The 12 Concepts
1. Final responsibility
and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in
the collective conscience of our fellowship.
2. 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 world
affairs.
3. 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".
4. 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.
5. Throughout our
structure, a traditional "Right of Appeal" ought to prevail, so that
minority opinion will be heard and personal grievances receive careful
consideration.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Every service
responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority, with
the scope of such authority well defined.
11. The trustees should
always have the best possible committees, corporate service directors,
executives, staffs, and consultants. Composition, qualification,
induction procedures, and rights and duties will always be matters of
serious concern.
12. The Conference shall
observe the spirit of A.A. tradition, taking care that it never becomes
the seat of perilous wealth or power; that sufficient operating funds
and reserve be its prudent financial principle; that it place none of
its members in a position of unqualified authority over others; that it
reach all important decisions by discussion, vote, and, whenever
possible, by substantial unanimity; that its actions never be
personally punitive nor an incitement to public controversy; that it
never perform acts of government, and that, like the Society it serves,
it will always remain democratic in thought and action.
