From the discussion on the Concepts Checklist;

Concept VIII: The trustees are the principal planners and administrators of overall policy and finance. They have custodial oversight of the separately incorporated and constantly active services, exercising this through their ability to elect all the directors of these entities.

• Do we understand the relationship between the two corporate service entities (A.A. World Services, Inc., the A.A. Grapevine) and the General Service Board?
• How can the business term “custodial oversight” apply to the trustees’ relationship to the two corporate service entities?
• Does my home group subscribe to G.S.O.’s bimonthly newsletter Box 4-5-9? The A.A.Grapevine? Do I?

From the pamphlet “The Twelve Concepts Illustrated”

Long experience has proven that the board “must devote itself almost exclusively to the larger questions of policy, finance, group relations and leadership . . . . In these matters, it must act with great care and skill to plan, manage and execute.”

The board, therefore, must not be distracted or burdened with the details or the endless questions which arise daily in the routine operation of the General Service Office or the publishing operations, including the Grapevine. “It must delegate its executive function” to its subsidiary, operating boards.

Post from: Blisstree

Concept VIII

What Does ‘Crosstalk’ Have to Do with Our Primary Purpose?

[Reprinted From Box 459 - published bi-monthly by General Services Office of Alcoholics Anonymous]

Just what is this thing called “crosstalk”? Why are concerned A.A.s writing to the General Service Office for clarification about it? And, bottom line, what does it have to do with our primary purpose: “to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety”?

The word has been with us at least since 1887. Webster’s 10th Edition defines crosstalk as “unwanted signals in a communication channel caused by transference of energy from another circuit”- as when, for instance, two members sitting side by side at an A.A. meeting carry on a private, yet not so quiet, conversation or when one member interrupts another rudely or inappropriately. But this is not the kind of crosstalk that members are asking about; specifically, it is traceable to a list of guidelines for behavior at AA meetings — erroneously attributed to “World Service” that appears in 1992 in a central office newsletter and has since been reprinted and circulated more widely.

The guidelines state, in part, that “Any comments, negative or positive, about another’s share, experience, life, program or remarks are crosstalk–that is interference.”…”The only appropriate comment about anyone else’s share–a speaker’s or another member’s — is ‘Thank you for your share.’” “A member may talk about his or her own experience as it relates directly or indirectly to another’s share, but should not refer to that person’s share. Even comments such as ‘When you talk about… it reminded me of my own experience…’ are possibly inappropriate.”

The so-called guidelines did not emanate from the General Service Office. What random investigation reveals is that they may have filtered into some A.A. groups through members who also attend other Twelve Step recovery groups. For example:

(1) In its literature, one fellowship includes a boxed item head, “Suggested Announcement Regarding Crosstalk & Feedback (adopted (1/13/87).” It reads: “In sharing during meetings, we proceed in an orderly, respectful manner. The chairperson (or speaker) will call on people to share. We do not interrupt one another or engage in discussion – this is called ‘crosstalk.’ While we encourage expressions of identification with a speaker and appreciation for speakers, we also do not judge or comment on what people say or tell them what to do – this is called ‘feedback.’”

(2) Another anonymous organization, in its “Suggested Meeting Format,” asks attendees “to please not interrupt someone else’s sharing, not to make comments about other people’s statements… and to talk only about yourself.”

Although many self-help groups emulate A.A.’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, their practices often differ from ours in other respects. As they may have discovered in adapting the A.A. program to their own needs, what’s sauce for the goose may be poison for the gander. Says Anne T., of Rome, New York, who belongs to AA. and also attends meetings of a different fellowship: “From the very beginning, one drunk talking to another has made the A.A. program go round. But in meetings (of the other fellowship), I feel, it makes sense to refrain from crosstalk. People are trying to free themselves from extraordinary shame. When someone shares in response to something I’ve said, that’s okay, but only so long as there’s not even a hint of censure, belittlement, scolding or preaching, all under the guise of sharing. Knowing there’s no risk of judgment makes me feel safe.”

