I hope this helps – “AA’s Service Manual”

“This is AA’s Service Manual – an outgrowth of the “Third Legacy Manual” which served the movement so well beginning with Bill W.’s first draft in 1951. All of the basic service principles and procedures outlined in that document have been retained. In the interests of convenience and completeness the material has been edited and rearranged.

The Conference Report and Charter Committee is responsible for reviewing and approving the updating and revision of The A.A. Service Manual/Twelve Concepts for World Service. This revision was approved by the 1999 General Service Conference.”

If that isn’t enough try the pamphlet “The Twelve Concepts for World Service – Illustrated.”

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AA’s Service Manual

From the discussion on the Concepts Checklist;

Concept IX: Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for our future functioning and safety. Primary world service leadership, once exercised by the founders, must necessarily be assumed by the trustees.

• Do we discuss how we can best strengthen the composition and leadership of our future trusted servants?
• Do we recognize the need for group officers? What is our criteria for election? Do we sometimes give a position to someone “because it would be good for them?”
• Do I set a positive leadership example?

Concept X: Every service responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority, with the scope of such authority well defined.

• Do we understand “authority” and “responsibility” as they relate to group conscience decisions by G.S.R.s, D.C.M.s and our area delegates?
• Why is delegation of “authority” so important to the overall effectiveness of A.A.? Do we use this concept to define the scope of “authority?”

From the pamphlet “The Twelve Concepts Illustrated”

“No matter how carefully we design our service structure of principles and relationships, no matter how well we apportion authority and responsibility, the operating results of our structure can be no better than the personal performance of those who must man it and make it work. Good leadership cannot function well in a poorly designed structure . . . . Weak leadership can hardly function at all, even in the best of structures.”

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Concepts IX and X

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.

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Concept VIII

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.”

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Concept VII

From the discussion on the Concepts Checklist;

Concept Vl: The Conference recognizes that the chief initiative and active responsibility in most world service matters should be exercised by the trustee members of the Conference acting as the General Service Board.

• Are we familiar with how our General Service Board (G.S.B.) Class A and Class B trustees serve A.A.? Are we familiar with how our other trusted servants serve A.A.?
• Are we clear about the terms, “chief initiative” and “active responsibility”? Can we see a direct link to our home group?

From the pamphlet “The Twelve Concepts Illustrated;”

“This very real analogy makes it… clear that, like any other board of directors, our Trustees must be given large powers if they are to manage the… affairs of Alcoholics Anonymous.”

[Edited to bring up to date]

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Concept Six

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?

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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

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Concepts Checklist – Service Material From GSO

“While the trustees hold final responsibility for A.A.’s world service administration, they should always have the assistance of the best possible standing committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs and consultants. Therefore, the composition of these underlying committees and service boards, the personal qualifications of their members, the manner of their induction into service, the systems of their rotation, the way in which they are related to each other, the special rights and duties of our executives, staffs and consultants, together with a proper basis for the financial compensation of these special workers, will always be matters for serious care and concern”

From the discussion on the Concepts Checklist;

Concept Xl: The trustees should always have the best possible committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants. Composition, qualifications, induction procedures, and rights and duties will always be matters of serious concern.

• Do we understand how the roles of nontrustee directors and nontrustee appointed committee members help serve and strengthen the committee system?
• How do we encourage our special paid workers to exercise their traditional “Right of Participation?”
• Do we practice rotation in all our service positions?

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Concept Eleven

From the Alcoholics Anonymous web site… a break down of the Concepts for discussion – good stuff!

Concept V

“Throughout our world services structure, a traditional “Right of Appeal” ought to prevail, thus assuring us that minority opinion will be heard and that petitions for the redress of personal grievances will be carefully considered.”

• 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?

Very interesting…

From the pamphlet “The Twelve Concepts Illustrated;”

“This “Right of Appeal” recognizes that minorities frequently can be right; that even when they are in error they still perform a most valuable service when they compel a thorough-going debate on important issues. The well-heard minority, therefore, is our chief protection against an uninformed, misinformed, hasty or angry majority.”

And…

“This Concept also warns us of “the tyranny of the majority” and points out that in A.A., a simple majority is seldom sufficient basis for a decision. That’s why we usually require at least a two-thirds majority. Lacking this, it is preferable to delay the decision; or in the case of an election following the “Third Legacy Procedure,” (hmmm- a whole new topic) to “go to the hat.”

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Concept V

Hmmm… now, what exactly does that mean???

From the pamphlet “The Twelve Concepts for World Service illustrated;”

“Finally, there is a spiritual reason for the ‘Right of Participation.’ All of us desire to belong. In A.A. no members are ’second class.’ The ‘Right of Participation’ therefore reinforces Tradition Two, that no member is placed in ‘ultimate authority’ over another. We perform our service tasks better “when we are sure we belong – when our ‘participation’ assures us we are truly the ‘trusted servants’ described in Tradition Two.”

A quick addition – doggone if I didn’t just go to Alcoholics Anonymous and find this;

A Concepts Checklist – for Concept IV;

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?

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Concept IV