Concept II
“When, in 1955, the A.A. groups confirmed the permanent charter for their General Service Conference, they thereby delegated to the Conference complete authority for the active maintenance of our world services and thereby made the Conference - excepting for any change in the Twelve Traditions or in Article 12 of the Conference Charter - the actual voice and the effective conscience for our whole Society.”
The first paragraph of the A.A. Service Manual says about the Second Concept;
“It is self-evident that the thousands of A.A. groups and the many thousands of A.A. members , scattered as they are all over the globe, cannot of themselves actually manage and conduct our manifold world services.”
Now, even I could have seen that coming :)
“The group conscience is out there among them, and so are the needed funds. The power of the groups and members to alter their world service structure and to criticize its operation is virtually supreme. They have all of the final responsibility and authority that there is. The operation is really theirs; they really own it. This has been true ever since the groups took over from the founders and old-timers at St. Louis in 1955.”
The Clear Implication Of A.A.’s Tradition Two
“But an ultimate authority and responsibility in the A.A. groups for world services - if that is all there were to it - could not amount to anything. Nothing could be accomplished on that basis alone. In order to get effective action, the groups must delegate the actual operational authority to chosen service representatives who are fully empowered to speak and act for them. The group conscience of A.A. could not be heard unless a properly chosen Conference were fully trusted to speak for it respecting most matters of world service. Hence the principle of amply delegated authority and responsibility to ‘trusted servants’ must be implicit from the top to the bottom of our active structure of service. This is the clear implication of A.A.’s Tradition Two.”
Please pardon the alcoholic thinking - but this also feels as if it could be A.A.’s Achilles Heel, in my mind… based on some things I’ve already experienced.
Damn right we have been given a legacy! And, for sobriety’s sake - constant vigilance will always remain the watchword!
Tags: group_conscience, old_timers, Twelve-Concepts, Twelve-Traditions, world_service_structureRelated Stories
POSTED IN: The Twelve Concepts, The Twelve Traditions
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