Looking at the subject from an AA’s point of view, a G.S.O. staff member says, “Comparing notes, many of us realized that nonjudgmental suggestions we had received in meetings in response to something we had shared, was very beneficial to our recovery. It is how we learn, and that’s what ’sharing experience, strength and hope’ is all about. Also, there is a thin line between guidelines and rules; and experience suggests that in A.A.’s ‘benign anarchy,’ rules, rigidity and attempts to control don’t work very well.” Whether an individual A.A. group chooses to include the crosstalk ‘guidelines’ in its meeting format is entirely up to its group conscience to determine, of course. But please do not say that such guidelines came from the General Service Office.“

Post from: Blisstree

What Do You Mean No Crosstalk?

From the discussion on the Concepts Checklist;

Concept Vll: The Charter and Bylaws of the General Service Board are legal instruments, empowering the trustees to manage and conduct world service affairs. The Conference Charter is not a legal document; it relies upon tradition and the A.A. purse for final effectiveness.

• Do we act responsibly regarding the “power of the purse?”
• Do we realize that the practical and spiritual power of the Conference will nearly always be superior to the legal power of the G.S.B.?

From the pamphlet “The Twelve Concepts Illustrated”

“If . . . the Conference will always bear in mind actual rights, duties, responsibilities and legal status of the General Service Board, and if the trustees . . . will constantly realize that the Conference is the real seat of ultimate service authority . . . neither will be seriously tempted to make a ‘rubber stamp’ out of the other . . . In this way, grave issues will always be resolved and harmonious cooperation will be the general rule.”

Post from: Blisstree

Concept VII

From the Service Material at the Alcoholics Anonymous web site.

Concepts Checklist – III, IV and V

Concept III: To insure effective leadership, we should endow each element of A.A. —the Conference, the General Service Board and its service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives—with a traditional “Right of Decision.”

• Do we understand what is meant by the “Right of Decision”? Do we grant it at all levels of service or do we “instruct”?
• Do we trust our trusted servants — G.S.R., D.C.M., area delegate, the Conference itself?

Concept IV: At all responsible levels, we ought to maintain a traditional “Right of Participation,” allowing a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.

• Do we understand the spiritual principles underlying the “Right of Participation”?
• What does “in reasonable proportion” mean? Do we understand when it is appropriate for A.A. paid staff to have a vote at the General Service Conference or in our local service structure?
• Do we expect that, because we are A.A. members, we should be allowed to vote at any group, even if we are not active members of that group?

Concept V: Throughout our structure, a traditional “Right of Appeal” ought to prevail, so that minority opinion will be heard and personal grievances receive careful consideration.

• Do we encourage the minority opinion, the “Right of Appeal”, to be heard at our home group, district committee meetings, area assemblies and the Conference?
• What does our group accept as “substantial unanimity”?
• Has our group experienced the “tyranny of the majority” or the “tyranny of the minority”?
• Does our group understand the importance of all points of view being heard before a vote is taken?

Post from: Blisstree

Concepts Checklist – III, IV and V

Concepts Checklist – Service Material From GSO

Most worthy of being passed along;

Concept I: Final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.

• Does our group have a general service representative (G.S.R.)? Do we feel that our home group is part of A.A. as a whole and do our group’s decisions and actions reflect that?
• Do we hold regular group conscience meetings encouraging everyone to participate? Do we pass that conscience on to the district, area, or the local intergroup meetings?
• Is the “collective conscience” of Alcoholics Anonymous at work in my home group? In my area?
• Where do we fit in the upside-down triangle of A.A.?
• Are we willing to do what it takes to insure that our democracy of world service will work under all conditions?
  

Concept II: The General Service Conference of A.A. has become, for nearly every practical purpose, the active voice and the effective conscience of our whole Society in its world affairs.

• Do we have an understanding of the history of the General Service Conference (the “Conference”)?
• What is a Conference Advisory Action? Does our home group’s G.S.R., D.C.M., area delegate report back to the group on the highlights of the Conference and Conference Advisory Actions?
• Is our group meeting its wider Seventh Tradition responsibilities?
  

Concept III: To insure effective leadership, we should endow each element of A.A. —the Conference, the General Service Board and its service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives—with a traditional “Right of Decision.”

• Do we understand what is meant by the “Right of Decision”? Do we grant it at all levels of service or do we “instruct”?
• Do we trust our trusted servants — G.S.R., D.C.M., area delegate, the Conference itself?

Good stuff

Post from: Blisstree

Concepts Checklist – Service Material From GSO