Big Book, p. 563): "And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board." Today the Steps get rewritten on a facility's wall, a program prints its own A.A. readings, a website edits the Traditions to suit its point. Each one changes everybody's book without asking. Test it tonight: when you are handed A.A. words, ask whether they match the book, and who changed them.