The A.A. Service Structure

The A.A. Group and the home group

The group is the foundational unit of A.A. — where meetings are held, calls for help answered, Seventh Tradition contributions collected, literature provided and a meeting place maintained. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Most members have a home group: the group where they accept service responsibilities, attend business meetings and cast their one vote in the group conscience. The home group is the very basis of the service structure — it is where the individual member's voice enters A.A. as a whole.

Typical group service positions

• Secretary / Chairperson — runs the business meeting and keeps the group's affairs in order; in India the Group Secretary signs nomination forms.
• Treasurer — handles Seventh Tradition money and contributions to the intergroup, area and GSO; also signs nomination forms.
• GSR / IGR — the group's representative to the service structure (next).
• Literature, Grapevine and 12th-Step contacts — as the group decides.

General Service Representative (GSR)

The GSR is the link between the group and “A.A. as a whole” — a channel through which news, information, opinions and ideas flow both ways. When the GSR is present, participates and votes at district meetings and area assemblies, the group's voice is heard. The GSR votes on the trusted servants who lead the district and the area, and on the delegate who represents the area at the General Service Conference. A.A. has said this may be the most important job in A.A.

Duties & responsibilities

• Regularly attend area assemblies and district meetings — with a voice and a vote.
• Regularly report back to the group on what is happening in general service, and carry the group's thoughts and wishes back to the district.
• Work with the group treasurer to develop Seventh Tradition support for the district, the area, the intergroup and the General Service Board.
• Keep the group up to date on new literature, service material and accessibility resources.
• Supply the district or area registrar with current group information so GSO records stay accurate.
• Serve as the group's contact with GSO; receive its bulletins and keep the group abreast of A.A. activities.
• Keep the alternate GSR informed and involved.

Qualifications from experience

• Familiar with the group's history, priorities, traditions and procedures; able to listen to all points of view.
• Time to attend district meetings, area assemblies and the group's business meetings.
• Working familiarity with the Twelve Traditions and A.A. recovery and service literature; has the confidence of the group.

Alternate GSR. Elected alongside the GSR, attends with the GSR whenever possible and steps in, with full voice and vote, whenever the GSR cannot serve.

Intergroup / Central Office, and the Intergroup Representative (IGR)

An intergroup (or central office) is a service office established through a partnership among the groups of a community — as its groups' collective “voice” for functions best handled centrally: a helpline and Twelfth Step call list, meeting directories, literature sales, public information, cooperation with professionals, hospital and institution work, and events. Intergroups are supported by the groups they serve and are responsible directly to them. In India intergroups carry most local service work; the Pune Region's groups belong to the Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Yerawada intergroups.

The Intergroup Representative (IGR)

Each group elects an IGR to attend intergroup meetings, bring the group's conscience to the intergroup and take intergroup news, appeals and Twelfth Step opportunities back to the group. In the Indian structure the first IGR of a registered group also carries the group's single vote in Area Delegate and Regional Trustee elections, and signs the group's nomination forms. Groups that have closed, or are less than six months old, are not registered and have no vote.

Intergroup officers

• Chairperson — chairs the intergroup, coordinates its committees and events, and represents the intergroup at area level.
• Secretary — keeps minutes and records, circulates notices to groups, and maintains the group and IGR lists.
• Treasurer — receives group contributions, pays for services and reports accounts to the IGRs.
• Committee chairs — helpline, literature, public information, hospitals and institutions, and so on, as the intergroup decides.

Intergroup officers are elected by the IGRs, usually for a fixed term, in the spirit of rotation.

The District and the District Committee Member (DCM)

A district is a division of an area — usually as many groups as one DCM can reasonably keep in touch with, learn the problems of, and help grow. Districts may be geographic, linguistic or virtual. While the GSR is the voice of a group, the DCM is the voice of a district: an experienced GSR elected by the district's GSRs to represent their groups on the area committee and to coordinate service activity in the district. DCMs are the essential link between the group GSRs and the area delegate.

Duties & responsibilities

• Hold regular district meetings; report news, issues and proposals from the area and GSO to the GSRs, and help the delegate report the Conference back to the district.
• Attend area assemblies and area committee meetings as a voting member; carry the district's conscience to the delegate.
• Reach out to groups that have no GSR and connect them to A.A. as a whole.
• Organise workshops and sharing sessions on service; keep GSRs informed and inspired — leading by example, not by mandate.

Districts often also elect a district secretary, treasurer and committee chairs.

The Area Assembly, the Area Committee and the Area Officers

An area is the geographical division entitled to send a delegate to the General Service Conference. The Area Assembly is the meeting of all GSRs and committee members of the area: it discusses area affairs and, in an election year, elects the delegate and the area officers by the Third Legacy Procedure. The Area Committee — the DCMs, the area officers including the delegate and alternate delegate, and the chairs of the area service committees — acts as the area's steering committee between assemblies. Where an area is also an intergroup region, as in Pune, the intergroup officers take part in this work; in India the area's managing committee (Area Chairman, P.I. Chairman and office bearers) fills this role.

