Anything Whatever

In A.A., service means whatever helps a group reach the alcoholic still drinking, and nothing in the Long Form gives the word a smaller job. Bill W. said it at St. Louis (A.A. Comes of Age): "An A.A. service is anything whatever that legitimately helps us to reach fellow sufferers." Then he named the first and greatest: "the Twelfth Step call is the greatest of A.A.'s services." A Twelfth Step call is going to a drinker who has asked for help. Everything else counts by how it serves that call: "the car we rode in, the gasoline we paid for, and the cups of coffee we bought him." Him is the drunk. The rumour says service is a ladder of chores: make the coffee, set up the chairs, chair the meeting, and those keep you sober. Coffee is service when it is poured for the stranger who just walked in. A position held only so the room can look after its regulars is a job, not service in Bill's sense. The Long Form (Big Book, p. 563) gives each group "but one primary purpose—that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers." Test it tonight: take each service job in your group and ask which drinker it reaches.