Passed By at Election

An election is a group's brake on a leader who starts to boss, and a group breaks Tradition Two when it stops using it. Bill W. wrote in 1947 (A.A. pamphlet P-17, p. 38): "Nowhere in A.A. is there to be seen any constituted human authority that can compel an A.A. group to do anything." Constituted means officially set up. Then he explained why a leader can't become one: "Some A.A. groups, for example, elect their leaders. But even with such a mandate each leader soon discovers that while he can always guide by example or persuasion he can never boss, else at election time he may find himself passed by." A mandate is the permission a vote gives. Notice what that depends on: an election time. Picture a group whose secretary has held the job six years because nobody else ran and nobody called the vote. She now picks the readings, the speakers and who signs at the bank. She wasn't a boss when the group elected her. The group made her one by never voting again. The Long Form keeps the decision with the members (Big Book, p. 563): "For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience." Test it tonight: ask when your group last elected its secretary, and when it will next.