Area Chair

• Presides over assembly meetings; sets their dates in consultation with the committee and makes sure members are notified.
• Consults officers and committee members on the agenda; keeps the delegate informed of what is going on in the area, and the committee aware of what goes on in world services.
• In an election assembly, sticks to the Third Legacy Procedure and discourages departures from it.
• Suggested: three to five years of sobriety, experience in group, intergroup or area affairs, a sound grasp of Steps, Traditions and Concepts, communication and leadership skills.

Secretary

• Records and distributes minutes of area meetings, keeps mailing lists current, sends out notices and bulletins, and acts as liaison between officers and committee members.

Treasurer

• Keeps the area's financial records, receives and manages Seventh Tradition funds, reports regularly to the assembly, encourages contribution support for area and GSO services, and stays abreast of any tax or legal considerations.

Registrar

• Develops and maintains records of all groups in the area — names, meeting places, GSRs and contacts — keeps the names and phone numbers of GSRs, DCMs and officers up to date, and works with GSO to keep area information current. Handles personal information responsibly.

Committee chairs and other officers

• Public Information (P.I.) — carries the message to the public through the media and events; in India the Area P.I. Chairman is an area office bearer.
• Cooperation with the Professional Community (C.P.C.) — reaches doctors, clergy, employers, courts and other professionals who meet alcoholics.
• Treatment, Corrections and Accessibilities — carries the message into hospitals, treatment centres, prisons and to members who face barriers to reaching A.A.
• Literature, Grapevine, Archives, Convention, Finance, Technology, Translations, Liaison to intergroups — as the area needs.
• Alternates for each officer, especially the chair, provide continuity; their qualifications match the positions they may be asked to fill.

The Alternate Delegate

Areas also elect an alternate delegate — a valuable assistant who often travels with the delegate, gives reports on the delegate's behalf and may take on a special function on the area committee. When stepping in, an alternate acts with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of the delegate until the delegate is again available. An alternate who has attended one Conference in place of the delegate may later be elected to a full term as delegate. In India the Alternate Delegate is elected immediately after the Area Delegate, from the same nominations and on the same nomination form, for the same term.

Past Delegates

Rotation prevents delegates from succeeding themselves or returning later as delegates, but A.A. has a wealth of experience in its past delegates. Many areas give them a role — on the area committee with or without a vote, as service sponsors to new delegates, or on special committees — as long as it does not interfere with the responsibilities of the current delegate. Past delegates are an ideal source of advice for anyone thinking of standing for the post.

The General Service Conference

The Conference is the closest thing A.A. has to a governing body — yet, as Bill W. put it, “while the Conference can issue orders to the General Service Office, it can never mandate or govern the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous which it serves. The Conference represents us, but cannot rule us.” It operates all year, and its annual meeting is where the collective conscience of the Fellowship takes the actions that guide the groups. In India the Conference meets once a year, in November, on matters of policy and finance.

Who takes part (U.S./Canada figures)

• 93 area delegates — at least two-thirds of the Conference body;
• the 21 trustees of the General Service Board;
• 6 non-trustee directors of AAWS and Grapevine; and
• 15 A.A. staff members of the General Service Office and Grapevine.

Each Conference member has one vote. A two-thirds vote of members voting is, by tradition, binding on the General Service Board. The Conference works through standing committees — in India: Public Information, Budget & Finance, Conference Agenda, Charter & Bylaws, and Literature & Publication — whose recommendations come to the floor as Advisory Actions. Its Warranties (Concept XII) require that it never become the seat of wealth or power, that decisions be reached by discussion and, whenever possible, substantial unanimity, and that it never perform any act of government.

The General Service Board

The General Service Board — the trustees — is the chief service arm of the Conference and “essentially custodial in its character”. Its purpose is to safeguard the vital services provided to the Fellowship, not to govern. Except on matters of policy, finance or A.A. Tradition liable to seriously affect A.A. as a whole, the Board has freedom of action in the routine conduct of the affairs of the service corporations, and it derives what authority it has from the Conference. Its mission, in its own words: “to serve the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.”

What trustees do

• Act as principal planners and administrators of overall policy and finance.
• Serve as custodians of the two operating corporations (AAWS and Grapevine) and of the General Service Office, electing their directors and approving their budgets.
• Oversee a sound, wide-reaching public relations policy and maintain relationships with general service structures throughout the world.
• Act as guardians of A.A.'s Steps, Traditions and Concepts.

Composition

In both the U.S./Canada and the Indian structure the Board has 7 Class A (non-alcoholic) and 14 Class B (alcoholic) trustees. The balance is deliberate: some trustees bring regional A.A. service experience, others business or professional background. Trustees must be available for quarterly board meetings, the annual Conference, committee work through the year, regional forums and local A.A. events, and service on a corporate board when asked.

Class A Trustees (non-alcoholic)

Seven “friends of A.A.” — doctors, lawyers, clergy, sociologists, business people, financial experts — selected for their professional expertise and their familiarity with A.A. Because they need not keep anonymity, they can appear in public on behalf of A.A. Chosen by the Board after an extensive search, on the recommendation of the trustees' Nominating Committee, and presented to the Conference for disapproval if any. They serve two consecutive three-year terms (a third may be permitted).

Class B Trustees (alcoholic)

Fourteen A.A. members who are strong in one or more of: length of sobriety, business or professional background, leadership, and grasp of A.A. structure. In the U.S./Canada structure they fall into three categories — 8 regional trustees, 4 general service trustees and 2 trustees-at-large — each serving four successive one-year terms. In India Class B trustees are elected by the regions (the Regional Trustee, described next) for one five-year term.

Chair of the General Service Board

Presides over the trustees' meetings, co-chairs the Conference, acts for the Board between meetings, appoints trustees' committees and takes part in all regional forums. May be a Class A or Class B trustee; serves a four-year term in the chair.

General Service Trustees and Trustees-at-Large

General service trustees (four: two from the AAWS board, two from the Grapevine board) are A.A. members chosen from among current or past non-trustee directors of the two corporations, traditionally for their business or professional backgrounds in publishing, technology, public relations, finance or administration. They must be available for all meetings of their corporate board — eight or more a year — and for consultation with office staff at any time. Seven years of sobriety is suggested.

Trustees-at-large (one from the U.S., one from Canada) sit on the trustees' International Committee and represent the U.S./Canada structure at the World Service Meeting, held every two years, and at the Meeting of the Americas in alternate years; they attend regional forums across both countries and can fill in for regional trustees. Ten years of sobriety is suggested. Both kinds serve four successive one-year terms.

Non-trustee directors are A.A. members with specific professional skills who serve on the AAWS or Grapevine corporate boards without being trustees. Trustees emeriti — former Board chairs — attend as a resource of corporate memory, without a vote.

The General Service Office, A.A. World Services and the Grapevine

The Board carries out its administrative duties through two operating corporations, whose directors it elects and whose budgets it approves.

• A.A. World Services, Inc. (AAWS) oversees the services and publishing of the General Service Office, the archives, finance and communications with A.A. service entities and offices around the world; it publishes and distributes A.A. books, pamphlets and service material. Its General Manager is its chief executive.
• AA Grapevine, Inc. publishes the Grapevine — A.A.'s international journal, the “meeting in print” founded in 1944 — and La Viña in Spanish, along with books, audio and digital content drawn from members' own sharing. Groups may elect a Grapevine Representative.
• The General Service Office (GSO) is made up of the employees of the two corporations. Rotating A.A. staff members serve the Fellowship through assignment “desks” — Conference, Public Information, C.P.C., Corrections, Treatment and Accessibilities, Literature, International, Regional Forums, Group Services and more — answering tens of thousands of enquiries a year and supporting local committees with service kits and workbooks.
• GSO India, in Navi Mumbai since 5 May 1987, performs these functions for A.A. in India: group registration and records, the national helpline, translation and printing of literature in Indian languages, and coordination of the Conference. It is managed by a general manager and a small number of special workers.

Regional Forums

Weekend sharing sessions hosted by the Board in each region, where group members, GSRs, DCMs, area committee members, delegates, trustees and office staff meet face to face. They are not decision-making bodies; their purpose is communication and mutual understanding.

How it is all paid for

In keeping with the Seventh Tradition, the service structure is supported only by A.A. groups and members — through group contributions, the Regular Contribution and Birthday plans, and income from literature. Contributions from outside are declined, and prudent reserves are kept. Election expenses in the Pune Region are met the same way: by members, trusted servants, intergroups and candidates, with accounts presented immediately afterwards.

Principles every trusted servant works by

• Rotation. The spiritual principle of sharing responsibility through changing leadership. Trusted servants serve one term and step aside; nobody accumulates power or prestige.
• Group conscience and substantial unanimity. Decisions are reached by discussion and vote, and, whenever possible, by substantial unanimity rather than a bare majority; the minority is always heard.
• Right of Decision (Concept III). Trusted servants at every level are given discretion to decide how to carry out the responsibility they have been given — “Act for us, but don't boss us.”
• Right of Participation (Concept IV). Every level of service has a voice and a vote in proportion to its responsibility; no class is set in absolute authority over another.
• Right of Appeal (Concept V). A minority may always have its views heard and may appeal a decision; personal grievances get a proper hearing.
• The Third Legacy Procedure. A.A.'s own way of electing delegates and trustees: written ballots, a two-thirds majority, automatic withdrawal of low-polling candidates after each ballot and, when no one reaches two-thirds, a choice by lot from the “hat”. It is designed to keep factions and electioneering out of A.A. and to keep a well-qualified second-place candidate in the running.
• Leadership. Bill W.: “Our leaders do not drive by mandate; they lead by example.” Good leadership originates plans, consults widely, never passes the buck, compromises cheerfully when compromise is right, and stands fast when it must.
• Service sponsorship. A member with experience in service who helps a newer trusted servant learn the structure, the Traditions and Concepts, and how to make reports — so nobody has to “do service” alone.